The Sotheby’s May performance, frequently punctuated by healthy episodes of competition looks to be in step with the firm results of D+H’s April auction, a most encouraging sign for the market as it hits its stride for the year.
The sale’s success was not reliant upon a high turnover rate, (as about 30% of lots were unsold) but rather where the hammer fell in relation to the estimates and the sale percentages for key price brackets, which is hinted at by the 76% result by value (or 105% incl Buyer’s Premium). Overall the auction house’s presale pricing was on the money with 66% of lots sold within their predicted range of 20-49k , 90% in the 50-99k range and from 100k + it was within a whisper of 100%. The low end was where the greatest amount of works were passed in leading to a sale rate of only 50% in the under $20k bracket, however not a cause for too much concern as this isn’t where the glory and riches lie.
Even more interesting and possibly foretelling is analysis of catalogue estimate vs hammer price. The auction can be divided roughly into thirds – as we know one third passed in, approximately one third sold at or below low estimate, (and only 8% sold mid estimate) and another third sold at or in excess high estimate. The last factor should give cause for comfort and hope when one learns that 85% of this group sold well beyond the listed high estimate, quite an achievement . It was evident that there was no real middle ground in this auction pinpointing a distinct trend of fight or flight.
The auction momentum usually became wobbly when there was a run of boomtime hit parade artists presenting less engaging examples of their work, or artists who simply have lost some favour; cool heads met with Sidney Nolan’s early Horses Rolling on the Beach, Leonard French’s Pale Rider (Lot 19 ) and all three of Clarice Beckett’s works (lots 25, 38 and 46) which remained unsold. Arthur Boyd’s two Wimmera paintings experienced mixed fortunes – the larger scaled version estimated at $80-100k failed to impress (Lot 69 ) while the appealing composition and attractive estimate of the smaller at $50-60k (Lot 9 ) proved a winner and saw it hammered at $85,000 .
The Estate of the Late Marjory Green gave an added lift to the sale. George Lambert’s Mothers and Sons (Lot 82 ) provided one of the most committed bidding battles between the room and a phone. Sydney collector Max Tegal emerged the victor when it was hammered to him at $260,000 more than doubling its upper estimate.
Rupert Bunny’s La Chenille Vert roundly trounced its catalogue estimate of $200-300k to sell for $430,000 to Joan McClelland, possibly for an institution, while Elioth Gruner ‘s Winter Sunlight (Lot 78 ) exceeded upper estimate by 20% to fetch $72,000. Norman Lindsay’s popularity continued unabated with all but one of the seven works going to new homes, four of them at top estimate or beyond.
Another artist who defied any accusations of oversupply was Robert Klippel. Four of his five works were snapped up by collectors who were regularly willing to extend to the estimates’ upper reaches and then some. Klippel’s elegant 1960s Metal Construction (Lot 14 ) featured on the back cover, blitzed the field selling for $170k against a $100-150k range.
In contrast, the front cover picture, The Picnic by Jeffrey Smart almost landed on its back foot foot, until it was saved by a commission bid at $600k low est. The following substantial works by blue-chip artists also failed to elicit a flurry of bids but still changed hands at their low estimate representing good buying: Charles Blackman’s The Dance (Lot 4 ) at $200,000, Joy Hester’s Lovers (Lot 7 ) at $60,000, Sidney Nolan’s Ned Kelly – Glenrowan Fragments (Lot 21 ) at $380,000 and Rupert Bunny’s Un Ville de Province (lot27) at $300,000.
Two high value lots that were passed in on the rostrum but sold shortly after were Fred Williams’ Landscape (Lot 50 ) for $180k and John Russell’s Les Enfants du Peintre sur la Plage, Belle Ille (Lot 40 ) for an undisclosed sum although one would assume it was close to the $380k pass in figure. Although these transactions added half a million dollars to the sale’s war chest, Sotheby’s have chosen to count these as post-auction sales, so they are not included in their auction tally and statistics.
Historical and Colonial art received a fillip, especially when the trio of Aboriginal portraits by Ludwig Becker (Lot 36 ) were offered. At least four bidders keenly vied for the recently repatriated and culturally significant portraits until a telephone bidder secured them for $170k , more than doubling the upper estimate and setting a record for the artist. Once again estimates became irrelevant when Robert Dowling’s portrait pair (Lot 41 ) sold for $42,000 exceeding the catalogue’s $12-18k range. Completing the Aboriginal portraiture triumvirate and reaffirming aspects of the contemporary market was the sale of Brook Andrew’s Sexy & Dangerous (Lot 42 ). A tit-for-tat duel between the phone and the room led to a $43,000 hammer result, Andrew’s second highest price for this image and simultaneously an auction record for the smaller-scaled edition from the series.
Early but less characteristic, Eugene von Guerard’s European scene, View of Palermo…(lot 39) experienced a surprisingly dynamic reception. Conservator, Aman Siddique, fought off two other bidders to secure the painting 10% above upper estimate for $77,000.
The elevated participation of collectors, rather than the respectable sale result, was one of the most noteworthy aspects of Sotheby’s auction. The shift to a more determined style of bidding encountered on at least one-third of the lots, suggest that there is finally an increasing depth to the market and it comes with deeper pockets too. No one period was favoured, but quality and rarity reigned and collectors were willing to battle one another for their prize and pay over the current odds. This renewed engagement by the experienced ‘art warriors” endorses a climate of discernment and connoisseurship which are necessary factors for the art market’s future stability and growth.
