Some came carrying shopping bags or dusty bankers’ boxes.
Others balanced mysteriously-shaped objects in brown paper or bubble wrap.
Howard Husock (a writer for The Record) and his wife Robin Henschel, toted an oil painting by Husock’s uncle, Irving Guyer, who was a WPA artist. His work was sold out of a New York City gallery and some of his pieces are even in the Met. They hoped to get some information on the value of the painting in their possession.
And value was what drew many other Rye residents to The Rye Free Reading Room on a recent evening, carrying inherited family treasures or random vintage and antique pieces they possessed simply by chance.
Like the Husock- Henschels, they wanted to learn more about these objects and determine their value. A lucky few, should their pieces be worth anything, would have the option of offering them up for auction.
This hometown version of the PBS series “Antiques Roadshow” (the two are unrelated), was hosted by Larchmont’s Clarke Auction Gallery. Sitting behind tables spread throughout the meeting room, experts in the fields of fine art, jewelry, silver, coins, watches, Asian arts, antiquities examined the items placed before them.
Husock and Henschel patiently waited their turn with the fine art curator. Meanwhile, Doreen Munsie cradled in her hands a cherished jade bracelet that belonged to her great, great grandmother. At one point, the bracelet had been buried during the Communist Revolution and subsequently smuggled out of China.
She also wanted some answers about a curious item passed on to her by her father. “It wasn’t a sentimental thing,” she said. “I just never knew what it really technically is.”
With the help of Clarke’s Asian Arts specialist Munsie learned that the mystery object was an ivory robe buckle from the Qianlong Dynasty dating back to the late 1700s. Munsie declined to reveal the financial information she learned, but was pleased with the exchange.
Some found the evening to be a helpful starting point for sorting through attics and basements brimming with things left behind by late relatives.
Staci Hurley described her late cousin as a “World War I fanatic.” She has a storage unit’s worth of memorabilia and background information on warplanes and the pilots who flew them, as well as the model airplanes he built of every plane that flew in that war.
“It could literally be someone’s full time job to go through the inventory,” Hurley said.
Her thinking about her cousin’s passionate pursuit was validated. “Her goal is to: one, liquidate, which we can help her with, and two, honor the memory of her cousin,” said Andrew Malin, Clarke’s general specialist. “The best way to do that is to send the stuff to a museum where it’s going to go to the next generation of people who are interested in this stuff.”
Whether a candlestick, a coin, an oil painting, or an autographed baseball held value or not, the specialists offered owners the age, historical, cultural, or artistic attributes of the pieces, and often a newfound admiration.
A diamond art deco ring stood out for Whitney Bria, who heads up Clarke’s Jewelry, Silver and Asian Arts department. “It embodies everything of the Art Deco period that you want to see in jewelry,” said Bria.
She was particularly struck by the onyx circling the diamond which, she explained, was a crossover from a Victorian mourning ring. It signified for the wearer that “you were now allowed to re-enter the dating world.” Bria gave the 1.4 carat diamond ring an estimate of up to $3,000.
The most noteworthy items of the evening for Kenneth Imlej, Clarke’s Numismatics, Militaria and Horologist Specialist were two Judaic scrolls called megillahs, which he estimated to be from the 1800s. “You don’t find them too often and the gentleman had two,” said Imlej.
The handwritten scrolls recount how Queen Esther saved the Jewish people from annihilation and are read during the Jewish festival of Purim. Housed in silver and enamel, Imlej said that the owner of the megillahs consigned them to auction and “they could fetch anywhere between $1,000 to $2,000, hopefully.”
Malin said he’s seen it again and again, and advises folks: “Don’t throw stuff out before you get the antiques dealer in the house. We would prefer that you call an auction house rather than an antiques’ dealer, but call someone.”
Gallery owner Ronan Clarke recalled being summoned to The Osborn by a man who was emptying his deceased mother’s apartment. He arrived just as Junk Luggers was loading up the contents. He noted a stack of paintings on the floor and took some back to his gallery to research. He discovered they were done by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, a widely exhibited Native American artist whose work is in the permanent collections of major art museums.
One of the paintings later sold at auction for almost half a million dollars. “Had it gone to Junk Luggers, no one would have even figured out the connection,” said Clarke. “It was only because of the one on the floor having a label.”
The Husock-Henschels, however, were not so lucky. Their painting, they were told, is worth only a few hundred dollars, owing to a soft secondary market for the artist’s work.
“That’s okay, we love the painting,” Henschel said. “We were never going to sell it, but were just curious.”
Clarke Auction Gallery offers free, no-obligation appraisals on a walk-in basis every Wednesday from noon to 4 p.m.
