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On a rainy Sunday afternoon the Cobbs Auction Gallery crowd applauded
wildly as auctioneer Charlie Cobb hammered down Philip Russell Goodwins
moose hunting oil "Unexpected Game," for a world record $143,750.00
including the 15% buyers premium. The winning telephone bidder was
the National Museum of American Illustration in Newport Rhode Island.
The lot was part of a wonderful assemblage of sporting art, books,
taxidermy and other collectables being sold at the Cobbs October 13th
Sporting Auction - A sector of the market which the Cobbs plan to enter as
a major player. The Painting a 24" by 33" oil on canvas, which shows
two hunters stalking a moose was painted by Goodwin (1882-1935) as a
calendar illustration and had been in the family of the consignor since
the mid 20th century. Goodwin , a close friend of artists Charles
Russell and Carl Rungius, was a prolific illustrator. He did
countless advertising pieces for Winchester, Remington, Marlin and Peters
firearms companies, Bristol fishing rods, magazine covers, book
illustrations, and calendars for small, local hardware stores, gas
stations and banks. Although for decades his illustrations were well
known to sportsmen through these advertisements, his name was not; and he
died alone and practically in poverty in 1935. It is only in the
last ten years that his art has been rediscovered by the American public.
The Goodwin original
oil was part of a large consignment from a Peterborough, New Hampshire
family who were avid trophy hunters, travelers to remote regions, book and
art collectors, and well known in sporting circles of the era. |
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Other items sold (including the buyers premium) included. "A Good
Retrieve" watercolor by A. Lassell Ripley -$20,700.00; a Ripley etching
"flight of the Woodcock - $2,645.00; William Schadach's watercolor of a
flushing quaill - $1725.00; a Philip Goodwin hardware store calendar -
$718.00; two big Horned Sheep heads mounted by famous taxidermist/sculptor
James L. Clark-$3162.00 and $3220.00; two wonderful game bird dioramas by
1890's Worcester, Mass taxidermist H.L. Rand - $2990.00 and $3680.00 and
an Orvis "flea" rod - $575.00.
There were over 100
lots of sporting books including many first editions. These sold
briskly, averaging over $300 a lot. One lot "Fly Fishing and Fly
Making" by J. Harrington Keene and "Fly Rods and Fly Tackle" by Henry P.
Wells sold for $747.00. Two books on Africa, "The Man Eaters of
Tsavo" by J.H. Patterson and "White Hunter" inscribed by the author J.A.
Hunter sold together for $1955.00. Other items included fishing
tackle, decoys, firearms, Old Town canoes and ephemera, golf clubs,
equestrian art and saddlery, and various sporting collectibles. The next
one is scheduled for Sunday, January 5th 2003.
Sargent Collier, who
recently joined The Cobbs as Director of Sporting Auctions, organized and
cataloged the sale. Collier, an avid hunter and fisherman has
collected the art and accoutrements of these sports for over thirty years.
He is planning up to four similar sales a year.
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Several
of the items to be included are a very rare Parker VHE 410 skeet gun; a
Colt 1851 Navy revolver with the RIchards-Mason conversion in outstanding
original condition; over 50 other firearms; more than 40 decoys; a huge
collection of Smith & Wesson factory ephemera including posters, catalogs
and thousands of records and documents; a Cape Buffalo painting by Bob
Kuhn and many other interesting items.
The Cobbs Auctioneers located
in Peterborough, New Hampshire has been in the business for nearly 30
years. Having dealt mainly in high quality antiques and art up to
now, Cobbs in now planning to be very active in pursuing consignments for
sporting sales in the future. Collier, whose main area of expertise
is sporting art and firearms, has added two well known decoy experts and a
fishing tackle specialist to his staff on a a consulting basis to assist
in identification and cataloging.
For more information about
Cobbs Sporting Auctions, contact Sargent Collier, The Cobbs Auctioneers,
50 Jaffrey Road, Peterborough, New Hampshire 03458. Telephone
603-924-6361 or Email" sarge@thecobbs.com. |
