The passing of the latter was a big shock, for while he appeared to have extraordinary stamina, he remained in the rostrum for hours on end, taking incredibly long sales without straying.
Henry Badgery, went to Cranbrook and John Williams went to Fort Street but they went to the same school as far as auctioneering was concerned. Both Henry and John have become identified with the auctioneering that prevailed when the industry served the pressing needs of real people, often characters in themselves, when goods were sold principally to raise funds due to death, debt and divorce.
This identity may be partly because both addressed the bottom end of the market where there was no need for the increasing charade that auctioneers feel obliged to play today, Williams with his weekend sales at the very end of each month and Badgery through the attractive cash flow business of Lawsons' Friday sales which other auction houses would have loved to have acquired.
Henry Badgery joined the Lawson business in 1973 and bought a joint equity in it with Peter Groth from the Lawson family in 1982. In 1987 he bought out Groth’s interest, equivalent to 41.5 per cent. The Lawson family's 17 per cent of the equity followed. In 2001 Deutscher-Menzies Auctions later to become Menzies Art Brands announced the purchase of the company for an undisclosed cash sum and at a later date it was purchased by Mr Martin Farrah.
Lawson's Friday sales were big cash cows and competition at the bottom end of the market appears not to have been as ferocious as at the top.
Badgery sustained on this foundation a diversified auction business boosting consignments through the family's rural past. While this was very much a family company it also provided opportunities for many talented individuals to build their careers, and further contribute to the industry and those which it serviced.
By extraordinary coincidence the businesses of which they were proprietors effectively recently merged into Theodore Bruce's in which Mr Badgery's son James is managing director and his daughter Mrs Sally Hardy the art specialist and in which the Badgery family have an equity. Old clients of both will drift in that direction as was clearly conceived when the Badgery's bought the Williams business last year and John's ill health was becoming as notable as Henry's.
Both John and Henry had an enormous capacity to make their clients feel instantly at ease. John was more than an arch schmoozer. He conveyed genuine interest in people, rare in the art and antique world. Henry was of a different mould, boisterous but welcoming, John in particular remembered people's names and may have been worried he would not be able to do this much longer when he anticipated retirement and sold out.
Williams, a good piano player who had also been a chorister, clearly appreciated the best things in life, such as fine wines and the opera, and appeared to live it to its full. Henry loved lunching clients at the Australian Pioneers Club in Sydney of which he was a big patron.
The overflowing crowd at the memorial service for Williams at the not insubstantial sandstone Michael's Anglican church in Vaucluse on July 7 was testimony to the mark Williams left on people's lives. (Henry is to have a private family service at a date to be announced with a celebration at a later date.) Williams' crowd was composed of wide spread of professionals and business people as well as the trade. It was possibly the biggest gathering of the latter in recent times.
He gathered this following in over 45 years in the antiques and arts trade, first as an auction specialist, then as an antique dealer and finally as an auctioneer. Born in Stanmore he worked for Hunts menswear selling expensive ties in the 1970s prior to securing a job as a specialist at F R Strange's auction rooms in George Street North. Big spender, art collector and fellow bon vivant Harold Schenberg would come in and buy a dozen at a time when he flew in from Perth.
An amateur interest in decorative arts was translated into a job there when he had seemingly failed an interview for the appointment. On leaving the interview he spotted a spread of antique silver which had been set aside for evaluation by the job applicants. He could not resist the urge to gush forth on its age and other qualities and was appointed, much to his surprise.
Williams loved playing pranks but only as part of his eagerness to make people feel good. His daughter Kate told the service that occasionally she was left in a basket as a child outside a door on which Williams knocked and after which he momentarily disappeared. The resident did not know what to do. He loved to surprise clients with exceptional results. He would occasionally place very low estimates on objects coming up for sale which he must have known would have been sleepers.
But you cannot please all the people all the time, and this sometimes backfired when potential buyers found that the price soared. Low estimates also encouraged buyers by showing a work can be bought. They also perked up sales which have since become bland due to buyers' almost slavish following of estimates admittedly now more accurate than they once were in the industry.
Among many sleepers, two porcelain serving dishes, estimated at $800 to $1200, sold for $19,125; a Chinese vase estimated to sell for between $280 and $400 made $29,050 and a box of New Guinea artefacts estimated to fetch $60 to $90 sold for $20,250.
The estimates may also have given the impression that he was not very knowledgeable, and he was not averse to asking dealers who came to the viewings for an off-the-cuff notion of a lot's value. But the impression he had made on Strange's was heavily reinforced by an exercise the Australian Financial Review undertook to test the honesty and knowledge of the trade in 1980 when he was at an old industrial building in Double Bay known as the Poor House.
By contast in this incident the AFR's reporter in disguise went around antique shops with a bag of highly desirable objects of different materials and vintages and explained that an elderly aunt had died and unexpectedly left them to her. She wanted an opinion and was considering selling them. Of the half dozen dealers approached, Williams scored by far the highest, also offering prices which the AFR's anonymous but trusted expert had suggested.
He resisted the urge to tell vendors their offerings were junk. Rather he would say that they were wonderful and worth $50 to $100 for the lot! By contrast when the AFR's reporter recoiled from the paltry price suggested by one dealer the dealer came back with "What do you think you have, the crown jewels!"
In addition to a great eye, he also had a remarkable feel for real estate, having traded in and sold on to client Paul Keating, the neo Gothic 'St Kevin's' in Queen Street Woollahra after moving into the auction business and buying desirable commercial property in Alexandria, and settling in the former Ferry Master's house at the end of Glebe Point Road.
Roger McIlroy was one of the earliest to be at Lawson's in its early days under new ownership to advance to a stellar career as a director of Christie's Australia. Georgina Gold (nee Pemberton) is now running the day sales of Sotheby's contemporary art sales in London, Kathie Robb/Sutherland became an art consultant with many substantial clients. Edward Wilkinson went on to run Sotheby's South East Asian art department in New York before that operation was rationalised by a highly corporate board of directors who just may not have appreciated the occasional bits of humour he sneaked into his auctions.
That humour may have been inherited from his years at Lawson's. Henry was known for its cheekiness and occasional lack of political correctness just as Williams' could also be quite wicked.
Wilkinson went on to join a textile gallery on La Cienega Boulevard's antique row and various specialist consultancies. From there, he told the Australian Art Sales Digest that Henry was always very supportive and allowed him to jump to opportunities in London and New York with greatest encouragement. He was such a character and jovial force around the Cumberland Street sale rooms.
Wilkinson is now director of Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art for Bonhams. The tribal art sales he ran for Lawson's were exciting occasions for a tribe of dedicated specialist collectors and dealers and run as part of a holistic approach by Badgery.
Lawson's liked to offer a full range of services for vendors in all specialities rather than just cherry- pick. Specialist knowledge in Australia was a challenge and profits of some departments were not always commensurate with the work put into them, but as a whole a company which had been looking at heavy operating losses when it was taken over was brought back to viability.
Specialists praised the backing Henry sought to give to their enterprise. "Sure Henry and I had our ups and down", said Yves Hernot who was the director if the art department for some years. Hernot, who had been an art teacher at Cranbrook agreed Henry was old fashioned but he had to keep his weather eye on all departments at Lawsons. "I was the Director Paintings which was the flagship and brought in the most revenue. Henry would carefully watch the bottom line to make sure we stayed in profit."
McIlroy, who began there as a storeman, said he thoroughly enjoyed watching Badgery, who came from the stock and station industry, jettison some of his country brogue and become a bit of a city slicker.
Williams enjoyed the company of two successive modern families both of whom were fully represented at the service. The loving families included his partner the younger John Scott who also assisted in the business. Henry Badgery had a very close extended family.
