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Maine Antique Digest, May 2015 35-A
- SHOW -
Dealer Lisa Thomas of Erzsebet Bathory, Los Angeles,
was offering these 1940s-50s Tehauntepec (Oaxaca) vil-
lage costumes with antique lace on the bottoms, ranging
in price from $1200 to $1800 each. Thomas “sold a lot of
bateas” (Mexican wooden plates) as well as an eastern
European costume.
Prices ranged from $2200 to $3500 for these three
Apache ollas, circa 1910, at Venice, California, dealer
Philip Garaway’s booth.
Show producer and exhibitor Kim Martindale of
Venice, California, priced this 1930s Zuni pot at
$2900.
Arthur Erickson of Portland, Oregon, was
asking $2500 for this circa 1920 Sioux doc-
tor’s bag. In the show’s closing hours, Erick-
son said his sales made him “pretty darn
happy.”
From
Yesterday and Today
, a special exhibit com-
paring 150 historic and seldom-displayed Califor-
nia Indian baskets from the California Academy of
Sciences collection with 45 contemporary baskets,
was created by the California Indian Basketweav-
ers Association. Left: a coiled feather basket, 1982,
made by Dry Creek Pomo/Wappo basketmaker
Laura Somersal, and right: a twined cooking/stor-
age basket, late 1800s, Pomo, from the California
Academy of Sciences.
Barry Friedman of Phoenix, Arizona, author
of several books on collecting American trade
blankets (
Still Chasing Rainbows
is the most
recent), was asking $7500 for this circa 1904
Pendleton round-corner trade blanket. The
round-corner style was made only until 1908,
Friedman said. He noted that his books had
“reignited interest in antique American trade
blankets.”
Santa Fe, New Mexico, dealer Steve Elmore was
asking $55,000 for this “museum-quality” San
Ildefonso plate with mountain lions, based on a
Mimbres original, “a rare signed polychrome by
Maria and Julian Martinez dating from the late
1920s. My show was terrific, much stronger than I
anticipated,” said Elmore, who also reported sales
were strong of his just published book,
In Search of
Nampeyo: The Early Years, 1875-1892
.
Barry Walsh
of
Buffalo Barry’s
Indian Art, Holden, Massachu-
setts, was asking $8500 for this
circa 1900 Hopi maiden carving
and said this show was his “sec-
ond best ever, and the show’s not
over yet.”
Rocklin, California, dealer Jeff Voracek
was asking $6500 (“a wholesale price”)
for this “giant” (24" high) Apache olla.
Voracek called the show “excellent” and
said he’d sold Navajo rugs and blankets,
baskets, and bows. Most of the sales were
on Saturday. Sunday was “education
day,” he said.
Heidi Becker of Eugene,
Oregon, was asking $1600
for this 1920s “unusual,
elegant” Plateau two-
sided heart bag. Becker
said she’d had a “decent,
not great” show and sold
beadwork and jewelry.
This circa 1920
Blackfoot dress
was priced at
$7500 by AE
Tribal Antiques,
Laguna Niguel,
California.
Jackson Clark of Toh-Atin
Gallery, Durango, Colo-
rado, was asking $10,000 for
this 1910-20 Sioux cradle-
board cover. Clark noticed
“a lot of young people”
attending the show. He’d
sold jewelry, Navajo rugs,
paintings, and beadwork.
New York City dealer
John Molloy was ask-
ing $6500 for this early
20th-century Piptuka or
“Striding” kachina. In
the background, a late
19th-century
German-
town third-phase chief’s
blanket was priced at
$12,500. Molloy said the
show was “beautifully
appointed,” and he had
special praise for the bas-
ket exhibit “by people
who lived and live in Cali-
fornia, showing what orig-
inal people did with local
materials. A worldview of
living in harmony with
nature is what we love
about indigenous art.”
This painting on rawhide of a knife-
wing dancer is by Teddy Weahkee,
better known for his knife-wing jew-
elry designs. Silver Across Borders,
Santa Fe, New Mexico, was asking
$2500 for the painted hide.