Auction Results: Photographie and Selection from an American Collection, December 8, 2010 @Van Ham

With an overall Buy-In rate over 60%, the results from the two recent photography sales at Van Ham in Cologne were, not surprisingly, far below the pre-sale estimates. 4 out of 5 of the top lots failed to find buyers, and there just weren't enough positive surprises to make up for all the passed lots. (Van Ham does not provide an estimate range in many cases, just a single estimate number, so this figure is used as the High estimate in our calculations).

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

Total Lots: 443
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: 1120800€
Total Lots Sold: 173
Total Lots Bought In: 270
Buy In %: 60.95%
Total Sale Proceeds: 519952€

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

Low Total Lots: 424
Low Sold: 163
Low Bought In: 261
Buy In %: 61.56%
Total Low Estimate: 804800€
Total Low Sold: 343427€

Mid Total Lots: 17
Mid Sold: 9
Mid Bought In: 8
Buy In %: 47.06%
Total Mid Estimate: 231000€
Total Mid Sold: 128225€

High Total Lots: 2
High Sold: 1
High Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 50.00%
Total High Estimate: 85000€
Total High Sold: 48300€

The top lot by High estimate was lot 1046A, Andreas Gursky, Cairo (General View), 1992, at 35000-45000€; it did not sell. The top outcome of the sale was lot 1415, Edward Steichen, An Apple, a Boulder, a Mountain, 1921, at 48300€.

76.30% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate. There were a total of 11 surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 1080, Siegfried Lauterwasser, Wahltag/Appenzell bei Schneefall, 1951, at 3795€
Lot 1091, Floris Neusüss, Munchen 64 (Nudogram), 1964, at 25300€ (image at right, top, via Van Ham)
Lot 1116, Tata Ronkholz, Trinkhalle Koln-Nippes, Merheimer Str. 294, 1983, at 2990€ (image at right, middle, via Van Ham)
Lot 1122, August Sander, Familienportrait, 1921, at 3220€
Lot 1127, August Sander, Herbstwald, 1938, at 4370€
Lot 1128, August Sander, Der Stadtwald zu Koln verschneit, 1936, at 5290€
Lot 1177, Boris Becker, Salzau im Mai (4 prints), 1993, at 1920€ (image at right, bottom, via Van Ham)
Lot 1181, Sibylle Bergemann, Loret Becker, 1992, at 1440€
Lot 1199, Rosemarie Clausen, Totenmasken grosser Deutscher, n.d., at 840€
Lot 1258, Karl Hugo Schmolz, Open (Riphahn), 1957, at 1680€
Lot 1271, Unbekannt, Gebruder Wright (erster Flug!), 1903, at 1080€
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Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Van Ham Kunstauktionen
Schönhauser Straße 10 - 16
D - 50968 Köln

Auction: Photographie, December 5, 2008 @Van Ham

Van Ham's upcoming photography sale has a whopping 422 lots on offer (including 30 lots of photo books), so there is plenty of variety and volume to sift through in Cologne, nearly all of it on the Low end. The total high estimate for the sale is 738440 Euros.

Here's the overall price breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate below 7500 Euros): 409
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): 542440 Euros

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between 7500 and 35000 Euros): 12

Total Mid Estimate: 146000 Euros

Total High Lots (high estimate above 35000 Euros): 1

Total High Estimate: 50000 Euros

There aren't many superior lots in this sale (in our view), but quite a few lesser known works of interest can be found. For our collection, here are a few that are intriguing:

• Lot 1043 Pierre Auradon, Tulips, 1930: We already have one Pierre Auradon in our collection (here), but this is another high quality floral that would fit well in our floral genre. (image at right, top)


• Lot 1295 Tata Ronkholz, Fischerplatz 2, 1978: Ronkholz was a Becher student, and did a whole series of Trinkhalle images that document urban development in Dusseldorf. I believe that Van Ham represents the Ronkholz estate. These images would fit well with American topographic photography from the 1970s. (image at right, middle)


• Lot 1347 Arthur Siegel, Golden Gate Bridge, 1942: Siegel was at the ID in Chicago with Callahan and Siskind. This early bridge image would match a few others in our collection. (image at right, bottom)

As with many of the other German houses, we have had good success with Van Ham's services, including condition reports, bidding, and packing/shipping to the US.

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Photographie

December 5th

Van Ham Kunstauktionen

Schonhauser Strasse 10-16

50968 Koln