The results may also reflect the parochialism of the local market which has even been visible in the difficulties in the more buoyant contemporary market in Australia. This was seen when Mossgreen offered a large consignment of recent British art from a Manchester dealer last year, which resulted in costly additions to the troubled business’ operational expenses.
Saturdays and Sundays however may also be good times to tuck away difficult sales designed mainly for the cognoscenti, as was the latest offering. Sunday sales of important collections have tended to be spurned from the days of weekend penalty rates, now much reduced, but fear that Christians will not come out for an auction is now much less of a worry. What better day is there, for them to come out?
True, three major religious pictures failed to find buyers under the hammer, but the non-Christian, even pagan material found more appreciative homes than might have been expected. A lot of the gods, moreover, were Greek. A few of the Biblical subjects were also a bit "suss", being more erotic than religious, for example, Eve au Serpent (Lot 43 ).
But Sotheby’s Australia likes to experiment and was well rewarded with its sale of works from the Russell Crowe collection three weeks ago, Singer said.
Minutes before the sale, however, barely a seat was taken and visitors (about 30 in all) had to be ushered into the marque erected for the event, the satisfaction being principally founded on the esoteric nature of the offerings. Schaeffer has also bought and sold several collections in the early 2000s, and disposed of far better material.
It was the first sale I have attended in the open when a full moon shone, giving it a surreal background in which it was difficult to detect whether tragedy or comedy would rule. As dark clouds flitted past the moon and what sounded like a obstreperous convention raged in a nearby mansion, the lots that were wanted were much wanted, attracting up to four or five mainly phone bidders. Other lots were left in the lurch with, bidding trotting up to just short of the lower estimates.
If it is true however as the collection boasts, that the offering was "the most significant collection of historical international art ever offered for auction in Australia" then pity poor Australia.
Singer, expressing his confidence about weekend sales, might have also added that sales on a weekend intensified their importance as events. If they are held on the 'going-out' nights it means they are being put forward as occasions and deserved more attention.
But the Sotheby's Australia marketing skills appear to have improved since the company abandoned its resolute move to sell works chronologically, which was best abandoned given the state of the colonial art market.
The Biblical subjects were much admired by Christians even as they went unsold. The Vision of Ezekiel: The Valley of Dry Bones (Lot 29 ) by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope (1829-1908), was commended by Warren Plummer, a veteran dealer and dignitary of the Uniting Church who had been an early adviser on art to Schaeffer, before Angela Neville of London’s Mayfair buttonholed him.
Plummer said that the poetry of Ezekiel was very inspiring. The bidding was taken to $70,000 which was $5000 short of the lower estimate. It was a subject that might have gone down well with Jewish collectors as the bones symbolize the House of Israel.
William James Webbe’s Sheep on Mount Zion (Lot 7 ) at a best bid of $85,000 and George Frederick Watts The Spirit of Christianity: A Symbolic Design (Lot 10 ) also had a bumpy road to nowhere. Pictures better described as Saturday night commodities fared a little better thanks to the presence of a couple now resident between mainland China and Australia.
They were certainly in the bidding for An Angel Piping to the Souls in Hell (Lot 32 ) by Evellyn de Morgan (1855-1919) with an accepted bid of $32,000 ($39,040 IBP) against the $25,000 to $35,000 estimate, indicating somebody at least had heard the call. The male of the couple said he was in the elevator import business and they certainly pressed the going-up button.
Among the works which also attracted their attention was the nude Songs of the Morning (Lot 31 ) by suffragette Henrietta Rae, (1859-1928). It made $50,000 hammer ($61,000 IBP) against estimates of $25,000 to $35,000.
The auctioneer, Martin Gallon, still slurring some of his "not solds" after unsold lots, with the result that the word "not" was not so well heard, said that academic works, by contrast, had a better market in London.
Large marble sculptures were in high demand with Orpheus with his Lyre (Lot 50 ) by William Wetmore Story (1819-1925) finding a buyer at the low estimate of $220,000 EBP ($268,400 IBP) although as much as $280,000 had been hoped for. The more than 2 metre high sculpture by the American born sculptor was originally a Hungarian commission. It was a significant recent rediscovery which cost Schaeffer £146,500 (IBP) at Sotheby’s, London in December 2014.
Much of the sale was put together in recent years on the London market, which must have been a factor in its offering in Australia. The works had already been well exposed In the U.K. Schaeffer evidently preferred them to be dispersed in Australia.
Arthur George Walker’s Peleus and Thetis: The Spurned Embrace of 1911 (Lot 33 ) sold for its lower estimate of $90,000 ($109,800 IBP) despite the controversial nature of a man forcing himself upon a victim. The artist was born in Hackney, long before Hollywood introduced the world’s most notorious casting couch, but the title references a poem by Ovid.
A medium sized version of An Athlete Wrestling with a Serpent (Lot 12 ) by Fredrick, Lord Leighton was a "thank you, unsold" at $170,000 against a lower estimate of $180,000. It may have been the version which sold in June 1915 for £104,500.
The highlight of the sale and catalogue cover lot, Sir Edward Poynter’s A Corner in the Market Place (Lot 22 ) of 1887 was referred at $440,000 against estimates of $450,000 to $650,000. In a glorious gold neo-classical frame it too may have suffered from the exposure of its last sale in 2015.
The auction benefitted enormously from it being held in a rose decorated marquee on the premises of Schaeffer’s $22 million home, Bonnington, a Tudor design house in Bellevue Hill.
