Your Summer Guide to Buying Native American Art and Artifacts, Cowboy Antiques, Fine Western Art, Spanish Colonial and Western Americana
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THE OLD WEST Your Summer Guide To Buying Native American Art and Artifacts, Cowboy Antiques, Fine Western Art, Spanish Colonial and Western Americana A SUPPLEMENT TO ANTIQUES AND THE ARTS WEEKLY • 5 CHURCH HILL RD • NEWTOWN, CONNECTICUT, 06470 • JULY 24, 2015 2— THE OLDWEST July 24, 2015 — Antiques and The Arts Weekly THE OLDWEST •THE OLDWEST • THE OLDWEST • THE OLDWEST R. Scudder Smith, Publisher & Editor Laura Beach, Managing Editor Carol Sims, Special Section Editor Pamela Ashbahian, Production Director Tel. 203-426-8036 or 426-3141 or Fax. 203-426-1394 www.AntiquesandTheArts.com email - [email protected] THE OLDWEST •THE OLDWEST • THE OLDWEST • THE OLDWEST Published by The Bee Publishing Company, Box 5503, Newtown Connecticut 06470 The ‘Molesworth Approach’ At Fighting Bear Antiques JACKSON, WYO. — Fighting Bear Antiques was founded in tute of Chicago. “He was a proponent of a simple lifestyle and Jackson, Wyo., in 1978. The business operated for many bringing the outdoors in.” years as a general-line antique store, in a small building off the In the beginning, however, Molesworth’s prospects as a fur- town square. Back then, owner Terry Winchell always spent niture maker looked bleak. But then, during the height of the several months of the year combing all parts of the United Depression, Moses Annenberg of the Philadelphia Inquirer States for unique and quality merchandise. In the early 1990s, paused at Molesworth’s Cody storefront — the Shoshone Fur- the focus of the business shifted to rustic Western furniture, niture Company — walked in and proceeded to place an order Native American artifacts and Plains Indian beadwork, Navaho for 350 pieces of furniture, as well as for Navajo rugs and textiles and upper-end Mission furniture, such as Stickley, Lim- other Western décor. Molesworth completed and installed this bert and Roycroft, and of course, Western lodge furniture from order in just 18 months. This was the beginning of a long line Thomas Molesworth. of rich and famous people who over the intervening decades Terry Winchell grew up in western Nebraska/eastern have decorated their ranches and vacation homes with Wyoming, and his love affair with Native American started Molesworth lodge furniture, including Mickey Cochrane of the when he visited Colonel Cook with his grandfather and saw Detroit Tigers, the Coe family of Standard Oil, and Tom Colonel Cook’s amazing collection, which also opened his Yawkey, owner of the Boston Red Sox. eyes to the beauty of ranch-style furniture. In 2006, Terry mar- “All the great old hotels and lodges of the West bought ried Claudia Bonnist, who grew up in Westchester, N.Y. (Her Molesworth furnishings,” said Winchell, “including his most sister is Vivien Cord of the renowned Cord Shows). Bonnist famous commission, the old lodge in Glenwood Springs, found Jackson to be a stunning place to live and work, and the Colo.” That magnificent collection eventually went to auction at pair meets new customers daily during the high summer sea- Christie’s, with Winchell purchasing about $900,000 worth of son, because the valley is located near the South Gate of Yel- furniture from that sale for himself and on behalf of his clients. lowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park, some “When I first moved here, a lot of our dude ranches were of the top tourist destinations in the world. coming back from Rockefeller ownership for Snake River Land “My introduction to Native American beadwork was with Company, which became Grand Teton National Park eventual- strike-a-lights, beautiful little beaded bags that they would ly. When an owner died, their property would go to auction,” carry on their belts to hold what they would use to make fire. said Winchell. His first big stake in Molesworth furniture came We have well over 100 examples,” Bonnist told Antiques and about when he had a chance to buy the entire contents of Terry Winchell The Arts Weekly. Hunter Hereford Ranch for just $35,000 more than 25 years and his wife If Bonnist has a fondness for the diminutive and intricate, ago. Eileen Hunter had died and left her land to the Grand Claudia Winchell has a passion for the massive, substantial lodge fur- Teton National Park, an example followed by many other pri- Apache olla, circa 1910. Bonnist. niture that characterized many of the surrounding ranches. He vate ranches in the area (Jackson County is 97 percent pub- still owns the first piece of rustic furniture he ever bought, a licly held land). or of the homes. wardrobe/desk/dresser built by Mr Gabbey, circa 1925. He “I sold the Hunter Hereford Ranch collection at a profit to a “I want to do everything,” said Winchell. “Navajo textiles — we paid $25 for the piece, which has mosaic inlay and looks Cody, Wyo., rancher/collector. Then I bought it back from him always have an inventory of 50-75 vintage Navajo textiles — Adirondack. a year later for $100,000 in 1990.” pottery, beadwork. We never sell contemporary or fakes.” He “The same guys who built the cabins in the summer would Molesworth furniture was appreciating rapidly. “There was currently has Molesworth burled club chairs, a three-panel build the furniture in the winter,” said Winchell, who pointed an exhibit at the Buffalo Bill Historic Center in Cody, organized screen that Molesworth did with his own hand, and ten key- out that this was a necessity, since Jackson never had a rail- by Peter Hassrick (who is responsible for the catalogue hole chairs. road, and shipping furniture was costly. raisonné for Frederic Remington) along with Wally Reber and In addition to lecturing widely on both Western design and It was Thomas Molesworth who put Winchell on the map for Paul Fees. They did an exhibit called ‘Interior West: the Craft Native American arts, Terry Winchell has written two books, rustic furniture, though — a Cody, Wyo., furniture maker, who Furniture of Thomas Molesworth,”’ said Winchell. Thomas Molesworth, The Pioneer of Western Design and at the peak of his production employed 35 craftsmen and sold Today, based on the same comprehensive decorating princi- Living with American Indian Art, the Hirschfield Collection, through high-end outlets, including Abercrombie & Fitch, ples of Thomas Molesworth, Fighting Bear Antiques tries to both published by Gibbs Smith. Gump’s, Marshall Fields and Brandeis Dept. Store in Omaha help recreate the interiors of the lodges that were popular in Fighting Bear Antiques, 375 Cache Street, is open 9am to Neb. the 1920s and 1930s. Both public and private, these interiors 6pm, Monday through Saturday, and Sundays by appoint- “He used bright colors. He made it fun. There is a lot of were furnished with colorful Navaho rugs, shop-built custom ment. The Winchells continue to seek collections, and wel- humor in his furniture, which he did on purpose,” said furniture and Native American artifacts, which fit well in the come inquiries; email [email protected], or call 307- Winchell, pointing out that Molesworth trained at the Art Insti- West and help to bring the outside environment into the interi- 733-2669. Owners Terry Winchell and Claudia Bonnist Take A Comprehensive Approach To Western Decor Kiowa strike-a-light, sinew beaded on hide, with tin cone drops, circa 1880. The Kiowa Indians from the central plains, north of Texas, often depict church steeples. Thomas Molesworth spindle side club chairs, circa 1930. Antiques and The Arts Weekly — July 24, 2015 THE OLDWEST — 3 4— THE OLDWEST July 24, 2015 — Antiques and The Arts Weekly American Renaissance Native American Art In The Nineteenth Century BY JOHN MOLLOY when oil was found in this sacred land graphs of Plains Indians wearing them OWNER, JOHN MOLLOY GALLERY of the Lakota. This story continues today but none of which I am aware of Navajo The Native American artist in the Nine- with our government handing over to an wearing them. teenth Century encountered a transfor- Australian mining company the sacred The Navajo seemed to favor the classic mation of living conditions as well as lands of the Apache known as Oak Flat. serape among themselves. They, too, increased access to a wide variety of art This was done via an amendment to the would experience an explosion of color materials. This combination triggered an current 2015 national budget! In our and design in their textile art with the explosion of creativity. Artistic high time and in our name! But now we talk disruption by the dominant culture con- points were reached throughout North about the art... current with the advent of new materials America by Native artists that, in turn, As the Plains Indians engaged in initial and culture. As always, the artists were absorbed by the dominant culture contacts with European Americans, the reflected the changes in society. The and reinterpreted in the last quarter of connection was more about commerce straight lines of the First Phase blanket the Twentieth Century. Great Twentieth than conflict. An important part of this were augmented by the addition of red Century artists and theorists such as commerce was the trade for art sup- yarns unraveled from Spanish blankets Andre Breton, Hans Hoffman and Andy plies, i.e. beads. The remains of Bent’s and woven into chiefs’ blankets and Warhol, among others, were ardent col- Fort which is located in what is now serapes in the classic period before ani- lectors of American Indian art. southeastern Colorado but was then the line dyes arrived in the Southwest. What matters, though, is not who col- border with Mexico, bears testimony to When aniline dye arrived along with lected this indigenous art but why — this fact. The fort burned to the ground commercial yarns from Germantown, these artists viscerally responded to the in 1849 and that ground was saturated Penn., the Navajo artists created the immediacy of this timeless art which with trade beads in its ruins.