Given Swann’s well-established position at the lower end of the photography auction market, the factors that tend to drive the relative success of any one sale tend to be the performance of the very highest priced lots, the overall sell through, and the % of lots that sell below their estimate ranges. When these factors point in the right direction, there has been solid bidding and sell through; when not, the story tends to be about softness of interest.
In the case of last week’s sale, all of these data points trended in the wrong direction – the top lot failed to sell, the overall Buy-In rate topped 34%, and more than 30% of the lots that did sell did so below their low estimates. So when the numbers were tallied up, it wasn’t much of a surprises that the Total Sale Proceeds (of roughly $750K) fell well below 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 | 293 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate | $1015800 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate | $1512950 |
| Total Lots Sold | 192 |
| Total Lots Bought In | 101 |
| Buy In % | 34.47% |
| Total Sale Proceeds | $759859 |
Here is the breakdown (using our typical Low, Mid, and High price range definitions):
| Detailed Breakdown | |
|---|---|
| Low Total Lots | 276 |
| Total Low Lots Sold | 182 |
| Total Low Lots Bought In | 94 |
| Low Buy In % | 34.06% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Low Lots | $1135950 |
| Total Proceeds from Low Lots | $594859 |
| Mid Total Lots | 16 |
| Total Mid Lots Sold | 10 |
| Total Mid Lots Bought In | 6 |
| Mid Buy In % | 37.50% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots | $287000 |
| Total Proceeds from Mid Lots | $165000 |
| Total High Lots | 1 |
| Total High Lots Sold | 0 |
| Total High Lots Bought In | 1 |
| High Buy In % | 100.00% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots | $90000 |
| Total Proceeds from High Lots | $0 |
The top lot by High estimate was lot 12, Edward Curtis, The North American Indian. Portfolio I, 1907, estimated at $60000-90000; it did not sell. The top outcome of the sale was lot 37, Ansel Adams, Monolith, the Face of Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, 1926/1973-1977, estimated at $20000-30000, sold at $37500 (image above, via Swann).
Only 68.75% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there were a total of 7 positive surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate). One of these lots was vernacular imagery (lot 256, China). The 6 positive surprises in fine photographs/photobooks were as follows (images above via Swann):
Lot 69, (Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec), Double portrait of the artist painting himself, 1880s/c1920, estimated at $1000-1500, sold at $5750
Lot 142, Roy DeCarava, A group of 6 signed books, including The Sweet Flypaper of Life and later monographs, 1967-1996, estimated at $500-750, sold at $1500
Lot 159, Bruce Davidson, Child Running Through the Ruins, Sicily, 1961/1980, estimated at $1400-1800, sold at $4250
Lot 213, Paul Caponigro, Two Sunflowers, Winthrop, MA, 1965/1970s, estimated at $1500-2500, sold at $5250
Lot 216, George Tice, Shaker Interior, Sabbathday Lake, Maine, 1971, estimated at $1000-1500, sold at $5250
Lot 234, Eliot Porter, Redbud, Red River Gorge, Kentucky, 1968, estimated at $1000-1500, sold at $6250
The complete lot by lot results can be found here.
