1.2 Million Dollar Table… Murderer’s Row of Antique Dealers! by Kathy Greer

   “It was like the Murderer’s Row of antique dealers. All the big boys were here, sitting in the front row. Bill Samaha, Wayne Pratt. Our auctioneer Paul Gorzocoski, III, was selling, and I was on the phone with Israel Sack, Inc.,” explained Kevin Quinlan, 55, consignor to the Ken Miller & Sons Auction Firm of Northfield, Mass. He was describing the sale of a “small, diminutive, gaming” or card table on Monday night, June 4th, for 1.2 million dollars, certainly an all time “high” for this small family-owned auction firm… “and from what I understand, only four auction houses have sold a piece of American furniture for that price,” added Quinlan. “Christy’s, Sotheby’s, Pook & Pook, and now you can add little old Ken Miller & Sons to that list,” he said. “My dad, were he alive, would have been astounded.”
  Quinlan explained that the major part of that Monday night’s auction was the contents of the summer home of J. Alden Weir from Windham, CT.  Weir was one of  “the 10”, a select group of early American Impressionist painters. “We included the contents of this South Florida estate,” Quinlan added, and of course, “the table turned out to be the star attraction of the sale.”
   “We misidentified it (the table) in our first ad,” he explained, “and said it had a porringer top. Actually it has a turret front, like the turrets of a castle.”
   Actually the advertisement described the table as “period full serpentine mahogany Chippendale porringer top game table, flip top, swing leg with full carved skirt, center has reverse clam shell drop and drawer, nicely arched front and rear cabriole legs with acanthus carved knees and large taloned ball-and-claw feet.”
   “Of course, the size and condition were everything.” Quinlan said, adding the piece dated from around 1760-1780. “It was pre-Revolutionary War, definitely Philadelphia during the great Colonial, carved furniture period. It only has a 31” wide case, which is highly desirable, anything under 36”, and along with the small, diminutive size, it was in a rare, pristine, original condition, original finish, never touched.”
   The table was missing the original brass hardware, but that certainly didn’t deter the determined bidders. “We had six phone lines and six phone bidders. Serious buyers came in from all over to examine it in the days before the auction,” said Quinlan. “Albert Sack [of the New York City firm Israel Sack Inc.] came to the hall and inspected it in person for over an hour and a half.” As it turned out, Albert Sack was the buyer, with Massachusetts dealer Bill Samaha the underbidder.
   Miller said the top of the gaming table was made of Honduras mahogany, “although I think the bottom of the drawer is pine and the sides might be tulip wood or some other secondary wood, but basically it is all mahogany throughout.”
   One can only wonder what travels the table has encountered over the past 250 years…Quinlan said it had belonged to a family in New York, and traveled from NY to a couple in Florida. “Who knows where it will end up now, where Israel Sack will sell it,” said Quinlan.
   Within hours of talking with Kevin Quinlan, we heard from a NH shopowner who had heard from a “picker” passing thru who allegedly had knowledge of the gaming table.
   “I heard about nothing but that yesterday!” they emailed us to say. “Highest piece of furniture ever sold in Mass, I hear. It was a very rare gaming table, cup corners. Kevin Quinlin, the picker from Fla who supplies the Millers, bought the table at an estate sale in FL for $2000.”
   That added a “spin” to the story we weren’t aware of. Because we were right at press time and unable to reach Quinlan, we emailed Betsy Llewelyn, our contact person at the auction firm who emailed us the picture of the gaming table which accompanies this article. She answered, “The table can be called either a card table or a gaming table. Kevin Quinlan says that it is a Honduras table. Whatever that means. Kevin did bring the table from a South Florida estate. He may be part owner, or he may not own it at all. If he did, he certainly doesn’t now.”
    With the 10% buyer’s premium charged by the auction firm, the final selling price for the table was one million, three hundred and twenty thousand. The Ken Miller & Sons Auction Firm can be reached at 413-498-2749.
   Paul Gorzocoski, III, now in his late 30’s, has worked for the Ken Miller & Sons auction firm since he was fifteen, first as a runner, later as the auctioneer. Paul said he learned everything he knows “from old Ken, the Dad” {now deceased}. The Ken Miller & Sons Auction Firm is currently owned by Ken’s wife, Velma Miller. Recovering from shoulder surgery in a rehab center, she was able to attend the auction and watch all the action. “It’s just too bad the two Ken’s couldn’t have been here,” remarked one of the firm’s assistants (father and son are both deceased). “One thing for sure, Kevin Quinlan is a very happy consignor. I doubt he’ll give up picking though. He’s been doing it all his life, first with his dad Lawrence Quinlan, who used to be an auctioneer over in Bernardston, MA during the 50’s, and then with us.”
 

Lincoln Letter Brings $90,000 Plus 10%

   Just hours before his assassination on April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln endorsed a petition for financial aid from the State of NH, presented to him by NH Senator Edward Rollins. Lincoln wrote his endorsement, signed and dated it, and gave it back to Rollins to present to the Secretary of War “in regard to the impoverished condition of the state treasury and the utter impossibility of meeting the current wants of the state.” On May 22, 2001, NH auctioneer Marty Willis of Portsmouth, NH, sold the endorsement and supporting documents at an ephemera auction for $99,000, including the 10% buyer’s premium. The provenance of the items was immaculate, as they were consigned by Anne Alger Rollins, whose late husband Sherwood Rollins II descended from Senator Edward Rollins family. Edward Rollins was one of those who gathered at Lincoln’s deathbed, and he kept the signature as a remembrance following Lincoln’s death. There is only one other “later” Lincoln signature, dating from just before he was assassinated, and it resides in the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

Manchester Denim Jeans Bring $46,532

   Levi Strauss & Company has paid a record, whopping $46,532 at an online eBay auction for a 1880’s pair of Levi jeans found in the mud of a Nevada mining town. Sold on eBay on May 25th through an anonymous consignor, who used Butterfields Auctioneers, the eBay-owned auction house, to handle the sale. The Levi’s, pictured here as they were presented to prospective bidders during the online eBay auction, were authenticated by Levi Strauss & Co. and estimated to bring $25,000 to $35,000 at auction.   The heavily publicized 7-day auction was featured on the History’s Lost & Found television show.
   The first pair of Levi’s were patented by Levi Strauss in 1873 as work pants called “waist coveralls”. The pair sold on eBay will join those already in the Levi Strauss archives, the earliest of which prior to this auction date from around 1890 and were purchased by the company from a private dealer for $25,000 about 3 years ago.
   The 1880’s Levi’s sold on eBay were produced from 9-ounce denim at the Amoskeag Mill yard in Manchester, NH, between 1880 and 1885. They use a button and snap system for suspenders, and of course, the trademark copper rivets to the corners and back pockets, along with the “Flying V” stitching.  The rivets were stamped “L.S. & Co. S.F. PAT May 1873”.

Mid-Market Furniture Soft…
But $109,250 Van Erp Lamp Leads!
by Steve Fales

   Just when you think you’ve seen everything in the Arts & Crafts arena, along comes a Craftsman sale that stretches the boundaries just a bit more. The event, a two-day marathon held on back-to-back weekends May 12th in Pittsfield, MA, and May 19th in Lambertville, NJ, served up more than 825 lots showcasing all manner of (mostly) high-end American art pottery, furniture, metal, lighting and accessories.
   A special Saturday, May 19th morning session was devoted to the perspective-enriching collection of Dr. Stanely Deen. Some 170 lots included more than 60 outstanding expressions of European Arts & Crafts. Of very high quality – and very well-received — these neatly illustrated a field broader, and a philosophy more broadly applied, than many may have realized.
   Altogether the auction generated about $1.8M with 15% buyer’s premium, with some 85% of the offerings sold via attendees, phone bids, and online activity. Winning bids were drawn from more than 20 states and several foreign countries, indicating a breadth of interest that seems to edge up with each successive event.
   Understandably, Craftsman’s status as America’s largest Arts & Crafts specialty service means its sale’s results are closely scrutinized for indications of market health. In this regard, the patient would seem to be very alive and reasonably well. On the one hand, simply staggering sums (far exceeding estimates) were paid for various exceptional lots in all collecting areas; on the other hand, the middle of the furniture market seems presently to be in a ‘soft cycle’ as evidenced by many lots selling towards the low estimate end.
   All three Craftsman principals said they have seen this ‘furniture ebb and flow’ several times before and regard it as just another bump in the road – a road which, historically at least, has inevitably led to higher prices.