The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-04-15
SALE OF HALLERAN'S ANTIQUES
Remarkable Collection Made by a
Most Remarkable Collector.

New York, April 14.-At last they are
going OF sell "Hanerans Antiques" 1t
may be that the Samoans and Tagalos
and the up-country people in Porto Rico
do not who Halleran was or anything at
all about his antiques. But among the
folk nearer home Halleran and the quaint,
precious things that he picked up in out
Of the way places during a matter of
thirty-five or forty years have had a re-
nown all their own. Rich people far and
wide who have a fad for old things have
long known "Halleran's Antiques and
with the mystic brotherhood whose life
is a constant communing with old books,
old letters, old pictures, old ware, old
furniture and old armor, Halleran was an
institution and "Hallerans Antiques" a
household phrase.
It was not only the marvellous number
OF rich old things that Halleran gathered,
but the way in which he did it, and, in
fact the personal odity of HaIeran him
self that made his collection famous. He
was an antique himself, possibly from
long contact with antiques, and down to
the very day of his death continued to add
to hi sstore of old treasures.
When John D. Halleran was born in 1874
antiques" had by no means the vogue
they have Nowadays. There was nobody
in the town of Flushing, where he lived
to coach him into a fondness for queer old
things. He came by it naturally. One
time when he was driving out through
the historic country beyond Flushing some
body offered to sell him an old piece Of
furniture He bought it ''on spec" That
was the beginning of the Halleran collec-
ton. From that time on he grew famous.
He studied. History, domestic and for
eign, he had at his tongues end, and he
knew the fashions of every country and
every age.
AS fast as he bought he brought his
purchases home and stored them about
his old place in Flushing. He kept no
record of the curios in his possession. He
put them away in hodge-podge fahion
which was the woe of his customers, but
he never forgot what he had.
Bric-a-brac which could not be duplica-
ted for a small fortune was packed in the
hay loft Of his barns; fine ware in empty
stalls. He had no notion of order and no
care for it. His passion was to get things.
To that task he gave up his time and all
his thought for more than a quarter of
century.
The driving trips, in one Of which his
collection had had its beginning he kept
up as the best means of finding the old
things of which he knew Long Island htld
such store. All ever the island he was
known. Every ancient clock or jewel,
chair. manuscript or picture that was
To
never was an auction sale of old household
effects anywhere from Brooklyn Bridge
to Montauk that he did not attend And
great additions were made to his collec-
ton whenever one 81 the old family home
steads on Long Island was dismantled.
Fedgemans, Schuylers. Kissams, Hickses.
Wyckoffe. Van Dandts, Ten Broecks,
Winthrons. Lawrences are on the list of
the families whose treasures are numbered
in the collection of Halleran.
As an example Of the way curios came
to Haneran. it is told that when the Sne-
diker homestead, that stood on the site OF
Cypress Hills cemetery, was torn down,
the workmen discovered a secret closet. /
In it were an old scabbard. a pair of pistol
pockets and Ratchet Of ancient pattern.
\
were all over two hundred years old. He
bought them all.
There are articles Of furniture once
owntd by Henry Clay and others. gotten
by General Winfield Scott. There
IS a pair of sleeve buttons. presented to
Mr.. Clay by his friends, and worn by him
for many years. Among the furniture r a
colonial sofa Of San Domingo mahogany, /
from the home Of Clay. They were old in /
laid English spinets-several OF them. /
There are bronzes and ancient military
relics without number
II is a queer. priceless collection. But /
no piece Of It is quserer in its way than
Halleran was in his. He was a man Of /
moods and one Of his rules was never to I
talk business when he didn't feel Ike IL. +
Many a collector who had come a long way I
10 look among the treasures and had pIen- /
teous money with which 10 buy. had 70 go /.
home again disappointed. because he came I
on one Of Halieran's off days. Il lost him I.
many 4 sale. but it never lowered his /
status IS an authority. and his opinion was +