Saleroom
JANE GREENWOOD
Unlike Cordy's, but in common with most other New Zealand auctioneering firms, Sloane's don't adopt the commendable practice of declaring all the lots that have failed to reach reserve. Buyers, if they are wise in the ways of auctioneers, may guess at whether or not a sale is genuine by a careful study of the auctioneer's facial expression at the fall of the hammer. Did his face register disappointment? Does that indicate he expected a better price, or didn't he sell its Mygsess is that neither the Nerli ($8000) or the Vander Velden ($13,500) were sold at the Dunbar Sloane Sale of August 19 although bidding on the latter seemed genuine up to the knock-down.
If this was the case, then one can only comment that both must have been too highly-reserved; because neither was a good example of the artist's work. The Nerli in particular seemed to have suffered from surface rubbing which had destroyed the effect of modelling in the two figures.
The Van der Velden was typical of the large genre subjects a number of which are in New Zealand collections: but it too suffered from deterioration - the discolouration common to a good many of his oils where the use of bitumen combined with the pigments has produced chemical changes causing areas of darkening.
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FRANCES HODGKINS Middle Hill, Solva oil, 90.2 x 90.2 cm |
The main item of interest in the Dunbar Sloane catalogue of 260 lots was the large oil painting Middle Hill, Solva by Frances Hodgkins, painted in the early1930s. This work too suffered a blemish. The artist had chosen to sign it with such a coarse brush that the enormous red signature quite dominated the whole light foreground. The explanation for this can only be that on completion she left it unsigned. Later perhaps when it was about to be sold (and perhaps at the insistence of a fastidious buyer who would only buy signed works) she took the nearest brush to hand and sloshed on her signature.
Nevertheless this work was still an attractive and important oil by a most distinguished artist, and the $12,000 paid for it by a Wellington collector was probably below its full value.
Overall, as might be expected in a market dominated by investors rather than collectors, the nineteenth century popular painters attracted the most widespread bidding from a crowded auction room. W.G. Baker, in the absence of the best of this school, Charles Blomfield, headed off competition from J.D. Perrett, Tom Peerless, W.H. Raworth, G. Pruden and others to fetch a top price of $4000 for a largish oil of lake Manapouri.
Surprises of the sale were the high prices of $3600 paid for a European portrait by Gottfried Lindauer that might have been expected lucky to clear $1000, and the $4000 paid for a life-size Portrait of a Gentleman (J895) by James Nairn. Considering the fact that only the head was visible at the top of the long canvas and a hand at the bottom, with nothing but gloom in between, it must have been for the painting on the Teverse described in the catalogue as a 'Painting of Tees' (sic) that the price was paid.
This painting created a mild stir by being the subject of a dispute after having first been knocked down for $1900.
A Study of three cherubs, described as being a 'fine example' by Nicolas Poussin, sold for the prince1y sum of $150 - so presumably it wasn't!
In a sale that realised close on $100,000 and must have been a sheer joy to the auctioneers, other prices of interest were: Douglas Badcock, Queenstown, oil, 15.25 x 19.25 inches, $250; W.G. Baker, Washing Day Rotorua, oil, signed and titled, 19.5 x 29.5 inches, $1,600; Tongariro River, oil, signed and titled,. 17.5 x 25.5 inches, $1,200; Manawatu Gorge with Covered Wagon, oil, un- signed, 19 x 28.5 inches, $550; Wanganui River, oil, signed, 17.5 x 25.5 inches, $900; C.D. Barraud, Harbour Scene of Early Coromandel, watercolour, signed and inscribed; 10 x 20 inches, $3,200; Mt. Earnslaw-Head of Lake Wakatipu, watercolour, signed and dated 1883, 8.75 x 13.75 inches, $1,600; T.S. Cousins, South Island High Country River Scene, watercolour, signed and dated 1877, 10x 19.5 inches, $750; Vera Cummings, Maori Chieftains, oil, signed, 7.75 x 5.75, $600, Departed Days, oil, signed, 11.5 x 9.5 inches; $850; A.H. Fullwood, Wellington N.Z. Parliament House, watercolour, signed, titled and dated 1904, $700; Frances Hodgkins, Outside the Wall - Ibiza, watercolour, signed,16.5 x 21.5 inches, $3,400; Portrait of a judge, watercolour, signed, 14 x 10 inches, $3,000; Dutch Farm Scene, watercolour, initialled and dated 1903,10 x 14 inches, $1 ,600; J.C.Hoyte, N.Z. Homestead-Coromandel, watercolour, signed, 17 x 22.75 inches, $2,200; H.W. Kirkwood, South Island Mountain Scene, oil, signed, 19.5 x 29.5 inches $1,500; South Island Lake and Mountain, oil, initialled,6.5 x 12.5 inches, $400; G.P. Nerli, Samoan Scene, oil, signed, 20x 9.5 inches, $1,000; T. Peerless, South lsland Lake Scene, watercolour; signed, 14 x18 inches, $1,600; J.D. Perrett, Milford Sound, oil, signed, 14 x 24 inches, $1,300; Milford Sound, oil, signed, 24 x 40 inches; $800; L.W.Wilson, Mt. Sefton from Glentaner Camp, watercolour, signed, titled and dated 1895,. 13.25 x 20.25 inches, $2,550; J.H. Young, Wellington Harbour 1889, oil, signed and dated; 14.5 x 23 inches, $2,100.
If bouyancy fairly describes the tone of the Sloane auction, that of McKearney's art sale at Hastings a fortnight later (September' 3), was by contrast rather flat, as reflected in the prices realised.
At McKearney's sale the top price was paid by an Auckland art dealer for a small but interesting oil on panel of a Maori tattooing ceremony by Louis John Steele (lot 6). Measuring only 7 x 10.25 inches, it fetched $3,500. (It was a miniature version, with a few omissions, of a much larger painting shown in an Auckland gallery earlier this year priced at $10,000). Runner up to the Steele was a John Gibb (lot 4) described in the catalogue as a 'Major Historical Painting'. If it was, there seemed little interest on the part of the institutions: but private buyers liked it and the keenest bidding of the sale shot it up to $3,000 - surely a record for this artist! Its full entry read: Heathcote River from the Ferrymead Steam Wharf, Christchurch 1886.
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| JOHN GIBB Heathcote River from the Ferrymead Steam Wharf, Christchurch 1886, 40.5x x 61 cm |
W.G. Baker and Tom Peerless received the expected support from the art trade and prices, although lower than some realised this year, were about right under the conditions. The two Bakers were: Lake Te Anau (lot 1), oil, 24 x 36 inches, $1;500; and Near Lake Wakatipu (lot 14); oil, 24 x 36 inches, $1,600. The two works by Peerless realised $1,500 and $1,250 (lots 10 and 1.1). Other prices of interest were: J.M. Nairn, The Tararuas across Silverstream from the Whakatiki Stream, oil, signed, 12 x 18 inches, $1,650; G.P. Nerli, Otago Harbour N.Z., oil, signed,9.25 x 12.25 inches, $2,000; and L.W. Wilson, Mount Rolleston, Hokitika Road, signed, inscribed and dated 1886, 11.5 x 17 inches, $1,150.
Originally published in Art New Zealand 2 October/November 1976