Hannah's Chairs Auction a Stellar Success!

The long-awaited auction of 20 artist-decorated Adirondack chairs, held Sunday, June 25, 2005, cleared several thousand dollars that will go directly to fund services at Hannah House. The event took Hannah House to a whole new level of fund-raising, bringing in twice as much as our best efforts in the past.

The gala event was held in the splendid Daniel Webster Room, which was donated and catered by The Hanover Inn, where the food and service were both great. The artist-decorated chairs had each been cleverly placed on a square, table-cloth-covered table and arranged around the periphery of the elegant room, so that people could walk all around the chairs to see their many hidden charms. (The artists had placed paintings on the sides, backs, and legs of the chairs.)

High seller of the evening was Ellen Shaw's "Loons' Summer Habitat" (right). A murmur went through the crowd when this one came up (late in the auction, which may account for some of the "sleeper" bids early on as bidders bided their time and their wallets waiting for this one to come up). The wonderfully fine painting continued to the back of the chair, where the lake view of the loons was framed by pink lupines. In brisk bidding, it finally gaveled down at $1,025.

Auctioneer for the event was Chuck Eaton of Eaton Auction Service in West Fairlee Center, Vermont. His family-owned business specializes in antiques, collectibles, and estate sales, but he obviously relished the opportunity to preside at this unusual auction featuring one-of-a-kind art works using Adirondack chairs as their canvas. Eaton's banter with the large crowd that attended the event helped elevate interest in the sale of particular chairs. Many of the artists who had created the chairs were present in the audience for the event, which also served to intensify interest in the individual items they'd created.

Susan Johnson's "Anna Leona," a favorite with viewers for weeks before the auction, as it was displayed, along with the other chairs, at various host businesses in the Upper Valley. This lovely abstract design, reminiscent of Art Nouveau in its evocation of natural forms, brought a breath-taking $825.

Stellar seller of the evening was Ellen Shaw's "Loons' Summer Habitat," which went out at $1,025. Susan Johnson's "Anna Leona" also challenged the 1K mark, gaveling down at $825. Four other chairs topped the $500 mark, including "Vermont Views," by Randy Walker, Executive Director of Hannah House, which brought $675. Other high sellers were Susan Harlow and Marilyn Millam's "Cat Tails" ($700), Kit Farnsworth's "July" ($575), and Carol Egbert's "Summer's End" ($550).

"Cat Tails" (pictured in closeup at right) by artists Susan Harlow and Marilyn Milham was another chair that sent a murmur througn the crowd when it came up. It brought the third highest bid of the evening, fetching $700 for its proud new owner.

Several in the crowd were art collectors with little prior knowledge of Hannah House and for whom the unusual chair art itself was the evening's draw. More than half of the chairs in the auction broke the $300 barrier. Strong sellers also included the subtler treatments; Luci Wilson's "Celestial Soul" and Carol Bigley's "Striped du Jour" both brought in just under $300 and generated considerable pre-auction interest during the catered preview hour before the 7:00 PM auction.

Randy Walker, Hannah House's Executive Director, is also a talented artist, as shown in his "Vermont Views" (at left). The cleverly conceived design of the full chair, when viewed from the left, looks blue but appears cadmium red from the right. The quintessentially Vermont landscape garnered considerable pre-auction buzz during the preview session before the auction. It was the fourth top seller of the evening, at $675.

As at any auction, there were sleepers - the bargains of the night if not of the decade. Five of these spectacular chairs went over the auction block at $200 or less, for no evident reason, leaving more than one auction-goer later to wish aloud they had bid on those items. For several in the crowd, this was their first auction experience, and some seemed stunned by the fast-paced dynamics. Chuck Eaton's encouraging and humorous banter - "Go ahead and bid against her! There are no friends at an auction!" - overcame some of that reserve, but some shyer folks remained on the sidelines of the action throughout the evening.

As expected from the amount of pre-auction interest it evoked, Kit Farnsworth's marvelously intricate flower, hummingbird, and insect design in "July" brought in the big bucks for Hannah House, crossing the block at $575.

The spectacularly successful event was the brainchild of Board President Judith Esmay and Vice President Jean Brandt, the event's chairman. They were assisted by a very active and involved Board of Directors and by the Executive Director, Randy Walker, who was not only one of the higher-selling artists of the night, but also organized the other artists who donated their talents and time and delivered the chairs to their various points of pre-auction display at Upper Valley businesses.

Ticket sales and underwriting by Morgan Stanley and Ledyard National Bank were sufficient to meet expenses for the event, so 100% of the actual auction proceeds, along with the sale from a very classy raffle also run that evening, will go to Hannah House. The raffle was sponsored by area businesses that included, among others, The Chocolate Shop at Hanover Park, Simon Pearce Glass, and Systems Plus Computers. The centerpiece of the raffle was a 21st Adirondack Chair, billed as "The Ultimate Hannah's Chair" because it was very finely painted by an artist who happened to be a teenager named Hannah: "Stella Azul" was the aesthetically sophisticated creation of Hannah Elizabeth Morgan-Theriault.

Net (after expenses) proceeds for the evening are expected to top $12,000! These lovely chairs are worth a reprise. Click here to see a photo gallery of all of them!

July Update: As it turns out, the net (after-expense) proceeds from the auction topped $14,500 - twice as much as Hannah House has ever raised from any other single fund-raising event!