Page 24 - March 2022

Lessons Learned was five or six feet wide with a

I recall one country auction paneled back, maybe four feet
about 1970. The auctioneer high. It was a beauty.
The farmer had used these
stood with his back near the compartments for storing
edge of a bank overgrown with different grains for cows and
sumac. He was hired to sell the other farm animals. Rather
household – the good with the clever, I thought.
bad. To his credit, he would One by one, milk cans and
work as hard selling a 50-cent other items were sold.
item as he did a 5-dollar item, Eventually came the settle.
always trying to coax another “How much am I bid for the
bid, even if only for 25 cents. grain box?”
This auctioneer sold what-
It sold for $200 to one of us
ever the runners brought him. dealers. There was a gasp from
There were several tables the locals. In those days seldom
where glass and china and other A Chester hardscrabble landscape with henhouse. Circa 1915 did an antique reach $200.
smalls were displayed. Along Many of these country
the outside perimeter of the auctions were multigenera-
tent was a mix of antiques – butter churns, wooden barrels, yarn tional homes. The sale of family belongings could be traumatic. Often,
winders, canning jars, crocks, jugs, and such. the last survivor—the one who made the decision to sell—was plagued
A few rusty wrenches that no one wanted were offered. When no
one bid, the auctioneer lowered his starting bid to 50 cents. Still, no with guilt. They felt they had let their parents and grandparents down.
“Why, grandfather would roll over in his grave if he knew that his
one bid. He threw the tools over his shoulder down over the bank grandfather’s desk was being sold.”
behind him. The auctioneer did his best to comfort the seller. Humor was the
Before long, one of the runners brought up several sections of rusty
stovepipe. As before, no one wanted it. The auctioneer folded his arms best medicine.
These country auctioneers were storeowners, farmers, undertakers,
across his chest and tapped the toes of his right foot. “Folks, I’m not or your insurance agent. You knew you could trust him.
selling one more thing until someone buys this stovepipe.”
Wanting the auction to continue, one of us bid 50 cents.
Later, the auctioneer led us over to the barn. We looked around at Auctions During Wartime
the contents. There were milk cans, barn lanterns, ox yokes, firkins, Readers may be aware of rationing in World War II. Ration
horse harnesses, and such, but only one item of real value. stamps were issued for gas, meat, and other items. Rationing was
Everything was covered in a layer of decades-old dust. When hay is overseen by the Office of Price Administration, or OPA. They also
pitched from one level of the barn to another level, it releases bits of imposed a ceiling price on used items such as refrigerators, autos, and
chaff into the air. Years of chaff covered everything in the barn. office equipment.
Chaff is the hulls of seeds that grow on the tips of hay. I’m sure many Edward W. Spaulding was an auctioneer in the Chester/Weston
have heard the old saying, “Separate the wheat from the chaff.” region of Vermont from 1939 on. His son, Ted, told me about many
That one item of value was an 18th-century settle bench in original auctions his father held.
red paint. It had three lift seats with storage under each seat. This settle One day, during the war, Edward had an auction on Cobleigh Street

The Skinner place in Chester illustrates the Ell.
Photo circa 1888. photo source: Ron Patch

22 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles