Native American Art Brings More than $2 Million at Bonhams and Butterfields' Sale

SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Bonhams & Butterfields ’ Fine Native American Art sale on June 6, 2011 in San Francisco garnered remarkable results, with sales bringing more than $2 million. Leading the auction were important pieces from the Northwest Coast areas of the United States and Canada, namely from the Muchnick-Milliren Collection of some 50 works of art, mostly antique, but contemporary as well.

Top lots from the Collection included a Tlingit bird effigy bowl, sold for $158,000, carved in bold relief, depicting a raptor, with its beak and wings projecting strongly and its tail feathers jutting from a second totemic face; and a Tsimshian raven rattle, sold for $91,500, featuring a raven figure with a humanoid, frog and kingfisher in full relief at the top and a hawk face on the underside, that clutches a "box of daylight" in its beak. Additional Muchnick-Milliren Collection highlights included a Tlingit fish club, likely used for ceremonial purposes, sold for $48,800; a Tlingit raven rattle, sold for $46,360; a Tlingit soapberry spoon, featuring animal imagery, sold for $46,360; a Tlingit pattern board, used as a pictorial guide for a blanket weaver, from the Andy Warhol collection, sold for $42,700; and a painting by the highly respected Haida artist Robert Davidson, sold for $42,700.

According to Jim Haas, Vice President and Native American Art Director, the sale exceeded the firm’s expectations. “In spite of the uncertain economic times, we were pleased to see buyers from across the country and beyond participating in the auction; some for the first time.”

Significant 20th century pottery from the Estate of Isadore Samuels of Northern California also led the sale. Highlights included a San Ildefonso lidded blackware jar by Tony Da, sold for $73,200, estimated at $30,000-50,000; and a San Ildefonso sgraffito redware bowl, also by Da, that sold for $23,180.

Also smokin’ in the sale was an early carved wood effigy pipe, originally from the Great Lakes region, that brought $46,360. Its carved wood bowl depicts the head of a Native man, sternly gazing at another Native figure, seated and holding a liquor keg.

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