Paul H. Madden

Paul Howle Madden of Sandwich, a noted antiquarian specializing in marine arts and Americana, died at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston on September 30. He was 70.
Mr. Madden was born in Manchester, Connecticut, on September 10, 1938, the son of Henry and Virginia Madden. His father was an executive at Sealtest and his mother was a well-known antiques dealer in Glastonbury, Connecticut, and Kennebunkport, Maine.
Mr. Madden graduated from the University of Connecticut and then entered the Army, where he served in intelligence. He was honorably discharged from the Army in 1963.
Mr. Madden next held an executive position at G. Fox & Company in Hartford, Connecticut, where he met his wife, Diane Chase, at the end of 1964. They married in Kennebunkport in September 1965. Their son, Parke Henry Howle Madden of Sandwich, owns The Weather Store in town.
The couple restored and furnished the 18th-century homes they lived in on Nantucket and in Sandwich.
For over 40 years, Mr. Madden was an active antiques dealer, appraiser, and lecturer for historical associations and museums in the specialty fields of scrimshaw, Nantucket lightship baskets, marine collectibles, and American paintings. During the course of his career, he owned and operated antiques businesses on Nantucket and in Sandwich. Over the past decade, Mr. Madden’s website was host to one of the largest inventories of marine antiques in the country.
Mr. Madden was active in the formation of the President John F. Kennedy Collection of Antique Scrimshaw and contributed his expertise to a permanent whaling exhibit in the Berlin Technological Museum in Germany. He also served as a marine vetter for the New York Winter Antiques Show.
Upon hearing of Mr. Madden’s death, Stuart M. Frank, senior curator of the New Bedford Whaling Museum and director of the Scrimshaw Forensics Laboratory, said, “Paul Madden was, of course, a titan, a tremendous influence in the world of scrimshaw and marine antiques....He has been a mentor and helpmate of collectors and curators for decades.”
Mr. Madden was also an accomplished artist who as a child focused on painting portraits of family members. Later in life, he held several one-man shows at galleries along the New England coastline. While he worked in many media, he was proud of his pen-and-ink line drawings.
In recent years, Mr. Madden and his wife liked to travel.
In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Madden leaves two grandchildren, Elizabeth Jane and Henry John Madden, also of Sandwich; and an older brother, Henry Madden of Tampa, Florida.
A service and celebration of Mr. Madden’s life will be held on Sunday, October 26, at the First Church of Christ in Sandwich at 4 PM.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Nantucket Historical Association, New Bedford Whaling Museum, and Heritage Museums & Gardens in Sandwich.