Over 3,600 Slices Of Americana Come Up For Bid In Holabird's 'spooktacular' Auction

By Author: Fred Holabird
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A rare Wells Fargo and Company stock certificate from 1870 sold for $2,875, a 1960s-era 25-cent Jennings slot machine from the famous Nevada Club Casino brought $2,625, and a $1,000 Federal Reserve note from 1934 realized $2,500 at Holabird Western Americana Collections’ 5-day “Spooktacular Sale” held Oct. 29-Nov. 2, online and live at the Reno gallery.

More than 3,600 lots in a wide array of collecting categories crossed the auction block over the course of the five days. “We had a 75 percent sell-through. It would have topped 80 percent had it not been for the art category,” said Fred Holabird, president and owner of Holabird Western Americana Collections. “The auction attracted a registered bidder audience of more than 5,000 people who placed over 50,000 bids, representing over 750 separate buyers. It was a great sale.”

Following are highlights from the auction. Online bidding was facilitated by iCollector.com, LiveAuctioneers.com, Invaluable.com and Auctionzip.com. Telephone and absentee bids were also accepted and were a big part of the sale. All prices quoted include the buyer’s premium.

Day ...
... 1, October 29th, was filled with 679 lots of art, Native Americana, textiles, foreign and general collectibles, collector spoons, jewelry, scales, advertising items and signs, furnishings and 3-D items, music, theater, sports, tobacciana, saloon, cowboy, comic books, books and magazines, antiquarian books, bottle, marbles and gaming. It was a veritable collector’s paradise.

The star lot of Day 1 was the classic 1960s 25-cent slot machine from the Nevada Club Casino, a must-have for collectors of Lake Tahoe items. The machine featured the classic Jennings Indian Head in brass. Also sold was a heavy turquoise and silver-twisted wire and stamped bracelet, featuring a beautiful oval turquoise stone from the Royston mining district in Nevada ($1,220). “One of our specialties is silver-turquoise jewelry, and this sale was loaded,” Mr. Holabird said.

Other Day 1 superstars included a glazed China marble, a little over an inch in diameter, in the King’s Rose pattern, which went for $1,000, as part of a large vintage marbles collection; and a group of six Navajo (Arizona) cuffs, five of them stamped and one stamped and hammer embossed with eagle and swastika designs ($1,000).