Native American Art Auction Sets Records, Tops $2.8 Million

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.

:Native American, pre-Columbian and tribal art was offered and sold by Bonhams & Butterfields on December 5, setting world-record auction prices for multiple lots from a noted private collection. The specialty department's most successful offering totaled more than $2.8 million, the bidding generating applause and even tearful emotions as hammers fell on strong prices.

The standing-room-only San Francisco salesroom was crowded with bidders from across the country and overseas and two full banks of telephones attended by auction house staff for bidders in Europe, the US East Coast and Canada. A television crew taped the auction action for a Fine Living Network show to be broadcast in 2006.

The top lot of the day set a new world record price for a Native America basket sold at auction, eclipsing that set in these salesrooms in 2004. The unidentified successful bidder paid $336,250, three times the presale estimate, for a 1929 Paiute polychrome basket of degikup form by Tina Charlie, offered from the collection of Ella Cain. The basket, just over 20 inches in diameter, is one of perhaps only ten of its size ever produced in the Yosemite-Mono Lake region.

Another basket selling for an auction record was also woven by Charlie. This earlier example - created in 1926, sold for $248,250. The basket had won Second Prize at Yosemite's Indian Field Days; these annual multiday events, popular in the 1920s, were created as a marketplace for trading Native American wares and for celebrating Indian culture.

Strong prices were achieved throughout the sale as bidders vied for pieces from the Cain collection, as well as those of other owners. A Paiute polychrome basket by Lucy Telles, yet another prizewinner from the Indian Field Days competitions, tripled its estimate to bring $138,250. A basket by Nellie Jameson had been awarded second prize at June Lake's California Field Days events. This 11-inch-high basket sold for more than four times its estimate, bringing $93,250, and a third Tina Charlie example, estimated at $25/35,000, brought $87,500 after competitive bidding pushed its price.

An Apache basketry olla from a different consignor attracted serious collector interest. This barrel-shaped, 2-foot-tall container sold within estimate for $47,000. The same price was paid for a Cheyenne beaded cradleboard from the collection of Dr Robert Ruby of Moses Lake, Wash. The cradleboard had been acquired in the late 1890s by an officer stationed at Fort Keough in Montana and had descended through the enlisted man's family.

A rare Tinglit shaman's rattle, acquired in the 1870s by a captain of the Seventh Regiment of the US Army, was offered by a descendant who attended the auction. The 9-inch-long rattle, finely carved in two sections and featuring a pair of animal heads in profile, sold for four times its estimate, bringing $149,250. Delighted and moved to tears, the granddaughter of the collector shared that the rattle had hung in her mother's living room until after her death - at 106-years of age. Both American and European bidders had vied for this lot, its iconography and design seen as unique.

Prior to the auction, the grandson of one of the most famous basketmakers requested to bless the baskets and conducted a brief ceremony during which he prayed for the makers as well as the baskets' owners - both old and new. This gentleman also acquired several baskets woven by his ancestors. After one lot hammered to his bidder number, he rose from his seat and pumped his fist in the air - his enthusiasm was not to be contained, followed by another round of applause in the room.

Native American pottery included Zia and Zuni jars, and a pair of Hopi works attributed to the potter Nampeyo attracted interest. A polychrome jar 14 inches in diameter featuring depictions of flying insects sold for $29,375, while another, painted with wing and feather motifs, brought $15,275.

Southwest weaving sold well, as did Plains and Woodlands material. The auction closed with African, Southeast Asian, Oceanic and Latin American lots, including a number of rarities from private collections and the Palm Springs Art Museum. These lots sold to benefit future acquisitions.

A pair of Zairian objects, a Kuba Janus-face wood cup and a Luba ivory finial carved as the torso of a female figure, stemmed from the collection of Admiral and Mrs French Moore and sold for $22,325, while $32,313 was paid for a Yombe maternity group, this lot featuring a carved wood seated mother gently cradling a child in her lap. From another collection came a Lega Bwame Society ivory maskette (offered with a ritual bone spoon) collected in 1962 in the former Belgian Congo by an entomologist. Estimated at $6/9,000, unrelenting bidding on phones from Europe pushed the maskette price to $64,500.

Among the lots from the Palm Springs Art Museum was a collection of Aboriginal bark paintings on eucalyptus, originally assembled by a Christian missionary living in Sydney in the 1920s and 30s, most selling at or above their estimates to Australian and stateside competition. In that same South Seas section, a Solomon Islands figural canoe prow deaccessioned by the museum featured a depiction of a guardian figurehead with mother-of-pearl insets for eyes. The prow brought $25,850.

From the pre-Columbian section, a Nazca feather panel, circa 200-600 AD, of cotton, fully covered in tied multicolored feathers, sold above estimate for $15,275, this piece having been in a noted private collection.

Prices reported include buyer's premium. For information, 415-861-7500 or www.bonhams.com.