Auction: Photographs, May 19, 2011 @Bonhams London

Following up on its New York Photographs sale earlier this week, Bonhams has another Photographs auction scheduled for London next week. The sale includes mostly lower end material, with few standouts that really caught my eye. Overall, there are a total of 102 lots on offer, with a Total High Estimate of £340900.

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 81
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £155900

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 21
Total Mid Estimate: £185000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 0
Total High Estimate: NA

The top lot by High estimate is lot 56, Irving Penn, Five Dahomey Girls, Two Standing, 1967/1985, at £15000-20000. (Image at right, bottom, via Bonhams.)

Here is the list of the photographers who are represented by three or more lots in the sale (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Willy Ronis (12)
Horst P. Horst (5)
Edouard Boubat (4)
Mario Giacomelli (4)
Jürgen Schadeberg (4)
Jock Sturges (4)
Brassaï (3)
Robert Doisneau (3)
Erna Lendvai-Dircksen (3)
André Villers (3)

(Lot 77, Mario Testino, Kate Moss in Blue Cafe, 2005, at £1500-2000, image at right, middle, and lot 88, Luigi Ghirri, Mirrors, 1977, at £1000-1500, image at right, top, both via Bonhams.)

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

Photographs
May 19th

Bonhams
101 New Bond Street
London W1S 1SR

Auction Results: Latin America, September 29, 2010 @Phillips

The results for the photographs in the Latin America themed sale at Phillips last week were generally weak, with a Buy-In rate over 55% and Total Sale Proceeds that fell well under Total Low Estimate. Manuel Alvarez Bravo had a particularly tough outing, going 0 for 7.

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

Total Lots: 74

Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $451000

Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $643500

Total Lots Sold: 32

Total Lots Bought In: 42

Buy In %: 56.75%

Total Sale Proceeds: $250750

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

Low Total Lots: 60

Low Sold: 25

Low Bought In: 35

Buy In %: 58.33%

Total Low Estimate: $309500

Total Low Sold: $118875

.

Mid Total Lots: 13

Mid Sold: 7

Mid Bought In: 6

Buy In %: 46.15%

Total Mid Estimate: $284000

Total Mid Sold: $131875

High Total Lots: 1

High Sold: 0

High Bought In: 1

Buy In %: 100.00%

Total High Estimate: $50000

Total High Sold: $0

.

The top photography lot by High estimate was lot 161, Vik Muniz, Don Quixote in His Study, After William Lake Price, 1890 (from Rebus Series), 2004, at $30000-50000; it did not sell. The top photography outcome in the sale was lot 123, Vik Muniz, Self Portrait (from Pictures of Magazines), 2003, at $33750. (Image at right, top, via Phillips.)
.

75.00% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There was only one surprise in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 296, Mario Testino, Disciples I, 2003, at $8125 (image at right, bottom, via Phillips)

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Phillips De Pury & Company

450 West 15th Street

New York, NY 10011