A Gibson Les Paul guitar sold for $54,970 at Webb’s auction house last month.
A Fiona Pardington art photo, Kārearea, Hunter (2024), sold for $80,662, almost twice the expected price.
Caolan McAleer, Webb’s director of marketing and operations, says Pardington’s exhibition of her photographic portraits of museum taxidermy specimens at this year’s Venice Biennale probably helped boost the price, but still.
Fiona Pardington’s Kārearea, Hunter (2024) sold for $80,662 at Webb’s auction house last month.
And Cordy’s owner, Andrew Grigg, says that although Te Papa holds works by Gordine, who is head of Te Takapū o Rotowhio (School of Bone and Stone Carving) at the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute in Rotorua, the tiki’s sale price was still impressive.
They are examples that show if the right buyers are bidding at the same time, auction prices can go well beyond expectation. However, Grigg warns not to be fooled by unexpected or one-off prices, driven by “two incredibly hot buyers” who go head to head.
The market can be fickle and if bidders are buying only for investment reasons, they might well lose out.
“A few months later you put something up that’s very similar and it makes nothing like that price.”
Take the Jane Birkin handbag, Grigg says. The record price, reached after an exhilarating 10-minute phone bidding battle at a Sotheby’s auction in Paris last year, might never be reached again.
The bag was bought by Japanese businessman and collector Shinsuke Sakimoto, who founded Valuence Holdings, a “circular design” company that specialises in buying and selling pre-owned luxury goods.
The original Hermès Jane Birkin handbag sold for $17.1 million at Sotheby’s in Paris last year. Photo / Dmitry Kostyukov
Sakimoto, who described the Birkin bag as a “truly artistic piece”, vowed it would not be on-sold. Maybe not, but Grigg points out that the sale won’t have done the company any harm. The record-smashing price will inevitably drive up the value of other Birkin bags the company sells.
The bag dates back to the early 1980s when style icon, singer and actor Jane Birkin sat next to a Hermès executive on a flight and complained most of the Hermès bags, like the Kelly (named after American actress of Princess of Monaco Grace Kelly), were too small. The Jane Birkin bag was born and soon became a status symbol.
Jane Birkin handbags rarely come up for sale in New Zealand and when they do, don’t sell for millions. But there are other treasures to be spotted and bid for.
Two years ago Cordy’s sold a sterling silver presentation box for $95,640. Although it was beautifully made and in almost perfect condition, it was the history that gave the “Great White Fleet” casket its value.
In 1908, US President Theodore Roosevelt sent 16 white-painted battleships on a global tour to show off American naval might. When they steamed into the Waitematā Harbour for six days of celebration, Queen St was jammed with thousands of well-wishers.
The American fleet of battleships at Auckland in 1908.
To mark the event, the Auckland Harbour Board commissioned Queen St jeweller Adolph Kohn to make a silver presentation casket as a gift for the commander of the American fleet, Rear Admiral Charles S Sperry. Carved in the front are the words “Naumai Ki Akarana”, Welcome to Auckland. The intricate box was decorated with pounamu tiki, gold Kiwi, silver carvings and ferns, and topped with a pounamu bar and gold.
This sterling silver presentation casket, decorated with pounamu tiki and gold kiwi, was given to Rear Admiral Charles S Sperry, commander of the visiting American fleet, in 1908.
Buying a piece of history can create a whole new depth of research and knowledge on a subject for the purchaser, which becomes part of the enjoyment, Grigg says. He warns auction-goers to buy for the pleasure and appreciation of an item, not just as an investment.
Andrew Grigg, owner and director of Cordy’s Auctioneers.
Think back to the astonishing prices people paid for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) a few years ago, which provided digital ownership of an asset like art. In 2021, an NFT artwork by digital artist Beeple sold for $116.8m at Christie’s.
Snoop Dogg fans paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for a plot of virtual land near the American rapper’s mansion in the Snoopverse. But in 2022, crypto art valuations and the NFT market crashed, with values plunging by 90%. Suddenly, virtual objects were worth virtually nothing.
Trends driven by nostalgia
Auctioneers say collectors need to keep an eye on trends, which can be hiked or hit by the movement of generational nostalgia. That explains why millennials and Gen Z are not particularly interested in Grandma’s fine bone china, Victorian furniture, silver-plate cutlery and crystal that can’t go in the dishwasher. These days, items that grandparents coveted and collected go for prices that would make them weep.
Instead, nostalgia drives bidders who want to buy back a slice of their childhood, so they’ll fork out for a Star Wars toy from the 1980s, an unopened Nintendo video game from the 1990s or a rare Pokemon card.
A collection of Disney Ooshies figurines from supermarkets won’t be worth much now but could well have nostalgia value for future generations of Gen Alpha, much like the Labubu Pop Mart boom in recent years. A human-sized Labubu doll sold for more than $270,000 at a Chinese auction house last year.
The frenzied buying of Nike Air Jordan retro sneakers has also cooled but rare collaborations or shoes owned by a celebrity are still in demand. In 2023, a Sotheby’s bidder paid $3.77m for a pair of Air Jordan 13s worn – and signed – by basketball legend Michael Jordan during game 2 of the 1998 NBA finals. They are more likely to hold their value than the 3000 pairs of NFT sneakers released by NBA player Steph Curry in 2021, before the crash. The digi-sneakers are now selling for around $5.
Instead, buyers want something they can touch. Fuelled by the back-to-analogue trend, vinyl records and cassette tapes – never known for their sound quality – are selling well.
Taylor Swift, one of the smartest pop artists in the business, was an early retro-analogue adopter, releasing many of her albums as vinyl records and on cassette tapes.
But it’s the originals, in near-perfect condition, that collectors are after. A selection of old jazz LPs sold for $1494 at Auckland auctioneers Cordy’s earlier this year.
But that doesn’t mean old LPs and cassettes are always going to be hot-ticket items, Grigg says.
“It moves with a generation and once that generation is done, then it’s got to catch up and move with another generation who has something else that appeals to them.”
That generational move away from a constant digi-focus worked well for a Webb’s sale of guitars and other instruments from a private collection. Crowds from the Auckland music scene turned up beforehand to sample what was on offer.
“It was a very noisy, melodic week, shall we say,” McAleer says.
Many of the instruments, including the Les Paul guitar, sold well above their expected prices.
Caolan McAleer, director of marketing and operations at Webb’s auction house.
Webb’s fortnightly estate sales are also popular with a younger audience, who pore over the catalogues and buy objects or furniture, he says. That generation is more open to buying second-hand objects and furniture for their homes.
The demand for minimalist mid-century (1950s to 1970s) furniture has softened, with younger buyers now searching for comfy, carved furniture from the arts-and-craft era in dark colours. Buyers, following fashion and interior influencers, are looking for something with more history and patina, McAleer says.
“A more eclectic look for a home that’s warm and inviting rather than the minimalism that we’ve seen before.”
However, minimalist modular furniture like the European USM brand’s designs are still considered investment pieces.
Two vintage felt Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret dolls sold for $3825 to a doll collector at Cordy’s auction house earlier this year.
Sterling silver, too, is making a comeback, most likely because the price of silver is buoyant.
A sterling silver Crest of Windsor tea and coffee set by Poole, Massachusetts, sold for $16,730 at Webb’s this year, well above the estimate.
A sterling silver Crest of Windsor tea and coffee set by the Poole Silver Company, Massachusetts, sold for $16,730 at Webb’s auction house.
Prices at the top end of work by well-known New Zealand artists are also buoyant. Last month Bill Hammond’s 1999 painting, Zoomorphic Lounge III, sold for $1.65m at a Webb’s auction.
Space memorabilia is also proving popular. Webb’s held an auction of Apollo and Nasa memorabilia earlier this year, with prices again going well above expected levels.
A signed photo of Neil Armstrong, the first astronaut to walk on the moon, sold for $8000, double its estimate. And a minute sample of insulation from Columbia, the Apollo 11 command module, autographed by Buzz Aldrin (the second man to walk on the moon) sold for $3500, again double its estimate.
Zoomorphic Lounge III (1999), an acrylic-on-canvas painting by Bill Hammond, sold for $1.65 million last month.
Grigg says mechanical watches, including sports and diver’s watches, have sold well in recent years, particularly rare ones – Grigg calls them the “James Bond or first-man-on-the-moon” examples – but prices have started to soften.
“People were paying a huge premium. It has slowed down a bit lately. That’s an international trend.”
Military items and artefacts with an interesting back story are also popular. But Grigg warns buyers about filling up their homes with “stuff” they’ve bought at auction, thinking it will be worth a fortune one day. That day may never come, he says.
People might spend their lives collecting teaspoons or elephants but that doesn’t mean the collection will be worth much when it’s time to sell. Instead, he says, buy an item to enjoy having it in your home.
Jane Phare is a senior journalist based in Auckland. Her roles at the Herald have included assistant editor of NZ Herald, editor of the Weekend Herald, founding editor of Viva, features editor and deputy print editor.
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