Auction
ne
48 nshoremag.com April 2014 photographs by lauren poussard
ne
treasure
The
Whole
Lot
A small Amesbury-based auction
house deals in both off-beat
and big-time items for sale.
By Jeanne O'Brien Coffey
john mcinnis auctioneers is in a
state of barely controlled chaos. A beat-up
cow head from the now-defunct Hilltop
Steakhouse rests on a shelf, overlooking
wire racks filled with Hummel figurines
and tables arrayed with John F. Kennedy
memorabilia. Campaign hats, rare photos
signed by Jackie O., and piles of corre-
spondence from the former president and
his contemporaries—from McInnis's re-
cent "Legends Auction"—sit in neat stacks
in the Amesbury shop, awaiting shipment
to places as far as Oslo and Dublin.
"We're always in a state of transition,"
says John McInnis a bit apologetically. As
owner, professional estate appraiser, and
auctioneer of the largest full-service auc-
tion house on Boston's North Shore, his
office is far from impressive—a makeshift
workstation set up in the middle of the
shop, offering easy access for cataloging
items recently arrived from a dilapidated
house in Ipswich.
McInnis has been steadily building a
reputation as a top auction house. They
were the first New England auctioneers
to sell a painting for $1 million, and have
since handled two prestigious auctions of
JFK memorabilia. But it's the dirty, mys-
terious, and neglected items that really
get hearts racing at the small company.
Take the Ipswich property—barely visible
Intact Items
Clockwise from top left, A
pair of 18th-century shoes
John Hancock's signature; a
daguerreotype; an early 1800s
scrimshaw cribbage board.
KJ Apr14 Mcinnis.indd 48 2/21/14 12:19 PM
