As previously noted, one vendor in the Sotheby's Australia two day sale of Fine Furniture and Decorative Arts on April 5 and 6 received an unexpected windfall on Tuesday evening when a Chinese ‘Famille-Rose' ‘Hundred Boys' Vase estimated at $15,000-20,000 sold for $400,000 ($480,000 IBP)
However the sale got off to a slow start with only two of the nine pieces of glass (lots 1 to 9 selling).
There was the odd spark to the sale, such as when the René Lalique glass car mascot 'Vitesse', modelled as a windswept female nude with her back arched and head thrown back, made $26,000 against an estimate of $3,000-5,000.
The next surge of interest came with the Royal Worcester, with three pieces selling well above reserve to a local collector, against stiff competition.
The highest Royal Worcester price paid was $28,000 for a large two handled vase by John Stinton, circa 1909, (Lot 50), which had been estimated at $8,000-12,000. The same collector paid $10,000 for a Royal Worcester large two handled covered and reticulated pot pourri by Harry Ayrton, (Lot 49) estimated at $3,000-5,000, and $6,000 for a Royal Worcester large covered pot pourri by William E. Jarman, estimated at $4,000-6,000.
In the Australiana section, three of the lots had been previously offered in the last Sotheby's Australia decorative arts auction on 26 October and had apparently failed to settle, so were being reoffered.
An Australian colonial flamed cedar sideboard, circa 1840, (Lot 25) which had achieved the second highest price in the October 26 2010 sale of $32,000 (four times the upper estimate), but this time fetched only $8,500, just $500 above the upper estimate.
An Australian cedar circular pedestal breakfast table by Joseph Sly, circa 1840, which made $9,500 in the October 2010 sale bettered this to sell at $10,500, while the third item to make a return appearance, an Australian cedar reclining armchair sold for $1,700, compared with $8,500 in October 2010.
The demand for items from the horological collection from the George Gyori collection (lots 52 to 110) was disappointing with 27 of the 59 items selling for $58,000, about one-third of the total of the low estimates.
This was the second tranche of the collection, with lots previously being offered by Sotheby's in their sale of 28 May, 2008 sale.
The headline lot from the collection, the Grand Orrery failed to sell, perhaps not helped by the fact that it was one of a 'limited edition', a similar one having been offered in the May 2008 and sold for $24,000.
Potential buyers may have been wondering how many more there were.
It was the oriental section of the sale which saved the day.
Making up 180 of the 300 lots in the first day of the two sale, 78% of the lots in the oriental section of the auction were sold.
The strength of the oriental section was illustrated by the sale total for the 180 lots of $994,150 ($1,192,980 IBP), compared with the low to high total estimate range of $242,000 to $345,000
Featured on the back cover of the catalogue, the 87 cm tall vase was catalogued as Qing Dynasty, Jiaqing period, dating it between 1796 and 1820.
The second evening of the sale commenced strongly with silver which seems to be undergoing a resurgence of interest at present,. In the 'various vendors' section of the silver (lots 300 to 320) all the lots were sold.
Three flatware services were offered and all were well bid, two selling for above over the upper estimate.
The rare Australian silver covered presentation cup by Charles Jones (1819-1864), Hobart, Tasmania, circa 1850, (Lot 309) made $68,000 to Sydney dealer Martyn Cook , more than twice the upper estimate of $30,000, while the silver mounted glass claret jug in the form of a walrus (Lot 313) made $32,000, ahead of the upper estimate of $25,000.
Silver continued at lot 321 being the 'Private Collection of a Gentleman' said to be a former Perth antique dealer.
The former antique dealer's collection comprised 154 lots, and as well as about 20 lots of silver, included furniture, works of art, carpets and decorative items.
Disappointingly only 69 of the 154 lots sold, for a total of $242,260, less than half the lower estimate of the collection.
With the dearth of antique auctions in Perth, in hindsight there may have been a better result had the sale been held in that city, as well as there being considerable savings from the expense of trucking many bulky items both ways across the Nullabor, if the unsolds are being returned to the vendor.
With a few exceptions, some of them noted in this article, bidding on the non-oriental items in the sale was desultory, some items not attracting a bid, yet appearing to offered at reasonable estimates.
As noted above, 78% of the items in the oriental section of the sale were sold for a total of $994,150, with the 142 lots sold making up over half the total value of the sale of $1,793,805, and a single item unexpectedly contributing almost 25% of the sale value.
Over the full two evenings, only 203 of the 373 non-oriental items were sold, a selling rate of only 54%.
All prices quoted are hammer price, unless otherwise indicated.