Latest Bonhams sale confirms relative strength of blue chip SA Masters

Michael Coulson

Behind all the superlatives, there were some warning signs at Bonhams’ latest London sale of SA art. True, Pierneef’s magisterial The Baobab Tree fetched £ 826 400*, well above the previous auction record for SA art of about £ 500 000, for an Irma Stern at a previous sale, and almost three times the top of the
£ 200 000-£ 300 000 estimate.

True, too, the sale grossed £ 7.1m, £ 2m more than Bonhams’ January sale, but a high percentage of items remained unsold and there were a large number of minor works. Of the 375 lots (not 450, as Bonhams’ post-sale press release claims – that ignores the fact that there no lots 218-299), prices were recorded for only about 254. That means that at least a third of items were unsold, possibly more, as some for which prices were recorded may have been bought in by the auctioneer.

Even 375 lots, though, forced Bonhams to split the sale in two. The first 217 lots were sold at Bonhams’ lesser gallery in Knightsbridge the night before the main sale. Percentage-wise, these actually did better than the main sale, with only 31% unsold, but only four items topped £ 10 000.

Part One of the sale in fact grossed less than £ 500 000, the average price of lots sold being about £ 3 100.Top price was £ 19 200 for a 19th-century view of Cape Town harbour. Of more modern work, £ 14 400 was bid for a Zanzibar landscape by the little-known Anne Petrie, £ 13 200 for a Tretchikoff Red Lilies (est only £ 2 000-
£ 3 000, so the renaissance in this artist is continuing) and £ 11 400 for a Sekoto gouache of a woman’s head, est £ 3 000-£ 4 000.

The main auction was flooded by Stern (52 paintings and drawings), Sekoto (22) and Pierneef (13).

The Sterns grossed about £ 4.3m, so together with the Pierneef Baobab Tree contributed more than 70% of the total raised. No fewer than 20 of the Sterns were unsold, but those that did sell generally went for the upper end of the estimate or even above.

Top price was £ 390 000 for lot 321, a Malay lady (est £ 200 000-£ 300 000), followed by £ 356 000 for lot 350, a still life (est £ 200 000-£ 300 000) and £ 334 000 for each of lots 353 (Congolese girls, est £ 150 000-£ 200 000) and 365 (still life, est £ 200 000-£ 300 000).
Noteworthy against the estimates were lots 339, a girl, at £ 288 000 (est £ 70 000-£ 100 000), and 349, a still life, also at £ 288 000 (£ 100 000-£ 150 000).

Only three Pierneefs weren’t sold, with no prices marked for two others that were presumably sold privately before the auction. But only lot 388, Trees on the Veld, fetched a noteworthy price: £ 120 000 (est £ 60 000-£ 90 000).

Of other bluechip names, a Van Essche Congolese market reached £ 72 000 (est £ 30 000-£ 45 000). Only five of the Sekotos were unsold, but prices were unexceptional.

Among the casualties, four of the six William Kentridges went unsold, as did both “Nelson Mandela” lithos – The Window and Hand of Africa (est £ 12 000-18 000 and £ 10 000- £ 15 000 respectively). Given the debate surrounding these works, it’s surprising that Bonhams listed them without comment and at such high estimates.

Overall, though, apart from a couple of obvious features the general impression was of a market consolidating rather than making further advances, while recent gains could be flushing inferior works out into the open to augment the supply.

*All prices quoted include the 12% buyer’s premium but not sales tax, which is levied only on UK-resident buyers.