Friends of Historic Glasgow (Delaware)

Glasgow auction bids on history (7/13/03)

News Journal article

Glasgow auction bids on history


By ROBIN BROWN
Staff reporter
07/13/2003

A pair of andirons from the late 1700s or early 1800s fetched a record $80,000 Saturday in the auction of the last farm at the heart of Glasgow, honored by the state for more than a century of operation.

The three children of farm owner Anne M. Barczewski, 92, said they were pleased with the undisclosed total from the two-day sale by Newark appraiser-auctioneer Evard B. Hall. About 50 buyers came from across the country to the 240-acre farm on U.S. 40 near Del. 896. Family members, friends and neighbors also bid.

Barczewski, an award-winning dairy and tree farmer, also owned Wilmington's West End Dairy - known for its Golden Guernsey bottled milk delivered throughout the region. Because she is in assisted living with Alzheimer's disease, the decision to sell was made by her sons, George of Bear and Steve of Georgia, and her daughter, Joanne Lewis of New London, Pa.

"This is historic today," said University of Delaware dairy expert George Haenlein of Galena, Md. "This is the end of an era."

In 1974, Haenlein helped Barczewski beat a state highway department plan to put a cloverleaf intersection on the site. Barczewski saved the farm with documentation of its two American Indian encampments and earth bunkers made by British soldiers who fought at Cooch's Bridge in the state's only Revolutionary War battle.

"She always wanted the farm preserved," said Haenlein, who has known Barczewski since 1951.

The farm, called La Grange, was built in 1815 as the home of a prominent doctor, but the property already had been a farm for more than a century, according to the National Register of Historic Places.

Various items drew large bids Saturday. Many creamers topped $1,000. A small wash table without its water bowl sold for $7,800. Some jugs and jars sold in the hundreds.

Elizabeth Haenlein, the professor's wife, bought a circa 1850 sterling cow creamer for $800. When she later learned its age from the sale catalog, she said, "Well, that was a steal, wasn't it?"

Lisa and David Fox of Long Island, N.Y., spent several thousand mainly on 1700s furniture and decorative items for their new home built in Colonial style. "But it broke my heart that I didn't get the cow painting," she said. It sold for $2,000.

Many of the bidders said the prices were too rich for their wallets, although some of the same people said they found their own purchases a bargain. Jaws dropped during the andiron bidding.

Winterthur Museum authenticated and bid on the andirons, called a near-match to a pair at Mount Vernon, George Washington's home.

Auctioneer Jim Gibson raised the price by $5,000 increments as two unidentified dealers squared off. The previous record of $70,000 for such a pair was set in a sale by Sotheby's of New York, auctioneers said.

Steve Barczewski called the bid amazing: "Back and forth and back and forth. It just kept going." For about 3 minutes.

"Absolutely a record," auctioneer Hall said. He said most record prices are set when two potential buyers are determined to win an auction bid.

George Barczewski paid hundreds of dollars for rare milk bottles from the dairy farm that he and his siblings helped their mother run for decades after her husband died in 1958. Their sister said she got what she wanted most, her mother's fish-shape pitcher.

Thomas J. Posatko, director of Supportive Care Services Inc. in Wilmington, who represents Anne Barczewski's interest, said her belongings showed taste, knowledge of antiques and humility.

"She was obviously someone who valued beauty, craftsmanship, the older values," he said. "She had a real sense of history and respect for the land and the product of people's hands."

Reach robin brown at (302) 324-2856 or rbrown@delawareonline.com.

The Wilmington News-Journal

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