Bowerbank Ninow's 120 page catalogue followed the same format as the first expansive production for their Auction No. 1 that heralded their arrival on the Auckland auction scene.
There were few empty seats at the beginning of this highly anticipated second sale for ''the new kids on the block'' and the sale got of to a good start with all but 2 of the first 10 lots finding buyers either from the book, phone or floor.
In fact 18 of the first 24 lots were sold. After that though things got a little bit patchy, the crowd started to thin and towards the end there were lots of empty seats.
According to my record keeping a total of 25 works sold while 36 were subject to the vendors approval and 11 of the photographs on offer failed to attract any bids at all. One of the works catalogued had already been pre sold. Of the 11 New Zealand photographic history posters on offer, two sold while the other 11 were sold subject to the vendors approval.
The highest price recorded on the night $14,000 (hammer) (Lot 30 ) was achieved for the large format ever popular ''eye contact '' image by Michael Parakowhai of a taxidermy rabbit entitled Craig Keller.
Frank Hofmann's Architectural Composite (Lot 34 ) c.1946 sold for $4200, the second best price recorded on the night for a N.Z. photographer. Fiona Pardington's Fifi (or Fake Grass) (Lot 31 ) sold for $4000 the third highest price for a N.Z. work on the night
Top price on the night for an international work was $4250 for a small black and white photograph of The Waterfall 1981 (Lot 35 ) by James Welling, while Henri Cartier-Bresson's 1948 photograph China. Beijing. December. 1948 (Lot 36 ) achieved the second best price for an international photographer of $4200
Although this is only the 2nd sale in the Bowerbank Ninow's short history we need more of these curated photograhic sales to elevate the awareness of photography as a collectable commodity as the market for it in New Zealand for it is still very small and there is lots of potential for growth.
