A couple months ago, I was about to leave an exhibit of Massachusetts furniture at Winterthur Museum when I came across a copy of a 1955 article from the Boston Herald. It was hanging on a wall, just inside the door, near the exit from the exhibit. The article told of an auction of furnishings at the home of John and Priscilla Alden in Duxbury, MA.
“Auctioneer’s Hammer Strips Home of John and Priscilla Alden,” the headline said.
There was also a black and white photo of men and women bidding on items set up on a lawn outside a house on Cape Cod, dated 1922. The photo struck me because it felt familiar, not because I recognized anyone in it, but because I recognized the atmosphere and setting. In this day, that was me outside some estate sale bidding on someone else’s stuff.
The more recent auction was more than 50 years ago, at the estate of a couple I had never heard of. Intrigued, I copied down the details and dug up information about the Aldens.
The article was part of an exhibit called “Harbor and Home: Furniture of Southeastern Massachusetts, 1710-1850,” that ran from March to May at Winterthur (and just closed in Nantucket). If you live nearby or are visiting the Philadelphia area, you should drop by Winterthur in Wilmington, DE.
The former country estate of Henry Francis du Pont, Winterthur is known for its premier collections of American decorative arts and furniture, and its magnificent gardens (check out the peonies in the spring). The Home and Harbor exhibit featured 85 pieces of antique clocks, chests, chairs and other items.
None of it apparently came from the Aldens’ home. The newspaper article noted that most of the furnishings from the house in Duxbury were auctioned off in 1955. “Scattered were furnishings that thousands of summer visitors had admired in the home that John built in 1653,” according to the article. Who knows if these were the original furnishings.
The article went on to say: “350 bidders carried off items that had been used by John and Priscilla whom Longfellow immortalized. Most items were brought to the home by later Aldens.”
John Alden and Priscilla Mullens arrived here on the Mayflower. John was a founder of Plymouth Colony and a signer of the Mayflower Compact, which governed the new colony. He won the hand of Priscilla over Capt. Miles Standish. Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – a descendant of the Aldens – wrote “The Courtship of Miles Standish” in 1858 about the early days of the Plymouth Colony, including a rivalry between Alden and Standish over Priscilla. There appears to be no record, however, of such a triangle, according to my Google research.
The Aldens built their first house in 1628, and sometime after 1672, the current house was built. One of their descendants restored the house, furnished it with antiques and turned it into a museum in1919. After his death, his son continued the site as a museum until it was taken over by the Alden Kindred of America, founded in 1906 to preserve the legacy of the Aldens.
The family offered to sell all the furnishings to the Kindred, which said it could not afford them. Thus, the 1955 auction. The Kindred bought new furnishings (and acquired some from Alden descendants) dating to around 1810.
The 1955 newspaper article mentioned three items that were auctioned off:
Mortar and pestle used by Priscilla. Bidding for it was the most spirited, the article said. $165.
Governor Carver chair. The type of Early American chair has been attributed to John Carver, the first governor of Plymouth Meeting, who is said to have brought one with him aboard the Mayflower. $400.
Queen Anne period highboy. $400.
This year, the Alden House in Duxbury became a National Historic Landmark site.
