The auctions will be held at venues as far afield as Hobart and Tamworth, NSW, as well as in Sydney and in the group’s own salerooms in Melbourne’s South Yarra.
The busy start to the year emphasises Mossgreen’s lucrative niche of specialising in single-owner collections rather than the multi-vendor sales that are bread and butter to most auctioneers, big or small.
For the owners, such sales can mean better returns than those provided by anonymous auction consignments. Bidders tend to be attracted by a known provenance, especially an association with a prominent local figure or a respected family, as well as by the varied, sometimes quirky nature of one-person collections which offer fascinating insights into their owners’ tastes and habits. One-owner collections can often be displayed to advantage in their home context. And of course the possibility of having a catalogue all to yourself can appeal to the vanity of collectors or their families, as well as providing a permanent record. And such sales can attract buyers who would not normally attend art auctions.
Of course not every vendor wants or needs the one-man-show treatment - especially where privacy is a concern or where a collection comprises just a few modest pieces.
Sumner is an old hand in the decorative art and fine art auction business, having worked for most of the main entities at one stage or another – even running Sotheby’s prestigious Olympia, London, branch before going out on his own. But it seems it’s not just the old connections – nor the auction standbys of death and divorce - that have brought fresh business flooding to his door. He puts it down to a renewal of confidence among sellers. Having come through what he describes as one of the toughest trading periods since the early 1990s - a couple of years when many vendors shied away from putting their collections under the hammer - he believes sellers have been re-energised by the evidence of several very successful single-owner sales last year.
Among those newly committed to the market are the vendors of the Olga Nettlefold estate in Tasmania, who held off for two years before agreeing to let Mossgreen put under the hammer the huge Nettlefold collection of art and antiques next month.
“To sell an antique or art collection is a big decision. You only get one go at it,” Sumner says. “November was so successful for single owners it gave people a real boost in confidence.” All four of his single owner collections offered in Melbourne late in 2010 beat their pre-sale estimates, he says, with Asian art being particularly well received. This was in sharp contrast to the somewhat lacklustre response to an unfortunately-timed series of sales held at Sydney’s Randwick Racecourse in August, when uncertainty following the election was at a peak.
Kicking off the series of individual sales is an eclectic offering from Melbourne’s Robert Doble, an artist and collector of myriad wares from contemporary art and sculpture to tribal and Asian art as well as curiosities galore. The collection, including a number of Doble’s own works, will be offered in Melbourne on February 21. Highlighting the variety are the first two lots, “Magpie and Sputnik” by Sam Leach, whose controversial Wynne prize winning landscape closely echoed a work by Dutch 1600s master Adam Pynacker, estimated at $4000 to $6000, followed by a taxidermised white barn owl expected to fetch $400 to $600. Doble was reportedly unfazed by the withdrawal from the sale of “Mother and Child”, a bronze attributed to Henry Moore, after doubts were raised about its authenticity.
Also to be sold in Melbourne is a Victorian corporate collection that goes under the hammer on March 21, offering works by John Coburn and Arthur Boyd as well as more contemporary figures like Imants Tillers and Jan Senbergs.
The Nettlefold collection, which Sumner brands as Hobart’s biggest ever sale, will go on display at an “open house” in the imposing family home on extensive acreage in Hobart’s exclusive Sandy Bay, before being offered at the Henry Jones Hotel on March 27. The Nettlefolds made their money through a prosperous Holden dealership, which allowed Olga to indulge her passions for travelling and buying up Australian and British paintings, antiques, ceramics and furniture. A highlight is a number of early works by Ray Crooke.
A little further down the track is the sale of the collection of Sydney-based art buff Gordon Elliott, which is scheduled for April 4, including an exceptional Robert Dickerson, several James Gleesons, and works by Michael Stavros and Noel McKenna.
A private single-owner Sydney collection follows on April 17 at the gracious Randwick home of a semi-retired professional couple. The contents of the home include fine English furniture and contemporary furnishings and art.
Another out-of-town offering is the collection of R F Ryan, a well known Tamworth identity and charity benefactor, whose collection includes Daum and Nancy glass, antiques, porcelain and militaria. It will be offered at Tamworth Town Hall on May 9. That will be followed on May 23 by the estate of the late Miriam Rich, whose Toorak apartment offered a rich array of modern Australian art and high quality ceramics, glass and furniture.
Mossgreen has lined up seven one-owner auctions for the first half of the year, including The Nettlefold Collection, which will go on display at an “open house” in the imposing family home on extensive acreage in Hobart’s exclusive Sandy Bay.
