January summary

The sleeper of the month!

January 2015 was my first full month of this blog, and I highlighted quite a few paintings, some that might have escaped your attention otherwise, others that were easy to spot for everybody... No idea what February will give, but here are some results from my first posts. Many other auctions aren't finished yet or haven't posted their results.

• An anonymous "Veronica", estimated at 700 to 1,000 Euro, sold for 1,700 Euro.
• A "Madonna and Child" after Sassoferrato was estimated at 700 to 1,000 Euro, and sold for 1,200 Euro
• An anonymous ca. 1520 "Nativity" was estimated at only $3,000 to 5,000, which seemed cheap considering the decent quality. The buyers agreed with me, as it sold for $21,250 instead!
• At Van Ham, they sold a copy after Rubens' "Adoration of the Magi", estimated at 2,000 Euro, which I considered to be enough. It sold for 1,800 Euro, so that fits quite nicely.
• The same auction also had a nice work by Edouard Quitton, estimated at only 1,000 Euro, which seemed very cheap. And indeed, it went for 2,304 Euro instead.
• An old portrait was for sale in Sweden. I noticed the auction with some 5 hours to spare, when the original estimate of 370 Euro was already shattered. In the end, it sold for 10,300 Euro, or 32 times the highest estimate!

And then I listed my view on the Christie's and Sotheby's old master sales, indicating a small number of over- and underestimated works.

• Sotheby's, overestimated: 5 works: 3 not sold, 2 sold under estimate, so not too bad!
• Sotheby's underestimated: 5 works: 1 not sold, 2 sold at estimate, 2 sold over estimate: more mixed result, but I'm glad that I spotted two works that seriously exceeded their highest estimate at least.

 Overall, only one real error at the Sotheby predictions, an annunciation by Gerard Seghers that I liked for its price but failed to sell. 

• Christie's, overestimated: 5 works: 3 not sold, 2 sold in the estimated price range, a mixed result here.
• Christie's, underestimated: 3 works: 1 not sold, 2 sold for more than the highest estimate! 

A less clear result here, but I'm especially glad that 2 of the 3 underestimated ones clearly exceeded expectations.

As for my blog, it's slowly growing. So far, I've had visitors from Belgium, Brazil, Germany, France, Poland, Romania, Spain, the UK, and the USA. 92 Pageviews in January, or about 3 per day. We'll see if and how it grows in February!