SAN FRANCISCO – PBA Galleries, Auctioneers, Rare Books & Manuscripts, conducted a 450-lot auction of Americana, the Collection of Alex Schwed, on Oct. 21. The sale included a large collection of clipper ship sailing cards, California pictorial lettersheets, gold rush and California ephemera and Hawaiiana.

Schwed, a California collector, has in recent years devoted his energy to his important Indian basket collection, and decided to part with his collection of 90 California clipper ship sailing cards. It was the largest such single collection to come to auction since the 1990 Siegel sale in New York. Also selling was the balance of his Californiana material, which included almost 50 lots of 19th-century Native American photographs, pictorial letter sheets, 1850s gold rush letters, early California newspapers and California maps.

A rare California gold quartz walking stick with a gold knob and an original piece of gold in quartz mounted on top, which was presented by San Francisco department store founder Adolphe Roos and his sister to their father and had descended in the family, brought $21,600. Prices include a 20 percent buyer’s premium.

The high price proved the desirability of this form of artistry unique to California, where pieces of unrefined quartz with gold veins were incorporated into jewelry and objects, a symbol of California’s wealth. The San Francisco firm of Bartlett and Sherwood claimed to be the inventors of gold quartz jewelry and first exhibited it at the New York Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1853.

The clipper ship sailing cards were a sale highlight, and were issued in the 1850s and ’60s to advertise clipper ships that were loading cargo for San Francisco and leaving ports in Boston and New York to round the horn for the West Coast. The cards were attractively printed in color and have been widely collected over the years, although issued in fairly small numbers. Most reside in a few museums, libraries and a small number of private collections. According to PBA’s senior auctioneer, George Fox, someone phoned in about 20 minutes before the auction began and left strong absentee bids on all 90 lots of the clipper cards.

“At that point, we knew the auction would be a great success.” The bidding was widespread with cards going to both institutions and collectors across the country, all realizing this was a rare chance to see so many at auction at one time. The star of the sale, the Young America, one of the most famous clippers, was a particular rare card as it advertised the reverse journey from San Francisco back to New York and was printed by Bancroft in San Francisco went to an institution at $5,100, on an estimate of $4,000/6,000. The Wild Rover and Starlight, both went to private collectors for $4,500 each. The balance of the bid prices ranged from $500 up to the $4,500 range, with approximately 60 of the 90 cards falling well into four figures.

A nice 1851 manuscript California gold rush diary from the Northern Mines District of Nevada City fetched $10,800 from a private collector, again proving that content is everything. This diary had entries for every day the man worked in the diggings, and included him viewing the fire that burned down Nevada City, and watching a fight between a grizzly bear and a bull. Twenty-five lots of gold rush letters written from the California mines back to Eastern home fronts brought solid prices, most within the estimates, ranging from $250 to $1,800.

The 14 California pictorial letter sheets, which are actively collected, all sold well, with the rarest, the Sacramento Steam Boat Landing bringing $2,040. The early newspaper section was highlighted by an 1847 issue of the California Star, which was the first newspaper published in California by Sam Brannan which hammered at $1,020.

Largely private collectors vied for the 38 lots of Hawaiiana material, consigned from an old Oahu collection and fresh to the market. It included many pamphlets concerning the 1895 Rebellion that all sold well, although the highest price realized was for an exquisite presentation morocco binding of a book on cavalry tactics given to King Kalakaua in 1882 by French military friends he had met on his visit there in 1881, which crossed the block at $2,700.

The map section was led by the rare 1862 Philadelphia printing of the Desilver atlas with 79 maps which sold at $4,800, and finally 50 lots of 19th-century Native American stereo views, cabinet cards and photographs mostly all went to private buyers in the $300 to $800 range.

Complete auction results are available at www.pbagalleries.com and for additional information, please contact the Galleries at 415-989-2665 or pba@pbagalleries.com

Click here to view the fully illustrated catalog for this sale, complete with prices realized.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The top three lots at Case Antiques Inc.’s auction Oct. 16 – all pottery – totaled $127,650, but the remaining 700 lots were far from afterthoughts for winning bidders and consignors.

The single-owner collection that boasted the 6 1/2-inch-tall red-glazed jar by San Ildefonso Pueblo potter Anthony Edward Tony Da that sold for $35,650 (prices include a 15-percent buyer’s premium), generated additional noteworthy results. Other highlights from that collection included an 11-inch tall San Ildefonso blackware jar by Blue Corn, with geometric designs and silver lid, $3,450; an acrylic on board painting of a Hopi flute player by Helen Hardin (1943-1984), $2,530; a Santa Clara ceramic egg carved with dancing flute players by Joseph Lonewolfe, $920; and a black bear pottery figure accented with turquoise, wood and suede by Dora Tse-Pe, $863.

The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts paid $55,200 to acquire a cobalt slip-decorated stoneware churn labeled in cobalt “Kentucky 1836,” which is the earliest known marked piece of Kentucky pottery. The price represents an auction record paid for Kentucky stoneware.

One lot later, the gavel fell at $36,800 for a slip and copper oxide decorated redware jar by Tennessee potter Christopher Alexander Haun (1821-1861). It was not a record for Tennessee pottery (that record was set by Case in 2008 with the sale of a jar by J.A. Lowe), but it was a record for a jar by Haun, one of the state’s most important artisans. Although MESDA had also expressed interest in the Haun jar, it ultimately sold to a private collector.

Fine Art highlights included a watercolor seascape by Maurice Prendergast (1859-1924), recently discovered in East Tennessee, which hammered down for $23,000 (est. $20,000-$30,000). There was strong interest from international bidders on a pair of small canvases, featuring a girl with dog and boy with cat by Edmund Adler (Austrian, 1876-1965). Adler is known for his depictions of children, and these works brought $6,670 and $10,350 respectively. Colored Paper Image XV, by color field artist Ellsworth Kelly (b. 1923) commanded $9,775, and a chrome sculpture by Max Bill (Swiss, 1908-1994), numbered 84/200, went to a Swiss phone bidder for $3,680.

Southern art was in demand. A large and luminous oil on canvas farm landscape by Lloyd Branson (Tennessee, 1853-1925) reaped $17,825, while a portrait of a little girl by noted 19th- century Tennessee portraitist Samuel Shaver brought $7,820. A small portrait of a young child by Carl Gutherz (Swiss/Tennessee, 1844-1907) earned $3,910 (est. $800-$1,200).

“Like Haun, Gutherz is another interesting personality with a Civil War connection,” said company president John Case. “His art studies were disrupted when he joined the Confederate Army, although his talent was put to use working on the design for the ironclad Alabama. He later went on to study with at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and had a very successful art career.” Works by Gutherz rarely come on the market. This one was bought by a Southern institution.

The auction featured several objects deaccessioned by Historic Belle Meade Plantation in Nashville to benefit the restoration of the collection. Among them was a half-tester bed stamped C. Lee for Charles Lee, a Massachusetts maker of beds for the Southern market, which realized $5,290 despite multiple condition issues, along with a suite of three 19th-century gilt brass argand lamps with etched glass shades, $2,530, and a pair of brass fireplace chenets with eagle and bee design, $2,070. A late 19th-century Tennessee “biscuit table” with a polished stone surface for rolling out dough and a hinged cover for letting it rise sold for $1,610.

A Renaissance Revival dining room table and 14 matching chairs, purchased in the late 19th-century by “merchant prince” C.J. McClung for his Knoxville mansion, served up $7,820, while a Tennessee wardrobe pictured in the book The Art and Mystery of Tennessee Furniture closed at $2,990 and a primitive Tennessee step-back cupboard with glazed two-door top and folky incised star stamped decoration closed at $2,300. A refinished tilt-top cherry candlestand, its top inlaid with a central compass star and edged with leaf and vine inlay, probably Tennessee or Kentucky, topped out at $1,840.

There was steady demand for sterling silver flatware and hollowware, as well as estate jewelry, including a men’s Rolex oyster submariner watch, $4,600, a circa 1930 gold and enamel Cartier pendant watch, $1,265, and its gold chain with engraved links, $1,610. Case said prices of silver and gold on the commodities market were probably a factor. More surprising, however, was an assorted lot of eight late 19th- and early 20th-century copper kettles and molds, which sold for $1,265 against a $250-$350 estimate.

A rare brown and white jacquard woven coverlet from the Maryville (Tenn.) Woolen Mills topped the textiles offerings at $1,840. A Victorian crazy quilt with fan motif earned $575, and a patchwork quilt in a bar pattern that descended in an African American family brought $432.

Other standouts included a Dooling Mercury gas-powered race car, second series, which raced to $1,610; a 1924 baseball World Series scorecard (Washington vs. New York Giants) with several hand signatures, $1,495; a rare flintlock pistol tinder lighter, $977; and an East Tennessee mid-19th-century Bowie knife, $632.

Case is currently accepting consignments for its Winter 2011 Auction, to be held Jan. 22 at the company’s gallery in Knoxville. For information, contact the gallery at (865) 558-3033 or the Nashville office at (615) 812-6096, or visit the website, www.caseantiques.com

Click here to view the fully illustrated catalog for this sale, complete with prices realized.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE