Size Matters

The outcome result of Barridoff Auctioni on Aug 3 proves that there are plenty of money of investors and collectors, as long as there are quality of works in the market.

Most of the paintings were sold within estimation, with only a few expections such as the first lot (a 19th century painting of Hong Kong port with exceptional provnenance), a painting by Rackstraw Downes (Lot 148), Carmen Laffon's work (Lot 51) and in particular a sunset painting by William Henry Buck which was sold six times higher than the upper estimate.

However, works by bigger names were not quite that popular: an oil painting on board by George Inness was sold for $22,000, a study by Bierstadt was sold for $40,000. Aaron Gorson's powerful steelmill painting with several others didn't sell because the final bids were below reserved values.

But these are mostly small, in fact some can be called tiny if ones consider the normal size of Bierstadt.

In a recent Antique Digest, it was stated that with the current booming art market, collectors will pay price A for a work by a painter B because money can be accumulated fast in the strong economy while paintings by masters are only limited.

But still, results from Barridoff show that quality sells, or simply size matters, at least for some period or style.

More result can be found at here.