Of the hundreds of thousands of objects that pass through a dealer’s hands over the course of a career, the ones he saves for his own enjoyment are the most special. When such a dealer decides to dispose of his collection, everyone turns up. Such was the case on September 13 for Dan and Jan Olmstead’s collection gathered over nearly five decades. The crowd was strong, and hardly any object was offered that would not fit nicely into any shop or collection.
Much of the collection came directly from homes in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, and it was illustrated in a 53-page color catalog along with a 66-page listing with detailed comments about the acquisition and provenance of most items. The Olmsteads had dozens of subcollections within their collection; little groupings of this and that burgeoned into an impressive gathering.
What was particularly nice about the event was that it was not one of the three big “Ds” that often drive the auction market. No death, divorce or debt, just a decision to dispose of the collection while, as Dan Olmstead put it, “We still have our marbles.” Married for 40 years in December, the Olmsteads will continue in the antiques business at a slightly more leisurely pace †60 hours a week instead of 90.
A copper weathervane in the form of a horse soaring over a fence by A.L. Jewell was the star in the day when it went to a dealer on the phone for $105,800. The Olmsteads found it in the 1970s at the Howland, N.H., antiques market adjacent to the Amherst market where they picked and sold frequently. They have had many offers for it over the years.
A Nineteenth Century Maine watercolor on oilcloth Smith family record covering the years between 1782 to 1809, beginning with the marriage of John Smith and Elizabeth McLelland, was inscribed “By R.B. Smith, April 1830.” It sold to a Maine collector for $15,640.
A New England Chippendale mahogany four-drawer serpentine front bureau from about 1765‱785 was of interest and sold for $23,000 to Peter Sawyer, who was active throughout the sale. Dan Olmstead’s notes revealed that the chest was purchased in southern New Hampshire in the early 1980s and that he had made repairs to the bracket base and had made replacement back pulls for the drawers. Sawyer also bought a New Hampshire Chippendale cherry tall chest with six drawers and a scored center drop for $5,750. The Olmsteads bought it from a homestead in Hampton, N.H.
A Massachusetts white pine cupboard with a single raised panel door, original butterfly hinges and the original lock and key and latch sold on the phone for $8,740. The cupboard retained old, if not original, red paint. The prior owner refused to sell it to Olmstead when he first saw it because it was being used to store his sardines. After his death, the widow sold to Olmstead.
A New England Chippendale bureau in original red paint with a central drop sold for $8,280. The Olmsteads first spotted the four-drawer chest in a Victorian rental house in Rye Beach, N.H., in about 1985. When the owner phoned to say she would sell it †and to get there before her husband came home so she would not have to share the proceeds with him †Jan Olmstead rushed there and brought it home in the back of her Chevette.
A Sheraton birch bowfront bureau with bird’s-eye maple, mahogany and other veneers, a cookie corner top and a central inlaid drop also sold for $8,280, and a New England Chippendale maple grain painted tall chest that came originally from the Randall homestead in Rye, N.H., brought $5,290.
A lot of six Portsmouth Chippendale birch chairs realized $6,900. They came from a yard sale at a New Hampshire homestead. Conversely, a Portsmouth mahogany Pembroke table fetched $920.
Olmstead said he had seen a New Hampshire Queen Anne birch breakfast table, circa 1770‱795, in original red paint years before he acquired it at an auction 20 years later. It realized $5,980. A Mahogany serpentine tilt top stand elicited $2,300
A Queen Anne birch candlestand in the original but nearly eroded black paint from about 1760‱780 sold for $3,600. The Olmsteads bought the stand from the Walker family of Rye, N.H., and the sale notes indicate an Eighteenth Century repair to the post with a hand-forged screw. An oil on wood portrait of a gentleman from the Walker family sold for $1,380, and a circa 1817 watercolor silhouette of Jonathan Walker of Rye was $1,208.
A lignum vitae folding bed with a bench headboard in the original red paint sold for $4,255. Dan Olmstead said the only other similar example, in blue paint, is in the Jackson House in Portsmouth, N.H. This example was found in an Eighteenth Century warehouse next to the Pepperell mansion in Kittery Point, Maine.
A Seventeenth or early Eighteenth Century white pine wooden cross in original black paint with carving and lapped and pegged construction sold for $3,680. It may have been a Native American piece.
The object that attracted the second most attention in the sale was a Seventeenth Century joint stool with sausage turning that had been found in a barn in Rye, N.H. It brought $4,715.
Redware was a favored arena. An impressive early redware stew pot with a handle and Gonic-type spots sold for $7,755. A redware Gonic jug that Dan Olmstead acquired from dealer Dot Chamberlain, who found it in a house in Gonic, N.H., brought $4,370. Olmstead likes redware; Chamberlain liked miniature firkins, so a miniature green firkin was traded for the jug. The jug was displayed at the sale by Chamberlain’s daughter, Diane. Several Maine redware jugs were offered. An 8-inch example was $1,840, and a 9¼-inch Winterport example that came from a 1972 yard sale sold for $1,725 to the same buyer. Another example in a salmon green glaze fetched $2,358.
A redware loaf dish with slip decoration and a coggled edge elicited $1,523.
A 6-inch Maine redware jug in a green glaze sold for $3,394 to the same buyer who bought two Eighteenth Century earthenware pottery pitchers, one a Black Jackfield type and the other in a brown glaze with black streaks, for $316.
A lot of 13 redware custard cups in various glazes sold for $1,093, and a maple syrup cruet, still redolent of syrup, realized $604.
A Nineteenth Century Native American potlatch ladle had a beautiful form. It appeared to be made of maple and it sold for $2,530. Dan Olmstead wrote that he bought it in his hometown, St Ignace, Mich., an early site of Indian settlements.
A group of splint baskets with salmon and black potato stamp decoration that seem to have proliferated in southern coastal New Hampshire were offered. An 18-inch example fetched $2,185, while a 26-inch example found in a cellar in Amesbury, Mass., sold for $374. Another basket of interest was a 12-inch cheese weave version with a beautiful inverted elongate bell form that attracted $604. The auction notes reveal that the basket came from “the best unpicked early country house we’ve ever been in.”
A circa 1840 portrait on art board in the Prior style of a woman wearing a gold heart necklace and gold earrings sold for $5,060 to a coastal Maine dealer. Olmstead found it when he cleaned out a house in York, Maine. A lot of three 1805 watercolor portraits of Sara S. Hilliard, William Hilliard and Abraham Hilliard with accompanying family history sold for $4,600.
An American silver oval box engraved with a peacock and six smaller birds in flight was inscribed “M Bruster 1730.” It brought $3,450.
A pair of floral embroidered shoes, circa 1760, retained the original buckles and label for “Tho’s Ridout, James Davis, Show Makers, Near Midgate, London” and sold for $6,210. The shoes were the subject of the most interest in the sale. A pair of leather, wood and iron shoes labeled “Lion Clog Works Trade Mark, Church Bank, Bolton” were either child’s clogs or salesmen’s samples. The pair brought $230.
A hooked rug worked with a house, trees and birds that Dan Olmstead said was “the best one I’ve ever owned,” sold for $3,235.
A sampler wrought by Betsy Brown at 12 with a Federal house and garden, a tree and flowers with four alphabets and a verse retained much of its original vivid color. It sold for $2,875.
A Nineteenth Century fruitwood shaving box with a mirror, a blown glass soap dish and compartments for three razors had quite a history. It belonged to Samuel Pettingill of Salisbury, Mass., who was a sailor, and was accompanied by several letters from 1799 and an 1800 inventory after his death. The box fetched $500 from a historian. The same buyer paid $191 for a lot of framed early bibs, bonnets and jewelry from the same Salisbury house as the shaving box.
A “Blue Willow” soft paste egg stand by John and William Ridgeway made around 1814‱830 had a rare form, comprising six egg cups and a salt cellar in a stand. It represented a good buy when it realized $431.
All prices quoted reflect the 15 percent buyer’s premium. For information, 603-777-5009 or www.olmsteadauctions.com .
