Saturday, June 20, 2009

Auction Report: Arader Sale Results

Yesterday's Graham Arader Sale at Sotheby's (discussed here) netted $3,259,884. There were 204 lots in the sale catalog, of which 167 are listed in the full results. Many of the expected highlights appear not to have sold: the 1513 Ptolemaic atlas; Redouté's Les Liliacées (1802-1816) and Les Roses (1817); a second edition of Catesby; a 1769 Bonner map of Boston; and Blaeu's 11-volume Atlas Major (1662-1665) are not listed among the results.

The highlights among those lots that did sell:

- An 1839 Robert Salmon oil painting, "Royal Naval Vessels Off Pembroke Dock, Milford Haven," made $242,500.

- A first American issue (pirated) of George Catlin's Indian Portfolio (1845) made $230,500.

- An unbroken copy of François Levaillant's Histoire naturelle des perroquets (Paris: 1801-05), made $194,500.

- Peter Rindisbacher's watercolor "Hunting the Bison" (1825) made $158,500.

- A Robert Havell, Jr. oil painting combining two of Audubon's most famous birds of prey (Red-tailed Hawk and Osprey) fetched $134,500.

- The Thomas Jeffreys American Atlas (1776) sold for $116,500.