NEW YORK — Tastemaker Rose Tarlow has had her finger on the pulse of California design since the 1970s, when she opened an antiques store in Los Angeles. She makes combining antiques and eclectic items look effortless, a service she offers through her interior design and furnishings business, now called Rose Tarlow Melrose House. She and her team create unique pieces that embrace color, texture, proportions, and above all, style and personality.
NEW YORK — Probably the most famous decoy carver to come out of Connecticut was Charles Edward ‘Shang’ Wheeler (1872-1949). He didn’t just carve decoys; he also worked for a time as hunting guide, a sailor, and even a politician. He also collected decoys from other makers and helped stage exhibitions of decoy ducks and wild birds together with renowned decoy collector and author Joel Barber.
Hailing from Stratford, Connecticut, Wheeler worked in the Connecticut tradition of making hollow-bodied decoys for use on the Long Island Sound, but he did not limit himself to one style. His best decoys were often created for competitions, and in 1923, he made his grand debut at a decoy show in Long Island, New York, taking home first prize. That show included a competition carving event to encourage hunters to use decoys in shooting. Shows like this helped Wheeler’s reputation spread far beyond his native Connecticut, and his decoys quickly became staples in hunters’ decoy rigs up and down the East Coast. Today, his decoys are prized as folk art, displayed on a shelf or in a glass case, never to touch water again.
Wheeler’s unusual nickname apparently dates back to his days in a military academy, when he was a pencil-thin, 6-foot-tall teenager. According to some online sources, the nickname was said to have combined two words: “chang”, after the moniker of a tall circus sideshow performer, and “langshan”, for the tall breed of German chickens.
“Wheeler is best known for his variety of decoys and shorebirds all made in a ‘gunning style’ — much of what he made was meant to be placed on the mantle or entered into decoy carving competitions,” said Jon Deeter, partner of Guyette & Deeter Inc. in St. Michaels, Maryland. “He did make gunning decoys, and some were used, but he was a true artist who liked to carve, paint, and display his works. Some are hollow and some are solid, but all are in the traditional Connecticut School style.”
Arguably, Wheeler was at his finest with his birds that appear as if they are sleeping or totally unaware of the presence of a hunter in a nearby blind. Wheeler was an avid observer, studying the birds that frequented local ponds and creeks to see how they carried themselves, and, in particular, how they positioned their heads. His decoys are highly realistic and expertly mimic the graceful lines of his subjects, which range from ducks to sailfish to sandhill cranes.
A circa-1940 resting mallard drake — a rare form featuring a sleeping drake, or male duck, instead of a sleeping hen, or female duck — shows a relaxed pose that buyers find appealing. The drake, which brought $120,000 plus the buyer’s premium at Guyette & Deeter, Inc. in August 2021, had its head tilted to the side and its bill tucked into a nesting wing.
Wheeler’s forte was his wood ducks, and his best examples have attracted the interest of decoy historians as well as sophisticated collectors, the latter of which included noted collectors such as Peggy and David Rockefeller. A pair of wood ducks from Wheeler’s personal collection was handpicked to join the Rockefellers’ collection. Much later, the circa-1935 duck decoy duo was auctioned in March 2022 for $180,000 plus the buyer’s premium at Copley Fine Art Auctions. A photograph of Wheeler’s display at the 1948 National Decoy Makers Contest and Exhibition at Grand Central Palace in New York City shows this same pair, which is noted for having relaxed crests and turned heads, as well as the hen having her turned head tucked into her breast.
“With most decoy makers, there tends to be a magic period that collectors gravitate towards. For me, the birds that Shang Wheeler (1872-1942) created between 1923 and 1935 really resonate,” said Steve O’Brien Jr., owner and decoy specialist at Copley Fine Art Auctions in Hingham, Massachusetts. The Rockefeller ducks represent the high water mark for Wheeler birds, he added. “With the maker’s best carving, bright palette, and provenance, there is no finer Wheeler pair that I know of. Kory Rogers, the John and Francie Downing senior curator of American art at the Shelburne Museum, may disagree, as the museum has a terrific mallard pair that was owned by decoy legend Joel Barber.”
Also featuring Wheeler’s famed attention to detail and realistic head positioning was a circa-1940 pair of wood ducks that swam away with $47,500 plus the buyer’s premium in July 2021 at Copley Fine Art Auctions. Composed of a preening drake and a turned-head hen, the pair had scrupulously detailed carving on the bills, wing tips, and the male’s ‘feather’ crest. This pair was featured in Henry Chitwood’s book on Connecticut decoys, which cited it among the most lavish of Wheeler’s decorative carvings.
The drake, in particular, ticks all the boxes for elite Wheeler collectors. “The head is artfully and accurately turned around from the right side of the breast and is topped with a pronounced crest. The accurately presented bill is heavily incised and shoots across the bird’s back, touching down between the raised wings,” according to Copley’s catalog description for the pair. Proportions overall and the sophisticated comb painting Wheeler is well known for are also worth recognizing in this pair of birds.
While it was not until 1923 that Wheeler made a splashy showing on the competition-carving circuit, he had been carving decoys for more than a decade at that point. Decoys such as a circa-1910 preening black duck decoy catch him in the process of honing his craft. That decoy achieved a strong price of $9,000 plus the buyer’s premium in February 2021 at Copley Fine Art Auctions, and featured fine carving and paint detail.
Collectors eagerly snap up works by Wheeler that don’t often appear at auction, such as a Surf Scoter decoy that secured $21,000 plus the buyer’s premium in February 2021 at Copley Fine Art Auctions. Scoter decoys were seldom made by Wheeler or any decoy maker, and this hollow-bodied example has lavish carving and a finely turned head.
The market for duck decoys is strong and resilient overall, Deeter stated. “Our company has been blessed with selling many great collections over the last few years, and while some of the old guard are missing, they are being replaced with new and enthusiastic collectors,” he said. “Many of the new collectors have deep pockets and are interested in quality pieces. Wheelers are doing fine right now. The Connecticut School is not soft but not on fire, so it’s probably a good time to pay attention to decoys from that area.”
Wheeler decoys generally sell in the range of $5,000 to $70,000, Deeter said, adding, “That’s a broad range, so a newer collector needs to do some homework to understand the significance of each piece.”
Among those affordable to beginning collectors are Wheeler’s cork-bodied decoys, such as a bluebill with an inset wooden tail and well-carved head that sold for $9,500 plus the buyer’s premium in November 2021 at Guyette & Deeter, Inc., or a Canada goose in the same auction that took $8,000 plus the buyer’s premium.
Demographic trends for decoy collectors are varied, but they skew slightly towards veteran collectors for the highest-end examples, which tend to bring high six-figure prices. “Over the last 18 years, Copley has worked with collectors in almost every state in North America,” said O’Brien Jr. “As with most fields, there are three significant driving forces to collecting: passion, time, and money. It is often after people retire that they fully tap into all three of these.”
That said, the decoy market is broad enough to satisfy collectors at all price points. “The great thing about decoy collecting is that there is something for everyone. There are more decoy collectors today than ever before,” said O’Brien Jr. “Entry levels for good decoys start in the hundreds of dollars and go all the way up to over a million. Wheeler’s cork decoys start in the hundreds, his wooden decoys start in the thousands, and on a few occasions, Copley has sold his works for six figures.”
NEW YORK — Advertising mascots can not only make a brand stand out but also provoke an emotional response in audiences, increasing the chance that they become loyal customers. Animals are a popular motif in advertising, and perhaps none are more striking than those in motor oil and gas signs.
Highway and gas station signs of the 20th century did more than let drivers know where they could fuel up their vehicles. They helped brighten long road trips, figuratively and literally, with their bright logos and bold graphics and lettering. These signs used both obvious and subtle messages to tout the attributes of their products to consumers — reliability, speed, dependability, smoothness, and the like.
In the realm of petroliana, animal mascots are typically robust-looking and chosen to reflect the quality of the particular oil or gas. A Power-Lube Motor Oil double-sided porcelain sign that sold for $10,000 plus the buyer’s premium in August 2022 at Richmond Auctions was titled ‘Smooth as the Tread of a Tiger’ and prominently pictures a tiger in mid-step.
“Bright colors and animals in graphics are going to sell your product,” said John Mihovetz, department head and expert in automobilia and petroliana at Dan Morphy Auctions, based in Denver, Pennsylvania. Explaining how marketers probably realized the merits of animals as mascots, he said, “I think they were looking for eye-catch. When it’s just in a sea of advertising, animals are such a great way to show that.”
Animal-themed petroliana signs are highly collectible, and the market was lively even before the pandemic spurred a wave of nostalgia that drove collectibles markets to new heights in 2020. Petroliana markets have shown little signs of abating, and that definitely holds true for animal-themed petroliana signs. “I personally think it just comes down to eye appeal. If you look at some of the graphics that are on the signs and you look at what’s really bringing the money, it’s highly detailed graphics,” Mihovetz said. “And most of the time you’re dealing with a great animal graphic or Native American graphics. That’s really what’s going to push the price — that and condition.”
One fine example that had everything going for it was a Husky Gasoline & Motor Oils ‘Gets You Thru’ single-sided tin billboard sign emblazoned with the image of a Husky dog. Retaining its original wood frame, this 96-by-60in sign attained $390,000 plus the buyer’s premium in September 2022 at Dan Morphy Auctions. Most petroliana signs were made from porcelain, which usually withstood the punishments of the outdoors better than tin, but this one was in fine overall condition, considering its age, and it retained good color and gloss.
“It’s one of two known example examples and by far the highest-rated example — a centerpiece for a collection. You see it in person and it’s unbelievable, just a mesmerizing piece and so colorful and graphic,” Mihovetz added.
All manner of animals have served as petroliana advertising mascots, including the mythical and the extinct. Mobil has been a major player in the petroliana world dating back to when it was known as Standard Oil, and has embraced a beast from the former category. Its Pegasus mascot is instantly recognizable and has graced porcelain and neon signs alike, such as a large Pegasus porcelain and neon sign that rotates. The double-signed sign, standing 103in tall, made $80,000 plus the buyer’s premium in July 2023 at Richmond Auctions.
Leading the contingent of extinct animals is Sinclair’s beloved apatosaurus (formerly called a brontosaurus), known as Dino. This longtime advertising mascot was trademarked in 1932 and chosen by the company’s advertising writers to use in marketing two years earlier. The writers played off the company’s use of crude oil that dated to the time of dinosaurs, and came up with Dino as their friendly ambassador. He appeared in many ad campaigns and signs, including a Sinclair Pennsylvania Motor Oils porcelain curb sign that earned $40,000 plus the buyer’s premium in October 2022 at Dan Morphy Auctions.
Polar bears have been pressed into service as mascots for Coca-Cola and Polar Seltzer, which has an inflatable lifesize version topping its roadside headquarters in Worcester, Massachusetts. Petroliana answered with the polar bear mascot for Zerolene, which can be seen in a 24in-round Standard Oil Zerolene single-sided porcelain sign that realized $44,000 plus the buyer’s premium in March 2022 at Richmond Auctions.
An unusual choice for a motor oil product mascot is certainly the parrot that appears on an Atlantic NC Motor Oil ‘Stops Ford Chatter Instantly’ wood-framed sign, which sold for $18,000 plus the buyer’s premium in April 2022 at Matthews Auctions, LLC. This parrot has his beak muzzled to suggest that cars run quieter with Atlantic oil.
Collectors are especially fond of service station signs, and a particular favorite is a 1940 Frontier Gas ‘Rarin’ to Go’ example in porcelain. This double-sided oval sign features a gold horse and rider in the center above four stars with a unique script font; other similar Frontier signs lack stars and have a bifurcated red-and-white background. One such sign rode well past its $50,000-$100,000 estimate to bring $170,000 plus the buyer’s premium in March 2023 at Dan Morphy Auctions. Retaining brilliant color and gloss, the sign is cataloged as being in excellent condition and has a 60in diameter.
While the best examples of animal-motif petroliana will typically bring the best prices, Mihovetz explained, “There is always going to be a market for graphic advertising in any condition, especially something with an animal. But if it’s got an animal and it’s really high grade, that’s the stuff that we are seeing right now that is really pushing prices.”
The golden era for oil and gas signs with appealing graphics was between the 1920s and 1950s, he added. Even though these signs were mass-produced, few have survived in great condition. Those considered ‘new old stock,’ which likely languished for decades in warehouses, attic rafters, under floorboards, or in a closet, can easily attain six figures.
Mihovetz said the current market is “unbelievably strong”, and signs with images of animals are bringing huge money. Collectors tend to be mostly men ages 25 and up, but he went on to say “right now, I think it’s a really wide-open market. There are more new buyers entering this market than there were 30 years or more ago, when access to information was an entry barrier. We have seen a lot of sophisticated buyers coming up quickly with all the technology that is available to do research now.”
The best advice Mihovetz has for new collectors is advice he was given years earlier: try to buy the highest-quality piece at whatever price you can afford. “Fortunately, with gas and oil, there is a price point for just about everything,” he said. “There are great, phenomenal mint condition pieces in gas and oil that have graphics of animals that are $1,000, all the way up to the six-figure range, but you have to have patience and wait for a couple good buys here and there.”
NEW YORK – Once upon a time, not that long ago, men were the purchasers of most women’s jewelry, which they gave as gifts to the women they loved. As social mores and fashions have evolved, that has changed. By the 1960s, propelled by the feminist revolution, women began buying their own jewelry as well as making it. Independent-minded women with sophisticated tastes actively sought out women-designed jewelry, and Paloma Picasso, Marina Bulgari, Suzanne Belperron, and Elsa Peretti were among the women who made jewelry for them. Paloma Picasso (b. 1949-) remains a standout among her peers. To reach the upper echelon of the industry, as she did, took aplomb and talent. “Women might have been thought of as fashion jewelers, but when you got into the highest level of jewelry manufacturing and designing, she really broke into that, and that’s really important,” said Dianne Batista, director of jewelry and watches and senior specialist at Rago Arts and Auction Center in Lambertville, New Jersey.
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NEW YORK — Born in Ukraine, Sonia Delaunay (1885–1979) is best known as a French artist, as she spent most of her career working in Paris in the fields of art, textiles, fashion, and set design. She was all about color, and her groundbreaking designs preceded those of the Color Field painters by several decades. Her striking combinations of vivid hues were accentuated by repeating patterns, which worked together to highlight complementary and contrasting swaths of color.
Above: A 1924 René Lalique perfume bottle, known as A Travers La Voilette, earned $15,000 plus the buyer’s premium in May 2021. Image courtesy of Perfume Bottles Auction via LiveAuctioneers.
NEW YORK — Before René Lalique (1860-1945) made his first vessel for noted perfumer Francois Coty in 1907, perfume bottles were commercially produced things to store perfume in, which were typically thrown away after the perfume was used up. In the innovative glassmaker’s hands, however, these receptacles became works of art and gained their own name: flacons, a term describing small decorative bottles that have a stopper or cap. Today, their value lies not in their contents (most collectible bottles are displayed empty, regardless), but in their design.
Lalique and Coty’s work on that first perfume bottle was a game changer. “Their collaboration revolutionized the perfume industry: never before had fragrance bottles been so desirable, so collectible, in their own right. Many were numbered and signed – and fetch heart-stopping prices at auction today,” according to the Perfume Society’s website. Lalique and perfume bottles became synonymous, and by the 1930s, most of Europe’s perfumers were calling on Lalique to create bottles for their fragrances.
“There is an automatic mystique that comes to mind with the name Lalique. One pictures a frosty acid-finished bottle of unusual form and delicate presentation,” said Ken Leach of Perfume Bottles Auction of New York City. “Following his legendary success at the Paris Exposition of 1900, the Lalique name has been recognized worldwide — synonymous with artistry, imagination, technical execution, and luxury.”
Many of the most desirable Lalique perfume bottles are the early ones, especially those designed by René Lalique himself or clearly made under his guidance. Lalique is known to have collaborated with other glass artists such as Andre Jollivet and Lucien Gaillard, “but I’m certain that he had first and last say on every design issued,” Leach noted. “The earliest experimental bottles by his hand have sold in the six figures, and those of his own inventive molding techniques, dating to 1900 to 1920, typically command higher prices than later models. Results vary depending on if something is rarely seen, or [if] one in complete and untouched condition would appear.”
A standout is a 1912 René Lalique Oreilles Epines perfume bottle that attained $70,000 plus the buyer’s premium in April 2022 at Perfume Bottles Auction. After designing bottles for the perfume industry between 1908 and 1910, Lalique began to design vanity items for his own firm, including perfume bottles. Several were like this one, which had ‘ears,’ or handles, extending from the sides of the main perfume chamber. While Lalique moved to Paris at age two, he was born in Ay in northeastern France and often summered there, instilling in him an appreciation for the natural world. His interest can be seen in his Art Nouveau designs, as embodied by this bottle.
“The bottle ‘Oreilles epines (Ears with thorns)’ is one of three designs Lalique created in 1912 featuring a unique shape and a molding process of Lalique’s invention, where the conical body was cast with solid protruding handles, or ‘ears’, impressed with entwined thorns, and a separately molded base fused in reheating,” Leach said, adding, “A colored patina was applied to the thorn pattern on the stopper and bottle to accentuate the design.” The brown patina of the thickly molded glass used in this bottle, letting light shine into certain areas, also adds to its naturalistic look and gives it a three-dimensional quality. “Very few of this model are known to exist, which led to a well deserved result,” he said. “This bottle had remained in the same family since it was newly purchased, and it was featured in an episode of Antiques Roadshow.”
Lalique’s interest in natural themes shaped much of his work. “His earliest glass designs incorporate a combined fantasy of classical imagery, mermaids, fairies, foliage, and fauna,” Leach said. “As his contemporaries moved on from the sinuous Art Nouveau style to the static Art Deco, Lalique often clung to his mythical and organically inspired motifs into the 1940s.”
Evocative of the Art Nouveau era is a circa-1912 clear and frosted glass Fougère (Ferns) perfume bottle that brought $18,000 plus the buyer’s premium in January 2023 at Heritage Auctions. Ferns and naturalistic decoration festoon the perfume chamber, and the medallions on each side depict an attractive young woman.
Another Lalique bottle sporting ‘ears’, as does the aforementioned Oreilles Epines flacon, is a Perroquets (Parrots) glass perfume bottle that made £15,000 ($19,070) plus the buyer’s premium in July 2021 at Kinghams Auctioneers. It was designed around 1919 and has a stopper in a fan form. Black stain on the ears enhances and reveals the parrots. According to the auctioneer’s notes, no other example in this design is known.
Also having an Art Deco feel is a circa 1920s-1930s Trois Groupes De Deux Danseuses perfume bottle, which brought $47,500 plus the buyer’s premium at Akiba Galleries in April 2022. It features relief decoration of dancing nude women.
Lalique proved himself a master glassmaker with clever designs such as his 1924 flacon for Isabay’s fragrance A Travers La Voilette, which translates to ‘through the veil.’ This bottle made $15,000 plus the buyer’s premium in May 2021 at Perfume Bottles Auction and features clear glass hand-painted on the shoulder and a darker hue near the base. The veil pattern was repeated in the accompanying box.
The presence of a Lalique perfume bottle’s original box can enhance the lot, as seen with a 1928 flacon for Canarina Les Yeux Bleus (The Blue Eyes) in blue glass, which was graced with Egyptian-style decoration. The bottle and its embossed paper box made $5,000 plus the buyer’s premium in April 2022 at Perfume Bottles Auction.
Interest in all things Lalique has long been healthy and pronounced, but perfume bottles tend to appeal to a broad audience. “Over my 60-plus years of watching the antiques market cycle through highs and lows, trends and fads, the consistent interest in vintage Lalique glass objects took a turn in the late 1970s from a mostly English and American male-dominated collecting focus of vases and hood ornaments to include a new interest in perfume bottles,” Leach said. “Prices rose significantly as women and Asian collectors stepped into the auction arena.”
Building a Lalique perfume bottle collection is a possibility for every taste and budget. The factory produced bottles for at least 60 perfume companies, some in limited editions and some in massive quantities. “Because of the great variety of choice, prices can range from literally $20 for the beginner to over $100,000 for the sophisticate,” Leach said. “Lalique bottles were so beautifully designed that often they have been kept empty on display all these years.”
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NEW YORK — The advent of ships, trains, and planes in the early 20th century jump-started the travel industry, making its pleasures available to the middle class. Long before the Internet, however, tourist destinations and tour operators needed a way to stand out from their competitors and attract vacationers. The answer came in the form of bright, colorful, and visually compelling posters that promised fun and delights far from home. Boasting minimal text and alluring images of people frolicking on ski slopes or beaches, vintage travel posters are, and continue to be, highly collectible. Original examples in good condition are scarce as these advertisements were meant to be ephemeral, displayed for weeks or a few months at most.
NEW YORK — While there is some debate over exactly how squash blossom necklaces got their name, one thing is for certain: they are among the most important forms of Native American jewelry to come out of the American Southwest. Named for the large petal-like stones — typically turquoise — that are set to look like the flowers on a squash plant, these necklaces have three key parts: the gems that comprise the squash blossoms, the smaller round beads surrounding them, and the naja, a horseshoe or crescent-shaped pendant hanging from the bottom.
Much of the appeal of squash blossom necklaces comes from the stones that are used. That definitely was the case with a silver and turquoise squash blossom necklace, likely Navajo in origin, which attained $25,000 plus the buyer’s premium in July 2023 at Alex Cooper Auctioneers. “The turquoise in this necklace is native to the American Southwest region,” said Selden Morgan, director of sales and fine jewelry at Alex Cooper Auctioneers, which has offices in Towson, Maryland and Washington, D.C. “It is exceptional, well matched and rare, a type called spiderweb. The silver is composed of expertly crafted squash blossoms, a traditional bead necklace, fine rope details and naja. It exhibits an exemplary balance between turquoise and traditional silver work.”
Not all turquoise is created equally. It is a rather soft and porous stone that easily chips and cracks, which is why it is often “stabilized” or hardened with other materials, explained Erin Rust, a Native American art specialist at Hindman in Chicago. “However, there is a rather small proportion of turquoise that is considered high-quality gem-grade stones. These stones are harder and more luminous in color,” she said.
Some of the best-regarded examples of turquoise emerged from the Lander Blue Mine in Nevada, which was mined briefly in the 1970s and is believed to have only produced roughly 100 pounds of high-grade material. A piece that might include stones from the mine is a silver squash blossom necklace with 12 blossoms, each with a single high-grade spiderweb turquoise stone and offered with a pair of matching earrings, which earned $13,000 plus the buyer’s premium in May 2019 at Hindman.
“The turquoise is what sets this necklace apart. The stones on this particular necklace have similar characteristics to those of the Lander Blue Mine. The high contrast between the dark ‘spiderweb’ matrix and rich turquoise color is very desirable and only found in a few mines,” Rust said. “Without documentation, we cannot say for sure that the stones in this necklace are Lander. However, the necklace is from the correct period of time. The stones are very high quality, with similar characteristics such as the high luster, depth of color, and webbing matrix, which, in the end, is what drove the price.”
Collectors pounce on necklaces that feature Lander turquoise, such as a circa-1970 Lander turquoise and silver squash blossom necklace attributed to the Diné (Navajo) people that had about 90 carats of the coveted stone. The necklace made $19,000 plus the buyer’s premium at Santa Fe Art Auction in August 2022.
Generally speaking, the three basic attributes Rust looks for in squash blossom necklaces are:
“Quality craftsmanship and well-matched turquoise are highly desirable aspects of a squash blossom necklace,” Morgan said. “Collectors may also consider the size of the naja, the proportions of the necklace, and whether the piece is signed. One with rare, well-matched turquoise in very good condition with well-defined blossoms would be highly collectible.”
According to the website for the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology in Albuquerque, New Mexico, “The history of the origins of squash blossom necklaces is unclear, but they are believed to have been first made in the late 19th century by Native artists.” The naja centerpiece, which is mostly seen as a fertility symbol or used for protection, may have been a North African design that was assimilated by Spanish settlers moving north from Mexico. This form was then exposed to the Southwest peoples. The pomegranate-like shape of the squash blossom design and the horseshoe shape of the naja are both evocative of Spanish culture, which Native peoples often borrowed and interpreted.
Some also say that by the 1870s, Spanish soldiers may have begun trading these necklaces to the Navajo people. They were the first group of Native Americans to begin crafting squash blossom necklaces, and these observers claim that the necklaces represent a blending of Spanish and Native American cultures. The Zuni and Hopi tribal communities are believed to have adopted the necklace design by the 1890s. According to the museum, the earliest examples of squash blossom necklaces were made from silver collected by melting down Spanish or American coins, but later, sheet metal was used in silversmithing.
While squash blossom necklaces don’t appear to have had specific ceremonial uses within Native cultures, they seem to have served as status symbols for those who wore them. The more intricate the necklace, the more valued or important the person was.
Those living beyond the Southwest first became interested in squash blossom necklaces in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when railroads brought tourist trade to the region. Demand really kicked off in the 1960s when publications and exhibitions brought Native American crafts to a broader audience, Morgan said. The advent of The Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe and the Scottsdale Show in Arizona, which both supported and held competitions for artists, caused a production surge.
The appetite for beautiful, thoughtfully designed squash blossom necklaces has yet to abate. A Navajo example with a slightly unusual look made $16,000 plus the buyer’s premium at Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates in June 2022. Set with 18 blossoms, the silver necklace featured a double-form naja that was closed. Buyers evidently liked this style as this piece performed markedly well.
Another interesting take on this classic form was a circa-1940 sterling silver and turquoise box and bow squash blossom necklace, which brought $8,000 at Santa Fe Art Auction in November 2023. The pair of seven turquoise beads running up the sides of the necklace are shaped like bows.
Although most squash blossom necklaces are made with turquoise, this is not always the case. Native American artists have long been interested in coral, and perhaps the best coral in the world comes from the Mediterranean. Squash blossom necklaces that showcase coral typically do not bring as much money as those with turquoise, but they are still cherished by buyers. A Ray Bennett Mediterranean coral squash blossom necklace sold for $6,500 plus the buyer’s premium in November 2021 at Billy The Kid Auction House.
A snapshot of today’s squash blossom necklace market indicates that it is strong and healthy, especially for vintage examples. “From our experience, buyers are willing to pay increasingly higher prices for quality Native American jewelry. The majority of the jewelry we are seeing come onto the market are pieces purchased decades ago in the Southwest, which have been residing in private collections ever since,” Morgan said. “They are becoming available as people downsize and are ready to give their jewelry a new life with a new owner. These pieces are primarily being sought after by American collectors, though there is international interest as well.”
Rust echoed Morgan’s comments, noting,“The auction market for good, high-quality squash blossoms is holding strong and bringing commanding prices. However, I have noticed that the middle- and lower-market pieces have been a little harder of a sell, bringing less than the past few years.”
Morgan said while there are pieces that go for in excess of $20,000, many more are available at prices better suited to beginning collectors, and added, “It is a great time to get into collecting Native American jewelry and craft. The Navajo excel at metalwork and produce many of the quintessentially regarded squash blossom necklaces, but the Zuni are expert carvers of turquoise and furnished the Navajo with many of the stones used in the squash blossom necklaces, as well as crafting beautiful and seemingly delicate pieces of their own.”
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NEW YORK — Those who foolishly pigeonhole Ira Yeager as just another California artist will miss out on the breadth of his varied and delightful career.
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NEW YORK — Plastic is omnipresent today, but during the Machine Age, which spanned the years 1915 to 1940, it was just coming into its own as a valuable yet affordable material. Chemist Leo Baekeland, who invented Bakelite in 1907, and the American Catalin Corporation, which developed the similar thermosetting resin-based polymer it named Catalin two decades later, are some of the pioneers. These and other plastics were easily colored and molded into shapes suitable for household products, including one that revolutionized the world, long before TV and the Internet — the radio.