Second Time Around

In a successful follow-up to its 2022 debut, the Lone Star Art Auction brings in $5.1 million sales.

Western Art Collector

With a strong attendance in person and robust bidding online and on the phones, the Lone Star Art Auction marked its second sale with solid numbers on October 28: more than $5.1 million in sales with a 92 percent sell-through rate. “I feel pretty great about it,” says auction owner Phil Berkebile Jr. “Prices were fair for all sides. We had some buyers come out with some great deals, and then we had sellers who were very pleased with their results as well. That’s a good sale to watch when it’s fair for both sides.”

Berkebile noted that the sale was largely dominated by telephone and online sales, but said in-person bidding was strong. “The biggest pieces sold by telephone and in the room, but the largest volume of lots sold online,” he says.

The top lot was William Aiken Walker’s historical work The Cotton Plantation, which sold within estimates for $330,000. Not far behind it was Frank Tenney Johnson’s action painting The Lawless Frontier that sold for $270,000, right within its estimates of $250,000 to $300,000.

Howard Terpning’s Proud Men, which was featured on the cover of one of the painter’s books, sold for $216,000, just over its $200,000 estimate. G. Harvey had two works in the top 10 lots: Enough Till Spring, which sold for $180,000, and Making a Good Spring, which finished at $102,000.

Other artists that performed well were Joseph Henry Sharp, Oscar. E. Berninghaus, Leon Gaspard, Tom Lovell and Kyle Polzin.

Berkebile has already picked dates for the 2024 Lone Star Art Auction, which will be held on October 11 and 12 in Dallas.