One amazing ‘Spill’: an indisputable masterpiece by William Herbert “Buck” Dunton comes this July

April 24, 2009
Posted by Noah

Just look at that painting. Unbelievable movement, seamless blending of colors and a moment of impossible kinetic energy expertly captured. If the cowboy in “The Spill” – arguably the greatest work of art by one W.H. Dunton, as good and important an American illustrator as there’s ever been – survives this spectacular calamity, then it’s surely not going to be a pleasant recovery and certainly not ever a complete one. This painting, acquired as part of The Charles Martignette Estate – written about in this blog a few weeks ago – is going to highlight, in a big way, the July auction of Western and Texas art here at Heritage. I personally can’t wait just to go and stand in front of the thing.

What I love about this painting is myriad. I mentioned a few things above, but there’s so much more to read into it. Why exactly are the cowboy and his horse flipping end over end? Is he a greenhorn rider trying to ride a spirited horse? A Horse Whisperer whose luck has run out? Maybe he got drunk at the saloon in town and was careless going home, or maybe he’s running for his life from Indians or brigands. Whatever the case, when that horse comes over on him, unless he manages to extricate his legs in quick fashion, his back is going to be snapped like a twig. What will his poor Ma and Pa think when their little boy, from a good home on the East Coast who had all the best schooling and abandoned it all to pursue his dream of being a real cowboy, dies alone in the American desert with only rattlesnakes and scorpions as witnesses?

Dunton was more than an illustrator. At the risk of offending any art snobs out there, I’d go as far as to say that he was one of America’s great 20th Century painters. The fact that he made his name initially as an illustrator – and a very good one at that – during America’s Golden Age of Illustration in the early 20th Century did not stop his progress as an artist or his desire to paint authentic subject matter. This is more than evidenced by his bold move in 1914 to Taos, New Mexico. Think about it: He had a successful career drawing for the top magazines of the day, plenty of money to support his family, but he chucked it all to move out West and start painting native landscapes. As a result he lived in near-poverty for the remainder of his days and became a truly transcendent painter. He was a founding member of the famed Taos Society of Art, saw his paintings exhibited all over the nation and garnered wide acclaim – if not fortune – for his important work. Still, though, in his own words, he would have rather lived in a time where no means of “making a living” was necessary at all:

"There is one thing positive, had I lived in Merriweather Lewis's, Audubon's or even as late as Catlin or Francis Parkman's day, no life of mine would be thrown away painting pictures, when I could live the greater part of a year alone with my rifle and a few pack animals among the host of buffalo – the antelope, the great bands of elk…"

Fortunately for us, Dunton did paint, and he did leave behind a sizable body of work, foremost among which is “The Spill.” It’s classic American art at its best, relaying a scene of the great, rustic American West that was a direct slice of life, though certainly – ultimately – much larger.

This painting, rightly so, should command a couple hundred thousand dollars. Lord knows that it will bring much more than that 100 years from now. Personally, I wish I could afford it, and am glad I’m not the subject matter. Wiping out on a horse is bad enough – I was thrown by a horse and then bitten by it when I was a kid learning to ride, no kidding – let alone getting snapped like a pencil by its amazingly articulated and artfully presented full body weight.

Here’s a link to the entire Western and Texas art auction. Check out the Olin Travis in particular for a tasty modern perspective on Texas landscape painting. Once you start staring at this thing it’s hard to stop.

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General Washington, I presume? A cache of our founding father readies for June

April 23, 2009
Posted by Noah

With the June Historical Manuscripts auction rapidly approaching – one of my most favorite categories here at the Heritage Juggernaut – I went catalog surfing, as I am wont to do during late hours of the night, for some of the hidden gems in the auction and (Surprise, Surprise!) there a more than a few and plenty of which are affordable to the extent that even your humble blogger will be placing a couple bids. Which ones exactly I won’t say, because, you know…

In particular there’s a great trove of George Washington lots, especially a few lots that contain his signature, or reference the great man himself. The one I like the best is a 1772 Christmas beer receipt with Washington’s monogram on it and a capital “W” very likely written by the man himself. It’s a cool thing, for sure, to imagine the father of our country kicking back with friends and family at Mount Vernon with some micro brews on Christmas Eve. Washington, and Mrs. Washington, were very protective of any material relating to their private lives. Almost none of it survives today so even a receipt like this that hints at something so casual – a relaxed brew between the Washington clan and friends? What could be more informal? – is an exceptional find.

I have spent the last few months reading about the founding fathers of this nation, Washington in particular, and have come to the conclusion that we are an exceedingly lucky nation to have had a man like Washington for our first President, and lucky bordering on divine for having the first four presidents that we did, regardless of the ideological differences between them.

As far as Washington goes, all I can say is that some men are born for greatness, are simply people of destiny whose every action led them to immortality. Just read a little bit about Washington’s life and career and you learn quickly just how many bullets he dodged – literally – and how many prescient decisions he made in his eight years as president. Time and time again, under pressure from the rival Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson, Washington stuck to his Federalist principles and refused to engage our nascent nation in more war with Britain when to do so would surely have been folly. It cost him some measure of popularity at the time, but it insured the survival of this amazing country at a time when more war would have been death. I re-iterate, time and time again Washington somehow managed to steer the clunky ship of state straight down the middle path and keep it afloat at the same time as he attended to almost every other matter.

After Washington, it was Adams who kept the momentum going forward, even if it meant some serious unpopularity – see the Alien and Sedition Act – and just a single term in The White House. Jefferson followed, finding that he had to temper some of his more radical ideas, and added a further philosophical dimension to the idea of America. I wish I had all day to sit and write about this stuff, because I love it deeply and it makes me appreciate just how amazing the very existence of this country actually is. There was no one, literally, no one, who could have held America together in its first eight years other than Washington. No one.

I’m not a particularly jingoistic kind of person – I tend to shun dogma of any kind – but it’s hard not to look at the events of the late 1700s and early 1800s in North America and not be simply amazed by the sequence of events that unfolded, and by the true greatness of the men and women who not only bore witness to those days, but who made them actively happen.

Besides the June auction linked to above, I’ve also looked back in the Heritage archives for the best Washington stuff that’s come through. There’s almost 300 lots, all of them a tangible link to the American who is first among equals, “His Excellency,” George Washington.

It’s easy to get cynical in this day and age, what with the 24 hour news cycle, biased punditry and lifetime politicians – something never intended by Jefferson when he wrote the Declaration – but it’s even better to remember the amazing foresight and passion of those who came before us, and to remember they suffered the slings and arrows of an unrelenting media, in their own way, in their own day.

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The secret membership of the 1872 Skull and Bones revealed!

Feb. 24, 2009
Posted by Noah

I love a good conspiracy theory as much, if not just a little more, than anybody. I don’t go to bed at night thinking about any of them, though, if you know what I mean. There plenty of other things to worry about these days, so I can’t really devote too much time to whether a secret shadow government is controlling the world from the earth’s core – or better yet, outer space – or whether Rock and/or Roll is really the root of all evil and a creation of the evil counterpart to our secret shadow government, . I’ll just let their endless struggle for the soul of the world, fought by giant lizard men well-equipped with blasters, play out in the secret cities beneath the earth’s crust and on Mars.

So… Conspiracies! Speaking of good ones, I always like a good Skull and Bones story, and a good one has fallen in my lap courtesy of Heritage Historical Manuscripts cataloger David Boozer. If you don’t know about Skull & Bones, it’s a secret society at Yale from which many prominent politicians, diplomats, judges and lawyers – all the people who control all the conspiracies – have emerged seemingly en masse. It just so happens that we have an 1872 Skull and Bones Gold Stick Pin and Album with 23 Cartes de Visite up for bid in the March 6 Manuscript Auction. It’s a very cool lot, and it's tied to the ultra-secretive society that allegedly houses many significant artifacts in its off-campus HQ, known as “The Tomb.”

The shady membership of the 1872 Skull & Bones has finally been revealed and society has been shaken to its core! Or not really.

“This lot is exciting because, finally, the 1872 members of the secretive and mysterious Skull & Bones are exposed for who they really were!” David wrote (the exclamation point it mine. – NF). “Teachers, lawyers, bankers, doctors, and several ministers. So they weren't the most exciting group – no U.S. senators, presidents, or Geronimo-bone thieves – but still, through these beautiful cartes de visite, we can see a bit into the world of secrecy and privilege in the late 19th century.”

He’s right. It’s one of those cool lots that are so in abundance here but for which there is usually little time to promote or give exposure to. This is my little addition, then, and a part of my job that I sincerely love and am glad to do.

The reference to Geronimo-bone thieves is a reference to a New York Times article last week about a lawsuit filed by Geronimo’s grandson alleging that The Skull & Bones is in possession of his grandfather’s skull and some other artifacts. The grandson wants them back, and if the society is in possession, then I don’t blame him. The story is pretty juicy, as it refers to a story that Prescott Bush – father of George H.W. and George W. – with friends, in 1917, broke into Geronimo’s tomb and stole the bones. There’s actually some evidence that the bones may well be in the society’s possession. The jury is out on Prescott’s involvement, but, you know… Boys will be boys, yes?

Forget just being a Pepper, I want to own it!

Feb. 20, 2009
Posted by Noah

You would think, given all the corporate secrecy around the secret formulas for different soda pops, fried chicken batter and sandwich sauces in America that we were dealing with issues of national security when it came to wanting to know the ratio of mustard to mayonnaise on our hamburgers, or of black pepper to paprika in our extra crispy, but no. It is just food. Still, Heritage has itself a good ol’ fashioned piece of American cola history that is as complex as and KFC original recipe mix or Coca-Cola syrup formula: Our May Americana Auction will feature a lot that should be of extra special interest to Texans, and to any one that ever swigged an ice cold soda on a very hot day – the mid-1880s original notebook containing the original handwritten formula for what was to become Dr. Pepper, the first – and arguably the greatest – of America’s big three soda pops.

Granted that Dr. Pepper isn’t what it used to be in terms of soft drink influence. You would be hard pressed to make the case that it is in America’s Top 10 beverages, let alone the top three. To Texans of a certain age, however, Dr. Pepper is what it’s all about. That original formula, deep within the Heritage vault – the source of so much speculation in the 130 years since its creation, and so much corporate deflection – is getting set to be auctioned off. Can a revival of homemade Dr. Pepper be that far off?

Uh… Probably very far off… That, though, is no hindrance. It’s the meaning of the thing; it’s the role that Dr. Pepper has played in the development of Texas’s National identity, and how it spurred on the greater success of Coke and Pepsi, and helped define the very role of America to the world.

Heritage’s Director of Americana, Tom Slater, has been involved intimately with getting the crumbling notebook with the original formula in it – Page 19, to be exact – and he has also been intricately involved with the various aspects of the potential legal wrangling around it. While he couldn’t show me the notebook just now when we met in his office, he could assure me that the formula, as it’s represented in its original state in the notebook, is probably not even close to the current formula, especially in its use of denatured rum.

This is a lot that deserves pages and pages dedicated to it, so interesting is the history, and so much secrecy is there around it, but I don’t have the space here to do anything but offer a tease. There is much in Dr. Pepper that led to America’s corporate culture, but there is also much of the history of Texas in it, as well as proof that Waco – now little more than the midway point between Dallas and Austin, the home of Baylor University and former home of the Branch Davidians – was once the most important city in the state, if not the nation. It’s all there in that sweet, odd taste.

For my part, I can remember numerous field trips to the Dallas Dr. Pepper plant at Greenville Avenue and Mockingbird Lane throughout my childhood. I drive past that intersection everyday on the way to work. Much like the original formula for the drink, though, so much has changed about the site of the plant that all that remains is a clock and sign. It’s now a super market, some apartments and a rail station, just as Dr. Pepper is but a horse in the Snapple stable. That does not, however, diminish the potential power of this piece of superb Texana/Americana at auction. In a corporate culture that closely protects even its oldest secrets, the fact that this original recipe is going to be out of the bag is pretty spectacular. It may not save the world, but it’ll have a whole host of folks whistling the tune, doing the dance with Vim, Vigor and Vitality and saying they, too, indeed wished they could be a Pepper… Stay tuned for more on this as the auction approaches.

Rayograph spotting at Heritage

Feb. 19, 2009
Posted by Noah

When I was in high school here in Dallas – at the Arts Magnet just up the street from our World Headquarters here on Maple Avenue –I developed a full blown obsession with Man Ray. My friends and I were turned on to the Dadaists by a teacher, and we loved what we saw. There was something in Man Ray’s tweaking of tradition, however, that set me afire. In subsequent years, as I studied and lived in New York and Paris, I sought out all the Man Ray I could. From his old neighborhood in Williamsburg to the cafes and bars that he haunted with the likes of Duchamp and Dali in Montparnasse. I just wanted to be able to say I had walked in those footsteps – the first of many pilgrimages I have undertaken in my adult life.

Through the years, however, life has taken over and the time to read endless biographies and dig through databases and microfiche machines at libraries for obscure magazine articles is something of a vague, pleasant pre-parenthood memory. There is, though, a lot in the April Vintage Photography auction that has allowed me to briefly re-kindle my 20 year old obsession with Man Ray, and for that – today – I am thankful. It’s a 1963 silver gelatin print of Untitled, a 1926 Rayograph – Man Ray’s special name for his unique process art photographs. It’s a beauty for sure.

The artist was a great painter and photographer, but it was in his Rayographs that he truly blurred the line and forged something new, something that was neither Dada nor Surrealism, but simply great art. He was, literally, painting with photography, and redefining the rules of perception as he went.

“It’s obviously a later print” said Lorraine Anne Davis, Heritage’s Director of Vintage Photography – and a much revered appraiser of photography, “but it’s a single print from the only set of Rayographs that Man Ray signed, and it was done at the request of Helmut Newton, from whose estate it came.”

Excuse me, but that is amazingly cool. Helmut Newton, one of the best and greatest American portrait and nude photographers – he was in the vanguard of the generation that came after Man Ray – asks the greatest avant-garde photog of the previous generation to do something he never does, that is sign a portfolio, and Man Ray obliges. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation.

It should be noted that there are a trio of excellent Helmut Newton photos in the upcoming photography auction, including two Polaroids, and they’re everything you either love or hate about Newton. He had a real thing for very tall women in moments of stylized extremis. Check them out here.

If you could hold The Holy Grail of Stamp Collecting, without permission, would you do it?

Feb. 4, 2009
Posted by Noah

Either you know exactly what stamp I’m talking about or you don’t. I’m guessing most anyone that is coming to HA.com, either to bid or consign, has at least a passing knowledge about American pop culture. I can therefore assume that you at least know what the stamp I’m talking about – the rare and beautiful “Inverted Jenny,” one of which is in Heritage’s inaugural stamp auction, Feb. 5-7 – even if you don’t know what it’s called. If you still have no idea, then please continue to enjoy the underside of the rock that has obviously been your pop culture reference point for the last, oh, say, century or so…

The point of all this? Certainly not to berate you specifically. I know that you have great taste and all sorts of trivial knowledge stored away. This is actually my way of trying to point to the coolness of the newest Heritage auction category, stamps, which is debuting with its first auction tomorrow, Feb. 5, running through the seventh, and I’m talking about the opportunity I had about a month ago while in a brief meeting – conveniently held in a busy hallway – with our Director of Stamps, Steve Crippe, and the Account Executive for the department, Rupal Dalal.

Steve is an interesting guy, and he knows his stamps. He’d have to to take charge of a stamps department here, given that stamps used to be a staple of Heritage Co-Founder Steve Ivy’s auction repertoire (what hasn’t been?), and Steve doesn’t mess around when it comes to such things. Needless to say, Crippe’s got a good amount of expectation on him to deliver a great sale, and by all accounts he’s up to it, at least judging from the amount of rare and important stamps in this inaugural auction.

So… where was I? Oh yes, The Jenny… See, there happens to be a Jenny Invert in this first stamps auction, and I know for a fact that, at least up until the time of the meeting in question that Crippe carried the thing in its plastic holder at all times in his pocket or his hand. For a brief second, however, he put it down on a chair between Rupal and I and went off to check an email. There it sat, in all its tiny glory, on a pile of papers. I looked at Rupal, she looked at me, and I picked it up.

“Wow,” I said. “Half a million bucks.”

“I don’t think you’re supposed to pick that up without permission,” she said.

I pictured the security cameras, and Steve Ivy, Jim Halperin, Greg Rohan and Paul Minshull all watching. Any second now, I thought, the doors will open and the Auction Police will swiftly take the stamp, extradite me from the area, and beat me senseless in a room usually reserved for grading coins.

It will be worth it, I thought, and clutched the thing tighter.

I didn’t get in trouble, yet, and – given half a chance – I’d do it again. Here’s a link to the Jenny, and here’s a link to the Stamps Auction. Check out the video highlights of the auction. There’s lots of great stuff.

What do you reckon a first edition, signed Harry Potter is worth?

Feb. 4, 2009
Posted by Noah


I can’t really guess, and I’m probably the wrong person to ask about this. Anyone in our Rare Books and Manuscripts department could hazard a good guess. All too soon we’ll find out exactly what it’s worth to any number of determined collectors when a book that fits the description in the title of this post actually comes across the block. March 6-7, I believe. It’s a rare softcover, it’s got the impeccable condition and it’s got all first issue points and a card on the inside front, with the cover art on it, signed by Rowling. It will, without a doubt, bring a pretty penny. There are only a handful of these softcovers out there so it’s an important volume, at least to this day and age. I think I speak for almost every writer on the planet when I say: Man! I wish I had written those books.

To be honest with you, and I am most likely in opposition to many, I wasn’t so crazy about the Harry Potter books. You can’t fault the storytelling, I know, but you can fault the writing, and I found myself repeatedly little compelled by Rowling’s prose. The tales are easy to enjoy, like a candy bar, and ultimately just about as filling. The movies have gotten better as time has gone by. I don’t know about the books. Time will be the judge. Will our grandchildren be reading Harry Potter in a couple of decades, or will they be watching it? I’m just saying…

My tastes in literature are many, but when it comes to sci-fi and fantasy I will usually choose sci-fi, and I will snap up most any dystopian futuristic novel in a second – favorite books and authors are a different discussion altogether – and speaking of sci-fi, and the March Rare Books Auction, there’s another cool bit there, too, with the original handwritten manuscript for A Prelude To Space by Sir Arthur C. Clarke. Again, not really my cup of tea in terms of Clarke – the book reads like an instruction manual, which in a way it is – but it’s rare that something so specific to the process of a master is so readily accessible, and it shows the remarkable order with which Clarke wrote. Click on the link above, in this graph, to check it out.

Another Steelers Championship? Meh…

Feb. 2, 2009
Posted by Noah

Given that Heritage is a Dallas-based company, that most of its employees live here in the Metroplex and given the bad blood between the Cowboys and Steelers – not to forget that I despise the Pittsburgh Steelers almost as much as I do the San Francisco 49ers and Washington Redskins – don’t expect me, or anyone else here, to be waiving a terrible towel this morning. In fact, I would rather have chewed tin foil than see Pitt win another championship – Six titles for this team? The most in the NFL? That’s simply not right. The fact that it came over the lowly Cards, who shouldn’t have been there in the first place? Too easy. Ugh.

I watched yesterday’s game holding my nose, wanting only to see the vaunted Steel Curtain fall into ignominy, and I almost got my wish. Arizona, however, proved that defenses do indeed win championships by not providing any of its own and letting Pittsburgh stroll down the field for the final score. I didn’t want to watch because, somehow, you just knew that with more than two-and-a-half minutes left that the game was far from over.

I emailed Chris Ivy – the Director of Sports here – this morning with a few questions about the game and its impact on collectibles. He’s much more diplomatic than I am, and I give him credit for that. Here’s the exchange:

Me: What was your estimation of the game from a pure football standpoint?
Chris: As someone that didn’t have a particular interest in either team, it certainly delivered and was a great game from a fan’s standpoint. Both teams came from behind and made great plays; it’s a shame that one of them had to lose. (It’s a shame that Pittsburgh got to win! – Noah)

Me: Will the win affect prices on SuperBowl and/or Pittsburgh and/or Cards (Kurt Warner) memorabilia?

Chris: The Super Bowl will certainly influence memorabilia prices for items related to each team from this season. Game used jerseys from both teams will see a rise. Even though his team lost the game, Kurt Warner material will see a rise in his collectibles as well. Kurt Warner was a borderline Hall of Fame prospect if his career ended this season without any additional post season appearances, but because of this post season performance and the fact that he has taken his team to the Super Bowl three times, I think that he is now probable to be elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and that will affect all of his memorabilia.

ME: Just to put you on the spot, next year’s Super Bowl teams?

Chris: The Minnesota Vikings vs. the New England Patriots.

Here’s a link to some of the Steeler memorabilia that has sold at auction here in the last four years, Here’s some Kurt Warner stuff, and a single entry from the Arizona Cardinals. My picks for next year’s Super Bowl? Oakland vs. Detroit. You heard it here first.

Still creepy after all these years…

Jan. 30, 2009
Posted by Noah

I just can’t help but shudder a little when I think about it. Hmmm… So big by about so big… It was a cardboard reprint of a movie poster for the original Dracula movie, with Lon Chaney – not the Style B One Sheet Dracula in the upcoming Movie Poster Auction, which got me thinking in the first place – and I was about six when it came in to our house. It was a gift from my parents.

“Um… Thanks, mom…”

It came with a companion: A Boris Karloff Frankenstein poster. All these years later, a grown man with a family, sitting in a cube in this beautiful building, I get a link for the star of the movie poster auction. It’s from the movie poster director Grey Smith. It’s a consignment he’s been waiting for with bated breath because the poster is so rare. I open it up – as you can right here. It’s Dracula. I shudder.

No doubt it’s a great poster, incredibly rare, expensive as all get out, yet all I can see is the Dracula poster from our house that my brother Cris insisted always hang in the hallway outside my room, because he knew how it creeped me out. And he knew I would have to walk past it every night in the middle of the night to get to the bathroom.

I suppose that it is the point of this poster – to be so scary – and that I should be grateful to the studio geniuses, and to Lugosi, for providing me with such supreme creepiness. The 1931 Dracula is still the archetype of the character and clearly this poster is a cornerstone piece in any major collection. I am afraid that were I alone with it, however, I would become so unsettled that I would do to it what I finally did to the poster that haunted me grades one through four. It involved our backyard, a dirt pit and some matches. My brother Cris was pretty mad. My parents just laughed.

Academy Awards, you say? I just ask our in-house experts…

Jan. 23, 2009
Posted by Noah

In this case, it’s our Music & Entertainment Director Doug Norwine and our Movie Poster Director Grey Smith. Both men know their stuff, know their Hollywood and are not afraid to voice their opinions on it. The sad fact is that I’ve managed to corner only one of them: Doug. Grey has been a little busy getting his March auction in order, but I reckon I’ll be able to update this post soon with his opinions.

Before I get to Doug’s – who was a longtime L.A. resident, professional musician and probably rubbed elbows with more than his fair share of Oscar winners and nominees – I know that you’re really curious about my opinions. I mean, who wouldn’t be? Besides my wife, that is… I kid, I kid..

I haven’t seen all the movies for Best Picture, in fact, I think the only one I have seen is Benjamin Button, though I think Harvey Milk was a fascinating character, and I’m dying to see Slumdog Millionaire, and have traveled quite extensively throughout India, where the film is set – specifically Mumbai – and love it deeply as a nation, but that doesn’t really qualify me to comment on its chances. So, I guess by default, I’d say Benjamin Button is the odds on favorite. It’s by the Forrest Gump guys, has all the things that modern Hollywood loves in its epics, is the closest to magical realism Hollywood can truly get and is, really, just an enjoyable movie with excellent performances across the board. In fact, Doug echoed the same sentiment:

“Benjamin Button is a special effects tour de force with a wonderful message that left you in an up mood,” he said. “It also proves Brad Pitt is not only an excellent leading man, but a superb actor.”

Nicely said. The truth is that I really don’t have a real horse in any of the races, and I won’t even watch the awards. Benjamin Button will probably win best pic, but Pitt won’t win the award. He’s too pretty. It’s sweet that he and his wife are both nominated, though… Question is, will they be able to get a full section of seats for their 300 kids.

I’ll let you know, hopefully soon, what Grey has to say about the awards. Meanwhile, enjoy this little set of Oscar-related memorabilia from past Heritage Auctions. Cool stuff…

Picture caption: The Oscar for Best Short Film of 1949, one of the last Academy Awards legally available for resale, and sold at Heritage, April 2008.