Tlingit Warrior's Helmet Sells for $2,185,000

by Lita Solis-Cohen

An 18th-century Northwest Coast warrior's helmet sold at Fairfield Auction in Newtown, Connecticut, on May 18 for $2,185,000 (includes buyer's premium). It is the most expensive American Indian object sold at auction.

"The stone-carved and painted burl spruce helmet mask was worn on the top of the head in battle," said Jack DeStories, who with his wife, Rosie, owns Fairfield Auction. "Spruce burl is indestructible; it survived blows to the head."

DeStories said he knew the helmet, carved with a stylized bear designating the clan, was a powerful object when he saw it a year ago. The consignor had brought it to an appraisal day benefit for a local senior center. "When she came back this year, I asked her if she still had the mask, and she said she did," DeStories recounted. "She said her boyfriend gave it to her in 1984. She had no idea what it was and put it on a shelf where it stayed for more than twenty years. She said he had recently died. I convinced her it was valuable and she should sell it. The bittersweet angle is that her boyfriend looked after her; selling the helmet set her up to live comfortably for the rest of her life."

Jack DeStories said that as soon as he advertised the helmet, people began calling. He adjusted his initial $15,000/20,000 presale estimate to $150,000/ 200,000. He put a sign on the case that it should not be opened by anyone but Jack or Rosie, but he said except for the people who were interested in buying it, only a few people asked to see it.

Eleven bidders requested phone lines, and four were still competing when Rosie DeStories asked if anyone would like to bid $1.1 million. She had opened the bidding at $50,000 and moved in $25,000 increments to $500,000 and in $50,000 increments to $1 million. Bidding continued at $100,000 increments until $1.3 million. Then, after a long pause, a man in the salesroom entered the competition with the one remaining phone bidder. Rosie DeStories dropped her hammer and said sold at $1.9 million when the phone bidder would not raise the bid to $2 million. The buyer, who paid $2,185,000 with the 15% buyer's premium, is an American collector who wants to remain anonymous, according to Jack DeStories. He would not identify the underbidder.

"Except for the five-million-dollar Fitz Henry Lane painting sold at Skinner's a few years ago, I believe it is the most expensive thing sold at auction in New England," DeStories added. It was the most expensive Native American object sold at auction. It topped the Northwest Coast Tsimshian portrait mask from the Dundas collection that sold at Sotheby's in 2006 for $1,808,000. "It was certainly the highlight of our professional careers, and to think that it could have ended up in a tag sale; the consignor had no idea it was a needle in a haystack."

Jack DeStories wondered if it would have brought as much if it had been sold in New York City and put on view in Paris and London and Los Angeles for months before a sale. "There was so much excitement about it because people knew about it for only three weeks before it sold. They did not have months to ponder it, just enough time to get their finances in order," he said. "The luster did not have time to wear."

He had alerted all the major institutions in the U.S. and Canada. The trade and collectors in the U.S. and abroad found pictures of it on the Fairfield Auction Web site and called and made inquiries.

It was hard for Rosie DeStories to keep the sale in focus after the helmet sold, but she did. Soon a Russian Imperial wine glass from the palace service of Czar Nicholas II sold for $2300. It was among a group of Russian and Oriental objects from the Pleshkoff estate. About 40 lots prior to the helmet sale, a 1969 inscribed and signed Charles M. Schulz drawing of a Peanuts daily comic strip brought $28,750.

The sale totaled $2.5 million, about $2 million more than regular Fairfield art and antiques sales, held every two months. The next Fairfield Auction is July 13. For information, call (203) 364-1555 or visit the Web site (www.fairfieldauction.com).

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