– A carved, spread-winged eagle by Wilhelm Schimmel topped the bill at Conestoga’s auction this past Saturday, October 4, as the Pennsylvania folk art collection of Selma and Ray Mead was offered.

The auction, which totaled more than $660,000, attracted a huge amount of attention, including a record number of phone bidders for the gallery.

The eagle, cataloged as being in pristine original condition, sold for $33,000 to a local collector in the gallery after stiff competition from several others in the room and five phone bidders.

The rare eagle carried a provenance of having once resided in the collection of Dr Auman, a collector of note from Mifflinberg, Penn., who originally purchased the piece at an early Pennypacker auction. It then resurfaced after more than 50 years when Auman’s collection was sold at auction. Further provenance listed David Wheatcroft and Pennsylvania-German authority Peter Dean.

The eagle, in the original black paint with a red and yellow painted beak, yellow feet and a green base measured seven inches in height with a wingspan of ten inches.

A complete review of the sale will appear in a future issue.