Remington Bronco bucks $615k

DALLAS – A bronze by Frederic Remington grabbed top lot, and Golden Age illustration art set multiple records at a recent Heritage Auctions’ sale.

Multiple bidders drove Remington’s The Bronco Buster to a final selling price of $615,000. The rare 1.5-scale work is one of just 19 casts made from a large-scale plaster model of his iconic sculpture; others can be found in collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, Fort Worth’s Amon Carter Museum and the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming.

Five records were set to help drive the final total for Heritage’s American Auction to $5.3 million. The sale achieved particularly strong results in Golden Age illustration art.

“This auction is further evidence of Heritage’s position as a leader in the field of Golden Age illustration art,” said Heritage’s Vice President and American Art Director Aviva Lehmann. “Artists like Norman Rockwell, Andrew Wyeth, Christian Leyendecker and Howard Pyle are enormously popular among collectors, and all were well-represented in this sale. Aside from works by blue chip artists, we also established new records for other Golden Age illustrators, with masterworks by Thorton Utz and George Hughes. We offered quality material, and our audience appropriately responded.”

Andrew Newell Wyeth’s Coldspell, 1965, also drew numerous bids before closing at $250,000. Originally painted for his wife, Betsy, Coldspell hung in the artist’s bedroom until 1966, when the consignor’s grandmother bought it directly from the artist.

Joseph Christian Leyendecker’s Ice Skaters, 1909, sold for $112,500 – a record for the highest price at auction for the artist’s works that did not appear on a Saturday Evening Post cover.

Other records set in illustration art included:

$206,250: Thorton Utz Love’s Lost Child at the Information Booth, The Saturday Evening Post cover, December 20, 1958 – a new auction record for the artist

$87,500: George Hughes' Dinner Party, The Saturday Evening Post cover, November 11, 1961 – a new auction record for the artist

$58,750: John Stobart San Francisco Cowell’s Wharf, 1981

$30,000: Harold Anderson Kitchen Haircut, The Saturday Evening Post cover, November 11, 1933 – a new auction record for the artist

For all results, visit HA.com.