Auction Details
Welcome to our Autumn Splendor Auction, the first of our fabulous end-of-the-year sales! This sale features many important collections:
**Stuart “Scotty” MacKenzie Montana Collection**
Stuart (Scotty to his immediate family and circle of Montana friends) was an inveterate collector and dealer. Aside from his regular job as a lawyer in a firm of two with his old school buddy, he did damn near everything else. If the kids wanted a horse, there was one. Then four. Then more. After his wife Shirley spotted one of the kids swinging in the air, hanging onto the reins for dear life, that was it for the horses.
Then there was the ranch and cattle. Too much cow poop on the boots in the office that also came home into the house, and that was it for the ranch. Stuart scoured the backroads of northern Montana looking for documents, archives, company files, libraries, correspondence – most anything historical except bottles and tokens. He got lucky - that bug never bit him.
He was a regular at university library book sales, often buying the “whole thing.” He’d trade for things he wanted, trade for stuff he didn’t want, but the museum or society really wanted it badly, so off it went. He was a major supporter of the local Chinook Historical Society (Blaine County Historical Society), and a major contributor and concept man for the Chinook Wildlife Museum on Main Street today.
His grandfather was a Montana Senator, and a wing of the university in Havre is named after him. The family were die-hard UMontana fans and supporters. A family house in Whitefish was a regular vacationing spot, not far from Glacier National Park.
In all the years of knowing Stuart (40 or so), I never got the opportunity to meet his wife Shirley or his kids. It seems the few shows I did not attend on some years (Memphis, in particular), the family would be there, but I wasn’t. When he called me a few days before his passing, I heard the emergency of the hour in his voice. I thought I’d talk to him in a few days, but it was too late. But I finally got to meet Shirley, and she’s a “ten” in every way. But at least he had told me over the years what he had, where it was, and so forth, so that when I first went to Chinook, it was somewhat familiar to me. I knew what to look for and where. We brought back two 28-foot trucks and a large, tall van full of goods, probably 18-19 tons of collectible material. A local auction was held for some of the larger and fragile material in his store, which had been closed for ten years. We also left behind another 28-foot truck worth of goods, but we had sorted thru most.
Even though Chinook is a prairie town, a stop on the Burlington Northern 20 miles from Havre (HAV’– er), the midpoint between Seattle and Minneapolis, Stuart had a strong love of mining stuff. He scored big in Butte, in Virginia City, in Pony, Helena and many other towns. He put together massive correspondence collections which will be offered at a future date. We put together a massive Montana town document collection of over 500 different locations – nearly 600! There are document archives from many of Montana’s most famous towns that are offered in this sale and upcoming sales. This is a very rare opportunity to garner such collections. We have not seen anything like this since about 1992 when we sold off a major Nevada archive in San Francisco.
Another major holding are his fruit labels and other labels, which date from the 1870s right through about 1950 or so. These come from all over America, and some from Europe. He bought large accumulations from dealers who bought out closed printer businesses. He also scored a huge deal on Victorian wall art, mostly pretty ladies in attire of the times, the kind put up in saloons, and well used today in interior decorating. He found large advertising groups sure to make hundreds of collectors happy.
Then there are postcards, postal history, bird prints, and a fantastic Montana library – hundreds of boxes, which we will supplement with another Montana library at a later date.
**Shirley Bovis Private Tombstone Cowboy Museum**
For decades, Shirley was a main-stay in Tombstone, an avid collector, part-time dealer and nice person. She bought long time Tombstone dealer Joe Soebbing’s adobe in the middle of town, and quickly turned part of it into a museum. She also owned the Tombstone Bead Company, an off-shoot of the Bovis Bead Company as America’s only dealer in specialty beads from Lyon, France, now long out of production. We hope to be offering these beads at a later date, as they have sat “idle” for more than 40 years. Shirley collected gambling items, saloon, cowboy, Native American – pretty much everything that is and was Tombstone. This collection will also come out a bit at a time.
**Western Coin Dealers and Collectors**
We continue to get in great collections of tokens, medals and bullion coins from a wide variety of western coin dealers and collectors. Our market has been very hot, and it shows. This sale features a great batch of so-called dollars.
**Ken Prag Postcards and Stocks**
We picked up another large group of cards and stocks from Ken, and by publication time may not have had time to process much, but it's coming! This sale features a large batch of California postcards, as well as more rare autograph stocks including American Express, Wells Fargo, Robert Morris, and more!
**Railroad Passes, Lock Keys, Lamps, Stocks, & Ephemera**
We received consignments from three important railroad pass and stock collections, all in this sale. It's still tough for us to price them, so we try to keep the start price cheap and you guys figure out the rest! This sale also features nearly 200 lots of lock keys and lamps, and a huge railroad library.
**Mining**
Western mining photographs, documents, and publications, as well as carbide lamps. Mining stocks include an issued Bodie stock signed by Leland Stanford; a California mining stock signed by famous Western author Bret Harte; and a collection of Canadian stocks.
**Hollywood & Disney Autographs & Ephemera**
A huge group of autographed pictures and cuts from Hollywood's biggest stars thru time. Also rare Disney collectibles and ephemera.
**Rare Books**
In addition to nearly 75 lots of Montana directories from the MacKenzie Collection, we're thrilled to offer a Shakespeare Original First Folio Fragment, "The First Part of Henry the Fourth."
**& Much More!
Native Americana; jewelry; a big group of belt buckles and other cowboy collectibles; bottles & saloon collectibles; rare Western documents and photos; militaria including Civil War knives; gaming & circus collectibles; art & advertising, and more!
Keep the Collections Coming!
We have three of the best western collections of their kind coming up in future months. And I mean the kind you’ve all been waiting for, but did not know about them.
Please keep us in mind for selling your collection, and contact me, fredholabird@gmail.com. --Fred Holabird & Team--
Auction Schedule
Day 1, October 28th, 2021, Lots 1000-1651
General Americana Pt. I
Alaska-Wyoming incl. MacKenzie Montana Ephemera Collection (1000-1538)
Bottles & Saloon & Cigar (1539-1602)
Marbles & Toys (1603-1651)
Day 2, October 29th, 2021, Lots 2000-2632
General Americana Pt. II (2000-2537)
Books feat. the Montana Directories & Shakespeare First Folio (2000-2174)
Gaming & Circus (2175-2209)
Cowboy (2210-2257)
Jewelry (2258-2295)
Miscellaneous (2296-2506)
General Foreign (2507-2537)
Firearms, Military, & Political (2538-2632)
Day 3, October 30th, 2021, Lots 3000-3661
Art & Advertising (3000-3152)
Native Americana (3153-3226)
Transportation (3227-3661)
Air, Auto, Steamer (3227-3259)
Railroadiana (3260-3661)
Passes (3260-3328)
Ephemera (3329-3421)
Keys (3422-3555)
Lamps (3556-3614)
Model Trains (3615-3661)
Day 4, October 31st, 2021, Lots 4000-4618
Mining Ephemera & Collectibles (4000-4110)
Stocks & Bonds (4111-4371)
Mining (4111-4233)
Oil (4234-4251)
Railroad (4252-4298)
Misc. incl. Autographs, Early American, & Express (4299-4371)
Numismatics (4372-4618)
Ingots (4372-4377)
Currency, Scrip, Ephemera (4378-4409)
Coins (4410-4462)
Medals & So-Called Dollars (4463-4565)
Tokens (4566-4618)
Day 5, November 1st, 2021, Lots 5000-5648
Philatelic (5000-5398)
Postcards (5000-5367)
Covers & Stamps (5368-5398)
Bargains & Dealer Specials (5399-5648)
General Americana (5399-5482)
Stocks & Bonds (5483-5573)
Numismatics (5574-5648)