The invitations to 45 select buyers went out only a few days in advance. A private collection of folk art, decades in the making, was to be offered at 10 am on March 20 at Foundry Square, a renovated factory building in New Haven.

Hosting the event were Connecticut dealers Fred and Kathryn Giampietro and Illinois dealers Michael and Sally Whittemore. They chose March 20 for two reasons: it was the Monday after the Wilton Antiques Show, and dealers were still in the area; and it was three weeks before the Philadelphia shows, for which the trade was busy stocking up.

At the stroke of 10, the doors opened and some of the field’s better known figures streamed in to discover nearly 400 weathervanes, decoys, primitive portraits, family records, iron sculptures and furniture, decoys, barber poles, carved wood figures, architectural artifacts and picture frames worth about $400,000. The slew, kept under wraps until the ultimate moment, was from the storied New Jersey warehouse of Allan Daniel, a private dealer and avid collector.

In a similar arrangement, these barber poles were last sold by Joel Kopp and David Schorsch as part of a private sale of the collection of the late Barry Cohen.

“I’ve known this collection for probably 20 years. When Iheard Allan was thinking of going to auction, I told him that wecould do a better job. We’ll turn much of this around in six weeks,from pickup to payment,” said Fred Giampietro, who hatched the planin January from his booth at the Winter Antiques Show.

With the exception of some of the weathervanes, which ranged up to $32,000, and portraits, a group of three of which cost $48,000, most of the pieces offered were under $5,000.

The private view was over by 1 pm. About 80 percent of the goods sold, say the dealers. What is left will be offered to retail customers.

“We’re very pleased, as was the consignor,” said Mike Whittemore. “We sold most of the frames, half of the decoys, nine weathervanes and a variety of just about everything else.” Several prospective buyers are still considering three portraits by Aaron Dean Fletcher, a Vermont itinerant painter whose work was collected by the Garbisches, Nina Fletcher Little and Electra Havemeyer Webb.

“The concept worked,” noted Giampietro. “Dealers came, left and got fresh merchandise.”