London Auction Results

I went back to the web sites to check the results from the various auction previews we went to while in London earlier this week.

For the Christie's and Sotheby's auctions, the New York Times reported on the news worthy items. These auction results are viewed as one economic bellweather (maybe not one that means much to most of us). There were some record breakers at both sales, with a number of items going for well beyond the estimates. The Giacometti sculpture at Sotheby's went for the highest price ever at auction (including the buyers premium). A Picasso at Christie's went for double the estimate. Both have been in private collections for decades. I am glad we went to see them. The Klimt at Sotheby's went for well beyond the high estimate and sold for £26+million.

Back down to earth, I checked the Bonham's results for the paintings without reserve. I had not realized that a lot of the paintings were by a known British artist, Percy Horton (1897-1970). He is represented in a number of British museums, including the Tate. A quick Google search found a number of results on him. 

 

This Percy Horton sold at Bonhams £72/$115 (inclusive of buyers premium)

I found his paintings quite decorative. You could have picked one up for somewhere between £48 - £144 ($77 - $230). Just think of 3 or 4 on a wall and you have an artist who is in several museums! They might even have fit in my suitcase!

At Lots Road, the chandelier I liked went for £220 (not including buyers premium of 20% - $352). 

  

Chandelier sold at Lots Road Auctions for £220 ($352)

The problem if you live in the US is you'd have to ship it, which would have cost well beyond the purchase price. You'd have to know what something comparable cost in the US and add up on the costs. 

This coming week will be fun in New York at more auctions!

February upcoming auctions

I've been looking at the upcoming auction calendars for some of my frequent auction haunts. Here are a few that I will try to attend this month:

Doyle New York: http://www.doylenewyork.com/default.htm

• Doyle @Home: Fine Furniture, Decorations and Paintings. Auction is February 10 and the preview days are February 6 - 9. The Doyle @Home is usually stocked with well priced decorative items. I almost always see something that I will consider bidding on. 

• Belle Epoque: 19th and 20th century Decorative Arts. Auction February 24th with the previews February 20 - 23. Usually lots of tempting decorative objects and paintings. 

 

Art Nouveau Buffet at Doyle's Belle Epoque: $800 - $1,200

Stair Galleries, Hudson, NY: http://stairgalleries.com/

• American, English and Continental Furniture, Fine Art, Silver... Auction February 12th. Previews every day before from February 5th. Actually not sure I will make it up to Hudson for this, but the on line preview looks interesting and their price ranges are always good compared to New York City.

Bonhams New York: http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r?sContinent=USA&screen=Catalogue&iSaleNo=17623

• The Dog Sale. Now doesn't that sound like fun even if you don't want to buy anything? Auction February 16th with previews February 13 - 15. The on line catalogue looks full of cute and kitschy things (apologies to anyone who collects dog art!). 

 Portable Scottie Heater at Bonham's: $300 - $500

Christie's New York: http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/searchresults.aspx?intSaleID=22602#action=refine&intSaleID=22602&sid=b6d6cd70-c545-4a71-adae-cdf3e01fdf21

• Christie's Interiors. Auctions February 9 & 10 with viewing from February 5th. This is the more affordable Christie's offering and worth going to see what they have. 

 

Joseph Bradley (American 20th C.) at Christie's: $500 - $700

February could be fun even if the weather is not!

London: Auctions High and Low

We went to two auction previews today, and they couldn't have been more different. They are at the opposite ends of high and low. We started at the 'low'.

Bonhams in Knightsbridge (as opposed to the one on New Bond) generally has the more affordable offerings.

 

Bonhams in Knightsbridge

http://www.bonhams.com/

We were a bit dubious of the offering given the title: 'Pictures and Frames - to sell without reserve.' That's as low a description as I can imagine. We were surprised what fun it actually was in a decorative inspirations sort of way. The paintings were almost all by amateurs but not of bad quality. I could easily see buying 3 or 4 at £25 a piece ($40) and grouping them on a library or den wall. I don't know the estimate range to expect since the catalogue did not include any, given that the sale is 'without reserve'. I will have to check in a few days to test my theory. 

This is the kind of auction I would attend in person. The idea would be to pick up a few items at very low prices. Absentee bidding would not be the way to go. 

Here are a couple of photos to give a flavor of the show. 

Paintings at Bonhams

Our next stop was at the highest of 'high'. We went to the Christie's Impressionist/Modern sale preview at their King Street branch in St. James's. We had actually not been to this Christie's before, having usually gone to the South Kensington branch which has the more affordable shows. 

            Christie's in St. James's

The show was impressive. They seemed to have a better offering than the Sotheby's preview we attended yesterday, and it was better presented. I was mesmerized by this Kees van Dongen.

 Kees van Dongen: Estimate £5.5 - £7.5 million

Almost all on offer is coming from private collections so has generally been hidden away. It's great to be able to get a peak before they disappear again.

London: A visit to Sotheby's

We built our day around a visit to the Sotheby's preview for the Impressionist and Modern Art Sale. Now this is clearly out of our range unless we win a mega millions lottery, but a great chance to sneak a peak at paintings that are briefly out of private collections before going to new private owners.

Before going to Sotheby's on New Bond Street we went to the Royal Academy of Art to the exhibit of 'The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and his Letters'.

Burlington House which houses the Royal Academy of Art

It was a fantastic exhibit and much better than I ever expected. I was a bit focused on the mention of letters in the title, and thought they would dominate. They only enhanced a comprehensive collection of Van Gogh drawings and paintings. I have seen many Van Gogh's over my lifetime, but never like this. I was entranced by the paintings and felt I learned a lot about Van Gogh's work and life as well.

After the Royal Academy we wandered along Old Bond Street to New Bond. It's a tempting walk of designer shops, and the day was glorious with blue skies, if a bit chilly for London.

Window at Sotheby's

The show was an impressive collection of all the names you would expect and more: Renoir, Bonnard, Seurat, Matisse, and Cezanne. This Klimt is one of the headliners, and estimated at between £12 million and £18 million ($19 million - $29 million). This is the kind of sale that makes the newspapers as a test of the economy.

 

Klimt: Church in Cassone

After Sotheby's the decision was where to have lunch! One of our favorite restaurants in London is just down the street at 5A Burlington Gardens (right behind the Royal Academy) - Cecconi's. It's got a great buzz to it and wonderful modern Italian food. http://www.cecconis.co.uk/ 

But we decided to go to Daphne's instead. Also wonderful Italian food and a bit less hectic. It's located at Brompton Cross just down from the South Kensington tube stop at 112 Draycott Avenue. It's a bit long to walk from Sotheby's, so taxi, bus or tube are better options.

http://www.daphnes-restaurant.co.uk/ 

 
We had a wonderful meal, and good people watching.

Terrific day in London, and I'll be watching the papers later this week to see what they say about the sale and what it says about the art market and the global economy.

London: Lots Road Auctions

We're in London for a few days and today went back to an old haunt, Lots Road Auctions. Lots Road is off Kings Road a fair ways down from Sloane Square, but in a good area for browsing antiques and decorative furniture and lighting stores.

 

http://www.lotsroad.com/default.asp 

Our second apartment in London was unfurnished, and Lots Road benefited from our frequent patronage! We found a brand new George Smith sofa (with the label on) for a fraction of the retail price, and a range of antiques and modern furniture for great prices. We also bought quite a few rugs with our future house in mind at great prices.

Lots Road is a mixed bag of good finds and the tacky. One also needs to be a bit careful in the 'antiques' section, but we always bought what we liked and not for an investment. We bought a few modern pieces for new house, and when we went today they had the same chairs. We figure a retailer is unloading them a pair at a time. But we also saw them in a decorator's store window for about three times what we paid for them. 

These might fall in the tacky category, even at 200 to 400 pounds (1 pound = $1.6).

 I think this chandelier falls in to the bargain category at an estimate range of 200 to 300 pounds ($320 to $480). Most chandeliers I've priced in the US are much more than this. 

 Of course we made an outing of our visit and went across the street to Lots Road Pub for lunch. It's a 'gastro pub' which means that they focus on the food and it's quite good. It doesn't even have much of a bar crowd. We made a reservation and were glad that we did because they were packed for Friday lunch. 

http://www.lotsroadpub.com/

This photo was taken before the crowds arrived.

We miss Lots Road Auctions now that we're back in New York. We haven't (yet) found an auction house that has the bargains at this does. It's fun to visit again, however, as we did today.

Checking auction results

Probably the best way to prepare yourself for bidding in the future is to check the results of the auction where you flirted with a few items, and maybe didn't bid. At the Doyle's auction this week I considered bidding on two paintings and now see that I probably should have!

This painting was estimated at $300 to $500 and sold for $225!

The horse painting I liked was estimated at $2,000 to $4,000. You may recall that I saw something very similar at the Winter Antiques Show for $4,500. This painting sold for $1,600! Both bargains in my view.

 

You can't regret these things too much or it will haunt you. I still have memories of things I bid on and lost and wonder if I should have done something differently. I guess I get a bit attached! In the case of these two painting we knew that we didn't have space for them, so it was the right decision. BUT....

There's always another auction to look forward to!

The Winter Antiques Show - New York

I realize that the Winter Antiques show does not fall into the category of 'auctions' which is what this blog is mostly about. However, before one can comfortably bid on antiques or art of any era, having some idea of retail price range gives some confidence when setting a bid.

The Winter Antiques show is definitely at the high end (if not almost the top!) of the antique show offerings and thus a visit offers the great opportunity to attend a 'museum with price tags' as my mother used to call it. We find it lots of fun. Any time I see prices like $695,000 for a painting by Sir John Lavery I get a shiver down my spine. He's an artist I mostly do see in museums.

Not everything is quite as expensive as that, but we're rarely tempted to buy even at the lower end. Besides the fun of the visit, we use it mostly as an education on retail pricing. Today there was a painting of a racehorse at the Antiques show that was quite similar to one on offer at Doyle's. It was early 19th century, about the same size, and priced at $4,500. I went back to the Doyle's web site, and Lot 59 is estimated at $2,000 to $4,000. I flirted with making an offer to see if we could get it at the lower end, but decided not to this time.

The show itself is dominated by Americana, which is not generally our strong interest, but nice to see anyway. 

There are other periods represented as well, ranging from pre-Colombian artifacts to some quite contemporary paintings. We lingered over the Arts and Crafts, some mid-century modern, and particularly enjoyed the Art Deco offerings. 

We picked up a magazine at the show 'The Magazine Antiques', and their website has a good calendar of shows in the US that are scheduled for the coming months. You may find something near you.

http://www.themagazineantiques.com/

If there are auction houses in your area, I'll bet they'll schedule sales around the same time since the shows create interest to buy!