Robust Action for Western Americana in Phoenix

PHOENIX, ARIZ.

:High Noon wrapped its 15th annual Western Americana Show & Auction recently in its new venue at the Phoenix Civic Plaza and adjacent Hyatt Regency.

The auction featured Western Art, American Indian textiles and beadwork, and the traditional blend of cowboy artifacts dating from the late 1800s through the Hollywood cowboy period of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

Results were highlighted by an Edward H. Bohlin silver mounted youth saddle, selling for $95,200; an Olaf Wieghorst (1899-1988) oil painting, fetching $75,000; and spirited bidding on Western artifacts, including Hollywood movie and TV cowboy memorabilia.

However, the surprise of the sale and a new world's record was for a three-color gold-filigreed belt buckle made for Edward H. Bohlin, the "Saddlemaker to the Stars," at nearly $30,000.

Always a genre favorite, John Wayne's Colt single-action used by the Western icon in the 1962 John Ford classic Liberty Valence fetched $20,160, while Duke's shotguns and "Old Betsy" Derringer from the 1971 Big Jake, tripled the high estimate at $27,440.

Richard Boone's Have Gun Will Travel TV series Remington Derringer and 7-inch Colt S.A. also generated spirited bidding, going to a Lone Pine, Calif., museum on a final bid of $15,680. Bonanza, the 1960s series starring Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Pernell Roberts and Dan Blocker, hit the proverbial bonanza when each of its star's guns, used in the series, knocked down on a final bid of $24,640.

Other noteworthy sales in this category included Tex Ritter's personal silver mounted show saddle at $21,840, Robert Redford's rhinestone and gold thread blue gabardine embroidered suit and boots from the 1970s movie Electric Horseman. The opulent outfit was made by the North Hollywood tailor Nudie Cohen for a sum purportedly in excess of $20,000 but sold to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City at a reasonable $10,080.

Silver mounted cowboy spurs helped the auction tempo, selling anywhere from $700 for a generic pair of 1940s Crocketts to $16,800 for a pair of Edward Bohlin boots with maker-marked spurs, to $20,160 for a silver inlaid set made around 1900 by G.S. Garcia of Elko, Nev.

Fine Western art featured a wide variety of living and deceased artists highlighted by the Olaf Wieghorst oil as well as a pair of Lon Megargee's in the $8/9,000 range, a Will James drawing that featured the image of his beloved wife, Alice, at $8,960, plus several Marjorie Reeds in the $3/5,000 range.

A canvas by Emil Lenders of 101 Ranch fame doubled the high estimate at $22,400, while an A.D.M. Cooper oil on board tripled the high estimate at $11,200.

American Indian artifacts witnessed most Navajo rugs selling at or above their high estimates, while an 1890s Nex Perce man's pictorial beaded vest drew a final bid of $24,600.

An array of antique saddles was highlighted by the Bohlin silver mounted child's saddle made for the son of a flamboyant Midwest state senator in the early 1930s at $95,200; an important, early circa 1910 Brydon Brother's silver Peacock saddle made for the wife of Lucky Baldwin, the founder of Santa Anita Race Track, at $39,200; a fancy, 1886 dated, Mexican saddle at $22,400; and several other saddles, either historical or silver-mounted, in the $13,000 to $20,000 range.

Prices reported include buyer's premium. High Noon announced its 2006 dates as January 27-29, returning to the downtown Phoenix Civic Plaza for the show, with the auction again at the Hyatt Regency, Saturday evening the 28th.