It’s the auctioneer’s job to keep bidding right up to the reserve price against someone who is willing to acquire that work.
Can you command a room and get people to part with their money? Then auctioneering may be your true calling.
Standing on the rostrum, gavel in hand, the auctioneer holds the crowd and tries to engineer proceedings to get the maximum bid. But when record auction prices make headlines, it’s the artwork, the artist and the buyer (if known) who are spoken about and not the person who sealed the deal.
It’s commonly believed that salesmanship and humour are the only qualities an auctioneer needs.
“People don’t realise how much goes into it [auctioning]. It’s not as simple as just standing up there and saying out loud the numbers,” says Ishrat Kanga, deputy director, specialist, head of Sale at Sotheby’s London, who has also donned the auctioneer’s hat.
Hitting the gavel One of the important things an auctioneer needs is numerical dexterity to keep track of the in crements. “You have to do mental calculations in your head,” says Kanga.
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It’s all about playing with the secret reserve price — a minimum sale price for a work as decided by the seller.
An auctioneer's job can also be daunting, particularly when there is a difficult crowd and there are no bids. It’s the auctioneer’s job to keep bidding right up to the reserve price against someone who is willing to acquire that work. “Say there is a reserve price of 100 pounds for a work. You have to start lower [with the bidding] because you can’t give up the secret reserve price,” says Kanga. “If I start at 95, everybody is going to know that the next bid is 100, which is the reserve price. The beauty is subtly hiding where the reserve price is.”
Say the auctioneer starts at 65. “The bid goes 70, 75, 80 and so on. Now 100 is the reserve price. So, as an auctioneer you have to remember that 100 does not fall on you. The collector in the room has to [buy the lot]. You have to do that calculation in your head. You have to back track in your mind to figure out a way that the 95 bid falls on you [the auctioneer] and the 100 falls on the buyer,” Kanga says.
The reason: If you take the bid at 100 (the reserve price) and nobody else bids after that, the lot is sold to you — the auctioneer.
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Managing the stress The job can also be daunting, particularly when there is a difficult crowd and there are no bids. Kanga likens it to putting on a live performance. “It is very stressful. You have to think on your feet. Your energy level has to be at the maximum for hours and hours, because if you start to fade, they [the buyers] start to fade,” she says.
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From 'Pink' Diamond To The World's First Microchip: Items That Failed To Sell At Auctions
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In 2016, Sotheby's had a manuscript by Ludwig van Beethoven up for auction. The single-page manuscript was described as the "Autograph manuscript of the 'Allegretto' in B minor for string quartet (WoO 210), composed for an English visitor to Vienna in 1817". It has the words "composed and written by Beethoven himself November 29, 1817 at Vienna" inscribed on it. The manuscript was expected to fetch about 200,000 pounds. The auction house made a statement that there were no takers because of a Beethoven scholar's claim that the manuscript was not authentic.
Image: Sotheby's
In 2016, Sotheby's had a manuscript by Ludwig van Beethoven up for auction. The single-page manuscript was described as the "Autograph manuscript of the 'Allegretto' in B minor for string quartet (Wo..
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In 1996, Albert Einstein's earliest available manuscript in which he elaborated on his theory of relativity was auctioned by Sotheby's in Manhattan. The item, which was expected to sell for $4 million-6 million, failed to meet the minimum bid. The 72-page untitled manuscript was written in 1912, seven years after Einstein's special theory was first published.
In 1996, Albert Einstein's earliest available manuscript in which he elaborated on his theory of relativity was auctioned by Sotheby's in Manhattan. The item, which was expected to sell for $4 millio..
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In 1958, Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments made the world's first microchip by hand. The second prototype of this historic chip went under the hammer in 2014, but failed to meet the reserve price. Kilby won the Nobel Prize for the creation of the microchip and his other contributions to the computing era. Christie's had estimated that the chip would bring in between $1-2 million.
Image: Christie's
In 1958, Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments made the world's first microchip by hand. The second prototype of this historic chip went under the hammer in 2014, but failed to meet the reserve price. Kilb..
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Cook was a famous explorer and was the man who claimed Australia for Great Britain in 1770, naming eastern Australia 'New South Wales'. One of Cook's wai st coat s passed through a few hands, including Australian pianist Ruby Rich who altered it to suit a woman's body. It landed up in an auction in 2017. The 250-yearold waistcoat was valued close to $1.1 million by Aalders Auctions.
Photo: Aalders Auctions
Cook was a famous explorer and was the man who claimed Australia for Great Britain in 1770, naming eastern Australia 'New South Wales'. One of Cook's wai st coat s passed through a few hands, includi..
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Father Jamie McLeod had bought an artwork from a small antique shop in Cheshire for £400. It later came to light that the artwork was an original Van Dyck painting. It was discovered after a television show evaluated the painting. In 2014, Christie's set an estimate of 400,000-500,000 pounds for the painting titled 'Head Study of a Man in a Ruff', which failed to sell.
Image: Christie's
Father Jamie McLeod had bought an artwork from a small antique shop in Cheshire for £400. It later came to light that the artwork was an original Van Dyck painting. It was discovered after a televisi..
