Graham Arader on the sell-side at Auction
- By Bruce McKinney
An important sale
W. Graham Arader is a businessman with a communicable appreciation and love of maps, and watercolors. He admits to have created the modern market for collectible maps and barely acknowledges that others believe they too were there when the star appeared over Bethlehem. What is known is that Graham was selling maps from his dorm room at Yale in the early 1970s and recognized that individual maps were worth more than the books they were in, an idea taken for granted today. In that epiphany he saw he could buy books of maps and hand-colored images and set them free as individual collectibles to an audience that wanted material to frame and display. It was a simple concept, actually an act of genius that would become the basis of his career as the greatest map and images collector and one of the greatest dealers in the works on paper field over the next half century: a simple idea that has come to define a complicated life.
So it is meaningful that he now believes the wheel has turned and the world changed in how buyers and sellers will increasingly establish the prices of collectible materials. He sees the auction model establishing the purchase price, a breathtaking acknowledgement, that doesn’t spell the end of how he sells today but does point to market-derived pricing in the future. As he explains it, “the world changes.”
So on December 5th Guernsey, the New York auctioneers, will conduct a sale of 282 items for the Arader Galleries and in a further departure from standard practice hold the sale at the Arader Galleries at 1016 Madison in Manhattan. There is nothing predictable about Mr. Arader and little reason he abandon the original thinking that has carried him to the top of the premium images market. It’s simply time for a change.
His is an important sale and distinctive in significant ways. It is a large sale; $12.6 million at the low estimate and $16.5 at the high. Lots with high estimates of $10,000 and less are offered without reserve and are marked as unreserved in the lot descriptions or, if all lots on the page are unreserved, on the top of the page. There are 138 lots in this category. For bidders this is assurance they are not bidding against undisclosed house reserves that may create the illusion of multiple bidders pursuing an item. As well Mr. Arader explains that for more valuable material, that is anything with a high estimate of $10,001 up, the estimates are intended to be low to reasonable and points to various examples to make his point:
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Graham Arader on the sell-side at Auction
- By Bruce McKinney
55 lots of Natural History Watercolors & Colorplate Books
Lot 80. The Quadrupeds of North America, original, hand coloured and in parts. Estimated $25,000 to $30,000
Lot 101. Still Life with Peaches. A watercolor on vellum by Pierre-Joseph Redoute. Estimated $10,000 to $15,000
Lot 167. A Map of the Most Inhabited Part of Virginia, containing the whole province of Maryland with part of Pensilvania, New Jersey and North Carolina. By Peter Jefferson and Joshua Fry. Estimated $60,000 to $70,000
Lot 224. The Port of New York. A Currier & Ives print, after Charles R. Parsons and Lyman W. Atwater. Estimated $12,000 to $15,000
Lot 227. A plan of the city of New-York & its Environs to Greenwich, on the North or Hudson River and to Crown Point, on the East or Sound River, Shewing the Several Streets, Publick Buildings, Docks, Fort & Battery, with thee true Form & Course of the Commanding Grounds, With and without the Town…Survey’d in the winter, 1775. Estimated $60,000 to $70,000.
“My goal is to sell all of the material.” It's tall order. The full sale carries total low and high estimates of $12.6 and $16.5 million. The outcomes will depend on the reserves. Over the past two years the percentage of lots selling in the works on paper category at auction worldwide has been increasing as estimates have come down enough to induce skeptical bidders to buy material priced through competitive bidding. It’s today a strong trend and Mr. Arader is as determined to change with the market as he was when first selling maps in college. He was and remains an innovator. For maps and images his conversion is important because his holdings are massive. As he moves to market-determined pricing it will force the category to follow suit.
The sale at hand is divided into 8 sections:
1-34. Audubon prints. Mainly unreserved
35-59. Audubon prints selected from the top 50. Many unreserved
60-79. Audubon quadrupeds. XX unreserved
80. Audubon quadrupeds, the octavo edition in parts
81. Audubon imperial quadrupeds
82. Audubon octavo birds
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Graham Arader on the sell-side at Auction
- By Bruce McKinney
Keulen Atlas - a major item
83-138. Watercolors of birds and flowers. Including oil paintings, Redoute roses and a 57 volume set of Gould prints.
139-180. 51 items identified in Schwartz and Ehrenberg’s The Mapping of America – important maps in American history.
181-190 Globes and atlases.
191-250. New York, New York.
Mr. Arader describes this section as the greatest offering of New York City watercolors, maps, engravings, prints, views and charts since the Percy R. Pyne II sale in January 1917 at the American Art Auction Galleries.
251-282. American paintings. A broad selection modestly reserved.
The complete catalogue is posted at Guernsey’s, on the Arader Galleries websites and on the Americana Exchange. An exhibition of the material on offer will be held daily at the Arader Galleries, 1016 Madison Avenue, in New York beginning on November 1st and continuing until the hammer begins to fall on December 5th.
As a side note the financial mechanics of the sale are interesting. For collectors, and institutions 10% of the hammer prices will be contributed or refunded. For dealers 10% will be deducted from the hammer price. For specially designated institutions that agree to use their purchases in exhibits and as part of efforts to raise interest in collecting additional terms are available.
Extended payments are open for discussion.
“The world changes and I change with it.”
View the complete catalogue. Once in, scroll down to view all lots.
Link to Guernseys
Link to the Arader Galleries
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