Ben Nicholson Leads Sotheby's $6m Modern British and Irish Evening Auction in London

A work by Ben Nicholson was the headline sale at Sotheby's 'Modern British and Irish Art Evening Auction' on November 25 in London.

• The sale totaled $6.16m (GBP4.7m), falling short of its pre-sale low estimate.

Snapshot of the sale

• 12 works sold totaling $6.16m.
• Estimates totaled: $7.65m (low) and $11.68m (high), excluding premiums.
• The sell-through rate was 50% of the original 24 lots announced.

The star lot was: Ben Nicholson, Sept. 53 (Balearic) (1953), which sold for $3.25m, 64% above its $1.98m low estimate. It has been traded 3 times in the past.

The outperformer sold for 341% above its low estimate. Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson, French troops resting (1916), sold for $233,100 ($52,700 low estimate). It has been traded once in the past.

• 3 works, or 25%, sold above their high estimate.
• 9 works, or 75%, sold within their low and high estimate.
• 0 works, or 0%, sold below their low estimate.
• 0 sold with undisclosed estimates.

Auction record

Glyn Philpot's Portrait of a Man with Hibiscus Flower (Félix) (1932), which had a guarantee, sold for $499,400, more than three times the low estimate. The sale beat the artist’s previous auction record by $26,600, a 5% rise.

Works that did not sell

12 works were bought-in, including: L.S. Lowry, An Old Street (1932), estimated at $1.05m (low) to $1.58m (high). It has been traded twice in the past.

Withdrawn before the sale

0 works were withdrawn

Terms and definitions

All results include the fees and premiums added to the price of a work of art when the auctioneer's hammer falls. Estimates, sale prices and totals are converted into US dollars. Sale prices are compared to the auction house’s low estimate, which do not include premiums.

Guarantees: Sometimes an auction house guarantees to pay a seller for a work, regardless of whether the bidding reaches the reserve price, a figure that is typically confidential.

Bought-in: If there are no bids for a work, or if bidding falls short of the reserve price, the lot is unsold or “bought-in”.

Withdrawn: This happens when a seller decides, for whatever reason, to withdraw a work before the bidding begins.

Premiums: Typically a sliding-scale of charges paid in addition to the hammer price by the buyer, plus any other fees.