Carter B. Horsley
The Spring 2000 art auction
season has been
remarkably strong, setting many records for individual artists,
and with very high sale/buy-in ratios with the exception of the
first evening sale at Phillips of Impressionist and Modern Art,
at which only about 3 out of 5 lots sold, and this auction in
which barely just more than half the lots were sold, the poorest
sale of the season so far.
Tribal Art has generally not
much escalation as some other major areas in recent years and
its auction sales have been mixed. The disappointing results apparently
reflect the still relatively small field of collectors, who have
been highly selective and concentrating mostly on works of the
highest quality, but even so, many of the best lots, have been
bought in, possibly because the market is resisting some of the
higher estimates. As a result, the field is one of the few that
still affords many opportunities for the astute with some money.
The cover illustration of the
Lot 170, a Hawaiian feather cape, 27 1/8 by 16 1/8 inches, shown
above, sold within its estimates for $335,750, which includes
the buyer's premium as do all sales results in this article. It
was one of several important lots consigned by the Niagara Falls
Museum in Canada. It was acquired in the 19th Century by Thomas
Barnett, the museum's founder. Captain James Cook collected about
30 similar capes, which are known as ahu'ula and
on his visit to Hawaii in1778-9, the first Western contact with
the Hawaiian culture. "Notwithstanding a shared repertoire
of motifs, limited in number and simple in form, no two ahu'ula
are exactly, or even superficially alike (except for late
nineteenth-centuiry replicas made in quantity for pageantry).
Most capes and cloaks were designed and made for specific individuals,
it is often assumed, and in time became recognized as a unique
representative of that individual....Cape and cloaks (and helmets)
functioned primarily as battlegarb displayed in warfare, where
their unique designs served to identify graphically and immediately
a man of rank glimsped from afar during the heat of battle,"
the catalogue noted, adding that there are more than a 100 such
capes in public collections.
Another item from the museum,
Lot 171, a Austral
Islands necklace with nine waisted "seat" pendants and
six pendants carved as testicles,fashoned from twisted fiber bound
with braided human hair, and a single ivory figure carved inthe
form of a boar, sold for $313,750. It had a high estimate of $250,000.
Such necklaces, the catalogue maintained,"are among the rarest
and most mysterious of Polynesian artifacts" and less than
20 are known to exist and "the present example is unique
in having so many ivory and bone elements."
Oceanic art faired somewhat
better than African
art at this auction. Lot 156, for example, a rare New Guinea,
Karawari River, small wooden crocodile totem, 38 1/4 inches long,
sold for $18,000 and had a high estimate of $12,000, and Lot 152,
a New Caledonian wooden door jamp, 5 feet 2 3/4 inches high with
faded black pigment decoration and old weathered patina, sold
for $23,750 and had a high estimate of $8,000.
A quite remarkable, 11
stone sculpture believed torepresent a spiny anteater, Lot 144,
described as "a rare and important prehistoric New Guinea
stone carving," possibly dating back more than 3,500 years,
sold for $27,200, just over its high estimate of $25,000.
Lot 129, a fine Coastal Sepik
River mask, 20
inches high, sold for $38,125, almost four times its low estimate.
Lot 130, an exceptionally attractive, "rare Upper Sepick
River, Kwoma people, terracotta head, 12 inches high, however,
sold for $9,600 and had a low estimate of $10,000. A 7 1/4-inch-high
Marquesas Islands stone figure, Lot 165, sold for $8,400 and had
a high estimate of $3,500 and a 17-inch-long Maori hand club sold
for $9,000 and had a high estimate of $6,000.
One of the most abstract
African pieces was
Lot 181, shown below, a Dogon seated figure with, the catalogue
noted, "opposing L-shaped limbs projecting from the columnar
body with incised linear decoration, beneath a domed head with
joined block hands covering the face, the right ear in relief;
fine heavily encrusted dark brown patina." The 5 3/4-inch-high
figure sold within its estimates for $7,200 and an nearly identical
figure is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
An impressive, crouching Djenne
1/2 inches high, Lot 189, shown below, sold within its estimates
for $69,750 and according to the catalogue testing by the Oxford
University Laboratory dates the figure circa 934-1284 A.D.
Lot 225, a "magnificent rare
17 3/4 inches high, shown below, was consigned by the Collection
of Mario Meneghini, Italy, who lived in Liberia for 22 years starting
in 1963. The catalogue suggested that the lot "is probably
the oldest Grebo mask known" and added that "Picasso
was inspired by a related mask which he purchased in Marseille
in 1912 when he created Guitare, 1912, nowin the
of Modern Art, New York. The lot sold for $225,750 and had a high
estimate of $225,000.
the finest African
wood sculptures have fabulous patinas, such as Lot 246, shown
below, a "superb" Yoruba Eshu dance staff, 15 inches
high. The kneeling figure has his hands tucked underhis shins
and wears "a striking backswept coiffure tapering to a point,
adorned with gourd-like forms" and has faded blue pigment
and ochre infilled decoration. The catalogue noted that "When
the figures were kept in a shrine they are hung upside down in
'trickster' fashion. The lot sold within its estimate for $12,000.
The highlight of the sale was
Lot 257, a rare
and important Fang male reliquary guardian figure with his left
arm grasping his right arm which is holding his cheek, 20 5/8
inches high, shown below. The catalogue noted that the piece "has
an illustrious history" and was formerly in the collection
of Georges de Miré in Paris and Frank Crowninshield. "It
was the artist John Graham who was primarily responsible for the
range and quality of Frank Crowninshield's collection of African
Art. Graham purchased many of the works in Paris, and indeed the
content of the collection expressed a strong emphasis on work
from the French colonies....In keeping with his idea of naming
individual African works in order to emphasize their uniqueness
and their masterpiece quality, Graham wrote the following about
the offered lot: " Child figure, Pahouin, holding its cheek.
Unusual example as to posture and pose.'" The catalogue notes
that the pose is quite rare and there are only three other known
examples. The lot had an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000, but
failed to sell.