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Friday, March 22nd
6:00PM

Preview:
March 20, Noon-7PM

BID ONLINE

This auction with no additions is from the Troy, N.Y. estate of Douglas Gregg Bucher (1947-2023 ). He lived across the street from the Hart Cluett Museum, in Troy, NY. It was his love for collecting since a child that filled his 3 story townhouse. He loved the Hart Cluett Museum, helped with displays, and served on the Board. Part of this sale was in the Museum, and the show was titled (BETWEEN THE WARS), featuring Deco era porcelains, pottery, ceramics, metal wares and artwork of the period. With select additions from his home,including artwork, furniture, decorative accessories, clocks and more.

Proceeds from the auction will benefit the Hart Cluett Museum in his honor.

Doug’s love of the Hart Cluett Museum (Rensselaer County Historical Society) began when, after serving in the Peace Corp, he was offered the apartment on the 2nd floor of the Hart Cluett House where he started pain analysis and the beginnings of drawings of the various rooms in the house. He was encouraged by then Director Breffny Walsh  to talk to Jack Waite  about working in historic preservation. Doug would work in that field for nearly fifty years, beginning in the New York Historic Trust before he went into private practice. For the past twenty eight years he was with John G Waite Associates, Architects. He served on the board of the Hart Cluett Museum, the Mary Warren Free Institute of Troy, and on Troy’s Historic District and Landmarks Review Commission. Doug’s expertise lives on in the physical restoration of the Hart Cluett House, the building that he loved and was one of the authors of the Marble House in Second Street; a historic structures report on the Hart Cluett House.

Douglas G. Bucher (1947-2023)

Doug was an “architectural detective.” Through physical investigation, paint analysis, and his ability to remember all that he read from his extensive library, Doug traced the history and evolution of buildings, as well as their finishes and furnishings. He then communicated his findings through carefully developed sketches and renderings, and through clearly written reports. With these skills, Doug was integral in the development of the historic structure report, a foundational document for the disciplined preservation and stewardship of a historic building. He also led the restoration of historic interiors, designing and sourcing furniture, carpets, wallpaper, and lighting fixtures.

His work encompassed every sort of historic building. A union organizer’s townhouse in Troy, New York; the Statue of Liberty; Gilded Age mansions; commercial buildings near the Alamo; an eighteenth-century Chinese house; Jefferson’s buildings at the University of Virginia; a replica of Harry S. Truman’s Oval Office; state capitals; a massive railroad station; a small vernacular home in Long Island: all received the same level of Doug’s focus, fascination, and enthusiasm.
Doug often spoke of visiting museums and bookstores as a child, traveling into Albany, Troy, and New York City to explore and to discover his love of art, books, and antiques that he would carry with him throughout his life. He read voraciously about history and architecture and built up his own personal library that filled his office and then spread through JGWA’s studios. That office, filled with an eclectic mixture of books, paint analysis equipment, architectural fragments, and antiques is a favorite lure for visitors to JGWA. He loved to share the stories of his collections.

Doug’s expertise will live on in the physical restoration of the buildings that he loved and in publications. In addition to JGWA’s historic structure reports, Doug helped write The Marble House in Second Street published by the Rensselaer County Historical Society; The Mount, Home of Edith Wharton published by Edith Wharton Restoration; Tweed Courthouse: A Model Restoration published by W. W. Norton & Company; and A Neat Plain Modern Stile: Philip Hooker and His Contemporaries, 1796-1836 published by Hamilton College.

He came to work every day through his illness, and it was only recently that we learned how difficult it was to work without him. We will miss his confidence, his expertise, his unique sense of fun, his insistence on decorating the office Christmas tree, his enjoyment of every sort of food, and his almost daily delivery of books or paintings or antiques.

 
View results from our previous auction...
 

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Friday, December 8th
3:00PM



 

This will be an eclectic auction from estates throughout the Hudson Valley to NYC, plus incredible furniture and more from an indoor storage facility. In storage for over 20 years....We will be adding more lots daily, this is the first wave of lots. Sale will include furniture, Mid Century furniture, Victorian, cast iron garden furniture, country, (3) Paul Evans pieces, incredible 19th c papier mache furniture, and more. Over 150 paintings including (6) by Emma Fordyce MacRae, and selection of 17th to 20th century paintings, including many by well known American & European Artists. Also lots of porcelains, glassware, lighting, (20) bronzes, (20) marble and onyx pedestals, sterling silver, estate jewelry, stoneware, clocks, oriental rugs, (2) Wooton desks, textiles, old toys, inuit sculpture, decorative accessories, boxlots, big cart and shelf lots of estate goods, incredible lot of early books from 16th to 20th century including many on gardening and related. Also (2) estate MG cars, and much more.

 
Any items left sixty (60) days beyond the sale date become the property of JMW Aucton Service, no exceptions.