The buyers were tribal art collector Frederick Mathieu and restorer Ms Karen Coote. Mr Mathieu's paddle number 206 was called when the Blue Garden by Brett Whiteley was hammered for $300,000 (Lot 13 ) which was the higher of the $200,000 to $300,000 estimates. He was a frequent bidder on some finer pieces and buyer and under-bidder on other lots including an Angus Nivison Small Winter Drawing Number 2 (Lot 118 ) which he secured for $2800 or five times the mid estimate.
Ms Coote, a restorer of tribal art with a special expertise in barks and textiles, bought arguably the star lot, William Robinson's Birkdale Farm Construction Australorps 1982-83 (Lot 7 ) for $334 000 (estimates $180,000 to $250,000), and her number 182 was called as she bid successfully and discreetly concealed behind one of the pillars supporting the Foundation Hall of the Museum of Contemporary art where the session was held.
This cross fertilisation will please Mossgreen no end as it is the basis of the company's strategy of casting nets across as much of the whole field of collecting as it can. Dr Elliott was a universal collector and the 1023 lot dispersal of his collection displayed at the second venue, the Byron Kennedy Hall at Fox Studio could not have been better formulated to circulate collectors of one type of collectable into another.
Dr Elliott collected a wide range of tribal art as well as Australian indigenous and non- indigenous art. The collection also included Chinese and other Asian art, a rich spread of European decorative art and Australian pottery and its very special appeal, tribal art, contained such great oddities as a large group of wooden bululs from the Philippines.
Collectors or purveyors of European art (such as Picasso!) sought inspiration in tribal art. The first session of the sale suggests some leakage of interest is now occurring in the opposite direction. At the company's main rooms in Melbourne, built on a the revamped art déco Armadale theatre there is even a philately department into which it is hoped visitors will stray and take an interest.
The biggest spender by far on the night however was Sydney dealer Mr Denis Savill who bought the other star lot, the surreal Brett Whiteley The Arrival- A Glimpse of the Botanical Gardens 1984 (Lot 11 ) for $650,000 plus the 22 per cent premium for just $50,000 over the $400,000 to $600,000 estimate. The 107 by 92 cm oil collage and charcoal could have been a blown up cell from a Walt Disney animated movie such as Fantasia.
The Robinson on the other hand shows a farm yard in turbulence, the most delightful view of the same since the farm animals were shown in flight in the twister that transported Dorothy to Oz in the Wizard of the same.
Savill (alias paddle 213) gave no reason for his heavy spend except, it being very difficult surely nowadays to make much of a margin on such highly exposed stock. But he did intimate that a personal anniversary may be in the offing. He also bought Charles Blackman's Girl with Flowers 1952 (Lot 3 ) for $55,000 (EBP) ($30,000 to $40,000); a second Whiteley At the Bottom of the Park Lavender Bay (Lot 12 ) for $500,000 (est $350,000 to $450,000); Jeffrey Smart's First Study for Bus Terminus 1972-73 (Lot 14 ) ($120,000 to $180,000) and Donald Friend's The Verandah (Lot 21 ) for $22,000 ($15,000 to $20,000).
The Grampians, (Lot 17 ) another Arthur Boyd, also went in his direction for a rare under the estimate price of $60,000 ($80,000 to $90,000) even after some competition from Bob Lavigne. William Dobell’s The Old Golfer (Lot 9 ) should have gone in the latter's direction given the role played in auctions long but the Australian Art Sales Digest was unable to track the buyer of the lot which should be up there with The Charlady and other Dobell characterisations of old. It went for $24,000 ($20,000 to $30,000) which is far less in real money than the artist used to make.
Dr Elliott had a great eye and this could be seen in the very choice collection he put together. There were however about handful of lesser priced lots which had enough star quality to attract a deluge of bids, especially given their temptingly modest three figure estimates. The professionals repeatedly tried to hurry the bidding on these by jumping it. This was not always successful as the inevitable slow Internet and phone bidding resumed almost immediately without the other bidders being knocked out as the strategy envisaged.
Clifton Pugh's Sketch for Encounter (lot 100) was one such to depart from sharply from the estimates, the raw watercolour and gouache proceeding to $4000 when only $500 to $800 was anticipated, Four Frank Hogkinson flaming red oils of a burnt Arnhem Land followed the same path, the best at $12,000 being the most highly estimated at $3000 to $5000. The most seductively beautiful of these was the floral Blackboy (Lot 80 ) which was again one that “everyone wanted” made $7000 against an estimate of $500 to $800.
The sale was very useful in informing buyers of artists who were highly regarded only a few decades ago but seem to have fallen on more frugal times, the collection having been put together over five decades and in parts looking a little dated. The informing may have saved the artists from the culture bin, that imaginary place where dead artists' reputations go to for a kind of purgatory before being either released or damned.
Others to benefit were Francis Lymburner and Michael Kmit, moderns who are not enjoying the flamboyant exposure of some of the women artists like Preston and Proctor. One of the signature images of Sali Herman, a set of steps leading upwards to a run of slum terraces, was a reminder of his worth. It may have saved Herman's purgatory for another day, the oil on canvas Street Singers 1947 (Lot 22 ) making a mid estimate $22,000.
Herman has had some close calls but he bounced back since 1949 when he was fined for going into a ladies toilet, unsuccessfully pleading a matter of convenience. Having that report in the Telegraph must have been purgatory indeed.
Only two lots failed to sell under the hammer but both had been sold before the auction finished after 4 and a half hours.
