“Into New Country,” Philip R. Goodwin, $55,000.

Monahan Collection Finds Hearts under the Hammer at Northeast

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Colchester, Conn., dealer Arthur Liverant was wearing his heart on his sleeve when he bought back a Connecticut six-board blanket chest that he and his late father, Zeke, found in a local home and sold to Rhode Island collectors Tom and Audrey Monahan in 1987.

With Stonington, Conn., dealer Marguerite Riordan in close pursuit, Liverant bid $170,000 plus premium on behalf of a collector to secure the heart and starflower-carved chest that survives along with a heart-carved documents box and related family papers.

The Monahan Collection totaled $1.9 million including premium at Northeast Auction on August 4. Receipts from the general sale, which continued through Sunday and included a William and Mary tuckaway table that sold to Leigh Keno for $105,000, brought the weekend’s total to $5.7 million.

A full report will appear in a forthcoming issue.