News-Antique.com - Jan 04,2011 - Skinner, Inc. will host an auction of American Indian & Ethnographic Art in its Boston gallery on Saturday January 15th at 10 a.m. Included in this eclectic sale are a number of affordable finds. Whether a seasoned collector or a novice, this sale offers textiles, pottery, art and sculpture for every kind of bidder.
Pre-Columbian and Tribal
Sale 2533B offers a wide variety of Pre-Columbian textiles, some with estimates starting as low as $200. One featured textile is a woven Peruvian poncho, c. 200-700 A.D. The panels show standing mythological figures wearing double serpent head belts and holding what appear to be arrows. The poncho comes from the collection of Michael Mitchell, collected in the 1920s by his great-grandfather Ernest Mitchell. It is estimated at $10,000 to $15,000.
The sale also includes some very nice Tribal material including a fine selection of masks and sculptures. Featured are two Yoruba pieces: a carved wood helmet mask and a carved wood shrine figure, each estimated at $3,000 to $5,000. Also of note is a rare Songe carved stool. Provenance: Frank Crowinsheild, New York, John Graham, New York, 1940s, Arthur Rothenberg. The stool is estimated at $10,000 to $15,000. Other Tribal highlights include a Polynesian “Lizard Man” figure from Easter Island, also from the Arthur Rothenberg collection, and estimated at $5,000 to $7,000, and a classic Maori cloak from the early 19th century estimated at $8,000 to $12,000.
American Indian
Plains material being offered includes two miniature tipis and two hide dolls from the 19th century, estimated at $10,000 to $15,000; 15 ledger drawings by Southern Arapaho artist Mad Bull, estimated at $60,000 to $80,000; and a wonderfully large beaded hide male doll, standing 31 inches, and estimated at $8,000 to $12,000. Featured moccasins include a pair from the Central Plains, Lakota, estimated at $1,500 to $2,000; a pair from the Southern Plains, Cheyenne, estimated at $2,000 to $2,500; another pair from the Southern Plains, Cheyenne, this pair a beaded high-top girl’s moccasin, estimated at $3,000 to $4,000; and a pair from the Southwest, Mescalero Apache, estimated at $2,000 to $2,500.
Other works of note from the Central Plains include a Cheyenne beaded hide pipebag from the 3rd quarter of the 19th century, estimated at $8,000 to $12,000; an Arapaho beaded and quilled hide pipebag, coming to Skinner from the Museum of the American Indian Heye Foundation, and estimated at $15,000 to $20,000; a Cheyenne beaded hide bow case and quiver estimated at $12,000 to $16,000; and a Great Lakes beaded cloth bandolier bag with an American flag and eagle motif estimated at $6,000 to $8,000.
From the Northwest Coast comes an Eskimo carved ivory pipe, estimated at $1,500 to $2,000; another Alaskan ivory pipe, estimated at $1,000 to $1,500; two large polychrome carved totem poles, both from the early 20th century – one estimated at $8,000 to $12,000, the other at $10,000 to $15,000; a carved mountain sheep horn feast ladle estimated at $10,000 to $15,000; and the cover lot, a rare
