Hake’s June 23rd Anti-Slavery to Civil Rights Auction featured rare, important and historically-significant items

Highlights: Eugene Warburg’s Parian statue ‘Uncle Tiff,’ $95,592; “I Am A Man” 1968 protest placard, $58,427; Frederick Douglass broadside from 1872, $25,486

YORK, PA, UNITED STATES, June 30, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Eugene Warburg’s Parian statue titled Uncle Tiff sold for $95,592; an original “I Am A Man” protest placard from the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike brought $58,427; and a Frederick Douglass broadside from a circa-1872 Republican Party rally in Maine realized $25,486 at Hake’s Anti-Slavery to Civil Rights Auction, which closed June 23. The sale totaled $472,118, including the buyer’s premium.

The catalog was filled with rare, important and historically-significant items, with a timeline starting in the 1780s and advancing through the MLK era to the Obama presidency. The auction included the first installment of the Rex & Patti Stark Collection, one of the foremost private holdings of anti-slavery ceramics.

The auction also featured superb consignments from around the country compiled by Hake’s Americana Director Scott Mussell, whose passion for documenting the African American experience was amply reflected in the sale’s 366 lots. “We’re thrilled by the response across the globe to this sale,” Mussell said. “Strong bidding came in from institutions and individuals passionate about preserving this important history.”

Eugene Warburg’s (1825-1859) circa-1856 Copeland Staffordshire Parian porcelain statuette of “Uncle Tiff,” a character from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Dred, was the overall top lot of the auction. The delicate, well-detailed 12-inch-tall sculpture blew past its $20,000 high estimate to realize a final selling price of $95,592, an auction record for the artist. Warburg was born enslaved in New Orleans and is among the earliest-known African American sculptors. Surviving works by his hand are extremely rare.

A cardboard placard measuring 13¾ inches by 21¼ inches, with just the four words, “I Am A Man” in bold black ink, nearly tripled the $20,000 high estimate by reaching $58,427. It was a new world auction record for one of the most iconic American civil-rights artifacts, while also being one of the simplest and most unassuming. The variant script corresponded to that seen on materials used at the Martin Luther King Memorial March for Union Justice and to End Racism, held April 8, 1968 in Memphis.

A circa-1872 thin, canary-yellow broadside advertising a Maine Republican Party rally announcing African American social abolitionist orator, writer, and statesman Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) and former Maine governor and state Republican Party co-founder Israel Washburne (1813-1883) as guest speakers, topped the $20,000 high estimate with a selling price of $25,486. It rained that day in August 1872, thus greatly diminishing chances that the 29-inch by 21-inch broadside would survive, but it did.

A circa-1820s anti-slavery tortoiseshell and horn tea caddy, octagonal in form with inlaid bone panels and an ornate silver top hinge, showing a wax figure of a kneeling enslaved figure in chains atop a pedestal against a painted bone background, went for $16,285, easily besting its $6,000 high estimate. The lot was encased under a verre eglomise domed glass cover framed in silver inlay. The tea caddy corresponded to efforts by female abolitionists throughout the 1820s to boycott slave-produced sugar.

A glossy button with a full-color depiction of Theodore Roosevelt and Booker T Washington at an October 16, 1901 White House dinner, the first time an African American was ever invited to dine at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, went for $14,401 against a high estimate of $10,000. The depiction of the two men sharing a drink from a bottle of liquor suggests the design was likely produced as satire intended to support of Roosevelt’s opponent Alton Parker during the 1904 US Presidential campaign.

Lot 59, a circa-1820 Staffordshire anti-slavery statue, 6¼ inches tall, depicted an enslaved man and his “master” on an octagonal base. It was a jarring and explicit depiction of physical violence, as the slavemaster whips the enslaved man, whose hand holds the chains that bind him. The statue had hand-detailed and painted features, with minimal restoration. It brought $3,515.

Lot 60 paired with lot 59. It was a 6½-inch-tall, circa-1830s Staffordshire emancipation statue, brightly enameled and showing a jubilant man emerging from the bonds of slavery, with a whip and chains lying broken beneath his feet. Britannia clutches a shield, while a cornucopia and English rose are bolstered by the Bible as bedrock. It finished just below its high estimate, at $9,125. The book Staffordshire Figures 1780-1840 states that both of the statues offered by Hake’s are the only known examples.

A circa-1909 painted plaster bust of educator, author, orator, and political leader Booker T Washington (1856-1915) by African American artist Isaac Hathaway (1872-1967), 11 inches tall on a plinth, settled at $7,199, well above the $2,000 high estimate. Hathaway devoted his storied career to producing works of notable subjects, among them Frederick Douglass, Paul Laurence Dunbar and the Reverend Richard Allen.

In very fine condition, an 1856, 12-inch by 19-inch pro-James Buchanan satirical broadside headlined “Rally! No Popery! No Slavery! No Rum!” climbed to $10,038, just above the $10,000 high estimate. The broadside takes jabs at the American and Republican Party positions on key issues in the 1856 election, namely the Republican anti-slavery stance and the American Party's proscriptive planks on Catholics and immigrants.

A ceramic miniature portrait of the militant American abolitionist John Brown (1800-1859) after an M Lawrence daguerreotype, rendered circa 1859-1860 and measuring 3¼ inches by 4¾ inches, hit $6,691, besting its $5,000 high estimate. The delicate, highly-detailed rendering on a field of green, with bright fleshy tones and deep blue eyes, bears a resemblance to a John Brown portrait attributed to Helen Brodt.

A circa-1840s six-piece nesting blue-green botanical transferware wedding cake-style set with an anti-slavery subject and supportive Biblical verse (“Let the oppressed go free”) coasted to $5,027, just above the $5,000 high estimate. The elaborate, 15-inch-tall, multi-tiered set terminated in a double-handled cup. It had rich botanical ornamentation with an entwined rope, grape-leaf and floral motif.

One of the sale’s sleepers was a rare “March For Freedom Now” protest button used at a 1960 demonstration outside the Republican National Convention in Chicago, led by Martin Luther King, Jr. The 2.5-inch-diameter, high-gloss button, with a union bug on the curl at 3 o’clock, showed only minor wear and came into the sale with a modest $800-$1,200 estimate. In the end, it settled at a stout $4,774.

Hake’s is currently accepting consignments for its second Anti-Slavery to Civil Rights Auction, which will be held sometime in the future and feature a fresh selection of ceramics from the Rex and Patti Stark collection. To discuss consigning a collection or single item to this specialty auction, or any other future auction conducted by Hake’s, please call +1 866-404-9800 (toll-free) or +1 717-434-1600; or email hakes@hakes.com. All enquiries are kept strictly confidential and there is never an obligation to consign. To learn more, please visit Hake’s online at https://hakes.com/.

Scott Mussell
Hake's Auctions
+1 866-404-9800
email us here

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