Monday, October 26, 2009

Auction Results: Photographs & Photographic Literature, October 22, 2009 @Swann

The results of the Swann various owner sale hovered just below the new definition of "Normal" we outlined in our last auction results post. The Buy-In rate was just under 27% (the best we've seen at Swann in a couple of years) and the Total Sale Proceeds just missed the Total Low Estimate. Certainly a respectable outing, given the lower end focus of the material on offer and the meaningful percentage of lots that sold for below their estimate range. The "surprises" below certainly highlight the difference between the typical Swann material and that of the other houses.

The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total Lots: 327
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $1388300
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $2012650
Total Lots Sold: 239
Total Lots Bought In: 88
Buy In %: 26.91%
Total Sale Proceeds: $1260240

Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 297
Low Sold: 222
Low Bought In: 75
Buy In %: 25.25%
Total Low Estimate: $1352650
Total Low Sold: $922440

Mid Total Lots: 30
Mid Sold: 17
Mid Bought In: 13
Buy In %: 43.33%
Total Mid Estimate: $660000
Total Mid Sold: $337800

High Total Lots: 0
High Sold: 0
High Bought In: 0
Buy In %: NA
Total High Estimate: $0
Total High Sold: NA

Only 63.30% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above their estimate. There were a total of nine surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 4 William Henry Fox Talbot, Portrait of Talbot's daughter Ela, 1840s, at $9000
Lot 31 (California Crime), Mug shot album, 1885-1892, at $12000
Lot 64 Wilson Bentley, 7 snowcrystals, 1903-1910, at $18000
Lot 125 (Murder and Mayhem), Mysteries of Life album, 1917-1942, at $11400
Lot 128 (Crime), Al Capone, 1929, at $2040
Lot 145 Edward Weston/Cole Weston, Nude, 1936/1970s, at $6000
Lot 215 (Bruce of LA, Lon of NY), Male nudes, 1950s, at $3360
Lot 243 Bob Seidemann, Janis Joplin (Standing Nude), 1967/1980s, at $2880
Lot 255 Eddie Adams, Saigon, 1968/1980s, at $43200

The top lot by High estimate was lot 28 Eadward Muybridge, 125 plates from Animal Locomotion, 1887, at $35000-45000; it was also the top outcome in the sale at $81000.

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Swann Galleries
104 East 25th Street
New York, NY 10010

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