The newly formed company, Webb Fine Art Limited, will trade as Webb’s from the Falcon Street premises in Parnell, but the plan is to acquire more practical and spacious premises in the inner-city area.
The new proprietors state that Webb’s "has a remarkable tradition dating back to 1976 and the new proprietors respect and greatly value that tradition".
"The core purpose of Webb’s is to auction fine art, decorative arts, jewellery and wine. The new proprietors will retain these core elements, and will look at attracting new potential buyers through innovative auctioneering media and apps. There is also a project to develop a digital archive based on the considerable collection of Webb’s records and catalogues."
It is believed that 6 of the original staff have been employed in the new business, but two long time senior employees have moved on, with James Hogan now working as an auctioneer at Cordy's Art and Antique Auctions and Sophie Coupland establishing a business as an art consultant.
New year auction sales got off to a quiet start.
International Art Centre offered a 185 lot catalogue which included 75 lots from the Wendy Pharazyn & Bruce Dahl Collection. This Wellington based and centred collection produced some mixed results with the top price going to a first time on the market artist, Matt Gauldie with his painting..Quick Draw and Boomer (lot 19) selling for $6,250.
Over the following two evenings Art and Object offered two single owner collections.
The 21 February sale comprised New Collectors Art, and the 43 lot Ian Scott Collection of Twentieth Century New Zealand Landscape Painting.
Surprisingly, the 20th century landscape paintings that Ian Scott had assembled in the last couple of decades of his life failed to ignite the audience until a fine oil, Te Kaha East Coast North Island (lot 16) by the Australian artist Ernest Buckmaster came under the hammer. The pre sale estimate of between $5,000- $8,000 was eclipsed by the sale price of $12,500.
In the New Collectors section of the sale, an untitled Allan Maddox canvas (lot 55) sold for $12,500 and a Jacqueline Fahey oil on board entitled At the Crossing (lot 184) sold for $9,750.
On 22 February Art + Object offered the Pat O'Conner Collection of New Zealand Studio Pottery. This 231 lot, very focused assemblage looked in great depth at the work of what most ceramic and decorative arts specialists believe to be our greatest 20th century ceramic artist, Len Castle.
Top price on the night went to Len Castle's large Blossom Vase (lot 496) which sold well for $14,900 while its equally beautiful companion piece by the same artist with the same title (lot 497) brought $10,000, which just goes to show what can happen when two determined people battle it out for a large and important trophy piece of ceramic heritage. Both lots carried the same pre sale estimate of $8,000-$12,000
In all, the three recent sales have cemented the notion that buyers are adopting a ''steady as we go'' approach, laced with a considerable degree of caution due to the recent rise in the price of fuel, a series of extraordinary weather-related events and a change of government towards the end of last year.
