FRANKLIN, TN – Mark Catesby (1683-1749) was born in England, but after traveling to South Carolina, he became America’s first naturalist and illustrator. A century before Audubon, he published the seminal Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands: Containing the Figures of Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, Insects, and Plants, a comprehensive work and the first of its kind in the colonies.
A folio from the second printing, published in 1754 came to auction April 6 at Trillium Antique Prints & Rare Books as part of its Antique Maps & Prints sale. The hand-colored etching features a Heath Hen (also known as a Greater Prairie Chicken), a now-extinct species of bird native to South Carolina. Alongside the masterful rendering is an Eastern Shooting Star, a small, flowering plant also native to South Carolina.
As Trillium noted, ‘Engravers could not be afforded to get the work to print, so Catesby studied under Joseph Goupy where he learned how to etch the plates himself.’ The etching came with a solid $2,000-$4,000 estimate, but dozens of bids brought the final hammer to $5,050, or $5,555 with buyer’s premium.
WINCHESTER, VA – A telegram handed to General Ulysses S. Grant at the Philadelphia train station informing him of President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination hammered for $70,000 and sold for $91,000 with buyer’s premium March 30 at Early American History Auctions during its Autographs-Currency-Political-Americana sale.
The telegram reads:
Dated Wash(ington) 14 1865. — Red’d, Philadelphia (no time recorded)
To Lt Genl Grant — An attempt has been made tonight to assassinate the Presdt & secy Seward & has probably succeeded as both have been wounded suffered mortally – The Presidt was shot in Fords Theatre, this is for your information to put on your guard — (Signed) Jno (John) A(aron) Rawlins chf of staff
The lot had been generously estimated at $20,000-$40,000, but a fierce battle broke out among various LiveAuctioneers bidders, having vacated the in-house bids early on. The final $70,000 hammer came as nearly 50 bidders watched the lot.
ST. PAUL, MN – A late work by Charles Eugene Shannon (1914-1996) sold for $11,000 ($14,300 with buyer’s premium) against an estimate $2,000-$4,000 at Revere Auctions on March 26. Shannon, the leader of the New South group of white artists in Montgomery, Alabama, is best known for his portrayals of African American life in the rural South – and as the artist who ‘discovered’ fellow Montgomery artist Bill Traylor.
This 2ft 6in by 3ft 4in oil on canvas titled View of the Courthouse depicts African Americans on a hazy city street. Dated 1983, it was painted shortly after the retrospective exhibition Charles Shannon Painting and Drawing had traveled to six major southern museums. It was consigned from what the auction house called ‘a distinguished corporate collection in Minnesota’.
As a young man in 1939, Shannon encountered the 85-year-old Bill Traylor drawing outside a blacksmith shop in Montgomery. Shannon provided Traylor with encouragement and art supplies during the following three years and purchased, for modest prices, more than 1,200 works from Traylor.
SAN ANTONIO, TX – Robert Jenkins Onderdonk (1852-1917) is a king among historic Texas artists. Born in Maryland and relocating to the Lone Star State in 1878 after studying at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League of New York, he started the first artist groups in Texas and has come to define Central Texas through his rich and generous interpretations of the state in the 19th century.
Vogt Auction Texas brought an Onderdonk watercolor landscape study to market at its Texas & Western Art sale on April 6. It was all the more appealing as the reverse included a handwritten note from his daughter, presenting View of the San Pedro Creek (San Antonio, Texas) as a gift, noting I am sure he would want you to have something. Estimated at $4,000-$5,000, the work skyrocketed to an $18,000 hammer and sold for $22,500 with buyer’s premium.
LOS ANGELES – Born in 1968, David Kracov has lived an amazing life. Winning art competitions beginning at age 12, graduating from the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, serving as an animator for Disney, Ralph Bakshi, and others, and helping to create timeless classics such as The Lion King, Aladdin, and Cool World.
Kracov began to sculpt in clay and later painted metal, for which he is now primarily known. He issues each design in limited editions, and all are highly sought by celebrities and private collectors alike.
Kracov’s Book of Life came for sale from a private Southern Californian collection at Abell Auction on April 4. Modestly estimated at just $1,000-$2,000, it hammered for $19,000 and sold for $24,320 with buyer’s premium after nearly two dozen competing bids from the floor and LiveAuctioneers.