But the sale was one occasion on which the device still used by Bonhams internationally to save embarrassment might have come in very handy. "Passed" was said 52 out of 94 times he brought the hammer down and more frequently on the higher priced lots than the lower.
The total for the sale which was held at the Byron Kennedy Hall at the Entertainment Quarter at Moore Park in Sydney was $1,775,900 hammer equal to 40 per cent by sale value of the lower estimate and translating to $2.131,080 with buyers premium. The percentage sold by volume was also 40 per cent. Bonhams therefore did not slip into the serious ignominy of a figure in the 30s.
The transparency of the passed lots, from which it is hoped Bonhams will not be discouraged, heightened the appearance of pain, says AASD's special correspondent. As mandated by laws in New York where they have substantial operations Christie's and Sotheby's state when a lot is not sold and do this universally.
Other premium auctioneers have tended to continue the practice but not Bonhams which gives its auctioneers some leeway as to how they handle unsold lots.
Horwich, however, had recently joined Bonhams from Christie's. He also held one of the first auctions where the adverse implications of changes in the art-in-super funds scenario were better appeciated, financial markets had crashed again and buyers were more aware of what the artists resale royalty would do for future resale potential.
Local auctioneers also tend to introduce a touch more humour and familiarity into the sales, but Horwich handled the evening without any wavering before a quiet and anxious audience. The failure of the expensive paintings to sell may also have reflected in part their trade and investor-collector related sources.
Horwich also put forward an interesting theory explaining why big ticket items sell in the UK and not in Australia - Australians receive real interest on their savings, Overseas investors obtain near zero rates.
Paintings which were truly fresh to the market and had that touch of magic or suggestion of a chef d'oeuvre about them still did well at the sale.
This was was most obvious when Kathleen O'Connor's large Still Life with Lamp (lot 13) went under the hammer with an estimate of $80,000 to $100,000. The tempera on card which was exhibited at the Paris Salon d'Automne of 1921 sold for $165,000 hammer ($198,000 with premium) to former Christie's Australia managing director Roger McIlroy.
The evening path to this new record was not easy, however, as there were moments of serious hesitation on the way up. Some buyers appeared physically to tremble when they made their bids but this may have been because they were apparently new to the auctions and therefore stood out in an industry-based room.
Bonhams Australia's chairman Mark Fraser appeared very relieved that the catalogue cover lot, Brett Whiteley's Nobby's Head and the Entrance to Newcastle (lot 24) found a private buyer. In a sale particularly weighted by Whiteleys, it went for $480,000 ($576,000 with premium) and like the O'Connor had a distinguished history. The O'Connor had in previous lives belonged to leading West Australian family the Lee-Steeres. The Whiteley had been in the Nobby's Collection in Newcastle.
Four out of the seven Whiteleys sold so it was not entirely a bad night for the artist's esteem in a sale billed as a Whiteley affair. But it was probably not such a good one for the estate as the cheques from the resale royalty which has inhibited buyers will not be as big as they could have been when the works come round for sale the second time, and when they then become eligible for the payments. The four which sold were otherwise in the lower range.
The masterpiece-always-triumphs theory was challenged when Ian Fairweather's Fascismo of 1963 failed to sell at an estimate of $340,000 to $400,000. It was passed in at $320,000. Exhibited at the Sao Paolo Bienal of 1963 when that event was much more important, it was vintage Fairweather from his Drunken Buddha period and should have been highly desirable.
The results suggested a shift towards historical and traditional art that usually goes with declining financial fortunes. This is because the artists have won the respect of generations and the artists have a price history. Buyers are less likely to speculate on younger artists with far less form. The run of contemporaries to receive a drubbing were Rick Amor, Ben Quilty, Bill Henson, ex de Medici, Adam Cullen Del Kathryn Barton, John Kelly, Tim Storrier, and Andrew Browne,
More interesting perhaps is which of these sold. Ken Unsworth's amazing balancing act of a sculpture, the domestic sized, cut sandstone and steel Free Fall Series - Stone Cube (63) of 2004 sold right on the lower estimate of $10,000 or $12,000 IBP.
Subject matter was not a serious problem as most of the works were relatively easy to live with, except for the mutilated eared Van Gogh in the bought-in lead picture Vincent by Whiteley.
Two very different works which brought smiles to the face found buyers when Whiteley's The Lebanese Grin (lot 7) made $240,000 IBP and Nicholas Chevalier's Arcade South Sea Islands painted in 1882 (lot 32) showing a happy islander rowing his boat across a bay sold for $16,800 IBP, although this was below the lower estimate of $20,000.
Elaine Haxton's easy to live with Girl with a Drawing (12) was bought from outside the room by Sydney dealer Tom Silver for $33,600 and surely one of the least easy to live with, John Coburn's shocking pink The Tribe circa 1977 (lot 71) found a buyer at $13,200.
Two works which had been recatalogued as S.T.Gills from George French Angas sold for several multiples their initial estimates as works by Angas, although Angas is the rarer artist.
