Mike Corcoran sits on his “throne” while calling bids.
Gustave J. S. White Auctioneers was founded in Newport, R.I., in 1925 as a full-service real estate and insurance firm, also conducting auctions of local estates. Its longtime owner Michael Corcoran is a throwback to the old days of calling auctions, when crowds gathered under tents as auctioneers sold household goods, antiques and more. Corcoran’s sales are in-person or absentee bids only; no online catalogs or bidding available. Blessed with the gift of gab, Corcoran is a natural as an auctioneer. Having grown up in Newport, he is going strong in his 98th year (his 99th birthday will be in January) and is a beloved fixture in the area and at his auctions. After covering one of his recent sales in person, which attracted quite a crowd, we asked him about the business, memorable sales over the years and his approach to auctions.
You were a teacher and had a tent business. How did you end up in doing auctions?
I inherited the auction business Gustave J. S. White, which was started in 1925. I was a teacher and took a day off from school to work an auction in 1967. My uncle James Dwyer worked there, and then I got interested in it so the then-owner said, “Would you like to do it?” I said, “Yeah, I’d like to try it.” I also had my tent business, The Newport Tent Company, which I started in 1969 and eventually sold to my nephew in 2006-07. The auction house was a very small organization back then and still is. I took over the business in 1973.
What are some of your most memorable sales over the years?
We’ve sold a lot of items in the $200,000 to $300,000 bracket and through the years, we have sold mostly very good pieces that came from Bellevue Avenue estates: Oriental rugs, furniture and good paintings from some of these estates.
We don’t accept things from dealers. Everything we have is from an estate, a bank or a lawyer, and we don’t have what they call “reserve prices.”
There was the William Merritt Chase painting we sold about 30 years ago. It was really funny. I was at a Providence home to appraise broken china for insurance and asked the woman whether she had any items to sell. She said, “No, I really don’t.” But I went up into the attic and there was a painting by William Merritt Chase. And it brought like $234,000, so that was very good. We sold it to [Newport art dealer] Roger King.
Another great favorite of ours is a local artist, William Trost Richards. We sold a lot of his things through the years, but it’s not just the paintings. We have had good Oriental rugs. I would say it’s a potpourri of stuff, you never know what you’re gonna get.
I think the principal thing is that people know it’s for real. We don’t hold back anything, and we tell them upfront, “Right now, it goes for what it brings.” We don’t say, “Oh, that should’ve brought more” or this or that. Everything’s on the level, and it’s been going for 100 years so it’s doing pretty well.
Because Gustave J. S. White auctions are in-person-only, a good-sized crowd comes to inspect the merchandise during preview and then they stay to bid.
You have sold things from some of Newport’s finest estates?
Mostly from Bellevue Avenue. Bois Doré, that was a good sale. Anglesea back in 1994, that was the best one. We sold the contents of Anglesea that was owned by Beverley Bogert [along Newport’s famed Cliff Walk, just south of The Breakers] and took like $650,000. We did an onsite sale with two tents.
Does anything surprise you today in the auction business?
No, nothing really surprises me because I’ve seen so much of it that when you get something and this guy says, “Oh, this is one of a kind,” and I’m like, “We sold one of those three years ago.”
What keeps it exciting for you?
Anytime we get a William T. Richards painting, that’s great. We love to get his stuff.
Your auctions are known for being old school with no online bidding. Why?
There’s an awful lot of stuff online. People are buying things online. We don’t entertain online buying. If you’re not there to physically inspect the article, that’s just too bad.
Tell me about the Allard & Sons, Paris, Gilded Age salon you sold in May for $30,000.
I’m glad we got that because it was a lot of work getting them out of the barn that they had been in for years. All the panels weren’t there, some were missing, but there was exquisite carving on a couple of those panels that you just don’t see often. We call them “trophy panels.”
Just handling them was a tough job, you know. We had to get a forklift to get them out of the barn, but that’s part of the game.
You had someone call you a dinosaur recently?
This guy called up and he was looking for our website and he says, “You guys are dinosaurs.” But you know what else he said? He said, “You guys are doing it the right way.”
What’s the secret of your success?
[Laughs] I don’t know whether I’ve been successful. I would say the secret of doing anything — and I tell this to my nieces and nephews — is to like what you are doing. If you are not liking it and still making a lot of money, get out of it. I tell them all the time, and isn’t that the key? Like what you do. And we’re gonna keep going.
—Andrea Valluzzo
