Bonhams Skinners live Americana Auction, which occurred Nov. 18, saw significant bidder interest, with particular excitement in the auction houses offering of an inverted sand picture in a bottle by Andrew Clemens, McGregor, Iowa, 1887, realizing $277,575. Few examples of inverted sand bottles by the well-known artist exist. Clemens (1857-94) lived with deafness from an early age. He made a career of painstakingly inserting and arranging naturally colored grains of sand into intricate images inside small glass drug and chemist bottles. The sand was collected and presorted from an area in Pikes Peak State Park referred to as Pictured Rocks. The sandstone is naturally colored by iron and mineral staining. It is known he used homemade tools formed out of hickory sticks and wire with a process using no glue. Upon completion of the detailed work, Clemens sealed the bottle with a stopper and wax. The bottle sold includes an incredibly fine depiction of a ship at sea on one side with an inscription of Merry Christmas on the other and was done fairly late in his career (1887), when the images became more and more elaborate. Lot 158, The Four Seasons Suite, consisted of four paintings attributed to Fatqua, from Canton, China, ca. 1805-15 selling for $189,375. Believed to have been originally purchased in Boston at Childs Gallery in the 1950s and featuring examples of nighttime and winter landscapes largely unheard of in Chinese landscape art of this period, this domestic celebration of the Qing Dynasty from the early days of New Englands international maritime trade is a rare complete suite that presents an exemplary exegesis of early 19th-century Chinese life. Another top lot was a molded copper and zinc horse and hoop weathervane that sold for $20,400. For more information, visit www.bonhams.com.