Auction Results Fall 2008: Bloomsbury London, Rago, and Phillips London

We've got three additional photography sales to cover from last week: Bloomsbury London, Rago, and Phillips London. All results include the buyer’s premium.

Bloomsbury London

Total Lots: 302
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: 434100 Pounds
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: 632300 Pounds

Total Lots Sold: 126
Total Lots Bought In: 176
Buy In %: 58.28%
Total Sale Proceeds: 181344 Pounds

Like the drubbing at Sotheby's London earlier in the week, this sale was pretty disastrous all over. Even the things that did sell often sold well below their Low estimates. With only about 30000 Pounds of premium, I imagine this sale was awfully close to failing to break even against the auction house's costs plus overhead.

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

Low Total Lots: 287
Low Sold: 121
Low Bought In: 166
Buy In %: 57.84%
Total Low Estimate: 506300 Pounds
Total Low Sold: 128970 Pounds

Mid Total Lots: 15
Mid Sold: 5
Mid Bought In: 10
Buy In %: 66.67%
Total Mid Estimate: 126000 Pounds
Total Mid Sold: 22150 Pounds

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

I think the lesson here is (again) about needing to source high quality material. There just weren't enough great pictures in this sale to draw out the buyers.

Rago

Total Lots: 301
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $963900
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $1453600

Total Lots Sold: 203
Total Lots Bought In: 98
Buy In %: 32.56%
Total Sale Proceeds: $505290

As a reminder, this was the Dan Berley sale, with many solid images and portfolios on offer at generally low estimates, so it's a little surprising that this sale performed only passingly well, even in these tough economic times.

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

Low Total Lots: 277
Low Sold: 205
Low Bought In: 72
Buy In %: 25.99%
Total Low Estimate: $857600
Total Low Sold: $377490

Mid Total Lots: 22
Mid Sold: 8
Mid Bought In: 14
Buy In %: 63.64%
Total Mid Estimate: $476000
Total Mid Sold: $127800

High Total Lots: 2
High Sold: 0
High Bought In: 2
Buy In %: 100.00%
Total High Estimate: $120000
Total High Sold: $0

The Mid and High ranges performed quite poorly here, and many Low lots sold for under their Low estimates, which together clearly impacted the total proceeds. My guess is that the overall buyer turnout was weak, ultimately driving down prices.

Phillips London

Total Lots: 188
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: 1105500 Pounds
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: 1623500 Pounds

Total Lots Sold: 127
Total Lots Bought In: 61
Buy In %: 32.45%
Total Sale Proceeds: 1003951 Pounds

The sale was a grab bag of different styles and periods, but the targeting seems to have produced a solid outcome.

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

Low Total Lots: 98
Low Sold: 65
Low Bought In: 33
Buy In %: 33.67%
Total Low Estimate: 296500 Pounds
Total Low Sold: 160876 Pounds

Mid Total Lots: 81
Mid Sold: 54
Mid Bought In: 27
Buy In %: 29.63%
Total Mid Estimate: 807000 Pounds
Total Mid Sold: 608125 Pounds

High Total Lots: 9
High Sold: 5
High Bought In: 4
Buy In %: 44.44%
Total High Estimate: 520000 Pounds
Total High Sold: 234950 Pounds

The Mid range really carried this sale. There were actually quite a number of lots that sold above their High estimates, which has been virtually unheard of this auction season. Credit here goes to the Phillips team for digging out some unexpected material for which stingy buyers were willing to open their wallets.

NOTE: This will be the last post this week, given the Thanksgiving holiday. We'll be back on Monday, December 1st, with a review of Cindy Sherman's new exhibit at Metro Pictures.

Auction: Photographs, Featuring Works from the Estate of Dan Berley, November 21, 2008 @Rago

It's easy to get lulled into thinking that the only photography auctions worth following are those of the top two (or four, or however many) houses that are household names. The fact is, if you are as crazy as we are, there are lots of sales at smaller auction houses all over the world that have interesting photography up for sale (often at lower prices) that are worth checking out.

A terrific example of this is the upcoming sale at Rago (just outside Trenton, NJ). Dan Berley was a long time collector of photography (beginning in the 1960s) who partnered with gallery owner Lee Witkin to publish a number of photography portfolios in the days when photography galleries were few and far between. His collection spans all types and styles of photography, and this sale offers a wide range of excellent prints, particularly the portfolios, which are available from many artists (there are also quite a few complete Camera Work issues). There are a total of 301 lots up for sale, with a total high estimate of $1453600.

Here's the breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate below $10000): 277
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $857600

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 22

Total Mid Estimate: $476000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 2
Total High Estimate: $120000

Here are some of the lots we find of interest:

• 1032 Dr. Dain Tasker, Fuschia - Upright Type, 1930s
• 1042 Karl Struss, Cables, Singer Building, 1912
• 1080 Imogen Cunningham, Two Callas, 1929/1970
• 1084 Imogen Cunningham, Triangles, 1928/Later
• 1137 Edward Steichen, The George Washington Bridge, 1931 (image at right, top)
• 1146 Ralston Crawford, Interior View of Station, Newark, 1942 (image at right, bottom)
• 1254 Aaron Siskind, Chicago, 1952

There is some high quality work in this sale, well worth taking a look, even if you've never bought from Rago.

Photographs, Featuring Works from the Estate of Dan Berley

November 21st

Rago Arts and Auction Center

333 North Main Street

Lambertville, NJ 08530