The 2012 Contemporary Longrifle Association’s Live Auction

As chairman of the CLA live auction committee, I want to let you know that the 2012 Live Auction is definitely going to be quite an event. This is the bi-centennial of the war of 1812, and to commemorate the events of that War I asked for artists to volunteer that would keep this theme in mind and make a project that related to the War of 1812 in some way. Yes, I was a little afraid that this theme might scare a lot of artists away and limit overall participation, but as it turned out, the exact opposite was true. In no time at all we had over thirty artists making nearly two dozen separate items, which is the most ever for our annual event.

You might be thinking that with so many items, some of them might not be up to snuff, but rest assured that each and every item is the work of a master craftsman and worthy of a place in the finest collection or museum display. I’m not kidding about that, and one of our items is actually being showcased in the Tennessee State Museum’s special war of 1812 exhibit right now. Other items are true group efforts, where organized teams or dedicated individuals in some cases traveled hundreds of miles to various museums in order to measure and photograph specific artifacts that they wanted to replicate or bench copy.

 What artifacts you ask? Well that’s what this special series of CLA auction blogs is going to tell you about. Every week between now and the auction this August we will introduce you to another one of our artists or artist teams and to the piece they have specially made for us. I’ve posted a few close ups of some of our auction items here for you to look at. Maybe you can guess what the items are, maybe you can’t, but either way I hope you have fun trying until you see the full story about each of them.   

I think you are in for a real treat. Not only will you be getting an advance preview of the 2012 live auction items, but you will have the chance to get to know these artists and learn a little about them and what they did to create this fine array of items. Along the way I’m sure you realize just like I have, that there’s no doubt about it, the 2012 CLA “War of 1812” live auction is definitely going to be quite an event.

TC Albert

Copy by TC Albert with photos by David Wright.