The Studebaker Collection of Quaker Hill
For over half a century, Richard and Sue Studebaker have stood as pillars of the Ohio antiques community. Thousands of collectors, scholars, and students have been welcomed to Quaker Hill, the couple’s eighteenth century home in Dayton, to enjoy the Studebaker’s hospitality and their passion for Americana.
Richard and Sue purchased their first antique on their honeymoon in New England in 1952, and within a few years, the couple purchased their “biggest antique”: Quaker Hill. Over the next five decades, they amassed a collection of eighteenth and nineteenth century furniture, art and accessories, which along with the home itself, has been profiled in numerous publications, including House Beautiful, Early American Life, The Magazine Antiques, and Time-Life’s American County series. Most recently, Sue shared their collection at the 43rd Annual Antiques Forum at Colonial Williamsburg.
While Richard enjoyed a successful career as an optometrist, Sue undertook the study of American antiques with enthusiasm, eventually proudly bearing the mantle “expert”, lining taught courses at several museums and universities. She expanded her knowledge through fellowships at the Winterthur Museum and the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, and she attended the prestigious Attingham Program in England.
Most of Sue’s efforts focused on schoolgirl needlework, particularly the samplers of early Ohio. She published articles in The Antique Review and Early American Life, as well as two books, the second of which, Ohio is My Dwelling Place, was accompanied by a landmark exhibition at the Decorative Arts Center of Ohio in Lancaster, which earned her that year’s Ohioana Citation Award for Historic Preservation of the Decorative Arts.
Among the earliest surviving homes in Ohio, the Studebaker’s beloved Quaker Hill was built in 1797 by Judge John Ewing. Upon settling in the Miami Valley, he originally built a simple frame house and expanded it about twenty years later. His son, John Jr. took over the house in 1828 and expanded it once again. After his death in 1883, the house left the Ewing family. It survived some difficult years in the early twentieth century, but was restored by Mr. and Mrs. John Weston in the 1940s, who sold Quaker Hill to the Studebakers in 1958.
During their fifty-year residency, Richard and Sue filled their home not only with antiques, but with family and friends. At Quaker Hill, they raised their sons, Park and Dana; they hosted countless parties; and they helped to conduct many educational events, including the annual summer picnic of the Dayton Antiques Study Club (of which they were long-time members).
Sadly, Sue passed away suddenly in 2008. Richard and his sons have decided that it is time to disperse the family’s collection. Garth’s is honored to have been chosen to represent their collection at auction, and we are pleased to offer you the following 350 lots of antiques, art, and books from Quaker Hill.
-courtesy of Garth’s Auctions