However, with significant results expected from Deutscher + Hackett and Menzies’ last sales of 2017 on 29 and 30 November, with potential for another $10 to $15 million dollars added to the current total of $123,120,000, this could take the year’s art auction turn-over to $135 million dollars. This would well and truly trounce the second highest total of $114.6 million achieved in 2008.
This must be somewhat of a tonic to all auctioneers of fine art who work hard to consign the best art and sell it at its best price. This might well lead to the question: can Deutscher + Hackett usurp Sotheby’s for fine art sales this year? They have already clocked up sales of $30.6 million to date, and their sale next week carries a high total estimate of $6.88 million, which would bring the D+H total to just above $37 million. Sotheby’s have now sold above $37 million in art for 2017.
Indicative of the strength of the market in 2017 is the fact that Sotheby’s established 8 new artists’ records on the night, with two of these achieved for the mid-20th century heavyweights Charles Blackman and Albert Tucker. Surely, the buyer of Blackman’s Mad Hatter’s Tea Party (Lot 26 ) in May 2009 for $600,000 hammer price chose the perfect time for its resale, selling for a stunning $1.55 million hammer, slightly above the Game of Chess, also from Blackman’s most famous series of paintings, which sold for $1.475 million hammer, also with Sotheby’s Australia in November 2016.
It might then only be a matter of time before Blackman breaks through the magic $2 million mark including buyer’s premium.
It was also a red-letter day and ground breaking for the auction sale of a significant painting by Albert Tucker. Image of Modern Evil 29, 1946 (Lot 10 ) had been on loan to the National Gallery of Australia since 1979. It is from Tucker’s most acclaimed series and had the potential to break through the million dollar barrier – which it did, selling for $1.159 million incl. buyer's premium, and $950,000 hammer price. The previous highest price for Tucker was for John Batman meets Eliza Callagan, 1971, sold at Deutscher Menzies in June 2007 for $700,000 hammer.
Dorrit Black continues her run of interest from collectors after the wonderful exhibition Unseen Forces at the Art Gallery of South Australia in 2014. Portrait of Iberia Performer, ca 1944 (Lot 1 ) sold at the high estimate for $35,000, closely followed by Summer Landscape (Lot 2 ), which sold for $28,000, just below its high expectation of $30,000.
Adrian Feint’s Flowers with Sunset: Panel for “Orion”, 1946 (Lot 3 ) was always unlikely to be left unsold, especially with estimates of just $15,000-$20,000 on this very large and beautiful example of the artist’s work, and it went on to create the first record price of the night, selling for $63,000 hammer. The previous high for Feint was just $35,000 hammer for Oriental Garden achieved in April 2004 by Christies. The new record seems much more to reflect this artist’s true value and had a great number of bidders hoping to secure the work.
It was mixed fortunes for landscape master Fred Williams who was represented by six artworks in this sale. The wonderful and tightly controlled After Bushfire, 1969 (Lot 9 ), a major work by Williams estimated at $380,000-$420,000 created considerable interest and finally sold to Gary Singer’s phone bidder for $470,000 hammer, well exceeding the high estimate.
Williams’ much larger Summer Snow at Perisher, 1976 (Lot 35 ), however on estimates of $500,000-$700,000 failed to find a buyer on the night. With six lots on offer perhaps collectors could afford to be fussier: no buyers were found for the early Treescape, 1958 (Lot 5 ), estimated at $45,000-65,000, nor for After the Fires, Upwey, 1968 (Lot 51 ), a gouache carrying the same expectations.
Meanwhile, Murrumbidgee River, 1977 (Lot 6 ), estimated at $30,000-$50,000 and You Yangs No. 1, 1963 (Lot 29 ) with a high estimate of $30,000 went to two happy room bidders, selling each for $35,000, one to a Victorian visitor sitting next to me and the other to a lady.
We all probably know William Dobell’s famous, if not iconic, painting of Margaret Olley so prominently displayed at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and this year, we have seen some stunning examples of Dobell’s work enter the auction room, making all realise why the artist is so revered.
Not surprisingly then, Study for Margaret Olley, 1948 (Lot 11 ) attracted strong interest, and sold for $220,000 exactly on its top estimate. No such luck though for Study for Camille Gheysens,1957 (Lot 12 ), at $25,000-35,000. Camille was somewhat less pretty than Margaret and failed to find a suitor on the night.
Jeffrey Smart’s Study for Head Office, 2002 (Lot 13 ) was nicely estimated at $70,000-$90,000, and went on to sell for a considerably higher $115,000 hammer.
3 of the 5 works by Brett Whiteley in the sale sold, and they sold very well indeed. Two Giraffes, no. 2, 1964-85 (Lot 14 ) created a stampede with some of the fiercest bidding of the night for any work: the successful buyer charged all the way to $190,000 hammer, more than doubling the low estimate of $90,000.
Wategos Beach, Holiday Suite 9, 1989 (Lot 17 ), amusingly underbid by art consultant Paul Auckett, sold for $90,000 on its high estimate. The rather attractive Shao, 1979 (Lot 20 ), also by Whiteley, managed to add another million dollar plus sale to Sotheby’s tally, also selling for the high estimate on expectations of $850,000-$950,000.
William Robinson’s modestly sized Sunset and Rising Moon, 1993 (Lot 19 ) found a very appreciative audience and was hard fought by several bidders in the room and on the phone. Art dealer Bob Lavigne was the eventual winner, purchasing at $120,000 hammer on its modest estimates of $60,000-$80,000.
After Bonham’s sale of well over 100 paintings by Sidney Nolan from the estate of Lady Nolan just two days before, there was no evidence of collectors becoming ”Nolaned” out. Kelly and Rifle (Lot 21 ), a late Ned Kelly image from 1980, performed exceptionally well, estimated at $250,000-$300,000, bidding did not stop until it reached $340,000 hammer.
Another late work, this time by Sali Herman, Woolloomoooloo, 1973 (Lot 22 ), also achieved a very satisfactory result, selling for $70,000, on estimates of $55,000-$75,000, for this somewhat out of favour artist.
Albert Tucker’s portrait of John and Sunday Reed from 1982 (Lot 28 ) sold just on its low estimate of $100,000, while John Perceval’s ever popular, fragile and rare to market earthenware pottery figure sold very well: Warburton Ranges Aboriginal Child, 1958 (Lot 32 ) was strongly bid on and sold at the high estimate of $65,000.
Sidney Nolan’s Carcase, 1953 (Lot 34 ), is without a doubt a very important painting, but perhaps a difficult hang in the lounge room in the same way that Maurizio Cattelan’s taxidermied horse might strike some as somewhat offensive, however it would be wonderful to see these great 2D and 3D masters exhibited together. The $150,000 hammer price, the low estimate for Carcase, paid with little competition looked like the bargain of the evening.
The Return of the Prodigal Son, 1953 (Lot 53 ) by John Brack saw perhaps unsurprisingly some solid bidding from art dealer Stella Downer. However Geoffrey Smith and Gary Singer with their respective phone bidders ended up competing against each other in the end, until Martin Gallon brought the hammer down at $1.125 million, making this the fourth million dollar plus sale in the Sotheby’s last art auction for 2017.
Tudor St. George Tucker’s The Lovers’ Hour, 1895 (Lot 41 ), was the second Tucker to break a record on the evening. Estimated at $180,000-$220,000, it sold for $210,000 hammer, underbid conscientiously by Bob Lavigne.
Meanwhile, Charles Conder’s delightful Dorothy – Daughter of John Steven, Esq., 1890 (Lot 42 ), did not find a buyer on the night on estimates of $250,000-$350,000, nor did Eugene Von Guerard’s Wonnangatta, Gippsland (Lot 43 ), with the same expectations.
It did not go unnoticed that four small studies for Jean Appleton’s Self Portrait, 1942, (Lot 47 ) appeared in exactly the same week at Bonhams, selling for $9,500 hammer on estimates of $2,000-$4,000. The major painting did not disappoint either, setting another auction record, when it sold for $52,000 hammer on estimates of $45,000-$65,000.
Another three auction records were set: for Leslie Wilkie’s charming The Hammock (The Leisure Hour), 1907-1911 (lot 40) selling for $26,000, Norman Carter’s Girl in White, 1923 (Lot 76 ) which sold for $22,000 hammer and Edwin Stocqueler’s historically interesting Digging for Gold along an Old Creek Bed, 1877 (Lot 80 ), selling exactly at its low estimate of $40,000.
