Every seat in the gallery was filled even before the auction began at Kodner Galleries, which presented an estate auction on February 17. The 25 or so sightseers that usually come for the preauction free pizza festivities (a decades-old Kodner tradition) wondered what all the excitement was about. “Usually people file in a little after the auction starts, but not this time,” commented Dee Marshall, gallery manager.
With hundreds of registered in-house bidders, another 250 approved online bidders, a plethora of order bids and more than 200 phone bids, the gallery was standing room only. Another 50 chairs were borrowed from the firm’s sister gallery and 75 people stood as the auction began. Even after the auction started, the staff and the gallery’s part-time Broward County sheriff’s deputy were rummaging through the back room looking for extra seating.
The draw for this much-anticipated auction was the estate of David P. Murbach, finder of Rockefeller Center Christmas trees since 1984 and famed horticulturist from West Palm Beach, Fla., East Hampton, N.Y., and Buenos Aires, Argentina, and several other estates of note. Several of the items were showcased at the Original Miami Beach Antique Show in January where lots of preauction interest was drummed up.
“Did we do it? Did we hit $1 million?” asked an exhilarated Russ Kodner, auctioneer, after the last lot in the auction †a Fidel Castro signed photo estimated $800․1,200 †sold for $6,000.
No, Kodner missed it by a hair, but came very close indeed. The auction started strong and ended even stronger, with the last six lots in the auction, which were photographs of the Cuban leader and other unnamed Cuban revolutionaries from the Murbach estate. With a combined estimate of $1,3/2,200, the items realized a total of $14,000.
“Well, at least we set a new record,” said Kodner. Since the firm has changed the auction venue to every month from every other month, consignments have picked up and so has the quality of the merchandise, he said. “I think it has to do with opening the second gallery, which has auctions every Friday night,” he said. Located less than one block away on the west side of US-1, “Estate Auction Company has been instrumental in allowing us to segregate the high-end items from the ever-present overflow of liquidation items,” according to a Kodner employee.
The cover lot of the auction, a well-documented Chagall gouache, was without a doubt the evening’s highlight and the main reason every seat was still occupied when it came up for bid. The gouache was sold on the telephone by Dave “Dish” Mathews. The Chagall was hotly contested, with several order bids and four phone bidders from the opening bid of $100,000. It was a three-person battle from $150,000 all the way to the hammer. A prominent Florida attorney, a New York area gallery owner and a local gallery owner representing an out-of-town client battled to the finish as the Chagall realized $300,000 to a crowd that applauded the outcome. The item set a new record for the highest priced item that ever sold in the gallery.
A collection of ten Diego Rivera watercolors fetched $130,000 in aggregate, and a Nineteenth Century imperial Russian sterling silver and enamel kovsh with inlaid amber eye, signed Pavel Ovchinnikov, estimated $2/3,000, brought $13,000 from a New York bidder.
Almost every ivory miniature lot in this auction was hammered down at high estimate or above. The Chinese ivory lots were well represented as usual, with a temple gate estimated at $4/5,000 realizing just over the high estimate and the Russian paintings, as usual, bringing over the high estimates.
Jewelry was especially strong, with a GIA-certified diamond exceeding 5 carats realizing a little less than $65,000 and an emerald ring bringing just over $10,000.
The surprise of the evening was a painting by Emil Schmidt-Wehrlin (German, Nineteenth/Twentieth Century). His oil on canvas “Street Scene, Moscow,” estimated $4/6,000, realized $12,000. The Pablo Picasso etching “Sculpteur à mi-corps au travail, plate 25” (from Suite Vollard), circa 1933, published by Vollard and printed by Lacourière, failed to please, fetching just shy of $3,500.
There was an extraordinary consignment of prints from a lifetime collection, and these brought results that mostly were in-between the published estimates. One of the print lots that stood out was an Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471‱528) woodcut, “The Seven Angels with the Trumpets” from the Apocalypse Latin Text Verso, 1511, which garnered almost $4,500.
Rounding out the top lots of the evening was an early to mid-Nineteenth Century Continental bronze mounted malachite. It was estimated $200/300 and brought just over $2,000. A Daum Nancy rain scene vase made $10,000, and an important Antoine Coypel (French, 1661‱722) oil on canvas, “Venus and Mars with Cupids,” finished at a below estimate $5,000.
Even Modernism got into the fray with an orange leather Herman Miller Eames chair and ottoman ($500/700) bringing a surprising $5,000. A Etienne Hajdu (French, 1907‱996) bronze sculpture, “La Belle,” circa 1956, unsigned with no base, elicited $4,500, and a marble sculpture of female form signed “Ricardo” with a lowly estimate of $300/400 brought more than $2,600.
Sterling silver was well represented, with a 100-piece Reed & Barton sterling silver flatware service for 12 in the Francis I pattern catching a bid just shy of $4,000 when the hammer fell, and a Nineteenth/Twentieth Century Turkish sterling silver samovar with drip bowl, tea pot and tray weighing 208 troy ounces fetching a top bid of $4,000.
On the whole, there were very few sculpture lots, but a Paul-Francois Berthoud’s (French, 1870‱939) marble and bronze sculpture “Sarah Bernhardt” brought $9,000, and an Yves Benoist Gironiere (French, 1903‱983) bronze sculpture, “Racehorse, Driver and Sulky,” circa 1930s, was sold for a hair less than $5,000.
On an equally festive note, a Nineteenth Century Louis XVI-style giltwood and Aubusson five-piece salon suite by Emile Petit, Paris guilloche carved canapé and four fauteuils, estimated at $20/30,000, failed to meet the reserve but was scooped up after the auction by an interested party.
Prices reported include the 18 percent buyer’s premium. For information, 954-925-2550 or www.kodner.com .
