“I think it was difficult to say whether the stockmarket had any effect on buying. These sales always have casualties.” explained specialist James Rawlin, who faced the mammoth task of building the Impressionist department back up again after it was lost to de Pury & Luxembourg following the spilt with Phillips and subsequent merger with Bonhams.
“All things considered we were quite happy,” he added. “Anything that was sourced privately in the UK was doing particularly well with the mainland European private bidders and often bidding was spirited.”
An example was Mädchen in der Kammer by German artist Karl Hofer (1878-1955). Sourced by Bonhams’ Cardiff office, it was in good original untouched condition needing only a surface clean. Signed and dated ‘37 the 2ft 4in by 201/2in (71cm x 52cm) canvas went to a German buyer for £66,000 against hopes of £30,000-40,000.
The flowers and lovers of Marc Chagall (1887-1985) paintings may not appeal to all but the oil on canvas Le bouquet sur la table was this sale’s best seller. Signed to the bottom right, the canvas was very small at 13 by 10in (33 x 25.5cm) but condition was good and, most important of all, it was market fresh. Estimated up to £100,000 it got away at £70,000 to an unknown buyer.
A Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) charcoal Portrait of René Bertelé had been bought from a Parisian gallery in the 1950s by a British couple as a wedding present to each other. Measuring 183/4 by 113/4in (47.5 x 30cm), the drawing was in “as bought” condition and went to a French buyer at £54,000, more than double top-estimate.
Bonhams work hard to create a good Impression at their first attempt
Stockmarket jitters may not have had any noticeable impact on the upper ranges of the Impressionist and Modern market but further down the scale things were looking less rosy. At Bonhams (19.5/10% buyer’s premium) on June 24 the 95-lot sale took £446,020 with a 52 per cent take-up by lot.
