Henry grew up surrounded by traditional art (his grandfather was in charge of the Sarjeant Gallery from 1926-1950) and an early foray into art dealing (paintings and rare books) helped to pay his way through University in the 1960s. Later on, he owned a gallery in Wellington, Medici Galleries and has also published various art related books including NZ Art Auction Records (1973) and the New Zealand Art & Antiques Yearbook in the 1970s/1980s.
His background and interest in traditional art, plus the availability of stock in this area has been one of the motivations to start Heritage Art NZ from his hometown in Wanganui. Focusing predominantly on traditional paintings which since the late 1990s have been one of the casualties of living in the 21st century in houses with more windows and light, Henry believes that the heritage town of Wanganui is the perfect location for his auctions, plus it has easy access to a number of other small towns in the lower North Island.
Although the paintings on offer firmly sit in the 19th and 20th century, Heritage Art Auctions has engaged 21st century auction technology and will offer the same online bidding capabilities as all the other major auction houses in Auckland and Wellington, with in room auctions for the higher value works offering the usual services of absentee, phone and live online bidding.
Online only auctions are reserved for artworks of lower value and an online auction has already taken place in early September with 400 lots on offer. Although the website results aren’t totally up to date with the post-sales, Newrick reports a 40% clearance rate which is a pretty good start for a business starting from scratch with no existing clients and no database.
The first live auction is due to take place on the 9th October at 2pm and the catalogue is now online. There have been some interesting lots consigned amongst the 200 works including two historic oil paintings by the 19th century New Zealand artist Charles Blomfield (1848-1926) which have never before been seen in public. These have been in the Blomfield family since they were painted in 1880 and 1887 and the vendor is the artist’s great grandson. The larger of the two works, Under the Pohutukawa Trees Anawhata, shows the last Hapu of that area fishing in the creek. In one canoe is the grandmother and daughter; in the other, grandfather and grandson. The painting, still in its magnificent original frame, carries an estimate of $50,000-$75,000. The second work by Blomfield was painted in 1887. It is a landscape view, painted a year after the Tarawera eruption which devastated the countryside. Painted from a vantage point, south of Rotorua, the view shows first the Emerald Lake then, in the far distance, Lake Taupo along with Mounts Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe. The estimate is $12,000-$18,000.
There are a number of international works included such as three oil paintings by the English landscape painter David Cox (1783-1859) which were gifted by Cox to the vendor’s great, great grandfather 180 years ago. This gentleman did the gilding on Cox’s picture frames and was rewarded with the paintings. One of the most talented artists of the day, Cox was mainly known for his watercolours but in later life became recognised for his oil paintings. An over 400 year old oil on panel by the Dutch artist Aert van Antum (1579-1620) shows a naval battle between ships of the Spanish Armada and a British warship. This work belonged to the vendor’s late husband, a Dutch author and businessman from a family steeped in art.
Newrick has also managed to uncover and consign a number of Australian works including Ernest Buckmaster, Neville Cayley Senior, Herbert R. Gallop, John Glover, John Hall-Thorpe, Norman Lindsay, James Peele, Martin Sharp and Robert Eagar Taylor-Ghee. A late entry is a large work on paper by Pro Hart of the Sydney Opera House. Purchased in Sydney in the 1980s, the vendor contacted Pro Hart while he was still alive, and he confirmed that the work was an early example and had for many years actually hung in the Opera House before being sold in Sydney.
With the art market at its strongest in recent years now seems as good a time as any to start a new auction house and without the overheads of running a business in on of the main centres, it will be great to see a new player on the block. The current auction can be viewed at www.HeritageArtNZ.com.
