KEY POINTS:
If it's New Zealand it's collectable is the message from auction houses as Auckland swings into the sale season.
Good quality artefacts - especially early examples - are on a roll, the market for kiwiana is buoyant, New Zealand-made furniture gains ever-increasing prices, and even colonial art seems to be making a resurgence.
New Zealand photography is also popular. Webb's offering next week includes a fine selection by Brian Brake, whose work with the photo-journalism co-operative Magnum won him an international reputation.
Included is a full set of 23 prints from his Monsoon essay, published first in Life magazine, including the most famous of his images, of a lovely young Indian woman, eyes closed in ecstasy as the long-awaited rain falls on her face.
The subject was 14-year-old actress Aparna Sen, and the picture was staged in a studio.
The set is estimated at from $15,000 to $25,000. If you want Monsoon Girl on her own, Webb's have a single print at from $4000 to $6000.
The sale has many works by contemporary photographers - including Peter Peryer, Greg Semu, Ava Seymour and Di Ffrench - and a good collection of historic works.
This month Dunbar Sloane offered another angle on images associated with New Zealand with 10 National Savings posters from World War II: "Protect New Zealand - Back Them Up!", was the theme, and it certainly appealed to at least two buyers.
One was broadcaster Paul Holmes, and the other an anonymous phone bidder. Sloane's estimate was $300 to $600 for each poster, but prices reached a record $11,000 for the last two lots. The phone buyer took them all.
Holmes missed out again - on an wine table inlaid with native timbers made in Auckland by the great Bohemian cabinetmaker Anton Seuffert.
This intricate fern-patterned piece went for $92,000, a record for a piece of New Zealand furniture.
Earlier this year, at Cordy's, a colonial rimu double bed reached $11,250 ($12,515 with premium and GST) and a burr totara scotch chest achieved $14,500 ($16,131). So dig out that old colonial furniture.
The International Art Centre in Parnell has an interesting collectable sale next Tuesday, with 18 works from the estate of Barbara Blakemore-Fowler (1921-2004), a Canterbury artist whose bold colourful style shows strong influences from Frances Hodgkins, Paul Nash and John Piper.
Most works in the sale, which includes a small collection of photographs, are without reserve and are expected to sell at under $2000.
By contrast, Art+Object's first collectable sale ranges up to around $8000. Many works on paper here, and another bundle of historic photographs at affordable prices.
Will the public come to Saturday sales? The new house will test that this weekend with a mixed bag that includes artefacts, kiwiana, antiques and decorative items. At least one other saleroom is planning to follow suit.
Coming up: May 24, Art+Object, new collectors, under $5000; May 26, Art+Object, artefacts and antiques; May 29, International Art Centre, collectable art; May 31/June 1, Webb's, photography; June 14, Art+Object, masterpiece collection; June 19, Cordy's, antiques; June 25, International Art Centre, fine art.
