Intriguing auction takes in $200,000 Benton couple keeps painting by Ike, diary

BENTON – A Benton couple that deals in antiques sold more than $200,000 of antiques over the weekend during an auction on their front lawn.

David and Becky Beane had expected sales to reach $130,000 to $150,000 at their auction, considered by dealers and antiques buffs to be one of the more intriguing auctions of the summer.

Since their last large auction seven years ago, the Beanes had collected several pieces of early American furniture, glassware, artwork, coins, duck decoys and other items. On Saturday and Sunday, they auctioned them off under a tent on the grounds of their River Road home.

The top item sold for $30,000, but David Beane held onto the 1773 diary of Revolutionary War Gen. Israel Putnam and an original oil painting by President Dwight Eisenhower when they didn’t fetch as high a price as he thought they would.

“I did $200,000 on my front lawn, and I still have a presidential painting and a Putnam diary, so I feel great,” Beane said.

The high bid of the weekend was $30,000 for a Boston Chippendale kneehole desk believed to be built in the 1740s. Nathan Tuttle, an antiques dealer from Pittston, made the winning bid.

“It’s a very rare form, and the desk was in great condition. They’re worth a lot of money,” said Tuttle, who also bought a 19th century bed for $11,100.

The other significant piece of furniture was a tiger maple secretary, for which a dealer in Connecticut paid $11,000.

Beane said he was surprised the bidding didn’t go higher than $6,500 for Putnam’s diary. Putnam was the Connecticut general who told his men at the Battle of Bunker Hill, “Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes.”

Beane said he would try to sell the diary to an educational institution, historical society or museum.

He pulled back the Eisenhower painting when bidding didn’t exceed $7,500.

“When I realized I wasn’t going to get a certain price higher than that, I decided the painting was staying right here,” he said.