The American way

The collection of a successful and sophisticated couple lit up Sotheby's New York, with paintings, torchères and a Tiffany chandelier

- Huon Mallalieu

DURING the course of April, Sotheby’s New York offered about 1,000 lots from the collection formed from the 1960s by Erving (1926– 2018) and Joyce (Joy) Wolf (1927–2022). Although its focus was American art from the 18th to 20th centuries, the scope was much wider and, indeed, it was the epitome of civilised collecting. A total ‘in excess of $50 million’ had been suggested and, in the event, more than $68 million was achieved.

After war service in the US Navy, Erving Wolf began his career as a lawyer in Cheyenne, Wyoming. However, in 1951, he both founded the Wolf Land Company and, in Denver, met Joy Mandel from Brooklyn, who proposed to him very shortly afterwards. They made a formidable team and the business developed into the Inexco Oil Company, which discovered Wyoming’s 200-million-barrel Hilight Oil Field and its four trillion-cubic-foot Madden Gas Field, one of the largest natural gas reserves in the US, as well as the Key Lake Uranium Mine in Canada, which once produced 15% of the world’s uranium.