Two-pound gold ingot tops final SS Central America sale at Holabird

32.15-ounce Kellogg & Humbert assayer’s California Gold Rush gold ingot, recovered from the 1857 sinking of the S.S. Central America, $138,000. Image courtesy of Holabird Western Americana Collections

RENO, Nev. – From lumps of coal and crewmembers’ keys to tableware and exquisite jewelry, collectors bid $1.1 million to acquire 422 lots of California Gold Rush-era artifacts recovered from the 1857 sinking of the fabled “Ship of Gold,” the S.S. Central America. The two-day auction took place March 4 and 5, and was conducted in Reno, Nevada and online by Holabird Western Americana Collections.

“We had about 7,000 registered bidders, including some from Canada, Europe and South America. Many collectors were waiting for these extraordinary items to come on the market since the legendary submerged ship was located in 1988 and Life magazine proclaimed it America’s greatest treasure ever found,” said President of Holabird Western Americana Collections Fred Holabird. “This was an incredible time capsule of the California Gold Rush era.”

One of the auction highlights was a massive 32.15-ounce gold bar created in San Francisco by prominent Gold Rush assayers John Glover Kellogg and Augustus Humbert. The two-pound gold ingot sold for $138,000, far above its current gold content value of about $59,000. The assayer’s value at the time it was created was $586.17.

“The S.S. Central America was carrying tons of Gold Rush treasure from San Francisco and the northern California area when she sank 7,200 feet deep in the Atlantic off the North Carolina coast in a hurricane while on a voyage from Panama to New York City in September 1857. Recovery from the shipwreck site occurred in several stages between 1988-1991 and again in 2014,” explained scientist Bob Evans, who was on each of the recovery missions and assisted with the auction.

Large 18K gold quartz engraved brooch that San Francisco businessman Sam Brannan was sending via the SS Central America in 1857 to his son in Geneva, Switzerland as a gift to his son’s teacher, $49,200. Image courtesy of Holabird Western Americana Collections

Among the recovered jewelry items was a large 18K gold quartz engraved brooch that prominent San Francisco businessman Samuel Brannan – California’s first millionaire – was sending to his son in Geneva, Switzerland, as a gift to the son’s teacher. It sold for $49,200.

“Brannan was the Jeff Bezos of his day; a successful entrepreneur, newspaper owner, and California’s first millionaire,” said Dwight Manley, managing partner of California Gold Marketing Group, consignor of the sunken treasure.

Among the 45 other recovered jewelry pieces in the auction was a REGARD ring, named for the first letter of each of the five gemstones it contains: ruby (missing from the ring), emerald, garnet, amethyst, ruby, and diamond. It sold for $14,400.

19th-century daguerreotype photograph of an unidentified young woman that the S.S. Central America scientific mission recovery team nicknamed Mona Lisa of the Deep, $73,200. Image courtesy of Holabird Western Americana Collections

Other highlights included a winning bid of $73,200 for a 19th-century daguerreotype metal plate photograph of an unidentified young woman that displayed superb resolution. The scientific mission recovery team nicknamed the woman Mona Lisa of the Deep after retrieving the photo in 2014 from the seabed, where it was discovered in a scattered pile of the ship’s coal.

SS Central America saloon sign, $13,200. Image courtesy of Holabird Western Americana Collections

Also, a small sign from the ship with the word SALOON earned $13,200; the steward’s key to the ship’s wine storage room brought $9,300; and a five-foot long scale model of the S.S. Central America, created in 1991, sold for $50,400.

This was the second and final auction of never-before-offered artifacts from the S.S. Central America. The first auction of 270 other items, held in December, attracted nearly $1 million in winning bids, including $114,000 for the oldest known pair of miner’s heavy-duty work pants, which may have been made by or for the Levi Strauss Company.

For additional information, please visit Holabird Western Americana Collections’ website at www.HolabirdAmericana.com, call 775-851-1859, or email info@HolabirdAmericana.com.

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