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Are there people who are addicted to auctions? Evidently Jules Fleury-Husson (Champfleury), a late nineteenth century Parisian writer thought so. He authored a book titled Les Petits Mysteres de l’Hotel des Ventes. In the book he provides advice for those addicted to public auctions. In part it reads: “A plain overcoat without furs or trimming is the dress most propitious for making a good strike. To let yourself be carried away by the tide of bidding is to expect to make your fortune at roulette. Fortify your nerves by washing in cold water every morning. Don’t irritate your stomach by spicy meals. A bar of chocolate, or anything sweet, fortifies the system around four o’clock when the bidding gets hot. A bottle of smelling salts is indispensable to combat the exhalations of the crowd. Marriage and collecting, two natural rivals, together make life unbearable. Collectors who marry should abdicate and sell their accumulations. All irrelevant thought has to be sacrificed to the collection. Do not occupy yourself with politics; never go to the theater; forbid yourself to open a book; scorn the pleasures of family; always have ready money in your pocket; arrive each day at the auction rooms at one o’clock, leave at six, return for the evening sales. With this you will have a full life. You will be a perfect collector.”
Champfleury’s sardonic advice might be in jest. However, as auctioneer, I believe I have met descendents of his students.
History has witnessed many profiles of serious bidders. Such well-known personalities as William Randolph Hearst and J.Pierpont Morgan were no stranger to the major auction houses. However, they had their quirks and paranoia as well.
According to Wesley Towners book “THE ELEGANT AUCTIONEERS”, Hearst was an auction addict. At one point in 1922, Hearst toyed with the idea of financing a colossal auction center in New York. “Hearst beat a path between the Anderson Gallery and the American Art Association and sometimes even stopped off at the smaller auction halls, at least one of which used to get up sales of Spanish antiquities wholly for his benefit, with elderly character actors posing as underbidders. At considerably less overhead expense, the Spanish importers could have sold him those old church pews and alter cloths direct, but then Hearst would have been certain that he was being cheated.”
Hearst was paranoid of being cheated. There are many recorded examples of this paranoia including the time in 1929 that he was bidding at Anderson Gallery on an Italian table. The auctioneer was Frederick Chapman. Hearst believed that the auctioneer was “running” his bid and announced in a loud audible voice “I think I’ll let the auctioneer keep this thing”. “Eight thousand,” Chapman called, but Hearst sealed his lips with an obstinate smirk. Chapman warned him twice and then said “Sold to the gentleman in the third row.” Hearst strolled down the aisle to confirm that his opponent was nonexistent. However, there in the 3rd row was his long-time rival H.F. du Pont. It goes that never again did he doubt the incorruptible Chapman.
Hearst was unconventional in his research an approach to bidding. It was not uncommon for him to work behind the scenes at auction galleries, trusting few people and being in the audience of even fewer. He would sneak into auction galleries at night bothering catalogers. He would peruse their descriptions and mark items of interest prior to the catalog going to the printer.
Although Hearst was fanatical in his bidding he was shrewd when it came to paying. “Hearst, as Parke (of Parke Bernet Gallery) put it was great man to have in an auction, but his empyreal resources notwithstanding, he was unconscionably slow to pay.” He owed one auction gallery over $300,000. in 1926 for previously unpaid purchases. Often, he was required to pay down his outstanding balance in order to bid at an upcoming auction.
In contrast to Hearst’s hands on style, J. Pierpont Morgan delegated the task of bidding to trusted associates. The most well known delegate was Belle da Costa Greene who was appointed librarian of the Morgan Library.
“Belle of the Books” or better referred to as “B.G.” by the top book auctioneers, was a formidable foe to any book buying competitor at the auctions. She was a close friend of J.P.’s and was empowered to purchase any rare books or manuscripts needed to keep the Morgan Collection first rate.
At the auction of Robert Hoe’s major collection of books at Anderson Galleries, Belle paid $42,800 for a rare book titled Le Morte d’Arthur. This was the only perfect copy of this 426 year old Caxton folio. She outbid formidable contenders on many top lots in the fantastic seventy-nine session auction that commenced on April 24th 1911. But even Belle had disappointments during the bidding wars. Although the Morgan Collection boasted several Gutenberg bibles, B.J. wanted Hoe’s 457 year old vellum copy. When the hammer came down she was not the successful bidder at the $50,000 sale price. When the smoke had cleared it was Mr. Henry E. Huntington of California that held the record for bidding the most for a book. The previous world records on book sales were $24,750 in 1884 for the Mainz Psalter (now in the Morgan Library). Following that record was Robert Hoe’s $25,000 purchase of the Gutenberg bible that Huntington ultimately paid $50,000. (The record for a Gutenberg Bible would be broken in February 1926 with a bid of $106,000.)
Belle Greene was a major buyer in the Robert Hoe auction that ended by Thanksgiving of 1912. the auction grossed $1,932,056.60 Belle might not have been as successful a bidder had not the Titanic sunk by session three. Lost with the Titanic was Harry Elkin Widener known as the “golden buyer” of books.
There were many “golden buyers” in American history. Andy Warhol must have made many merchants and auctioneers smile as he purchased thousands of items on a whim. It was said by auctioneer Robert Woolley of Sotheby’s that “Andy had a black belt in shopping; he was the ultimate accumulator. All through his life he could be completely smitten – if only for a few fleeting moments – by some object, which he’d buy and never look at again.”
When Sotheby’s cleaned out Warhol’s town house it took weeks. The rooms were packed with items never taken out of their bags. Although Andy was known for buying jewelry, none could be found during the cleanout until the end. When one of the porters tried to move the bed and couldn’t, they checked the canopy and found it loaded with jewelry still in the original boxes and bags. His jewelry alone from the top of the canopy bed fetched a little more then $3 million at auction.
Warhol’s 15 second infatuations with items was in sharp contrast to Miss Susan Minns focused collecting. Miss Minn’s singular passion was with things related to death. Since she was 14 years old growing up in Boston and always dressed in black, she chased death from country to country. She collected books, manuscripts, curios and engravings. Her subjects covered scenes of pestilence, war, famine, conflagration, fever, consumption and despair. Her collection contained magic formulas for avoiding death, recipes and devices for courting it. She claimed that studying death helped her to enjoy life. In retrospect she must have been right as she left this world in 1938 at age Ninety-nine.
I stated that “auctions create action”. Perhaps a better statement is that auction events set the stage for action and that auctioneers orchestrate the action. But, bidders through interaction truly create the action.
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