Submitted by The Family
NAPLES, FLA. — Daniel G. Hingston, a lifelong antiques dealer, auctioneer and appraiser, passed away on May 2, 2026, in Naples, Fla., at the age of 85. Dan was born on May 13, 1940, in Peabody, Mass.
He was the son of Richard T. Hingston and Edna E. Castle. He is survived by his wife, Barbara Joyce Edge Hingston, his son, Michael Hingston, and his daughter and son-in-law, Tara and KC Cederholm.
He grew up in Peabody and at the age of 13 his family moved to Middleton, Mass., where he began working part-time after school for the antiques dealer Max Weber. His job was to sweep the floor and polish furniture. Dan always said he did not know it at that time, but it was the luckiest day of his life. He worked for Max Weber until he was 19 years old.
Dan and Joyce met as teenagers at one of those 1950s drive-in restaurants near Newfound Lake in central New Hampshire. They married when they were just 20 years old. Dan worked at various jobs as he looked for an entry into the antiques business. For a time, he even drove a meat truck. After he made his deliveries, he filled the empty truck with antique furniture he purchased along the route home.
His big break came when he began working with Richard Withington, an important estate auctioneer. He and Joyce moved to the picturesque old town center of Hillsborough, N.H. In a short time, he became the manager, treasurer and appraiser for Withington Auction Company. This was at a time when American furniture was beginning to peak in popularity and value. It was also before online bidding, so many of the good pieces Dan was finding in old houses were sold at auction under a tent in Dick’s back yard. The major dealers and collectors who wanted to bid on these pieces drove all the way to Hillsborough to sit under that tent in a beach chair. It was a cultural phenomenon that landed both Dick and Dan in an article in Time magazine about the last of the country auctioneers.
Dan and Dick worked side by side for decades, until January of 2000. Dan opened his own business, Daniel G. Hingston Antiques, performing estate appraisals for many of the New Hampshire and Massachusetts law offices and bank trust departments. He continued working until 2023, and that business is now carried on by his son, Michael.
Dan loved the antiques business. Many wonderful things went through his hands and now reside in museums throughout the country. Although a great raconteur, he was always discreet about the pieces he handled. He was well respected by others in the business for his vast knowledge and great friendship.
Dan enjoyed working in the historic town center close to home and his young family. When Tara and Michael were growing up, they wandered in and out of the Withington house and barn where he was working as if it was their own. He was endlessly proud that they both ended up in the antiques field, which he attributed to them growing up around the auction business and to living in a house where the furniture would be there one day and sold the next.
Dan and Joyce became avid tennis players, traveled often, and spent winters in Naples. But his favorite place was still Hillsborough, where he made lifelong friends with many in town. He was a great storyteller and had an arsenal of wonderful tales about the antiques business and life in a small New Hampshire town.
Dan was a good husband, a good father, a good father-in-law and a good friend to all. He will be greatly missed by all of us, and by the many people whose lives he touched with his wit, generosity and kindness.
May he rest in peace in the old graveyard up the road from the home and the old town center he loved.
