RENO, Nev. — The Coeur d’Alene Art Auction brought a strong total of over $13.4 million during this year’s sale. Multiple lots sold for over $500,000, including the second-highest record at auction for Alfred Jacob Miller (The Thirsty Trapper – $1.7M). Overall, 21 items eclipsed the $100,000 price point. The single-largest event in the classic Western and American Art field set multiple world records and saw over a 91-percent sales rate for the 322-lot auction on July 28, 2018.
The Thirsty Trapper by Alfred Jacob Miller, sold at Auction: $1,715,000
The top price of the sale was achieved for Alfred Jacob Miller’s 1850 painting The Thirsty Trapper, fetching $1,715,000. The final price is $47,500 short of Miller’s auction record.
Works by Coeur d’Alene Art Auction mainstay and popular contemporary Howard Terpning sold for a collective $1.9 million. Terpning’s 1981 painting Dust of Many Pony Soldiers realized over $800,000. The nonagenarian’s 1990 painting Chased by the Devil sold for $651,000, which eclipsed the high estimate of $600,000.
A very rare oil by Henry Farny, Pastures New sold for $535,500, in what was a spirited bidding war. This marks the highest price for a Farny in the past decade.
Multiple world records were set at this year’s sale, including those by Peter Hurd, Logan Maxwell Hagege, Frank Hoffman, Frank Stick, and Grace Ravlin. Hurd’s The Horse Wrangler garnered over $100,000, which is the first time the American-born artist’s work surpassed the six-figure mark at auction.
Additional auction highlight include Edgar Payne’s Solitude’s Enchantment $476,000, West Virginia Woodchopper by W.R. Leigh $297,500, Night Birds by E.I Couse $238,000, Grand Canyon by Clark Hulings $202,300, and Lavern Nelson Black’s Along the Old Trail $238,000.
A standing-room-only crowd of over 600 enthusiastic Western Art buyers filled the Grand Ballroom at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno. The Coeur d’Alene Art Auction has specialized in the finest classical Western and American Art since 1985. The auction principals have over 100 years of collective experience in the field, and have netted their clients over $250 million in the last decade.
For full results or further information, visit www.cdaartauction.com, or call 208.772.9009. The Coeur d’Alene Art Auction has offices in Hayden, Idaho; Reno, Nevada; and Tucson, Arizona.