Northshore Magazine

Steakhouse last winter. Items the auc- tioneer thought would bring in $200 sold for $1,000 in many instances. Bidders couldn't get enough of the western- themed décor, carved wood-cigar store Indians, decorative signs, plates, and even menus. "People didn't care about the price," McInnis says. "They just wanted [memorabilia] in their house." mcinnisauctions.com from the road for the overgrown trees and bushes, and with its roof falling in, it has proven to be a treasure trove of early artifacts from all over the world. "The condition was tough," says Daniel Meader, gallery director, who assessed the property. "The roof was leaky, rodents had moved in and the wallpaper was coming off the walls. But I kept going and all of a sudden started finding early documents. It was then I realized it was not your average house." Among the items recovered: a pair of 18 th -century shoes, remarkably intact with original buckles, more than 100 oil paintings, and a few real treasures. One is a daguerreotype, or early photograph on a silver or silver-coated copper plate, of gold miners; the other is a board displaying au- tographs, painstakingly cut from a variety of letters and receipts, representing al- most everyone who signed the Declaration of Independence. While John Hancock's signature takes center stage, the small signature of Button Gwinnett caught the appraiser's eyes. As the second signer of the document, and someone who died at a relatively young age, it's believed only 51 of his autographs exist, and could fetch a hefty sum. In 1993, one sold for $150,000, double the pre-auction estimate, accord- ing to Bloomberg News. McInnis prides himself in putting cus- tomers first—and in maintaining a small family-operated business. His daughter handles photography, while one son is involved with online bidding and another son launched his own specialty moving business—an outgrowth of the moving work he does for his dad. That personal touch has rewarded McInnis. In fact, a sale that brought a lot of attention recently came from just such a connection. A Massachusetts native who frequented McInnis auctions decades ago had a painting appraised for between $10,000 and $20,000 on Antiques Road Show, the popular PBS series. Auctioneers came out of the woodwork with offers to sell the piece the man had purchased in a Florida thrift store. "People tried to get hold of him, but he said there's only one 50nshoremag.com April 2014 Auction ne ne In House: Top, Daniel Meader of McInnis Auctions evaluates a piece. Above, auction items span periods and styles. place this is going," McInnis recalls. He made the right choice—the auction house sold the painting for $218,500. "An appraisal is just one person's opinion," McInnis says, noting that even he was surprised by the final price tag on that piece. "At a live auction, it's all in the heat of the moment." That was certainly the case at the auction McInnis handled for Hilltop KJ Apr14 Mcinnis.indd 50 2/21/14 12:19 PM

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