#Hot #Lots #Coming #Auction #November #WorthPoint
In November, WorthPoint’s Industry Partners are offering collectors a variety of unique items in their auctions. Highlights include concert tickets for a country music star participating in a charity auction for hurricane victims, a Christmas tree that serves as a Space Age icon, a bracelet crafted by an influential Native American jeweler, the coveted Holy Grail of Star Wars action figures, and an extremely rare horse-drawn toy sleigh.
Picking up from the Concert for Carolina, which was attended by over 82,000 music fans and raised more than $24.5 million for victims of Hurricane Helene, Goldin is hosting Concert for Carolina Auction – Luke Combs & Eric Church Selected Charities, closing on November 12.
Featuring stage-used items and sports fan experiences, the auction continues the efforts to help with the Helene recovery in North Carolina after the hurricane tore through the western part of the state in late September. The hurricane brought massive flooding and widespread power outages that devastated residents.
All proceeds from the auction will go to the charities selected by country music singers and songwriters Luke Combs and Eric Church, who are North Carolina natives. The sale offers collectibles and rare experiences in music, sports, and more.
One of the top items is Lot 1008, which includes two concert tickets, meet-and-greets with Church, and a signed guitar.
Other lots include a guitar Combs played onstage at the Carolina concert, a Hornets VIP fan experience, American Airlines AAdvantage Miles, and a signed Julius Peppers’ Carolina Panthers jersey.
Kitchy icons of the Space Age, aluminum Christmas trees had a short but sparkling run in the mid-century. Today, they are viewed as objets d’art by collectors, MCM design fans, and those who prefer the long lifespan of artificial trees.
During its online-only auction that closes on November 14, Nostalgic Noel: A Vintage Christmas Collection, 345 Auction of Pueblo West, Colorado, is offering several aluminum trees, including Lot 14, a six-foot Silverline tree. Silverline aluminum trees were a popular choice in the 1960s for their sophistication and low-maintenance appeal.
The first metal trees were made in 1959 in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, by the now-defunct Aluminum Specialty Company. At an affordable $25, the trees were a huge success and became a design trend by the early 1960s. Most were produced in silver, but green, pink, and yellow were later introduced.
The 1965 Christmas classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas, is cited for helping to fuel their eventual decline in popularity after Charlie ignores Lucy’s instruction to buy “the biggest aluminum tree you can find” and instead picks the little sad-looking but real tree.
Today, aluminum trees have made a comeback with collectors as vintage pieces of yuletide cool and offer comforting nostalgia to those who fondly recall the aluminum-gilded holidays of their youth.
Collectors of Native American and Western art, jewelry, and other artifacts have many choices to bid on at Bradford’s Wild West Art Auction on November 17 in Sun City, Arizona.
Native American jewelry is a perennial favorite with collectors, and the auction has more than 200 pieces of it, including Lot 1020. This rare sterling silver inlay cuff bracelet set with charoite, coral, and turquoise is by renowned modernist jeweler and silversmith Charles Loloma (1921-1991).
Loloma, a Hopi member of the Badger Clan, is considered the godfather of American Indian jewelry. His influence and impact on jewelry, in general, have been unprecedented.
Integrating traditional Native lines with a modern aesthetic, Loloma experimented with sculptural shapes and designs that weaved in Hopi symbolism, and his raised inlay designs are unique to his work. He also introduced new techniques and materials, including diamonds, exotic woods, fossilized ivory, gold, pearls, and brightly colored stones like lapis lazuli, malachite, and sugilite.
Collectors avidly seek out Loloma’s high-end pieces, and his legacy of beautiful, wearable art is treasured by those fortunate enough to have one in their collections.
Becoming one of the biggest and most influential pop-culture juggernauts in the galaxy since the first movie, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, debuted in 1977, the Star Wars franchise and all of the action figures and toys it has spawned remains a global phenomenon.
During its online Auction 242, which closes November 19 and 20, Hake’s Auctions of York, Pennsylvania, is offering nearly 250 items for Star Wars collectors.
The top offering and most valuable Star Wars toy ever is Lot 1568, a Rocket-Firing Boba Fett prototype (L slot version). According to Hake’s, which specializes in Star Wars collectibles and has sold several of these figures for record sums, few items are held in as much reverence as the Rocket-Firing Boba Fett when it comes to Star Wars lore.
Only available in prototype form, opportunities for acquiring one of these highly coveted figures are limited as Kenner created only a finite number for safety testing purposes. There are two versions of this prototype: the L-slot and J-slot, so named for the shape of the mechanisms on their back.
In March 2022, Hake’s set a world record for selling another J-slot prototype for $204,435 and then beat that record three months later when it sold an L-slot example for $236,000. In August 2024, another WorthPoint industry partner, Goldin, achieved the new world record for the prototype after selling a J-slot version of the toy for $1.34 million, making it the most expensive toy sold at auction.
Each year, collectors eagerly await Bertoia Auction’s annual fall sale of antique and vintage toy treasures that heralds the holiday season. This year’s annual auction on November 22 and 23 features a variety of standout toys in many different categories.
One of the highlights offered on the sale’s second day is Lot 1372, a horse-drawn cast-iron cutter sleigh with its extremely rare original factory figure. Made by the Ives Manufacturing Company, circa 1890s, this piece is fresh to market after being discovered in a Virginia home in 2023.
This Ives sleigh gives collectors the chance to own a true rarity: it is the second of only two known examples with the original figure. The other toy had been in L.C. Hegarty’s legendary collection and was believed to be the only one in existence for decades; Bertoia first sold that example for $280,800 in 2014.
Besides sleighs and carriages, it was also once common to see teams of horses pulling fire trucks, delivery trucks, and street trolleys. Toy manufacturers capitalized on this and created miniature versions for children to play with. These horse-drawn toys are popular with collectors today for their historic value and charm.
Adina K. Francis has been a writer and editor in the antiques and collectibles field for more than 20 years. She has a bit of an obsession with the Victorians and thinks that dogs are one of life’s greatest gifts.
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