Period furniture from Ashland estate sells for $84,250

LEXINGTON, Ky. — A private bidder from Kentucky purchased almost all the mid-19th-century parlor

furniture from Ashland, the Henry Clay estate, that was auctioned off over the weekend.
The seven pieces brought a total of $84,250 during the Sunday auction in New Orleans, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.
The historical significance of the items _ made by John Henry Belter, a famous New York furniture maker _ were at the center of a dispute before being sold.
Ann Hagan-Michel, director at Ashland, said the period furniture, which includes a couch and some chairs, had no direct connection to Henry Clay or the Clay family, and proceeds from the sale would go into a fund for purchasing actual Clay items in the future.
But William Scott Jr., a Lexington architectural historian, maintained that the furniture actually was purchased in the 1850s by Henry Clay’s son, James Brown Clay, and placed in the Clay mansion, which James Brown Clay was rebuilding at the time. Before the auction, Scott said that if the pieces really were owned by James B. Clay, they could be worth up to $40,000.
An unidentified private collector from Kentucky bought all but one of the matching pieces up for sale. The six pieces purchased by the Kentucky collector included a sofa, armchair and two sets of two sidechairs.
A matching Belter meridienne _ a half sofa _ was purchased by a collector from North Carolina.
“Even if one piece is separated from the set, it completely destroys its historical integrity … because its great value is in being together,” Scott said Sunday.
Tessa Steinkamp, an auctioneer and vice president of New Orleans Auction Galleries Inc., which sold the furniture for Ashland, said she could not identify the people who bought the furniture.
She said both collectors placed their bids by phone. The sale was held at the auction company’s St. Charles Gallery.
The sofa was sold for $28,000; the armchair brought $22,000; and the two side chair sets brought $12,500 each, she said. The Kentucky buyer also was charged a 17.5 percent premium by the auction house, she said.
The meridienne sold for $9,250, plus the premium, Steinkamp said.
She would not disclose what her firm charged Ashland for the sale of the furniture, but said that a seller is typically charged a 10 percent commission for an item that sells for more than $2,500.
Scott said last week that he might try to buy the furniture himself, but he said Sunday that he was not one of the bidders at the New Orleans auction.
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Information from: Lexington Herald-Leader, http://www.kentucky.com
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