The International Art Centre was the first of the new year auctions to be held with a carefully curated offering featuring, in the main, works from various 20th century artist's estates - 11 artist's estates and 70 works in total saw a good crowd looking to pick up a bargain here or there from the estate segment of the sale, or a work from the other 150 lots with mixed vendor heritage. An interesting feature of the sale was the extensive research on the artist's biographies and photographs of the 11 artists whose works were on offer.
Most interest and some good battles were seen to take place when the works of the Waikato based female painter Ida Carey (1891-1982) were offered for sale.
She is a fine artist who had during the 1920's studied under the Italian artist Anthony Dattilo Rubbo based in Sydney. Top price and an artist's record at auction was established when Nicotina (lot 27) went under the hammer. Estimated at $1,000-2000, bidding started at $800 and slowly rose to $5,600. The previous lot, Maori Lady with Moko (Lot 26) also sold well, fetching $3,900.00.
Some beautiful early watercolours and pastels by ''the grand old man of New Zealand Painting'' John Weeks (1886-1965) also attracted some serious competition from buyers. Full Moon (lot 33) sold for $2,600, a good price considering the signed watercolour measured only 10.5 x 10 cm.
Works with a Maori theme or subject matter attracted interest with a William J. Reed (1908-1996) oil on board of two semi-nude Maori women in the South Island, Maori Girls Moraki (lot 40) selling well for $3,000.
The Ruth Dorothy Browne (1905-2002) estate was the first major showing of this artist's works on the auction floor, and saw her signed ''sketch'' of two seated Maori (lot 6) from 1950 sell for $2,700.
The overall total for the International Art Centre Works from Artist's Estates & Collectable Art was just on $250,000 (including buyers premium)
The following night saw a very different crowd of collectors assemble for what was the largest of the three sales.
Offered by Art + Object as they move closer to their ten anniversary in the business, there were 279 works for sale, under the banner New Collectors Art. Comprising photography, painting, sculpture and glass, the top price in the sale of $24,000 was paid for a large cast glass bowl, Generation Bowl (lot 140) by Ann Robinson. This was followed by a large format oval acrylic and oil painting by Gretchen Albrecht, Rose Measure (Nomadic Geometries 2) (lot 148) which sold for $20,000
The last remaining 20 items from the legendary Les & Milly Paris Collection were included in the sale. Amongst this offering, the biggest surprise of the evenings sale was was an unsigned ink drawing by Theo Schoon, Untitled - Indigenous Abstract Pattern Study (lot 120) and estimated at $1,500-2,500. This work from the early 1950's had an interesting exhibition history and the lot precipitated a vigourous bidding war amongst private and institutional collectors. The work eventually sold to a private collector on the phone for $13,000, more than $10,000 above the top estimate.
A small but beautifully formed work of a workman by James Turkington (lot 173) sold well at $2300 and a study by fellow Rutland Group stalwart, A. Lois White, The Dancing Foals in her classic Tube-ist style (lot 174) sold well at $3,200.
The small photographic offering sold well with few surprises with the top spot going to Fiona Pardington with a large black and white mural grade C Type print of shells (lot 113) from 2005.
Harvey Benge's close up of Tokyo Girl No.5 (lot 110) sold well at the top end of the estimate for $5,500.
Art + Object's ''kick off'' sale for 2017 resulted in a sale total of just on $500,000 (including buyers premium).
The last of the three sales, Mossgreen-Webb's catalogued a mixed 167 lot sale with the primary focus being on late 20th century and 21st century artworks, although the tale of the sale was made up of Colonial and European works. Few in the offering escaped from the top end of the estimate but to everybody's amazement a full set of the now legendary Barry Lett Gallery Multiples (lot 706) originally produced in 1969 under the supervision of Mervyn Williams and retailed at $3.00 each or $36.00 for a full boxed set sold for $10,250, just over the $10,000 top end estimate.
Another stand out result was a sleeper, 129 lots into the sale. The early painting by Irish artist Edwin Hayes, Portrush, Ireland (lot 829) dated 1868 fomented a battle between offshore phone bidders with the work selling for $5800 against a pre sale estimate $1,800-2,500, and again demonstrated the power of the internet in the auction room.
Mossgreen-Webb's had live streaming for this sale with a number of the Ralph Hotere works on offer benefitting from this feature.
Strong interest was also shown in some of Louise Henderson's abstract works, with a small blue abstract watercolour selling to a collector in the room for $2,500.
A high percentage of the works were sold subject to vendor approval, but a number also failed to attract bids. Preliminary figures indicate a sale total of just over $200,000 including buyer's premium with 100 of the 168 lots finding a new home.
All prices are expressed in $NZ and are hammer price except where otherwise indicated.
