Antique and collectible bottles, housewares and containers will be up for auction on Saturday at White Buck Antiques in Winthrop.
By Laurelle Walsh
John and Carol Lester are wrapping up a summer of antiques sales at White Buck Museum and Antiques in Winthrop with a live auction to liquidate the remaining items starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday (Sept. 19).
Larry Campbell Auctioneers is handling the proceedings. Live phone bids will be accepted with pre-registration. Preview and registration starts on Friday from 1 – 5 p.m.; doors open Saturday at 8 a.m. Call (509) 750-7215 or email larrycampbell@pctelecom.us for more information.
Some of the antiques up for auction include working clocks from the early 1900s; early victrolas, phonographs and radios; hand tools; early appliances; farm implements; books and antique toys. The late Butch Gatewood’s collections of bottles, cans and antique canning jars will be sold, with choice bids taken first, according to Campbell.
Jewelry, clothing and toys remaining from Kjell Lester’s White Buck store will also be auctioned off.
The Lesters found new homes over the summer for perhaps three-quarters of the White Buck’s collectibles, according to Carol Lester, but now the family is preparing to rent out the 3,500-square-foot space, she said. “It would be a neat place for a couple retailers to share,” Lester said.
“It was wonderful to be in Winthrop all summer and stop and talk to people on the boardwalk,” Lester said. “Every day we had 10 to 15 people stop in and tell us they were disappointed they can no longer bring friends in to see the museum.”
Many antiques collectors also came in looking for specific items. “They would tell us exactly what we had,” Lester said. “But nobody under priced us. We met so many nice people.”
Lester said she is looking forward to being done with sales, although she got choked up describing how she feels about the end. “It’s so sad, but we just can’t keep everything. We have no place to store it all,” she said.
“I would love to just sit down and recuperate for a week,” Lester said. “My house has about three months worth of dust on it.”
