by Victoria Lewkow

If it was furniture you were after, you had your choice at Alexander's May 6 sale in Richmond, Virginia. It was all part of a special quality sale that owners Keith and Barbara Smith hold about every eighth Thursday night. On all other Thursdays (including Thanksgiving), the routine sales offer what local dealer Jimmy Cox says is "a nice variety of things." At this sale, though, said Cox, "there were a lot of exceptional pieces."

Alexander's is a fairly recent addition to the Richmond auction scene, having been started by the Smiths only five years ago. The seeds for Alexander's were actually sown some ten years before that, when Keith and Barbara were just a couple of 20-year-old kids who had purchased their first house. Like many young couples on a shoestring budget, they needed furniture but couldn't afford to buy it new from the store. The obvious answer was to buy used, but where? "Why not go to an auction?" a sage friend suggested. They did, and they were hooked.

At the time, Keith was working his way up in purchasing with a local food chain store. The young couple spent every spare evening and weekend traipsing from auction to auction until it became clear that purchasing furniture came second to the rush of experiencing the auction.

After ten years and a brief stint in the import business by Keith, the couple decided it was time to channel their passion for auctions into profit. Thus in 1994 began Alexander's, billed by the couple as "Richmond's premier antiques and auction gallery" and named after their son, Alexander.

Alexander's remains a family affair. Not only do Keith and Barbara spend every waking hour there, but they retain Keith's nephew, Jonathan, as a floor man and repair expert, and they have friendly staff members who act like family even though they're not blood relations.

The May 6 sale began like all other Alexander's auctions: Keith went through his pre-auction spiel, including a pitch about his delivery service that runs up and down the East Coast, and then he ran over to Barbara for his "good luck kiss." (He also sends her flowers on auction day each week.) The auction was then ready to roll, with traveling auctioneer Roy Martin doing the actual auctioneering and Keith describing each item in his familiar, rapid-fire style.

He started with some smalls but quickly cut to the chase and brought out the prized items that had packed the house. Each of the two items that generated the most presale interest had an interesting provenance, one associated with politics and the other with sex, not an unusual pairing nowadays.

The item with the political association was a late 18th-century figured maple slant-top desk that had belonged to Robert Harris, a prominent Rhode Island politician. According to the family history, Harris was a member of the Rhode Island general assembly, where he served on the Ways and Means Committee and was influential in enacting the first public school act, which passed in 1800 but was subsequently repealed. He served as town treasurer of Smithfield, Rhode Island, from 1792 to 1811. It was during this period that Harris had the desk made. His name is handwritten on the back panel of one of the drawers. Even the brasses were original on this desk, which came out of the estate of one of Harris's descendants in Richmond. The piece made the lower end of its estimate and sold, appropriately enough, to a Washington, D.C., dealer for $4950 (includes buyer's premium).

The second item with the interesting past was a 19th-century French vitrine that had been housed until the 1920's at Madame Marguerite's, a bordello in Charlottesville, Virginia, the same town that is known for Thomas Jefferson, Monticello, and the University of Virginia. This piece, probably like the Madame herself, appeared to have seen better days. But beneath the heavy film of tobacco soot that covered its surface was some wonderful gilding. Bidding jump-started at $2000 as Keith prompted his audience not to pass up "your chance in a lifetime to own this piece." Someone in the crowd felt the same way and took it home for $6875.

For more information, contact Alexander's at (804) 674-4206, or check the firm's Web site (www.alexandersantiques.com).