Old Cape Home Harbors Treasures That Surface At Klinger Sale

"The system worked properly," said a delighted Keith Klinger just after his spectacular auction on May 14 in Harwich, Mass.. "We had no reserves for this sale."

Klinger has been plugging away now for a few years on the Cape. He works very hard and loves the business. He has been in it one way or another for most of his life. When called to a local home in a Cape Cod town, he knew that the home had been in the family for 250 years, but nothing prepared him for what he found.

"There were things piled all over, and I was very pleased. Then I went to the barn, and there, lying on the floor in the dirt, was this fabulous decoy," said Klinger. "I said to the family, 'I think we should get this bird out of the dirt.'" The bird turned out to be a rare, carved and painted preening black duck decoy attributed to Gus Wilson (1864-1950), Portland, Maine.

In a postsale interview, Klinger disclosed that he could have bought the decoy outright, but he knew that it would do very well at auction. He did not know, however, how well it would do. On the night of the sale, with a great many phones and many eager customers in the audience, the bird very quickly rose to its powerful selling price of $195,500 to a collector at the sale.

Another decoy found in this home was a black duck decoy with raised wings, also attributed to Wilson, which sold for $39,100. The same collector who purchased the preening Wilson decoy won a carved Black Forest bear umbrella stand for $20,700. An Eighteenth Century Massachusetts bow front chest, with slide, sold to the trade for $8,625. A Sarouk carpet sold for $9,200, and a stylish painted firkin, painted in old mustard and black, with the initials "SL" in a wreath on the top, sold for $2,530.

Klinger was not finished yet, however. An outstanding tall clock, inlaid and from New Hampshire, with brass works, unsigned, sold for a solid $10,925. "It was gorgeous," said Klinger. "The clock was so 'as found' that it was really difficult to see the inlay." A painting by Harry Neyland depicting a Hudson River view of the New York City skyline sold for $2,696, and another by Neyland of the Luxembourg Gardens brought $2,696.

An Arts and Crafts period chest, made of quarter-sawn oak and inlaid, was decorated with three columns. Each column was a carved figural bust. One depicted a man, one column had an oval bust of a woman and one column had a man and a woman together in a single carving. It sold quickly for $3,335. A large child's horse pull toy, an appaloosa, sold for $1,150, and a vintage Nantucket basket brought $1,380. A marine stick barometer sold for $2,070.

Prices reported include buyer's premium.