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Madelia Hickman Ring
Madelia Hickman Ring has nearly fifteen years of experience in the field of art, antiques and auction. In 1995, she joined the American and European Furniture and Decorative Arts department at Butterfield & Butterfield Auctions in San Francisco, where she was a specialist-assistant and junior cataloguer. She was part of the team that sold the Dorr Family Japanned High Chest of Drawers for $700,000 in 1997, which set an Americana record for the firm.

In 1999, Madelia attended Sotheby’s Institute’s year-long American Arts Course, where she immersed herself in an intensive study of American Fine and Decorative Arts from the eighteenth-century through the 20^th century. Upon her post-graduate certification, she moved to Connecticut to work for Wayne Pratt, Inc, where she researched and catalogued high-end American furniture and folk art. During her tenure, she not only wrote several articles for the Catalogue of Antiques and Fine Art but also assisted in numerous appraisals completed by the firm.

Madelia left Wayne Pratt in 2003 to join Christie’s American Furniture and Folk Art department. In her role as associate specialist, she was responsible for business getting, researching and cataloguing American furniture and folk art. She helped preside over numerous significant sales, including the property of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gerry of Long Island; the collection of Robert David Lyon Gardiner of Gardiner’s Island; the folk art collection of Alvin Friedman-Kien; property from the collection of legendary folk art dealer Marguerite Riordan of Stonington, Connecticut; the collection of Mr. and Mrs. E.J. Nusrala of St. Louis, and, perhaps most significantly, the landmark sale of the collection of Mrs. J. Insley Blair, where numerous records were set for eighteenth-century American furniture.

Madelia left Christie’s in the summer of 2007 to start a family, but continues to research Americana. She consults privately and is involved with the Connecticut Historical Society’s upcoming exhibition “Arts and Accomplishments: Connecticut Women and their Needlework, 1740-1840.” She also works part-time at Litchfield County Auctions, where she researches and catalogues Americana and European furniture and decorative arts.

In addition to her post-graduate work at Sotheby’s, Madelia is a graduate of the University of California, Riverside, where she holds both a Bachelor’s degree in Classical Studies and a Master’s of Art in Art History. She regularly attends decorative arts symposia, including such annual events as the Winterthur Furniture Forum, as well as other conferences in American furniture, folk art and decorative arts.

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