Auction Highlights

The Texas auction company Burley conducted a Jan. 20 Estate event containing a wonderful array of 19th- and early 20th-century banks. An Ives Bulldog bank manufactured around 1878 charmed bidders with its action, in which the dog springs forward to catch a coin. It sold within estimate to a LiveAuctioneers bidder for $4,715.

Coin collectors have never been more active in the marketplace than right now, and the finest examples of American coins are fetching top dollar online through LiveAuctioneers. At Livingston’s Jan. 20 Estate Coin Collection sale, an Internet bidder prevailed on a coveted 1907 double-eagle $20 St. Gaudens gold coin. Estimated at $8,000-$15,000, it attracted 69 bids before landing at $16,703.75.

At High Noon’s Jan. 20 auction of Western Americana, a pair of circa-1960s Luis B. Ortega rawhide show reins went to a LiveAuctioneers bidder for $7,800.

A fine, early hand-painted Russian porcelain plate with a stamp indicating manufacture during Alexander’s first era (1801-1824) captured bidders’ attention in Point Pleasant Galleries’ Jan. 14 Fine Art & Antique auction. Attracting 14 bids, the plate sold through LiveAuctioneers for $4,200.

American Indian and Ethnographic Art was the exclusive focus of Skinner’s 439-lot auction held Jan. 13. Among the 75 items purchased through LiveAuctioneers was a pair of Iroquois hide moccasins from the second quarter of the 19th century. Featuring multicolored beadwork and quill decoration, the antique Native-American footwear sold online for $9,800.