This was a good turnout but the size of the crowd can be a little irrelevant at Davidson. Live internet bidding has been a major source of this company's operation and did not fail this time when the star lots were 172 hand coloured lithographs from John Gould's Mammals of Australia. Six lots went over the Internet during the auction to a buyer on the eastern seaboard of the US.
The plates, which made up the bulk of the sale, were consigned by Multiplex Brookfield, a developer which has moved headquarters from its warehouse-shaped premises in Sydney's Rocks, where antique Australian prints might be very much at home, to more commercial premises. The vendor having a reason to sell helped lift buyer support.
Gould auctions often consist of plates newly cut from old volumes by "break up merchants" often, admittedly, performing a good service as many volumes cannot be easily conserved. The sale was helped by the relative rarity of the mammals to auction. Plates from Gould's Mammals have a more limited auction history than the birds leaving cockatoos and black swans to rule the roost for the indefatigable early 19th century artist in the saleroom.
Unfortunately 11 of the plates, including the Numbat, much beloved in Western Australia which appears to be a big player in this marker, had gone missing when the plates were at Multiplex.
The plates, personally collected by originally Perth-based Multiplex founder John Roberts, sold for a total of around $150,000 plus buyers' premium of 16.5 per cent. The prices paid appeared mostly to be a little over retail, Gould fanciers remarked, and so it would seem by the result achieved by Lou Kissajukian of The Antique Print Room and Gallery in Sydney's Queen Victoria Building. Kissajukian organised his bidding from his gallery, where the ceiling had fallen in.
Neither the weather, nor trapped possums could be blamed for the disaster which, like the rain which might have deterred others, failed to detract this bidder who proceeded to place a wholesale net under much of the market. Of 60 bids he gave to a colleague he instructed to bid on the telephone, he achieved only 10 while through another agent he bought another 10.
His purchases included probably the most desirable lot, Thylacinus Cynocephalus (Tasmanian Tiger) (Lot 54) for $14,000 plus buyers premium. In tip top condition this plate has retailed for a reported $28,000. Kissajukian said his successul catches also included some of Kangaroo heads but for commercial reasons declined to elaborate.
Kissajukian's main trade competition appears to have been Trowbridge Antiques of Perth also through an agent. But the gallery, in the middle of a mammal show, declined to elaborate
The offering was a pleasant find in a market previously unaware the cache existed. Framed, the collection had suffered from almost continuous display over the years as a result of which many were faded. The stars were the usual suspects the sale beginning with tearaway bidding for a creature which is no greyhound - the platypus (Lot 1) which made $3500 against $2000 to $4000 estimate.
The Tasmanian devil (Lot 48) made $4000 against an estimate of $2000 to $4000 and the Wallaroo (featuring two big kangaroo heads) sold for $1760 against $800 to $1500.
A 1956 Olympic Torch (Lot 331 ) from the same vendor made $11,000 (estimate $10,000 to $15,000 in line with past prices) while an Olympic flag, lacking its associational information, did not attract a bidder.
The B-M offering estimates, Chestnut insisted, were designed to sell and Davidson's cleared the lot.
The company offered a large batch of John Gould bird prints which excited far less interest. Some of the most desirable specimens were missing, The Gould lots too found homes but with less fervent bidding, buyers being alerted a few days before to the impending offering by Sotheby's Australia associate auction house, Bay East Auctions of a complete set of plates to be auctioned individually.
Environment conscious, buyers may appreciate their wild life handsomely drawn by an early naturalist (and coloured by his wife Elizabeth) but they are not so keen on dead bits. An early 20th century rug made (Lot 334 ) from 35 platypus pelts atttracted a best bid of $800 against estimates of $2000 to $4000 and was returned to the family of the maker.
However, a Grace Seccombe lot predictably flew when a Kangaroo pottery spill vase (Lot 385 ), with both ears and the right forepaw restored made $6250 against estimates of $2000 to $4000. Room bidders did not find the super bargains they might have wanted on such an inclement day and the good clearance rate brought the total to around $257,761.
