Collector auctions off treasures

Ray Miller's father - who once brought home Napoleon Bonaparte's bedroom set - passed on a philosophy about antique collecting early on in his son's life.

"Dad had a saying: 'If you stay out there long enough and roll over enough rocks, you'll find a treasure,'" he said.

Ray and his brother Mark have spent their lives doing just that, traveling hundreds of thousands of miles to find treasures.

And on Friday and Saturday, history is there for the taking at Gardner's Auction House in Kalispell, where Ray and Carolyn Miller's lifetime collection of Western and American Indian antiques, guns, artwork, coins and other collectibles go on the auction block.

Included in the extraordinary collection are several pieces of bear-claw and silver jewelry made by Ray "Son of Bear" Miller.

He laughs as he recalls how he got his American Indian nickname. Thirty-one years ago, when he sold his jewelry through Allard Trading Post and Museum in St. Ignatius, store owner Doug Allard said if Miller wanted to sell his work at the trading post he'd have to have an Indian name.

"He said 'I'll call you S.O.B. - Son of Bear,' because I made bear-claw jewelry," Miller recalled.

The name stuck, and Miller has the American Indian heritage to back it up. His great-great grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee born on a reservation in the Midwest.

The Miller brothers grew up in Seattle, where Mark Miller still resides and operates Miller & Miller Auction. He will help with the sale at Gardner's, providing the history on various items.

"Our dad was a trader and he got us both interested in it," Ray Miller said. "He was the highest-priced trader in the business. One time he came home with Napoleon Bonaparte's bedroom set."

His father eventually sold the famous French ruler's bedroom furniture to Liberace for his museum, much to Ray's chagrin.

"I cried over that one. I would've sold the ranch to keep it as a family heirloom," he said. "I got outdone by a piano player."

For more than three decades, Ray and his wife bought and sold antiques to pay the bills.

"One year we collected African masks," he said. "Other years, it was beadwork, or guns."

Each year they set aside a few pieces to build equity for a retirement nest egg.

"This is stuff we always knew we wanted to sell at an auction," he said of the auction roster. "We opened up storage bins with stuff we hadn't seen in 30 years. It was just like Christmas."

This will be the first and only time Flathead Valley residents will be privy to Miller's collection. He purposely bought and sold antiques outside the area because he wanted a low profile here.

"I refused to deal in my back yard," he said. "Most of my friends didn't know about my collecting."

WHEN MILLER arrived in the Flathead in the 1970s, he first lived in a one-room cabin in Hungry Horse, a walk-in refrigerator that had been converted to compact living quarters. He rented the place for $35 a month.

Miller operated Mountain Crest Gallery in Hungry Horse for a time and eventually sold the property to the Huckleberry Patch, which still uses his old store as a cannery.

He and Carolyn lived on a ranch in Kila for a few years, but as the area grew, they sought solitude in Trego, where he has spent the last 16 years quietly making his bear-claw and gemstone jewelry and, of course, buying and selling antiques and collectibles.

Miller learned how to incorporate bear claws in jewelry from Navajo Indians, who believe bears have powerful spirits.

"You have to be blessed by a Navajo medicine man to use or touch any part of a bear," he said.

A Canadian Indian cooperative ships him bear claws once a year.

Miller's wife, Carolyn, has been involved in the jewelry making, too.

"She's excellent at setting stone," he said. "I'm fast with the torch. We both have our strong points."

Miller, 66, thought his retirement sale was still about four years off, but doctors recently told him he has a lung condition from decades of working with caustic chemicals used in silversmithing. They advised him to give up his trade.

"It's a heart-breaker," he said. "My customers are friends. Some of them have been with me for 30 years."

THE AUCTION is unique in that there's a reserve price on only two items - a 22-foot Bayliner boat and a 2.18-carat diamond ring. Even though Miller realizes he may not sell some antiques for the amount of money he paid, he insisted on an unreserved auction.

"I've sat at hundreds of auctions and gotten so mad … when owners drive up the price," he said.

Miller isn't worried about the country's economic downturn affecting the sale. People with money and the desire to deal in antiques have the means to buy, he said.

Top collectors from around the country are expected for the sale, but there's plenty of room for local antique collectors, too.

"Montana's been good to me, and hopefully, Montanans will end up with most of the items," he said.

The eclectic mix of hundreds of pieces includes items such as seven-layer chevron beads from the 1400s, prehistoric and pre-Columbia pottery, 2,000-year-old weaving spindles, an original Ace Powell painting and all of Miller's silversmithing equipment.

He has a few favorites that will be difficult to part with, including a curly horse-hair horse collar from the mid-1800s featuring beaded "war hands" of the Sioux. A 1952 .30-30 rifle Miller bought for $10,000 in Jackson Hole, Wyo., is "one of the finest engraved guns" Miller said he's ever seen.

Todd Gardner of Gardner's Auction said Miller's sale truly is a one-of-a-kind event for the auction house.

"Very seldom do you find a high-end private collection like this," he said.

Included in the Miller collection is a Spanish chandelier that Miller bought in the early 1970s at Gardner Auction.

"Ray was one of our first customers," Gardner said.

Miller bought the colorful chandelier for around $30. The fact that he's selling it some 35 years later at the same auction house is somehow symbolic, he said.

"We've come full circle."

A preview of Ray Miller's collection can be seen from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and Friday, with the first auction session at 6 p.m. Friday. On Saturday, a second session runs from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., then finishes from 6 p.m. until everything is sold. The auction house is located at 200 United Drive, behind Mergenthaler's off U.S. 93 in south Kalispell.

A brochure and catalog of items are available online at www.gardnerauction.com, or call 752-7682.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com