: Native American, pre-Columbian and tribal art was offered and
sold by Bonhams & Butterfields on December 5, setting
world-record auction prices for multiple lots from a noted
private collection. The specialty department's most successful
offering totaled more than $2.8 million, the bidding generating
applause and even tearful emotions as hammers fell on strong
prices.
The standing-room-only San Francisco salesroom was crowded with
bidders from across the country and overseas and two full banks
of telephones attended by auction house staff for bidders in
Europe, the US East Coast and Canada. A television crew taped the
auction action for a Fine Living Network show to be broadcast in
2006.
The top lot of the day set a new world record price for a Native
America basket sold at auction, eclipsing that set in these
salesrooms in 2004. The unidentified successful bidder paid
$336,250, three times the presale estimate, for a 1929 Paiute
polychrome basket of degikup form by Tina Charlie, offered from
the collection of Ella Cain. The basket, just over 20 inches in
diameter, is one of perhaps only ten of its size ever produced in
the Yosemite-Mono Lake region.
Another Paiute polychrome basket also woven by Tina Charlie
sold for $248,250.
Another basket selling for an auction record was also woven
by Charlie. This earlier example - created in 1926, sold for
$248,250. The basket had won Second Prize at Yosemite's Indian
Field Days; these annual multiday events, popular in the 1920s,
were created as a marketplace for trading Native American wares and
for celebrating Indian culture.
Strong prices were achieved throughout the sale as bidders vied
for pieces from the Cain collection, as well as those of other
owners. A Paiute polychrome basket by Lucy Telles, yet another
prizewinner from the Indian Field Days competitions, tripled its
estimate to bring $138,250. A basket by Nellie Jameson had been
awarded second prize at June Lake's California Field Days events.
This 11-inch-high basket sold for more than four times its
estimate, bringing $93,250, and a third Tina Charlie example,
estimated at $25/35,000, brought $87,500 after competitive
bidding pushed its price.
An Apache basketry olla from a different consignor attracted
serious collector interest. This barrel-shaped, 2-foot-tall
container sold within estimate for $47,000. The same price was
paid for a Cheyenne beaded cradleboard from the collection of Dr
Robert Ruby of Moses Lake, Wash. The cradleboard had been
acquired in the late 1890s by an officer stationed at Fort Keough
in Montana and had descended through the enlisted man's family.
A rare Tinglit shaman's rattle, 9 inches long, sold for four
times its estimate, bringing $149,250.
A rare Tinglit shaman's rattle, acquired in the 1870s by a
captain of the Seventh Regiment of the US Army, was offered by a
descendant who attended the auction. The 9-inch-long rattle, finely
carved in two sections and featuring a pair of animal heads in
profile, sold for four times its estimate, bringing $149,250.
Delighted and moved to tears, the granddaughter of the collector
shared that the rattle had hung in her mother's living room until
after her death - at 106-years of age. Both American and European
bidders had vied for this lot, its iconography and design seen as
unique.
Prior to the auction, the grandson of one of the most famous
basketmakers requested to bless the baskets and conducted a brief
ceremony during which he prayed for the makers as well as the
baskets' owners - both old and new. This gentleman also acquired
several baskets woven by his ancestors. After one lot hammered to
his bidder number, he rose from his seat and pumped his fist in
the air - his enthusiasm was not to be contained, followed by
another round of applause in the room.
Native American pottery included Zia and Zuni jars, and a pair of
Hopi works attributed to the potter Nampeyo attracted interest. A
polychrome jar 14 inches in diameter featuring depictions of
flying insects sold for $29,375, while another, painted with wing
and feather motifs, brought $15,275.
Southwest weaving sold well, as did Plains and Woodlands
material. The auction closed with African, Southeast Asian,
Oceanic and Latin American lots, including a number of rarities
from private collections and the Palm Springs Art Museum. These
lots sold to benefit future acquisitions.
Unrelenting bidding on phones from Europe pushed the price of
this Lega Bwame Society ivory maskette (offered with a ritual
bone spoon) to $64,500.
A pair of Zairian objects, a Kuba Janus-face wood cup and a
Luba ivory finial carved as the torso of a female figure, stemmed
from the collection of Admiral and Mrs French Moore and sold for
$22,325, while $32,313 was paid for a Yombe maternity group, this
lot featuring a carved wood seated mother gently cradling a child
in her lap. From another collection came a Lega Bwame Society ivory
maskette (offered with a ritual bone spoon) collected in 1962 in
the former Belgian Congo by an entomologist. Estimated at $6/9,000,
unrelenting bidding on phones from Europe pushed the maskette price
to $64,500.
Among the lots from the Palm Springs Art Museum was a collection
of Aboriginal bark paintings on eucalyptus, originally assembled
by a Christian missionary living in Sydney in the 1920s and 30s,
most selling at or above their estimates to Australian and
stateside competition. In that same South Seas section, a Solomon
Islands figural canoe prow deaccessioned by the museum featured a
depiction of a guardian figurehead with mother-of-pearl insets
for eyes. The prow brought $25,850.
From the pre-Columbian section, a Nazca feather panel, circa
200-600 AD, of cotton, fully covered in tied multicolored
feathers, sold above estimate for $15,275, this piece having been
in a noted private collection.
Prices reported include buyer's premium. For information,
415-861-7500 or www.bonhams.com.
