On a Saturday in Saint John it’s no surprise to find auction-lovers browsing through the wares up for grabs to the highest bidder.
Auctions are popular events in this city but Saturday’s event was atypical. It’s not every day that some of the items up for bid come from an estate of a former premier of New Brunswick.
That man is New Brunswick’s 19th premier, Saint John born John Baxter who led the province from 1925 until 1931. The items were up for auction following the death of his daughter Eleanor McGinley.
“As we were dealing with this estate it was very evident to see the quality and consistency and the age of the product and how it would have tied in to Premier Baxter and the original family,” said Jared Steeves of Moncton-based Key Auctions.
Steeves estimates some 200 items from the Baxter familywere at the auction. The grandest perhaps being a 12-foot long, four-foot wide, mahogany table.
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Steeves said, “You can take yourself back. The times and memories around that table if that table could talk and with the history it would bring.”
It was standing room only and some auction-goers felt the Baxter name played a part.
“Certainly with Baxter being from around here, a New Brunswicker“, long-time auction fan Pat Palmer said . “Obviously yes there would be some interest like that”.
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“Easily there would be two or three times the crowd that was here for the last auction that wasn’t(featuring) a public figure”, auction-goer Catherine Becker said. And Becker was on the hunt for some auction goodies alongside her mother. “She was looking at some dining room furniture and I‘m looking at some living room furniture.”
Apparently now is the time to take advantage of auctions, especially young people looking to furnish their homes.
“You can pick up things for a pittance of what they should be paying,” Palmer said.
And people picked up a piece of New Brunswick history as well.
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