Maine Antique Digest, December 2016

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Maine Antique Digest, December 2016 15-C
- FEATURE -
15-C
were built in the late 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s,
when collectors were reaching their peak incomes. Now
they want to get rid of that stuff, but vast swaths of the
antiques and collectibles market have fallen out of style
with a younger generation. That may be because there
are many more things competing for their attention. To
some degree, it may be that many things have priced
themselves out of reach for the average collector, so they
cannot buy a Chippendale chair or a folk painting by
Ammi Phillips or a daguerreotype of John Brown.
“Now, there are a number of competitors around, and
that’s not just in the field of historical Americana. There
was a period when everybody decided they could be an
auctioneer. Today there is more competition for great
product than one could possibly imagine. It’s great for
the seller because they can make a deal, but it’s become
increasingly difficult to make a living in the business.
It’s challenging to figure out how to make this work.
The Internet has changed the way consumers shop—
they want it now. Individual auctioneers’ websites will
become less and less important. Auction aggregators will
Charles Schreyvogel (1861-1912) traveled throughout
the West, gathering material for his depictions of historic
confrontations between the Plains Indians and the
American military. Cowan’s sold Saving the Dispatch, a
25¼" x 34½" oil on canvas, for $1,440,000 in June 2006.
Bronco Buster, 23" tall, was one of the most popular
subjects in bronze created by Frederic Remington (1861-
1909). This copy numbered “37” was cast at the Roman
Bronze Works foundry in 1906 and brought $205,625 at
Cowan’s in March 2011.
become more important. I’m one of the founding partners
of Bidsquare, which I think is the only truly vetted
auction aggregator in the business. Consumers only have
so much time and patience to look for things. If they can
go to one site to look for what they want to buy, that’s
what’s going to happen.
“As for me, I don’t see myself getting out of the
business entirely. I do see the day, though, that there
will be someone else driving the day-to-day bus here.
I’ve worked very, very hard for a very long time, and I’ll
want to slow down at some point. But I will always talk
to clients, make deals, and continue that search for the
artifacts of mankind.”
Illustrating this article are some of Wes Cowan’s
favorite lots sold over the last ten years. In the successful
American Indian and Western art auction this past
September, an Otoe ball club sold for $102,000. The club
was carved from a single piece of walnut and decorated
with 178 brass tacks. “It’s a rare piece,” said Danica
Farnand, Cowan’s director of American Indian art. “Not
only is it a war club, but it’s also imbued with the power
of the Underwater Panther. It has a lot of iconographic
elements to it, and it’s an early Native American object.
Obviously we’re overjoyed with the price, but it’s no
surprise that such a terrific piece would do this well.”
More information about departments, specialists,
and past and future sales can be found online at (www.
).
An academic interest in historic photography was Wes
Cowan’s entryway into the antiques marketplace when he
was still a student. Through the firm’s American history
department, he has continued to seek out important
examples such as this long-lost quarter-plate daguerreotype
of John Brown, the abolitionist, by August Washington,
who was an African American artist. It sold in December
2007 for $97,750.
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