Perhaps it was the result of the Prohibition. Americans, left without their favorite swill, needed somewhere else to get their kicks. And truly, there’s nothing quite like jumping up from your seat in a room full of hopeful gamblers and crushing every one of their dreams with a single, triumphant, shout. Bingo, as we know it today, has its roots in other games from around the world since at least the Sixteenth Century, but it was not formalized in the United States until Hugh J. Ward did so in the 1920s. Ward did not name it Bingo, that was left to toymaker and “game entrepreneur” Edwin Lowe, who discovered the game at an Atlanta carnival when it was called Beano, with players using beans to dot their boards. The game reputedly made its way to Bingo after one of Lowe’s friends could not get the word out quick enough when he won a round. A terrific polychromed Bingo board makes its way to the block at Skinner’s, joining other top lots from around the United States in this week’s picks.
SKINNER
Lot 807
Large Polychrome Paint-Decorated Bingo Calling Board
America, first third of the Twentieth Century, the grain-painted frame surrounding porcelain bulb sockets indicating the balls in play, all centering a brick red star within a mitered frame painted in mustard, orange, salmon and red delineated with black pinstriping, 48 by 48 inches.
Estimate: $8/12,000
SARASOTA ESTATE AUCTION
Lot 2
Decorative Period Roycroft Copper Box
Circa 1906–10, approximately 10½ inches
Estimate: $5/10,000
MICHAAN’S
Lot 257
Unusual Cloisonne Enamel Wall Vase
In the form of conjoined cylindrical vases displaying archaistic motifs on a turquoise ground, with gilt bronze mounts in the form of a ribbon, pair of dragon panels, and ruyi-form feet and bearing an incised Qianlong six-character mark.
Estimate: $10/15,000
BLACKWELL AUCTIONS
Lot 109
Ivory Emperor & Empress Chinese Statues
Nineteenth Century Chinese carved elephant ivory statues. Solid and extremely heavy, carved from mature tusk. Outstanding detail, particularly on clothing and facial features. Statues measure just over 18 and 19 inches including bases.
Estimate: $3,5/4,500
GRAY’S AUCTIONEERS
Lot 55
Scott Miller (1955–2008) “Deer in a Forest”
Oil on canvas, signed lower right. 60 by 55¾ inches. Exhibited at the Akron Art Museum during the early 1990s.
Estimate: $2/4,000
BLANCHARD’S AUCTION SERVICE
Lot 41
Charles Rohlfs Arm Rockers
Signed & dated, with pine tree cuts outs.
Made of quartersawn oak. Originally built for the Ziegler Camp in Loon Lake, N.Y.
Estimate: $1,5/3,000
ALTERMANN GALLERIES
Lot 301
William Robinson Leigh (1866–1955)
“Navajo Boy,” oil on canvas board, 16½ by 13 inches.
Estimate: $25/35,000
SCHWENKE AUCTIONEERS
Lot 345
Connecticut Black Painted Ladderback Great Chair
With four slat back and old black painted surface. 46½ inches high, descended in the family of Col. Thomas Knowlton, Ashford, Conn., circa 1740.
Estimate: $700/900
MBA SEATTLE AUCTION
Lot 153
Maori Tewhatewha Hardwood War Club or Axe
Carved wood club with incised decorated on top and in middle of staff. Early to mid-Twentieth Century, Polynesian, 48 inches length.
Estimate: $200/400
