Date: Fri 01-May-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: CAROLL

Quick Words:

Bennett

Full Text:

Benchmark Auction At Bennett - EWM

By Rita Easton

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- An estate auction by Stephen Bennett Auctioneers &

Appraisers at the Frank Jones Center on January 26 was a benchmark in a new

partnership forged after 20 years of experience in the auction field. The

one-year anniversary of the partnership of Stephen Bennett and Mark Stone fell

on March 7.

Approximately 375 lots of country, Continental and custom furniture,

paintings, architectural elements, Orientalia, lighting, rare stoneware, edged

weapons, Indian items, rugs and textiles, and much more were offered to more

than 320 registered bidders.

A major portion of the sale featured the estate of Clarice Yoken, who, with

her husband, Harry, opened the well-known restaurant in town, There She Blows.

Started in the 1940s as a small drive-up eatery, the idea flourished into a

thriving conference center, restaurant, and motel.

The star lot of the day was a three-piece girandole suite, the centerpiece

being approximately 20 inches high, in bronze with Napoleonic eagles on the

shafts and having many hanging crystals. It sold to a local collector at

$5,900.

An American Regency style bulbous hanging light fixture that had never been

wired, probably Sandwich, with a wheel cut floral motif on clear glass,

reached $3,400; a firkin in old blue paint with "brown sugar" written across

the front realized $775; a 20 by 24 inch oil on canvas of the Duke of

Wellington, the ‹ portrait painted in the late 1880s, unsigned, fetched $600;

and one of a group of dark printed challis dresses, circa 1850s, reached $200.

"It was our fifth auction as partners and so far we've heard nothing negative.

The reception was fabulous, very high energy, and a lot of exciting things

have already come out of it," Stone said.

A Regency etched bell shade hall fixture sold at $1,300; a 57 inch high

giltwood pier mirror, the broken molded cornice hung with acorns over a frieze

centered by a fruiting grape vine, was purchased at $3,000; an unsigned

Pairpoint Arts & Crafts table lamp with green sponge painted base and shade

reached $2,600; an Eighteenth Century bronze Tibetan Bodhisattva achieved

$1,850; a pair of Nineteenth Century Chinese blackwood horseshoe chairs

garnered $1,200; a pair of 20 inch French Rococo chenets brought $925; an

early Twentieth Century Continental velvet upholstered sofa with a carved

musical instrument motif top rail went out at $700; a Seventeenth Century

Japanese Wakasahi (short sword) sold at $625; and a one-drawer bird's-eye

maple stand went at $525.

A pair of Nineteenth Century Chinese ceramic hens in turquoise glaze reached

$575; a Continental style walnut hall table by Paine Furniture achieved $425;

and a Stanley #62 low-profile plane sold at $400.

Prices quoted above do not reflect a required 10 percent premium.