Wrapping up 2004 with World Record Watches, Native American Arts in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.

: Bonhams & Butterfields offered fine jewelry and timepieces from its Los Angeles and San Francisco galleries on December 13, the 550-lot sale bringing more than $4.2 million and wrapping up the strongest year in the firm's history for sales of fine jewelry.

December's offering set two world record prices for rare and important Patek Philippe wrist watches from the 1940s, according to the gallery.

The pre-holiday auction saw strong bidding from buyers throughout California and the West, from the East Coast and from international clients. At several points during the sale, extra staff had been recruited to assist the large number of clients bidding by telephone.

Property on offer stemmed from the estates of Jean Perkins Stuart of Beverly Hills, Calif., of the Countess Louise da Gama of Portugal and from the private collection of Henry Haven Windsor III, among many others.

Timepieces were prominent among the top selling lots, with a pair of pink gold Pateks from the Windsor collection setting at-auction records.

Henry Haven Windsor III is the grandson of the publisher of Popular Mechanics magazine and served as publisher of that magazine's Spanish-language editions. A longtime resident of San Diego, he was also a professor of Spanish and Portuguese.

In the late 1940s as a gift for his son, he acquired a Patek Philippe 18K pink gold chronograph wrist watch, which sold in December for a record price of $248,250; a Patek Philippe 18K pink gold perpetual calendar wrist watch with phases of the moon had been presented to the Windsor by the magazine's staff. That intricate Patek sold for an auction record of $374,750. From 1941 to 1954, only 281 examples of these Patek watches were produced, with very few in pink gold.

Pocket watches from the Perkins Stuart estate were of interest to bidders. The late wife of the son of the founder of the Carnation Company, Stuart's lots each sold above estimate. (The lady's furniture and decorative arts from her Beverly Hills home had been offered and sold in the auctioneer's Los Angeles gallery in late October 2004, bringing more than $1.8 million).

A Swiss fine 18K gold circa 1825 pocket watch featuring foliage of enamel and pearl on the bezel, the back of the watch enameled and painted as a rose, sold for $62,200 - the bidding unrelenting and opening under $5,000. The pocket watch is a quarter repeating on a bell example created for the Chinese market, its pendant designed as a flower stem. An 18K gold Swiss musical automation pocket watch, circa 1880, sold for $35,250 - this example from the estate featuring a multicolored enamel mythological scene with gilt automation figures.

An 18K gold Geneve quarter repeating automation open face pocket watch estimated at $4/6,000 featured a gilt scene of knights in armor and brought $11,750, while $21,150 was paid for a circa 1850 Swiss quarter repeating musical automation pocket watch in 18K gold with a gilt scene of a musician, putti and a fountain.

Bidders vied for signed pieces with strong prices realized for Harry Winston, Van Cleef & Arpels, Ruser, Cartier, Tiffany and Oscar Heyman lots. An exceptional 11.6-carat pear-shaped diamond ring by Harry Winston sold for $402,250, while the companion bracelet comprising a total diamond weight of nearly 50 carats sold for $160,250. The catalog's cover lot was a diamond and 18K gold brooch by Van Cleef & Arpels designed as a ballerina; it brought $19,975, while a diamond and 18K gold collar/necklace by Van Cleef & Arpels sold for $61,625. In addition, other signed pieces offered throughout the sale brought strong prices, many bids hammering above the presale estimates.

The December auction completed a successful year for the international department, its most successful ever, in large part due to the tremendous success of the single-owner sale of fine jewelry from the estate of Francoise Hermann conducted in April 2004. That $6.2 million sale realized more than 300 percent of the preauction expectation and was part of an overall $8 million day in jewelry sales.

In the spring, a determined bidder paid $831,250 for Hermann's important antique diamond and silver-topped necklace featuring 62 mine-cut diamonds totaling 125 carats, and an impressive pair of Cartier diamond drop earrings sold for $539,750. Another signed French piece sold in April was an important Art Deco diamond, ruby and platinum necklace by Lacloche Freres, which sold for $446,250.

The gallery also conducted an auction of Native American, pre-Columbian and tribal arts on December 6, bringing more than $1.3 million for the more than 550 lots offered and setting a world record price for a wonderful example of Eskimo basketry.

The enter offering of ethnographic arts featured Native American baskets, pottery, jewelry, beadwork, Southwest weavings, Eskimo and Pacific Northwest and pre-Columbian material, African and tribal works. The sale's top lot was a rare Pacific Eskimo basketry hat from the collection of the Rev A.P. Kashevaroff, the late Russian Orthodox priest of Juneau, Alaska. The finely woven hat, featuring an inverted cone shape with a concave crown, lavishly decorated with a painted design of a wolf and adorned with dentalium shells, beads, red cloth and sea lion whiskers, set a world record auction price for Native American basketry, according to the gallery, at $160,250 ($125/$175,000).

"It is a true honor to bring this piece of Alutiiq heritage back to Alaska," says Sven Haakanson, Jr, PhD, executive director of the Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak. "It is more than a beautiful object from our past; it is a symbol of an Alutiiq family, a rare and precious piece of our ancestors."

Other Northwest lots offered during the early part of the auction sold for strong prices as well. A Northwest Coast speaker's staff more than 4 feet long with an elaborate carving of a composite creature with varied animal attributes - wings and body of a bird, head of a bear and multiple wolves heads - sold for $11,750, while a Tlingit copper dagger, circa 1918, sold for $10,575. A Makah bone totem pole, 40 inches in length and carved entirely of whalebone, more than doubled its high estimate to bring $11,163.

Native American pots featured a strong assortment of historic and signed ware. A bidder paid $26,438 for a San Ildefonso polychrome bowl signed "Maria/Popovi 959" ($15/20,000), while another bowl by the noted potter, a black and sienna-on-buff jar with polished, double-hooked wing motifs, sold for $10,575. A pair of signed blackware jars sold within estimate, each bringing $12,925.

Baskets sold included strong prices for a pair of unusual Apache ollas. An enormous container at 21 by 21 inches, worked in an all-over diamond lattice pattern, sold above estimate for $11,163. A 15-inch-high, finely woven, Apache example included deer and human depictions along its sides with varied geometric motifs, and featured a rarely seen concave rounded base, selling for $10,575. The same price was realized for a Panamint polychrome basket featuring standing human figures in varied hues, each wearing a hat. An 8-inch-high Yokut polychrome bottleneck basket brought $14,100.

A wonderfully carved Wyandot wooden ladle sold for $29,375, its carved figure shown seated with an unusual pleated cap, dressed in a long garment and supporting a keg of liquor on her lap - indicating a likely connection with the White Panther cult.

Within the sale's Southwest Weavings section, a bidding battle pushed the price for a Navajo Germantown rug to $26,790, and a Navajo, late Classic, serape sold for $26,438. An unusual and extremely rare Navajo Germantown portiere brought $11,163; this 7- by 5-foot example featured whirling log motifs in its corners and initials woven in the center of the dual panels.

Pre-Columbian stone figures, ceramic vessels and tribal objects comprised the sale's final hundred lots, with two sets of male and female figures attracting interest. A pair of Toradja tau-taus, Sulawesi, Indonesia, constructed of separately carved wooden legs, arms, torsos and heads fitted together with wood pegs, sold within estimate for $8,225. Each 5-foot-tall figure featured inset bone eyes and brass armbands or bracelets. A pair of 20-inch-high Ifugao rice gods from the Philippines depicting a man and woman with slightly bent knees and arms, straight triangular noses, slit mouths and eyes with an encrusted patina sold above estimate for $9,400.

Prices reported include buyer's premium.