Aurelia G. Bolton, longtime Sotheby’s representative and philanthropist, dies

Frederick N. Rasmussen, Baltimore Sun
·5 min read

Aurelia G. Bolton, a former longtime Maryland representative for Sotheby’s Parke-Bernet Inc. and a philanthropist whose interests ranged from cultural to educational institutions, died in her sleep April 26 at Strontia Farm in Brooklandville.

She was 88.

“Aurelia was a wonderful, wonderful lady who came from a different world and was cut from a different cloth that you don’t see much anymore,” said William F. Ruprecht, former CEO of Sotheby’s.

“She was elegant, sophisticated, fantastic and intelligent and had been our local representative in Baltimore and the Eastern Shore,” said Mr. Ruprecht, who headed the New York auction firm from 2000 to 2014.

“She had a depth of knowledge and was a very effective and superb person,” he said. “She knew many different types of collections and could converse with collectors, and she knew a remarkable number of people.”

“She did know people and their collections and she knew where they were in their houses, and she was fabulous at that,” said Stiles T. Colwill, a longtime close friend who is an interior designer and past chairman of the board of the Baltimore Museum of Art.

“She loved paintings and the decorative arts,” Mr. Colwill said. “She was a connector with the Walters Art Museum, the Maryland Historical Society and Hopkins, and was very good at making things happen.”

“The Homewood House as an historic house would not have existed in its current form had she not been chairwoman of the Homewood House Museum Advisory Council,” he said. “She really was a beloved fixture.”

Aurelia Garland, daughter of Charles Stedman Garland and Aurelia Stoner Garland, was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and spent her early years in Lake Forest, Illinois, until moving to Baltimore in 1939 when her father was named a managing partner at Alex.Brown & Sons.

Raised on Charlcote Place in Guilford, Mrs. Bolton was a 1947 graduate of Calvert School.

After graduating in 1953 from Garrison Forest School, she obtained a bachelor’s degree from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where during her college years she kept a horse and fox hunted. She was a lifelong steeplechase and flat racing enthusiast.

In 1959, she married Perry Johnson Bolton, a University of Virginia graduate, who later became vice president for corporate development for the old A. S. Abell Co., publishers of The Baltimore Sun.

During the 1960s, Mrs. Bolton worked as a librarian assistant and keeper of manuscripts at what is now the Walters Art Museum, but it was her interest in the arts, cultural, education and civic events that drew her attention.

“When most mothers were going to country clubs for sports and lunches, she went to board meetings which became the driving force behind everything she touched,” said a son, George Brown Bolton, of Jupiter, Florida.

She was the first woman to serve on the board of the Walters and the second to join the Johns Hopkins University board in 1975.

Mrs. Bolton was president of the Garrison Forest School board, and had been a board member of the Evergreen House Foundation and the National Museum of Racing in Saratoga, New York.

“Aurelia started her philanthropic and board roles at a time when it was still a man’s world, and when she sat on a board, they listened,” Mr. Colwill said. “She took it all very seriously and could be, when needed, very authoritative.”

“She was always the person who got things done,” her son said. “She raised scholarship money to send 10 kids to the University of Virginia.” He said his mother also helped to fund the renovation of the Lillian Gary Taylor Rare Books Collection at the University of Virginia library.

“She affected congeniality and was a very giving, warm and funny person,” her son said. “She was the total package.”

“They don’t make them like Aurelia Bolton anymore,” Mr. Colwill said.

In addition to her various board memberships, Mrs. Bolton had been the local Sotheby’s representative for nearly four decades until retiring about 10 years ago, family members said.

“As a representative for Sotheby’s, she took her work very seriously,” Mr. Colwill said.

“She loved being Aurelia Garland and a Bolton and she used that to her advantage. If she came asking for a gift or donation, you knew you were stuck,” he said. “But she never abused her connections and would only ask for a gift after she had made a substantial donation. She did it all with a wonderful smile and laugh.”

“She knew a remarkable number of people and collectors,” Mr. Ruprecht said.

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Mr. Colwill described Mrs. Bolton as having a great gift and capacity for friendship. “If Aurelia was your friend, it became a deep friendship and one for life,” he said.

Mrs. Bolton’s home, Strontina Farm, became the center of her life with family and friends along with people who came from the cultural and turf world.

“The first time I came to met Aurelia at her home, Perry came riding up on a horse and I thought, ‘This is a different world from New York,’ and we had a warm relationship for years,” Mr. Ruprecht said. “Aurelia wasn’t in any way full of airs and she took all as they came.”

“she was the best type of friend, always putting others first,” wrote Dan West, manager of Strontia Farm, in an email. “She was full of wisdom and always gave the best advice, but she was also just as willing to be a listening ear. She would always tell you she loved you, but more importantly, she showed it.”

Mrs. Bolton spent more than eight decades each summer at the Ausable Club in Keene Valley, New York, and also maintained a home, Loblolly, in Royal Oak, on the Eastern Shore, and a winter residence in Jupiter island, Florida.

During her lifetime, she had climbed all 46 peaks in the Adirondacks and earned the moniker of being a “46er,” for her achievement.

She was a member of the Ausable Club in St. Huberts, New York, Mount Vernon Club and the Greenspring Valley Hunt Club.

Mrs. Bolton was a communicant of the Church of the Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles St., where services will be held at 11 a.m. May 10.

In addition to her husband of 65 years and son, she is survived by another son, Charles S.G. Bolton of San Francisco; a daughter, Aurelia Bolton Peterson of Durango, Colorado; and eight grandchildren.