The fall auction season for photography got going last week with a single artist sale of prints by Elliott Erwitt at Bonhams. The works were jointly selected by the artist and the collector Richard Coplan, originally taking shape as a retrospective touring exhibition – so the prints on offer in the sale were relatively recent exhibition prints, most on 20×24 paper, many with museum labels on the back. The top lot silhouetted Paris image jumped (literally) to more than 3X its estimate range, but the rest of the results were more muted, with 57% of the lots that sold finding buyers below their estimate ranges. The overall Buy-In rate was roughly 22%, but with just two positive surprises to buoy the numbers, the Total Sale Proceeds (of roughly $248K) came in just above the low end of the aggregate pre-sale estimate range.
The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
| Summary Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Total Lots | 85 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate | $232200 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate | $353300 |
| Total Lots Sold | 66 |
| Total Lots Bought In | 19 |
| Buy In % | 22.35% |
| Total Sale Proceeds | $248384 |
Here is the breakdown (using our typical Low, Mid, and High definitions):
| Detailed Breakdown | |
|---|---|
| Low Total Lots | 85 |
| Total Low Lots Sold | 66 |
| Total Low Lots Bought In | 19 |
| Low Buy In % | 22.35% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Low Lots | $353300 |
| Total Proceeds from Low Lots | $248384 |
| Mid Total Lots | 0 |
| Total Mid Lots Sold | NA |
| Total Mid Lots Bought In | NA |
| Mid Buy In % | NA |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots | $0 |
| Total Proceeds from Mid Lots | $0 |
| Total High Lots | 0 |
| Total High Lots Sold | NA |
| Total High Lots Bought In | NA |
| High Buy In % | NA |
| Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots | $0 |
| Total Proceeds from High Lots | $0 |
The top lot by High estimate was lot 81, Elliott Erwitt, ‘Paris’ (Umbrella Jump), 1989/later, estimated at $7000-10000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at $30720 (image above, via Bonhams.)
Just 42.42% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there were a total of 2 positive surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) (image above, via Bonhams):
Lot 59, Elliott Erwitt, ‘New York City (Muhammad Ali + Joe Frazier bout)’, 1971/later, estimated at $3000-5000, sold at $10880
Lot 81, Elliott Erwitt, ‘Paris’ (Umbrella Jump), 1989/later, estimated at $7000-10000, sold at $30720
The complete lot by lot results can be found here.
