Holabird's High-Grade Auction, June 15th-18th, is Named after The 19th c. US Mining and Assaying Ore

2024-04-24 10:23:25 Art & Entertainment

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Reno, NV, USA, June 7, 2023 -- After conducting a pair of smaller ?specialty? auctions over the last few months, Holabird Western Americana Collections will burst into summer with a huge, four-day High-Grade Auction, June 15th thru 18th, with nearly 2,000 lots of mining collectibles, railroadiana, numismatics, Native and general Americana, philatelic, bottles, stocks, bonds, sports and art.

The premier live auction, which starts each day at 8 am Pacific time, will be held live in the Holabird gallery, located at 3555 Airway Drive (Suite #308) in Reno, as well as online, via iCollector.com, LiveAuctioneers.com, Invaluable.com and Auctionzip.com. Color catalogs are available by calling 1-844-492-2766 or 775-851-1859. Phone and absentee bids will be accepted.

?We chose the name ?high-grade? for this auction for two reasons,? said Fred Holabird, president and owner of Holabird Western Americana Collections. ?First, it reflects the exceptional quality of many items in the sale; and second, it?s a specific reference to mining and assaying industries, where high-grade ore has the least impurities and the highest concentration of precious metals.?

In particular, Mr. Holabird pointed out, the Mining & Assay section in the sale is spectacular. It will be led by Part II of The Comstock Collection, featuring assay documents and artifacts; rare books and maps; photographs; and a few choice Comstock ingots. Part I of the collection was sold by Holabird in March and featured mining stocks, ore specimens and rare mining checks.

The assay category contains some of the best items Holabird has ever offered, to include rare assay certificates from all Western states (circa 1850-1920); assay books (circa 1848-1900); original assay certificate books for Eberhardt & Aurora Mining Company 1871 (first year); and Gould & Curry Mining Company in Virginia (circa 1860s). Many of these will be in Day 3.

Several categories will be spread across the catalog and won?t be restricted to just one day. The Gold Rush category, for example, will be highlighted by Part I of the Jann Garvis collection, which centers around the blue-lead mining camp of La Porte, in Sierra County. But also offered will be Gold Rush letters, exchanges, assay certificates, mining stocks and antiquarian photos.

Maps will also come up for bid each of the four days, including some great Western directories, pamphlets and individual published maps, most of them very rare. The rarest of them all, though, is the 1860 De Groot Comstock map, perhaps the only copy of the De Groot map in private hands today. It will be accompanied by a major new well-researched story of this legendary map.

Photography lots on days 2, 3 and 4 will include original Arizona hanging scenes on board; early Arizona stereo photos from a major collector; circa 1863-1870 Comstock photos from a major collector; and an original carte de visite of the Ruhling ingot that went to Germany circa 1865.

Antiquarian books will also be spread across days 2, 3 and 4 and will include an ecumenical farce from the 1600s by Sebastiano Chiesa, titled Il Capitolo dei Frati, as well as a major Western assay book collection and Western directories. The Wild West will feature a Wells Fargo agent letter from J. Hume regarding a Montana stage robbery along with ancillary documents, an important discovery from the man who caught the notorious outlaw Black Bart.

Day 1, on Thursday, June 15th, will contain 504 lots of transportation (to include steamer passes, railroadiana and transportation ephemera); militaria and weaponry; and stocks and bonds (to include mining, including the Aurora collection; oil; railroad; and miscellaneous categories).

The mining stocks, especially, will feature an amazing cross-section of Western material, to include Haul Off and Jump Up Mining Company, 1861; early Comstock, including Best & Belcher (a new discovery); early Aurora Mining Company; early Gold Hill (all territorial, pre-1864); and two great Inyo pieces: Russ District 1861 (a new find); and Telescope District 1.

Stocks and bond will include turnpike pieces; autograph pieces; and a major portion of Ken Prag?s 1860s US Oil stock collection ? 50 lots in all. The railroad category will feature a continuation of three major railroad pass collections from all across America ? 150 lots in all.

The slimmed-down (but high-quality) Art section, also on Day 2, will include original Western watercolors and signed prints by major artists one wouldn?t expect. Also up for bid will be an amazing archive from a legal prostitute, the only time anything like this has ever been offered.

To learn more about Holabird Western Americana Collections and the huge four-day High-Grade Auction, June 15th thru 18th, online and live in the Reno gallery, visit www.holabirdamericana.com. Updates are posted often.