STRONG DEMAND
A collection featuring Southwestern pottery, textiles and katsinas pushed Cowan’s spring American Indian & Western Art sale to $1.3 million.
A collection featuring Southwestern pottery, textiles and katsinas pushed Cowan’s spring American Indian & Western Art sale to $1.3 million.
CINCINNATI, OH
The Collection of Harriet and Seymour Koenig, which they began assembling in the 1950s and 1960s when Seymour’s job led them to New Mexico, was a standout during Cowan’s Auctions’ April 5 sale of Native American and Western art. The group, featuring pottery, textiles, fine art and katsinas from the Southwest, accounted for more than $250,000 of the day’s $1.3 million sales total. The highest earning lot from the group was the third highest seller of the auction, a late-19th-century Zuni polychrome pottery olla (est. $4/6,000) that soared to $33,210. The olla, measuring over 12 by 14 inches, was painted with stylized rainbirds, birds with flowers in the beaks and crosshatched winged elements.
“I was so happy to see collectors appreciate the Koenig Collection as much as I did,” says Danica Farnand, director of American Indian and Western art at Cowan’s. “This collection is not only a beautiful and artful collection, it is also a historical survey of the cultures of the Southwest. The estimates were conservative, which was well received by our audience.”
Other highlights from the collection included a pictorial pottery jar attributed to Nampyeo that sold for $18,000; an Acoma four-color polychrome jar at $10,200; a Navajo Germantown weaving that
brought $15,600; and a Navajo Teec Nos Pos room-size weaving, which achieved $10,200.
“Contemporary works continue to perform well. The Koenigs purchased a lot of their pieces directly from the artist or were the first private collector to own them. Fresh to market objects are always sought-after,” Farnand says. “I also think there is a growing collector base, on the secondary market, for contemporary Native art. This is a wonderful area to watch grow, and is great for the longevity of the art.”
Topping the sale was a grizzly bear claw necklace that was accompanied by a portrait miniature of its original collector, Thomas Willard Hough, that sold for double its high estimate at $60,000. The second highest seller was an Assiniboine beaded hide shirt (est. $10/15,000), which achieved $39,000.
“I think the most surprising lot of the auction was a Chumash polychrome basket. It sold way above estimate [of $1,500 to $2,000],” says Farnand, of the piece, which sold for $20,400. “The basket had ‘all the right stuff ’ —pre-1900, great patina and great condition. Once the sale posted, I started receiving inquiries about it, and it didn’t let up until auction day.”
The sale had a mostly packed floor, with several serious buyers making the trip to Cincinnati to bid in-person, while one-third of the items sold to online buyers. “This was a record high for us, and the continuation of a trend we’ve been seeing for several years now,” Farnand explains. “All told, this was the most bidders we’ve ever had for one of our American Indian & Western Art auctions, over 700 people were registered.”