Fairfield Auction's Coming to 707 on Main

Jack DeStories flipped through prints in the sun room of a Greenwich estate on Monday, none worth any more than $50, when he came upon a pencil-signed lithograph by Henri Matisse. The appraiser estimates its value at north of $7,500.

"It's the kind of thing we'd probably find once every 10 years," DeStories said of the discovery. "That's when you get a charge, when you find something like that."

Jack and his wife, Rosie, have owned Fairfield Auction, LLC, for over a decade, identifying antique furniture, classic cars, paintings and other desirable items to put up for bid for their clients.

The Newtown couple has operated out of a brick warehouse-like building at 53 Church Hill Road in their town for a decade, but they'll be moving their business to Monroe later this month.

Soon after the restaurant, 707 on Main, closed, the DeStories learned it was on the market. The couple currently leases and has been wanting to own their own building for quite some time. They closed on the Monroe property just before Christmas and hope to move in later this month.

It was 3 0'clock on Tuesday, when Jack DeStories walked through the door at Fairfield Auction. He had just returned from the former restaurant.

"They're framing out our offices today," he said of the contractors. "It's moving along."

A Steinway piano from 1910 was to the right of the entrance of the Newtown headquarters, along with a Chippendale bedroom set and a collection of chairs.

"This is sold," DeStories said.

Merchandise from an estate auction held Jan. 23 must be picked up or shipped and empty boxes were waiting to be packed with items to be trucked into Monroe.

"We have 18th and 19th century furniture and some paintings ready to go there next week," DeStories said.

Family roots

Rosie DeStories has been in the auction business, literally from birth. Her parents found and sold antiques in California.

"We helped her parents after college for 10 years before we came out here," Jack DeStories recalled. "It was in central California, near Santa Cruz. We were in a town called Felton with about 6,000 people."

No matter where an auction is actually held, DeStories said can attracts customers from all over the world.

Aside from the crowds that flock to Fairfield Auction, DeStories said others place bids over the phone and via the Internet.

"That mirror is going to Tennessee," he said of a gold-framed Regency Convey, early 19th Century mirror that hung on one wall.

"We had art portfolio books worth a couple thousand dollars going to a gentleman in Italy," he added.

While antiques may be sold anywhere, when it comes to a dealer's location, DeStories believes New England is the place to be.

"Most of the antiques in the U.S. are right here," he said. "If you want to make it in the antiques business, you have to go where the antiques are."

To illustrate his point, DeStories said California has about six large auction houses as compared to about 30 in New England. That's what influenced he and his wife Rosie's decision to start their own business in Connecticut.

A central hub

The Newtown building has served Fairfield Auction well over the years, but Jack DeStories looks forward to its new digs. The 707 Main Street location should have better heating and air conditioning to make customers more comfortable, he said.

"The new place is considerably nicer than this," DeStories said.

Many of those who participate in Fairfield Action's events live within a two-hour radius of the Church Hill Road location. DeStories said the Main Street building will be closer to towns such as Westport, Weston and Easton.

Main Street in Monroe is close to routes 59, 110, the Merrit Parkway and Interstate-95, which DeStories believes will make it easier to get to for people living on the Gold Coast.

But one does not have to be wealthy to participate in an auction, according to DeStories.

For instance, a leather-top partners desk in his showroom sold for $300 and the Steinway piano for $7,500. Though the piano needs some restoration, DeStories said a new model would cost around $45,000.

An older Steinway, even in perfect condition, will typically sell for one-third the price of a new one, DeStories explained.

The DeStories will bring an auction house to Monroe, which has built a respectable reputation for having been around for such as short period of time.

"We're considered spring chickens in this business, and we're in our mid-forties," DeStories said. "Usually people are in their sixties before they're considered really successful."

Fairfield Auction's most notable achievement is that it holds the world record for selling a Native American object. In 2008, it sold a Tlingit Helmet for $2,185,000.

Jack DeStories is proud of that record, but moments like the one he experienced coming across the lithograph in Greenwich on Monday are what he loves most in his line of work.

"There's a sense of discovery," he said with a smile. "Every time you go into an estate, there's something you haven't seen before. It's really a treasure hunt. It's for someone else, but it's still exciting."