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A Navajo eye-dazzler wearing blanket in
red, blue and white drew bidders from across the country to The Cobbs'
Jan. 4-5 sale in snowy Peterborough, N.H., where it sold for $126,500. The
blanket attracted stiff competition and finally was sold to a telephone
bidder. More bidders than usual turned out for the sale, pushing prices
well past expected figures. One bidder drove from Alabama to bid on a
circa 1800 mid-Atlantic walnut sugar chest on a stand, only to miss out
when it sold to someone else for $9,200.
One bidder paid $8,050 for Luigi
Lucioni's oil-on-board of an autumn landscape. Another paid the same
amount for a figured mahogany William IV extension dining table on reeded
legs. A bronze female nude signed by Jo Davidson fetched
$17,500. A highlight of The Cobbs' sporting sale was a .410
skeet gun made by Parker Bros. of Meriden, Conn., made in 1938 for the
consignor's father; it sold for $19,550. A Colt .36-caliber revolver made
in the 1870s from parts made for the Navy in 1851 sold for $9,775.
The most unusual lot had to be the
rhinoceros-foot humidor topped with a bronze rhinoceros lid signed by
James Lippett Clark, which sold for $6,500. Clark was chief taxidermist at
the Museum of Natural History in New York City. The foot is believed to
have been given to Al Smith, the Democratic presidential candidate in
1928. Other sporting lots included an oil-on-canvas portrait
of a setter with a snipe, signed on the back by A.F. Tait, though it might
not have been a Tait. The portrait brought $11,500. The
charming 1901 painting "Setters on Grouse" by Colin Graeme went for
$7,477.
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"You absolutely have to have
phone and absentee bidding to succeed in the auction business today" said
Peterborough, New Hampshire auctioneer Charles Cobb on January 7th.
The Cobbs Auctioneers had scheduled a major sale for the
weekend of January 4 & 5. They'd saved an impressive list of
offerings for their sale, including a recently discovered major piece of
Native American art, other art offerings, some decent furniture and
several choice firearms.
This, however, is New England and winter. It began
snowing on January 2 and continued all day and night on the third and
throughout the day of the sale. By Saturday morning January 4, there
was close to 36" of fresh snow on the ground in Peterborough.
Cobb delayed the sale for two hours to let bidders on
the road make it to the southwestern new Hampshire auction facility.
Surprisingly, the hall was packed when the sale began and over 324 bidders
had registered.
"Luckily, most of the potential bidders on the big-money
lots had come in to examine the material in the days before the sale" Cobb
said. "The lead item was this wonderful Classic Navajo blanket that
was circa 1870. All the interested parties flew in and checked it
out, then bid by phone."
The blanket brought $126,500.00 (including the buyers
premium) from a dealer who had flown in, returned home and bid by phone.
"Honest to God, It was really found (the
blanket) in an area attic," Cobb said. "It was covering some boxes,
and I said, Hmm-m, that looks pretty good". |
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"Most of the starred lots went
to left bids and phone bidders", Cobb said. "You may not need those
facilities for every sale, but when you really need them, they are a
godsend." Some of the other major lots included a
bronze sculpture by Jo Davidson that brought $17,250.00; a Parker Brothers
skeet gun that brought $19,550.00; and a miniature painting by Luigi
Lucioni that sold for $8,050.00.
"Its just amazing" Charlie Cobb said, "But even now,
there still are some wonderful things to be found in New England attics". |
