When Skinner's Belknap double portrait roared into action, the floor dealers gave it all they had. Stonington, Connecticut, dealer Marguerite Riordan was the winner. She bought it for herself. It was just too good. I've owned great Belknaps before, but this one is a masterpiece, and I was not going to hang up the phone until it was mine.
Freshness does help, especially at auction.
That's why the collection of John and Muriel Whitlock did so well here. John Whitlock of Florence, Massachusetts, was a born picker, beginning at age 13 with his father in Brewster, Maine, and continuing until his death about a decade ago. He was a big, ruddy irascible Irishman and probably the best picker I ever knew. He sold out of his garage, and a lot of people bought from him. I think his zenith came in the sixties and early seventies.