Webb's

This is part of an advertisement that appears on page 3 of today's Sunday Star Times.

Increasingly, my work has been appearing in auctions. Usually I don't know who the owner is, especially with images like the one above, which was taken about 25 years ago.

Generally speaking auctions have been a bit worrying because although they are putting work in catalogues and it's getting seen, the work also tends to go at what seem to me quite low prices. This has been the case for years.

Towards the end of last year, in two consecutive auctions, photographs of mine set new records at Webb's, for photography. $6000 & $9800. It received some publicity and many people remarked on it to me. I'm keen to see what happens over the next few auctions.

Another trend is that if it is reported that a high price has been achieved for a Peter Peryer, say, as it was in the NZ Herald in early Dec, then other print owners are more likely to think that they might sell theirs. High prices at auction will suck work off walls. This is turn could affect prices, perhaps in a negative way. In my case I wonder how many more of these older works are out there. There were never very many in the first place, and they must be getting rarer. (I don't reprint.)