Our Story
Located in the resort town of Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Stuart Kingston was originally founded as an auction house by Maurice Stein. Operating for 9 decades Stuart Kingston continues to offer the highest quality jewelry, antiques, rugs and carpets, fine art and decorative objects as a family run business. We conduct estate auctions on a year round basis, specializing in American furniture and decorative arts, American and European painting and prints, fine ceramics, silver, fine jewelry, Asian works of art, clocks, oriental rugs and carpets and collectibles. Additionally Stuart Kingston offers appraising services for antiques and fine art
Our Team
Mauria Stein
President
1991 - Present
Pedro Powell
Auction Coordinator
2010 - Present
Kristin Hutton
Art Historian & Junior Appraiser
2011 - Present
Kristen began working with Stuart Kingston in 2011 as an intern while studying towards her Bachelor's in Printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design. Kristen achieved her Bachelor of Arts in 2017 and earned a Master’s Degree in Fine Art from SUNY Albany in 2019. Kristen fulfills appraisal services for fine art and antiques to bolster the estates of Stuart Kingston’s clients.
Will Waddell
Developer
2019 - Present
History
Maurice Stein
Founder
1930 - 1973
Maurice "Maury" Stein was born in Portland, Maine on April 5th, 1906 and passed away on a buying trip in London in 1973. He expanded upon his father's legacy, Joseph Stein, who was also a jeweler by trade. Maurice and his wife, Anita, discovered Rehoboth Beach in 1930 while driving towards New England from St. Petersburg, FL, where they had a small auction house. Maurice and Anita fell in love with Rehoboth Beach and moved all operations to the beach town after World War II and the birth of their second son. In 1950, Maurice asked his brother Melville Stein to join Stuart Kingston, and Melville opened a satellite location in Salisbury, MD which operated until 1955. Stein faced adversity in the storm of 1962, stating “We lost all our merchandise and the showroom was demolished but we were back in business by August.” Maurice typically worked behind the scenes during the nightly summer auctions; however, when he approached the auction stage along with his wife, his presence was extraordinary and the crowd held on to his every word. Congressmen, Senators, Generals, Diplomats & various heads of state have graced the Gallery, including former President Nixon, Ethel Kennedy and David Brinkley. Furthermore, Stein’s wife Anita was integral to Stuart Kingston’s collection of artwork, traveling to the studios of John Schoonover and Andrew Wyeth to purchase artwork directly.
Melville Stein
Director of Sales
1950-1989
Melville "Mel" Stein was born in Portland, Maine on September 10th, 1911 to two Ukrainian immigrants who owned a separate jewelry store. Mel learned gemology and sales while working under his parents. Mel served in the Army under World War II and held the position as a flight instructor for the Army Air Corp. After being stationed in Ohio, Mel joined Stuart Kingston as a paramount force in the nightly summer auctions. Mel was also responsible for client relations and visiting clients in Washington DC and the Tri-State area, a Stuart Kingston tradition his great-neice Mauria Stein continues to this day. Maintaining lifelong relationships with clients was of the utmost importance to Mel, and to this day the grandchildren of those clients, and now customers themselves, still remember Mel and the lasting impressions to their families.
Dian Stein
Executive Assistant
196? - Present
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Jay Stein
President
1961 - 2014
jay
Joseph Jeffery Stein lll (JJ)
Vice President
1989 - 1997
Celebrating 90 Years of Excellence
For 90 of Rehoboth Beach’s 129 years, Stuart Kingston Gallery has been where it has always been, on the north end of the Boardwalk next to the Henlopen Hotel. Stuart Kingston is also doing what it has always done: remembering the past while moving forward toward the future.
Stuart Kingston was founded in 1930 by Maurice Stein, and business partner Sydney Cohan, who leased the building on the Boardwalk next to the Henlopen Hotel from it owner, Winfred Grenoble. An antique showroom and auction house since its founding, Stuart Kingston’s auctions were particularly popular, especially during the 1950s when Cohan and Stein conducted them on the Boardwalk, which was much wider at the time.
According To Mauria Stein, who is 3rd generation and granddaughter of Maurice "My grandfather, who died when I was 7, was from Portland, Maine he [Maurice Stein] just decided to do his own thing,” Stein said. “It’s really a unique story in and of itself: here’s this young guy in his 20s traveling from the north – he was living in New York at the time – going south to Florida. They found this place in this little tiny town. He came and decided he loved it and decided to make it his life.”
“My father and his partner worked for a guy named Stuart Kingsley, and they liked the name, so they just changed it,” Jay Stein former owner and son of Maurice said, hence the name "Stuart Kingston" came to be.
Over the years, the business has expanded to include rugs, carpets and jewelry. Mauria Stein said the rugs and jewelry business has always been the foundation of Stuart Kingston and will remain that way going forward.
An antique showroom and auction house since its founding, Stuart Kingston’s auctions were particularly popular, especially during the 1950s when Cohan and Stein conducted them on the Boardwalk, which was much wider at the time.
The auctions were a key part of Stuart Kingston’s early business.
Jay Stein became involved in the family business in 1961, at the age of 21. The next year, the Stuart Kingston property was destroyed by the Storm of ’62 and subsequently restored and refurbished.
The auction business was recently discontinued at the Rehoboth Avenue location but is still ongoing at Stuart Kingston’s original location on the Rehoboth Boardwalk.
Stuart Kingston will now passed to Mauria, continuing the family legacy of Steins to head Stuart Kingston for the third generation.
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