Date: Fri 17-Jul-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: DONNAM

Quick Words:

Old-Barn-Vietzen-Indian-relics

Full Text:

Old Barn Auction

(W/Cuts)

By Rita Easton

FINDLAY, OHIO -- The first of four sales offering the prehistoric Indian relic

collection of the late Col. Raymond C. Vietzen was held by Old Barn Auction on

June 27.

Vietzen was one of the founders of the Ohio Archaeology Society in the 1940s,

and his is one of the premier collections in Ohio. The material, assembled

from the 1920s to 1995, contains a fine assortment of flint, slate, stone

tools, bone, shell, and pottery. Items offered are from his Indian Ridge

Museum, and his private collection. Unearthed by Vietzen himself and other

collectors during archaeological digs, many pieces have never been on the

market, and have been on display for over 50 years.

Col. Vietzen was commissioned a Kentucky Colonel by Governor A.B. Chandler in

1957 for his archaeological research at Glover's Cave and other sites in that

state. He was also adopted by both the Sioux and Navajo Nations.

Causing a round of applause at the hammer, the high bid of the day went to

what was reportedly Col Vietzen's favorite Indian relic, the important

Iroquois human effigy pipe of Ohio pipe stone, found along a portage trail

near Akron, Ohio. Pictured in numerous archaeological bulletins and books,

including The Ohio Indian Relic Collectors Society bulletin #21, January 1949,

figure 9; Indians of the Lake Erie Basin, page 210; and Ohio Archaeologist,

1980 #1, page 27. The piece was 6« inches long and 3« inches high, and is

considered one of the finest pipes ever found. It fetched $35,750.

Gernering a ripe $29,700, a Hopewell monitor platform pipe of mottled

pipestone, found in the area of the Illinois River, 4¬ inches long, had

distinguished provenance, having previously belonged to the collection of Dr

Rollin Bunch and the Payne collection. The finest example of a notched ovate

bannerstone ever found in Ohio, west of Fremont in Sandusky County, reached

$23,100. The 4×-inch bannerstone, of banded slate, was previously in the Allan

Spade Collection in Clyde, Ohio, and was pictured on the cover of Ohio Indian

Relic Collectors Society bulletin #21, January 1949; in Who's Who in Indian

Relics No 1, 1960, p.112; and Indians of the Lake Erie Basin, 1965, p.269.

A bust birdstone, found near Deval Dam, Muskingum River, above Marietta,

Washington County, Ohio, formerly of the Dr Sprague collection, reached

$18,700; a bird effigy pipe of black slate, from Lawrence County, Ohio,

formerly in the Leslie Hill, E. Payne, Dr Bunch, and Vaughn Ladd collections,

4« inches long, fetched $6,600; and a wood duck "great Pipe," of cream colored

steatite, with engraved weeping eye, from Cheatham County, Tennessee, formerly

in the Payne collection, 7‹ inches long, reached $6,050.

A bi-pointed gorget of slate, with tally marked entire circumference, 8 inches

long, made $3,630; an elbow pipe of Ohio pipestone, Logan County, Ohio,

prehistorically broken and repaired, 5¬ inches long, sold at $3,905; and a

Hopewell limestone monitor pipe found in Peoria County, Ill., restored, 6‹

inches long, was purchased at $6,820.

An Adena cache multicolored blade, the largest of 104 blades found in Summit

County, Ohio, pictured in Indians of the Lake Erie Basin, 1965, p.256, 8¬

inches long, realized $8,250; a birdstone of banded slate, Lorain County,

Ohio, pictured on p.643 of Birdstones of the N.A. Indians, 1959, reached

$8,470; a temple mound pipe, of tan colored stone, ex-the Payne collection,

pictured on p. 154 of Shakin' the Bushes, 12« inches long, achieved $5,830;

and a glacial kame sandal sole gorget, found near Roundhead in Hardin County,

Ohio, pictured in Ancient Ohioans and Their Neighbors, 1946, p.383, and in I

Touched the Indian's Past, 1994, p.202, 7« inches long, sold at $4,950.

Future auctions of the collection are planned for September 19, December 5,

and March 14, 1999. Prices quoted reflect a ten percent premium.