Inside The Auctioneering World, Monday

We all have our stories of auction experiences: great buys, items listed as one thing but really something much better, that great painting hidden under a pile of commonplace steel engravings, and so on. It turns out that auctioneers have their stories too, and on Monday, September 10, at 7:30 pm, at Fairfield Auction Gallery, 53 Church Hill Road, gallery owners Rosie and Jack DeStories will share some of their stories.

The public is invited to attend the free program, which is being hosted by Newtown Historical Society.

Mr and Mrs DeStories will present the inside story of the auction business, how it is organized, how things get from that far-off attic corner to the front cover of an auction catalog, and how the auction and its goods are promoted to both general and niche audiences. They will also explore techniques of finding material, what’s good and what’s not, where hidden treasures come from, the sometimes lengthy time span from first contact through convoluted negotiations to final sale, dealing with heirs who don’t speak to each other, the occasional serendipity of reuniting separate pieces, and the good and bad effects of the Internet.

But for the most part, they will offer the stories behind the objects, and since the program will be on site at the gallery, and only a few days before the next auction, the lineup will be in place and should provide much to talk about.

Rosie DeStories serves as auctioneer for the gallery, while Jack acts as gallery manager. Rosie comes from an auctioneering family, still conducting sales in California, and jumped into the family business early, attending the World Wide Auction College at the age of 16. Jack joined the firm in1990.

After several years, the couple decided to start their own gallery, and headed east, arriving in Newtown in 2000. Baseball cards to fine art, toys to New England highboys, all is fair game for the eight or ten yearly auctions at the gallery.

The highest priced item to cross the Fairfield Auction Gallery block, setting a Connecticut auction record for the last dozen years as well as the house record, was a centaur weathervane that made more than $250,000.

Please note the change in venue for this special program. All Newtown Historical Society programs are free and open to the public; please feel free to bring a single item for the auctioneers to comment on. Refreshments will be served following the presentation.

For further information call the society at 426-5937.