Ohio Slate bannerstone

[Sunny Side]

Probably my best piece of slate. Super rare form and very large. 8 3/4" across

 

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[quito]

Incredible! beautiful!!

What’s the story on it?

 

[catherine1]

You sure do have a lot of great artifacts from where ever. I have never found a slate artifact in Ohio............that piece is amazing. The context of this artifact is everything.

 

[Kantuckkeean]

The context of this artifact is everything.

Agreed. The context/provenance of museum quality pieces is everything.

Sunny Side,

Can you tell us more about your items when you post them? Many folks here like more than just photos of artifacts, we also like to know when, where, and how they were found, if they've appeared in the literature, etc. The artifacts that you're posting are obviously not all personal finds, so they must have some stories behind them.

Kindest regards,
Kantuck

 

[Sunny Side]

Not sure how they were found. The artifacts I am showing were picked from fields before the modern disk cultivators. Most pieces have no damage and this tells a lot. When you have pieces like these that have been passed from one collection to another for however many years it is difficult to really know the when and how part of your question. These are part of a large collection I purchased. The family has given me the information. I do know in many cases where they were found because the previous owner line drew many of the pieces with the state and sometimes the county. Others are marked with stickers with better info. I do know that the majority were purchased in the late 1940s through local auctions in NW Indiana, according to the family, it was about this time when he bought many Gruehlke and Hills pieces. Some of the bannerstones were purchased for $15. the previous owner purchased pieces up until the parks Copeland and Smith auctions in the early 80s.

 

[dognose]

Augustus Gruehlke died in Waterloo, Indiana 02 May 1935.

Indicating some of his relic may have been purchased in the late 1940's may not be accurate if you are indicating they were purchased FROM his estate about that time.

According to a 1914 biography he had disposed of his Indian relic collection prior to 1914.

pages 534/535/536
"Mr. Gruhlke has probably the largest collection of old firearms in the state of Indiana, and is an inveterate collector of curios, having at one time a collection of about twenty thousand pieces of Indian relics, but these he disposed of."

source: Biography of Augustus C. Gruhlke. History of DeKalb County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company, Inc., Indianapolis, 1914.

So if these are from his collection, by the 1940's they had possibly passed through many collectors hands. Such a verbal claim of provenance is tenuous at best without old, written records or auction histories.

IF it were possible to find any of these relics in auction catalogs of the time, and they exists, it would be proof of provenance.
Here are 3 auction and sales catalogs from the 1913, 1914, and 1919 in my collection



Text version OfHistory of DeKalb County, Indiana; B. F. Bowen & Company
http://ingenweb.org/indekalb/dcibp/dcbio/1914/gruhlke-augustus.c.txt

 

[Kantuckkeean]

Sunny Side,

Thanks for the background information. I was curious about how you acquired such quality pieces.

Dognose,

I don't buy artifacts because with my limited knowledge I'd probably end up with a bunch of what arrow86 calls "G-10 artifakes" but if I could get my time machine running, I might grab a bag of Morgans and head off to one of Grutzmacher's auctions! You must have an interesting library.

Kindest regards,
Kantuck

 

[sandchip]

Beautiful banner, SS. Has it all, even color, which is seldom seen with slate.