Thomaston Place Auction Galleries

Thomaston Place Auction Galleries
Name	Thomaston Place Auction Galleries
Established	1979
Founder	Richard Cote
Location	Thomaston, Maine, United States
Type	Auction house

Thomaston Place Auction Galleries

Thomaston Place Auction Galleries is a regional auction house established in 1979 in Thomaston, Maine, known for American antiques, folk art, maritime art, and estate sales. It conducts seasonal catalogs, live auctions, and online bidding, and has built reputations among collectors, museums, dealers, and historic houses. The firm connects consignors and buyers through specialized catalogs, condition reports, and appraisal services.

History

Founded in 1979 by Richard Cote, the gallery developed during the late 20th century alongside shifts in the antiques market involving institutions like the Smithsonian Institution, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and private collectors associated with Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Early sales included material comparable to holdings in the Peabody Essex Museum, Maine Historical Society, and collections formed by families connected to the Old Man of the Mountain region. Through the 1980s and 1990s the house navigated trends that involved dealers and scholars from the Winterthur Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the American Folk Art Museum. During the 2000s the firm expanded online bidding in parallel with platforms pioneered by Sotheby's, Christie's, and regional counterparts such as Skinner Auctioneers and Bonhams. Auction catalogs have cited provenance linked to collectors whose estates intersected with institutions like The Frick Collection, The Getty Museum, and the New-York Historical Society.

Location and Facilities

Located in Thomaston, Maine, the galleries occupy a converted historic building proximate to sites like Rockland Harbor Lighthouse, Wadsworth Cove, and the Maine State House corridor of cultural activity that includes the Farnsworth Art Museum and the Penobscot Marine Museum. Facilities include exhibition rooms, packing and shipping bays serving clients from the Port of Portland, Maine to the Boston Logan International Airport, and secure storage used by private collectors, regional museums, and institutions such as the Colby College Museum of Art and the University of Maine Museum of Art. The property’s proximity to transportation arteries facilitates loans to exhibitions at venues including the Newport Mansions, the Woolworth Building provenance studies, and touring displays associated with the Library of Congress and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Services and Specializations

Thomaston Place specializes in American decorative arts, folk art, maritime paintings, ship models, and estate dispersals often compared with collections handled by Antiques Roadshow appraisers, curators from the Baltimore Museum of Art, and conservators affiliated with the Metropolitan Museum Conservation Center. Services include appraisals for insurance companies, estate attorneys, and auction consignors linked to legal practices in Maine District Court jurisdictions and probate matters involving firms that have worked with the American Society of Appraisers. The gallery provides condition reporting and provenance research used by researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and collaborates with specialists who have published in journals associated with the Winterthur Portfolio and the Journal of the American Institute for Conservation.

Notable Auctions and Sales

The house has conducted sales featuring works once in private holdings with provenance related to collectors aligned with the Rockefeller family, the Du Pont family, and maritime patrons patronized by institutions like the Mystic Seaport Museum. Notable lots have drawn interest from curators representing the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Yale University Art Gallery, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Sales have included 19th-century ship portraits comparable to holdings at the Peabody Museum of Salem, early American furniture reminiscent of examples in the Winterthur Museum, and folk portraits that attracted attention from the American Folk Art Society and the Society of Architectural Historians. Occasionally, important consignments have been acquired by major auction houses such as Sotheby's and Christie's for resale, or by regional museums like the Farnsworth Art Museum for permanent collections.

Management and Staff

Management teams have included founders, auctioneers, cataloguers, conservators, and registrars who previously worked with institutions including the Boston Athenaeum, the Newport Restoration Foundation, and the Historic New England organization. Staff expertise spans appraisals accredited by the Appraisers Association of America, cataloging methods informed by curators at the American Antiquarian Society, and shipping logistics coordinated with carriers used by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for large-scale moves to metropolitan museums and private collections. Auctioneers and specialists affiliated with the gallery have lectured at conferences hosted by the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association and the Association of Independent Museums.

Community Involvement and Exhibitions

Thomaston Place contributes to regional cultural life through exhibitions, previews, and charity auctions benefiting organizations like the Maine Maritime Academy, the Coastal Communities Coalition, and local historical societies such as the Thomaston Historical Society. Exhibition loans and traveling displays have been coordinated with museums including the Farnsworth Art Museum, the Penobscot Marine Museum, and university collections at Colby College and the University of Maine. Public lectures and catalogue essays have featured scholars who publish in venues like the New England Quarterly and collaborate with academic programs at institutions such as the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Brown University.

Category:Auction houses in the United States Category:Museums and galleries in Maine