At auction end, the dividends were apparent with a sales total of $578,000 hammer representing an impressive 116% by value and solid sales volume of 66% .
The fate of the catalogue front cover provided an indicator of the sale upward trend. The full compliment of absentee, telephone and room bidders greeted Alan Sumner’s European Town Scene but it was a room bidder who quickly and effectively swept aside the competition ultimately securing it for $17,000, almost 50% above estimate, but nevertheless a very fair buy.
Mirka Mora showed that she is still riding high in the popularity stakes – her three lots sold very well, particularly The White Rabbit and Family (Lot 57 ). Enthusiastic bidding took the painting to $17,000. However another favourite, David Bromley, found his stocks were beginning to wane with patchy results recorded, and Jason Benjamin and Mark Shaller weren’t even in the race.
The highest estimated lot in the catalogue, Figures in the Apple Orchard by David Boyd (Lot 85 ) was also overlooked, but sold the following day for $30,000.
Healthy results for a number of paintings seemed to prove the persuasive power of provenance; while the artist was unknown, Lot 96 carried National Trust provenance and combined with its historical subject matter, View of the Yarra with Old Princes Bridge (19th Century) sold for $3,200 against a $1,000-1,500 estimate.
Alan Mitleman’s Carolina Shout 1974 (Lot 167 ) sported a 1975 exhibition label from the National Gallery of Victoria and it soared 50% above estimate to sell for $6,000.
Finally, the only Douglas Watson work to sell from the suite of four offered, Composition 1938, had won the AGNSW Travelling Scholarship. Bidders pushed it beyond its estimate to $5,300.
Other noteworthy results included $9,000 for Robert Dickerson’s Two Faces (Lot 131 ); May be collectors thought the estimate of $3,000-5,000 recognised only one face.
Low estimates served the Lionel Lindsay lots well, with nearly all surpassing their presale quotes, especially the set of etchings (Lot 104 ) which were hammered at $2800, more than three times above the upper estimate.
Archibald Douglas Colquhoun enjoyed a strong performance throughout the auction. All of his works exceeded estimates; Portrait of a Woman (lot 73A ) was bought at $3,000 leaving its $800-1200 estimate for dead.
Delivering the big excitement and simultaneously defying the oft parochial restraints of our art market were the sale of the two Austrian modernist paintings. The works belonged to a family who emigrated from Austria in 1939. The “discovery” of these paintings on far away shores stimulated great interest amongst European buyers, (presumably dealers), to the degree Joels managed to net the vendors a result ten times the combined top estimate. Portrait of Two Girls by Sergius Pauser (Lot 210 ) smashed the artist’s previous record of AUD$45,277 set in 2006 to achieve $65,000.
Meanwhile seven phone bidders propelled Max Oppenheimer’s Still Life (Lot 222 ) to set a new artist record in this genre of $130,000.
In a year short on auction thrills and surprises, the international results at Joels’ modest Sunday sale fulfilled the potential of every auction by delivering some much desired theatre and fun (and a terrific windfall for the vendors).
No doubt in 2011 bidders and auction aficionados will continue to be lured into the arena on the whiff of the promise of the unexpected…
