Auction Highlights
In Phillips de Pury’s Dec. 14 Design sale, 18 bids were lodged on a set of six circa-1957 oak, chrome-plated steel and leather chairs manufactured by Kold Christensen of Denmark. Quintessentially modern, the grouping was estimated at $12,000-$15,000 but sold via LiveAuctioneers for $31,850.
LiveAuctioneers bidders dropped well over $100,000 in Alderfer’s Dec. 14 auction of Asian Art. One of many outstanding lots claimed via the Internet was an 18th- or 19th-century Chinese silk semi-formal robe decorated with a celestial landscape that includes the eight “precious things” of Buddhism. Estimated at $3,000-$4,000, it attracted 24 bids before selling online for $16,800.
Measuring 14 inches by 11½ inches, a late-19th-century KPM porcelain plaque painted with the image of a Victorian child on a swing breezed past its $8,000-$12,000 estimate to sell online in Freeman’s Dec. 13 Decorative Arts sale for $14,640.
As any robot collector will attest, it is next to impossible to source an example of Yonezawa’s 1960 Diamond Planet robot except through privileged private sources. But the British toy auctioneers, Vectis, offered one in their Dec. 11 auction with a $3,000-$3,900 estimate. Garnering 40 bids, it soared into cyberspace to settle at $17,916 and is headed for its new home with a LiveAuctioneers bidder.
Rago Arts’ Dec. 9-10 Great Estates sale took in a staggering $471,869 in Internet sales, with an average of 21.8% of the merchandise selling online over the two days. A pair of Chinese gilt metal vases with applied stained and carved ivory decoration, enameled borders and carved wood bases was offered with an estimate of $1,000-$1,500. Imagine the excitement when they attracted 35 bids and sold online for $61,250!
According to Morphy Auctions co-founder Dan Morphy, online bidders helped boost the price on practically every fine-art lot offered in the company’s Dec. 7-9 Winter Sale, which racked up a total of $339,952 in sales through LiveAuctioneers. A signed 12 inch by 16 inch Edward Redfield oil painting of a Bucks County, Pa., landscape, with a James Kelleher Gallery label on verso, sold through LiveAuctioneers for $30,500.
Guernsey ’s Dec. 5 auction of Dick Clark’s music memorabilia collection lit up the Internet, with nearly 50% of the material going to LiveAuctioneers bidders. An autographed 9 inch by 7 inch cartoon paper cutout of John Lennon’s head, autographed by the legendary musician during an early Beatles tour, garnered a winning Internet bid of $30,000.
