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Harold Cole, left, goes over some last minute details with auctioneer Michael Fallon.

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A good selection of early hardware was offered. The pair of Eighteenth Century Pennsylvania rams horn hinges with cock’s head decoration topped the assortment at $230.

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The figured maple Queen Anne highboy went reasonably at $6,900.

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The cast iron lion sold for $3,910.

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Lots of architectural ornaments were available.

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The bow front with satinwood veneered drawers hammered at $2,124.

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Looking over an early William and Mary table during preview.

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Decoys ranged from $28 to $345.

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The sawbuck table sold at $575.

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An attractive patriotic door decorated in red, white and blue failed to find a buyer.

COPAKE/COLE AUCTION

W/cuts

Dss

WOODBURY, CONN. — Consolidating his operations and moving from one side of town to the other, antiques dealer and antiques building material supplier Harold Cole liquidated a vast number of items recently during an on-site auction conducted by Copake Auctions. While the sale, October 13–14, consisted mostly of architectural items that had been stockpiled in Cole’s warehouse over the past few decades, there were some goodies sprinkled throughout the sale that ranged from early highboys to weathervanes.

The auction took place in the fields behind the former Woodbury Auction Barn located on Route 47. Cole had mowed the long grass and prepared a suitable area for the sale, however, with little more than a single extension cord providing power to the site, and combined with a total lack of cell phone service, there was absolutely no telephone or internet bidding allowed.

Piles of antique doors, windows, architectural ornaments, paneling and more mantels than you could shake a stick at were stacked around the property, while the better items were displayed under a large white “circus”-style tent.

“We definitely set a mantel record,” commented Copake auctioneer Michael Fallon wryly, as a smile crept onto his face, “not a record price, but it is surely a record for the number of mantels sold at an auction,” he said, gesturing about the area. Indeed, there were a lot of mantels; Cole, who has been dismantling houses for decades had clearly made an attempt to corner the market. All types were there, early examples with paneled overboards, carved Federal examples and even a few with gothic appeal. Prices ranged from under a hundred to more than several hundred dollars apiece.

Doors were stacked 10–15 high and they dotted the perimeter of the freshly mown field. Some of the early exterior doors retained the original hardware, most interior doors did not, and there was pile after pile with the better examples viewable at the tops of the piles. Some of the nicer doors were selling in the $200 range, large piles of interior doors for far less.

The auction got off to a quick start on Saturday morning with a small but serious crowd waiting in the wings. The first lot to be offered was an unusual set of figural cut-outs, part of a bean bag game, that hammered down quickly at $87. A large cast iron gnome garden figure followed, bringing $345.

It was a hardware buyer’s dream come true as hundreds of pairs of strap hinges were sold, some individually, some as pairs, and some sold as large piles stacked on the ground. A nice pair of Eighteenth Century Pennsylvania ram’s horn hinges with cock’s head decoration topped the assortment at $230, a pair of early strap hinges with butterfly backs $52, a box-lot of “H” hinges $172 and a set of folding hinges with heart ends went out at $87.

Three architectural cast iron window grates were actively bid, with the lot selling at $517, a large demilune window went out at $460, an ice cream parlor set of two chairs with relief figural molded backs and a table brought $517, and a set of three wrought iron lamp posts that were removed from a stone archway on Lake Winnipesauke realized $1,840.

Furniture in the sale included a figured maple Queen Anne highboy that sold for $6,900, a Federal bow front chest with satinwood veneered drawers hammered at $2,124 and a Maritime Provence lolling chair realized $1,380.

Many of the pieces sold were a restorer’s dream come true. Highboy bases, top and bottom halves of cupboards, highboy tops and an assortment of case pieces missing parts sold for anywhere from $57 to the $805 paid for a cherry highboy base made in the Woodbury area.

A large carved fish sign, reportedly from a Washington State fishing camp, got bidders going with several in the crowd hammering away at the lot. Bidding opened at $1,000 with two people chasing the unusual sign to the $2,500 mark, where a third got in the bidding, pushing the price to $3,680.

A large cast iron lion also provided a spirited round of bidding, with the lot selling at $3,910.

For information, 518-329-1142, or www.copakeauction.com.