Freeman’s | Hindman has sold fine American furniture and decorative arts longer than any auction house in the country.

The department specializes in American furniture, decorative arts, and folk art from the late 17th century to the 20th century, with examples from the Mid-Atlantic, New England, the Mid-West, and the South, including items brought to the colonies and early United States by settlers and merchants. With a focus on regionalism, research, and scholarship, the team of knowledgeable and experienced specialists continually deliver strong results for a range of works such as clocks, silver, needlework, quilts, portraits, Chinese Export porcelain, pottery, decoys, Fraktur, weathervanes, and more.

Over the years, Freeman’s | Hindman has set numerous world auction records in the category, including a paint-decorated Pennsylvania box ($744,825), an important Andrew Clemens portrait sand bottle ($956,000), The Captain John Cowan Kentucky Secretary ($498,750), a Pennsylvania watercolor Fraktur by Reveran George Geistweite ($366,750), and an American looking glass ($293,000). The firm has been entrusted with a number of private collections and deaccessions from important institutions such as Property Deaccessioned from the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, Furnishings from Historic Lemon Hill Mansion, A Grand Old Flag: The Stars & Stripes Collection of Dr. Peter J. Keim, and The Donald F. Moylan, M.D. Collection of American Furniture, Folk & Decorative Arts.

Department Categories

Department Highlights

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Full Biography Headshot of Ben Fisher
Ben Fisher
Managing Director, Furniture and Decorative Arts
Mr. Fisher rejoined the firm in 2019 after working as a specialist in the American Furniture and Folk Art department at Sotheby’s New York. His areas of expertise include 18th, 19th, and 20th century American, Continental, and English furniture, decorative and folk art. Before coming to Hindman in 2013, Mr. Fisher worked in European Furniture and Decorative Arts in Philadelphia. He began his career working for a prints dealer focusing on works from the 16th through the 20th centuries.
Full Biography Headshot of Lynda Cain
Lynda Cain
VP, Head of Department, American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts
Lynda Cain serves as a Vice President of Freeman's and is the Head of Department for American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts. 
She specializes in American furniture and decorative arts, Native American art, American folk art, and Pennsylvania furniture and decorative arts.
Cain joined Freeman's in 2001 as the company's first American furniture and decorative arts specialist. She began her career in American Decorative Arts as assistant curator at the Detroit Historical Museum. In 1984 she became curator of costume at the Detroit Historical Museum. In 1986, she relocated to Cambridge, Massachusetts and switched from museum work when she joined the American Furniture and Decorative Art Department at Skinner Inc., Bolton and Boston, Massachusetts. Before leaving New England in 1997, she had the great pleasure of directing the cataloguing project of the Folk Art Collection of Nine Fletcher and Bertram K. Little at Cogswell’s Grant, Essex, Massachusetts for the Society of the Preservation of New England Antiquities, now Historic New England. Ms. Cain joined the cast of the popular PBS series Antiques Roadshow in Season 19.
Growing up in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, she was greatly influenced by the rich collections of American paintings, furniture, and decorative arts held by Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum. She notes her good fortune of working in our two great “attic states:” Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Each Commonwealth has tremendous inventory of historic material, great institutions, and citizens who treasure their inherited and collected items. Cain appears on the television Antiques Roadshow as an appraiser of decorative and folk arts.

Auction Specialists

Headshot of Lynda Cain

Lynda Cain

VP, Head of Department, American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts

Headshot of Andrew Taggart

Andrew Taggart

Associate Vice President, Specialist, American Furniture, Folk and Decorative Arts

Headshot of Ben Fisher

Ben Fisher

Managing Director, Furniture and Decorative Arts

Request a Complimentary Estimate

You are welcome to submit items electronically or to contact any of our offices below directly. Our specialists are eager to help you learn more about your collection and current auction sale estimates. To begin an estimate, our specialists will need:

At least 3 photos
Detailed description
Signatures or mark details
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Our Offices

Chicago
Hindman Headquarters
1550 W Carroll Ave
Chicago, IL 60607
Tel: 312 280 1212 support@hindmanauctions.com
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