Eugene Warburgs 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 ca. 1872 Republican Party rally in Maine realized $25,486 at Hakes Anti-Slavery to Civil Rights Auction, which closed June 23. The sale totaled $472,118, including the buyers 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 and Patti Stark collection, one of the foremost private holdings of anti-slavery ceramics. The auction also featured consignments from around the country compiled by Hakes Americana director Scott Mussell, whose passion for documenting the African American experience was amply reflected in the sales 366 lots. Were thrilled by the response across the globe to this sale, said Mussell. Strong bidding came in from institutions and individuals passionate about preserving this important history. Eugene Warburgs (1825-59) ca. 1856 Copeland Staffordshire Parian porcelain statuette of Uncle Tiff, a character from Harriet Beecher Stowes 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, La., and is among the earliest-known African American sculptors. Surviving works by his hand are extremely rare. A cardboard placard 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, Tenn. A ca. 1872 thin, canary-yellow broadside advertising a Maine Republican Party rally announcing African American social abolitionist orator, writer, and statesman Frederick Douglass (1818-95) and former Maine governor and state Republican Party co-founder Israel Washburne (1813-83) as guest speakers topped the $20,000 high estimate with a selling price of $25,486. It rained that day in Aug. 1872, thus greatly diminishing chances that the broadside would survive, but it did. A ca. 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 button with a full-color depiction of Theodore Roosevelt and Booker T. Washington at an Oct. 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 Roosevelts opponent Alton Parker during the 1904 U.S. presidential campaign. Lot 59, a ca. 1820 Staffordshire anti-slavery statue, 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 was another 6.5-inch tall, ca. 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 Hakes are the only known examples. A ca. 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. Hathaway devoted his storied career to producing works of notable subjects, among them Frederick Douglass, Paul Laurence Dunbar and the Reverend Richard Allen. A ceramic miniature portrait of the militant American abolitionist John Brown (1800-59) after an M. Lawrence daguerreotype, rendered ca. 1859-60, hit $6,691. 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. For additional information, email hakes@hakes.com or visit www.hakes.com. All images courtesy of Hakes Auctions.