Crownpoint, December 2010

December 13, 2010

A young volunteer studies the auctioneering techniques of Wayne Connell (center) and Delbert Autry (right)

Crownpoint, NM This month’s Crownpoint Rug Auction was well attended by buyers and weavers. While not all of the rugs were sold, an estimated 75% of them did. The Spider Rock Girls had a booth in the crowded hallway outside the auction and reported that they sold everything that they brought, but most went for their reserve price. That result was fairly typical for the evening. There was a gratifying show of first time auction attendees and I overheard several say they were planning return visits, which is a good “leading indicator” for the coming year.

Notable pieces in the auction were the Ganado Red and Klagetoh Red rugs by Frances Burghorn (whose name I hope I’ve spelled correctly), a weaver whose work I hadn’t seen at Crownpoint before. Frances’ work has the quality that you’d expect to find at higher end trading posts, but is coming into the auction venue as traders have slowed their buying and are offering less when they do buy. You can see Frances’ rugs below. Both sold at around the $1000-$1500 mark, a bargain for the quality of the weaving.

Klagetoh Red by Frances Burghorn

Ganado Red weaving by Frances Burghorn

In all, auction manager Christina Ellsworth estimated that there were about 200 rugs in the auction, which ended at around 9:15 PM. I was able to purchase three rugs for the Mercantile: Alice Van Winkle Thompson’s Ram’s Head Moki design which is pictured below (Mercantile price: $630), one of Nellie Glasses handspun rugs (Mercantile price: $390) and a small Rena Robertson Faces piece (Mercantile price: $350). I’ll get those listed later today or tomorrow morning. The next Crownpoint auction will be on Friday, January 14th. Previews start at 4 PM and the bidding begins around 7 PM. The auction accepts cash, personal checks drawn on U.S. banks and travelers checks. I’ve in included a few more pictures from the auction in the gallery below.