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What rarity floats any bidder’s boat?

A signed Fender Telecaster once owned by guitarist Roy Buchanan (1939-88) and a cane made of wood from Ulysses S. Grant’s funeral carriage are among the finds being auctioned this week.

The 1952 electric guitar, one of several that Buchanan customized for his own use, will be offered at Skinner’s auction of musical instruments next Sunday at noon at its Boston gallery. Signed in 1982 by the blues musician for a fan following a set at My Father’s Place in Old Roslyn, N.Y., the guitar has a $75,000-$100,000 estimate.

A guitar that belonged to Alvin Kaleolani Isaacs (1904-84), founder of the Royal Hawaiians, is being offered with an $800-$1,200 estimate. The 1938 lap steel guitar has its original case.

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A circa 1750 Italian viola of the Florentine School that belonged to Earl L. Hedberg (1915-2003), a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1956 to 1982, has a $40,000-$60,000 estimate.

Headlining the more than 150 violins in the sale is a circa 1756 Italian violin with the label of Ferdinando Gagliano, a member of the Gagliano family of violin makers of Naples. The estimate is $90,000-$120,000.

The more than 100 bows are headlined by two French violin bows, a circa 1885 nickel-mounted bow by Charles Peccatte ($16,000-$18,000) and a circa 1855 silver-mounted bow by Joseph Henry ($14,000-$18,000).

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The cane made of wood from the funeral carriage that carried the body of Grant, military hero of the Civil War and former president, through New York’s streets on Aug. 8, 1885 to his burial site in Morningside Heights will be sold by Tradewinds Antiques at its all-cane auction Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Boston Marriott Peabody Hotel in Peabody.

The oak shaft with a walrus ivory handle and a silver collar inscribed ‘‘Wood of Grant’s Funeral Car,’’ has a $3,000-$4,000 estimate.

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The auction’s expected top seller is a scarce circa 1860s Remington small crook gun cane curio ($6,000-$8,000), one of several defensive cane curios in the sale. Among them are ‘‘Redoubtable’’ and ‘‘La Terrible,’’ which were used during the 19th-century Paris street riots to inflict wounds with razors that emerged from the shaft with a pull of the cane. Each of these weapon curios has a $4,000-$5,000 estimate.

An extremely rare offering is a China Trade cane with a porcelain handle that was found in France, and which Henry Taron, Tradewinds’ owner, says is the first he has had to offer in his 20 years of all-cane auctions. The estimate is $3,000-$4,000.

Other important offerings include two 17th- and 18th-century English canes, each with pique-decorated ivory handles and $5,000-$7,000 estimates.

A cane with a classical nude kneeling atop its elephant ivory handle has a $4,000-$6,000 estimate, while another elephant ivory cane has a full-bodied Abraham Lincoln in a long coat and top hat standing atop the handle ($2,500-$3,500).

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‘‘One of our most exciting sales’’ is how Gary Guyette, head of Guyette, Schmidt & Deeter, the world’s largest antique decoy auction company, describes its upcoming auction in St. Charles, Ill.

What makes it so, Guyette says, is that it marks the first time in the history of the company, founded in 1984 in Farmington, Maine, and now based in St. Michaels, Md., that such a large number of best known examples of decoy carvers are being offered. Occasionally there might be a couple at an auction, but at this sale 20 will be offered.

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Among the best known examples at Thursday’s 11 a.m. and Friday’s 10 a.m. auctions is the hollow mallard hen in a sleeping pose carved in the second quarter of the 20th century by Charles Perdew (1874-1963) of Henry, Ill.

Described in the catalog as ‘‘one of the finest Perdew decoys to come to auction,’’ it also exhibits ‘‘the very best of Edna Perdew’s paint.’’ Decoys painted by Charles’s wife are the ones most sought today by collectors. The mallard with its fine patinated surface is expected to bring $140,000-$180,000, the top estimate of the 756-lot auction.

Other best known examples include a rare canvasback drake carved by John English of Florence, N.J., in the last quarter of the 19th century. One of only two known to exist in original paint, it has a $65,000-$85,000 estimate.

An exceptional circa 1870s Canada goose by Albert Terry (1838-1931) of Riverhead, N.Y., who started carving decoys after serving in the Civil War, has a $16,000-$20,000 estimate.

The Canada goose with a raised neck and finely sculpted head was discovered by its present owner in the 1970s when he bought the contents of a house. Under the porch he found about 200 Terry duck and goose decoys, which he sold off over the years, keeping only his favorite, the goose now to be auctioned.

A unique offering is the recently discovered plaque of a male and female pair of ruffed grouse in a pine tree carved by Oscar Peterson (1887-1951) of Cadillac, Mich.

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His works are in the collections of major museums across the country, but despite this exposure and the popularity of Peterson, a carver of a variety of items including decoys and fishing lures, this plaque was not known to exist until last summer, when it was found at a Michigan flea market. Considered one of Peterson’s greatest achievements, the relief carved plaque has a $25,000-$35,000 estimate.

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The 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic in the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912, is being commemorated at the International Poster Gallery, 205 Newbury St., with an exhibit ‘‘Titans of the Sea: Posters From the Golden Age of Ocean Liners.’’

The show and sale, featuring 35 posters from a recently acquired collection of over 200 original ocean liner posters, will continue through June 15.

A book about the collection is available through the gallery.

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Correction: The rare Patek Philippe platinum astronomic wristwatch being sold by Antiquorum Wednesday in New York is a Ref. 3974, not a Ref. 2974, as reported in the April 1 Antiques.


Virginia Bohlin can be reached at
globeantiques@globe.com.