INTRODUCTION Against conservative forecasts predicting steady results at best, the markets for art, jewellery and collectables have performed remarkably well over 2010. Webb’s has set several new auction market records including the highest prices for works by both Don Binney and Shane Cotton, each exceeding the $200,000 threshold. Equally successful sales were achieved for nearly all of the truly significant works offered by Webb’s this year. With this in mind, collectors can be assured that quality artworks, correctly presented, continue to achieve excellent prices at auction. To date, Webb’s has achieved six of New Zealand’s ten highest prices at auction for the year. In August, three artworks sold for over $200,000 and, in March, two works sold over this level with a further three achieving over $100,000. Results for jewellery also reflect a recovering market with a 5.14ct yellow diamond selling for $131,200 in March and a 7.25ct diamond making $74,200 in September together with numerous other sales at high value over the year. Fine quality wristwatches from iconic makers also continue to be very well received by collectors. Webb’s participation in the Oceanic and African art market saw over 800 lots offered in two significant stand-alone catalogues with sales totalling $1,300,000. The November sale included items from the collection of one of the most venerated and knowledgeable New York tribal art dealers, Merton D. Simpson. Simpson’s decision to work with Webb’s and send 75 items from his collection to New Zealand recognises Webb’s commitment to this specialist field.
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This year, Webb’s also continued to break new ground in the field of vintage motorcycles and fine wine at auction. Fuelled by the international demand for vintage French wines, fine wine sales at Webb’s have exceeded expectations by two hundred percent. At the same time, the markets across the collecting genres of antiques and books have remained firm and stable. Concluding Webb’s offering for the year, this catalogue brings an amazing array of items to the market, including some exceptional artworks with wonderful provenance and the finest selection of antique jewellery to come to market in recent memory. Notable in the art section of the sale is a work by Colin McCahon, Landscape Theme and Variation D (1963), (lot 29)from the collection of Ron O’Reilly. O’Reilly was patron and lifetime friend to McCahon and this work comes to the market for the first time from the collection of a family member. This large canvas reduces the language of landscape to simple geomorphic forms: curved semicircular hills which become both a symbol of the landscape and a spiritual metaphor. Seaweed on the Beach (1972), (lot 36) also by Colin McCahon, depicts the rolling breakers of low tide at Muriwai Beach under a gestural, turbulent sky. Text is employed as a compositional element: Taitimu. Tangi. Muriwai. ‘Taitimu’ in Māori means low tide, while ‘Tangi’, of course, alludes to grieving for the dead and to the spirit’s journey to Cape Reinga, a pathway that included Muriwai Beach as one of the stations along the way. Also in the sale is a superb portrait of Maori chief Wharekauri Tahuna of the Ngai Tuhoe tribe by Charles Frederick Goldie (1917) (lot 32). This exquisitely
handled work presents a Māori chief adorned with thrummed korowai cloak, tiki and kuru, and with full moko; this is one of the finest examples of Goldie’s meticulous technique to become available. We are fortunate to have one of the most important works by Stephen Bambury ever to be presented at auction, the majestic Necessary Correction XIX (1999) (lot 35). This work, along with the graphite and acrylic ladder “Even though it appears abstract” (1992) (lot 47) illustrate the remarkable depth of this senior artist’s oeuvre. Ricky Swallow has been described as a cultural archaeologist and his two Apple sculptures (2000) (lots 33 and 34) evoke both the now obsolete, but still recognisable, Apple Mac logo and the biblical fall of Adam and Eve. These small-scale works grace the cover of this catalogue. The auction also includes a small section of quality contemporary photography with works by Gavin Hipkins, Peter Peryer, Robin Morrison and Ronnie van Hout, and a good section of Aboriginal paintings. It is a pleasure to be offering in this catalogue one of the best collections of Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian jewellery to have been presented to the market in many years, together with a breathtaking array of magnificent modern pieces. An exquisite jewelled dragonfly brooch (lot 214) (illustrated on the back cover of the catalogue), a centrepiece spray set with over 15ct of diamonds (lot 140) and an exceptional sapphire and diamond clasp to a double strand of pearls (lot 142) are antique opulence at its finest. A delicate belle époque brooch set with diamonds, (lot 210) handed down from Rudyard Kipling’s wife, introduces