[1] John Hunter was a Columbia graduate who had taken over his father's auction and commission business at Pearl and Wall Streets in Manhattan.
[2] Most of the collection was obtained before 1835 through his agent, Mr. Hobson, and reportedly contained a number of pieces by "Domenichino, Guido Reni, Guercino, Carlo Maratti, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Rembrandt, and others.
[5] The auction by Henry H. Leeds & Miner at their "Dusseldorf Galleries" at 548 Broadway (next door to Tiffany & Co.) consisted of 373 "ancient and modern oil paintings" including a number by masters.
The second evening there were also brought under the hammer 123 paintings, which went for an aggregate of $6,895, or a total of 246 pictures sold, and $10,328 realized on Wednesday and Thursday nights.
The highest price paid was for a piece entitled, "The Swing," by Anthony Watteau, which brought $1,250.At the time, all were considered authentic, but it was later discovered that Hunter's Raphael Madonna and Child with John the Baptist (titled as Madonna and Infant Savior in the catalogue)[a] was actually the work of either Giambettino Cignaroli or his half brother, Giuseppe Cignaroli.