Page 21 - The Hunt - Summer 2020

By Eileen Smith Dallabrida | Photographs by Jim Graham
HOME & GARDEN
Jim Hill keeps things rolling at his Chester County auction house.
On theI Block
Auction houses are an exciting place to find one-of-a-kind antiques and everyday wares for a lot less.
By 1595, the London Gazette regularly detailed auctions of artwork at taverns.
In the Brandywine Valley, there are auction houses to suit a variety of bidders. Briggs Auction—a fixture in Garnet Valley, Pa. since 1962—sells 1,500 household items each Friday night. Every other Tuesday, William Bunch Auctions & Appraisals sells antiques, art, china, silver, glass and more at its Chadds Ford, Pa., gallery. Uniques & Antiques in Upper Chichester, Pa., is a go-to for Mid-Century Modern pieces.
In Downingtown, Pook & Pook is a nationally recognized destination for Pennsylvania decorative art. Last March, Pook auctioned locally made 18th-century furniture from the home and office of Albert Barnes, the eccentric physician and art collector who established the Barnes Foundation. America’s oldest auction house, Freeman’s of Philadelphia is a destination for antiques lovers who want to upgrade. Recent sales included a Queen Anne walnut dressing
t’s a drizzly Saturday morning in rural Chester County, and Jake Secor is on the hunt for mule deer. He doesn’t need a bow or
a rifle to bag his prey. Another hunter took care of that years ago. Secor is after a mounted deer head to display in his man cave. He’s currently stalking it at Hill’s Auction in Landenberg, Pa., where furniture, rugs, jewelry and other goods have gone on the block since 1968.
Secor and his girlfriend, Erika Beck, are regulars at Hill’s, which holds sales on most Fridays and Saturdays starting at 9 a.m. “We love old things, unusual things,” he says. “There’s something about seeing, touching and smelling that makes buying at auction an exciting experience.”
Storied Past
The practice of selling goods to the highest bidder was first reported by the Greek historian Herodotus, who wrote about prospective husbands competing for wives in 500 B.C.
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