Only the highlights of the collection were shown in Auckland and the well-attended in-situ viewing was held in Corner's home in Wellington, and the seat of our government for well over a hundred years
The sale itself was held in one of the wonderful old wharf sheds that have been home to many of Wellington's major cultural attractions over the last 30 years, in the space currently occupied by the New Zealand Portrait Gallery. The site was the ideal location for the large attendance of about 300 people to witness the rare event of an entire collection of the former diplomat and his wife coming to market.
Prints by John Drawbridge got the auction off to a good start with Tanya About to Fly (lot 1) selling for $2,600 and Rock Pool (lot 2) selling for $1,800. These are excellent prices for Drawbridge prints which have tended to hover around the $1,000 mark.
An excellent collection of ten consecutively lotted E. Mervyn Taylor wood engravings and block prints set the room abuzz with Hine (lot 5) top selling for $7,400 (estimate $2,000 - $3500) and Giant Kauri Waipoua (lot 7) selling for $5,200 well above the top end estimate of $2,500.
A rugged Mountain Stream (lot 32) landscape by John Weeks sold well above its $16,000 top estimate at $26,000, followed by a delightful Charles Tole oil on board from the mid 20th century, Still Life with Compote (lot 33) let go for $26,500. Another John Week's crowded polychromatic masterwork of a Moroccan Scene (lot 34) sold for $31,000.
The small but significant collection within a collection of six Theo Schoon Jade carvings (lots 59 – 64) had been purchased from Kees and Tina Hoss's New Vision Gallery in Auckland in the 1960's. This series of rare jades all sold well with a traditional Maori Pekapeka (lot 60) form updated ever so slightly by Theo Schoon, selling for $31,000, well above the top estimate of $20,000.
A small gem of a painting by Rita Angus Storm, Hawke's Bay, (lot 68) measuring just 60 x 60 cm square, broke through the $500,000 barrier selling for $580,000, just $20,000 under the top estimate of $600,000. It's rare in New Zealand for a painting to break the half million dollar barrier at an art auction, so this was a major event and set a record for the artist at auction.
A further highlight was Colin McCahon's large format 1962 Landscape Theme and Variations (1), (lot 70) painted on jute, that unforgiving cloth, one of its uses being in the manufacture of ''camp stretchers''. The purple strip down each side of the jute was still visible in the finished painting, and it finally sold at the low estimate of $300,000, a fair price for a rare and raw McCahon.
The positive note continued for the next few lots, with Ralph Hotere's Untitled (lot 71) work knocked down for $93,000 and a major crisp Gordon Walters ink on paper Untitled drawing (lot 72) going at the low estimate of $70,000.
After that series of five and six figure prices, a miscellany of smaller works on paper and craft items followed, selling around the carefully considered pre-sale estimates, the exception being a small wartime watercolour by an important but often overlooked artist and educator, John Ritchie. Entitled Broken Dam, Liri River Italy (lot 115) it sold for $4,300, more than twice the high estimate of $2,000. This early watercolour was one of the foundation works of this important collection, carefully selected and lovingly displayed for decades in their Wellington home by the Corners.
Assisted by strong buying of works by Schoon, Taylor and the Mexican embroideries towards the end of the auction by Auckland based dealers on behalf of clients, the auction set a new high-water mark for art at auction in our often neglected capital city with 99% of the lots sold, raising $2.9 million (IBP) for the former diplomat's family, and giving the Wellington art market a few substantial shakes and quivers.
All prices are in $NZ and are hammer prices unles otherwise noted.
