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Demand remains sky-high for the self-taught folk artist Clemens and his intricate sand art, with work selling for double the pre-auction estimate at Hindman.
A pair of Andrew Clemens (1857-1894) “Sweetheart” sand bottles, each dated 1883 and with name banners for Charles Bramar and Maggie Bramar, sold for $120,000 at Hindman, March 30.
The sale illustrates continued demand for Clemens’ work. A rare Clemens sand bottle sold for $956,000 in September 2021 at Hindman, a world record that smashed the previous record of $275,000 set in 2020 at Skinner. An Andrew Clemens sand bottle, with a railroad theme, sold for $800,000 in 2022.The pre-auction estimate for the “sweetheart” bottles was $60,000-$80,000.
Courtesy Hindman
A self-taught folk artist, Clemens formed his pictures by delicately compressing natural colored sand into apothecary bottles. He didn’t use glue. Pressure from the sand grains alone held the fragile artwork together.
One of the sweetheart bottles features a galloping horse to one side, above which hangs a name banner for Charles Bramar. The other side shows a clipper ship at sea, along with the date 1883. The second bottle is identified to Maggie Bramar and dated 1883, with an elaborate bouquet of flowers held in an urn on one side and a pair of yellow birds perched around their nest of eggs on the other.
Courtesy Hindman
The couple acquired the sweetheart bottles in 1883, either on the occasion of their marriage in February or the birth of their first child, Charles, later that same year. The Bramar family lived on a farm in Otoe County, Nebraska.
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