Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Auction Results: Photographic Literature & Fine Photographs, December 8, 2009 @Swann

For those of you who are consistently bored by reports on the auction market for photography, the good news is that this is the last of the auction results posts left over from December; all that remains is the massive, 2009 auction wrap up coming later this week (which will have nuggets of interest for collectors and non-collectors alike), and then we'll be silent on auctions for a few weeks until the catalogues begin to show up again.

The recent Swann sale was really a combination sale of photographic books and photographs. Results-wise, the photo books performed better, with a respectable buy-in rate (just under 25%) and total sale proceeds on the book lots nearly matching their total low estimate. The photographs were a bit weaker, with a higher buy-in rate (over 38%) and total sale proceeds on the photographs that missed the total low estimate by a decent gap. In both sales, the percentage of lots that sold below their estimate range was unexpectedly high; of course it is likely better to sell for something rather than not sell at all, but to have so many lots sell under the range is certainly a bit discouraging.

The summary statistics across the two portions of the sale are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total of Both

Total Lots: 423
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $1276750
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $1810850
Total Lots Sold: 279
Total Lots Bought In: 134
Buy In %: 31.68%
Total Sale Proceeds: $1128194

Photographic Literature Only

Total Lots: 210
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $198800
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $290700
Total Lots Sold: 148
Total Lots Bought In: 52
Buy In %: 24.76%
Total Sale Proceeds: $194634

Fine Photographs Only

Total Lots: 213
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $1077950
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $1520150
Total Lots Sold: 131
Total Lots Bought In: 82
Buy In %: 38.50%
Total Sale Proceeds: $933560

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

Photographic Literature Only

Low Total Lots: 210
Low Sold: 148
Low Bought In: 52
Buy In %: 24.76%
Total Low Estimate: $290700
Total Low Sold: $194634

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

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

The top lot by High estimate in the book section was lot 2 Francis Frith, Egypt Nubia and Ethiopia, Illustrated with One Hundred Stereoscopic Photographs, 1862, at $7000-10000; it was also the top outcome in the book section of the sale at $10200.

Only 63.51% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range in this portion of the sale. There were a total of four surprises in this section (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 4, Henry Peach Robinson, Pictorial Effect in Photography, 1869, at $840
Lot 30, Erich Mendelsohn, Russland Europa Amerika, 1929, at $1680
Lot 36, Andre Kertesz, Day of Paris, 1945, at $2040
Lot 72, Andre Kertesz, Select group of 9 titles, various dates, at $1440

Fine Photographs Only

Low Total Lots: 202
Low Sold: 124
Low Bought In: 78
Buy In %: 38.61%
Total Low Estimate: $835150
Total Low Sold: $449960

Mid Total Lots: 9
Mid Sold: 6
Mid Bought In: 3
Buy In %: 33.33%
Total Mid Estimate: $175000
Total Mid Sold: $123600

High Total Lots: 2
High Sold: 1
High Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 50.00%
Total High Estimate: $510000
Total High Sold: $360000

The top lot by High estimate in the photographs section was lot 350 Ansel Adams, Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941/1948, at $350000-450000; it was also the top outcome in this section of the sale at $360000.

Only 57.25% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were a total of six surprises in this section (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 221, (Medical), Portrait of Susan Grisham, 1865, at $780
Lot 251, Lewis Hine, Oyster Shuckers, Port Royal, South Carolina, 1908, at $9600
Lot 301, Edward Weston/Cole Weston, Shell, 1931/1970s, at $15600
Lot 308, Walker Evans, Select group of 36 photographs, 1929-1971/1971-1979, at $19200
Lot 380, (John F. Kennedy), Group of 17 photographs, 1963, $2640
Lot 401, Carlo Mollino, #109, Female Figure in Studio, 1971, at $3120

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

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

1 comment:

Lorraine Anne Davis said...

Who's bored? - Never bored by market results! Thanks fo ryour continued reporting!