"We got a call from a lady - she's an 81-year-old lady out in Holladay," said auctioneer Rob Olson, explaining how his company, Olson Auction Galleries, happened to be selling a consignment of items from the estate of the late LDS Church President Heber J. Grant.
The woman had the items, but she wasn't a relative of the church leader, said Olson, who spoke with the Deseret News in a cluttered back room of the auction gallery, 4303 S. Main. Saturday's session of the two-day auction was about to start.He said only a handful of the dozens of pieces of furniture, objects d'art or bric-a-brac in the show room were from President Heber J. Grant's estate. Three estates were being sold at the same time.
An auction of President Grant's possessions should include important and interesting objects. He became the seventh president of the church in 1918 and served until 1945, longer than anyone else except President Brigham Young. He was a great businessman, founding several successful industries.
So which items at the auction were from his estate?
Well, there was a complicated problem, Olson said. Not only did the woman not want to be identified, but she didn't want the particular items from President Grant's estate to be identified as such. At least, they couldn't be identified publicly before the auction.
However, he said, some things could be identified for a reporter because by the time the article appeared on Sunday, they would be sold.
"That big bed out there," he said, was from the estate. "There's a huge Victorian bed about 6 feet tall . . . That's a gorgeous bed, just a beautiful bed."
It was massive, of rich mahogany color, its headboard and footboard carved with intricate designs: a mountain shape, grooves, angled planes, scallops. Cylindrical protrusions decorated the headboard, and a higher slab rose above its center. The bed was covered with a quilt.
Also from the Grant estate, he said, were two large, leaded, cut-crystal vases, sparkling with dozens of sharp edges - truly hand-cut, not the less-valuable pressed glass that often shows up.
Purchasers wouldn't have documentation that the items came from President Grant's estate, he said. But couldn't the woman write a note certifying that this was their origin?
"I could possibly get a letter from it, if it came down to it," he said. "We're like a clearing department for a lot of the trusts in town."
About 85 customers waited in the warehouselike building. Some were registering, getting numbered bidding paddles. Others roamed through rows of antiques or munched free hot dogs. Music from the '50s filled the air.
Toward the entrance, a large sign on the wall warns of "no guarantees" and says that everything is sold as is.
Auctioneer Tom Olson, owner of the business, stood on stage and started off with a perfume bottle that retained a half-inch of amber liquid. "Sold it, $5," he said into his microphone.
A set of wash pitcher and bowl went for $40.
Brent and Kimberly Brown and their 2-year-old daughter, Rashelle, attended the auction because of the newspaper ad about the Grant estate. They are from Salt Lake City.
The ad never said everything came from that estate. It said, "Items from the Estate of Heber J. Grant . . . Plus Additions."
"As I was standing there registering, about everybody who walked in said, `I'm here for the Heber J. Grant items.' Then they're (auction house employees) saying the people from the estate couldn't disclose that information," Brown said.
He said he was told the Olsons might send a letter afterward to clients who purchased things from that estate, to inform them. He added he found out that at least three things were from the estate: two secretary desks and the bed.
"He (someone connected with the auction) didn't come right out and say it, but I got the indications. He didn't want to say it in plain terms, but he made it clear," Brown said.
Also, earlier he called Olson Auction Galleries and talked to someone, "and I guess they slipped up and told me about the bed . . . You never know, but it could be a scheme to make everything go higher."
Kimberly Brown said, "I think it's a gimmick to get higher prices for the other estates. This is their business and you've got to hand it to them, they know how to get the higher prices for their things."
In the disarray of the stage, Tom Olson was selling a child's toy that seemed to date from the 19th century, a wooden model of a hansom cab.
"Somebody open it up and how many dollars for it?" he chanted slowly as a helper held up the toy. "I got $80 bid now, do I hear $90?"
Standing in the rear, a competitor - a man who is an antiques dealer - looked disdainfully at the sale, his numbered paddle tucked in a shirt pocket.
"Is that (the Grant estate) where they're claiming the bed is from?" he asked. "Because I saw where the Heber Grant bed is - it's in Sausalito."
Yes, they said it's from his estate. Maybe he had more than one bed, we said. The dealer said he thought a Grant bed would be of higher quality.
After criticizing a sculpture being auctioned, he conceded that some objects probably came from President Grant's belongings.
What of the particular items we were told were from that estate?
The Deseret News stayed only long enough for one of the pair of antique vases to sell. It was an exquisite collector's item. But without the promotion that the older woman forbade, it went for only about $120.