Bonhams is prepping for a busy winter season with two significant sales of Native American artworks, with a special spotlight on the December 9 Native American Art sale. Collectors are offered around 275 lots for a thrilling in-person auction at Bonhams’ Los Angeles showroom. The second sale, Historic & Modern Native American Art, will be held online from December 1 through 10, featuring around 200 lots.

Ingmars Lindbergs, director of Native American Art at Bonhams, shares that the Native American Art sale will feature “strong selections of historic Pacific Northwest Coast and Inuit art, early Navajo blankets and later weavings, Plains and Plateau beadwork and material culture, and vintage Southwestern jewelry.”

Diné (Navajo) classic bayeta petite serape/child’s blanket, ca. 1865, dyed yard, approx. 57½ in. x 37 in. Estimate: $30/50,000

 

Lindbergs also notes that a strong selection of early Navajo textiles should generate considerable interest, particularly as that is one area of historic Native American art that seems to have maintained a relatively strong market. Fresh to market highlights in other collecting areas help round out the selection for serious collectors.

One such textile highlight is a Navajo (Diné) classic bayeta petite serape/child’s blanket, with an estimate of $30,000 to $50,000. “This is an incredibly finely woven blanket dating to circa 1865 that is exceptional both in overall execution, composition, tone and balance,” Lindbergs explains. “The fretwork border is an unusual detail not typically found in similar weavings from this era and could be viewed as a ‘signature’ or stylistic hallmark of this accomplished weaver.”

Attributed to Isabella and Charles Edenshaw (Haida), Haida painted basketry hat, twine, cloth chinstrap, headband, 7¼ x 153/8 in. Estimate: $20/30,000

 

The blanket is worked with a crenelated border enclosing. It’s striped and serrated with additional geometric bands of primarily cochineal and lac-dyed red (about 90-percent of all red yarns) and cochineal-dyed red (about 10-percent of all red yarns), indigo-dyed blue, natural green/taupe and cream yarns.

Another noteworthy piece is a Haida painted basketry hat (est. $20/30,000), possibly the work of Isabella and Charles Edenshaw. “There are approximately 20 hats known to have been woven around the turn of the last century by Haida artisans Isabella Edenshaw (1858-1926) and Charles Edenshaw (circa 1839-1920), most of which are now in museum collections,” says Lindbergs. “This particular example was exhibited in the United States and abroad between 1975 and 1978 as part of the traveling exhibition Form and Freedom, and is one of two hats in the current sale attributed to the Edenshaws.”

The hat is finely woven, with the lower portion/brim worked with a combination of two and three-strand twining to create a pattern of raised concentric diamond motifs. The rim finish is braided, painted in red and black, and has a peaked crown with a four-pointed duotone star, and the body of the hat shows a form line frog. A secondary face is above the hindquarters—perhaps depicting a bear—and the interior has a headband and cloth chinstrap.

Left: Tsitsistas/Suhtai (Cheyenne) beaded lattice cradleboard with tacked boards, 41 x 13 in. Estimate: $12/18,000  Right: Rick Bartow (Wiyot, 1946-2016), Fear mask, 1988, mixed media, 13 x 9 in. Estimate: $2/4,000

 

Additional highlights include a Tsitsistas/Suhtai (Cheyenne) beaded lattice cradleboard (est. $12/18,000); a Lakota drawing, Wahton his father (est. $6/9,000); and a “fear” mask, 1988, by Rick Bartow (Wiyot, 1946-2016), with an estimate between $2,000 and $4,000.

The Native American Art sale is slated for December 9, held at noon at Bonhams’ Los Angeles showroom. The online-only sale, Historic & Modern Native American Art, will be held December 1 through 10. It offers numerous California and Western baskets, Hopi katsinam, signed pueblo pottery, original artworks by modern Indigenous North American artists, and the jewelry selection focused on Zuni artists. —

December 9, 2025
Native American Art
Bonhams
7601 W. Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90046
www.bonhams.com

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