Little Big Horn Rifle Brings $21,850 At Kaminski Auction

Essex, Mass.

:An Indian rifle owned by White Man Runs Him, the scout for General George A. Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn, dominated the action at Kaminski Auctions, where it sold for $21,850. White Man Runs Him decorated the gun with thunderbird symbols, and, according to notarized documents accompanying the lot, he saw it as sacred and used it for tribal ceremonies.

White Man Runs Him, also known as White Buffalo That Turns Around, kept accounts of the battle, and of Custer, which portrayed the general as less than heroic. White Man Runs Him's gun had remained in his Montana family until July 2004, when his granddaughter Winona Yellowtail sold it. The gun sold at Kaminski to a Connecticut collector who was active throughout the sale.

The sale drew a large blend of trade and retail buyers from as far away as Nova Scotia, who filled nearly every seat in the tent during the two-day event, August 22 and 23. Internet and international phone bidders were also a presence.

The auction proceeded apace, and brought a new twist. A perennially cranky abutter ran a lawnmower again and again alongside the tent. When that did not interrupt the sale, he introduced a chipper, followed by a weed whacker and finally a chain saw. He should have known that auctiongoers are a hardy lot. He must have been disappointed, and he eventually desisted. Shortly thereafter, the power failed for a brief period and everyone laughingly took a break before the sale resumed.

An Eighteenth Century American Queen Anne walnut highboy on cabriole legs led the furniture across the block and sold for $9,200. The piece, which auctioneer Frank Kaminski said he thought was Pennsylvanian, sold to the same collector who bought the gun.

A New England Hepplewhite mahogany card table with satinwood inlay was thought to have been made along the coast between Portsmouth, N.H., and Newburyport, Mass., and drew $5,175. Kaminski said he found the piece in San Diego, where he has a facility, and brought it home to sell it. He turns up a lot of New England pieces in southern California, brought there over the years by native New Englanders. A Portsmouth Hepplewhite bird's-eye maple bowfront chest brought $1,955, while an early Nineteenth Century Salem mahogany card table with a carved and star punchwork pedestal was a good buy at $748.

An Eighteenth Century William and Mary pine highboy fetched $2,415, and a Chippendale cherry chest with fluted quarter columns that was possibly a Connecticut piece went for $1,840.

An unusual Queen Anne mahogany octagonal tilt top table with an inset sailor's valentine was $1,208; a very interesting Adirondack game table with a checkerboard and wood and pine cone decoration was a good value at $575. A Nineteenth Century mahogany Wellington architect's desk, with a small brass label for William Gillen, realized $1,265; and a Nineteenth Century Italian burlwood slant front desk has some condition issues, but there was plenty of life left there. It sold for $1,150.

Of the paintings on offer, "Pennsylvania Country Road," a signed and dated 1929 oil on canvas by American artist Antonio Pietro Martino, was the highlight when it brought $9,200.

An interior scene, "Kitchen Gesture," depicting a young man presenting a young woman with a nosegay, by Belgian artist Charles (Karel) Ferdinand Venneman was $4,313.

A 1973 oil on canvas view of Gibbs Wharf, Jonesport, Maine, by Paul Strisik sold for $4,600. Strisik's 1973 watercolor view of a coastal Maine house sold for $2,645. Both pictures had been commissioned by Gray and Rogers, Inc, the coastal view for Wachtung watercolor papers.

An interior scene with card players by Venetian artist Luigi Gasparini went at $3,450, while an unsigned Twentieth Century oil on board scene of fully rigged sloops racing offshore sold for $2,990.

An unsigned Nineteenth or Twentieth Century portrait of a veiled woman was $2,300. A still life with fruit by Nineteenth Century Rhode Island artist Frederick Stone Batcheller, in the original frame, sold at $2,155.

Quite a departure from the paintings on offer, an oil on canvas scene of a John Dillinger shootout, with a blonde in a red dress, sold for $1,323.

The 1907 signed oil on canvas "Marshes at Annisquam," a nearby village, by George Wainwright Harvey elicited $1,955, while another Northshore scene, "Linebrook Road, Autumn, Ipswich" by Ken Knowles, sold for $805.

A horse race scene by Twentieth Century English artist Leo Rawlings went for $1,955, and a set of eight framed Mughal oval miniature paintings on ivory realized $1,840.

The bronze figure of a horse, "Wind Swept," by James Earl Fraser, cast at the Newark, N.J., foundry of Auguste Griffoul & Bros. Co., sold for $4,313. A figure of a cowboy by Frederick Remington, cast by the Roman Bronze Works in New York, brought $1,495.

A Tiffany & Co., sterling flatware service for eight in the Faneuil pattern realized $4,025, and a Dominick and Haff sterling ice cream set of a dozen 6½-inch plates and a 12-by-9-inch serving plate was $690.

There were many unique items, such as a Nineteenth Century Islamic sword set with coral and silver inlay that attracted $3,450; an attractive wrought iron garden bench with some rust that realized $460; and a 57-inch beveled glass mirror with a silvered frame by Carver's Guild, decorated with fish and seashells, which fetched $1,380.

Ceramics included a 7¼-inch Grueby pottery vase in spring green that brought $1,955. A cheerful looking Galle-style glazed pottery dog with black and green eyes sold for $748.

A good selection of marine and nautical material was offered, with navigational equipment being the strongest draw: a large (40 inches tall) early Twentieth Century brass and copper lightship beacon drew an impressive $5,750. An early Twentieth Century binnacle by John Hand of Philadelphia and Baltimore with a skylight top realized $1,150, and an English copper masthead light marked "Meteorite" with a Fresnel lens and carrying handle sold for $920.

Ship models also held their own. A cased model of the USS Constitution that measured 46 by 19 by 63 inches brought $6,325. A 52-inch detailed model of a 1930s motor yacht sold for $3,738, while a model of J.P. Morgan's Corsair elicited $3,680. A model of the steam yacht Harvard that was owned by George Baker went for $3,450. A cased, 36-inch model of the schooner yacht Atlantic went for $1,380, while a detailed late Twentieth Century model of the Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard paddle steamer Island Home brought $1,150.

A carved whale, possibly a trade sign, with green glass eyes attracted $1,093, and a 47-inch carved and painted wooden mermaid was $575.

A Nineteenth or Twentieth Century rhinoceros horn carved with scholars in a landscape realized $2,990 from an Internet bidder. A fine 23-inch Nineteenth Century Imperial Canton vase was $2,875 from a New York dealer and a Chinese jade censer was $748.

All prices reported include the 15 percent buyer's premium.

For more information, www.Kaminskiauctions.com or 978-927-2223.