Within the fairly large offering of 142 lots, the Peter McIntyre collection comprised 10 lots, all from one owner in the Bay of Plenty who had amassed them over a number of years. The owner certainly had a good eye, picking works which were extremely strong in the their composition and colour. From the collection, King Country Musterer (Lot 47 ) proved to be the most sought after, selling for $51,000 against an estimate of $30,000 and achieving the second highest price at auction for his work. Overall the 10 paintings realised $263,000 hammer and all sold over low estimate.
A couple of works with provenance listed in the catalogue as ‘A Corporate Collection’ turned out to be from Air New Zealand, and as is usual with works possibly commissioned for site specific corporate spaces, they are often challenging to relocate on a domestic scale. Therefore the buyers of John Reynolds Nebuchadnezzar’s Head in a Wave (Lot 30 ) and Gretchen Albrecht's Floe (Lot 33 ), will be happy with their purchases, with the Reynolds which is a 5 panel, 6 metre long work referred at $15,000 and the Albrecht, a 3.5 metre wide canvas selling for $20,000 against a low estimate of $40,000, a relative bargain when set beside to her retail prices and auction prices for smaller works.
By comparison the overseas purchaser of Albert Namatjira, On the Western Edge of the MacDonald Ranges (Lot 108 ) would not have been surprised that they had to considerably top the estimate to secure the painting. Competition from two other phone bidders plus a room bidder left no doubt in anyone’s mind that this was a cracking example of Namatjiras’ work. Blessed with perfect, fresh colour and an original sales receipt from 1955, the watercolour had everything going for it, including an extremely enticing estimate of $8,000-$12,000. Hot competition saw the painting sell for $25,000 hammer to an Australian phone bidder.
Other good results were achieved for the Don Binney Kairarara Kaka Variant 1982-83, (Lot 35 ) which crept in at $120,000, just $10,000 over low estimate and achieved the highest price of the sale and the Ralph Hotere, A Wind Goes Out – A Poem By Bill Manhire (Lot 23 ) which sold for $45,000 against a low end of $30,000.
Unfortunately the very striking painting by modernist Christchurch painter Russell Clark, South Westland 1959 (Lot 34 ) suffered from an unlucky turn of events, when it was subject of an newspaper article run in all the major national newspapers two days before the auction, stating that the painting had ‘acquired’ a signature in the years after it had been exhibited in the artist’s retrospective in 1975. After this story was published, it was proven by the International Art Centre that the artists’s signature (in red paint) was always there, but because of the colour, did not show up in the black and white photograph provided in the retrospective catalogue. The damage by the media has been done however and the painting failed to sell without a bid. This is a real shame if it casts a permanent shadow over this wonderful work whose authenticity has never been in doubt.
The auction finished off with a large collection of Laurence Aberhart and Peter Peryer photographs, 17 in total. Photographs are usually the domain of Art & Object who have a strong market in this area, but on this occasion, I.A.C held their own, selling all 17 under the hammer. The best result was for the well known work by Peter Peryer, The Wind at Whenupai (Lot 124 ) which sold for $2,000 against an estimate of $800.
Although this auction had good attendance in the room, it felt as if a lot of clients were there for the Peter McIntyre collection as there was a mass exodus once those lots were sold. Overall the results were not quite as strong as usual, but it was still a respectable total. The auction total was $812,700 on the night, which is 66% by value and 66% by lot.
All prices shown are in new Zealand dollars.
