Artist Kit Farnsworth has been with the Hannah's Chairs event from the first year, and her chairs have been a perennial favorite with the bidding crowd. It's easy to see why! Kit's naturalistic scenes are always wonderfully and richly detailed, with the seat of the chair as interesting as the chairback, and even the rear view of the chair is spared no artistic energy. Kit's chair brought the highest bid this year, at $925.


Rear view of Kit Farnsworth's stunning chair, "The Connecticut River."

Preliminary estimates are that the Hannah's Chairs event for 2009 garnered $14,000 to $15,000 dollars in net profit for Hannah House and its Outreach program. Many thanks to our underwriters, whose absorption of the costs of putting on the Hannah's Chairs event contributes so hugely to its success as a Hannah House fundraiser.

In many respects, this was Hannah House's biggest Chairs event yet. The event had the most bidders and the highest number of underwriters ever. More than 70 area businesses donated items for the Silent Auction and Teacup Raffle, proceeds from which augmented what Hannah House was able to raise from its auction of "art on an Adirondack chair."

As usual with this gala event, there were some fabulous new wrinkles, particularly the donation by Hannah House Board member Barbara Callahan of several "designer birdhouses" by artist David Bruce. Purchased in Arizona, these made a big hit wth auction-goers, achieving bids that rivaled those on some of the chairs.

The event, ably presided over by auctioneer Chuck Eaton of Eaton Auction Service, was held at - and deliciously catered by - the Hanover Inn, located adjacent to the Dartmouth College campus. Music for the event was provided by the excellent harmonies of the acoustic band Loose Canons.

Click here to see photos of all the chairs; each "thumbnail" photo on that page is a link to a larger photo of its respective chair complete with title, artist, and description.