Date: Fri 03-Sep-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: GWARD

Quick Words:

Spicer-Jackman-Liverant-rumor

Full Text:

Liverant Wins Windsors

(with 20 cuts)

By Bob Jackman

NORTH KINGSTON, R.I. -- On August 25 Bill Spicer of Exeter, R.I. auctioned a

set of six Rhode Island Windsor hoop back armchairs for $99,000 with the

premium. The chairs were pursued in the audience by dealers Brad Smith and

Jeff Green, but they both lost to a phone bidder. Rumors indicated that the

phone bidder was Nathan Liverant and Son of Colchester, Conn.

Bill Spicer was ecstatic. "I've been auctioning twenty years, and this is the

largest price I've sold something for. A couple years ago I sold a Rhode

Island clock for $24,000, but these went way over that. It's a thrill."

Mr Spicer had described the chairs by saying, "They have wonderful turnings,

pipestem turnings. The arms are painted like the rest of the chair, but they

were made from mahogany. It's hard to say exactly when they were made but I

think around 1770. Definitely they are Eighteenth Century. They were always

upholstered. We lifted a corner of the upholstery, and there was no paint

underneath. Since that area was never painted, it must have always been

upholstered."

He also appreciated the condition of the chairs. "Overall they're in good

condition. They have the original sea green paint beneath a layer of black

paint. They have the original upholstery. The only problem is that they are

different heights. Some have either worn down or they were cut down. The

highest is 16 inches and the lowest is 14« inches."

The auction was held in the American Legion hall in North Kingston, R.I.,

where Mr Spicer conducts about 40 auctions a year.

Spicer recounted the discovery of the chairs. "I went out on a typical estate

call right here in North Kingston. The woman showed me two of the chairs. As I

admired them, I said `Too bad there isn't a set of six; then they would bring

really big money.' The lady said, `Oh yeah, there's a set. Look in the loft.'

I went up there and hardly believed what I found: four more of them. I told

her they would bring around $15,000 to $20,000 at auction, but I wanted to

check into them. After I did some research, I wanted to be conservative and

told her they would sell for $40/60,000."

Thursday morning Zeke Liverant confirmed that he was the successful phone

bidder. He said, "We got them. Say Robert, you don't need a set of chairs, do

you? The great thing about them is the condition of the upholstery. Under the

second upholstery, the original upholstery is intact. It has the original

tacks, and they used sea grass for the padding. It's great to have the

original sea grass!"

Zeke was convinced the chairs had a Rhode Island origin. He explained, "One

nice touch is that the arms are mahogany, and tenoned through the back. They

could use mahogany because then imported it into Rhode Island from Santa

Domingo and from South America. They could use mahogany as a nice feature for

armchairs. You don't see that in Northern New England because mahogany was

less available. The auctioneer told us that they have been in the same family

since they were made. We hope to get the provenance from him."

One uncommon aspect of the set was that each chair was an armchair rather than

the more common combination of two armchairs and four side chairs. When asked

about this, Mr Liverant responded, "Rhode Islanders seemed to have had a great

desire to have armchairs. We've had other Rhode Island sets entirely composed

of armchairs. I think there were several makers. The sets vary in some

details, and this makes us think they came from several sources."

He concluded by saying, "Things are getting scarce. It's not often that you

can find a treasure like this in a little country auction. It's pretty

exciting. They'll be for sale in the shop. We'll leave the paint the way it

is, but we'll probably do something with the upholstery."