Maine Antique Digest May 2015

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Maine Antique Digest, May 2015 23-B
- FEATURE -
☞
Garth’s Auctioneers and Appraisers
in Delaware, Ohio, auctioned an
Ohio woman’s lifetime collection
of American Indian jewelry on March
12. The 204-lot sale included necklaces,
cuffs, rings, pendants, and belt buckles
using turquoise from Battle Mountain
(Nevada), coral, mother-of-pearl, jet,
malachite, and abalone. Jewelry made by
Native American artists Loren Thomas
Begay, Albert and Dolly Banteah, Carol
Kee, Raymond Quam, Wayne Silvers,
Andy Lee Kirk, and others was on the
block.
Amelia Jeffers,
president of Garth’s,
said in a presale press
release, “While Ameri-
can Indian jewelry fre-
quently comes to mar-
ket with some degree
of regularity, you don’t
often see a lifetime col-
lection that has been
curated with this kind
of interest and enthusiasm. She traveled
throughout the West getting to know the
artists’ families, and she learned to love
the culture and traditions as well as the
jewelry.”
About one-quarter of the auction con-
sisted of the work of Andy Lee Kirk
(Navajo, 1947-2001), and the top lot of
the sale was a hand-formed 14k or 18k
gold cuff bracelet by Kirk with individu-
ally set Battle Mountain turquoise cabo-
chon stones. It realized $5400 (includes
buyer’s premium); the estimate was
$2500/4500. Garth’s said, “In Andy’s
fifty-four short years, he became a bril-
liant jewelry maker and a nurturer of tra-
dition and culture.”
When the consignor originally saw
Kirk’s collection, she was “overwhelmed
with the decision regarding which pieces
to buy” and decided to purchase all of
them. She reminisced about that trip,
saying that “to watch Andy work was
fascinating; his artistry was effortless.”
Kirk earned a degree in biology from
the University of New Mexico and stud-
ied the basics of jewelry making there,
continuing to make jewelry while work-
ing first for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and then the Forest Service.
Eventually jewelry became his fulltime
focus. Kirk began to win awards for his
work. In 1996, he won the coveted Indian
Arts and Crafts Association (IACA) art-
ist of the year designation. He also won
numerous awards at the Southwestern
Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA)
Indian Market including first place and
best in division.
I spoke with Amelia Jeffers, who had
taken the podium for the entire sale. She
was emotionally involved from the start,
putting the auction together with the
Ohio woman, with whom Garth’s has
enjoyed a relationship for many years.
Jeffers was surprised that some of the
Andy Lee Kirk items either passed or
sold below estimates. “It was so well
made. We really put a lot of effort into
marketing that.”
Garth’s showcased the sale in a You-
the consignor sharing information and
telling stories about individual pieces
she’d collected over a period of 30 years.
The consignor chose to attend the auc-
tion, even though Jeffers recommended
against it. Jeffers had told her, “If it’s
a train wreck, you’re going to be sad;
it’s going to kill me as the auctioneer
because I know you so well. If it is a
success, you’re going to be happy and
celebratory, and usually buyers don’t
want to reward sellers—they see
it as greed—that’s not going to go
well.” The woman replied, “Ame-
lia, win, lose, or draw, you guys
have done an awesome job, and I
wouldn’t miss seeing you sell this for
the world.” She sat in the audience,
and before the selling began, Garth’s
played the YouTube video, and peo-
ple said they had goose bumps.
“She was very involved—all our
consignors are—in the descrip-
tions and estimates. We always
include them in the
process. We went a
little high on some
of those estimates.
We were probably
aggressive. But at
the end of the day, it
took care of itself.”
Jeffers said it is
important to include
consignors in the
sale because even
though Garth’s, as an auction house, has
developed an expertise in various mar-
kets, has jewelry experts on staff, and
has sold a lot of American Indian jew-
elry, “…there’s nothing like the person
who is out there, doing the homework,
buying jewelry, looking it up—they
always know infinitely more—I don’t
care who the auction house is and what
kind of degree the specialist has, these
people who are digging in and spend-
ing their own money are the ones that
really get to know” about what they are
collecting.
Jeffers said there was strong Internet
interest in this collection and a small
audience in the room. For Americana,
Asian, and European-based auctions
Garth’s will generally have 75 to 100
folks in the audience, and “for a strong
Americana sale we’ll get two or three
hundred people.” Seeing the small audi-
ence was initially a little nerve-rack-
ing for Jeffers, but as the auction pro-
gressed, she realized that “these were
the right twenty-five folks, and they
were all bidding. We had serious buyers
in the audience. Some of the top pieces
sold to the audience.”
Lots that go unsold are available for
the low estimate after the auction. Jef-
fers said one of the Kirk bracelets that
was passed had already sold by the time
we spoke in the days after the sale.
When asked about how the jewelry
market is faring, Jeffers answered, “Gen-
erally, I think it’s a pretty strong market
right now. The only thing that’s hurting
a little bit is that commodities prices are
down. That’s a challenge, because, gosh,
it was a lot more fun to sell silver when
it was $40 an ounce—now it’s selling
at $15—and when gold was pushing
$2000, as opposed to $1100.” She said
it’s hard to predict how the market will
fare and that people want Garth’s to be
“prognosticators of what’s happening or
what’s coming. I don’t know that. It’s
all based on consumer confidence. And
consumer confidence seems to be pretty
high right now, across the board.”
This was evidenced in the last two
auctions at Garth’s, which “definitely
saw a bull market on all points in the
antiques market…and it was strength
across all categories, which we haven’t
seen in quite a while…. So, I’m cau-
tiously optimistic.” Jeffers added that
there have been swells and dips in the
market “since 2008, the big crash that
everybody references,” and that she is
“starting to really see some traction in
the recovery.”
Jeffers echoed what we have been
Antique Jewelry & Gemology
Garth’s Single-Owner Sale of Native American
Jewelry
by Mary Ann Brown
Photos courtesy Garth’s
“You don’t often
see a lifetime
collection that
has been curated
with this kind
of interest and
enthusiasm.”
Another Carol Kee creation that per-
formed well was this 2½" diameter
mother-of-pearl, jet, and turquoise
inlaid character bracelet with Mickey
Mouse and Donald Duck facing each
other. It realized $1375 (est. $300/500).
This large sterling silver ring by
Navajo artist Loren Thomas Begay
was made in the third quarter of the
20th century. It brought $375 (est.
$150/250).
This signed and marked hand-hammered
18k gold 1 3/8" high x 2½" wide cuff brace-
let by Andy Lee Kirk, with seven individually
set Battle Mountain turquoise stones, hand-
tooled feather accents, and gadrooned edges,
brought $3360 (est. $3000/5000).
The top lot of the Garth’s sale was this
signed 14k or 18k gold 1¼" high x 2½" wide
cuff bracelet by Andy Lee Kirk. The hand-
formed gold cuff with five individually set
Battle Mountain turquoise cabochon stones
has hand-tooled feather accents and a boldly
gadrooned edge. From Andy Lee Kirk’s per-
sonal collection, it was accompanied by a pur-
ple first-place ribbon from the 1975 SWAIA
(Southwestern Association for Indian Arts)
show in Sante Fe, New Mexico. It sold in the
room for $5400 (est. $2500/4500).
Carol Kee’s 20th-century Zuni
inlaid character pieces all sold
above estimate at the sale,
just as the consignor had pre-
dicted. Jeffers related that the
consignor had said, “Amelia,
you have these low estimates.
The inlaid pieces are going to
surprise you.” This 22" long
squash blossom necklace with
Snoopy, Mickey Mouse, and
Donald Duck in turquoise,
jet, mother-of-pearl, and coral
with silver beads sold for $2000
(est. $600/900).
This Casper the Friendly Ghost char-
acter ring by Carol Kee with inlaid jet
and coral details realized $1875 (est.
$150/350).
Selling well above
the high estimate,
this Carol Kee
character ring of
Snoopy holding
a tennis racket,
with inlaid
turquoise, jet,
and abalone, sold
for $1375 (est.
$150/350).