Extensive frontier collection set for sale in live, online auction

FREDERICK, Md. – Several outstanding private collections sourced from the West Coast, Florida and the Northeast headline Mosby & Co.’s March 23 Americana, Historical & Posters catalog auction. The 400-lot sale features a small but select collection of ethnographic material from South America, Africa and Oceana; antique military and Western items; folk art; and a number of rare circus and magic posters.

1938 Tim McCoy Wild West Show three-sheet poster, possibly the only extant example. Mosby & Co. image.

The military and Western section of the sale contains several desirable weapons, including a Civil War-era Colt army pistol, a very fine Model 1873 Winchester lever-action .44 caliber rifle made in 1866 and a Model 1878 Colt Frontiersman gun with original custom holster. The latter firearm was purchased new in 1888 and passed down through successive generations of the original owner’s family.

This article originally appeared in Antique Trader magazine
Learn about subscribing to Antique Trader magazine for just $1 per issue!

Mosby & Co. is especially proud of its featured military collection. “It is an important archive of relics and memorabilia pertaining to U.S. Indian Agent Samuel Snider. It includes his original 1883 appointment document signed by President Chester A. Arthur, which indicates he was assigned to Fort Peck, Montana,” said Mosby & Co. owner Keith Spurgeon.

Extraordinarily fine 1st period Nazca Sihuas mantle woven from camelid fiber, 39 x 75in with stylized spider (Arana) motif. Mosby & Co. image.

“You never see these – they just don’t come up.”

After his Fort Peck tenure and shortly before the turn of the 19th century, Snider relocated to the Navajo Nations, as documented in the archival letter of recommendation from Lorenzo Hubbell, dated 1897. Hubbell, whose trading post is a national monument, was one of the most prominent Indian traders of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

By permission of the Navajo tribe, Hubbell became the only white man to be given the honor of burial on Navajo lands. The archive also includes several photos of Snider, including one that shows him with Hubbell and several Native Americans. Also of note are 75 glass-plate images Snider took of Navajo, Pueblo and Hopi in native dress and tribal children in their school uniforms.

Mosby & Co.’s Saturday, March 23, 2013, auction will commence at 10 a.m. EST at the company’s gallery at 5714-A Industry Ln., Frederick, MD 21704.

All forms of bidding will be available, including live via the Internet through LiveAuctioneers.com and Proxibid.com.

For more information, contact 240-629-8139, keith@mosbyauctions.com, or visit www.mosbyauctions.com.