Cowan's Auctions & Cowan's Historic Americana

C. Wesley (Wes) Cowan

Founder and Owner, Cowan's Auctions, Inc.

Wes Cowan is founder and owner of Cowan's Auctions, Inc. in Cincinnati, Ohio.
An internationally recognized expert in Historic Americana, Wes stars in the PBS television series History Detectives and is a featured appraiser on Antiques Roadshow. He writes a bi-weekly antiques column for the Cincinnati Enquirer, monthly columns for Antique Review, Collectors News and the SE Antiquing Journal, and is a frequently requested speaker at antique events around the country. Wes is licensed as an auctioneer in Ohio and holds a BA and MA in anthropology from the University of Kentucky, and a PhD in anthropology from the University of Michigan.

A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Wes grew up in a household filled with Victorian antiques, nurtured by a mother who liked all things "old." Torn between the antiques business and American archaeology, Wes first chose a course that set him on an academic road.

After receiving his doctorate degree, Wes taught at the Anthropology Department of Ohio State University. In 1984 he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio to assume the post of Curator of Archaeology at the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History. He has published widely in the fields of American archaeology and paleoethnobotany, and is coeditor of The Origins of Agriculture in International Perspective and Societies in Eclipse: Eastern North America at the Dawn of European Colonization.

In 1995, Wes left academia and the museum world to return to his childhood love - antiques. Since then, Cowan's Auctions has grown from a one-man shop to an internationally nationally recognized business generating $12 million in annual sales.

About Cowan's Auctions, Inc.

Cowan's has been helping individuals and institutions build important collections for more than 10 years. Cowan's specialists in Historical Americana, American furniture, paintings, folk and decorative arts, and American Indian Art hold sales throughout the year, catering to a worldwide clientele.

Cowan's holds semi-annual sales of Historic Americana including important 19th century photographs, manuscripts and autographs, flags and patriotic textiles, political campaign ephemera, Civil War memorabilia, and items relating to the opening of the American West. Each sale attracts bidders from throughout the United States, generating over $2.5 million in sales.

American Indian Art is highlighted in two annual auctions that attract the nation's top private collectors and dealers.

American and other furniture, fine paintings, folk art and other decorative arts are offered three times annually in special cataloged offerings. In recent years, Cowan's has established record prices paid for American paintings and Midwestern furniture and decorative arts.

Through its extensive mailing list of more than 10,000 collectors, dealers and institutional clients, each Cowan's Auction attracts bidders from throughout the United States, South America, Europe, the Middle East and Japan. More than 1,000 bidders typically participate in each sale.