Neal Auction Company’s highly anticipated annual Louisiana Purchase auction, which took place on November 21 and 22, was an enormous success, according to the firm, achieving $3.84 million and realizing multiple record prices.
The highlight of the auction was “Norman’s Chart of the Lower Mississippi&” after Marie Adrien Persac (active 1857‱872), which came to the auction from the collection of the late Fisher E. Simmons Jr, a local authority on steamboat ephemera and postal history. After an intense bidding war among five telephone bidders, one absentee bid and the saleroom floor, the 1858 chart map, commonly known as Norman’s Chart after the name of its publisher, sold to a Louisiana collector bidding on the telephone for the record price of $315,999.
Best described by an April 1858 New Orleans Crescent report, Norman’s Chart is considered the “perfect picture of the windings of the Father of Waters from this city to Natchez, with every plantation on its banks, drawn out and colored, with the name of the owner and whatever name he may have given his plantation&†Mr A. Persac, who descended the river in a skiff, landing at every mile, and drawing every plantation line and taking down every name and landmark on both banks of the river, deserves the highest credit for his very able and useful labor.”
Persac’s Norman’s Chart represents an iconic image of the antebellum lower Mississippi Valley plantation culture.
An 1860 “Bien Edition Folio” of John James Audubon’s Birds of America (1826‱838), was conceived by the artist’s younger son, John Woodhouse Audubon, seven years after his father’s death as a reissue of the 435 images of his father’s seminal work. The eruption of the Civil War, however, put an end to the ambitious project and only 15 of the 44 projected parts were ever produced. This folio, which consisted of the first 14 parts, attracted significant interest from around the country. With four telephones and three very active saleroom bidders, the folio sold to a Louisiana collector bidding in the room for $271,999. The edition is commonly referred to as “Bien” after the name of its chromolithographer, Julius Bien (American, 1826‱909), a pioneer in the art of chromolithography.
The socially provocative watercolor “Flip Flops and Lace” by Stephen Scott Young (American, b 1957), achieved an impressive $155,350, the second highest price paid at auction for a work by the artist. Likened to Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins and Andrew Wyeth, Young is considered a preeminent watercolorist of the present time.
Another sale highlight was a 1780 portrait miniature of the Revolutionary War hero Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens by Charles Willson Peale (American, 1741‱827). The 1½-inch miniature saw intense presale interest from around the country, with particular attention coming from some of the nation’s finest institutions. In the end, three telephones competed against one bidder seated in the audience. The work sold for a stunning $109,800 †a record price for a miniature painting by the artist.
One of Mississippi’s most beloved artists, John McCrady (1911‱968), once again played an important role in the Louisiana Purchase auction This year, the American Scene Movement was represented in the sale by McCrady’s environmentally visionary painting “Sic Transit,” in which an anthropomorphic cloud ominously casts a dark shadow over a clear-cut and eroding landscape below. The award-winning work (1941 Blanche S. Benjamin prize) saw multiple telephones vying against saleroom competition. The painting sold to a gentleman standing in the back of the room for $107,550.
Carrying a presale estimate of $30/50,000, an American Impressionist painting titled “Live Oak on Broadway” by William Woodward (American, 1859‱939), created a sensation when it sold against the phone to a bidder within the room for $107,550.
Works by American genre artist William Aiken Walker (1838‱921) were well represented in the auction, with “Cotton Pickers” taking the vanguard. “Cotton Pickers with Wagon and Bales” from the R.L. Moore collection received widespread interest, selling for $45,410.
An important collection of Confederate treasury notes from Simmons estate was offered. Highlights included an 1861 $1,000 note issued from Montgomery, Ala., the first capital of the Confederate States of America. According to Grover Criswell, noted authority on Confederate currency, 72 different types of Confederate money were manufactured. Type 1 through 4 (T-1 to T-4) were made at the first CSA capital of Montgomery; the remaining 68 types were issued in Richmond, Va. The T-1 $1,000 Montgomery note realized $33,460 amid considerable saleroom, Internet and telephone interest.
The later Richmond issued “Indian Princess” T-35 $5 note, which is considered the rarest of all the CSA notes, also realized $33,460 amid considerable attention from around the country. Due to its low denomination, the $5 Indian Princess notes suffered from heavy circulation, loss and damage and only an estimated 76 of the original 7,160 exist today.
A handsome portrait of a Lexington, Ky., light infantryman, which the auction company attributed to José Francisco Xavier de Salazar y Mendoza (1750‱802), realized $32,862, with four telephones competing against the saleroom floor.
Prices reported include the buyer’s premium. For information, www.nealauction.com or 504-899-5329.
