Auction Update Review
Breaking for Home
The martini shakers and brandy snifters are out, feet are up on desks and reservations, long ago made, are now about to be cashed. It is that moment once again to celebrate getting through the season and to escape for a few weeks the bang and din of combat. This year the fight is more pitched than usual because forces, larger than the market, by chance and on purpose, turn auction lots into mineshaft canaries – anxiously observed as harbingers of the season coming.
The news is mostly good although
rampant austerity now grips the land.
The effects of the decline in 2008 that many hoped were temporary now
seem embedded in collective thinking.
The field perseveres on a diet of beer rather than champagne.
Inveterate collectors and
institutions continue their steady pursuit while dealers buy less on
speculation. The material, at many
levels, is superb but the eyes to see are sometimes clouded by the rat-ta-tat of increasing
lot volume, the apparent tapering of sales on listing sites, the aging of
collectors and the sundry personal uncertainties that economic downturns
randomly expose. It is difficult to pull
the trigger at the very time greater visibility and research tools are bringing more exceptional material to light.
For the week twenty-two auctions
were archived; eleven denominated in dollars, five in British Pounds, five in
Euros and one in Swiss Francs. Seven
thousand nine hundred and forty-five lots were offered and five thousand three
hundred and forty-four sold for a 67% success rate. The sales, befitting a market peaking into
the holiday shut down, were robust:
$18,594,981 against the aggregate high estimate of all lots offered: $19,435,979 or
96%. Sotheby’s as is their December
tradition, dominated the results with two sales, together 512 lots, which
raised $10,103,642.
For the week six sales reached or
exceeded 100% of the total of their high estimates:
Ader. Autographs and Manuscripts on December 13th: 207%
Alde. Library of an Amateur from Lyon on December
14th: 203%
Dorotheum. Autographs on December 9th: 167%
Ader. Juidaica, Paintings, Sculptures, Liturgical
Objects, Books: 135%
Sotheby’s. Fine Books and Manuscripts on December 13th: 112%
Sotheby’s. English Literature, History, Children’s Books
on December 15th: 103%
The following sales reached or
exceeded one million dollars in total receipts:
Sotheby’s. Fine Books and Manuscripts on December 13th: $7,403,638
Sotheby’s. English Literature, History, and Children’s
Books on December 15th:
$2,700,004
Galeries Koller. Modern Prints on December 9th: $1,443,511
Swann Galleries. Photographs on December 13th: $1,048,132
For the holiday shorted week 5
sales are scheduled
Monday December 19th Artcurial Briest-Le Fur-Poulain-F.
Tajan. Photos and Graphics (17714)
Christie’s. Photographs (2495)
Christie’s. Photographs (2542)
Cowan’s. Online American History ending (243)
Wednesday December 21st Dorotheum.
Books and Decorative Prints (9169)
To all who have a holiday to
celebrate or simply enjoy the time away from the bustle of daily life we wish you
the very best for these fleeting moments and for the year ahead.
We ourselves will be away next week
and will resume these weekly notes on January 1st.
Bruce McKinney
AE