Featured Doll Estate Sale- An Odd Duck in North Carolina

I was online, registered to bid but only bid on 1 item, a 14th-century iron torchiere.
I thought about going there for the preview, only 90 mins from where I am but, got busy and didn't make the trip.

 

Oh well. Well for your wallet, at least.

 

True. Kinda cooling my spurs on buying, waiting on Bill Dupont collection which should be coming up soon. He died last summer in a tractor accident but, has one of the highest quality American furniture collections in the nation.
I don't really know that much about period medieval furniture, I like it but have had very little contact with it. Plus, it ain't American!

 

Surprised the estimate for the barrel chair was set so low, although also surprised at just how high it went.

 

Just goes to show, you never can tell at an auction. Any darned thing is bound to happen.

 

Ditto, most of the furniture was estimated low except the pie safe (4-6k). I am guessing Brunk didn't know the values because one hardly ever sees that much medieval furniture in one spot like that.
Perhaps European bidders as well, online bidders were out in force in this sale. You know, get back some treasures from the Yanks!

 

And pay the packing & freight on top of buyer's premium? Yowzer!

 

You never know. Marhamchurch in the UK for example, NEVER fails to mention Thomas Dennis when he has a piece from the shop Dennis apprenticed at in Devon. The only reason he does that is to entice the odd yank into looking and, IT WORKS!

 

Another time, Marhamchurch bought what he thought was a Devon chest in Paris. Turned out to be a "real" Thomas Dennis American chest which he promptly sold to a museum here in the states.
It seems an American immigrated to France with the dennis chest in tow, which eventually ended up in marhamchurch shop in England.
WEIRD stuff happens with old furniture!

 

Now that's a Devon chest I'd like to find in a rummage sale.

 

Yeah! Tell me about it. He recognized it right away as Devon carving, thinking it was an English chest he probably picked it up for a song.
It had the owner's name carved into it so one thing led to another and BAM! It isn't an English chest, it's AMERICAN! which makes ALL the difference in the world, price-wise!
I am betting he didn't sell it to that museum in NE for a song!

 

17th-century furniture in Europe is a rather ho-hum affair, there were MILLIONS of people there at that time.
Not so here, you could pretty much put ALL the people in the USA in a single pro football stadium in the 17th century.
Population of USA below
1610- 350
1620- 2,302
1630- 4,646
1640- 26,634
1650- 50,368
1660 -75,058
1670 -111,935
1680 -151,507
1690 -210,372
What all this means is, 17th-century American furniture that survives is rare, scarce, and GET OUT YOUR POCKETBOOK if you want to buy some.

 

It's pretty impressive that the Caucasian population went from 300 to 210,000 in 80 years.

But I bet he was singing all the way to the bank!

 

Indeed, one of those once in a lifetime type dealios that seems to happen to everyone but me!

 

I've hit some smaller versions - 14k chains for a dollar, an egg yolk amber necklace for $5, but no 17 century furniture.