| Western history draws big numbers at Cowan’s |
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CINCINNATI, Ohio — A group of archives spanning the military career of Maj. General Thomas H. Ruger and the Thomas Minckler collection of Western Americana were the highlights of Cowan’s June 24 American History Auction, with each grossing six figures. The success of these important collections, as well as a rare grouping of S.J. Morrow’s American Indian stereoviews and relics from the life and execution of controversial Confederate sympathizer Champ Ferguson, helped bring the sale total to just over $1 million. The auction drew 495 bidders from six countries.
“Overall, I was extremely pleased with the results of the sale” said Wes Cowan, President and Principal Auctioneer. “Despite the economic uncertainty in today’s world, it’s clear that collectors still have to collect, and that great things continue to bring great prices. If we learned anything from the sale it was that simple maxim.”
General Ruger’s extensive collection chronicles his 40-year career spanning the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the settlement of the West. The archive contained personal letters, official documents, petitions, battle reports, and other correspondence, and ultimately grossed nearly $370,000 over the course of this auction and Cowan’s Spring Firearms Sale in April.
The American History Auction’s highest-selling lot, an archive from Ruger’s years overseeing military and Indian affairs in Montana and the Dakotas, realized $47,000, well above its estimate. Comprised of 417 items dated from 1878 to 1891, the archive defines a turbulent period in the history of the West when Ruger was acting as departmental commander of the military division of the Montana Territory and as the commander of the Dakota Territory.
Other Ruger highlights include four rare maps, circa 1891, related to the Wounded Knee Massacre. All four maps, made on sheets of polished cotton dyed a brilliant blue, detail the Sioux reservation country, wagon routes, railroads, towns, agency offices, and military establishments. They realized $9,400.
The Thomas Minckler collection of Western Americana, a wide-ranging group of photographs, archives, manuscripts, letters, and official documents related to the expansion and development of the West, garnered over $168,000 in total sales.
An exceptionally rare circa 1879 Bundy and Train group portrait of the men who founded the Society of Montana Pioneers was the highest-selling lot of the collection, realizing $9,400.
The extremely rare photograph featured such important figures in Montana history as Granville Stuart, an early vigilance committee member who would become president of the Territorial Council in 1883; Conrad Kohrs, Montana’s largest rancher who held a monopoly in the Territory’s beef industry; Matt Carroll, who established the E.G. Maclay and Company freight transportation company; and W.W. DeLacy, an engineer who is credited with laying out the town of Fort Benton.
Other high-selling lots of the collection include an exceptionally rare rubber stamp from the Tombstone and Patagonia Express Line / J.D. Kinnear, Proprietor. from the Arizona Territory, which realized $4,994 and a 1884 Carson City, Nevada, Wells Fargo receipt book that detailed incoming and outgoing goods and their values which sold for $3,055. Another consignment of 1870s American Indian stereoviews by S.J. Morrow realized more than $39,000.
The group included images of Sioux, Blackfoot, Ponca, and Yanktona tribesman and villages. The highest-selling lot of the collection, six stereoviews of the Santee Sioux Indians, realized $5,581. “The Morrow views were exceptional both in the content, condition, and rarity. In my nearly 25 years of selling 19th century photography,
I can’t remember a better group to come to market. They were simply the best,” said Cowan.
Also featured in June 24th’s auction were several items associated with notorious so-called “terrorist” Champ Ferguson (1821-1865), one of the only two Confederates formally tried and executed for war crimes. Ambrotypes of Ferguson and his wife, autographed CDVs of Ferguson, the last letter he wrote before his execution, and the iron rings used at his hanging realized more than $29,000 in total sales. Contact: 513-871-1670, www.cowans.com |
| 7/15/2009 |
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