Mossgreen-Webb's catalogue for their Parnell rooms was a combination of three separate sales.
The Richard Parker Ceramic Collection sold on 20 June was a single owner private collection of his ceramic output over the last four decades. Totalling 100 lots, the work of this potter whom I have seen as the 'Anti Christ' of New Zealand ceramics was a unique experiment in the re-marketing of a very rich vein in our recent ceramic heritage
Richard's large 'wire cut' and 'splash decorated' vases were not easy pieces to sell with only a few finding buyers on the night. But when the smaller more domestic sized pieces came under the hammer, many were eagerly contested.
Top price on the night was $2,000 for a large spotted pot with the classic Tang style glaze from 1990.
Smaller single items and groups of items sold well with prices ranging from $100 upwards, and every now and then over $1,000. With a new "Buy Now" service being offered to collectors through Mossgreen-Webb's website, 22 of the unsold lots are on offer for the next few days.
This sale was immediately followed on the same evening by a 195 lot offering of New Zealand and International Fine Art.
After the highwater mark achieved by the Warwick and Kitty Brown Sale the results on the night were a little disappointing with around 50 % of the works finding buyers.
Top price of the evening went to a tail-ender down amongst the pencil sketches and sepia photographs. Curiously titled River Scene (Lot 274 ) this 21st century / 19th century mannerist painting of a rather anonymous misty South Island mountain landscape by Tim Wilson with a pre-sale estimate of $4,000 - $6,000 sold for a staggering $19,000 after a fierce battle with people bidding via phone and internet. It has been suggested that had they been present in the room with the painting they may have not paid that much.
Surprisingly, the two lots before it, a fine oil from 1891 by Charles Blomfield of Point Elizabeth, (Lot 272 ) a few hundred miles further up the West Coast failed to find a buyer on the night at $800 and was passed in. And a pair of very typical New Zealand landscapes of the chocolate box variety by Henry William Kirkwood (Lot 273 ) sold for $900. People in the know will tell you time and time again that average 19th century landscape paintings that sold well in the last half of the 20th century are now becoming difficult to move, unless they have some redeeming features. But I digress.
At the opposite end of the sale, lots 108 to 112 featured a suite of block prints by Robin White, all of which sold well on the night, with $1,500 being the top price for Florence with Centipede, (Lot 109 ), produced in the mid 1980's not long after Robin and her husband had moved to the Micronesian Island of Tawara in the Republic of Kiribati.
Although highlights were few, surprises were many as illustrated by a fine Peter McIntyre oil on board of a Puhoi Landscape north of Auckland (Lot 197 ) which attracted only one bid of $7,000 and was knocked down subject to vendor approval against a presale estimate of $12,000-$16,000.
Pat Hanly's genitalia inspired tondo, Love Plate T (Lot 200 ) carrying a catalogue estimate of between $10,000-$15,000 failed to attract any bids after an opener of $4,500.
Perhaps the biggest surprise on the night were two oils from the estate of long time former Rotorua based artist Ian McMillan. A late 1950's work depicting the Whakamaru Dam on the Waikato River under construction (Lot 215 ) sold over the top end of the estimate for $4,000 while an oil of his new wife, a school dental nurse inspecting the mouth of a young child (Lot 217 ) sold well for $3,500 against a top estimate of $2,500. Trained at the Elam School of Art along with fellow students like Garth Tapper these are amongst the first works of Ian McMillan's to attract serious attention. Rumour has it there will be more of this artist's solid paintings coming on to the market in the future.
Auckland based sculptor Virginia King had a sand cast bronze work from 1994 on offer, Karekare Spiral (Lot 214 ) which sold well, attracting a winning bid of $4,600 against a top end estimate of $2,500.
Although the results of this sale were somewhat patchy, with an attendance of around 50 people on the night, we are beginning to see much more activity from the out of the room bidders who are now playing a much more significant role in the auction scene than we have been accustomed to in the past.
All prices shown are hammer prices expressed in $NZ.
