The size has been dictated not so much by the shortage of fresh stock that is endemic both sides of the Tasman but by careful editing, the auctioneers insist. Much of it was admittedly to have been auctioned in March but the auction was put off as the city began to recover.
With an estimated value of $NZ330,000 to $NZ430,000 the sale has a special emphasis on the art of the South Island and Watson's hope it will be a bit of a moral booster after the events which include what New Zealanders in amazing good humour, call The Icing on the Quake - the snow that followed.
The snow leaked through and destroyed many of the catalogues for the sale. Buyers will be paradoxically called upon to commit themselves on canvas to the landscape which has been the source of so much tribulation.
The auction will be held at the George Hotel in Park Terrace. Previously Watson's auctioned at its gallery in the centre of the city. The building had to be evacuated post quake and the company now operates out of premises in weatherboard but arty premises, what might in Australia be deemed a Federation (1910) house in Oxley Avenue, St Albans.
The proprietor, Toby Macalister says that the show's emphasis on Cantabrian art which has a particularly rich history will have a bigger impact than the numbers indicated.
In terms of bums on seats, Macalister says that over three quarters of the 150 seats being put out are now reserved. There is still room, however, at the George and other local hostelries for other late comers.
Local art lovers are already rallying to the occasion, which it hopes will be unifying given the arts diaspora from the city centre, with Donald Cornes, the man who helped make the Australiana boom of the 1980s, now a local and among Friday's early viewers.
The catalogue is a smart effort with some commissioned in-depth essays on individual works showing up to advantage what Watson's calls The Connoisseur Collection. Watson's like Bonhams, mixes classic cars with art and true connoisseurs go for both. Macalister says the operation is based on "prestigious boutique galleries on Queen Street in Woollahra, Sydney." .
The sale is a mixed vendor offering with works from sources including a "prominent Christchurch family" : indirectly from the educationalist the late Dame Jean Herbison (1923 -2007) and her sister Ruth, and from historic Mount Cook Station.
The offering from the prominent family, which has not given permission for its name to be used, consists of a Frances Hodgkins watercolour which will be the most valuable lot in the sale at an estimated $NZ75,000 to $NZ100,000. Mt Cook Station has provided some Italian statuary and an 1872 work by Henry Raworth watercolour of Mount Cook ($NZ4000 to $NZ6000), which is the earliest work in the sale.
The sale comprises accessibly priced art by the names which have put Canterbury on the New Zealand art map over many decades with some emphasis on the 1960s period.
The works are by 18 artists and with "no fewer than 13 works by the finest Canterbury artists of both local and national significance." A suite of etchings by Barry Cleavin has been offered out of the corporate collection of local lawyer Buddle Finlay.
New Zealand's "Sidney Nolan" is also represented. Trevor Moffitt achieved this nickname through his series based on one Mackenzie, a sheep rustler. A painting of Mackenzie with his dog swimming across a river from the artist's celebrated series is estimated at $NZ20,000 to $NZ30,000
