Butchart family estate likely to set local auction record
The estate auction of items that had belonged to a member of the Butchart Gardens family has generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales from buyers in Canada and overseas.
A final total for the Ross estate has not yet been tallied.
But Peter Boyle, president of Lunds Auctioneers and Appraisers, said the Saturday event at the Empress Hotel likely generated the highest total sales value for a local auction.
Some items sold for tens of thousands of dollars above estimates.
“The low pre-auction estimates proved us to be wrong in the right way,” Boyle said.
“But it was by design. If you over-estimate things in our world, the chances are there will be fewer people to bid on them.”
Most of the 733 lots sold. There are a few more pieces to come from the Ross estate, Boyle said, so the remaining items and the additional ones will be offered at future auctions.
The prices at Saturday’s auction in the Crystal Ballroom reflect the “hammer” price — the winning bids before fees.
Some buyers are from out of town and the auction house has to confirm payments before establishing how much the sale brought in.
Boyle said he has no reason to question that funds will come in as expected.
Hundreds of people visited the preview Thursday and Friday as well as Saturday just prior to the afternoon and evening sale.
About 1,000 people registered to bid. Some flew in from Europe and elsewhere in Canada. Between 400 and 600 people attended the auction in person. Bidders also used the telephone and Internet.
The most intense bidding was probably for Chinese jade and enamel pieces, Boyle said.
“One of the important things to realize is these prices were obtained at that particular auction at that particular time and date,” Boyle said.
“Overall we are extremely pleased with the results.”
He anticipates that sale prices will be posted next week on Lunds’ website.
The vast collection of home decor items came from the estate of the Anne-Lee Ross, who died in 2007. She was married to Ian Ross, who died in 1997.
He was a member of the family that founded Butchart Gardens in Central Saanich.
Boyle expects that the highest price for a single lot was $60,000 for a pair of Asian jardinières.
Other highlights of the auction included:
• A painting by the late Russian artist, Alexi Harlamoff, had the highest estimated value in the catalogue, at between $30,000 and $50,000. It sold for $42,000 to an out-of-town buyer.
• A Chinese porcelain glazed celadon dish went for $55,000.
• A pair of white jade bowls also sold for $55,000.
• A silver cocktail shaker by Yamanaka, Japan, with a coiled dragon design in its lid, was picked up for $44,000.
• Asian-made wine glasses brought in $28,000.
• A Dresden dinner service went for $27,000.
• A late 18th-century Chinese porcelain bowl with an intricate design sold for $26,000.
• A dozen George III silver Paul Storr dinner plates from London fetched $26,000.
• A large carpet sold for $16,000.
• A silver candelabra, made in 1886, went for $6,500.
• A pair of Imperial Russian dinner plates, circa 1830, created for Tsar Nicholas I, went for $3,750.
• A large mahogany chest of drawers sold for $4,800.