Steenburgh Auctioneers, East Haverhill, New Hampshire

Bombé Desk Dominates Steenburgh Sale

by David Hewett

The title really says it all. The auctioneer father and son duo of Archie and Joshua Steenburgh scored a major coup in the New England auction arena when they sold a Boston-made mahogany bombé slant-lid desk at their October 5, 2004, sale in East Haverhill, New Hampshire. Phone bidders competed with at least three floor bidders until one of the former claimed the desk for $605,000 (with buyer's premium).

There were other pieces in the sale, but when one item brings more money than many New Hampshire auction houses gross in a year of sales, it's big news. The coveted piece had associations with the Rowe and Webster families and had been in New Hampshire for at least 50 years. It belonged to a woman now in her 90's, and Archie Steenburgh had been aware of its existence for at least the last 20 years. The owner was in a nursing home when it sold but intended to be back home soon.

All the "big guys" had come to New Hampshire and viewed the desk, and many would be on the phones bidding. The desk passed inspection with flying colors. The bombé form in furniture is rare and, with few exceptions, is found only on case furniture made in Boston and Salem, Massachusetts. It took a very talented cabinetmaker to successfully complete a piece of furniture with that accentuated, swelled base. When bombé-form furniture crosses the auction block, the fur (figuratively) flies.

In January 2004 the Haraden-Ropes family mahogany bombé chest sold at Christie's for $2,023,500 and went to consultant and client representative Albert Sack. In November 2003 Skinner sold the Robert "King" Hooper bombé chest-on-chest for $1,766,000 to dealer Todd Prickett.

The high prices are no recent fluke. In 1995 Northeast Auctions sold a bombé serpentine-front chest with Noah Doggett family provenance for $992,500, which still stands as the highest-priced piece of furniture the firm has ever sold.

Atlanta dealer Deanne Levison, after the sale, commented on how this desk compared to the others known. "It was absolutely made by the same hand as the one at the State Department, and the hinges and pilasters are identical to those on the one at Bayou Bend in Houston."

The State Department example may be seen in Treasures of State by Clement Conger (Harry N. Abrams, 1991). Both it and the Bayou Bend example, and others, are shown in Harold Sack's definitive article "The bombé furniture of Boston and Salem, Massachusetts," on pages 1178-1189 of the May 1989 issue of The Magazine Antiques.

Some dealers made the trip to the small upper Connecticut River Valley town to bid on it for themselves or clients. Among them were Peter Sawyer and Michael Hingston, both from New Hampshire, Classical furniture dealer Rebekah Clark of Connecticut, American furniture specialist Deanne Levison, and at least two other New Hampshire dealers and a collector from Vermont.

Dealers in the packed house were on it from the opening bid. Peter Sawyer was on it, as was Mike Hingston, on a cell phone at the side near the front, and Rebekah Clark, at the rear, staying in the fray until around the $350,000 mark. Then there were only the telephones and Clark (she later said she was bidding for another dealer), and then there were just the phones.

The winner was Greenwich, Connecticut, businessman and collector Billy Mayer, who has torn great holes through the auction fabric in the last year and a half, buying with fervor and, apparently, at whim.

Mayer didn't stay on the line for the next lot, desk owner John Rowe's signed and dated paint-decorated fire bucket, which sold to stunned Kingston, New Hampshire, dealer Peter Markham, who with a partner took the bucket for $2200, ( moments later Manchester Vermont dealer Clarke Comollo was also shocked when he was able to buy John Rowe's colonial silver porringer, the handle initialed "J R").

"What's wrong with the buyer of the desk?" Markham asked. "Doesn't he know that something of the same period so closely associated with a rarity makes the rarity more valuable?"

Deanne Levison was also surprised. "It's a shame to separate associated pieces like that"

It was all a mistake that could be chalked up to a novice's enthusiasm, Mayer admitted when we saw him about a month after the sale. "I did a really stupid thing," Mayer said. "I was so excited at getting the desk, that I slammed the phone down and then realized what I'd done. `%&#!,' I said, `I've just hung up!' Yes, I wanted the bucket, but it was too late, it had already been sold.

"I'm a self-taught collector," Mayer said, "but I've gotten a lot of advice from Albert Sack and Jonathan Fairbanks, who have told me to trust my own instincts, which has been good advice, for the most part."

Peter Markham said the bucket is for sale.

Then there was the other stuff, but we'll let the photos and captions tell that story.

The Steenburghs have had a great couple of months. At their Labor Day sale, they sold the painted one-drawer stand belonging to the Haynes family of Maine for $53,900. A pair of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, card tables brought $31,900, and a New York Federal breakfast table with carved eagle heads and brass lion feet sold for $22,000.

 

© 2005 by Maine Antique Digest

 

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