Bonhams California, Western & Hawaiian Art Online Auction Realizes $390,485 with 65.9% Sell-Through

The online auction market for regional American art continues to showcase specialized collector interest in coastal landscapes, Western bronzes, and mid-century scenes. In a sale that closed on 16 July 2026, the Bonhams California, Western & Hawaiian Art Online auction achieved a total realized sum of $390,485^[1], with 147 of the 223 offered lots finding buyers, representing a 65.9% sell-through rate^[1]. The sale brought together a diverse selection of works representing the distinct light and topography of the American West, from the desert hills of Southern California to the dramatic peaks of the Tetons.

According to the official results published by Bonhams, the auction was led by a notable silver cast of a classic Western subject. This piece, after Frederic Remington, titled The Rattlesnake, is a substantial silver sculpture standing twenty-one and a half inches high. Cast in fine silver, the work is inscribed with the artist's copyright signature on the base and bears the foundry mark of the Roman Bronze Works in New York. The underside of the sculpture features extensive stamping detailing its origin, noting its registration number as forty-seven of one hundred, cast from the original masterpiece, and authorized by the Frederic Remington Art Museum. Produced by the Silversmiths Group USA, Liberty Mint, and The Maiden Foundry, the piece was accompanied by its original presentation folder and a bill of sale listing its weight as over one thousand troy ounces. Consigned from a private Southern California collection, the sculpture was offered with an estimate of $60,000^[2] to $80,000^[2] and ultimately sold for $57,600^[2].

Another significant highlight of the sale was Selden Connor Gile's oil on board painting, Above the Street. Gile, a key figure among the Society of Six, captured the vibrant color and bold brushwork characteristic of Northern California regionalism. Signed and dated by the artist in the lower left, the eighteen-by-fifteen-inch work features an exhibition label on the reverse. The painting boasts a documented provenance that traces back directly to the artist, followed by Mrs. Elizabeth C. Hall of Belvedere, California, and subsequently the Collection of Roger and Nancy Boas. It was also handled by the Maxwell Galleries in San Francisco before entering a private San Francisco collection. The painting was featured in the exhibition "A Feast for the Eyes: The Paintings of Selden Connor Gile" at the Walnut Creek Civic Arts Gallery in the early nineteen-eighties, and was published in the accompanying literature by Walter A. Nelson-Rees and Terry N. St. John. Offered with an estimate of $15,000^[8][6][3] to $26,000^[3], the painting sold for $30,720^[3].

The sale also featured notable landscape works that did not record final sold prices in the brief but represented key regional styles. Edgar Payne's Chioggia Boats (Mediterranean Skies), an oil on canvas measuring twenty and a quarter by twenty-four and a quarter inches, was offered with an estimate of $20,000^[4] to $30,000^[4]. The painting, signed by the artist in the lower right, was previously held by Fine Art & Antiques in Santa Rosa, California, and comes from the property of a Northern California private collection. Additionally, Hanson Puthuff's Sespe Hills, an oil on canvas measuring twenty-three by thirty-four inches, carried an estimate of $8,000^[7][5] to $12,000^[5]. This work, signed in the lower right, has a provenance tracing back to the collection of Paul Lescher Shelton, Sr., of Glendale in the early twentieth century, and descended through the family to a Southern California collection.

Other successful transactions in the online session included works by William A. Slaughter, Nicolai Fechin, Marion Kavanagh Wachtel, and James A. Fetherolf. Slaughter's Bluebonnets, a classic Texas landscape measuring twenty-four by thirty-six inches, was offered with an estimate of $10,000^[8][6] to $15,000 and sold for $11,520^[6]. Nicolai Fechin's portrait Mrs. Frank Hoffman, Taos (Hazel Hoffman), measuring seventeen and three-quarters by fourteen and a quarter inches, carried an estimate of $6,000^[7] to $8,000 and sold for $10,880^[7]. Marion Kavanagh Wachtel's Clouds Over Laguna Hills, a large-scale landscape measuring thirty and a quarter by forty and a quarter inches, was offered with an estimate of $10,000 to $15,000 and sold for $10,240^[8]. Finally, James A. Fetherolf's The Grand Tetons, measuring twenty-four by thirty-six inches, was offered with an estimate of $3,000^[9] to $5,000^[9] and sold for $7,680^[9].

The results of this online session demonstrate a steady demand for regional American art, particularly for works with well-documented West Coast and Southwestern provenance.