The Louisiana Purchase Auction

Neal Auction Company, New Orleans, Louisiana

The Louisiana Purchase Auction

by Karla Klein Albertson

Photos courtesy Neal Auction Company

For collectors of southern regional material from fine art to artifacts, the annual "Louisiana Purchase Auction" at Neal Auction Company in New Orleans is a much-anticipated opportunity for new acquisitions. The event also serves as a yearly reunion of like-minded individuals who congratulate and confront one another over the long weekend.

The auction on November 21 and 22, 2009, brought over 1200 lots to the podium and achieved a healthy total of $3.84 million. As always, the fun lies in observing just how this total is constructed. Some bidders stay all day, enjoying the get-together mood. Others arrive just in time for a block of special interest material, such as the Confederate money, Mardi Gras souvenirs, or Native American baskets. Off the salesroom floor, advertising and the Internet encourage invisible ranks of buyers to participate with anonymity.

President and chief auctioneer Neal Alford had a very busy day Saturday polishing off the first 850 lots of the sale in the main showroom on Magazine Street. Lack of interest in some lots was more than compensated for by wild enthusiasm for others. Auctions are subject to many unpredictable factors-the national economy, market trends in antiques and fine arts, and competition for good consignments. Yet, after many years in the business, Alford tries to hold a slow-and-steady-wins-the-race philosophy in approaching these variables.

"The marketplace has that volatility," said Alford. "It's a pretty good market, but it's not that easily understood-hard to estimate. You do see more potential in certain things than in others. But the effort should be the same. The advertising and marketing need to be consistent. The marketplace has its own vagaries and contradictions now, but if your effort remains the same, then the potential will be realized."

As befits the regional focus of the Louisiana Purchase auction, the top lot was a rare 1858 map, Norman's Chart of the Lower Mississippi River from Natchez to New Orleans. The map was created by French-born Louisiana artist Marie Adrien Persac (1823-1873), who had journeyed down the river in a skiff. He not only charted the twists and turns of the waterway but also marked divisions of land and the names of owners—valuable information indeed.

The rapid bidding from phones and the floor, with new competitors jumping in as the price mounted, strongly suggested interested parties with strong ties to the plots of land depicted. Estimated at $18,000/ 25,000, the map sold to a Louisiana collector bidding on the phone for $315,999.91 (includes buyer's premium).

Even Marc Fagan, head of Neal's books and manuscripts division, was amazed by the final result. "I was hoping for fifty thousand and wouldn't have been surprised by seventy-five thousand. There was tremendous interest. It's an iconic map, but it's more than that-it's almost like a painting. Persac was a painter and an architect, and some of his early works—highly sought after—are architectural renderings.

"It's a map everyone has seen in museums, and there was also a reproduction done in the 1930's. Everyone has seen the reproduction on the market, but no one sees this original available for auction."

When asked how many were made, Fagan replied, "Nobody knows, but in institutions there might be seven or eight. You're never going to get a chance like this." In fact, there really was no auction record to gauge an estimate against. The last example had changed hands privately several decades back.

Fagan was also pleased with the price for the 1860 "Bien Edition" folio of Audubon's The Birds of America, which sold for $271,999.91 (est. $150,000/ 200,000) to a collector bidding in the room against multiple phones. This edition, offered by the artist's son John Woodhouse Audubon, was to include 44 separate parts, only 15 of which were issued. This example included 14 of the parts with 140 images. Neal has become a go-to firm for Audubons with results at times topping the New York houses.

Southern painting is always a strong component of this particular auction, but November's offerings included works by both classic and contemporary artists. Youth Holding a Pomegranate, a mid-20th-century portrait by Hughie Lee-Smith (1915-1999), sold for $26,290. The pensive little girl watercolor Flip Flops and Lace, a 1991 work by Florida artist Stephen Scott Young (b. 1957), brought $155,350.

A Hat for Jolie Blonde by Louisiana favorite George Rodrigue (b. 1944) sold to a phone bidder for $23,900. Australian-born painter Simon Gunning (b. 1956) made a series of paintings of Honey Island swamp in St. Tammany Parish. The one offered in this sale, made three-dimensional by the addition of cypress wood and bark on the surface, went at $14,340. A mid-1960's oil and mixed media work by popular New Orleans artist Ida Kohlmeyer (1912-1997) surprisingly did not sell.

Wonderful faces emerged from a group of portraits of the 18th and 19th centuries. Principal among these was the diminutive 1780 image of Revolutionary War hero Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens by Charles Willson Peale (1741-1827), which sold for $107,550. Institutional interest set three phones against a bidder in the crowd, and the result was a record price for a miniature by the artist. Another military portrait of a Lexington, Kentucky, light infantryman was attributed to José Francisco Xavier de Salazar y Mendoza (1750-1802) and sold to a phone bidder for $32,862.50.

The initial 93 lots in Saturday's sale came from the Belle Cheniere collection of Dr. and Mrs. William deG. Hayden, Louisiana natives who lived in Texas. In addition to good American furniture, decorative arts, and paintings, the lots included prints from major photographers of the 20th century. Edward J. Steichen's The Flat Iron Building brought $4302, and Alfred Stieglitz's The Steerage, 1907 sold for $6572.50.

A collection of baskets woven by the Chitimacha Indian tribe of Louisiana had an intriguing history. They had been discovered packed in the original Ball Jar box that Sarah A. McIlhenny (of the family known for Tabasco hot pepper sauce) had used to ship the baskets to Philadelphia collector Charles M. Biddle Jr. in 1922. A special group of bidders appeared on the floor and picked up their phones for the group. Prized for their intricate patterns woven in black, red, and natural cane, the baskets sold well above estimates.

The baskets were followed by two vintage pieces of Acadian woven cotton that brought $1673 and $3226.50.

Director of furniture Rachel Weathers picked her own sweetheart in her specialty—a Louisiana armoire of mahogany and cypress. The circa 1800 piece had its original hardware, beautifully curved cabriole legs, and a scalloped apron below. It sold for $18,522.50 to someone in the room. Weathers commented, "I was pleased with the armoire. It went to a good private collection."

This Louisiana Purchase auction really did have something for everyone, from museums interested in the historic Peale miniature to the guy who only wanted to know where the Confederate money was. Michelle LeBlanc, auctioneer and director of administration and finance for Neal, summed it up. "It's hard to single out one particular item. We really were grateful to have so many wonderful collections. What I think is so special about this particular auction is the individual collections that contain numerous lots of significance. We're very honored to have had the opportunity to present these to the market."

Neal Auction Company maintains a vigorous schedule of sales. For more information, call (504) 899-5329 or go to the firm's Web site (www.nealauction.com).

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