Devon Gray to take Responsibility for Books and Manuscripts at Skinners
- By Bruce McKinney
Devon Gray
Devon Gray has been appointed Director and Department Head of Fine Books and Manuscripts at Skinner’s in Boston. She replaces Stuart Whitehurst who has retired. The firm, founded by Robert Skinner almost fifty years ago, conducts over sixty auctions a year across a variety of disciplines. Books, maps, manuscripts and ephemera are the focus of a single sale each November and are also included in monthly discovery sales. In years past the firm held two annual specialist sales in the category and it is Ms. Gray’s aim to do so and more in the future.
The timing is good for the firm to be refocusing on the works on paper category, as there has been a pronounced shift from listing sites where material has been slow to sell to the rooms where on an average week 70% changes hands at each event. For Skinners it’s an opportunity.
The firm specializes in estate sales of all types that often include important and collectible materials to be set aside for the specialist sale each November, a sale timed to coincide with the ABAA’s Boston Book Fair. In recent year important items have been sold and achieved significant prices.
In 2010 a previously undiscovered broadside copy of the Declaration of Independence was sold on November 14th for $693,500. In 2004 a rare John Wilkes Booth letter brought $79,900.
Ms. Gray joins Skinner after more than two decades as co-owner and co-founder of James and Devon Gray Booksellers in Harvard Square. Her expertise is in early books. She has also been a bookbinder and is the owner of the Larksfoot Bindery in Princeton, Massachusetts. She is married to James Gray of Cambridge, is the granddaughter of Roy Featherstone of Milton, New York and continues his interest in books and their history.
In taking responsibility for books at Skinner’s she joins a storied line of auctioneers and auction houses in New England that have held high their wares in pursuit of fair bids. Her piece of it is the identification and description of the saleable.
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Devon Gray to take Responsibility for Books and Manuscripts at Skinners
- By Bruce McKinney
Something to look forward to in the November Sale: The Mask, vols 1-4. Est. $800 - $1,200
New England was once on par with New York and Philadelphia in offering printed material at auction. As evidence, here is a list, drawn from “American Book Auction Catalogues – 1713-1934” by George McKay, of auction houses that have listed Boston as their home. It’s a long list.
Benjamin Adams, Frances Amory, T. M. Baker, Baker & Alexander, A Bowman, John Boydell, Samuel Bradford, Thaxter & Brodhead, Brown Brothers, Buckley & Bancroft, Alexander Carlile, Benjamin Church, Clark & Hatch, Cooley & Drake, Blake and Cunningham, Moses Deshon, Door & Allen, Edward L. Draper, Elias Dupee, Rowland Dyke, Joshua Eaton, Edwards and Foster, Benjamin Eliot, William Eustis, William Fallass, Thomas Fleet, Samuel Gerrish, John Gerrish, Daniel Goffe, Harrison Gray, William Greenleaf, Daniel Henchman, Hinkley & Kneeland, Thomas K. Jones, John Jutau, Henry Knox, Howe, Leonard & Co., Joseph Leonard, Leonard & Cunningham, Leonard & Peirce, Leonard & Co, Leonard & Bird, Joseph Lewis, Charles F. Libbie, C. F. Libbie, William K. MacKay Co., John Mein, Moffatt, Boston, William Nichols and Company, Andrew Oliver, W. C. Otis, Parkman & Hinkley, Peirce & Putnam, Charles H. Peirce & Co., Benjamin Perkins, Plympton & Marett, Proctor & Lowell, Edward Proctor, Joseph Russell, Russell & Clap, Robert G. Shaw, R. G. Shaw & Co., Frink Stratton, Ambrose Vincent, Whitwell & Bond, Whitwell, Bond & Co., Whitwell & Seaver, Savage & Winter, William Winter, and Yancey, Cudworth and Com’y.
Today’s list is very short.
In fact Boston has always been a book town and earned its storied reputation for what has passed through its auction rooms. In recent years the flow has drifted to New York and elsewhere. Ms. Gray intends to bend back the course and in so doing restore the sheen to Boston’s book auction history. In this endeavor we wish her the very best. The material is there.
The firm has two locations:
Skinner, Inc.
63 Park Plaza
Boston, MA 02116
Phone: 617-350-5400
Fax: 617-350-5429
Skinner, Inc.
274 Cedar Hill Street
Marlborough, MA 01752
Phone: 508-970-3000
Fax: 508-970-3100
The book department and Ms. Gray may be reached by email at dgray@skinnerinc.com or contacted by phone at 508-970-3000.
Click here for a detailed press release from Skinner announcing Ms. Gray’s appointment: www.skinnerinc.com/press/2012/devon-gray-appointed-director-fine-books-and-manuscripts-skinner.php
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