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Cast Silver Pig (102t oz, 999 fine) 25th Nugget Rib Cook Off, 2013 [190387]

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Ingots Start Price:4,500.00 USD Estimated At:10,000.00 - 15,000.00 USD
Cast Silver Pig (102t oz, 999 fine) 25th Nugget Rib Cook Off, 2013 [190387]
SOLD
7,250.00USDto t*********6+ buyer's premium (1,812.50)
This item SOLD at 2024 Nov 24 @ 08:18UTC-8 : PST/AKDT
FINAL AUCTION RECORD The Auctioneer’s podium notes serve as the final, legally binding record of the auction results, superseding any electronic bidding records. See Terms and Conditions
Cast Silver Pig (102toz) Commemorating the 25th Nugget Rib Cook Off, 2013 Artist Brad Rude was commissioned in 2013 by John Ascuaga's Nugget Casino and Resort to create and cast a silver pig to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-Off, the most famous of all rib cookoffs in America, with hundreds of thousands of people attending every year. Designed to mimic the Golden Rooster that had been in the family-owned business since 1958.( Declared an object of art because private ownership of gold was prohibited, the Rooster was appraised at $61,784 in October of 1988; seized by the federal government, the rooster was returned to the family after a lawsuit). Artist Brad Rude has been featured locally at the Stremmel Gallery, in Reno, at the Missoula Art Museum in Montana, the Foster/White Gallery in Seattle, Washington and the Gail Severn Gallery in Idaho. The noble pig is 11 inches long and 6 inches high and weighs 102 troy ounces, or 7 pounds. The pig can be seen on Rude's website as one of his private commissions. Rude made three for the Ascuaga family. This pig was John Ascuaga's personal silver ingot pig. This is a classic figural precious metal ingot. Signed and dated on the bottom by Rude.
New Notes: It took a bit of time, but we got answers about this pig's manufacture from both the artist (Rude) and the maker foundry of this silver pig. The foundry is the Walla Walla Foundry. The foundry doesn't keep records that old, but stated: "Typically, in the present, when we cast silver we use .999 casting grain, but I cannot say for certain what we used back then for (this project.)" (Isaiah Stodola, Walla Walla Foundry). It is a casting, thus is hollow to some degree.