Moose, Elk & Buffalo Hide Chair, ca. 1920
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GUEST:
As you see, it's a nice horn chair with elk, moose and buffalo hide. Part of a set of four. We believe it's early 1900s. We don't know who made it. It came out of a Clarence Parker estate out of North Dakota. We have pictures to prove that.
APPRAISER:
It's a very impressive piece of furniture, primarily made of moose fastened together with elk. And when I looked at this, my instinct was it's late 19th century, but as I studied it more, I feel like it's early 20th century, and the reason I say that is primarily the way that it's fastened together. And if we look at the back of this chair, we can see that these brackets and the nuts and bolts that are used in this piece are clearly 20th century and not 19th century.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Has a buffalo hide as its show cover, and it's decidedly Western; it celebrates the Western heritage. But unlike a lot of horn furniture, which is hastily put together, this is very well put together, almost a commissioned piece. We can see that the tips of the moose horns are capped and filled with plaster of Paris to protect the clothing and also to not poke anybody. And I think in this case we look at, is there any comparables? Well, I had very little success. Not to say that we haven't seen horn furniture or moose furniture, but nothing of this size, quality or condition. I think a good auction estimate would be $6,000 to $8,000, but that's not to say that it couldn't surpass that if the right people were engaged.
GUEST:
Sounds good.
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