8
17th April 2010
london selection
A decade on, it is quite a
■ Today’s prices make profit harder to achieve than in 1997
■ Solid performance as trade lose out to privates over margins
Anne Crane
reports
AS mentioned in our news story on page three of ATGNo 1934, John Parry’s collection of early English furniture and works of art sold at Christie’s King Street (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) on March 25, had not been long in the making.
It is only just under 13 years since he
sold off his last collection in the same rooms in what was then a benchmark sale for early furniture (especially walnut), netting just under £1.7m with all bar two of the 110 lots changing hands. For this latest sale John Parry had extended his remit to yew as well as oak and walnut and was offering 122 lots, but it included more treen and smaller works of art. After all, even a collector of John Parry’s indefatigable energy can only find so many good pieces in a relatively short time if they are to maintain standards. In fairness even the first collection, which had also been assembled over the
A tale of two chests
AT the core of John Parry’s collection and its most expensive component was a group of walnut case furniture. Pictured here are two of the best-sellers constructed from walnut and burr walnut and featuring original metalwork. The 2ft 10in (87cm) wide chest dated to c.1730-40 pictured above left, purchased by Mr Parry in 1993 for £32,000, sold this time for a mid-estimate £70,000. The narrower, 2ft 43
/4in (73cm) wide bachelor’s chest, above right, dated to early 18th century cost £75,000 in 1997 and sold here for a low-estimate £75,000.
relatively short space of around 20 years, contained pieces that were of recent acquisition and on some of those there might not have been much room for profit. But that first sale in 1997 took place in a different economic climate and there was a very different atmosphere, with enough demand and enthusiasm to push many prices to new levels and to take the total well past predictions of over £1m.
Spring 2010 is another story. Since 1997 walnut values have fallen back, with even blue-chip pieces plateauing, while oak prices have been erratic. So a new
realism pervaded the air for the second Parry sale.
In 1997, the sale was led by a
Left: seat furniture was relatively scarce in the Parry sale but one piece that proved very popular was this rare Windsor armchair from the Thames Valley region constructed from walnut, ash and elm and dated to c.1740. Purchased from R.G. Cave and Sons Ltd of Ludlow in 1999, it was entered here with an estimate of £10,000- 15,000, but a contest between a phone bidder and a European collector who had left a very substantial commission took the price to £26,000 with the hammer falling to the commission.
Right: there was plenty of interest in this 151
/2
in (39.5cm) high William and Mary fruitwood bookrest carved 16 S.B. 95 to the toprail. It sold to an internet bidder for a treble estimate £1700.
bachelor’s chest that realised a treble- estimate £240,000; in 2010, however, there appeared to be resistance to breaking through the three-figure mark. Although there were some rallies and strong results, a few of them shown here, bidding didn’t overtake guides with the same frequency as before and there were probably more things on which the vendor broke even or suffered a loss. Fortunately Christie’s, who said they had worked closely in consultation with Mr Parry, operated what they termed “a tailored reserve policy” for each lot. The result was that things were allowed to get away below estimate.
That said, the auction house had drummed up plenty of absentee interest to compete with the 20-30 strong mix of trade and privates who turned out to bid on the day. In the end they sold 98 of the 122 lots to net £984,630, which must count as a pretty solid result. The purchasing was predominantly
private, 80 per cent, but of international spread, according to Christie’s. The trade were present and bidding but didn’t actually come away with much, which is not surprising given the lack of potential bargains. One exception was the sole piece of needlework, a Charles II period
silkwork casket with mythological and biblical scenes that had come from Wilby Hall in Suffolk. Mr Parry had purchased it from Witney Antiques at the 2007
Grosvenor House Antiques Fairand here
Witney’s Stephen Jarrett bought it back just under low estimate at £38,000. The top price of the day was the £80,000 paid for the writing desk pictured and discussed in ATGNo 1934. This was one of a handful of pieces that Mr Parry retained when he held his first sale and last month’s result represented a 100 per cent increase on the hammer price paid when he secured this at Phillips
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