Featured Please help identify this chair

Ha! I've also seen her characterized as Athena.

The one thing I've not seen is a definitive answer.

 

I had no idea something like this would be worth that much these days. Is it because of the carving that it would go so high?

 

That's certainly a major part of it. Plus an easy attribution to John Jelliff.

Although most Victorian is "in the toilet" as far as resale goes, like many other things in the antique world, the very top echelon can still bring in some money. So, names like Jelliff, Herter Brothers, Pottier & Stymus, Meeks and Belter can still command a tidy sum, although even that is only a (large-ish) fraction of what it was 20 years ago.