The golden voice of a prominent auctioneer in Monroe County is now silent.
Robert Brandau has passed away.
Robert “Bob” R. Brandau, 90, of South Ridge peacefully passed away Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019, surrounded by his family, on the home farm where he was born.
Bob was a lifelong member of St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church on South Ridge, where he was baptized and confirmed. He served twice as the president of the congregation. He was a faithful servant and often said, “God’s been good to me.”
The story of this colorful character began Sept. 1, 1929, when he was born to Rudolph and Anna (Birkholz) Brandau. The world would be forever changed by Bob’s profound ability to bring people together with a collective purpose. Rarely would you find a person who knew Bob who didn’t have a story to tell about a shared experience. Whether it be the setup for an auction or preparing for an event or card game or the building or repairing of something, Bob generally needed an entourage of people to help out with his “projects,” and he had an uncanny ability to recruit just the right people for the job. He woke up every day with a strong purpose and found people to buy into his ideas.
In 1950, Bob followed in the footsteps of his Uncle Conrad and became an auctioneer. He graduated from Reisch Auction School in Mason City, Iowa. Auctioneering was his life passion and a skill that he retained until his passing. It didn’t matter if it was a 25-cent box of trinkets or a $1,000 Holstein cow, he loved the auction method and firmly believed in it. He began selling for Randall Livestock in Tomah, and later sold at livestock markets in Coon Valley, Wisconsin Dells, Viola and Augusta. Bob called hundreds of on-site antique, household and farm auctions for other companies before his daughter, Mary Jo Hill, and son, Ken, joined him in founding the Brandau-Hill Auction Company.
As he began auctioneering and milking cows on the home farm, a cute little teacher at the one-room schoolhouse in South Ridge caught his attention. According to her, “He had a humble, caring spirit, but he drove too fast and had loud Hollywood mufflers.” Boy, was she impressed. On June 23, 1954, Bob was united in marriage to Alice Anderson, who became his tireless partner in a whole host of adventures. Those adventures included having five children, several business start-ups, and literally thousands of potential projects that he hoped would all come to fruition.
Alice spent her lifetime with Bob just trying to keep ahead of his next big idea. He conjured up lists of things he still needed to do. He talked about having more small-animal auctions. He wanted to paint the fence by the house. He thought he’d buy a different truck in the spring. The ideas never stopped. Remember that this is the man who had a prosthetic leg, who hadn’t driven in over a year, and spent the majority of his day in a lift chair at South Ridge. His brain never shut off. He could always do more.
Bob was a fearless entrepreneur, a risk-taker, and someone who could visualize things before they existed. He was especially committed to the success and development of the community of Kendall. In 1969, he purchased a livestock buying station from Adolph Wopat and built R. Brandau Livestock, which opened on Oct. 29 that same year. The livestock barn was one of the greatest accomplishments of his career, as it provided a market for buyer and sellers for 50 years. Whether it be the dairy, horse or small-animal sale, he thoroughly enjoyed interacting with the hundreds of people who came to the sale barn. He loved building community and providing space for people to connect. In the mid-1980s, he built the Round House Express, a convenience store in Kendall, and later built a second store, 71 Express, in Norwalk.
Bob was a member of the Kendall Lions Club for 50-plus years and served as the auctioneer for their annual auction for 48 years. He received the Knight of Sight Fellowship and the Melvin Jones award, which is the organization’s highest honor. He was also a strong supporter of the Wisconsin Auctioneer’s Association. He was elected president in 1976 and received the prestigious Hall of Fame award. Bob was a member of the Wisconsin State Legislative Board, which initiated the first license for auctioneers and was a member of the National Auctioneer’s Association for many years. His community service extended beyond Kendall, as Bob donated his auction skills by selling millions of dollars in support for the National Turkey Federation, Ducks Unlimited, Whitetail Deer Association, NRA, and countless other benefits.
Bob’s grandchildren all knew that gatherings would include at least one game of Crazy 8’s or euchre. Put a deck of cards in Bob’s hand, and his entire demeanor changed. His face would light up, he’d get a twinkle in his eye, and his entire vocabulary changed. He’d often times “play it alone” when he had no business even bidding in the first place … and he’d “make it.” He treasured the Canadian fishing trips with them and watching their various sporting events. In these times, they experienced a youthful, confident and spirited grandpa whom they all cherished.
As Bob’s health declined, Alice, their children and families literally wrapped their arms around him and provided all of his care. He was extremely grateful to have them in his life and considered them one of God’s greatest blessings. He cherished Alice and his children above all else. Working together with them on the farm, at an auction, or at an event was what he loved. He knew he had succeeded as a father because he raised God-fearing, hardworking and community-minded children. Alice was the absolute love of his life, and he was so grateful for her constant care and compassion, especially the past three years. She was his faithful servant through it all.
Survivors are his wife of 65 years, Alice; five children, Gale (Ardis) Brandau of Tomah, Mary Jo (Bill) Hill of Kendall, Susan (Norman) Peck of Marshall, Wis., Ken (Dawn) Brandau of Kendall and Ann (Matt) Brandau Hynek of Hillsboro; 12 grandchildren, Amy (Kermit) Sharpe, Ryan Brandau, Jeri (Raymond) Maack, and Lacy Brandau, Jacob (Jen) Hill, Addison (Megan) Peck and Gavin Peck, Ethan (Cheyenne) Brandau, Mikaela and Abby Brandau, and Sawyer and Gunner Hynek; eight great-grandchildren, Ryan Stanek, Cole and Connor Sharpe, Nathan, Heidi and Miles Maack, Benjamin Hill, and Beckett Peck; his sisters- and brothers-in law, Joan and Joe Belsky, Jean and Roger Neitzel, and David and Barb Anderson; and many nieces and nephews.
Preceding him in death were his parents; his sister, Norma Jean, and her husband, Ellsworth Steuck; a grandson, “Andy” Brandau; and his brother- and sister-in-law, Norman and Margaret Anderson.
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History of Auctioneering
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Francis N. Werlein, age 88 of rural Mondovi, died Sunday Feb 27, 2005, at his residence. Francis attended and graduated from Lane School of Auctioneering in 1948.
Francis, Werlein did that auctioneer’s chant, or bid call – as it’s known in the industry – for more than half a century and was one of the charter members of the Wisconsin Auctioneers Association.
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Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s 1896 print Young Woman on the Beach was sold at Christie’s auction house on King Street in London, UK, on 20 March 2013, for £2.1 m ($3 m), making it the most expensive original print ever sold at auction. The sum exceeded the pre-sale estimate for the piece of £700,000 by 200%.
Young Woman on the Beach is a haunting image of a girl in a white dress, her back to the viewer, looking out across a vast ocean. It is an example of an aquatint print, a process in which the artist etches the image into a copper or zinc plate using acid. The plate is then inked and run through a printing press to transfer the image to paper. Munch created a number of prints between 1896 and 1897. He is thought to have made 11 copies of Young Woman on the Beach.
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A rare doll, manufactured by German company Kämmer & Reinhardt between 1909 and 1912, realized a sum of £242,500 ($395,750) in an auction held at Bonham’s Knightsbridge salesroom in London, UK, on 24 September 2014 – the most ever fetched by a doll at auction. The lifelike doll is a little girl with plaited auburn hair and blue-grey eyes, wearing a lace-sleeved white dress, a straw hat and white shoes and stockings. There are no other examples of this doll known – she is believed to have been an experimental design that was never put into production.
Kämmer & Reinhardt was a well-known manufacturer of “character dolls” from the late-19th century to the mid-20th century. Ernst Kämmer modelled the heads of the dolls from bisque – a hard, unglazed type of porcelain. The material has a glare-free appearance, giving the dolls a powdery, soft complexion.
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A matte white “Himalaya” crocodile skin Hermès Birkin 30 handbag sold for HKD 2,940,000 (US$ 377,238; £293,767) to an anonymous bidder at the Handbags & Accessories auction organized by Christie’s in Hong Kong on 31 May 2017. The bag, which was produced in 2014, features 176.3 g of 18-karat white gold and 10.23 carats of diamonds.
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The most expensive bicycle sold at auction is £318,000 ($500,000) and was sold at Sothebys, New York, on 1 November 2009. The one-off creation named ‘Butterfly bike’ by British artist Damien Hirst was ridden by Lance Armstrong (USA) during the final stage of Tour de France 2009. The sale was in aid of the Mr. Armstrong’s LiveStrong cancer charity. Mr. Hirst used real butterfly wings, lacquered onto the frame of a Trek Madone bike.
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The highest price ever paid for wool is A$10,300 ($7,923.23; £5,047) per kg (2lb 3 oz) on 11 January 1995, when Aoki International Co. Ltd of Yokohama, Japan bought a bale of extra superfine wool with an average fibre diameter of 13.8 microns at an auction at Geelong, Victoria, Australia.
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The most expensive painting sold at auction is Salvator Mundi by Leonardi da Vinci, which sold for $450,312,500 (£342,148,000; €381,431,000), including buyer’s premium, at an auction held by Christie’s in New York, USA, on 11 November 2017.
The painting was included in Christie’s sale of “Postwar and Contemporary Art” at Rockefeller Center in New York, in the hope that it would appeal to the biggest art collectors. The seller, Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, bought the painting in 2013 for approximately £77.3 million ($127.5 million; €92.6 million). The buyer, who bid by telephone, chose to remain anonymous. Over 1,000 art collectors, advisors, dealers and journalists were present at the auction, with thousand more tuned in via a live stream.
Some specialists believe that Leonardo originally painted the work for the French Royal family. The painting went missing from 1763 for over 150 years. Passing through the possession of several collectors over the centuries, the work was rediscovered in a small, regional auction in the United Sates in 2005. Prior to that, it was sold in 1958 at Sotheby’s for £45 ($59), having been dismissed as a copy.
Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World) was on show in an exhibition of Leonardo’s surviving paintings at the National Gallery, London, in 2011-12, confirming its acceptance as a fully autograph work by Leonardo da Vinci. However, there still remains speculation over the painting’s origins, some specialists attributing the work as one of da Vinci’s apprentices.
Nevertheless, the painting was presented as one of the greatest artistic discoveries of the 20th century.
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The CTF Pink Star, formerly known as the Steinmetz Pink and the Pink Star, an internally flawless pink 59.6–carat diamond, sold for HKD 553,037,500 ($71.2 m; £57.3 m), including buyer’s premium, at a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong on 4 April 2017. The diamond, mined in 1999 by De Beers in Africa, was 132.5 carats in its rough state and took two years to cut and polish. Now, the oval-shaped diamond, the largest internally flawless or flawless fancy vivid pink diamond that the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has ever graded, measures 2.69 cm by 2.06 cm (1.06 in by 0.81 in) and is mounted on a ring. The buyer was Hong Kong conglomerate Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, which has a chain of jewellery stores. They immediately renamed the diamond the CTF Pink Star in memory of the late Dr. Cheng Yu-Tung, father of the current chairman and founder of Chow Tai Fook.
On 12 November 2013, the Pink Star achieved 76,325,000 Swiss francs ($83.01 million; £52.07 million), including commission fees, when the hammer went down at Christie’s auction house in Geneva, Switzerland. However the sale did not go ahead due to default by the anonymous buyer.
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The CTF Pink Star, formerly known as the Steinmetz Pink and the Pink Star, an internally flawless pink 59.6-carat diamond, sold for HKD 553,037,500 ($71.2 m; £56.8 m), including buyer’s premium, at a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong on 4 April 2017. The diamond, mined in 1999 by De Beers in Africa, was 132.5 carats in its rough state and took two years to cut and polish. Now, the oval-shaped diamond, the largest internally flawless or flawless fancy vivid pink diamond that the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has ever graded, measures 2.69 cm by 2.06 cm (1.06 in by 0.81 in) and is mounted on a ring. The buyer was Hong Kong conglomerate Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, which has a chain of jewellery stores. They immediately renamed the diamond the CTF Pink Star in memory of the late Dr. Cheng Yu-Tung, father of the current chairman and founder of Chow Tai Fook.
On 12 November 2013, the Pink Star achieved 76,325,000 Swiss francs ($83.01 million; £52.07 million), including commission fees, when the hammer went down at Christie’s auction house in Geneva, Switzerland. However the sale did not go ahead due to default by the anonymous buyer.
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