Richard Withington, at 90; legendary New England country auctioneer

When the executors of the estate of actor Claude Rains made plans to sell the furnishings of his home in Sandwich, N.H., in the late 1960s, they knew just the auctioneer to hire: Richard Withington, legendary dean of New England country auctioneers.

Mr. Withington, a Boston native, had a following that included movie star James Cagney, the singing McGuire sisters, and other celebrities.

Much of his clientele was in the Social Register, said Dan Hingston, manager and treasurer for 39 years of Richard W. Withington Inc.

"Dick was considered the best caller in the antiques business," said Hingston of Hillsborough, N.H. "He had a great personality, was easy to do business with, and had a great ability to cajole people into parting with their money."

Mr. Withington, who conducted nearly 2,300 auctions over his more than 60 years in the business, died April 29 at The Birches, an assisted-living facility in Concord, N.H., after a long battle with cancer. He was 90.

His son Robert, of York, Maine, said Mr. Withington was diagnosed in 1992 and had surgery about a year ago.

Nonetheless, he said, he conducted auctions last summer and in October. In February, after doctors gave him "three or four months, he traveled to Peru and climbed Machu Pichu," his son said.

In a 1986 article on Mr. Withington, Time magazine said Mr. Withington delighted in serving as ringmaster of the classiest and priciest midsummer auction in a state where every third cowshed sells antiques.

The Rains estate was only one among many elite clients, colleagues said.

In 1959, he had the option of the famous Mason family estate in Keene, N.H., which included a much sought after Massachusetts block-front chest-on-chest.

Wallace L. Mason was president of Keene National Bank.

Hingston said the three-day Mason sale grossed about $150,000, which today would equate to about $2 million.

"That was the turning point for Dick, from selling ordinary furnishings to specializing in antiques," he said. "He began to be recognized as someone who could sell important antiques."

With his creative flair, Mr. Withington decided to convert a huge barn in Hillsborough Center into an auction gallery where he held auctions from July through October.

He would also go to a client's house, set up a tent, and auction items from the house at the front door, a method Hingston described as "a country auction."

In the 1970s, he said, Mr. Withington conducted 104 auctions one year.

The auctions were just as much theater as they were business, friends said.

With his well-known sense of humor, he used so many one-line quips that he became known as "the Bob Hope of auctioneers."

In an obituary, the Maine Antique Digest recalled that Mr. Withington often told audiences: "The more you pay, the more you love it."

He also stood out sartorially, Hingston said, dressing more formally than other auctioneers, bringing an air of respectability, dignity, and gravitas to professional country auctioning.

"Dick was of the old school," he said. "He always wore a suit, a white shirt, and a tie, even when he was working in the garden. After he turned 80, he changed to a white shirt, white shorts, and a blue blazer."

Said another son, Richard Jr. of Antrim, N.H.: "He wanted to give people the confidence in trusting them with their belongings and estates."

Hingston said Mr. Withington was one of the first country auctioneers to make it a full-time profession. "Before him, you had to have two jobs" to live, Hingston said.

Mr. Withington was known as the "nation's leading doll auctioneer," the Globe said in 1979 when he presided at three doll auctions. One of the sales, which grossed "more than $325,000, set a record," the report said. "It was the largest doll auction, dollar-wise, in the United States, if not the world."

He and his family moved permanently from Boston to Hillsborough after he graduated from Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, N.H., in 1937.

Mr. Withington was a community booster in Hillsborough.

He also served two terms in the New Hampshire Legislature.

"Dad wanted to give back to the town of Hillsborough," said Robert. "When the town was facing the loss of its bank, he got a group of businessmen together, and they started another. When the town needed to lure a doctor, he financed and built a state-of-the-art medical center."

Mr. Withington was born and raised in West Roxbury and, even at 10, helped his mother in her antiques shop. There were longtime family roots in Hillsborough, and as a teenager he worked at auctions during summer visits there.

A bad back kept him from combat during World War II, his family said, and he taught English to troops in Puerto Rico and Trinidad.

He married Mary (McClure) in 1942, and they settled in New Hampshire. Mrs. Withington had died in 1980.

Mr. Withington started an auctioneering business in 1946. He conducted his first auction in 1947, Hingston said, holding them in grange halls and city halls and in the big tent he set up near his home in Hillsborough Center.

In one of his more memorable auctions in the 1960s, Hingston said, Mr. Withington presided over one of the largest estate sales in New England, that of Katherine Palmer, a founder of the New Hampshire Historical Society, in Hopkinton, N.H.

"It lasted 12 days," Hingston said. "Dick sold it for three days, took two weeks off, and then did the same thing twice more."

In addition to his two sons, Mr. Withington leaves his wife, Joan (Oak); two daughters, Nancy Bell of Rogersville, Tenn., and Janet of Hillsborough; and 10 grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. June 5 in Smith Memorial Congregational Church in Hillsborough.

A reception will follow under the tent where Mr. Withington held his auctions.