Here Be Old Things

high/low auction prices: Christie's James Brown auction

The New York Times called this auction "more tag sale than tribute." Heirs tried to block the auction, complaining that although they were given a chance to sort through Brown's possessions, Christie's did not honor their list. Perhaps the auction house was motivated by the commissions they foresaw on his medical bracelet, which went for $32,500, or the $4,800 hair rollers.

Christie's sale 2116 The James Brown Collection

• hi $47,500: lot 327 black cape
• lo $63: lot 299 Happy Birthday banner

high/low auction prices: Christie's Impressionist Sale

A Monet sold for over 4 million, but many lots failed to reach their reserve; Europeans, including many Russians, spirited prizes away, continuing to enjoy the cheap candy store New York City has become recently.

Christie's Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale

• hi $41,481,000: lot 21 Claude Monet, Le pont du chemin de fer à Argenteuil
• lo $481,000: lot 57 Edouard Vuillard, Géraniums et boules-de-neige

prices include buyer's premium

high/low auction prices: New York City photography auctions

Christie's Photographs From The Collection Of Gert Elfering

• hi: $241,000 lot 120 Helmut Newton, Sie Kommen–naked and dressed
• lo: $1,875 lot 97 Hans Feurer, Versace

Christie's Photographs By Diane Arbus From The Collection Of Bruce And Nancy Berman

• hi: $115,000 lot 225 Diane Arbus, child selling plastic orchids at night, N.Y.C.
• lo: $6,875 lot 240 Diane Arubs, a lobby in a building, N.Y.C.

Christie's Photographs

• hi: $529,000 lot 454 Irving Pen, Cuzco Children
• lo: $1,875 lot 491 Edward Sheriff Curtis, a hilltop camp, Jicarilla

Christie's Photographs By Ansel Adams From A California Collection (details above)

• hi: $481,000 lot 1058 Ansel Adams, Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite Valley
• lo: $4,750 lot 1098 Ansel Adams, Ranch Near Petaluma

Sotheby's: The Quillan Collection of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Photographs

• hi: $1,609,000 lot 19 Edward Weston, Nude
• lo: $10,000 lot 2 Aaron Siskind, Gloucester (Glove)   Sotheby's Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister and Other Photographs
  

• hi: $325,000 lot 81 Edward Weston, Nude on sand, Oceano
• lo: $3,750 lot 118 Brett Weston, Lily leaves and oxalia, Santa Monica   Sotheby's Photographs

Sotheby's Photographs

• hi: $553,000 lot 264 Diane Arbus, A family on the lawn one sunday in Westchester, N.Y.
• lo: $4,375 three lots, including Walker Evans, Weegee, and lot 266 Diane Arbus, The female impersonators, Apollo theater, N.Y.C.

Prices include buyer's premium

high/low auction prices: Asian Art Week 2008

There were fifteen auctions in town for Asian Art Week in New York City. Here are results from four.

Bonhams Fine Japanese Works of Art

• hi: $35,000 lot 5241 a fine patinated bronze jardiniere with gold accents By Miyao (the workshop of Miyao Eisuke of Yokohama), Meiji Period
• lo: $300 lot 5235 two pairs of menuki Edo Period, 17th/18th Century

Christie's Japanese And Korean Art

• hi: $825,000 lot 451 Kim Whanki Untitled oil on canvas, white porcelain jar and plum tree
• lo: $313 lot 99 Tsunetomi Kitano "Meido no hikyaku no Umekawa"
• details from lots pictured above

I.M. Chait Important Chinese Ceramics & Asian Works of Art

• hi: $225,000 lot 216 Xuande porcelain water sprinkler
• lo: $400 lots 7 & 13, antique wood netsuke

Sotheby's Indian Art

• hi: $409,000 lot 13 Maqbul Fida Husain, Untitled oil on canvas
• lo: $5,000 lot 44 Sakti Burman, Untitled ink and watercolor

Bonhams', Christie's, and Sotheby's prices include buyer's premium; I.M. Chait's do not.

high/low auction prices: February 12th dog sales

Doyle: Dogs in Art

• hi: $193,000 lot 2078A Cassius Marcellus Coolidge "Only a Pair of Deuces"
• lo: $75 lot 2079 Linda Hackett "Pekingese - a Study"

The Pekingese study was actually the second lowest-priced lot (the very lowest lot was #2033, two books on dogs, for $63.) but I wanted to show it because every time I look at these pieces next to each other I think ... why? WHY?

Bonhams: The Dog Sale

• hi: $66,000 lot 225 John Emms "Foxhounds and a hunt terrier on a bench"
• lo: $108 lot No: 50 "Dogs Rough and Smooth" illustrated by Lucy Dawson

These pictures are details of the originals. Prices are inclusive of buyer's premium and, possibly, taxes.

 

high/low auction prices: Americana week sales

Christie's Important American Furniture, Folk Art, Prints And Decoys, January 17

• hi: $10,625 lot 220: Robert Havell (Jr.) engraving, the bird of Washington or great American sea eagle
• lo: $625 lot 225: same artist, engraving of Republican cliff swallow; also lot 247, same artist, engraving of American water ouzel

Christie's Property From The Collection OF George & Lesley Schoedinger January 18 (details pictured above)

• hi: $29,800 lot 546: Ammi Phillips, portrait of Mr. Dilbee of Pine Plains (oil)
• lo: $5,250 lot 762: American School, portrait of a cat with a ball of yarn (oil)

Christie's Important American Furniture, Folk Art, Prints And Decoys January 18

• hi: $157,000 lot 549: attributed to John Sherburne Blunt, Willard Family portrait (oil)
• lo: $500 lot 708: Richard E(dwin) Brooks, a portrait medallion of Edgar Junior

Sotheby's Property from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. George Fenimore Johnson, January 18

• hi: $31,000 lot 18: American School, Boston and the harbor from Donald McKay's shipyard (oil)
• lo: $1,250 lot 85: Curt Walters, rock study of Inner Gorge, Grand Canyon (oil)

Sotheby's Important Americana, January 18

• hi: $1,833,000 lot 168: the McMichael-Tilghman Family "Acme of Perfection" Chippendale carved and figured mahogany tea table
• lo: $625 lot 192: a Chippendale carved mahogany side chair circa 1785

All prices include buyer's premium.

high/low auction prices: December Tiffany sales

• Christie's, Important Works Of Art By Tiffany Studios, December 18, 2007
  • hi: $1,665,000 favrile glass and wrought-iron fire screen
  • lo: $1,875 glazed pottery vase

• Sotheby's Important Tiffany Lamps: The John M. Fowler Collection, December 14, 2007  (lamps pictured above)
  • hi: $881,000 wisteria table lamp
  • lo: $55,000 poinsetta border table lamp; also, favrile glass and patinated bronze arrowheads fern dish

Both  inclusive of buyer's premium

high/low auction prices: a random sampling

• Sotheby's Prints (details above) November 1, 2007
  
  • hi: $421,000 Edvard Munch, Melancholy III
  • lo: $1,125 Kathe Kollwitz, Die Pfluger (The Ploughman

• Doyle Books & Prints, November 7, 2007
  • hi: $47,500 Margaret Bourke-White, Machinery Abstraction Gelatin silver print
  • lo: $35 several lots including Charles Dickens, "The Life of Our Lord," and John Keats Poems

• Swann The Christian Fechner Magic Collection Part 3, October 25, 2007
  • hi: $50,000 Harry Houdini, The Houdinis. Original Introducers of Metamorphosis. Exchanging Places in 3 Seconds.
  • lo: $60 Die Vase

Sotheby's inclusive of buyer's premium; Doyle and Swann exclusive.

high/low auction prices: Meteorites at Bonham's, Oct. 28th

hi: $105,000
Sikhote-Alin, The Epitome of an Iron Meteorite From the Largest Meteorite Shower in Human History and a Cataclysmic Event Frozen in Time, lot 39

lo: $325
Holbrook, Collection of Meteorites from the American Museum of Natural History, lot 9
prices exclusive of buyer's premium

With many space rock hounds in the audience, Photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto drove the bidding. He views the meteorites as works of art that "I use for inspiration."   [The Oregonian]

high/low auction prices: Sotheby's Photographs, Oct 15, 2007

hi: $1,105,000 "Nautilus" by Edward Weston, lot 18
lo: $4,375 "Kissing Shadows" by Alfred Eisenstaedt, lot 222

prices include buyer's premium

high/low auction prices: October 8-12

Auction houses trumpet their highest bids. But what's on the other side of the scale? A random sampling from last week's Manhattan auctions:

• Doyle, Important Estate Jewelry
  • hi: $150,000 Emerald and Diamond Necklace/Bracelet Combination, lot 619
  • lo: $300 Five Gold and Moonstone Buttons, lot 4
    
• Doyle, Doyle+Design
  
  • hi: $30,000 Syrie Maugham Breakfront Display Cabinet, lot 4182
  • lo: $60 Ralph Lysell and Hugo Blomberg Three Ericaphones, lot 4207

• Sotheby's, Important Silver, Silver-Gilt, and Russian Works of Art from the Estate of Charles and Yvette Bluhdorn, combined with Important English and Continental Silver and Objects of Vertu
  • hi: $869,800 the Fitzgibbon Marine Centerpiece, lot 5 (above left)
  • lo: $1,750 a Service of English Silver and Cutlery, circa 1800-1837, lot 96 (above right)

• Swann, Autographs
  • hi: $70,000 letter signed by Thomas Jefferson, lot 143
  • lo: $100 Music for All of Us, signed and inscribed by Leopold Stokowski, lot 50

Doyle and Swann prices do not include buyer's premium; Sotheby's prices do. Final prices may be subject to change.

high/low auction prices: Kempner at Christie's

An update on the widely-publized Nan Kempner auction from the Associated Press:

"A Louise de la Falaise short fur jacket with black satin lining fetched $11,250, the highest price at the auction, while two black leather, two-piece ensembles including a Calvin Klein sweater and Skin jeans, brought the lowest price of the sale at $125."

Kempner's clothing was part of a larger Christie's House Sale. I noticed that lots 19 and 20, two brass canister lamps and a brass and glass circular center table both realized $25, decidedly lower than their estimates, proving that even the high-flying Manhattan auction houses can be a good place to shop for clothes or decorate your apartment.