When Mike Fallon was driving to Copake Auction’s inaugural New Year’s Day auction back on January 1, 1980, he remembers wondering just how many people would go to an auction on New Year’s Day.
The turnout surprised him; the auction was packed and he remembers being impressed with a Hudson Valley kas that brought $9,000 and a pair of Hepplewhite chairs that fetched $14,000. At the time, he was not affiliated with Copake and was there only to bid on antiques.
Five years later, the auction’s owner at the time, Ed Friedman, got to talking with Fallon at another auction and sold him the business that April.
Now, as owner of Copake Auction, Fallon conducted the firm’s 30th annual New Year’s Day auction, along with his son, Seth, who joined the business in 1995. The sale was a strong one, with many items performing above estimate, and set a record high of 1,069 absentee bids, Fallon said.
While prices are certainly off from the heyday of auctions and even from a few years ago, Fallon noted that his last three sales achieved the highest grosses the company has had in ten years.
An interesting note, he says, is that the merchandise is not flocking here borne of desperation from people selling antiques to pay their mortgage, but for the usual reasons many auctions take place †the death of an older relative or selling a home and downsizing.
“We’re getting more merchandise now &†For the first time since I’ve been in business, we’re scrambling to store things for upcoming sales, which is a neat challenge,” Fallon said, noting they recently received several major collections for Copake’s annual bicycle auction in April.
“The year 2009 was not bad for us, and I’m thinking 2010 is starting off right,” he said.
Judging by the results of the January 1 auction, the year is off to a good start, indeed.
The top lot of the sale was a Nineteenth Century Baltimore album quilt, circa 1845, that had a variety of classic album quilt motifs and signatures of Baltimore residents, and sold above estimate for $28,250. The quilt measured 98 by 99 inches.
Performing solidly within estimate was a rare pair of Nineteenth Century dumb stoves of George Washington and Lady Liberty in polychrome paint surface that attained $22,600. The circa 1843 figures were made by Alonzo Blanchard, Albany, N.Y., and both stand 48¾ inches tall.
A sleeper in the sale was a bonze fountain of a woman with outstretched arms, 58 inches tall, in a wonderful weathered patina, which soared over its $800․1,200 estimate to achieve $9,887.
The bronze was fresh to the market and came from an estate in Riverdale, N.Y., and had been on the consignor’s mother’s lawn. “When we get these fresh estate things, we kind of lowball them because you just don’t know,” Fallon said.
Weathervanes are a staple at Copake auctions and this sale was no exception, with the top offering in the category, a Nineteenth Century cast iron horse weathervane from the Rochester (N.H.) Iron Works that performed well at $18,645. The 27-inch-tall vane had had descended in the Hathorn Dawes family and was accompanied by a provenance packet, pole and directionals.
Other standout vanes included a gilt horse and jockey ($2,5/3,500), 31 by 18 inches, that fetched $8,475, a leaping horse and rider example also for $8,475, and a horse and sulky and a folky cow, both reaching $7,910. A Cushing-style game cock sold within estimate at $4,068.
Eighteenth Century Queen Anne furniture was led by a New England highboy with two drawers over three, selling for $7,062, a lowboy having a central long drawer over three drawers and going out at $6,215, and a tavern table in red paint with pad feet bringing $5,085.
An Eighteenth Century Boston Chippendale side chair with carved claw and ball feet fetched $4,520, while a Chippendale-style bonnet top cherry secretary with tombstone panel doors brought $3,672.
Fine art offerings included a Nineteenth Century portrait of a girl in a red dress, attributed to Joseph Whiting Stock (Massachusetts, 1815‱855), that sold within estimate for $5,424, an unsigned Nineteenth Century oil on canvas seascape for $6,215 that saw two bidders in stiff competition for the painting, both thinking a different artist had painted the work, and a Nineteenth Century portrait by Sheldon Peck that was a good buy at $3,390.
Two baseball-related standouts were a 1920s pair of cast iron baseball player andirons for $3,616 and a 1951 New York Yankees team autographed ball with 28 signatures, including Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Casey Stengel, offered with four “Tommy” Henrich baseball cards, taking $3,051.
All prices reported included the 13 percent buyer’s premium.
For more information, www.copakeauction.com or 518-329-1142.
