His Australian contemporaries found their best efforts in choppy water.
Barring two, which set new records for the Australians, buyers failed on a number of high profile lots to respond to the auctioneer's harangue, one bid below the lower estimate, that they were iconic.
The surprise of the sale was the $115,900 IBP paid for Sydney Harbour 1910 (Lot 11 ) by George Ricard-Cordingley (1873-1939) in steady but slow bidding.
The huge 150 by 285 cm oil on canvas showing a steamer with a lady in a long dress on the foreshore chugged past its $40,000 to $50,000 estimates to make a hammer price of $95,000.
The painting may have owed its performance, which was much better than any of the Australian Impressionists works in the sale, by the search by two competitive bidders for a large golden harbour view capable of sustaining a carved gilt frame.
The successful bidder was Bonhams' Mark Fraser on the phone against an unidentified bidder on the phone to the same company's Tim Klingender.
There are plenty of obvious takers with room and inclination for such a painting ranging from the Morans of the Swifts in Darling Point, through Piers Dawson-Damer and Greg Woolley with handsome piles in Tasmania not to mention the owners of the many Tuscan McMansions that started going up in the late 1980s when big harbour views in richly carved frames enjoyed their heyday.
A London dealership like Nevill Keating might just have had a client in mind for the work given its dabbling in other lesser known French Impressionists and the work would also have appealed to maritime collectors although possibly not enough to interest a museum.
It would be extremely ironic if this work made its way to Europe bought against a strong Australian dollar with weakened Euros.
Maritime art was Ricard-Cordingley's speciality and he travelled the world in pursuit of subject matter.
The ship painting's performance helped make up for a swag of highly priced Australian Impressionist paintings seen briefly at auction in May 1999 when they were withdrawn from sale by Con Ange in a divorce matter.
Hendy took the works mostly up to one bid just below the estimate at which they became iconic and then left them unsold.
He did not tend to announce them as "unsold" which is the practice of Sotheby's and Christie's and required at New York auctions by law. It is not the practice of Bonhams, except in New York.
Buyers recognised the quality of Walter Withers' Panning for Gold, (Lot 17 ) and gave this quintessentially Australian painting a gold - a new record price for the artist, It was as early as you can get to the roots of Australian Impressionism these days.
The subject was a great help. A digger panning for gold has a very wide appeal especially at the big end of town where mining is a much more rewarding business.
This sold for the low estimate of $350,000 ($427,000 with premium) although up to $450,000 had been sought.
Consistently what buyers there were, were on the phone and not among the small crowd in the room. This is no time for conspicuous consumption.
However, the price list shows that 29 of the 51 works listed for sale found buyers, after two pre-sale withdrawals, with the sales totalling $2.2 million including buyers premium.
Many of the major paintings had been exposed recently through the more discreet private handling of the trade and a brief appearance at Bonhams and Goodman before it became Sotheby's Australia and an intense rival.
The decision to charge the vendors a hefty fee for withdrawing them obviously cost them the collection but as several, especially the Norman Lindsays. failed to fire the outcome was not as good as it could have been.
The consignments were not identified but veiled under the anonymity of "Private Collection Melbourne" and "Private Collection Sydney".
McCubbin's Shelling Peas estimated at $600,000 to $800,000 was bid to $580,000 .
The work was very sketchy. The artist had left perhaps too much of the canvas uncovered.
Emanuel Phillips Fox's Autumn (Lot 31 ) just scraped home at $500,000 ($610,000 and an artist's record with premium) although it left one leaning over for the leaf blower.
Bidding on Frederick McCubbin's 1902-1912 Midsummer Eve hovered at $1.15 million and would not budge anywhere closer to its bottom of $1.2 million although it had also been declared an icon from the rostrum.
Rupert Bunny's Boys Bathing in the Loire found a buyer at $16,000 ($19,500 with premium) which was above the estimates of $10,000 to $15,000.
If anything is obscene it is the big prices consistently paid for Norman Lindsay's works including those in his least successful medium, oils.
The spread of these in the sale raised limited enthusiasm although enthusiasm his Adventure (Lot 14 ) of 1944 sold for $100,000.
The Australian art market is making progress in the right direction as it made $176,500 in 2001.
