Staff

Colin Stair

Mr. Stair, President and Founder of Stair Galleries, spent 15 years with Sotheby's learning the fine points of antique furniture. As Managing Director of Sotheby's Restoration, he oversaw the maintenance and repair of some of the finest furniture collections in the world, including the notable collections of Gordon Getty, Lily Safra and the late Bradley Martin. He was a vice president of the corporation before starting Stair Galleries & Restoration, Inc. in June 2001. He is the fourth generation of the Stair family to specialize in antique furniture and the head auctioneer at Stair Galleries.

Beth Mullins

Ms. Mullins worked for Sotheby's Restoration as accounts and personnel manager from 1993 to 2001. She is our accountant/bookkeeper and is responsible for all of our internal financial matters as well as the financial aspects of our many events.

Rupert Fennell

Mr. Fennell is an independent antiques appraiser & consultant and a member of the Appraisers Association of America. He conducts appraisals for fair market and insurance purposes for individual clients, trusts and estate representatives and for public and private institutions. He has successfully completed the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP), the congressionally recognized set of appraisal standards promulgated by The Appraisal Foundation, and is fully qualified to render an appraisal.

In September of 1998 he retired from Sotheby's in New York City, where he most recently was Vice President and Senior Decorative Arts appraiser. He remains as a consultant. In his 29 years with Sotheby's he spent a year in its London office in the English furniture department and 12 years in the Los Angeles branch where he headed up the West Coast division of Sotheby's Appraisal Company. Prior to joining the auction house he did graduate work in Fine Arts at Syracuse University with a fellowship for study at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and the Superintendency of Fine Art in Tuscany.

Mr. Fennell's primary focus is American, English and Continental decorative arts, including furniture, porcelain, glass and textiles, from the late 17th century through the early 20th century. He is also well versed in Asian works of art, collectibles and 20th-century art. Most recently he has been consulting with Stair Galleries auctions. At Stair he catalogues the decorative arts and wields his gavel as auctioneer. In addition to his appraisal work, Mr. Fennell is a popular lecturer on a broad range of decorative arts topics.

Rebecca Hoffmann

Ms. Hoffmann began her auction career in the 1970s as a sales assistant at Skinner, Inc., where she learned basic appraisal and auction skills. She later went to work with James Bakker in 1985. They developed a highly successful fine arts auction business in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The first year they held two auctions, and six years later she increased the business to twelve auctions per year.

She has been an independent dealer and auctioneer since 1991 and has conducted many auctions for numerous charities and commercial enterprises, including ACT-UP, the Monserrat College of Art and the American Art Pottery Association.

She began her career at Stair Galleries in 2001 and is the Head of the Fine Arts Department and a principal auctioneer. She has sold property for the following clients and institutions: the Estate of Frederick W. Hughes; Cindy Sherman; Estate of J.P. Morgan II; Mrs. Milton Petrie, Southampton, NY; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, D.C.; Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Getty; the Brooklyn Museum; and the Estate of Cynthia Phipps, Old Westbury, NY.

Muffie Cunningham

Ms. Cunningham trained with Christie's in London in the mid-1980s under the tutelage of Pietro Raffo. She then spent the next 18 years with Sotheby's New York as a Vice President and Department Head of Continental Furniture, leaving in early 2003 to a private dealership in Salisbury, CT.

She was responsible for bringing in the following collections: Alberto Pinto, Paris; Villa Fiorentina, Cap Ferat, decorated by Billy Baldwin for the Harding Lawrences; The Collection of Colasanti-Moore, Rome; The Arne Schlesch Scandinavian Collection, NY; and worked collaboratively on the following estates and collections: The Duke and Duchess of Windsor; Jacqueline K. Onassis; Andy Warhol; Ambassador Pamela Harriman; Greta Garbo; Mrs. Antenor Patino; Chateau du Groussay, France; The Estate of Mrs. John Hay Whitney; The Estate of Gianni Versace, Miami & Milan and The Estate of Sister Parrish, NY. She lectures widely on European furniture and has been a specialist on the Antiques Roadshow. She most recently worked in the retail field in Manhattan with the renowned Doris Leslie Blau and the dynamic Amy Perlin.