Record price for Robin White prints at auction

Harbour Cone & Oystercatcher 
Auckland auction house Art & Object reported recently that there had been "a string of [auction] results which we feel deserve special mention and which highlight the strength of an area of the market which is frequently overlooked and neglected: prints and multiples."

We had watched with interest the consignment of a superb private collection of 31 original New Zealand prints that included six prints by Robin White. Robin White has painted many of this country's most iconic images such as Sam Hunt at the Portobello Pub (1978), yet White was also a dedicated print maker.  The three stand out prints of the auction were White's works  Florence and Harbour Cone, Mangaweka and White Oystercatcher at Harbour Cone all of which were editions of 50.  These editions reached unprecedented prices of $13 500, $10 406 and $14 906 respectively.  According to Art & Object "As with the photography market, it seems at long last that collectors are now willing to pay five figure prices for iconic images irregardless of their multiple nature, if the condition is top notch." 

We wonder what the highest price paid for a New Zealand print is? These prices for the Robin White works are a great result but our money would be on Gordon Walters.  We'll have a dig through the auction records.

8 comments:

  1. Well, we were in for a surprise. These prices could well be a record for a New Zealand print. The highest price paid for a Gordon Walters print was back in June 2008 - again at Art & Object. Arahura sold for $8100 including buyers premium.

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  2. It was Gordon Walters Amoka Screenprint, 8/25, title inscribed and signed, 10.1 x 50.5 cm, Est: NZD7,000-10,000, sold at Webb's, Auckland, 02/04/2007, Lot No. 117 for $11,000 + bp of 12.5%!

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  3. Colin McCahon, Night Fishing, French Bay Cardboard relief print, 1957, edition of eight title inscribed and signed in pencil, 18 x 12 cm, Est: NZD2,000-3,000, sold at Webb's, Auckland, 19/03/2002, Sold for $12,000 + 10% BP, so $13,350.

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  4. The price the successful purchaser actually paid was $15 485 all inclusive, as buyer’s premium is not 12.5% plus GST for this category of sale but in fact 15% plus GST. This comfortably exceeds both of ‘anonymous’s’ claims. I am aware of no NZ print ever selling for more than this.

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  5. The highest price paid for a print in New Zealand is NZ$18,356.25 including premium of 11.25% which was buyers premium at that time, for Ralph Hotere's 'Yellow' sold at International Art Centre, Lot 2, 31 July 2003 which is also a record for a Hotere edition (of course) and still stands, Art NZ issue soon after confirms this.

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  6. McCahon suites would sell above this level, McCahon set of four lithographs entitled ‘Van Gogh: Poems by John Caselberg 1957 which were sold as one lot for a highest recorded price of $34,000 + premium

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  7. What auction house was that sold at?

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  8. @Anonymous - Dunbar Sloane in Wellington

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