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Auction Results
Marion Maneker0March 22, 2013

Bonhams SA Art Gets £4.5m with Chinese Girl Making Nearly £1m

tretchikoff Chinese Girl

 

Bonham’s wants you to know more about Vladimir Tretchikoff who’s ‘Chinese Girl’ was sold this week at Bonhams South African art sale in London. The painting (est £300-500k)  made £982,050 (R13.8m). The entire sale of some 150 works made £4.5m.

The buyer of ‘Chinese Girl’ is Laurence Graff, British businessman and jeweler and Chairman of Graff Diamonds International, who owns the Delaire Graff Estate near Stellenbosch, where this picture will go on public display with the rest of his art collection. www.delaire.co.za

Said to be the most widely reproduced and recognisable picture in the world, from the 1950s prints of this famous work sold widely in South Africa, Britain, Europe and America.

Significantly Tretchikoff out-performed the two longtime market leaders in South African art at auction – Irma Stern and Jacob Hendrik Pierneef. ‘Landscape Stellenbosch’ by Pierneef made £713,250 and ‘Congolese Beauty’ by Irma Stern was sold for £541,250.

Tretchikoff’s value has risen exponentially in the art market, due to both the re- evaluation of his legacy in exhibitions such as Tretchikoff: The People’s Painter, at IZIKO South African National Gallery (2011), and his appearance on the world stage at auction at Bonhams. A new world record was recently achieved at Bonhams with the semi-nude portrait painting, ‘Portrait of Lenka (Red Jacket)’, featuring Tretchikoff’s lover and muse, which sold for £337,250 (R4.7million). Just over 100 Tretchikoff works have appeared at auction, a twenty-year trajectory which charts a remarkable resurgence in the artist’s popularity.

Giles Peppiatt, Director of South African Art at Bonhams, comments: “This was an exceptional price for a work which really does merit the word ‘iconic’. And it’s very happy news to hear that it is going home.”

Auction Results
Marion Maneker1June 22, 2012

Bonham’s Single Owner Sale in Hong Kong = $11.6m

In all the hubbub last month, Bonham’s noteworthy single owner sale in Hong Kong got lost in the mix. The auciton house sold HK$90.6m ($11.6m) worth of art, besting the estimates by 50%. All but one of the works was sold.

With that in mind, we’re posting the results here. All the Contemporary art lots sold, evidence of the strength in the market for Chinese masters of 20th Century abstract art. 

15 works by Chu Teh-Chun and Zao Wou-Ki total realized: HKD 63.3 million / 8.1 million USD (estimate: HKD 26.45- 37.3 million / 3.4 -4.8 million USD) 

12 Imperial Chinese works of art total realized: HKD 27.75 million / 3.5 million USD

Auction Results
Marion Maneker0May 10, 2012

Bonhams NY Cont Late Afternoon = ~$1.05m

Auction Results
Marion Maneker0March 22, 2012

Bonhams South African = £3.5m

‘Pink Sari’

A stunning image from one of Irma Stern’s trips to Zanzibar which inspired some of her best work, titled ‘Pink Sari’ , signed  and dated 1947, and with its original Zanzibar frame, sold at Bonhams today for £959,650 .Never before seen on the open market, the painting was acquired directly from the artist circa 1961 and then passed by direct descent to the current owner. It was the top lot in Bonhams sale of South African Art which has consistently broken records for South African art over the past five years.

‘Zulu Girl’

Zulu Girl, painted in 1935 at the height of Stern’s creative powers sold for £457,250 .

‘Portrait of the Artist’s Mother’

This picture by Gerard Sekoto, South Africa’s leading black artist, sold for £79,250.

WORK BY WILLIAM KENTRIDGE MADE ON THE CUSP OF POLITICAL CHANGE IN SOUTH AFRICA

‘Anti-Waste’

The work ‘Anti-Waste’ by William Kentridge, (born 1955), an artist best known for his prints, drawings and animated films, sold for  £253,250.

Auction Results
Marion Maneker0March 21, 2012

Bonhams Asia Week Results

March 19

Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian

Sale total $3,203,225

91.67% sold by lot

*Auction world record achieved for Indian artist Bagta “Rawat Gokal Das celebrating holi in the zenana” sold for $302,500 (pre-sale estimate $30,000 – 50,000)

March 20

Fine Chinese Snuff Bottles

Sale total $1,022,900

98.25% sold by lot

Fine Japanese Works of Art

Sale total $1,485,188

74.92% sold by lot

General
Marion Maneker0February 19, 2012

Bonhams Soldiers On

Georgina Adam points out in the Financial Times that Bonhams is undeterred by a tough London Contemporary sale and will mount more in New York, London and Hong Kong later this year:

And the firm has bagged a sale of works from a Portuguese collection that it is auctioning in Hong Kong in May during the Hong Kong art fair. The sale, estimated at €3.6m-€5.6m, includes abstracts by Chu Teh-Chun and Zao Wou-Ki as well as 12 works of art, Imperial porcelains and cloisonné pieces.

The Art Market: The Quick and the Dead (Financial Times)

Auction Results
Marion Maneker0February 13, 2012

Bonhams Contemporary One = £1.08m

With only 11 of 20 lots sold, Bonhams first Evening sale of Contemporary art in London brings in just over £1m.

Auction Results, Featured
Marion Maneker0January 04, 2012

Bonhams Sells Chinese Altar Tables for $2.7m

Perhaps you thought the Chinese appetite for works of art had cooled. Then you didn’t see Bonham’s $12.8m sale in San Francisco just before the holidays where 900 lots were offered and a handful attracted feeding frenzies:

A rare pair of zitan and hongmu recessed leg altar tables, 18th/19th century, from the Carlisle estate soared to $2,714,500 (pre-auction estimate $120,000-$200,000) against fierce bidding on the telephones and a packed room of international buyers.

An elaborately carved zitan and hongmu throne chair, 19th century, brought $1,022,500 (pre-auction estimate $200,000-$300,000), preceded by an unusual huanghuali clothes rack, Qing dynasty, which sold for $338,500 (pre-auction estimate $120,000-$200,000).

A set of four zitan, hongmu mixed wood and cinnabar lacquer mounted side chairs, from the same collection, sold for a remarkable $266,500, more than 20 times its estimate of $20,000 to $30,000.

Works of art and bronzes also captured the rapt attention of the crowd. A cast bronze seated figure of the Buddha, Ming dynasty, from the estate of Dino Bigalli, maestro of the Chicago Civic Light Opera, took center stage, bringing $578,500 (pre-auction estimate $40,000-$60,000).

A set of four grisaille enameled porcelain hanging plaques, Republic period, inspired heated bidding and brought over 15 times its estimate of $12,000 to $18,000, realizing $230,500.

Consignment discovery earns $338K at Asian art, antiques auction (Antique Trader)

Auction Results, General
Marion Maneker0November 29, 2011

Bonham’s HK Nov ’11 Sales = HK$240m ($31m)

Here’s how Bonhams’s PR department characterizes the sales:

[A] ‘famille-rose’ enamelled glass ‘European-subject’ snuff bottle made in the Imperial Palace workshops in Beijing during the Emperor Qianlong period (1736-1795) [...] carried a pre-sale estimate of HK$4,900,000 – 9,000,000. International bidders [...] [drove it] up to a final figure of HK$25.3 million (US$3,328,400; GBP2,108,333), over five times its pre-sale estimate[....] This unique survivor of Imperial craftsmanship sold to an Asian collector who bid on the telephone.

Overall, Bonhams’ Autumn Auctions in Hong Kong achieved a new record high sold total for the company of over HK$240 million, representing an increase of nearly 15% over the record sale in May 2011.

The success of the auctions [...] drew heavily on fine private consignments from the US of Chinese paintings, the exceptional HK$18.5 million famille rose vase, and a historical collection of personal hardstone seals which totalled more than HK$7million. Our London office consigned the unique collection of Chinese Yixing Stoneware vessels and scholar objects which totalled HK$38 million[....]

Each section of the four “Chinese Works of Art” auctions saw exceptional prices at the top level.  The highlight was of course the world record total not merely for a single Imperial Chinese snuff bottle but also for a single auction of snuff bottles at nearly HK$60 million.  The single-owner collection of very specialised Yixing Stoneware from the Hawthorn Collection achieved over HK$38 million, tripling pre-sale expectations, with the highest lot achieving a world record price at HK$8.4 million (estimate HK$800,000 – 1,2,000,000) paid by an Asian private collector against intense competition.  The auction of “Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art” from various sources saw an exceptional price paid for an Imperial famille rose dragon-decorated vase, which achieved a new record for Chinese porcelain at Bonhams Hong Kong of HK18.5 million (estimate HK$8 – 12 million).

Concluding the auction series, a fine range of classical and modern Chinese paintings attracted spirited bidding principally from buyers from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. An unusual old collection sourced from Australia included the sale’s most expensive lot, a handscroll in the manner of Huang Gongwang, by the famous late Ming artist Wang Shimin (1592 – 1680), estimated at HK$1 – 2 million, which finally sold to an Asian private collector for HK$11.86 million. The greatest excitement in the sale was generated by lot 713, a private collection of 12 fan paintings of landscapes attributed to Wang Yuanqi (1642 – 1715), offered as a single lot estimated at HK$80,000 – 120,000, which confounded conservative expectations to achieve a final price of HK$10.18 million.

Auction Results
Marion Maneker0November 10, 2011

Bonhams Sells Qianlong Vase for £9m


Bonhams Chinese Works of Art sale in London featured 700 lots including this vase which made £9m

turquoise Imperial vase, decorated with chrysanthemums, which sold for £9,001,250, making it the highest priced Asian artwork in London this year. After keen and protracted bidding by three separate phone buyers it was knocked down for £9m to a round of applause from the packed saleroom. Its pre-sale estimate was £5m to £8m.

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