Fortunately for the auctioneers (and their vendors) the weather did not temper the mood with the auction achieving impressive clearance rates (74% by lot and 82% by value).
Indeed, representatives from Sotheby’s Australia, Mossgreen, Menzies and Bonhams were in attendance and stayed the course of the sale. This auction should leave them enthused: both trade and private buyers have returned to the market and will pay premium for fresh, quality and rare works.
Anita Archer, Deutscher + Hackett’s in-house auctioneer worked hard to extract every possible bid, but was obvious when running bids and took too long to get through the 92 lots allocated to her shift (2 hours and 15 minutes). Scott Livesey did a better job, clearing the tail-end of the sale and keeping those left in the room entertained with the odd occasional humorous quip.
The night belonged to the blue-chip artists, with excellent results achieved for key works by John Brack, Fred Williams and Jeffrey Smart. Deutscher and Hackett achieved the auction record for the latter, with Autobahn in the Black Forest II, 1979- 1980 selling for $850,000 hammer ($1,020,000 IBP). The auctioneer was directed by the under-bidder to halve the bidding increment at $750,000. It took four more bids before the work was knocked down to a representative from Australian Galleries. The result met with applause from the crowd.
The $1 million+ price tag sends a positive message about Jeffrey Smart’s investment potential to prospective buyers of works (priced $80K - $800K) in the upcoming Jeffrey Smart exhibition Australian Galleries is running, in conjunction with WA developer Nigel Satterley.
Several artists also set personal bests at this auction.
Edwin Tanner ‘s Professional Engineers, 1954 sold to a private buyer in the room for $72,000 IBP. When it last appeared at auction (Christies 1999), the work sold for $46,000. Charles Nodrum, who was in the room but did not bid, has been a key promoter of Tanner’s works looked pleased with the result as should his clients.
Stephen Bush’s Lure of Paris # 18 was keenly contested by 3 bidders and underbid by prominent contemporary collector, Simon Hayman. The price ($52,800 IBP) was three times higher than two other Lure of Paris works sold through auction rooms in the past decade and bodes well for contemporary Australian art. The owners of the remaining 26 works in the series will be buoyed by this result. Kathryn Del Barton (lot 29) and Howard Taylor (lot 71) also achieved strong prices.
There were also bargains for discerning buyers.
Hay Stooks, Sussex , c1898 a panel by Arthur Streeton (lot 35) and Ethel Carrick Fox’s Luxembourg Gardens, (lot 36) both sold below their conservative low estimate. Drysdale’s The Head Stockman (lot 19) sold for its low estimate $120,000 to Dennis Saville (on the phones) and was underbid by fellow dealer Barry Pang. It seemed cheap, given the exceptional price ($624,000 IBP) achieved for a similar sized Kelly study by Nolan at Sotheby’s last year.
The much-lauded work by Vladmir Tretchikoff (lot 43) and Matthew Smith’s Green Apples (lot 44) both achieved modest prices and suggest there is still scope for arbitraging in domestic salesrooms.
This sale deserved to do well and the results set a high benchmark for Deutscher + Hackett’s competitors.
Auctioneers, need to produce fresh quality sales otherwise they risk alienating future vendors and deterring buyers in 2011’s art market.
In addition to being envious of the Deutscher +Hackett’s performance, the auctioneers who were assembled at the back of the saleroom on Wednesday night also have cause for feeling nervous or comfortable with this year’s market reality.
