Stephen Bush’s Lure of Paris (lot 28) and Edwin Tanner’s Professional Engineers (Lot 2) beg the question: how can cracking works like these be cheaper than an average Olsen watercolour (lot 12)?
Some questions are too hard to answer. Kudos to D+H for introducing works like these to the market and giving their clients exposure to important paintings.
An interesting selection of contemporary works, such as Ivan Durrant’s Movie Stars (Lots 112 and 113) and Brent Harris’ Sleep paintings, provide variety for the audience and great value for money. It’s refreshing to see an auction house taking a strategic approach to building new markets.
For too long, Australia’s auction houses have benchmarked success against their gross turnover of money.
Some would argue that this has come at a cost to the credibility of the broader market because the same big-ticket pictures get flicked every other year.
Skewed data has turned away prospective collectors and disappointed speculative investors. Anomalous results have been the catalyst behind the Federal Government’s decision to review self-managed super provisions and added statistical weight behind the flawed arguments to introduce the resale royalty.
Close observers of the market have been conducting their own qualitative analysis of sales since the peak days of 2007/08.
The nearly white glove Naval and Military Club sale (conducted by D+H), Sotheby’s Eastaugh and Fairfax picture sales, and the Jarrett estate offered by Bonhams in May 2009 generated much talk and real enthusiasm.
Likewise, Andrew Shapiro brought a couple of gems to market in recent years. These include two beautiful Bribie Island Fairweather’s and key works from Mollie Gowing’s collection. Let’s not forget the incredible group of South East Asian 70s and 80s works in his April 5th sale as well.
The odd provincial auction house occasionally delivers a treat too. Late last year a Vassilieff Lilydale Stone Bird flew the coop at an undervalued price from a WA saleroom. SA is still colloquially known as 'arbitragers’ avenue' for good reason.
Good consignments get people excited, and people should be excited with elements of this sale. Somehow D+H have managed to find quality works that have been buried for significant periods of time.
We get glimpses of a multi-generational collection through the Griffin Estate. Who would have thought an early (1898) Streeton panel (Lot 35) would sit comfortably next to John Brack’s The Bookmaker (lot 1)?
Estates like these are rare treats in the auction world—the auctioneer often has the freedom to price conservatively and collectors get the opportunity to acquire a work that’s been hidden for decades (or half a century as is the case with the Griffin pictures).
Regrettably, it seems that D+H have spent the majority of their time chasing consignments at the expense of catalogue entries. There is inconsistency in provenance detail (lot 86 is missing any reference at all) and some works are carry obscure and possible exhibition references.
There are also some important omissions. Lot 4 (Meadmore) and 5 (Coburn) were recently purchased from Chicago and Boston salerooms respectively, yet these sales are not detailed in the catalogue.
There are also too many catalogue entries, some 44 in total. Some are informative while others provide neither insight nor value to the work they aim to promote. In the description of Robinson’s Beechmont With Starry Night, 1986, (lot 8) the author claims that the “hinterland of Southern Queensland – (is) a region hitherto neglected by Australian landscape painters”. Brett Whiteley and Lawrence Daws (to name just two) would disagree.
Despite this, the team at D+H have compiled a fresh and diverse sale to start their auction year and it should do well.
