A small carved oak cabinet made in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1677 reached Sotheby’s as a few photographs submitted through its online portal. To an untrained eye, it might have looked like a grungy old box. Then Erik Gronning, a senior advisor in Sotheby’s American Furniture, Folk Art and Decorative Arts Department, saw the last image: the cabinet’s original key. It was, he says, the moment he knew for certain it was a period piece. In January 2026, the Symon and Rebeckah Horne Pilgrim Century Valuables Cabinet sold for $1,636,000, the highest price for American furniture in more than a decade.
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