As already mentioned in my previous post, the last Bonhams sale in NY featured a lot of leftovers from the collection of Marc & Denyze Ginzberg.
The most important part of this famed collection was sold by Sotheby’s Paris on 10 September 2007 . In New York, Jacaranda also has been offering objects of daily use with the noted Ginzberg provenance. And now, Bonhams sold another 100 pieces. To my suprise many below the estimate .
For attentive buyers there were some interesting bargains to be made; some examples:
– a Banyambo spear, published in African forms, sold for only $ 3,750 inc. premium. Note that Sotheby’s sold a similar spear from the Ginzberg collection in 2007 for € 12,000 inc. premium.
– a wonderful Guro spoon (incorrectly listed as Dan in the catalogue) sold for only $ 600 inc. premium.
– Three whistles selling for $ 250 inc premium is just ridiculous – that’s even lower than regular prices on Ebay.
– a personal favourite was this double miniature Lega stool. A very rare find, for $ 875 inc. premium almost for free.
– the Igbo stool featured on the front cover of the African forms addendum made $ 1,125 inc. premium.
Some objects even failed to sell, for example this wonderful Zulu pipe:
(all images courtesy of Bonhams)
So who’s to blame ? A disinterested public ? Bonhams, for not creating enough fuzz about these objects ? The end of the ‘African forms’ hype ? Or, again, the economic crisis ?