First a quick preview of the Stair offering. They have beautiful stuff and well presented. It gave me some ideas.
I love the red painted mirror in this shot. What a wonderful way to add color to a room. The Scandinavian stove in the corner is fun as well. Not sure what I would do with it, but if it works it would be a great substitute for a wood burning stove - so practical but usually not great looking in a room.
This whole scene has great balance with pairs of mirrors, chairs and candelabra on a lovely desk. Pairs of anything are so decorative and can be used in so many ways. It also gives a sense of order, which the Palladians would say creates a sense of calm.
Now on to Copake. For those who have read my blog before I always refer to Copake as a real country auction. Well, we decided to attend the auction last night and it didn't disappoint. We were on the hunt for inexpensive mirrors for our new cottage. I had looked at the on-line catalogue first to see if there was anything that might be candidates and thought four or five might work depending on the in person inspection.
We arrived at about 4:15pm before the 5:00 auction start - just enough time to register since this was our first time, and to make a quick tour of the offerings. We bought the catalogue there for $4, but it can be downloaded as well.
Copake can mostly be counted on for a solid selection of low priced Americana. They almost always have quilts, weather vanes, and country furniture. This auction also had a lot of Asian artifacts from an Estate. We were on the hunt for mirrors and saw three that we liked after inspection, and we also saw a pretty big rug. It was the size that first attracted us and the relatively good condition. We figure we can find a place for it somewhere.
Now that we decided that we were going to bid, we put dibs on our chairs. Those in the know obviously get there early and do that. You can see that almost all the seats were taken by 4:30!
As always our strategy was to set a limit on each bid, and we decided my husband was in charge of the bidding (and we would go higher if I punched him in the leg during the process!).
The rug was lot 4, and we had to wait for the mirrors and a lavabo for another 3 hours! Luckily they have a food vendor if you get starved. Three bids were a success! I know that's not our recent experience, but Copake is a bargain hunters dream!
The rug was $120 (plus 15% buyers premium and sales tax)! The mirrors were each $195 (before buyers premium). They are both 19th century Federal, and I've seen similar in antique shops for much more. We paid for our winning and took them home right away.
We didn't take look to hang them and here they are. The rug is wrapped up for future use. We're very pleased, and it was fun going to the auction itself at Copake. It's probably more fun when we're successful getting what we want! We'll be back.
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