I want to apologize up front for not being able to post the picture. The Salem News links won’t show it either.
Ron

Published: 07/14/2007

McIntire sofa sells for record price

By Tom Dalton
Staff writer

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SALEM – A 200-year-old sofa with carvings by Samuel McIntire, the city’s famed Federal period wood carver and architect, sold for what is believed to be a record price.

An Ohio antiques dealer, William Samaha, paid $167,250 for the rare mahogany sofa last month at Landry Auctions of Essex. That sale price broke the mark of $156,500 for another McIntire sofa sold in 1997 by Sotheby’s, according to a trade publication, Antiques And The Arts Online.

“They are very rare and they don’t come up very often,” said Robert Landry of Landry Auctions. “This might be the last one to come on the market” for some time.

The sofa, which is in excellent condition, was sold by a Boxford family, whose ancestors purchased it in the early 1800s in Salem, according to Landry. He declined to identify the family. “They would like to remain anonymous,” he said.

Landry said he spotted the rare McIntire piece on a visit to the family’s home.

“It was in their living room in the house in Boxford…” Landry said. “When I was first at the house doing other business, I looked in the room and said, ‘Oh, my goodness,’ and made them aware, if they weren’t, that this is a very valuable piece of furniture.”

The sofa’s authenticity was confirmed by a McIntire expert, Dean Lahikainen, curator of American decorative arts at the Peabody Essex Museum.

The camel-back sofa, made by a Salem cabinet maker, has an exposed crest rail carved by McIntire with a basket of fruit and flowers, and scrolled arms with waterleaf carving and rosettes.

“This one was particularly nice because the surface is the original surface … and the carving of the basket of fruit is really among the finest” done by the artist, Lahikainen said.

A similar sofa will be on display in an upcoming exhibit, “Samuel McIntire, Carving an American Style,” which opens Oct. 13 at the Peabody Essex Museum. The museum organized the exhibit to celebrate McIntire’s 250th birthday.