September 11th, 2024, Country House Splendor

Nye & Company Auctioneers will hold a three-day Country House Splendor auction on Sunday to Tuesday, September 11th-13th, starting at 10 am Eastern time all three days. The auction will include approximately 1,000 lots of fine and decorative arts from the 17th century up to modern day, headlined by items from the estate of Barbara Mallory Hathaway. Barbara M. (“Bunny") Hathaway was a World War II veteran and philanthropist known for her green thumb. She passed away in May 2023 at age 101. “Bunny" was born in 1921 and raised in Greenwich Connecticut and New York City. She was the daughter of Clifford Day Mallory, President and CEO of the Mallory Line, a family shipping concern that was established in 1816. Highlights include a Regency inlaid desk-and-bookcase that seems to reach for the sky and is finely proportioned. The “smalls" are abundant and rich in design and flare. At war's end she married Captain E. Phillips Hathaway, a decorated Marine aviator who had received three air medals including the Distinguished Flying Cross. They moved to the Greenspring Valley outside of Baltimore, Maryland, where they built a French inspired house. Bunny “a passionate amateur gardener" proceeded to design and layout extensive gardens. The auction will also feature property from another private collection, primarily early American furniture from the mid-18th through the early 19th century. There is also an equally rare Federal carved cherrywood armchair from Mitchelsburg, Kentucky. The collection also includes an early Queen Anne pair of ballon seat side chairs made in Philadelphia, 1750-1770, with a history of descending in the Mendenhall family. There is also a terrific Lemuel Curtis girandole clock. Another excellent complement to the furnishings category is the splendid collection of silver, brass and Paktong candlesticks dating from the second-half of the 18th century.