Jan. 17 (UPI) — The second edition of Sotheby’s Visions of America exhibition opened in New York on Friday, once again featuring a selection of American art, objects and innovation, including a rare copy of the Declaration of Independence.
The week-long event includes seven live and online auctions showcasing over 500 works, curated by renowned designer Ken Falk.
The auction house’s aim with the event is to present the “legacy of America” and showcase “the heights of American craftsmanship.”
The collection includes 10 paintings, including a 19th-century work by Martin Johnson Heade depicting hummingbirds and gold and purple orchids which is expected to fetch between $1.2 and $1.8 million.
Also among the works is a sculpture of Benjamin Franklin from the workshop of Jean-Antoine Houdon; antique wood furniture such as a “Nantucket” low Windsor armchair from the late 1700s; and a Norman Rockwell painting of presidential candidate George McGovern and his wife, Eleanor.
In the “innovation” category is the “highly anticipated” Cadillac CELESTIQ, touted as “the next generation of all-electric, hand-crafted luxury,” which is displayed alongside the iconic 1934 V16 Aerodynamic Coupe and 1957 Eldorado Brougham.
Another highlight of this year’s exhibition is a collection of silverware created by Paul Revere II, the son of the Revolutionary War hero, who, himself, was a silversmith. The items include a teapot, coffee pot, a punch bowl and a creamer.
The week’s activities will be capped on Jan. 24 with an auction of the “exceedingly rare” July 1776 Exeter Broadside copy of the Declaration of Independence. The opening bid is set for $1.4 million and the item could bring up to $4 million, Sotheby’s estimates.
The Declaration was originally printed quickly by John Dunlap, Congress’s official printer, and then distributed throughout the 13 colonies where local printers made their own copies. The item on auction is one of just 10 known copies printed by Robert Luist Fowle in Exeter, N.H., in July 1776.