Cowan’s Historic Americana Auction Hits $1.96 Million
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ashley O’Brien, Public Relations, 513-231-5115, ashley@jzmcbride.com
Wes Cowan, Cowan’s Auctions, 513-871-1670, info@cowans.com
Cowan’s Historic Americana Auction Hits $1.96 Million
Cowpuncher-Artist’s Western Archive is Highest Selling Item of 1,340-Lot Sale
CINCINNATI (June 20, 2007) – A Western archive of Albert Mosty sold for $70,150 and highlighted Cowan’s Auctions June 2007 Historic Americana sale. The auction, which drew over 900 registered bidders, generated total sales of $1.96 million from 1,340 lots.
Albert Mosty was a cowpuncher and self-taught artist who chronicled his Western travels from the late 1860s through the 1880s. His archive consists of 30 volumes, including illustrated journals, letters and other documents.
Western photographs shared the auction spotlight with Mosty, with most of the photos doubling pre-auction estimates. William Henry Jackson’s mammoth photographs of the Three Tetons sold for $8,625, doubling an estimate of $3,000-$4,000. Jackson’s mammoth plate photographs of Yellowstone brought $6,900 and his Yellowstone Hot Springs photograph fetched $7,475. His mammoth plate photographs of Yellowstone and Colorado Springs sold for $5,175 and another Jackson mammoth plate photograph, $4,830.
Other noteworthy Western photographs included a photo and subpoena autographed by Bat Masterson that sold for $21,850 and a CDV (Carte de Visite image) of Wild Bill Hickok, directly descended in the Hickok family, sold for $28,750. An exceptional group of photographs of a 1904 Sioux delegation sold for $18,400 and a fine autographed photograph of George Armstrong Custer on the Yellowstone expedition of 1873 sold for $44,850.
A manuscript of the 1867 treaty negotiations and photographs of Arapaho Chief Little Raven fetched $20,700 and a quarter plate daguerreotype of a California gold mining operation sold for $18,400. Another daguerreotype, of Henry Clay by Marcus Root, sold for $15,600.
Setting a record for the sale of a flag of its kind, a 1776-1876 Centennial Parade Flag sold for $18,975. In other early Americana sales, a folio Abraham Lincoln’s appointment of James Speed to Attorney General fetched $21,850.
Two exceptionally rare Colorado brand books were sold. The first, a book from 1883, sold for $8,625, and the second, from 1885, brought $7,475. Cowboys carried these books while on the range to identify cattle and their owners.
The auction’s biggest surprise came when a scarce CDV pose of Kit Carson that had a $500-$700 estimate sold for $12,650. Another N. Brown & Son Santa Fe copy CDV of Kit Carson sold for $6,325 and an E. Anthony CDV of Kit Carson sold for $2,300.
Cowan’s next Historic Americana auction is slated for November 2007. For more information please contact Wes Cowan, 513-871-1670, info@cowans.com.
About Cowan’s Auctions, Inc.
As one of the nation’s leading auction houses with sales of over $15 million, Cowan’s has been helping individuals and institutions build important collections for more than a decade. The company’s four divisions of Historical Americana, American Indian and Western Art, American/European Furniture, Paintings and Decorative Arts, and Historic Firearms & Early Militaria hold semi-annual cataloged sales that routinely set records for rare offerings. Recent specialty auctions have featured dolls, toys, advertising, clocks, watches, shaving mugs and barbershop collectibles.
Through its extensive mailing list of more than 10,000 collectors, dealers and institutional clients, each Cowan’s auction typically attracts more than 1,000 bidders from across the globe. To learn more about Cowan’s visit our website at www.cowans.com.
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