Davidson had a lot of "bird feed" – notably 35 watercolours by Neville Henry Cayley (1854–1903) and his son Neville William (1886–1950) – and birds are the most saleable subjects regardless of the artists.
The 35 watercolours fetched $94,200 hammer, $112,850 with buyers premium with the past record for Cayley Senior being exceeded twice and matched once.
The new record of $20,000 ($23,960 incl. BP) was paid for the first lot in the sale, Nesting Pair of Rosellas in a Bush Landscape, 1889 (Lot 1 ) estimated at $2000 to $4000.
The second and also record breaking price was Pair of Crimson Rosellas in a River Landscape, 1889 (Lot 3 ) which made $15,500 ($18,569 incl. BP) against estimates of $1500 to $3000.
These all beat the previous auction record of $9000 hammer or $10,800 with premium for Hawk Attacking Three Ducks at a Bonhams and Goodman sale in October 2007.
Pair Green Budgerigars, 1896 (Lot 21 ) at a hammer $9000 matched this record but with premium cost $10,782.
A differently sourced lot, an equally colourful piece, followed the same tack, with Kookaburra Clerk & Frog Customer, 1894 (Lot 2 ), making $5000 ($5990 IBP).
The benign subjects naturally did better than bloody ones when Pacific Black Duck Shot in Flight (Lot 6 ) sold for only around the high estimate of $200.00 while Kookaburra Feeding Her Young (Lot 7 ) estimated at $700 to $1100, sold for $1900.
The feeding frenzy was dragged out as room, Internet and phone bidders thrust out their beaks out for more.
The success was widespread as individual bidders numbers were rarely repeated and the buyer of the first lot was happy with her outlay, leaving shortly afterwards. Managing director Rob Davidson conceded only that he had never seen her before.
Lagoon & Water Lilies (Lot 35 ) (estimate $200 to 400) by Neville William Cayley (the son) sold for $3250 $3893 IBP.
The Cayleys (father and son) both have a very specific following (ornithologists) and also a diverse one (decorators). As a result they have not suffered like much Australiana material since 1988 and have never been comfortable consigned to the culture bin.
With the release of such a large offering of the Cayleys' work at low estimates this was the biggest of several major escape from the confines of the metaphorical bin in recent times.
They emerged at prices in excess of those paid for the work of other artists of their vintage at the height of the boom in the traditionals in the 1980s even in real terms.
All the lots sold and only one was framed. This was because the majority were consigned from a vendor in North America and taking the frames off cut the cost of freight. The two major works had also been kept unframed in a drawer over the years.
Retired Australian art dealer private dealer Warren Plummer was shocked. The best prices which had been paid for Cayleys when he was a player in the market was $2000, he told the Australian Art Sales Digest. Traditionals have tended to shrink not inflate in value.
The furniture trade which bought them in the 1980s when it was brown and Victorian is now mainly steel and tubular. But there has been a drift back towards natural history including taxidermy and decorating in an eclectic mould.
With dealer collectors with a deeper aesthetic background such as Clive Evatt Jnr buying them in the 1980s (even a little tongue in cheek) the Cayleys clearly also have had some cultural preservative.
The Cayleys have been the subject of two intense published studies which certainly did not harm their market on Saturday.
The publishers are both respected institutions. They are the National Library of Australia which published a book and the Australiana Society in which psychotherapist Mark Cabouret published the results of his extensive research on the artist done over 30 years.
There appears to have been a competitive flourish to get into print first.
"Peripatetic, often impecunious, and with a reputation for hard drinking, Neville Henry was a nevertheless a highly talented artist, whose dreams of publishing a 'big bird book' — a comprehensive publication on Australian birds — never came to fruition," was the NLA's Penny Olsen's take for the NLA on the father.
"His son Neville William was also a keen artist. 'Buoyant' in personality, sometimes outspoken and argumentative, he was a pioneer of the surf lifesaving movement before turning his attention to the painting of birds."
Cabouret advanced medical explanations for Cayley Senior's reputation for drunkenness and sorted out some of the fakers which the popular artists' works attracted.
An exhibition of a private collection of the artists works was held at Sydney's Mosman early this year and there was talk of another more extensive one.
Davidson Auctions appeared to luck out through the substantial consignment of ordinary specimens from the US from a vendor who had spotted the company's past prowess with the artists works on the Internet.
Advance notice on the company's website of the company's intention to hold an auction around these works attracted the two top lots walked in by a woman from the North Coast of NSW who had them in a drawer over the years and thought it time to do something with them.
