The Traditional West
The 31st annual March in Montana auction and dealer show returns with fine Western, sporting and wildlife art.
For the past 30 years, March in Montana has brought to market an array of fine art and accoutrements that are definitive of the traditional West. The items range from wildlife, sporting and Western paintings and sculpture to saddles and spurs to Native American textiles, which allows buyers of all categories to find something to fill their collections. This year’s 31st annual auction and dealer show, presented by Manitou Galleries and the Coeur d’alene Art Auction, will take place March 15 to 17 at the Elks Lodge #214 in Great Falls, Montana.
Highlighting the more than 700-lot auction will be a selection of paintings and sculptures from the Doylestown, Pennsylvania, collection of Dr. Delwin and Karen Bokelman. Collected over the course of three decades, the majority of the items crossing the block were pictured in their photo essay book Precious Dreams. Included are works by Gilbert Gaul, Frederic Remington, Carl Oscar Borg, C.P. Adams, Herb Mignery, Dan Ostermiller, Joe Beeler, Dave Mcgary, Walter Ufer and Edward Borein, to name a few.
Among the painting highlights are Gaul’s 36-by-30-inch Indian Maiden, which has a presale estimate of $10,000 to $20,000, and the top lot of the sale Birger Sandzén’s Autumn at $60,000 to $80,000. Also from the couple will be cowboy collectibles including “two Dale Ford wagons, as well as braided items by Luis Ortega and Blind Bob,” the auction house shares. “Indian artifacts were also a strong segment of this collection, some of which have been sold in previous years by March in Montana.” Other items in the sale are Philip R. Goodwin’s sporting scene Two Men in a Boat (est. $40/60,000); Midnight Cowboy by Olaf Wieghorst that has a presale estimate of $10,000 to $15,000; and the figurative painting Squaw Woman (est. $20/30,000) by W.H.D. Koerner.