RENO, Nev. – A four-day Objects of Our Affection auction brimming with over 2,500 lots of numismatics, mining collectibles, Americana, railroad memorabilia and more will be conducted Thursday through Monday, Feb. 14-17, by Holabird Western Americana Collections LLC. Start times are 8 a.m. Pacific time. Bid absentee or live online through LiveAuctioneers.
Featured will be Part 1 of the John Reynolds collection of exonumia (numismatic items such as tokens, medals and scrip) and Americana; the Benjamin Fauver collection of counter tokens; the Bill Bliss collection of Potosi Mine (Nevada) gold and silver ingots; and numismatics, to include Masonic pennies, coins, medals, so-called dollars, tokens, shell cards, wooden money and dies.
Also sold will be original James Marshall California Gold Rush collectibles; mining equipment, maps, ephemera, USGS folios and rare stock certificates; art (including works by Franz Trevors and William Forrest Martin, plus Japanese Netsuke); a whiskey and beer shot collection; vintage baseball and boxing collectibles; stocks and bonds from the Ken Prag collection; and other items.
Day 1, on Friday, Feb. 14, will feature 74 lots of artwork, general Americana (to include jewelry, pocket watches, souvenir spoons, souvenir plates, ephemera (geographically sorted), miscellaneous items (including decoys, books, music, toys and more), an mining artifacts and ephemera (including books, more geographically sorted ephemera, equipment and other items).
Day 1 featured lots will include a painting by Nevada gaming artist Frank Trevors (above), commissioned by Felix Turrillas Jr., the owner of Felix’s Bank Club in Lovelock, Nevada, signed and dated 1944, of cowboys roping steer (est. $10,000-$15,000); and two large, important Reyes family land grant maps, expertly framed, from 1868, showing land that is today downtown Los Angeles and indicating the city’s first adobe houses (est. $4,000-$8,000).
Other star lots from Day 1 include a silver pie server (below) presented to California gold rush pioneer James Marshall at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, plus two cabinet card photos of Marshall, one of them signed by him (est. $5,000-$10,000).
A rare copy of March of Comics #4 (K.K. Publications, 1944), featuring Walt Disney’s Donald Duck, 32 pages in full color, cover art by Walt Kelly and inside script and art by Carl Banks (est. $500-$1,000).
Day 2, on Saturday, Feb. 15, will be dedicated to almost entirely to geographically sorted stocks and bonds (with categories that include mining, railroad, transportation and general). Also offered will be railroad artifacts and ephemera. In total, 643 lots will come up for bid on Day 2.
Lots to watch on Day 2 will include a stock certificate for Ocala & Silver Springs Co. (Ocala, Fla.), dated Jan. 18, 1892 for 100 shares, issued to William Black and signed by Civil War hero Joshua Chamberlain as president (est. $1,000-$1,500); and a stock certificate for the Sacramento Valley Rail Road Co. (Calif.), dated July 16, 1861 for 210 shares, issued to R.S. Tretz, signed by the president and secretary and featuring a railroad and gold miner vignette (est. $4,000-$6,000).
Day 3, on Sunday, Feb. 16, will be a dream come true for fans of numismatics. There will be coins (encased and elongated, Masonic and general), medals and so-called dollars, ingots, currency, exonumia, ephemera, tokens (shell cards and geographic sort), wooden money, dies and hobbs.
What could end up being the top-selling item in the entire auction will come up for bid on Day 3 as lot 3186: a small gold silver Potosi Mine (Nevada) ingot from the Bill Bliss collection, with a presale estimate of $10,000-$20,000. The ingot, about 8 grams, is engraved “Blasdel.” It was used as a “charm” for Grace Blasdel, whose husband Henry was the son of Nevada’s first governor, Henry G. Blasdel. The ingot was presented to Grace Blasdel on her wedding day in May 1895.
Day 4, on Monday, Feb. 17, will conclude the sale with a flourish. Offered will be firearms and militaria, cowboy collectibles, Native Americana, bottles and glass, sports collectibles and bargains and dealer specials to include general Americana, numismatics and stocks and bonds. The stocks and bonds will feature several categories, to include mining, railroad and general.
Noteworthy Day 4 lots will include a high-quality and ornate sterling silvered Mexican Charro parade-style saddle with matching sabre, sombrero and accoutrements, with all parts matching, used in the Pasadena Rose Parade circa 1940 (est. $3,500-$6,000); and a Merwin & Hulbert .44-.40 caliber first model revolver, manufactured by Hopkins & Allen (Norwich, Conn.), circa 1876-1878, a robust revolver thought to be the strongest design of its time (est. $2,500-$6,500).
For details or to order a color catalogs contact Holabird Western Americana Collections at 1-844-492-2766 or 775-851-1859 or fredholabird@gmail.com.
[av_button label=’View the fully illustrated catalogs and bid on LiveAuctioneers.’ link=’manually,https://www.liveauctioneers.com/auctioneer/2699/holabird-western-americana-collections/’ link_target=’_blank’ size=’medium’ position=’center’ label_display=” title_attr=” icon_select=’no’ icon=’ue800′ font=’entypo-fontello’ color=’theme-color’ custom_bg=’#444444′ custom_font=’#ffffff’ av_uid=’av-90s0ycq’ id=” custom_class=” admin_preview_bg=”]
