New Hampshire Federal Farmhouse Yields Barnard Family Treasures

HOPKINTON, N.H.

:There are not too many better ways to spend a fine summer day than at a country sale outside an old New Hampshire farmstead teeming with a lifetime accumulation of country antiques amid pastureland redolent with the scent of newly mown sweet grass. Such was the case at the William A. Smith August 4 sale, where a desirable New Hampshire Chippendale maple slant lid desk took top honors when it sold for $29,700. The desk had a nice dry finish and sat on a dominant ogee bracket base.

Several generations of the Barnard family lived in the handsome federal farmhouse where Roland Barnard had gathered the juicy array of choice early Americana. Blanket chests, banister back chairs, eagle flasks and clocks seemed to prevail, but other objects had healthy representation as well.

Bidders really liked a jazzy early carved oak single-drawer blanket chest with panels and applied geometric moldings, ebonized ball feet and rosehead nails that they drove to $14,300. As he took bids, auctioneer William G. Smith cautioned buyers that the top might not have been of the period.

Two other early Chippendale blanket chests, both with bracket feet, were highly coveted. One, in old red paint, went for $6,600, while the other, in luminous blue-green paint, sold for $5,500. A Queen Anne ball foot blanket chest was $5,775.

Other early furniture easily found pleased new owners. A two-part New Hampshire maple highboy with graduated drawers went easily to $9,900, while a two-part Queen Anne maple flat-top highboy with shell carving along the bottom drawer brought $8,800.

Runners kept up a continuous presentation of good pieces from the house and the barn. Before the auction, Smith said there was a lot more stuff in the barn, and that he would wait to see how receptive bidders were late in the sale before bringing it out.

A Chippendale drop leaf dining table with a scrubbed top and a base in old red paint went to $7,425. It was among a number of really fine early pieces that Roland Barnard acquired from the Patch family up the road. The Patch family estate was auctioned off in the early 1980s by Dick Withington, although Barnard had bought pieces from his neighbor through the years.

A grain-painted butterfly table with a stretcher base was missing a support but still sold for $6,050. Barnard had acquired it from Patch. A tavern table from the Patch estate realized $3,850, and a splay leg tavern table with an oval top and stretcher base was $3,740.

A New Hampshire federal bow front four-drawer chest with bird's-eye maple drawer fronts that had descended in the Barnard family fetched $4,950, and a New Hampshire Chippendale slant lid desk with "C" scroll carving sold for $2,750. A four-drawer Hepplewhite chest realized $3,300, while a circa 1760 chest of drawers fetched $4,125, and an appealing New Hampshire federal single-drawer stand with reeded legs, flame birch panels and cookie corners sold for $1,210.

Two early Nineteenth Century New England watercolors titled "Our First Home," a view of a homestead, and "Our Last Home," a view of a memorial, brought $12,100.

The portrait of Captain John Reed of Newburyport, Mass., may have been only attributed to John Brewster, but bidders believed in it and drove the final price to $10,175.

The house overflowed with desirable shelf clocks that attracted strong money and eager bidding. An example by Concord, N.H., maker Levi Hutchins, of which few are known, sold for $8,250 to the same buyer who took a Seth Thomas pillar and scroll shelf clock with an offset pendulum for $2,475. A New Hampshire mirrored tablet clock sold for $3,025.

An Isaac Blaisdell tall case clock fetched $6,875, and a brass clockworks by David Blaisdell realized $6,800. A 16-inch brass lantern clock signed "John Gaylord, Yarmouth" sold for $4,600, and a 30-inch Boscawen, N.H., shelf clock with a mirror sold for $3,575.

A federal shelf clock by Blakeslee brought $935 and banjo clock brought $770 from Hillsborough auctioneer Dick Withington, who was an active clock buyer through much of the sale and who spelled Smith at the auction block. Smith ran the furniture, Withington ran the bidding, instructing bidders, "It's just like church - contribute." At 87, Withington had ventured to Hopkinton between his own auction schedule. As a Franklin stove out of the barn sold for $110, Withington reminisced about the time he and Smith's father emptied a house and tossed such a stove out a window. Pretty heady days.

The impressive array of slat back and banister back chairs was a huge draw for collectors and dealers. An early pilgrim slat back chair fetched $7,700 and another slat back example with sloping arms realized $4,125. A pair of banister back chairs with nice turnings realized $3,300 and a ladder back chair was $5,500. A banister back chair with carving went for $3,740.

Three New Hampshire Chippendale chairs by a Dunlap school maker brought $6,050, while a Chippendale example with a heart crest was $3,630.

An oxen and driver pull-toy interested buyers and drew a very strong $3,850, while an ox yoke in old blue paint was a more modest $248.

All prices quoted reflect the ten percent buyer's premium.

For information, 603-675-2549 or www.wsmithauction.com.