PHILADELPHIA — Maybe just because it’s Texas, quipped Freeman’s chairman Alasdair Nichol as a 28-star Great Star American Flag commemorating Texas statehood jumped suddenly from its $9,500 opening to a $25,000 phone bid. “Somebody really wants it,” he observed as bids climbed steadily to a final price of $68,750, including buyer’s premium. The circa 1846 survivor featured hand-sewn, double appliqued cotton stars in a Great Star pattern, with hand-sewn cotton stripes and a twill cotton hoist with hand-stitched grommet. Mounted and framed, it measured 52½ by 107 inches (sight). Head of sale, Lynda Cain said it was won by the trade. The November 24 sale dispersed the 45-year collection of Dr Peter Keim, who was saying goodbye to more than 190 examples of US flags and patriotic ephemera. The Texas flag had been exhibited at the Bullock Texas State History Museum, Austin, and had once been in the collection of Dr Jeffrey Kenneth Kohn, who was in gallery on Sunday to see it off to a new home. Dr Keim preferred to spend the day with his grandchildren. Coming up will be a more extensive review of A Grand Old Flag: The Stars and Stripes Collection of Dr Peter J. Keim.