...Auctions

Against this backdrop, Sotheby's held its first musical instrument auction in the United States in 15 years, on October 6, in Chicago. Charles Rudig, well known to long time auction attendees, organized the sale for Sotheby's. It was attended by a surprisingly large number of foreign dealers. The results were mixed. The sizable buyer's premium of 20% on the first $15,000.00 didn't help matters. The auction moved slowly as Sotheby's auctioneer seemed to be trying to squeeze every possible bid out of the full sales room, and the bank of Sotheby's personnel handling telephone bids. The two high flying lots in the sale, the Ex Parrera, Stradivari violin of 1679 and the Pietro Guarneri of Venice both went unsold. It did seem as though the estimates for those two lots had been ambitious. A number of other pieces went unsold as well, including a number of books which have seen relatively less demand in the last couple of years. But there were some notable bargains achieved by the audience made up mostly of trade buyers and onlookers. A good looking and good sounding Guadagnini of the Milan period was a excellent buy at $140,000 hammer price. A beautiful Pajeot violin bow in ivory and silver made $16,000.00 hammer price. An interesting 18th century viola catalogued as the work of Sebastian Wagner was also a good buy at $10,000.00 hammer price. Hill bows were strong, bringing as much as $5000.00 hammer price for a silver and tortoise shell mounted example and $7,000.00 for a gold and tortoise shell Fleur-de-lys cello bow. With the buyer's premium this brings the prices to $6000.00 and $8400 respectively, suggesting that retail prices for Hill  bows may be on the move.

It remains to be seen whether or not Sotheby's will deem this event worth the trouble, and elect to stage future U. S. sales. U. S. consumers can only hope that Sotheby's will continue to be a presence in this country, helping to maintain sharp competition in the industry in the U. S. #