Historical Treasure Returns to Windsor

It's not every day something owned by one of Windsor and the nation's most historically important sons comes up for auction, but such as the case recently at Sotheby's Auction House in New York, NY, and the Windsor Historical Society was ready.

Up for auction was a mahogony card table (circa 1792) owned by Windsor's Oliver Ellsworth, the third Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, one of Connecticut's first senators and a Windsor resident.

THe Historical Society won the table, returning it to its home, for just over $11,000.

Historical Society representatives said the table "was likely made around 1792 in Hartford County, when Judge Ellsworth constructed an addition on his Windsor home, 'Elmwood,' named after thirteen elm trees he planted to represent the thirteen original states."

When Ellsworth died in Windsor in 1807, his probate inventory included two mahogany tables (one of which currently sits at the Ellsworth Homestead Museum) valued at $22.

The Historical Society now plans to lend the table won at auction to the Homestead, allowing for a reunino of the historical pieces, which have been separated for more than 155 years.

The Society also received an anonymous donation of the manuscript inventory taken at the time of Ellswroth's death in 1807.