FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP, N.J. - The pre-auction buzz was all about the paintings, a collection of 164 oils and watercolors that came off the walls of a Central New Jersey Victorian-era home, but by the end of the night, it was an early 19th-century English dining room table that was the talk of the sale.

Bodnar’s Auctions Sept. 8 sale at the Ukrainian Cultural Center sale attracted over 1,200 bidders, many of them international buyers from Europe, Central America and Australia who were poised on the Internet to spend money on the collection of Modern Art and Impressionist paintings, as well as primitive American and English art that included portraitures and landscapes.

There were 25 phone bidders and more than 200 absentee bids, and well over 50,000 hits on the Internet!

The featured painting of the evening, pictured on the cover of the catalog, was an unsigned 38-by-31 inch mid-19th century American oil on canvas depicting 3 adolescents. It sold for $6,500.00

It wasn’t long, however, before that price was quadrupled by a determined collector from New York City who traveled from Manhattan specifically to bid on the 1820s Morel and Seddon English satinwood table with bronze mounted flower base.

Bidders on the floor dropped out when the price reached $9,000,00 but the collector and a Manhattan antiques dealer bidding by phone were locked in a pitched competition for the oval table, which came from the same estate as the paintings. The phone bidder dropped out when the price for the table reached $27,000.00

A 19th-century mahogany sideboard with brass inlay sold for $2,000,00 and a set of four Federal parlor chairs from the early 1800s sold for $4,500.00, a set of 6 19C. Beidemier arm chairs, with heart back, banded inlay, and scroll arms sold for $2400.00, and a one other surprise in the furniture was a French Style Child's Chair that measured 29" tall by 18" long by 16" wide in which the leather seat needed restoration, sold for $2000.00

The single-owner art collection, amassed over a 50-year period, featured quality Master and unsigned pieces including 18^th and 19^th century children portraits; ship paintings; folk art paintings; Hudson River school paintings; Native American portrait paintings and Northeast Americana painting, as well as a selection of quality 20^th century Modern works of art. All were sold with no reserve.

An impressionist painting depicting an outdoor scene, entitled "The Old Road Near Campo Calif, San Diego,’’ signed E.H. Pohl, dating from the 1920s, sold for $5,250.00, a 20th century oil on board impressionist painting of a man and woman, signed on the verso Joachim Probst 1958, sold for $4,250.00 to a New York City gallery; an English 19th century portraiture showing a young girl feeding two birds in a cage sold for $3,250.00, early 19th C. Oil on canvas relined on board portrait depicting a girl in green and black dress holding horn standing on a back porch sold for $2000.00, a 19th C. Oil on canvas depicting a Native American Indian girl crossing a stream sold for $1200.00, a 19th C. Oil on canvas depicting a horse drawn carriage with a black male driver, stopped in front of a Southern cottage with a foal and a dog in the foreground, signed lower right Thomas Worth sold for $1100.00, a Early 19th C. Folk art oil on canvas entitled "Home Sweet Home" depicting an 1830's New England scene, including horse drawn stage coach, man on tricycle, barnyard animals, family playing croquet, with 12 star American Flag sold for $2200.00, a 20th C. Oil on board Folk art winter barnyard scene in a Grandma Moses style, signed lower center A. Davies sold for $2900.00, a 19th C. American Watercolor Theorem Painting on Velvet depicting a basket of fruit sold for $1300.00, a 19C. unframed oil on canvas still life painting depicting grapes hanging over a basket of fruit including peaches, oranges, apples, etc. sold for an impressive $4000.00,

Other highlights included a 19th century Hudson River-style painting signed H. Weston on the front and verso, dated July, 1856. Also on the verso was the legend "Scene of the Potomac River from nature.’’ It sold for $1,700. An unsigned 19th-century folk art watercolor showing an angel alongside a woman kneeling sold for $2,600.00

Another auction highlight was a single-owner collection of 75 daguerreotypes and ambrotypes. Top prices included $1,400 for a daguerreotype with leather case showing a gentleman seated holding a cane; $1,600 for a daguerreotype showing a young girl holding a basket of flowers, and $950 for a set of six daguerreotypes showing two children, a father, mother and grandmother from the same family, signed Philadelphia.

Another surprise in the auction was 2 rugs taken from the estate. These rugs were in poor condition and had patterns never seen before by Bodnar’s Staff. "For someone who was not in the Antiques market, they would have probably thrown these rugs out" describing the wear and repairs to the rugs, one brought $2300.00 and the other $4500.00 to a New York City Dealer! Also a Carved wood statue depicting an oriental man with its fingers being repaired having many stress age marks measuring 26" tall brought $1300.00 despite its $50.00-$100.00 estimate!