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The Intelligent Highwaymen Collector Market Review 2024
1. INTRODUCTION
This report is for all Intelligent Highwaymen Collectors ! Thank you for reading ! Last year, The Highwaymen Collector produced its first annual review of the market by summarizing content from the regular monthly blogs we produce. This year, we have expanded the blog, and also have incorporated data from last year so that we can produce a comparison and trend over the two year period.
The report focusses on three aspects of the Highwaymen market:
- The report overview and introduction.
- Second, we have compared the pricing trends among the 26 Highwaymen artists. This illustrates which artists have the fastest growing prices (and the slowest growing prices).
- Third, the auction houses, which publicly sell the majority of paintings. All their pricing data is public, and is captured in our proprietary database for analysis.
This market review is based strictly on data. As Detective Joe Friday of Dragnet used to say … “ Just the facts ”.
It is clear that the market has softened since September … so we are not trying to present an unsupported rosy view of the last year. Nonetheless, I am optimistic from the current activity I see in the market that it will pick up again during the first quarter of 2025.
For purposes of this analysis, we have used public auction records for all the major auction houses, in reviewing their volume and performance for the year.
For our analysis of the artists, we have used the Highwaymen Collector Index (HiCo Index), which is explained further and available in greater detail on our website (www.TheHIghwaymenCollector.com ). We have captured all auction records since 2018, in a proprietary database with almost 10,000 Highwaymen paintings through the end of 2024. The index was set at a value of 100 based upon all auction records from the year 2018. Each
year since, and for each artist, we track the index as a percentage of the base value of 100. For example, if prices moved up on average from 2018 to 2019 by 10%, the HiCo Index would be at 110 at the end of 2019. This HiCo Index is also calculated for each artist. This is the same principle used by well known indices such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
A footnote about our data which is used for the market and artist review …. All of our records have been validated and double-checked in our database. While it is always possible that there may be a few errors, with almost 10,000 records they would be statistically insignificant. I would also point out there may be small differences in other reports now producing market review activity. Results may be slightly different due to different methodologies being utilized. I can point to 3 possible differences (among others) in methodologies from the way our analysis is done:
- Manor has indicated that they eliminate PASSED paintings from their analysis. We utilize PASSED paintings, because the paintings were in the auction, and were expected to sell. The Manor report deleted these records so as “not to skew the numbers in a negative way.” (Quote from their report). I am not criticizing their methodology – it is a different philosophy and is just one explanation for why their reports are different.
- We remove all auction items like giclee’s, prints, drawings, and any artwork that is not strictly a painting. In general, these other artworks would skew the results downward for paintings.
- When paintings are sold as a pair, we record the sale as 2 paintings (as if it were 2 lots), with each valued at half the price that the pair sold for. Clearly, the price paid for a pair, is not the same as the price of a single painting and pairs sold as a single lot will skew averages upward.
Our goal is to be objective, as we have nothing to gain from publishing these quantitative results. The data and review is solely a service to the Highwaymen community. We provide more detailed analysis available to our customers.
2. REVIEW OF ARTIST PRICE TRENDS
The Highwaymen market had performed well in 2024. Despite a slow 4th quarter, Highwaymen prices for the year increased at an average rate of 10.4% from 2023, across all artists and painting sizes.

As you can see above, the trend in Highwaymen prices during the last 7 years has been generally steady growth, with a flattening in 2023 and 2024. The database divides all paintings by size (small, medium, large), and material (upson, and other). Paintings that have grown the fastest are reflected in the chart in yellow (large paintings on upson), and green (large paintings on other mediums).

The average price for all paintings in 2023 was $2,874, while the average for all paintings in 2024 was $3,174. This reflects a 10.4% overall increase in the entire Highwaymen market. Likewise, the Highwaymen Collector (“HiCo”) index rose from 247.33 to 273.15. This means that in 2024, overall prices are 173.15% higher than the level of prices in 2018.
Of course, not all artists are created equal !
We have looked at the results of all 26 artists and their price growth (or decline) in the last year, and thought it interesting to discuss the top 7 high growth artists, and the 7 bottom performing artists. The 12 artists in the middle of the pack are not discussed, although it is interesting to note that Harold Newton is ranked number 12 in price growth – virtually in the center of the rankings, and thus, perhaps a good bell weather for the group as a whole.
The Top 7 Performing Highwaymen Artists of 2024

Data Interpretation:
Of course the first surprise here is that the top ranked artist in terms of price growth in 2024 was Hezekiah Baker. I knew his prices seemed to be strong in every auction, but I was still surprised myself at his rank of number 1. The artists with the greatest price increases tend to be those whose prices are now catching up with the market… Baker, Arnett, Maynor, Lewis. These are not the artists that most collectors put on the top of their lists of quality,
although I would argue that Baker and Arnett should be on that list ! These are artists who are coming into favor as prices for artists like the Newtons, Hair, and the Buckners have already reached highs and many collectors are getting priced out of the market for their work.
Charles Walker and Mary Ann Carroll have shown historical pricing strength, but demand for their work has continued to outpace the general market. You will notice that the individual Artist Hico Indices for the first 5 artists are all relatively close to each other around 230, meaning that since 2018 they have all increased at about the same rate. Notably, Walker at 707, and Carroll at 450, have much higher HiCo indices, indicating that their growth in prices has been consistently much faster than the other artists in this group, and they continue to grow at a much higher rate than most of the 26 artists.
The Bottom 7 Performing Highwaymen Artists of 2024

Data Interpretation:
Of course, there are surprises here in this bottom list as well. For starters, 4 artists had average price declines in 2024. It should be noted however that in all cases when looking at average numbers for an artist, there may be reasons for an unexpected result.
In the case of this grouping, James Gibson had a nominal average price increase of only 2%. However, looking at the details in the website pricing database, it is clear that Gibson’s large paintings have surged in price, but his early work on upson (essentially all the monochromes), have fallen in price quite a bit, dragging down the price growth for Gibson.
In the case of Ellis Buckner (a surprise to see him at the bottom of the list), the data reveals that he had a large number of small, and lower priced paintings come to market in 2024, whereas in 2023 most of the paintings were large. The shift in small paintings coming to market brought his average prices down.
Any user of this data really needs to look at the more detailed data on the website to get a detailed grasp of the pricing dynamics for each artist. There are often wide price differences between a small painting on upson, as compared with a small painting on some other medium.
Also of note in this list are the slow growth of McLendon, J Daniels, and Butler. These 3 artists have HiCo indices of 360, 372, and 378, meaning that their prices have grown much faster than the average of all artists. (The average of all artists is an index of 273). The HiCo indices say that their prices have grown more than 100% more than the average artist. This would suggest that the market is taking a breather from their previous rapid growth in price. This past year, the market thought their paintings were already fully priced, resulting in little or no growth.
Painting of the Year 2024

With 1,379 paintings offered by the 3 auction houses discussed in this review, and more than 1,500 total offered in the market this past year, I started thinking about which paintings were my favorite, which ones I was sorry I didn’t buy, and which were paintings that set a new standard for an artist. After all the thinking going into this review, I thought it would be fun to nominate a “Painting of the Year”. Next year, I will take nominations from the Facebook
groups to choose a painting !
This year, the painting I have chosen is the Alfonso Moran, “Laundry Day Under the Poinciana”, hammering for $40,000 at the January 2024 Rennick Auction.
In my view, it is the best painting that I have seen by Moran, including my research on-line. He is the most rare Highwaymen artist with only about 30 paintings thought to exist, and it brought the highest hammer price of the year. It has everything a collector would want in a prized Highwaymen painting … a poinciana, a washer woman, and a Moran signature ! Whoever now owns this painting has one of the best and rarest Highwaymen paintings in
existence !
3. REVIEW OF THE AUCTION MARKET
Last year we reviewed 4 auction houses that dominated the market: Manor, Rennick, Vero Beach, and Florida Art. (Note: our proprietary database includes paintings and data from all auction houses – not just these four.)
This year we initially reviewed the following 7 auction houses :
- Manor Auctions: The largest player in the market with monthly auctions.
- Rennick Auctions: The most established auction house with high quality offerings scheduled with 3 auctions per year (January, March, November).
- Vero Beach Auction: Another well-established auction house regularly selling Highwaymen paintings, plus a wide array of other items. (Auctions held 6 times each year).
- Florida Art Auction: A new auction house established in 2023, which has not held an auction since June 2024, and has none scheduled yet in 2025.
- Florida Highwaymen Auctions: A new auction house established in 2024, with only two small auctions to date. They held their first major auction in January 2025, which is not included in this 2024 review).
- Auction WallStreet: An established auction house which was expected to become a regular sales channel for Highwaymen paintings in 2024, but this has not yet developed.
- Burchard Auction: A long established general antiques auction house, which historically sold many Highwaymen paintings, but has now been auctioning only 2 or 3 Highwaymen paintings per auction
For purposes of our analysis this year, our database has been updated with all of the auction sales from all of these auction houses, plus others. However, we will only discuss performance of the first 3 auction houses above, as they have dominated the Highwaymen auction market in 2024. In 2024, the other auction houses mentioned above did not have any meaningful impact on the market, primarily due to small size.
General Metrics of Auction Activity Level
TOTAL HAMMER PRICES | NUMBER OF LOTS | AVG. HAMMER PRICE PER LOT | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
MANOR AUCTIONS | 2023 | $2,866,300 | 860 | $3,333 |
2024 | $2,949,801 | 917 | $3,217 | |
RENNICK AUCTIONS | 2023 | $855,550 | 301 | $2,842 |
2024 | $900,800 | 257 | $3,505 | |
VERO BEACH | 2023 | $511,375 | 264 | $1,937 |
AUCTION | 2024 | $585,225 | 205 | $2,855 |
(Note: Changes from 2023 to 2024 are represented in green for increases, red for decreases)
Data Interpretation:
All three auction houses increased their level of hammer price totals in 2024. However, Manor increased the number of lots from 860 to 917 – an increase of 57 lots, the equivalent in size to an additional 13th monthly auction added to their 2024 activity. The other auction houses both had fewer lots in 2024.
Change in Average Hammer Price Per Lot

Data Interpretation:
Total hammer prices grew by 3% at Manor, by 5% at Rennick, and by 14% at Vero Beach. Given that Manor increased their number of lots auctioned, and both Rennick and Vero decreased their number of lots, this is an interesting development in the market.
While Manor increased their hammer price total, the average hammer price per lot decreased in 2024. Rennick and Vero both increased their average hammer prices by significant numbers (23% increase for Rennick and 47% increase for Vero) .
This would suggest that the increased quantity of paintings being sold at Manor are of lower quality (lower quality = lower prices), while the quality of paintings at Rennick and Vero have gone up. Manor dominated in terms of average price per lot in 2023. In 2024 that crown has moved to Rennick. Vero Beach has also closed the Average Hammer gap significantly with Manor.
Clearly, based upon size alone, Manor is the dominant player. However, when evaluating average hammer prices realized, that is no longer the case. Rennick now dominates with an average hammer price of over $3,500. (Note: All statistics are only for Highwaymen paintings and do not include the typically large quantity of Backus paintings sold in each Rennick auction).
Many people have also recently been discussing the flood of paintings coming into the market and its impact on prices. These statistics would suggest that the conversational conclusions are true. Manor is the only auction house holding monthly auctions, and the quantity of paintings has increased again in 2024. As the number of paintings being sold at Manor increases, the average prices at Manor are declining.
The other method of evaluating auction house performance is an analysis of hammer prices relative to target estimates. This can be viewed in 2 ways – something collectors and consigners should consider when thinking about both buying or selling at an auction house.
- How much did the auction house hammer prices in aggregate exceed their target estimates?
- What percentage of paintings did not reach their low, or target estimates?
For purposes of this section, it was pretty clear that the first half of 2024 was an extremely strong period in the market, and the second half of the year saw a lot of weakness. With two distinct trends within the same year, I have divided this analysis into the two time periods: January-June, and July-December.
Target Prices (Estimates) vs. Hammer Prices
No. Lots | Low Estimate Totals | Total Hammer Prices | Percent Over Estimates | No. Lots Below Est. | Pct. Below Est. | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Manor | ||||||
Jan-June | 508 | $1,484,600 | $1,749,676 | 18% | 144 | 28% |
July-Dec | 409 | $1,183,800 | $1,200,125 | 1% | 173 | 42% |
Rennick | ||||||
Jan-June | 152 | $ 456,900 | $ 582,100 | 27% | 30 | 20% |
July-Dec | 105 | $ 298,150 | $ 318,700 | 7% | 35 | 33% |
Vero Beach | ||||||
Jan-June | 103 | $ 254,600 | $ 343,250 | 35% | 19 | 18% |
July-Dec | 102 | $ 237,400 | $ 241,975 | 2% | 44 | 43% |
Total 2024 | ||||||
Manor | 917 | $2,668,400 | $2,949,801 | 11% | 317 | 35% |
Rennick | 257 | $ 755,050 | $ 900,800 | 19.3% | 65 | 25% |
Vero Beach | 205 | $ 492,000 | $ 585, 225 | 18.9% | 63 | 31% |
Data Interpretation:
How did the auction houses rank? The analysis looks at two metrics for how the auction houses fared.
On the positive side … By what percentage did the auction houses exceed their estimates in aggregate ?
On the negative side … By what percentage did the auction house have individual lots that did not reach their target price (low estimate) ?
Ranking Performance
Percentage of Hammer Prices over Target Prices
(Higher percentage = Better performance)
Rank First | Rank Second | Rank Third | |
---|---|---|---|
1st Half 2024 | Vero 35% | Rennick 25% | Manor 18% |
2nd Half 2024 | Rennick 16% | Vero 2% | Manor 1% |
Overall 2024 | Rennick 19% | Vero 19% | Manor 11% |
Ranking Performance
Percentage of Individual Lots Not Reaching Low Estimates
(Lower percentage = Better performance)
Rank First | Rank Second | Rank Third | |
---|---|---|---|
1st Half 2024 | Vero 18% | Rennick 22% | Manor 28% |
2nd Half 2024 | Rennick 26% | Vero 42% | Manor 43% |
Overall 2024 | Rennick 25% | Vero 31% | Manor 35% |
Conclusion
In aggregate, all three auction houses exceeded their target prices during both the first half and second half of the year. However, the results vary quite a bit. All three auction houses had strong performances during the first half. During the second half of the year, only Rennick continued with moderate results, while both Manor and Vero weakened.
Overall, Rennick exceeded their target estimates in aggregate by 19% during 2024, almost double what Manor exceeded theirs by at only 11%. Likewise, Rennick had 25% of its lots not reach the target estimates, while Manor had 35% not reach theirs. Vero Beach, despite their smaller size, punches above their weight with quality paintings and performance that keeps them generally in the middle of the pack.
Last year (2023) Manor was the dominant auction house in terms of both size and performance. This year, it seems that a relentless pursuit of growth, including an increase in the number of paintings being auctioned, has resulted in a decline in quality of paintings, and resulting decline in average hammer prices. The contrasts with the other auction houses who have auctioned fewer paintings, and had auction performance increase. It’s clear that
Rennick Auctions was the leading performer in 2024.
Thanks for reading !
Happy Hunting !
Mark Lerner
786-599-5816
MJL@TheHighwaymenCollector.com
www.TheHighwaymenCollector.com