Sir Winston Churchill’s Marrakech and Francis Holman’s Three Hudson’s Bay Company Ships in the Thames hang on a wall as some of the works of art destined for the Hudson’s Bay auction in Toronto.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
About halfway through the sale of the Hudson’s Bay Co. art collection in Toronto on Wednesday, auctioneer David Heffel decided to talk about the weather.
“It’s getting a little chilly in here,” Mr. Heffel said. “I think I have to put a coat on.” With a flourish, he donned a multistripe-patterned Bay wool coat over his tuxedo, to applause from the crowded sale room at Heffel Fine Art.
It was a nod to the historic moment that the auction represented, as Canada’s oldest retailer sells off its art and artifacts collection, part of the collapsed company’s insolvency proceedings.
The Bay’s full collection comprises more than 1,700 pieces of art and more than 2,700 artifacts, which Heffel will be selling online in various stages over the coming weeks and months. Wednesday’s in-person sale covered 27 “highlights” of the collection, including large canvases by Canadian painters Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith and William von Moll Berczy.
The painting with the highest estimate in the catalogue was Marrakech by former British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill. It opened bidding at $500,000 and sold for a hammer price of $1.3-million. (Prices at auction are known as hammer prices, and buyers also pay a Buyer’s Premium, calculated as a percentage on top of the final bid.) The sell price for the Churchill piece, including the premium, was $1.56-million.
Twenty-seven pieces of Hudson’s Bay history were auctioned in Toronto on Wednesday as art lovers, collectors and historians gathered to watch some valuable Canadian artwork come up for sale.
The Canadian Press
The entire auction of 27 items drew a combined $5.9-million, with fees.
“We have a tremendous amount of competing absentee bids,” Mr. Heffel told the crowd gathered on Wednesday, just before bidding began. “So be ready,” he added.
The first two paintings in the auction, by W.J. Phillips, each set a new record for a sale of an oil painting and a watercolour by the artist, respectively. Tracking on the Athabasca sold for $37,500 ($46,250 with fees) and Hudson’s Bay Company York Boats at Norway House sold for $130,000 ($157,250 with fees).
“Nice way to start an auction,” Mr. Heffel said. Prospective buyers crowded into the standing-room-only space, while more than a dozen representatives stationed around the room fielded bids coming in by phone.
Because of the strong interest in the sale, a number of items opened bidding at well above the high end of the estimates that had been listed in the auction catalogue, and went for tens of thousands – or in some cases hundreds of thousands – more. Such estimates from auction houses are often conservative, because they set a floor price for the bidding, and are calibrated to attract interest from potential buyers.
In photos: These paintings from the Hudson’s Bay art auction could soon be yours
Mr. Heffel brought down a white hammer with every successful sale.
One of the most important pieces by a Canadian painter in the collection, Lights of a City Street by Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith, attracted brisk bidding both in the room and on the phones. “This is a monumental masterpiece by the artist,” Mr. Heffel said. It sold for $575,000 ($691,250 with fees).
Two pieces by William von Moll Berczy, Rear Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson and Battle of Trafalgar, went for $100,000 and $110,000, respectively ($121,250 and $133,250 with fees).
The majority of the works in the auction were commissioned by Hudson’s Bay from the 1920s through the 1960s, featuring idealized portrayals of scenes from the company’s history. Those images were included in company calendars that the retailer distributed for many years, and some were also used as covers for The Beaver magazine.
One of the most in-demand paintings among the commissioned pieces – Barnston and Ballantyne at Tadoussac, 1846 by Charles Fraser Comfort – drew gasps from the room as the bidding climbed. “Just checking my bank account,” one bidder said before raising his numbered paddle. The piece ultimately sold to another bidder for $475,000 ($571,250 with fees).
In depth: How Ruby Liu’s contentious play for Hudson’s Bay stores fell apart
Hudson’s Bay had an extensive collection of items collected over its 355-year lifespan, but many of the most historic items are not among those being sold off as part of the company’s insolvency. That is because the Bay donated its collection of artifacts to the Manitoba Museum, and its archives to the Archives of Manitoba, in the ‘90s.
The auctions that Heffel is managing involve art and artifacts gathered over the Bay’s time as a department-store retailer, as opposed to items dating back to its earliest history as a fur-trading monopoly covering a vast swath of land in what is now Canada. The items coming up for sale include paintings beyond those offered at Wednesday’s event, Bay blankets and other retail memorabilia – including the coat Mr. Heffel wore at the auction.
In an interview with The Globe and Mail earlier this month, as he prepared for the auction, Mr. Heffel said that handling the collection had brought up memories of visiting the Bay cafeteria for a malt with his grandmother, and of his mother buying the children’s clothing at the store’s bargain basement.
“There’s a lot of focus on the end of a 355-year-old company, but I think it’s time to celebrate,“ Mr. Heffel said during that interview. ”…We want to treat the collection with respect and honour.”
A number of items in the sale set new records for dollar amounts for those artists, including the Bell-Smith, Three Hudson’s Bay Company Ships in the Thames by Francis Holman and Bay Watch by Charles Pachter.
“Thank you to HBC for the honour,” Mr. Heffel said as the sale concluded.
It was a “white glove” auction, meaning that every piece in the catalogue was sold.