SAN FRANCISCO ? Art dealers will be on the prowl for tribal heirlooms after the surprisingly strong results from a well publicized fall auction at Butterfields’, the 136-year-old West Coast auctioneers and appraisers.
Prize lots sold for double to triple their pre-auction estimates. According to the firm, buyers showed a strong interest in children’s items as well as baskets and pottery by well-known makers.
The firm said its top lot was an intricately woven Navajo classic Saxony serape from the Bosque Redondo Period, circa 1865, sold by a private Arizona collection. The serape, offered late in the 484-lot sale, was estimated at $50,000 to $80,000 and sold to competitive bidding for $107,375.
An interesting Apache ceremonial headdress started a bidding battle. The Gaan dancer mask and headdress consisted of a darkened flour sack hood attached to wooden slats painted to resemble feathers. It sold for $9,400 against an estimate of $1,500 to $2,500.
Plains and Woodlands material included several popular children’s items. A Plains beaded girl’s dress with fully-beaded bodice, beaded hemline and fringe on the hem and sleeves sold for twice the estimate at $9,400. An Iroquois cradle comprising a flat trapezoidal backboard with attached footrest and a horseshoe-shaped “roll bar” featured shallow relief carving and sold for $10,575. A Sioux beaded cradle showing precise arrangement of the green and blue beaded designs on a white background sold above estimate for $9,400, and a fully-beaded Sioux baby carrier which was offered along with a dozen ribbons won in 1970s Indian art exhibitions sold for $8,812.50.
Collectors vied for baskets by noted makers. A Mono Lake Paiute polychrome basket attributed to Leanna Tom sold for $25,675 against an estimate of $5,000 to $8,000. It featured a high rounded shoulder and receding neck with a unique asymmetrical pattern of overlapping diamonds, triangles and other motifs.
An acrylic on canvas by Raymond Naha depicting eight braves performing the Shalako ceremony more than doubled its estimate to bring $7,050.
A Great Lakes ball-head club with a protruding metal spike and a carved buffalo head design sold for $8,225 against a preliminary estimate of $2,000 to $3,000. A Northern Cheyenne painted buffalo hide, nearly nine feet wide, drawn and painted with warring scenes, sold for $9,400.
Interesting lots included a 17-inch diameter Arapaho painted drum in an open-sided frame with geometric painted patterns still visible. The drum sold for $17,625. A Kiowa beaded woman’s high top pair of moccasins doubled the estimate to bring $21,075.
The auction firm commented on the “interesting provenance” of a Sioux ledger book. It included as many as 68 crayon, ink and pencil drawings ? drawn over the ledger entries in at least two distinctive hands. The lot included a letter dated 1911 from a former policeman that stated that the book had been taken from Indians in the late 1800s, after it was identified as having been stolen from a Wood Mountain trading store. The writer stated he believed the drawings were those of a son of Sitting Bull. The lot brought $34,875, within the estimated range.
The October auction offered Native American, pre-Columbian and tribal art from private collections and institutions. Simulcast to the Internet, it brought in more than $1.3 million.
