High Noon Press Release
Thousands Attend and Western Americana History Achieves Astonishing Prices at the 24th Annual High Noon Western Americana Show and Auction
Below is an excerpt from their press release:
Mesa, AZ — For two days, thousands of collectors and lovers of the American West gathered from across the country at the Mesa Convention Center for the spectacular 24th Annual High Noon Western Americana Show and Auction. The event was held January 25-26, 2014.
The High Noon Antiques and Western Americana Show was filled to capacity from start to finish with robust buying reported from the over 200 dealers who exhibited.
The centerpiece of the weekend, as always, was the amazing High Noon Western Americana Auction that was held Saturday evening, January 25th, at the adjacent Marriott Mesa Hotel Ballroom. There was barely an empty seat in the house with over 1,000 floor bidders waiting to raise their bid cards for the chance to win one of the 329 exceptional lots of Western Americana art, artifacts, Cowboy and memorabilia from the silver screen — and what an exciting night it was with several astonishing surprises.
The key lot of the sale was Lot 231, The Lady Yule Visalia Saddle from Gleannloch Farms. An absolute triumph in functional art, this 1930s masterpiece in tooled leather from the Visalia Stock Saddle Company, also featured exquisitely engraved sterling silver by Schaezlein of San Francisco. The saddle ensemble included a fully matching bridle and dazzling breast collar. The provenance was equally rich as this saddle was made for Lady Ann Yule, considered to be the wealthiest woman in the world at the time.
This saddle came to the sale with an estimate of $60,000 to $90,000. Bidding on this lot opened at $30,000 but furious bidding from the floor, phones and Internet quickly escalated the final sale price to $141,600 – over $50,000 over high estimate.
