A fun story from two decades ago goes something like this. A client walked into a Melbourne auction house and advised that she was both “single” and delighted to hear that the auction house was accepting consignments from single people. It was perhaps a little tongue-in-cheek, but it also highlighted the kind of language auctioneers use – and how it can sometimes confuse.
Let me dispel any confusion here. A single-owner sale (or auction), the same thing really, is an offering where the collection is owned and being sold by one vendor. The vendor might be a living collector, it might be an Estate representing a collector or it might simply be an entity, a corporation for example, which owns a collection. The collection itself can comprise of well, really, anything. It could focus on a single category, or span across multiple ones.
So why all the fuss about single-owner collections?
No one in Melbourne has conducted more of these than Leonard Joel over its 106 years so I feel I can answer this question reasonably succinctly and hopefully add a bit of value to the single-owner concept.
To begin with, we humans are naturally drawn to the back story of ownership and personality that comes with a single-owner sale. Who owns it, what did their life speak of and where did they travel, are often the questions most asked. It’s at its most fascinating when it’s a public figure. Why? Because entering such a collection is, in many ways, an invitation to their home; an invitation we would never have enjoyed otherwise. My visits to the Fairfax estate, the Barassi home and Mirka Mora’s studio/home were magical for me!
Secondly, these sales are also a real-time insight into what a collection can look like, what themes run through the collection – either intended or unattended – and how thoughtful and considered the collection really is. Some collections are chaotic, where no item speaks to another – and that in itself becomes the theme, while others can be very cerebral indeed. My visit to Mr Hose’s home of clocks was fantastic and museum-like while my visit to the Hurlston home, full of every imaginable guitar, a category I knew nothing about, spoke of laser-focused passion and interest. A man that simply loved clocks, their complexity and another who loved a single instrument, in all its forms.
And finally, single-owner sales are worth considering not just for collectors in the process of acquiring, but also for those thinking ahead to dispersal. The attraction of the single-owner sale is unique and generates different outcomes to a collection that is dispersed piecemeal or gradually over time. Yes, unquestionably, a single item of rarity and beauty – that is in vogue with collectors – can stand in any auction alone but there are benefits to the collective sale process too.
At the top of that list is the premium that single-owner sales seem to attract. If one could sell the exact same collection twice – something that I don’t believe has ever been done – once as a single-owner sale and once as a typical multi-vendor sale, a noticeable uplift in prices would be observed in the single-owner edition. Curiously, within these sales, it’s also observed that less valuable items typically enjoy more significant uplift. In essence, the collective effect and the presence of the more valuable generates real upside in the decorative and more modestly estimated items.
But there can be exceptions to this rule.
The piece, the “rose among the thorns”, that feels far too valuable, and somewhat uncomfortable, in the context of the broader collection might sometimes be best considered for exclusion and for placement in a multi-vendor auction but of the same category, surrounded by similarly valuable items. But is there are a hard and fast rule here? Not really. How a collection is ultimately curated for auction is as much an art as a science and really, ultimately, a deeply personal discussion between auctioneer and seller. And that brainstorming about how, where and when a collection should be sold, ultimately, in my opinion, yields the best possible result.
By John Albrecht, Managing Director & Head of Important Collections
Top Image: (detail) A George II Musical Organ Bracket Clock Charles Clay, London, Circa 1735. Sold for $64,000 in the Hose Collection, 2018
May 2025