Hindman’s first American Furniture, Folk, and Decorative Arts auction of 2023 celebrates nearly 250 years of American craftsmanship and artistic achievement through the variety of categories offered. Drawn from numerous discerning private collections, the sale features many distinct examples furniture, metalware, pottery, paintings, and folk art, capturing the singularity of American material culture.

Headlining this auction are four impressive sand bottles by self-taught nineteenth-century sand artist Andrew Clemens, which span the beginnings of his experimentation in the medium through the nuanced output of his later career. Several examples of important American silver are also offered, most notably a baluster-from tankard by Jewish colonial silversmith Myer Myers. Other fine examples were manufactured between the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries by makers including Gorham, Tiffany and Co., and Loring Andrews. Fine examples of American furniture represent the William and Mary, Queen Anne, Chippendale, Federal, Classical and Renaissance Revival styles, strongly anchored on either end of the timeline by a rare federal inlaid mahogany tall case clock by William Elvins and a marble mounted rosewood etagere attributed to John Henry Belter. The auction also features several portraits by early American artists including Erastus Salisbury Field, William Matthew Prior, and in the manner of Joseph Whiting Stock, along with a cast plaster portrait bust maquette of George Washington by James Wilson Alexander MacDonald.

Among the other significant offerings are coin-operated machines, surveyors’ equipment and scientific instruments, carved folk art, advertising signs, patent models, carousel animals, nautical dioramas, rustic tools, painted country furniture, needlework, and hooked rugs.