Withington Auctions – Historic Fall Auction
October 7 at 10 am
41B Main Street, Goffstown, NH 03045
www.withingtonauction.com
603-680-1676 | 603-731-9876 | 603-491-7136
Preview on October 1st & 6th from 12pm-4pm and by Appointment

GOFFSTOWN, N.H. — Withington Auctions will present several historic and important objects of art, furniture and collectibles from two estates; the Joseph William Pepperell Frost estate from Pepperell Mansion in Kittery Point, Maine, as well as the Robert Dunlap estate from Bedford, N.H. The estates will be in two parts, the first during the firm’s auction on October 7 and the second during its post-Thanksgiving holiday sale.

Joseph William Pepperrell Frost was a businessman by trade, working in the textile and construction industries at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. He is best known locally as an avid historian and author and a cousin of both the famed poet Robert Frost and Ralph Bartlett, the lawyer who secured several Russian artifacts during the Russian Revolution. His acquaintances also included President Hoover. He is an author of Sir William Pepperrell: His Britannic Majesty’s Obedient Servant of Piscataqua. (Note: a land grant signed by William Pepperell will be in the auction.)

One of J.W.P. Frost’s relatives was General John Frost of Kittery, then of Massachusetts (1738-1810). He served as captain in the French and Indian War Canadian campaign of 1759. In 1775, he was a lieutenant-colonel at the siege of Boston. When the campaign of 1775 began, he was promoted to the rank of colonel, and he won distinction in the New York engagements that preceded the retreat of General George Washington to Philadelphia. As colonel, he fought in the battles of New York, Stillwater, Bemis Heights, Saratoga and Monmouth and in the Southern theaters until the war’s end. He was commissioned brigadier general in command of the York County Militia.

J.W.P. Frost inherited several important historical items from General Frost. Among them is a pair of brass barreled Ketland flintlock pistols he carried during the Revolutionary War with clear proof marks. Other important inheritance objects include a large diameter pewter charger owned by the first New Hampshire governor, Benning Wentworth, and an English tall clock made by Henry Thornton (1699-1732), which belonged to Governor Hutchinson (1771-74), a loyalist Massachusetts governor whose mansion was ransacked and his belongings confiscated at the time of the American Revolution. Martin Frost bought the clock in the early Twentieth Century and his son, Joseph W.P. Frost, later inherited it.

The estate will include numerous art objects that J.W.P. Frost collected during his lifetime. Of particular note is an original oil painting by James McNeill Whistler. It depicts a woman, Nurse Graham, in a chair next to a window; It was bought by J.W.P. Frost during World War II in Chelmsford after the estate was destroyed by bombs. Whistler arrived in England during the late 1850s, a period in which his newly adopted country still reeled from the Industrial Revolution. There will be collection of Russell Cheney paintings, many depicting the Portsmouth, N.H., area. Russell Cheney was one of the first artists to bring the Modernist approach to the painting of Portsmouth and its environs. His paintings remain as fresh and undated today as when he painted them in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. As an added bonus, there is an Edward Hopper sketch of a young man.

Antique furniture includes an Eighteenth Century highboy attributed to Christopher Townsend and similar to one illustrated in Master Craftsmen of Newport by Michael Moses. A small tea table with drawer, Eighteenth Century, owned by Ralph Bartlett, will be in the auction as well as an Eighteenth Century pie crust tea table. A Nineteenth Century chair belonging to Daniel Webster when he was in the Senate was given to relative George Frost by Colonel Fletcher Webster. Later it went to J.W.P. Frost in the 1950s. An additional item of interest is a bracket clock made by Henry Jones of London, brought to America from Scotland in 1745 by Capt. Alexander Raitt and later inherited by J.W.P. Frost.

The second estate, which is still being assessed, is that of the Robert Dunlap homestead in Bedford. The homestead is falling in disrepair and was subject to intruders and animal damage. Several historical documents have been retrieved and are being reviewed by the New Hampshire Historical Society. Some of the highlights include Major John Dunlap’s military tactics book and commission as major, several of his stain and varnish recipes, apprentice papers and school texts with his initial drawings. Furniture retrieved includes works by both Robert Dunlap and John Dunlap II. There are John Dunlap branded chairs and a Robert Dunlap desk and several dining tables. In addition, there is a large collection of tools, including John Dunlap signed ones and a number of templates used for furniture making. A complete inventory is being completed.

The auction will have other additions to include a Watertown, Mass., estate consisting of some tiger maple furniture, another Bedford estate featuring three Salvador Dali sculptures and a Hanover, N.H., estate consisting of garden statuary. The auction will be online with LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable and AuctionZip with phone and absentee bidding. Previews will be on October 1 and 6 and by appointment.

For additional information, www.withingtonauction.com or 603-731-9876.

Featuring two important estates: The Joseph William Pepperell Frost Estate from Pepperell Mansion, Kittery Pointe, ME, and Robert Dunlap Estate in Bedford, NH.
The Auction will also include several leather bound books, documents, clocks, lamps, boxes, several Oriental rugs, Historic figure lithographs
Thomas Hutchinson Clock
1 of 2 Scrimshaw pie crimpers
Lady’s Tiger Maple Desk
Salvidor Dali Collection
General Frost’s Flintlocks and Commission
Tambour Desk
Pair of large iron deer and doe
Russell Cheney Collection
Large Collection of Silver
Garden Statuary
Jones Bracket Clock
Edouart Silhouette of Sir Walter Scott
James McNeil’s Whistler Painting Christopher Townsend Highboy
Part of a Dunlap Collection
Joseph W. P. Frost Bust
1 of 3 Ogden Pleissner lithographs
18th Century Pie Crust Table
Large Collection of Estate Rugs
William and Mary Highboy