PETERBOROUGH, N.H. - One hundred seventy bidders - including those who left bids, phone bidders, and those on the floor - participated in an October 14 auction held at The Cobbs. Two hundred ninety-three lots crossed the block for a gross of $463,000. Important American and English furniture, Oriental rugs, paintings, Chinese Export porcelain, jewelry, and sporting items were offered, with approximately 50 consignors represented.

The most dramatic bidding escalation took place between a dealer and a private buyer, each determined to win the most sought-after lot of the day, a set of six maple Queen Anne side chairs. Attributed to the John Gaines family of Portsmouth, N.H., the set featured rare pierced and carved crests, applied toe Spanish feet, boldly turned front stretchers, and an old, refinished surface. The 1760/1780 lot finally went to the dealer at a stunning $150,000. (continued in next column)

A New Jersey red-painted, birch Chippendale chest, having six drawers reached $12,000; a poster for Winchester guns sold for $4,000; a mahogany Massachusetts Chippendale wing chair upholstered in light jade green reached $6,700; and a seven-piece sterling silver Reed and Barton tea and coffee set in the "Georgia Rose" pattern garnered $4,000.

A dealer won an important maple Queen Anne highboy signed on the reverse "John Kimball," and dated June 26, 1762. The piece featured two short drawers over four long drawers over a shallower long drawer over three short drawers, and sold for $22,000. A paint-decorated game board, approximately 20 by 20 inches, did $11,000; and an important Kerman Oriental rug, measuring 20 by 11 feet, achieved $5,000. 
(continued in next column)

A dome top box approximately 3 feet long, having a textured blue paint surface, sold at $7,900; a gilt convex mirror with intricately carved frame, including a reclining deer surmounting the lot and two dolphins at the base, made $13,500; and an English mahogany Hepplewhite serving table, having one long drawer flanked by two short drawers, was purchased at $6,000.Oils had a successful response, with a painting by James Fairman, "Bass Rocks," depicting a beach with waves crashing on the shoreline rocks, reaching $20,000; an oil on canvas by noted Massachusetts artist Thomas Allen depicting a flowering hillside bringing $6,250; and a scene of a rock ledge overlooking a valley, circa 1911, also by Allen, reaching $5,250.

An oil on board by Aldo T. Hibbard, a snowy scene with three barn-like buildings, made $7,000.Prices quoted do not reflect a required 15 percent buyer's premium.

The Cobbs Auctioneers of Peterborough, New Hampshire, had a bang-up sale at their Noone Falls gallery on October 14. The lead item was a set of six (three shown) Queen Anne side chairs, attributed to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, maker John Gaines, with unusual applied pierced crests, Spanish feet, and great sinuously curved backs. They appear identical to the side chair shown in Wallace Nutting's 1928 classic Furniture Treasury, plate 2106.Charlie Cobb said the chairs were stored in a summer camp when he first saw them. He told the owners that was a very dangerous place to leave antiques, and they decided to consign them to auction.

 according to our research, both in the collection of the New Hampshire Historical Society. One of them, a maple highboy, is signed June 26, 1762, one month earlier than the Cobbs' offering; the other, a slant-lid desk, is signed February of 1762. John Kimball appears to have had a busy first six months in 1762. The highboy sold to the same phone-bidding dealer who took the set of chairs. This time the price was $25,300.

There were other strong lots, including a painted Parcheesi board that brought $12,650, and a James Fairman oil on canvas landscape that brought $23,000, but the New Hampshire pieces were the real stars of the sale. Good, clean New England furniture with no problems is very strong this autumn. That was demonstrated two days after the Cobbs' sale at a Ken Miller & Son auction in Northfield, Massachusetts, where a very right New England Chippendale reverse-serpentine-front chest sold to a Maine and a New Hampshire dealer for $48,400.  
 © 2000 by Maine Antique Digest