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Holabird’s California Gold

Rush and Sunken Treasure

Auction Sets Records on

December 3

RENO, NV – An auction of 270 never-before-offered historic California
Gold Rush sunken treasure artifacts attracted nearly $1 million in sales
from more than 7,500 registered bidders from across the United States
and in six other countries. The recovered jewelry, mid-1800s clothing,
glassware, and other items were retrieved from the legendary “Ship of
Gold,” the S.S. Central America that sank during a voyage to New York
in 1857.
Fred Holabird, president of Holabird Western Americana Collections,
advised there will be only one more opportunity to acquire previously
unavailable S.S. Central America artifacts when the last items recovered
from the fabled ship are offered in a public auction on February 25, 2023.
Highlights of the December auction included the unique wooden lid
to a Wells Fargo & Co. treasure box that sold for $99,600; the purser’s
keys to the ship’s treasure room where tons of Gold Rush coins and
assayers’ ingots were stored brought $103,200; and the oldest known pair
of miner’s heavy-duty work pants sold for $114,000, the highest price
ever paid for jeans.
“Those miner’s jeans are like the first flag on the moon, a historic
moment in history. We can precisely date them because we know the
Central America sank during a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean on
September 12, 1857. There are no earlier five-button fly jeans in
existence," said Dwight Manley, managing partner of the California Gold
Marketing Group, the consignor of the recovered artifacts.
The miner’s pants and early Brooks Brothers undershirts with the
company’s famous emblem were discovered in 1991 in the first-class
passenger trunk of merchant and Mexican-American War military veteran
John Dement of Oregon.
Two of the three recovered Brooks Brothers shirts were offered in the
auction and sold for $3,240 and $1,320 respectively. A third shirt will be
in the February auction. An 1849 edition of the novel, The Count of Monte
Cristo, also found in Dement’s trunk, sold for $3,720.
A treasure trove of 1850s high fashion, recovered from the trunk of
first-class passengers Ansel and Adeline Easton of San Francisco, included
men’s scarves, bow ties, cravats, collars, dress shirts, vests, jackets, dress
pants, and socks, as well as women’s bloomers, dresses, evening gowns,
and gloves. Winning bids on those items ranged from $100 to $200 for
pairs of socks to $4,800 for a shirt made for Easton’s friend, William C.
Ralston, co-founder of the Bank of California, which was also found in
Easton’s trunk.
Bidders also paid $26,400 for a circa 1851 gold watch cover depicting
a miner and Yerba Buena which later became San Francisco; $14,400 for
a ring made with a large gold-in-quartz gemstone; and a stick pin with two
gold nuggets went for $12,000.
An 1849 Colt pocket pistol sold for $30,000; and three sets of
matched, brass luggage tags indicating the bags were going from San
Francisco to New York via Panama sold for $5,640. A rare medal of the
order of Saint Maurice and Saint Lazarus, one of the world’s oldest orders
of knighthood, sold for $13,200.
A $20 denomination gold coin struck at the San Francisco Mint in 1856
and later stamped with an advertising message by Sacramento, California
drug store owner J. Polhemus set a record for one of his counter-stamped
coins at $43,200.
Insurance claims for the loss were paid in the 1850s and the company
that discovered and retrieved the treasure starting in 1988 settled with the
insurers and their successors in 1998. With court approval, California
Gold Marketing Group subsequently acquired clear title to all of that
remaining treasure as well as all the items recovered in 2014.
All prices include a 20 percent buyer’s fee added to all winning bids.
For additional information about the auction and the upcoming February
2023 auction of S.S. Central America artifacts, visit Holabird Western
Americana Collections of Reno, Nevada at www.HolabirdAmericana.com or
email info@holabirdamericana.com.

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