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New collectors and competitive bidding brings huge numbers for Western art at the Coeur d’alene Art Auction
With a standingroom-only crowd, and auction workers fielding bids from their personal cell phones due to packed phone lines, the Coeur d’alene Art Auction started with a bang just two lots into the July 27 sale in Reno, Nevada. a Carl Rungius etching on paper, Over the Pass, was estimated at $4,000 to $6,000, and when the dust settled after frantic bidding the piece had sold for $95,200. It was a foreshadowing lot—by the end of night, the auction would realize $17 million.
“We’re feeling really great right now,” says auction partner Mike Overby .“we are very happy with the sale.we sold all of our big paintings, and then pretty much everything else, too. In fact, it’s been pretty easy here afterwards because everything ran so smoothly during the sale.”
Overby says William Healey’s collection of John Fery paintings, which was a stand-alone session before the bulk of the 359-lot sale, certainly warmed up the crowd, and then the Rungius etching set the tone for the rest of the sale.“the Rungius sold so high because the artist only printed several of them, at least three that we know of. So we have lots of collectors who have the whole set of Rungius etchings, and usually the whole set is considered
everything but Over the
Pass because it was deemed unattainable,” Overby says. “So when it came through the door I was blown away. During the sale, everyone wanted it so they could complete their set. It was very competitive.”
The top lot of the sale was Frederic Remington’s Casuals on the Range, painted in 1909, the year he died. Estimated at $800,000 to $1.2 million,
it fell right in the middle of estimates at $981,750. Not far behind it was Joseph Henry Sharp’s Crow Encampment, Montana, which sold for $892,500, well above its $500,000 high estimate. Rounding out the top three lots isvictor Higgins’ Taos in Winter that sold for $833,000, clearing its $600,000 high estimate with room to spare. Taos in Winter also broke Higgins’ auction record, which was previously set in 2015 at $773,000.
Another record breaker was Rosa Bonheur’s Emigration de Bisons (Amérique), a work that was created in France without her ever seeing the American West. Bonheur, though, had a great resource at her disposal: Buffalo Bill Cody, who was traveling through Europe with his Wild West show. Bonheur’s work surpassed its $500,000 high estimate and sold for $773,500, breaking a two-year record that was previously at $607,500. Other top lots were Charles M. Russell’s gouache and watercolor work Creased (est. $800/1,200,000) that sold for $714,000, Rungius’ Near Summit Lake, British Columbia (est. $250/350,000) that sold for $357,000, and Edgar Payne’s Burning the Hogan (est. $200/300,000) that sold for $267,750. Overall, 38 items, more than 10 percent of the whole sale, sold for more than $100,000.Additionally, Overby says that the sale also saw an uptick in internet and phones bids.“the internet was up 10 percent, and phones were up 30 percent. With internet bidding, people are just getting more comfortable with it year after year. It helps that the process gets more streamlined and user friendly, but we’re also seeing younger bidders take an interest in Western art, which is really great for us,” he says.“we also saw more than 35 percent of all the lots sell above their high estimates. It makes us very happy with the market and where it’s headed.”