Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 4, 1992 TAG: 9202040188
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-7 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By JOE TENNIS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
2-DAY RADFORD AUCTION DRAWS NEARLY 1,000
Nearly 1,000 antique collectors, dealers and just plain folks poured into Radford last weekend for a two-day auction to settle the divorce of two West Virginia lawyers known for their collection."There were people from all over the United States there, people I've never seen before," Auctioneer Ken Farmer said Monday.
Farmer estimated the auction of more than 700 items took in $250,000. He said it was the biggest auction his 11-year-old company, Ken Farmer Realty and Auction Co., has held. About 18 employees worked the sale; the company normally uses six or eight per auction.
More than 25 pieces of wicker and walnut furniture was sold along with 50 firearms, including Civil War-era pieces and an 1851 musket. Bidders also bought pottery pieces and countless candlesticks, cupboards, quilts and coins.
The highest price of $7,500 was bid on a William Aiker Walker oil painting, "Sharecropper's Cabin," by the Boston art collector who originally sold the painting to the West Virginia couple. He also bought another Walker painting for $2,800.
Walker, who died in 1921, was a Southern painter who specialized in genre scenes of black field hands, portraits, still lifes and landscapes.
Widespread interest in the auction was evident by the many out-of-state vehicles packed into the parking lot Saturday and Sunday.
Insurance agent Ron Bingham of Salem and his wife, Karen, a secretary, picked up one of the sale's more unusual pieces - a miner's lamp - for $7.50.
The Binghams also out-bid Radford University junior Dave Spetrino for a drafting table. It sold for $90; Spetrino stopped flashing his bidder's card at $80.
Spetrino, a 20-year-old business major from Dumfries, said he's been attending auctions in Radford since his freshman year.
"This is probably one of the best ones I've ever been to," he said.
He wanted the antique table because he and a friend needed tables and desks for a new screen printing business they have recently opened in Radford.
For $45, Fred Luggar of Pineville, W.Va., walked out with an early-1900's English platter. He also bought some furniture from among the antique cupboards, rolltop desks, oak tables, chairs, bookcases and a maple tester bed that sold for $1,500.
"I never dreamed they had this much furniture," said Luggar, who lives near Richard and Julia Rundle, the lawyers whose collection was sold.
Joan C. Browning of Ronceverte, W.Va., a free-lance writer for an antiques magazine, contributed information to this article.