Media release – March 27, 2008
Rare old Goldie and Lindauer paintings: the jewels in the Potton collection to be sold at auction this Monday March 31st
at 6pm
The hammer price of three rare Maori portraits by renowned artists Charles Frederick Goldie and Gottfried Lindauer will
be the highlight of the Potton private collection auction at Webb’s Gallery in Auckland this Monday.
The entire collection of the late Nelson businessman Richard Potton and his wife Rhoda is expected to up to a million
dollars, with top prices predicted for the impressive Goldie, two Lindauer works and majestic watercolours by Nicholas
Chevalier.
The collection of over 50 works is the most important private collection of historical New Zealand art works to have
come on the market since Webb's sold the Dr Hogg collection in 1993. This type of highly curated, private collection
very rarely comes on the market complete. this is a rare opportunity for the public to view and purchase museum quality
19th century masterpiece works.
The Goldie, of Arawa chieftainess Rapaka, could reach $150,000, Webb’s managing director Sophie Coupland said today.
The 1918 oil is framed, as usual, in cut black stained Kauir frame, made by the artist’s father at his timber mill in
Henderson. A similar Goldie painting, Te Arani Ngati Whakaue, sold at Webb’s last year for $160 000.
Investment and collector interest in Goldie’s works since he died 60 years ago has never been higher, with a work
selling for $400,000 against a catalogue estimate of $240,000 - $280,000 last week in Auckland.
But a cloud of mystery hangs over the exact identity of the sitters in the Lindauer paintings to go under the hammer on
Monday. The paintings are depict a Ngatai chief and chieftainess from the Wairarapa – Manawatu regions.
Despite substantial research by Webb’s, they have been unable to unearth the exact names of the Maori sitters. The
Wairarapa Time Age newspaper ran front page photos of the paintings which engendered response from local Maori thought
without confirmation of exactly who the sitters were.
The Lindauer paintings should each fetch up to $120,000.
Not since 2000 has a major work by New Zealand’s finest 19th century watercolorist Nicholas Chevalier come on the
market. This sale includes two works which can only be described as magnificent and are expected to sell for up to
$70,000 each.
ENDS