Hundreds of collectibles change hands at Holabird's June Minerals Galore & Western Americana Auction

RENO, Nev. - June 13, 2022 - PRLog -- A 288-pound iron-nickel meteorite found in China in 1958 and believed to have fallen to Earth in 1516 A.D. sold for $4,125 at a four-day Minerals Galore & Western Americana Auction held June 2^nd thru 5^th by Holabird Western Americana Collections, LLC, online and live in the Reno gallery. Hundreds of collectibles came up for bid in an array of collecting categories.

All prices in this report are inclusive of the buyer's premium.

A stamp album containing a wonderful collection of U.S. commemoratives dating from 1900 to 1975, with all the stamps presented in black glassine protectorates and all appearing to be in mint condition, finished at $3,750. Also, an important collection of pipes – about 40 in all, including six meerschaums and several briars – fetched $1,062. The makers were from England, France, Turkey and Vienna. Included was a second edition copy of The Pipe Book, by Alfred Dunhill.

From the Ken Prag collection, a collection of more than 700 vintage postcards from Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada, including stagecoaches arriving in the valley and views from Camp Curry, Glacier Point and Wawona tunnel, hit $1,187; while a lot of 60 postcards from Hong Kong, China, circa 1905-1910s, including 14 real photo postcards, the rest including three Pacific Mail Steamship Co. cards and a three-panel panorama postcard (repaired), made $875.

The meteorite was a Day 3 lot and came out of the Chunlin Zhu collection. Items from that same collection included a large amethyst cavern geode with deep purple crystals – a real show-stopper ($1,375); and a Chinese viewing stone – a beautifully intricate tan-colored flowstone from a cavern, 17 inches tall ($1,875).

A Wells Fargo Company (Omaha, Neb.) stock certificate #647 for 100 shares, issued in 1870 to Henry Wells, one of the co-founders of American Express in 1850, rose to $2,875. This stock certificate, one of perhaps five known, is unquestionably one of the most important of all the Wells Fargo and American Express documents, as it represents the takeover of Wells Fargo by California business financier Lloyd Tevis after cutting a back-room deal with Wells and Fargo.

Also sold on Day 4 was a copy of the 1884 book Recollections of Mining Life by Henry DeGroot, 16 pages in near mint condition, with full-page illustrations, a classic book cited in nearly every Gold Rush bibliography ($1,000). To learn more about Holabird Western Americana Collections, visit www.holabirdamericana.com.