British Art Runs in the Family at Sotheby’s

There was a strong family thread running through the British and Irish art sales at Sotheby’s in London last week albeit a tangled one.

The sales, which totaled $6.16m (£4.7m), with fees, were significantly smaller in size and revenue than some of Sotheby's British and Irish sales in the past, although it was larger than its offerings in June.

Togehter the sales on November 25 and 26 scored a B on the HENI Auction Index, rebounding from a D. The uplift mirrored improvement seen at Christie’s in its British and Irish sales in October.

Sotheby's evening sale was led by Ben Nicholson’s modern still-life. Lot six was an other still-life, this time painted by his father, William Nicholson, which he gave to his new daughter-in-law and fellow artist Winifred Nicholson.

The evening also featured a late sculpture by Barbara Hepworth and the day sale included an early textile design she created around 1935 when she and Ben had moved in together. The textile work sold for $53,300 with fees, more than five times the low estimate.

There was one new artist auction record, albeit only just. Glyn Philpot’s Portrait of a Man with Hibiscus Flower (Félix) (1932), which had a guarantee, sold for $499,400 with fees. It was an improvement on the artist’s auction record when converted to US dollars.

There was a notable rebound in the average hammer to mid estimate ratio to 1.4, which is 10% above typical. Meaning that works hammered on average 40% above the average of their low and high estimates.

This increase in average hammer to mid estimate ratio seems to have been mainly driven by a significant rise in the percentage of lots selling above their high estimates: from 29% to 38%. The percentage of lots selling above their low estimates fell to a level that is 6 percentage points below average.

On a positive note, none of the lots was withdrawn and the percentage of lots bought-in decreased to a level that is only slightly above average: 31% versus 27%.

Back to the Nicholson dynasty: Ben Nicholson painted the sale's star lot, Sept. 53 (Balearic), which sold for $3.25m with fees, with the British pavilion at the Venice Biennale in mind. It made its debut there in 1954. By then he and Hepworth had separated and divorced.

William Nicholson's late still-life, Bunch of Flower (mid 1930s), which he gave to his daughter-in-law, sold for nearly $300,000 with fees. On the eve of Winifred's marriage to his son, Nicholson senior wrote a charming note: "My Dear Winifred, I am so sure that Ben will have a perfect wife that I must send you my love tonight and a line to tell you how happy I am about everything.”

In 1961, Winifred gave the painting to her and Ben's daughter, Kate Nicholson, who also became an artist.

Methodology: for how the HENI Auction Index classifies sales, see here