Antiques and Americana Expert, John A. Hays, to Speak at Rosecliff on “The Thrill of the Chase”

John A. Hays, a private art adviser, former deputy chairman of Christie’s Americas, “Antiques Roadshow” appraiser and leading expert in American furniture, will speak at Rosecliff on Tuesday, Aug. 11, on “The Thrill of the Chase: Collecting Art in Our Time.”

Focusing on 18th-century Rhode Island-made furniture, Hays will take us on a journey of discoveries and reveal how connoisseurship, persistence and good fortune changed and continue to change our thinking about this highly prized furniture.

“The Thrill of the Chase” is the Preservation Society of Newport County’s annual John G. Winslow Lecture, named for the organization’s president and board chairman from 1977 to 1989.

Hays began his career at Christie’s in 1983 and became one of the premier auctioneers of Americana. He was appointed Deputy Chairman, Americas, in 2002. Hays has spent most of his career focused on developing business strategies for top art collections. He participated in numerous record-breaking sales including the unprecedented sale of the Nicholas Brown Chippendale desk-and-bookcase in 1989; the January 2006 single-owner collection of Americana, “The Property from the Collection of Mrs. J. Insley Blair,” which included the seminal portrait by Charles Willson Peale, “George Washington at Princeton”; the landmark sales of The Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller; and the recent sale of Emmanuel Leutze’s 1851 “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” the record for any image of George Washington.

His lecture on Aug. 11 at Rosecliff begins at 6 p.m. For tickets, go to www.newportmansions.org/events/the-thrill-of-the-chase.

The Preservation Society of Newport County, Rhode Island, is a nonprofit organization accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. It is dedicated to preserving and interpreting the area’s historic architecture, landscapes, decorative arts and social history. Its 11 historic properties – seven of them National Historic Landmarks – span more than 250 years of American architectural and social development.

For more information, please visit www.NewportMansions.org.