MYSTIC, CONN. – Members of southeastern Connecticut’s arts, business and political community were on hand Wednesday, May 18, to welcome Robert C. Eldred Co., Inc, to Mystic. Home to Mystic Seaport and Mystic Aquarium, the resort town and sailing capital is a center for marine art, history and biology.

Company president Joshua F. Eldred cuts the ribbon as Eldred’s staff and guests look on. From left, Wendy Dunford, Annie Lajoie, Andrew Maynard, Sue Schofield, Rob Hartford, unidentified, Rob Simmons, Steve White and John Schofield.

“Mystic is a lot like Cape Cod. We feel right at home here,” Joshua Eldred, president of the family-owned auction house based in East Dennis, Mass., told guests. The company will display highlights from upcoming auctions, conduct appraisals and receive consignments in the new venue. The gallery is across the street from Mystic Station, served by Amtrak and Shoreline East, and less than two miles from I-95’s Exit 90.

Customer convenience and proximity to New York and Boston were key considerations for management in picking the site. The choice was validated the day of the ribbon cutting, when Eldred’s accepted a consignment of 13 pieces of furniture.

Selections from upcoming sales are shown here. The firm conducts approximately 25 auctions a year. Here’s wishing New England’s oldest auction house a busy summer.

At 5 Roosevelt Avenue, Eldred’s Mystic office is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and by appointment. For information, 508-385-3116 or email info@eldreds.com.

—Laura Beach

Josh Eldred and Connecticut State Senator Andrew Maynard.

Eldred’s president emeritus and co-owner John Schofield and Stephen C. White, president of Mystic Seaport, inspect a Nineteenth Century painting of the Canadian barque Lancefield, captained by C.R. Grant. The painting is slated for Eldred’s mid-September Marine Arts auction.

Leah Kingman, Eldred’s head of European and Twentieth Century decorative arts; First Selectman Rob Simmons of Stonington, Conn.; and Josh Eldred.

A selection of paintings and furniture from Eldred’s July 14 Summer Market, August 3–5 Summer Americana and Paintings, and August 24 Contemporary Paintings sales. Eldred Wheeler made the bonnet top chest-on-chest. The paintings are by Donald Barton, Elaine Coffee, Sam Vokey, Roy Cross and Hugh Cecil Charles Monahan.

Selections from Eldred’s upcoming July and August sales. The Nineteenth Century landscape, left, is in the manner of Benjamin Champney. Right, above and below, paintings by Frederick McDuff and William E. Bartlett.