LONE JACK, MO. – A beautifully restored 1935 Chrysler Airflow Imperial tooled to a $35,200 final price, with buyer’s premium, at Dirk Soulis’ August 21 auction. The Series C-2 car came from the Joseph family of Belleville, Ill., owners of the world’s oldest Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep agency until August 1, 2006. It was the top lot in the sale, consigned by the Joseph family of Belleville, Ill., when it finally changed hands. The buyer was an online bidder who advanced the car’s $15/20,000 estimate.

Next highest lot in the auction was $32,200, with buyer’s premium, from a telephone bidder for a Nineteenth Century Missouri war axe. “This area of collecting saw some high-quality reproductions approximately 20 years ago that shook the confidence of the market,” said Dirk Soulis. “I’ve been trying for eight months to purchase expert opinion from someone that the market at large would have confidence in, since my opinion of the piece as a generalist auctioneer would carry no weight. Except for two well-wishers and a helpful respondent who told me to just get on with it and it would take care of itself, I couldn’t find anyone among the several contacts I made who would help. They all said the situation was too fraught. What I did inadvertently gain from this was a group of potential bidders who called from time to time to ask when the axe would finally be posted for bidding. After three weeks of no action online at the opening bid of $5,000, that amount was finally offered from the internet a bit after I opened the lot. From there, the action came from five telephone bidders.” The estimate on the war axe was $10/30,000. Watch for a review of this sale in an upcoming issue.