As a leader in the field of American Indian Art, Cowan's has sold over $11 million of Native objects. Auctions are held twice a year focusing on North American cultural and ethnographic material spanning from the Arctic and Northwest Coast, through the Great Plains and Southwest, and over to the Great Lakes. Photography of the American Indian and works of art portraying a romantic West by artists such as Henry Farny and Charles Russell, create a well-rounded auction that attracts aggressive bidding by American Indian and Western art collectors.
Department News
8/16/2010
Are treasures hiding among the dust in your attic or garage? Have you always wondered about your family heirlooms and collectibles? Bring them to the experts to see if they are as priceless as you hope. Wes Cowan, founder and owner of Cowan’s Auctions, Inc. in Cincinnati, Ohio, will be the ...
6/23/2010
The deadline to consign to Cowan's Fall American Indian and Western Art Auction is June 30, 2010. Contact Danica Farnand at danica@cowans.com for more information. The auction will also feature works by Western artists such as Carl Bodmer and Eanger ...
6/8/2010
Everyday I get a slew of emails with multiple pictures attached of items people are curious about or are thinking about selling. I have noticed recently, that there has been a number of baskets which are being confused for Native American. These baskets are made in the native southwestern style, ...
6/2/2010
5/14/2010
Cowan's is gearing up for another American Indian & Western Art auction, September 10, 2010.
Check out a few pieces in our warehouse!
4/7/2010
Cowan’s March 26, 2010 American Indian and Western Auction had total proceeds reach over $762,000. The catalogued portion of the auction offered 507 lots, and an online-only second session that immediately followed featured an additional 309 lots. The highest-selling lot of the auction ...
3/31/2010
With only a week since the completion of the March American Indian Art auction, the September sale has begun forming already. We are pleased to offer the Van Zelst's American Indian art collection which consists of some very nice northwest coast carvings, both early and contemporary, in addition ...
Featured Items
THE IMPORTANT 1893 SHARP/HAUSER WESTERN PHOTOGRAPH ALBUMS
Auction: 2010, American Indian & Western Art, September 10
Cowan's is excited to present this rare and magnificent collection of over 500 Western photographs, likely used by Sharp and Hauser as models for their illustrative paintings of the American West.
Auction Estimate $15,000-25,000
JOHN HAUSER (AMERICAN, 1859-1918)
Auction: 2010, American Indian & Western Art, September 10
Indian Portrait, oil on canvas, signed and dated 93 l.r.
Auction Estimate $6,000-8,000
HAIDA CARVED ARGILLITE PIPE
Auction: 2010, American Indian & Western Art, September 10
Carved and pierced, with a raven and eagle separated by a backward bent man.
Auction Estimate $6,000-8,000
IROQUOIS FIGURAL BURL FEAST LADLE
Auction: 2010, American Indian & Western Art, September 10
Finely carved with the handle terminating to a water fowl with backward turned neck.
Auction Estimate 15,000-20,000
MONUMENTAL WESTERN MONO BASKET
Auction: 2010, American Indian & Western Art, September 10
Woven of deer grass, sedge root, and bracken fern root; with designs composed of horizontal bands of zigzags broken by vertical bands of zigzags.
Auction Estimate $40,000-60,000
NAVAJO CLASSIC SERAPE
Auction: 2010, American Indian & Western Art, September 10
Woven handspun wool in natural white, indigo blue, and lac and lac and cochineal raveled bayeta.
Auction Estimate $10,000-12,000
NAVAJO EYEDAZZLER WEAVING
Auction: 2010, American Indian & Western Art, September 10
Tightly woven in colors of blues, reds, brown, black, cream, and mauve.
Auction Estimate $2,000-3,000
ZACHARIAS NICHOLAS HAIDA CARVED TOTEM
Auction: 2010, American Indian & Western Art, September 10
Zacharias Nicholas is best known as the carver for the "Chicago Settee", located in the Field Museum, Chicago. This peice features three figures painted in red, blue, and black mounted on a red semi-circular base.
Auction Estimate $6,000-8,000
NORTHWEST COAST FIGURAL TOTEM
Auction: 2010, American Indian & Western Art, September 10
Painted in red, orange, black, yellow, and blue; with a mans head topped by a frog topped by a mosquito.
Auction Estimate $2,000-2,500
Danica M. Farnand: Director (513.871.1670 x 15 or indianart @ cowans.com)
Danica graduated from John Carroll University with a BA in Art History and continued to earn her MA in Anthropology at the University of Cincinnati. After six years at Cowan's, she has seen the American Indian Art division grow, with two auctions a year and sales totaling $11 million since the department's inception.
Susan Labry Meyn
Susan is Cowan's consulting ethnologist. Author of Farny Paints the Far West and co-author of Rookwood and the American Indian, she holds a PhD in American Indian History and Anthropology.
Auction Estimate Request Form
If you would like to consign your items to an upcoming Auction, please fill out the form below to begin the consignment process.
Click here to access our Auction Estimate Request Form. Complete the form and mail or fax it to us, including all details. Send clear photographs either by snail-mail or digital email.
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Nunivak Island Carved Ivory Cribbage Board
Sold for $7,050.00
Eskimo Seal Mask
Sold for $88,125
Bering Sea Eskimo Pipe
Sold for $11,162
Yokuts Figural Bottleneck Basket
Sold for $12,925.00
Eastern Plains Catlinite Double-Pipe Bowl
Sold for $11,750.00
Mountain Landscape
Auction Estimate $10,000-15,000
Sold for 28,200.00
Smoke Signal
Auction Estimate $30,000-50,000
Sold for $31,725.00
Auction Estimate $30,000-40,000
Sold for $41,125.00