The Photographs sale at Bonhams in New York earlier this week (which took place online) provided another data point on the health of the recovering secondary market for photography. In this case, the results offered a few new insights. First, when the reserves are kept firm, the weakness in the market manifests itself in a lot of passed lots, especially for lesser material. Here, that tallied up to an overall Buy-In rate of over 55%. And second, higher priced lots, again particularly those works that are less significant, continue to suffer from softness. Here, the top tier lots both passed, and mid tier bought in more than 80% of the time. While there were a few notable positive surprises in this sale, which proves that collectors are still watching closely, the Total Sale Proceeds came in at roughly $500K, far below the aggregate pre-sale range.
The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
| Summary Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Total Lots | 165 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale Low Estimate | $1053200 |
| Aggregate Pre Sale High Estimate | $1534000 |
| Total Lots Sold | 73 |
| Total Lots Bought In | 92 |
| Buy In % | 55.76% |
| Total Sale Proceeds | $494287 |
Here is the breakdown (using our typical Low, Mid, and High definitions):
| Detailed Breakdown | |
|---|---|
| Low Total Lots | 127 |
| Total Low Lots Sold | 67 |
| Total Low Lots Bought In | 60 |
| Low Buy In % | 47.24% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Low Lots | $635000 |
| Total Proceeds from Low Lots | $367587 |
| Mid Total Lots | 36 |
| Total Mid Lots Sold | 6 |
| Total Mid Lots Bought In | 30 |
| Mid Buy In % | 83.33% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of Mid Lots | $779000 |
| Total Proceeds from Mid Lots | $126700 |
| Total High Lots | 2 |
| Total High Lots Sold | 0 |
| Total High Lots Bought In | 2 |
| High Buy In % | 100.00% |
| Aggregate High Estimate of High Lots | $120000 |
| Total Proceeds from High Lots | $0 |
The top lot by High estimate was tied between two lots: lot 3, Peter Beard, Cows and Calves at Buffalo Springs, Kenya NFD, for “The End of the Game/ Last Word from Paradise”, 1960, and lot 120, Bruce Davidson, Selected images from “East 100th Street”, 1966-1968, both estimated at $40000-60000; neither sold. The top outcome of the sale was lot 37, Werner Rohde, Self-Portrait with Mask, 1926, estimated at $15000-25000, sold at $37575 (image above, via Bonhams).
934.52% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there were a total of 4 positive surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) (images above via Bonhams):
Lot 59, Wolfgang Tillmans, Anemone II, 2003/2004, estimated at $2000-3000, sold at $8825
Lot 79, William Eggleston, Biloxi, Mississippi, 1975, estimated at $7000-9000, sold at $31325
Lot 131, György Kepes, Untitled, n.d, estimated at $2500-3500, sold at $23825
Lot 138, Wolfgang Tillmans, New Family, 2001/2002, estimated at $2000-3000, sold at $10075
The complete lot by lot results can be found here.
