Auction Results: Photographs, November 2, 2010 @Bonhams

Bonhams had a generally uneventful outcome at its Photographs sale in New York earlier this week. The auction had a Buy-In rate over 45% and Total Sale Proceeds that missed the low estimate by a decent margin. With few in the way of positive surprises, there just wasn't much to write home about.

The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
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Total Lots: 110
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $506500
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $748500
Total Lots Sold: 60
Total Lots Bought In: 50
Buy In %: 45.45%
Total Sale Proceeds: $423767

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

Low Total Lots: 100
Low Sold: 53
Low Bought In: 47
Buy In %: 47.00%
Total Low Estimate: $517500
Total Low Sold: $287127
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Mid Total Lots: 9
Mid Sold: 7
Mid Bought In: 2
Buy In %: 22.22%
Total Mid Estimate: $171000
Total Mid Sold: $136640
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High Total Lots: 1
High Sold: 0
High Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 100.00%
Total High Estimate: $60000
Total High Sold: NA
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The top lot by High estimate was lot 38, Ansel Adams, Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras, 1927, at $40000-60000; it did not sell. The top outcome of the sale was lot 33, Ansel Adams, Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, California, 1944/1970s, at $39650.

70.00% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were a total of 2 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 13, Edward Curtis, The Vanishing Race, Navajo, 1904, at $15860
Lot 89, Duane Michals, Magritte with Hat, 1965/1989, at $5795 (image at right, top, via Bonhams)

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.
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Bonhams
580 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10022