It showed up just a few months ago during an appraisal clinic conducted by Jack and Rosie DeStories of Fairfield Auction, brought down from a shelf, where it had been on view as a curiosity for the past 25 years, by an owner who over the years had become curious as to its value. This past Sunday, May 18, the rare carved and polychromed burled spruce Tlingit warrior’s helmet showed its worth and in a curious twist of fate established a record price paid for any Native American item ever sold at auction as the DeStories hammered it down for an impressive $2,185,000.
The woman who brought it to the appraisal clinic on a whim was shocked by Fairfield Auction’s mid-five-figure valuation. Initially thought to be Nineteenth Century, the helmet later proved to be much earlier †probably dating from the late Eighteenth Century and certainly much more valuable; accordingly, estimates were modified.
As the auction drew closer and with intense reaction received from the advertisements, the presale estimates were again adjusted to $150/250,000. With two to three times the number of people requesting telephone lines on which to bid as the gallery had available, phone bidders were ultimately vetted by the auction house and those most qualified allowed to bid. As the lot crossed the block, 11 telephones were lined up and ready for action.
Auctioneer Rosie DeStories asked for an opening bid of $50,000 and immediately received it with rapid fire bids coming from numerous phones as the lot advanced in $25,000 increments. At $500,000, bids jumped by $50,000 and although the number of telephones still in the action had narrowed to a handful, the pace remained brisk.
It was not long until the price had eclipsed the $1 million mark, with all of the action thus far having come from the telephones. A stall in the bidding at $1.2 million proved just long enough for a gentleman seated in the rear of the gallery to raise his bid card and get into the action at $1.3 million.
Bidding on the lot once again progressed methodically to $1.7 million, where it stalled again, until hit by one of the initial phone bidders at $1.8 million. A quick retort of $1.9 million was fired back from the rear of the gallery where an unidentified bidder claimed the lot for $2,185,000, including the 15 percent buyer’s premium. Not only a high water mark for the gallery as the highest priced item it has ever sold, it is also a record for any Native American item sold at auction.
Jack DeStories, Fairfield’s initial appraiser for the helmet, commented that he was overwhelmed as the piece was hammered down. “For a while, it felt like an out-of-body experience, but then we are back at work the next day putting together our next auction and looking for the next great item,” he said.
A complete report of the sale will appear in a future issue.
DSS
