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Extraordinary Highlights from Visions of America
The week-long sale series features incredible objects of American craft – from historical documents to iconic furniture to bourbons and wines.
T aking center stage at Sotheby’s New York this January is Visions of America, an annual sale series dedicated to extraordinary objects of American art, design and craft.
The marquee week will be led by an exceedingly rare Exeter printing of the Declaration of Independence dating to July 1776, offered as a single-lot auction on January 24, 2025.
Guest curated by renowned designer and creative director Ken Fulk, six additional auctions will encompass Art of the Americas, Featuring the American West, Important Americana and Americana, Bourbon & Rye: America’s Finest Whiskeys and American Terroir: Veeder House Wines Direct from Napa Valley, as well as the live auction of four exceptional real estate properties hosted by Sotheby’s Concierge Auctions. Rounding out the sale week is Great Writers / Great Drinkers, a selling exhibition of books and manuscripts celebrating America’s most prolific authors – Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jack Kerouac and more – and their favorite pastime.
Read on for just a few exceptional highlights coming to auction.
On January 24, an Exeter broadside of the Declaration of Independence heads to the auction block at Sotheby’s New York.
Thomas Jefferson called it “an expression of the American mind.” Approved on July 4, 1776 after three days of debate, the Declaration of Independence was swiftly printed by John Dunlap, Congress’s official printer.
Dunlap’s broadside spread through the 13 colonies, where local printers hastened to create their own versions to meet the public’s demand for evidence of independence. This rare broadside, printed by Robert Luist Fowle in Exeter, New Hampshire, in July 1776, is one of just 10 known copies, with only two others sold at auction in the past century. It carries the distinguished Goodspeed-Sang-Streeter provenance.
Also on January 24, Art of the Americas will feature 19th-century landscapes, historical subjects, still lifes and Western scenes by beloved American painters.
With paintings, drawings, sculpture and photographs by leading artists working across the American continents, this season’s auction has a strong focus on illustrations of the American West by artists such as Albert Bierstadt, Eanger I. Couse, Martin Grelle and more.
Winslow Homer’s ‘Fishing’
Winslow Homer is one of the leading draftsman of the 19th century, intent on capturing the simple beauty of the figures and nature surrounding him. Fishing showcases the Babcock family’s two children, who lived near Houghton Farm in Mountainville, NY (a destination Homer frequented in the late 1870s). The present drawing notably relates to a finished oil in the Rhode Island School of Design Museum’s permanent collection.
Eanger I. Couse’s ‘Twilight, Taos Pueblo’
Exceptional for its lush color and attention to detail, Eanger Irving Couse’s Twilight, Taos Pueblo provides a refreshing serenity to the cannon of the Western art genre. A founding member of the Taos Society of Artists, Eanger Irving Couse would visit New Mexico annually after his first trip there in 1902 and would eventually settle there permanently in 1928. Works such as the present capture the boundless inspiration Couse had for the region and its Indigenous peoples. The present work is further distinguished as one of very few depictions of Native female subjects that the artist ever produced.
Albert Bierstadt’s ‘Sunrise on the Matterhorn’
Albert Bierstadt’s Sunrise on the Matterhorn is an awe-inspiring representation from the artist’s repeated travels to the Swiss Alps. Depicting the famed Matterhorn peak, the present work encapsulates Bierstadt’s unparalleled ability to capture the impressive grandeur of the natural world. This picture is notably related to a major oil in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s permanent collection, which showcases the Matterhorn from the same vantage point but at sunrise.
The January 25 auction of Important Americana offers a curated selection of furniture, folk art, ceramics, silver and more.
Examples span from the 18th to 19th centuries, and include notable works of outsider art from the 20th and 21st centuries.
Susanna Paine’s ‘Triple Portrait of the Bender Family’
This magisterial portrait by Susanna Paine, a New England portrait artist active in the 19th century, depicts three members of the Bender family of Portsmouth, NH. The triple portrait is a very rare depiction of an early 19th-century Jewish family in New England, and it arrives at auction from a private Los Angeles collection.
‘American Indian Style’ Loving Cup
Leading up to the American Centennial in 1876, a number of manufacturers took inspiration from Indigenous imagery. John Loring attributed the design of this three-handled loving cup to Edward C. Moore and Paulding Farnham together, and notes that the bison heads and hooves were modeled by Eugene J. Soligny for the American Indian–themed Bennett Candelabra. Farnham would go on to be inspired by American Indians in numerous following pieces, using metal inlays and niello to interpret Native American motifs.
The World’s Most Complete Jewish Baseball Card Collection
Compiled over five decades, this baseball card collection consists of approximately 506 cards representing 191 Jewish players – every Jewish baseball player as of the 2024 MLB season. It features baseball greats like legendary Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg, World Series MVP Larry Sherry and historic figures like Lipman Pike, baseball’s first great professional Jewish baseball player and National Association home run champion of 1871. The crown jewel is an 1867 tintype of Levi Meyerle, star of the Philadelphia Athletics, one of two known tintypes in existence. Meyerle twice led the National Association in batting average and is often regarded as one of the five best baseball players of the 19th century.
Open for online bidding January 16-25, a second auction of Americana offers more than 200 exceptional objects of craft.
J. Califano’s ‘Washington’s Reception on the Bridge at Trenton 1789’
This painting was based off of a map of Trenton by William S. Yard in 1889 by J. Califano. It depicts Trenton as it would have appeared in 1789 on the occasion of George Washington’s visit, and is based off of the print View of the triumphal arch, and the manner of receiving General Washington at Trenton, on his route to New-York, April 21st 1789 by James Trenchard.
A Federal Tall Case Clock by Simon Willard
Constructed by the renowned American clockmaker Simon Willard, this tall case clock contains a plate inscribed “Osborne, Birmingham,” as well as illegible chalk inscription on back of case. It appears to retain its original cast-brass eagle finials, pendulum and winding, as well as case and bonnet keys.
Open for bidding and culminating in a live auction on January 25 is a showcase of American whiskeys, bourbons and ryes.
The unmatched assembly includes the finest American spirits dating back to the late 19th century through the early 2000s, including several bottles produced before and during Prohibition.
Old Rip Van Winkle 25-Year-Old Decanter
“This bottling is one of the great icons of the Van Winkle stable.”
- Zev Glesta, Whiskey Specialist, Sotheby’s
At 25 years, this is the oldest Van Winkle whiskey ever released. It appeared in 2014, and only 710 were made. The wheated bourbon inside comes from Stitzel-Weller and is some of the last the distillery made before closing down in 1992. The bottle comes in a wooden box with an accompanying crystal stopper, made by Glencairn. This is pure, unadulterated bourbon luxury, in a bottle, and well worth every penny one pays for it.
The President’s Choice Private Barrel Select 8-Year-Old
Beginning in the mid-1940s, long before single-barrel, barrel-strength bourbon became common, the Brown-Forman Co. offered the President’s Choice to friends and close associates. The name is literal – the company’s president, beginning with George Garvin Brown, personally selected the barrels, then had labels printed with the recipient’s name on it.
Chandler Gin
These 12 bottles of Chandler gin are magnificent and unusual artifacts from a time when gin was more commonly consumed in Europe, and they embody that signature London style driven by juniper. This gin is uniquely sweet and citrusy, while, after around a century in bottle, it drinks most similarly to an Old Raj style with lower proof. It would make perfect ingredient for the classic cocktails of the era: Singapore Sling, Pink Lady and, of course, the French 75.
Open now through January 28, this auction offers wines direct from the storied Veeder House and its estate – all offered without reserve.
The Napa Valley property boasts 8 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon vines, with this particular collection spanning vintages from 2009 to 2021.
Veeder House Cabernet Sauvignon, 2016
This 5-case, 60-bottle lot represents American terroir at its best, in liquid form. The 2016 Veeder House Cabernet Sauvignon encapsulates what makes mountain fruit in the Napa Valley so special. Herein you will find elegance and purity of fruit matched with concentration, depth and structure to age, all from the celebrated 2016 vintage.
Experience Auction Napa Valley
Included in the Important Americana auction on January 25 is this one-of-a-kind experience. Immerse yourself in all that makes Napa Valley special: incredible hospitality, spectacular food and outstanding wines from renowned winemakers, all set in the gorgeous backdrop of the Napa Valley wine region. This is your opportunity to join one of the most anticipated events of the year that has been part of the Napa Valley community for over four decades.
