The Glow of a $12 Million Desk

By Martha Smilgis

MADE IN U.S.A. may not have the cachet it once had, but in the realm of antiques, the phrase is coming to mean extraordinary value for well-fixed investors. When two tiny, exquisite 18th century Philadelphia tables were auctioned at Christie's in Manhattan last Saturday, the prices they fetched were breathtaking. The first item, a dainty piecrust tea table, sold for $1.2 million; the second, a rectangular pier table less than 3 ft. high, was whisked from the block for $4.6 million.

Outrageous? No, right in line with last June's auction of the most expensive piece of furniture ever sold: a $12.1 million desk. The mahogany masterpiece was no curlicued Versailles settee or crested English bureau. It was a stately secretary of distinctly American block-and-shell design, crafted in 1760 by the Goddard-Townsend cabinetmakers of Newport, R.I. "For years, Europeans have given us an inferiority complex," says furniture dealer Harold Sack, 78, who bought the desk for an anonymous client, believed to be Texas billionaire Robert Bass. "To finally see American furniture taken as an important art form is enormously gratifying."

During the past decade, American furniture has caught up fast with its Old World counterparts. Just four years ago, the first Philadelphia piecrust tea table broke the $1 million mark. A year later, a paw-foot Philadelphia chair sold for more than $2.7 million. "American furniture is going straight up," says Dean Failey, senior vice president of Christie's. "The rise is correlated with the art market. When collectors pay $30 million to $40 million for a painting, a domino effect touches everything else."

The giddy escalation in prices is due in part to scarcity, since pre- Revolutionary furniture is as sparse as its spare Yankee lines. The rarest pieces were handcrafted in the port cities of Philadelphia, Newport, Boston, Salem, Mass., and Portsmouth, Va., where rich patrons financed local artisans. These wealthy merchants, hoping to create heirlooms for their families, combed the Caribbean for the finest, oldest mahogany trees. The wood they found was dense and close-grained, unlike the spongy grain of the younger, forced-growth trees that are planted today. "All the great wood was used up in the 18th century," maintains Matthew Weigman of Sotheby's. The furniture crafted from the grand mahoganies is said to glow and "smile" at the beholder. "Viewing the desk is a religious experience," says Sack. "The grain ignites; there's inner fire in the wood."

Israel Sack, father of three sons in the business today, started his dealership in 1905. He found authentic pieces for the Fords and Du Ponts, who became major collectors in the 1920s. In time, their priceless collections were turned over to museums, where exquisite examples of Early American | furniture -- including the nine other Goddard-Townsend desks known to be in existence -- now reside.

The principal buyers of colonial furniture are American businessmen. But dealer Donald Sack, grandson of the firm's founder, believes that "if any more pieces break the $1 million mark, the Japanese may well get interested." As prices have risen, the buyers' profile has changed. "Doctors used to be our customers, but they can't afford the furniture anymore," says Harold. "Now our customers are educated Americans who don't survive on an income; rather, they have large sums of capital from the sale of a company or real estate." The most celebrated collector is Bill Cosby, who includes reproductions of Early American furniture on the set of his television show.

Less wealthy furniture buyers have developed a fancy for Early American pieces as well, which has spurred a market for machine-made reproductions. Since the sale of the Newport desk, Kindel Furniture of Grand Rapids has booked orders for 110 replicas at $19,000 each. Buyers who prefer the real thing can choose pieces from a second tier of expertly designed antiques selling for $50,000 to $200,000.

Collecting does have its hazards. Newcomers can be burned by disreputable dealers circulating fakes. Often a piece that is selling at a slight discount is actually a restoration or, worse, a conversion doctored up with carving or different feet to pass for a more desirable design.

The Sacks boast that just about all the pieces they have sold have later appreciated handsomely in value. "Over the years, we've built collections for families with other sources of income who lose it, and the furniture becomes their savior," says Harold Sack. But, he adds, "American furniture is not a speculative market. It is a long-term equity investment. People who plan to turn it over in ten years might well be disappointed." While prices could falter if the U.S. economy runs out of steam, most investors are bullish on Early American masterpieces. "When you get a few billionaires competing," says Harold Sack, "$12 million will seem like a bargain."