Auction Update Review
The Auctions Turn Complicated
One week the auction market is
progressing, albeit a bit uncertainly, and the next it’s jittery. Around the United States folks are sitting-in
and calling for jobs, European leaders are playing dodge ball with disaster,
the mainland Chinese are acknowledging inflation, the heir apparent in Saudi
Arabia slipped off the mortal coil, and the Khadaffi regime went kaput. In this light the fact that some old books
aren’t bringing what their owners expected is hardly unexpected. Stock markets now regularly surge and
collapse while talking heads deliver gibberish that wears thin within the day. Book collectors are altogether a steady lot
but can’t help but be affected by the gun-fire that seems to be pinging ever
closer. If there is truth to the saying
it is always darkest before the dawn we can expect sunrise shortly. In the mean time the sales, long committed
and scheduled soldier on and those who stayed away can only feel regret for the
opportunities missed. The rule: it is always good to buy when few others are
willing – is still the rule.
For the week seventeen sales were
archived, one in British Pounds and eight each in Dollars and Euros. Turnover was $8,922,807 against the aggregate
high estimate of $14,965,698. Some weeks
turnover approaches 100% of the aggregate high estimate. This week it was 59.6%, a decidedly off
week. The weakness was at the top and we
know this because the percentage of lots sold wasn’t bad – 72.6%. When the percentage of lots sold is in the
normal range [70-75%] and the total of all sales well off the high estimate –
the weakness is at the top.
This week 7 sales reached or
exceeded 100% of their aggregate high estimate:
Henri Godts. Books from the 16th to 20th
Centuries on 10/11: 335%;
Ader. Sylvain Laboureur
Succession: Prints, Drawings, Modern
Paintings, Books… on 10/12: 179%;
Marc van
de Wiele Auctions. Military Cartography
on 10/1: 144%;
Bloomsbury
Auctions. Books from the RIKS Library on
10/20: 121%
Kapandji
Morhange. Books and Manuscripts on
10/19: 115%;
Bonhams. SoMa Estate Books on 10/16: 104%
Swann
Galleries. Early Printed Medical and
Scientific Books on 10/17: 100%
For the
week ahead 15 sales are scheduled:
October 24th Dorotheum:
Books and Decorative Prints [102411]
October 25th Bonhams:
Prints [19353]
Christie’s: Prints and Multiples [2475]
October 26th Christie’s:
Prints and Multiples [2475]
Swann
Galleries: Old Master through Modern
Prints (2258)
October 27th Ketterer Kunst / F. Doerling: Classic Masters [382]
Sotheby’s: Prints [NO8786]
Antiquanian
Auctions.co.za: Books (14a)
Swann
Galleries: Old Master through Modern Prints … continues (2258)
October 28th Alde:
Library of Lord Straboigi
Piasa: Ancient, Modern and Contemporary Photographs
[102811]
Sotheby’s: Prints [NO8786]
October 29th Artcurial Briest-Le Fur-Poulain-F. Tajan: Comic Strips [2002]
Knotty
Pint Auctions: Antique & Estate
Books (102911)
October 30th Bonhams:
Books and Manuscripts [19406]
Here is a link to the AE Auctions Calendar: 15 sales are scheduled.