Sotheby's to auction historically significant American Indian Art, May 8, 2006 SOTHEBY’S TO OFFER AMERICAN INDIAN ART FROM THE EARL OF SOUTHESK 1951 SETTLEMENT REMOVED FROM KINNAIRD CASTLE, SCOTLAND.
News-Antique.com - Nov 30,-0001 - May 8th sale of American Indian Art in New York. Following last year's offerings of Property from the Captain Farquharson Invercauld Trusts, removed from the Braemar Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, this spring Sotheby's will offer Property from the Earl of Southesk 1951 Settlement removed from Kinnaird Castle, Scotland, believed to be the most historically significant group of American Indian Art ever to be offered at auction.
Among the more than thirty-nine items that comprise the collection are masterpieces of their type - the most impressive of which rank among the best known Plains Indian artifacts - both in public and private collections, and the Blackfoot beaded hide man's shirt is arguably the finest shirt of its type to appear at auction (est. $350/550,000).
Following last year’s offerings of Property from the Captain Farquharson Invercauld Trusts, removed from the Braemar Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, this spring Sotheby’s will offer Property from the Earl of Southesk 1951 Settlement removed from Kinnaird Castle, Scotland, believed to be the most historically significant group of American Indian Art ever to be offered at auction. Among the more than thirty-nine items that comprise the collection are masterpieces of their type – the most impressive of which rank among the best known Plains Indian artifacts – both in public
and private collections, and the Blackfoot beaded hide man’s shirt is arguably the finest shirt of its type to appear at auction (pictured on page 1, est. $350/550,000*). The significance of this collection lies in both its artistic and historic value. Property will be on exhibition in Sotheby’s 6th floor galleries from May 4th through 7th, and the sale is expected to bring $2.9/3.9 million.
In 1859, James Carnegie, the 9th Earl of Southesk (pictured here), traveled to the United States and Canada from his native Scotland, after being advised that it would improve his health that had deteriorated following the death of his wife. He wrote that the purpose of his journey was to “travel in some part of the world where good sport could be met with among the larger animals, and where, at the same time, I might recruit my health by an active open-air life in a healthy climate.” His route included traveling up the Athabasca River from Fort Edmonton, across what is now the Southesk Pass, and down Job Creek and Coral Creek to the Kootenay Plains of the Saskatchewan River Valley.
Of equal significance is the diary that accompanies the collection. Published in 1875 by Edmonson and Douglas, Edinburgh, Saskatchewan and The Rocky Mountains provides a rare, sometimes amusing, and very human glimpse into his travels and the various Native cultures of the Western Plains and Plateau that he encountered. In the preface he writes: “The foundation of this book is a very carefully-kept journal, for the most part noted down evening by evening over the camp fire, and none of it written, save a sentence or two, at intervals of more than a few days after the occurences it relates; so
