The top lot of the auction was this colorful 1952 painting of flowers by Chuck Connelly titled “Invaders I & II,” which realized $5,937.
Review & Onsite Photos By Andrea Valluzzo
NEW MILFORD, CONN. — Midcentury Modern never fails to disappoint, and at The Auction Barn’s January 12 sale, the market proved it’s still in vogue.
Leading the sale overall was a vibrant oil on canvas painting by Chuck Connelly, who died in April 2025. He was known for his hot personality as well as his heavily textured paintings that were almost sculptural and featured bold colors. In this sale, a quintessential 1950s painting, “Invaders I & II,” showing large flowers in bloom, attained $6,080.
Considering it was a Monday night, the auction garnered respectable attendance, and a few antiques dealers were spied among the attendees looking to buy. One determined dealer in the front row gave some stiff competition to internet bidders on quite a few items, winning some, losing others. About 30 people took their seats in the narrow room, surrounded by the auction offerings. Trophy mounts that each took a few hundred dollars halfway through the auction hung on the walls with one 13-point elk seeming to watch the auction action closely.
Overseeing the auction was this 13-point elk mount that brought $288.
“I was pretty pleased with the Chuck Connelly paintings,” said owner and auctioneer Brian Corcoran, adding that he had sold some of Connelly’s artwork before. This painting, which came from a New York City collector, sold to an online bidder.
Midcentury Modern furniture also performed well in this sale, with several pieces making the auction’s top-ten list. Leading the category was led by a Bastiano sofa by Tobia Scarpa, measuring 24½ inches tall by 83 inches wide by 30 inches deep. In 1962, Scarpa designed the Bastiano with his goals of having seating that was cosmopolitan, aesthetically pleasing yet meant for everyday living, so it had to be comfortable. The sofa brought $4,480 and came from a Morristown, N.J., home. The Auction Barn does not specialize in Midcentury Modern but, as Corcoran quipped, “We like it whenever we get it.”
Another standout in this category was a pair of USM Haller Midcentury Modern-style modular storage units, made of white powder coated steel panels, sold separately. The larger of the two measured 29½ by 79½ by 20½ inches and took $3,200. The second, which fetched $1,664, measured 29¼ by 40½ by 14¾ inches.
This USM Haller Midcentury Modern-style modular storage unit, 29 ½ inches tall by 79½ inches wide by 20½ inches deep, brought $3,125.
Furniture in other styles also did well, led by an Italian olivewood bureau bookcase, 102 by 54½ by 20 inches, made $3,200, while a set of ten Schmieg-Hungate & Kotzian shield back chairs brought $1,536.
The auction spanned the centuries, the globe and price points as seen with a Victorian six-light brass gasolier, 56 inches tall, that lit up for $4,800, to a street scene painting by self-taught Estonian-American artist Alexander Nelke at $640. And if pairs of items are popular buys at auctions, as we have heard tell, then trifectas are even more so. A trio of Chinese bronze vases, with the tallest standing 10¼ inches, and three Chinese bronze dagger axes, the longest at 9¼ inches, each made $4,160.
Rounding out the auction were an automation bird in a cage by Lake Baker Troll & Company that flew to $1,088 and a framed Nineteenth Century “Protection For American Industries” banner that featured alternating rows of six then seven stars in the center. Not surprisingly, given America’s 250th celebrations, interest in patriotic American is strong. The banner went out at $640.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house.
For more information, www.theauctionbarnct.com or 860-799-0608.
