Speaker 1: Hello, this is Martin Willershire, host and the last time
Speaker 1: I did a monologue basically, I really did get quite
Speaker 1: a bit of email about it. And by the way,
Speaker 1: if you'd like to email me, the easiest email to
Speaker 1: use is Auction Podcast at me dot com dot com.
Speaker 1: So welcome to the show. I'm going to be doing
Speaker 1: a few of these. I do believe these are just
Speaker 1: you know, experiences I've had in the auction and the
Speaker 1: antique business, which I'm still very active in as an appraiser.
Speaker 1: But this is going back to the late nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1: So I grew up just side Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which
Speaker 1: is a wonderful harbor town, historic town. The routes go
Speaker 1: all the way back to sixteen thirty and it's full
Speaker 1: of really beautiful architecture. The downtown area is mostly brick buildings.
Speaker 1: I actually had an art gallery for a while. Right
Speaker 1: around eighteen twelve or eleven, I do believe there was
Speaker 1: a massive fire in the town of Portsmouth and I
Speaker 1: was actually in a wooden building. I had an art
Speaker 1: gallery in my auction office on State Street in Portsmouth,
Speaker 1: and it was the only wooden building down there. And
Speaker 1: what happened was the brick ordinance was to be set
Speaker 1: at a certain time. It was voted on and agreed
Speaker 1: upon that no building could be done without it being
Speaker 1: brick instead of a wooden structure. So the particular building
Speaker 1: I was in was popped up immediately in wood before
Speaker 1: the brick ordnance went in, So I enjoyed it. I
Speaker 1: was right down by the right by the river on
Speaker 1: State Street in Portsmouth, and well, it's a real treasure
Speaker 1: trove regionally for antiques and especially from the colonial and
Speaker 1: federal era. And my dad bought a wonderful historical home
Speaker 1: that was built in sixteen seventy two. I think it
Speaker 1: was called the Hoyit House. When he bought it was
Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies, and the house was loaded full
Speaker 1: of antiques, and at the time it was a major,
Speaker 1: major auction. I can't remember exactly when in the nineteen
Speaker 1: seventies that he bought it, but at that time he
Speaker 1: sold all the items out of this particular house for
Speaker 1: wopping forty thousand dollars. At the same time he decided
Speaker 1: to purchase the home from the family. And this was
Speaker 1: a waterfront home. It was in a little mill pond,
Speaker 1: but there is access to the river and then to
Speaker 1: the ocean from it, and it was such a beautiful
Speaker 1: as it considered a mansion when it was built, and
Speaker 1: it was built onto it was very I thought the
Speaker 1: place was haunted, to be honest with you. But anyway,
Speaker 1: he bought it for a whopping thirty thousand dollars. I
Speaker 1: think it was nineteen seventy three or four, something like that. Well,
Speaker 1: Portsmouth has this fascinating charm. These homes have stayed in
Speaker 1: the families for several generations. There's lots of antiques tucked
Speaker 1: away in attics and barnes, and for an auctioneer like myself,
Speaker 1: when I was called to clear out one of these places,
Speaker 1: it was like a treasure hunt of dusty, dirty and thrilling.
Speaker 1: And in the late nineteen eighties I got a call
Speaker 1: from the Masonic Lodge of Portsmouth. They reached out to
Speaker 1: me and said that they inherited, or were betweathed, just
Speaker 1: a few items from a prominent local historical family and
Speaker 1: that was a member of the Masonic Lodge. Bequeathed them
Speaker 1: to the Masonic Lodge to raise funds and say they said,
Speaker 1: don't get your hopes up. It was just a couple
Speaker 1: of pieces. I went to the Masonic Lodge. I was
Speaker 1: interested to see what they were given. But when I
Speaker 1: walked in, I saw there were just three portraits. They
Speaker 1: actually looked really interesting to me, but you know, early
Speaker 1: and just very well done, sort of a folk art vibe.
Speaker 1: But there was a couple in a single portrait of
Speaker 1: a female, a woman and with a bonnet, and I
Speaker 1: believe she had a book in her hand. It's now
Speaker 1: at the Portsmouth Historical Society. It's in they're upstairs in
Speaker 1: their building. Oddly enough, I looked at these paintings in
Speaker 1: the canvases had a red tint a paint on the
Speaker 1: back of the canvas, which I had never seen before.
Speaker 1: It's usually just a you know, a dark oxidized canvas
Speaker 1: in whatever condition it is, if it's original, But these
Speaker 1: had red paint on them, so at the time I
Speaker 1: didn't really think much about it. And then they pulled
Speaker 1: out of this room a pair of fire buckets, and
Speaker 1: these were fire buckets were the fire brigades where they
Speaker 1: used to in the cities. They used to get a
Speaker 1: brigade of people, a line of people to the water
Speaker 1: source and they'd pass back and forth these buckets of
Speaker 1: water and try to put out fires. So there's a
Speaker 1: lot of interesting things. I'll just touch on a little
Speaker 1: bit of that later. But anyway, these had dramatic eagles
Speaker 1: on them. If you look at in the show notes
Speaker 1: or whatever, I will have a picture of the actual
Speaker 1: fire buckets that I'm talking about. These were called the
Speaker 1: Mechanics Fire Society. Let me tell you a little bit
Speaker 1: more about fire buckets. They were made of thick leather,
Speaker 1: painted and often stenciled with the family name. That's just
Speaker 1: so they could be you know, after the fire itself,
Speaker 1: they could get back to the families. They were basically,
Speaker 1: as I said, human chains, passing the buckets of water
Speaker 1: hand to hand to fight fires. Inside of the fire
Speaker 1: fire buckets you'll typically find a bed wrench and a
Speaker 1: valuables bag. The beds at that time and the colonial
Speaker 1: time were very highly valued, so the wrenches were made
Speaker 1: for dismantling them so you could take them out and
Speaker 1: save them from the fire. And cities like Portsmouth, a
Speaker 1: small city, most of the furniture had what's called fire brands,
Speaker 1: and that was a brand of the family's names that
Speaker 1: was burned on the underside of a chair or underside
Speaker 1: of the bedrail or something like that, or even inside
Speaker 1: of a tall clock to identify the family. Because what
Speaker 1: people would do a city or town is they would
Speaker 1: just grab all their valuable items that they could safely
Speaker 1: and put them out in the middle of the street,
Speaker 1: and while they were fighting the fires over the place
Speaker 1: burned down one or the other. Anyway, back to the consignment,
Speaker 1: I had to figure out the story behind these pieces,
Speaker 1: and that's when I called my friend Joe Copley. Joe
Speaker 1: was a guy when it came to Portsmouth history. He
Speaker 1: had a massive amount of knowledge. He never charged for
Speaker 1: any of his research. He just loved, you know, seeing
Speaker 1: Portsmouth items and pieces of history here. He was just
Speaker 1: an amazing guy. When I showed him the portraits and
Speaker 1: the fire buckets, he kept looking at them and examining them,
Speaker 1: and he had kind of a poker face and he
Speaker 1: was muttering, yeah, and after a little bit said, I
Speaker 1: do believe that these fire buckets and the artists of
Speaker 1: the three paintings here were all painted by the same hand,
Speaker 1: the same artist, And he says, and I do believe
Speaker 1: that artist is John S Blunt b l U n T.
Speaker 1: He suggested that I dig into the archives at the
Speaker 1: Portsmouth Atheneum Library. And this atheneum is a beautiful early
Speaker 1: building in downtown Portsmouth. The architecture was just unbelievable. So
Speaker 1: I went in there and to do the research. And
Speaker 1: I didn't even know this, but I walked right by
Speaker 1: a beautiful landscape by John Blunt himself. He had a
Speaker 1: very short life. But anyway, I went in there and
Speaker 1: I poured over the records and I finally found I
Speaker 1: think I mentioned this before, but on the front of
Speaker 1: the fire buckets was the family's name, and also been
Speaker 1: on the shield of these particular fire buckets is the
Speaker 1: trade that the merchant or the person was in. And
Speaker 1: this particular one had a pair of scissors and I
Speaker 1: think one side had a thread or something like that.
Speaker 1: And so these people were in the textile business of
Speaker 1: some type. And by the way, while i'm there, back
Speaker 1: in these times, ulsterers were held of high esteem. They
Speaker 1: were also bed makers and the bed. Like I mentioned before,
Speaker 1: the bed was very important to have a comfortable bed.
Speaker 1: And if you look at colonial beds, you'll kind of
Speaker 1: the mattresses themselves. You know, they're supported by a rope
Speaker 1: that goes back and forth to support whatever it's on. Top.
Speaker 1: But some of these mattresses were full of I've seen
Speaker 1: these before, corn cobs, straw, all different types of things,
Speaker 1: seaweed in this area, I've seen a lot of seaweed,
Speaker 1: horse hair and all kinds of things. But it was
Speaker 1: really really difficult to get a very comfortable bed. Getting
Speaker 1: back to the library, I started looking through the Mechanics
Speaker 1: Fire Society all their minutes, and these in the back
Speaker 1: of these buckets said eighteen eleven. So I went in
Speaker 1: through that and lo and behold, I found the induction
Speaker 1: of the family, the person that the firebugs belonged to,
Speaker 1: and also a notation about John Blunt. So I realized
Speaker 1: that these really did have a tie to the well
Speaker 1: known artist John Blunt, who was very much in high demand.
Speaker 1: So I was told to buy Joe to send away
Speaker 1: for a book, and there was no Internet at that time.
Speaker 1: Back in I think this was I believe this was
Speaker 1: late nineteen eighty eight. I sent away for a book
Speaker 1: that was written by a gentleman named Bishop. He wrote
Speaker 1: a book and at the time had done a lot
Speaker 1: of research on what he called the borden Limnar. And
Speaker 1: the reason he was called the borden Liminar is because
Speaker 1: he was known for the Borden family portraits anyway, that
Speaker 1: was John S. Blunt. The consigners of the Masons told
Speaker 1: me that they had already been offered five thousand dollars
Speaker 1: for the lot of three portraits and for the two
Speaker 1: fire buckets together, and I said that they should not
Speaker 1: accept it, and that I just had a gut feeling
Speaker 1: and I kind of took a big chance at the time,
Speaker 1: and I said, well, I'll guarantee you fifteen thousand dollars
Speaker 1: that these all these items will bring or more, but
Speaker 1: I'll guarantee that. And I just wanted to make sure
Speaker 1: that I did get them for the auction and upcoming auction.
Speaker 1: And so they agreed, and they also you know, signed
Speaker 1: the contract and said there you go, and good luck
Speaker 1: and all that. So the auction day came, and the
Speaker 1: fire buckets were definitely the stars of the show. A
Speaker 1: person who actually became a good friend of mine came
Speaker 1: in that day looking at, you know, the paintings, but
Speaker 1: mostly the fire buckets, and he had a very nice
Speaker 1: dressed gentleman with him, and I heard him, you know,
Speaker 1: I was over by the fire buckets. They were in
Speaker 1: a glass case. I basically took them out of the
Speaker 1: case and was handing them to people that wanted to
Speaker 1: inspect them closely, and I heard him, you know, walk
Speaker 1: over a few steps to this gentleman. He says, you
Speaker 1: have to own these, you have to get these. And
Speaker 1: so at that time, I do believe a pair of
Speaker 1: fire buckets. The world record in New England mostly that's
Speaker 1: where they're known for American firebuckets was somewhere around ten
Speaker 1: thousand dollars at that time, and so I was pretty excited.
Speaker 1: I thought they would bring you know, at least at
Speaker 1: least that or more. Fast forward. During the auction, the
Speaker 1: fire buckets go up, there's people. I think I had
Speaker 1: one or two phone bids. Now back in that day
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty nine, there wasn't a lot of phone
Speaker 1: bidding most of the time people and there's definitely no
Speaker 1: online anything. So there was a big crowd at this
Speaker 1: particul K auction. It was held over in Elliot, Maine,
Speaker 1: where I grew up, in an auction gallery that I had,
Speaker 1: and the bidding started out at five thousand dollars and
Speaker 1: I was pretty excited about that, and then it quickly
Speaker 1: climbed to twenty thousand and just when I thought it
Speaker 1: was over and I was all ready to say sold,
Speaker 1: the well dressed gentleman that I had seen at the
Speaker 1: preview I mentioned before put his hand up and he
Speaker 1: never put his hand down, back and forth bidding, and
Speaker 1: it was a fight for it. Actually hammered down at
Speaker 1: thirty two thousand, five hundred, and that was definitely a
Speaker 1: record at the time. So the portraits did very well.
Speaker 1: Also sold for around twelve to fifteen thousand dollars each,
Speaker 1: and these were all what you consider attributed to the
Speaker 1: Bordenlimitar John Blunt. The consigners were in the audience and
Speaker 1: they I was watching them occasionally I look over at
Speaker 1: them and they were like they were over the moon.
Speaker 1: They were pretty pretty excited about what these things were
Speaker 1: selling for. And they thanked me and thanked me. They
Speaker 1: were so excited. After the auction, they they wanted to
Speaker 1: make sure that they thanked me that night. So that
Speaker 1: was a really good story for them that you know.
Speaker 1: Years later, as things go, the same gentlemen decided to
Speaker 1: liquidate his collection and that pair of fire buckets, and
Speaker 1: I want to say sometime in the two thousands, before
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight. I'm not sure exactly what year
Speaker 1: it was, but I think it was maybe two thousand
Speaker 1: and four or five something like that. The firebucks resold
Speaker 1: at an auction for eighty eight thousand dollars. It really
Speaker 1: proves the point that if you're going to buy something,
Speaker 1: you want to buy something that's really, really good quality
Speaker 1: and rare if you can. Again, there's no guarantees what
Speaker 1: something's going to do. As a matter of fact, if
Speaker 1: you put those same fire buckets, and again, if you
Speaker 1: look at this show, if you follow back to the website,
Speaker 1: you will see a picture of them and it's I
Speaker 1: don't know if they bring higher price in eighty eight
Speaker 1: thousand dollars today, it's very possible because you know, like
Speaker 1: I say, they're very good and rare pieces generally hold
Speaker 1: pretty well. Again, no guarantees. Things change all the time,
Speaker 1: and you know, there's hopefully a new generation of people
Speaker 1: that will appreciate this coming up in the future. A lot,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned, a lot of things have changed since
Speaker 1: that time. My friend Joe Copley passed away in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety just a year after that, and you know, as
Speaker 1: I mentioned, auction prices skyrocketed for a while actually until
Speaker 1: the peak of two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight,
Speaker 1: after you know, we had a bit of a dip
Speaker 1: in the recession. Things have never really come back, or
Speaker 1: a lot of things have never really come back. I
Speaker 1: had fun, really, I used to love doing the research
Speaker 1: and unraveling the story of John S. Blunt is something
Speaker 1: I'll never forget. A little PostScript here. The Atheneum Library
Speaker 1: was named or renamed for a while after Joseph P. Copley,
Speaker 1: so that Joseph PA. Copley Research Library in honor of Joe.
Speaker 1: It was since renamed by because of another donor. But
Speaker 1: Joe did give so much to preserve Portsmouth history. He
Speaker 1: left his whole research library itself to the Atheneum. And
Speaker 1: so this podcast is to my old friend Joe, real
Speaker 1: gem of Portsmouth, and to the joy of uncovering history.
Speaker 1: Thank you,