Stefan Brecht, was a very interesting collector and acquaintance. Years ago I delivered a large Shaker trestle table to his farm in western Massachusetts and his name "Brecht" had struck a note with me. I gingerly asked him if he was related to Bertolt Brecht, Germany’s most famous playwright. I had studied his work in college and had a small part in the play "Mother Courage". Stefan was Bertolt’s son and was born in Germany, leaving in the 1930’s for the United States. Stefan himself became a writer, art critic, and a passionate collector of Shaker. If he couldn’t be at the auction, he would always bid on the telephone. It was always a pleasure to see him and his lovely wife Rena, or hear his voice on the phone with his thick German accent.

Walter S. Bucklin, former President of the National Shawmut Bank in Boston from 1945-1956, inherited a sprawling 150 acre farmstead in New London, New Hampshire in the 1930’s. Mrs. Bucklin found that she could add to the furnishings in the house by visiting the Shakers further north in Enfield. Many of those wonderful pieces that she bought from the Sisters were consigned by her granddaughters for this auction.

J.J. Gerald and Miriam McCue, lived together in a home furnished with Shaker for almost sixty years. Since the 1980’s my family and theirs have grown close. Jerry passed away this February and that passing is the end of an era in Shaker collecting. Jerry, one of the last major collectors who purchased pieces directly from the communities, started collecting in the 1940’s. His first purchases were four pieces from Edward Deming and Faith Andrews at their farm in Richmond, Massachusetts. We are privileged to be able to offer pieces from their collection in this auction.

Nancy and Jim Stranahan, traveled from their home in western Pennsylvania and came to almost every Shaker auction we held from 1983 until the last few years. They would always bring back with them a wonderful assortment of Shaker from each year’s sale. Nancy wanted me to come out to see her a few years ago to discuss the dispersal of her collection but I couldn’t make it for health reasons. I went this summer, unfortunately she had passed away a few months earlier. I met with her son Jim and his wife Ann, and brought the collection back to Massachusetts for this year’s auction.

Private collections representing Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvlania.