Today, we arrived at the start of Antiques Week in Manchester, New Hampshire. We wanted to get a close look at the event that kicks off the week. Ron Borgeault presided over his annual auction. Joining Ron at the dais was Jack Lipinski of Antiques and Fine Art Magazine. We met a number of our dealer colleagues there—many arriving in preparation 
Ron Borgeault at the helm.for shows they’ll be doing during the week. It’s a pilgrimage: serious antiques buyers on vacation in the region stop by for the events as part of their vacations. Dealers commit the better part of a week to buy and sell.
Jack Lipinski leads the bidding. Note the William and Mary paint decorated chest of drawers. It had a low estimate of $150,000. Bidders didn't meet the reserve and it didn't sell.
The auction on Saturday featured several collections. The first featured the collection of M. Austin & Jill R. Fine of Baltimore, Maryland. That part of the auction ran from 10 a.m. to about 1:30 p.m. Then, the remainder of the day included collections of David B. Gendron plus property from several other collections. All of these collections focused exclusively on Americana. The pieces ranged from folk art and painted furniture to high-style 18th and 19th century objects. Prices ranged from very strong for exceptional and rare pieces to soft for more ordinary objects. Quite a number of pieces didn’t attract bids at the minimum reserve and thus didn’t sell.
Here are just a few pictures of some notable pieces that did or didn’t sell:
This block-front Massachusetts desk did not attract any bidding at the reserve of $38,000. Passed.
This Newport, Rhode Island tea table soared to $84,000.
Bidders pushed this Boston Queen Anne highboy to $125,000.