But Australian paintings remains the London-based global auction house's only speciality devoid of a dedicated department head, as the group moves into top gear for a big drive into the Australian art, antiques, jewellery and classic car markets.
Bonhams (world wide) chief executive officer Robert Brooks has conceded to AASD's special correspondent that he considered Georgina Pemberton, former head of paintings at the old Sotheby's Australia, as the possible head of an Australian art department, without which it would be hard to be taken seriously as a fully fledged auction house operating in the local salerooms.
He was highly impressed by Georgina, but she was taken, going to the London art dealership Agnew's to run the old established Mayfair company's new with-it contemporary art gallery.
Few other obvious contenders emerged for a company anxious to grab high profile experienced specialists in what has been described as a very personal thrust by Brooks into the local auction industry.
Another Sotheby's art specialist David Cook went to look after the Packer family's art collection and Jon Dwyer said he did not want the job, although rumours circulated that he was a possible candidate.
Brooks has long enjoyed visits Down Under, mainly in connection with Bonhams classic car business which over a couple of decades had been directed through companies controlled by Sydney auctioneer Tim Goodman.
The latter's acquisition of the Sotheby's Australia franchise by those companies, which had come to trade as Bonhams & Goodman, was not received joyfully by Brooks.
It gave Brooks an indirect interest in the company, Sotheby's, which was and remains his main competitor in a global market in which he thought he had created a serious opponent.
Leasing the Sydney premises that in the 1990s and early 2000s had been the home of the Tim Olsen gallery, is the latest of a series of moves designed by Brooks to give his auction house a high profile presence downunder.
Some of the art business has moved to old formerly light industrial suburbs like Alexandria since the 1980s, and not so much business has lately been done by tycoons over Paddington lunches in the 2000s but Paddington remains a symbolic and strategically useful address.
The premises are small. In recent years they were occupied by a dress shop and less committed occupants than the 11 Bonhams staff who will go there, might find it claustrophobic.
The rent must also be high as Olsen was paying around $150,000 a year when he left in 2007. It was apparently never easy to carry big paintings through the door.
But as James Hendy, the CEO of Bonhams Australia points out in response to critics of the size of the Paddington rooms, the company also has warehouse facilities in Alexandria. "If we didn't think there would be enough room in Paddington Street we would not be moving in."
The rooms are in the prestige suburb, Woollahra, where Goodman's Sotheby's Australia has its base and which is clearly Brooks' targeted competitor.
However glamorous and accessible its rooms, and however determined and creative the business-getters, the appointment of an auction house can still be a matter of serendipity in an industry relying traditionally on deaths, divorces and debt settlements as a source of business.
A bevy of specialists almost half from the old Bonhams & Goodman and Sotheby's Australia has been appointed to chase and process it, and some of their expertise is in Australian fine arts.
Hendy himself built his career on a degree in the fine arts from Anglia University in Cambridge. The study of European art, is clearly of limited value in a market focussed on the local product but he followed up his honours degree with more practical work in the area of the decorative arts area.
From with late 1997 to late 2002 he was a general valuer at Bonhams London.
From there he moved to Kenneth Harvey Antiques in London. From March 2004 to December 2004 he was national head of furniture and decorative arts at Bonhams & Goodman, Sydney retaining this position briefly when this operation was transferred to Sotheby's Australia .
One early appointee who followed him after B & G became Sotheby's Australia was Dalia Stanley, with wide ranging experience including Australian art.
Announcing her appointment Hendy said it added greatly to the company’s local strength. Dalia had enjoyed 30 years in the fine art auction industry, beginning in 1980 when she left Sydney University to join the auction house Geoff K Gray to pursue and develop her deep interest in fine art.
Alongside its non-indigenous art interests, Bonhams Australia has established an Aboriginal arts department substantially drawn from Sotheby's.
Two former staff from the Aboriginal Art department at Sotheby’s Australia, Francesca Cavazzini and Greer Adams, have been employed by Bonhams as Specialists in Charge of the Aboriginal Art Department.
The new department will be advised in all aspects of its operation by Tim Klingender (former Director of Aboriginal Art at Sotheby's Australia), in his role as Senior Consultant.
The market in Aboriginal art is very much down on its luck, due largely to the lead overseas buyers have played in creating it. These buyers have been hurt by the rise in value of the Australian dollar and the global financial crisis. Trade in the great treasures of Aboriginal art have also been hit by export/heritage restrictions while leading auction houses refuse to handle most fine works done outside the communities.
Leading commentator Adrian Newstead has called on the auction houses to hold no more than one Aboriginal arts auction a year because of the market's softness.
Bonhams plans two, one each in Autumn and late Spring to coincide with the parent company's Hong Kong sales. Sales in the other areas of specialisation will also be held at those times but in separate catalogues, not telephone-book style, like Mossgreen's.
Klingender is widely credited with establishing a sophisticated international market in the field of Aboriginal art, with an emphasis on the exclusive ethical approach.
All the first auctions are to be Sydney-based but overseas specialists looking for gear for sale in Bonhams rooms overseas will naturally go interstate taking temporary spaces in commercial office spaces or or hotels for these treasure hunts interstate.
Local finds will secure a ready scrutiny by Bonhams specialists, and be offered in the most suitable rooms.
Another appointment waiting to be filled is a full time publicist, very vital for an industry which relies on and has been celebrated for decades for its hype.
But this has been addressed on a limited basis at least, with the temporary appointment of Catherine Franklin, who came to Australia a few years ago after a long association with Bonhams UK.
Anne Wall has stayed with Sotheby's as publicist where she has marked up some extraordinary achievements in this area including a page three story in the Australian. This is thought to have been very much responsible for the buoyant results for the December jewellery sale.
The sale appears to have been a much needed success after ho-hum results from Sotheby's Australia's other sales, and a public expression of anxiety about the group's performance by a major minority shareholder, Mowbray Collectibles, to the New Zealand Stock Exchange on which it is listed.
Bonhams has also done well with favourable space allocations if partly due to the quirkiness of its principal offering during its first year of operation, the Owston collection, put together by Warren and Cheryl Anderson. This collection, rich in taxidermy and grossing around $15 million, was a liquidation matter.
Franklin points out that Bonhams Australia has the resources of a very professional press department in its UK and US offices - as the old Sotheby's Australia also had.
Sotheby's Australia lost the same degree of like access, when its franchise was granted to Goodman's companies.
In its latest, autumn series of sales Bonhams Australia sold turned over $4.85 million mostly in decorative arts, jewellery and cars where a few robust upper priced sales contradicted the market.
The sale also processed $200,000 of jewellery with that department now being run by another B & G evacuee, Patti Sedgwick..
Patti has 20 years experience in the industry beginning with Lawson’s in 1988.
When Bonhams & Goodman opened in Melbourne in 2006, Patti Sedgwick was appointed Head of Jewellery, Melbourne. In 2009 she orchestrated the sale of a pink diamond for an Australian record price of $480,000.
From another auction house, Shannon’s, comes Damien Duigan to support former B & G specialist Robert Glover.
Other Bonhams & Goodman administrative staff join on a temporary basis when auctions come up.
With both Sotheby's Australia in the car business albeit on a private treaty basis, and Bonhams Australia still dedicated to the business through its UK CEO's background as a speedway racer, the Australian saleroom may in future will smell a little more of axle grease.
Big boys toys shave fallen on particularly hard times. But when they come back if Bonhams push succeeds the Australian saleroom should be a much more matey place.
The sale of the Andre and Cecile collection of French antiques in October for $1.3 million at which many lots were unsold surprised even Hendy given the past exposure of some of the goods and kept the group in the more distaff end of the business.
