Southwest man’s wearing blanket, $58,750.

Acoma polychrome olla, $14,100.

BOLTON, MASS. – At Skinner, Inc’s recent auction of American Indian and ethnographic arts, the highest selling lot was a Southwest man’s wearing blanket that sold for $58,750. Other weaving highlights of the auction included a Navajo weaving in the style of a woman’s “second phase” blanket that sold for $23,500 and a Southwest Classic man’s wearing blanket, Navajo, from the third quarter of the Nineteenth Century, which sold for $11,750.

Pottery results were strong with a Southwest polychrome pottery olla, Acoma from the late Nineteenth Century, selling for $14,100. Native American photographs also sold well, including two lots of Imperial Cabinet card photographs depicting Geronimo’s surrender, which sold for $7,344 and $7,050, respectively, and one Imperial Cabinet card photograph of a captive white boy in Geronimo’s camp that sold for $6,462. Surprises in the sale included a Northeast carved wood doll and polychrome wood model cradle, Iroquois, from the late Nineteenth Century, which sold for $8,225.

According to Douglas Deihl, Skinner’s director of American Indian and ethnographic art, this was Skinner’s second American Indian auction in 2002 and both sales did exceedingly well. “The market is very strong right now for weavings, pottery, photography and baskets,” said Deihl.