BEAUTY ABOUNDS
Cowan’s spring Native American art auction features beautifully crafted baskets, beadwork and carvings.
Cowan’s spring Native American art auction features beautifully crafted baskets, beadwork and carvings.
More than 300 lots of Native American material will arrive to market during Cowan’s Spring American Indian Art Auction on April 10. The sale, which starts at 10 a.m., includes basketry, beadwork, Plains material and Northwest Coast wooden carvings that are sure to intrigue with their designs and artistry.
Mono Lake Paiute weaver Tina Charlie is represented in the auction by a three-rod coiled polychrome basket made from willow, bracket fern root and redbud. It is estimated to sell between $15,000 and $20,000. “Tina Charlie was maybe the most innovative weaver of the 20th century,” says Danica Farnand, director of the American Indian art department. “Her baskets are unlikely anything from the region at the time and have been in high demand since she started selling her work to the public in the 1920s.”
In Northwest Coast session of the sale, a wood feast bowl, estimated at $6,000 to $8,000, is of interest, while a Nuu-chah-nulth carved cedar mask is also notable at
$15,000 to $25,000. A Sioux quilled pictorial tobacco bag that has a pipe and pipe tamper comes to market at $5,000 to $7,000. The piece features thunderbird and horse imagery that are quilled into the bag. Weavings include a Navajo second phase woman’s chief’s blanket that carries a $10,000 to $15,000 estimate.
Highlighting the beadwork category is a Southern Cheyenne women’s hide dress at $20,000 to $25,000. According to the auction house, “The sinew-sewn, softly tanned hide is adorned along the neckline with a lane of blue and white glass beads and red wool highlights, while a long, thin hide fringe falls from sleeves, the bust line and lower hems.”