Sale room

JANE GREENWOOD

The 1978 auction season has so far failed to produce anything notable in the way of art sales. An interesting event last May however was the auction sale conducted by the newly established firm of McArthur& Co. headed by Brain Groshinski, formerly, Art Appraiser at Bethunes.

The sale was conducted most decorously by a lady auctioneer, breaching still a further bastion of male chauvinism. The modest but informative catalogue included a section of New Zealand historical paintings and works by Frances Hodgkins and Rita Angus; so I went along with nothing much to spend but pleased to observe.

It seemed likely that in a sale consisting mostly of rare books, the small offering of paintings might fail to attract a sufficient number of buyers to hoist the prices, but the eighty-odd people who filled the small saleroom provided enough competition to keep prices for most lots at around present market levels. There were some surprising exceptions: the twenty six drawings by William Swainson were put up individually and failed to attract bids of more than fifty dollars apiece in most cases. This was hard to understand as they were all views of the Wellington region, and even if unsigned, they were very good buying for someone. I expect that more than one collector turned up at the saleroom next morning to negotiate for them privately.

FRANCES HODGKINS
Barn, Fields and Trees
 watercolour and gouache, 15.5 x 20 ins.

Also passed in was the uncatalogued watercolour by Frances Hodgkins. A work of her later years, it depicted farm buildings in a landscape, and it was in fine unfaded condition. Top bid was $1700. Last year it would probably have made around $3,000. The Rita Angus drawing, a tree and bird study executed while the artist was in England went to the Hocken library for $200.

The painting that attracted the most interest was a fine 'primitive' watercolour; 20 x 27in. by G.W. Norbury, depicting the storming of Kaitake Pa in 1863. There was lively bidding for it and it went to the Turnbull library for $2,600.

The sale included an attractive oil landscape, Morning Grey by the Australian artist, Sid Long. It measured 10 x 17in. and it fetched the good price of $2,400.

Brian Groshinski was particularly pleased with the overseas interest the book section of the sale attracted. The London firm of Bernard Quaritch paid $2,600 for a rare 1851 folio of 26 lithographs Sketches in the Pacific and South Seas by Lieutenant Conway Shirley of the H.M.S. Calypso. A German buyer ran the sixteen volumes of The Magazine of Botany 1841 - 1849 by Sir Joseph Paxton, illustrated with 741 hand-coloured plates, up to $2000, but was beaten by a local man who paid the knock-down price of $2,050. Another English dealer paid $2000 for The Birds of the Sandwich Islands by Wilson and Evans, 1890-99, and the famous bookseller, John Howell of San Francisco paid $1,100 for a sketchbook of 60 watercolour and pencil studies of birds by William Swainson.

An interesting item was a nineteenth century photograph album of Maori war participants, Maori and Pakeha. It fetched $820.

Finally, the pen and watercolour map of Taranaki Province by Charles Heaphy that had been in the news prior to the sale because the National Archives felt that they had a claim to it, was sold anyway to a South Island collector for $2,300.

Collectors can look forward to McArthur & Co's. second sale to be held later in the year.