: There are not too many better ways to spend a fine summer day
than at a country sale outside an old New Hampshire farmstead
teeming with a lifetime accumulation of country antiques amid
pastureland redolent with the scent of newly mown sweet grass.
Such was the case at the William A. Smith August 4 sale, where a
desirable New Hampshire Chippendale maple slant lid desk took top
honors when it sold for $29,700. The desk had a nice dry finish
and sat on a dominant ogee bracket base.
Several generations of the Barnard family lived in the handsome
federal farmhouse where Roland Barnard had gathered the juicy
array of choice early Americana. Blanket chests, banister back
chairs, eagle flasks and clocks seemed to prevail, but other
objects had healthy representation as well.
Bidders really liked a jazzy early carved oak single-drawer
blanket chest with panels and applied geometric moldings,
ebonized ball feet and rosehead nails that they drove to $14,300.
As he took bids, auctioneer William G. Smith cautioned buyers
that the top might not have been of the period.
The New Hampshire two-part highboy had elegantly graduated
drawers and sold for $9,900.
Two other early Chippendale blanket chests, both with bracket
feet, were highly coveted. One, in old red paint, went for $6,600,
while the other, in luminous blue-green paint, sold for $5,500. A
Queen Anne ball foot blanket chest was $5,775.
Other early furniture easily found pleased new owners. A two-part
New Hampshire maple highboy with graduated drawers went easily to
$9,900, while a two-part Queen Anne maple flat-top highboy with
shell carving along the bottom drawer brought $8,800.
Runners kept up a continuous presentation of good pieces from the
house and the barn. Before the auction, Smith said there was a
lot more stuff in the barn, and that he would wait to see how
receptive bidders were late in the sale before bringing it out.
A Chippendale drop leaf dining table with a scrubbed top and a
base in old red paint went to $7,425. It was among a number of
really fine early pieces that Roland Barnard acquired from the
Patch family up the road. The Patch family estate was auctioned
off in the early 1980s by Dick Withington, although Barnard had
bought pieces from his neighbor through the years.
A grain-painted butterfly table with a stretcher base was missing
a support but still sold for $6,050. Barnard had acquired it from
Patch. A tavern table from the Patch estate realized $3,850, and
a splay leg tavern table with an oval top and stretcher base was
$3,740.
Bill Smith hoists a nice single-drawer stand as Dick Withington
elicits bids. At the sale, Withington recalled several
escapades involving Smith's father who had worked for him as a
youngster.
A New Hampshire federal bow front four-drawer chest with
bird's-eye maple drawer fronts that had descended in the Barnard
family fetched $4,950, and a New Hampshire Chippendale slant lid
desk with "C" scroll carving sold for $2,750. A four-drawer
Hepplewhite chest realized $3,300, while a circa 1760 chest of
drawers fetched $4,125, and an appealing New Hampshire federal
single-drawer stand with reeded legs, flame birch panels and cookie
corners sold for $1,210.
Two early Nineteenth Century New England watercolors titled "Our
First Home," a view of a homestead, and "Our Last Home," a view
of a memorial, brought $12,100.
The portrait of Captain John Reed of Newburyport, Mass., may have
been only attributed to John Brewster, but bidders believed in it
and drove the final price to $10,175.
The house overflowed with desirable shelf clocks that attracted
strong money and eager bidding. An example by Concord, N.H.,
maker Levi Hutchins, of which few are known, sold for $8,250 to
the same buyer who took a Seth Thomas pillar and scroll shelf
clock with an offset pendulum for $2,475. A New Hampshire
mirrored tablet clock sold for $3,025.
An Isaac Blaisdell tall case clock fetched $6,875, and a brass
clockworks by David Blaisdell realized $6,800. A 16-inch brass
lantern clock signed "John Gaylord, Yarmouth" sold for $4,600,
and a 30-inch Boscawen, N.H., shelf clock with a mirror sold for
$3,575.
The comb decorated redware tray was $2,750.
A federal shelf clock by Blakeslee brought $935 and banjo
clock brought $770 from Hillsborough auctioneer Dick Withington,
who was an active clock buyer through much of the sale and who
spelled Smith at the auction block. Smith ran the furniture,
Withington ran the bidding, instructing bidders, "It's just like
church - contribute." At 87, Withington had ventured to Hopkinton
between his own auction schedule. As a Franklin stove out of the
barn sold for $110, Withington reminisced about the time he and
Smith's father emptied a house and tossed such a stove out a
window. Pretty heady days.
The impressive array of slat back and banister back chairs was a
huge draw for collectors and dealers. An early pilgrim slat back
chair fetched $7,700 and another slat back example with sloping
arms realized $4,125. A pair of banister back chairs with nice
turnings realized $3,300 and a ladder back chair was $5,500. A
banister back chair with carving went for $3,740.
Three New Hampshire Chippendale chairs by a Dunlap school maker
brought $6,050, while a Chippendale example with a heart crest
was $3,630.
An oxen and driver pull-toy interested buyers and drew a very
strong $3,850, while an ox yoke in old blue paint was a more
modest $248.
All prices quoted reflect the ten percent buyer's premium.
For information, 603-675-2549 or www.wsmithauction.com.
