The summer started off with a blip. In July, the Liv-ex Index was down 1. Gold also fell during this month, and both commodities have since rallied.
Across four Hong Kong auctions in September, the average sellthrough rate was more than 99 percent. In October, Farr Vintners also sold off a private cellar, owned by a big name in the UK music industry, but this time via sealed bid tender. The dual business plan is by no means original, however.
This flurry of activity in the fall could explain a sedate month or two of plotting and mulling. Summer is always quiet on the auction front. As collectors vacated the Big Apple and the Big Smoke and headed to the beach, most auctioneers packed away their hammers for a two-month hibernation, but not so for one uniquely placed house.
It was founded in in the glamorous French Riviera town famous for its film festival, and its wine auctions are held in the Hotel Martinez on the palm-lined seafront. On July 17, auction staff were inundated with absentee bids from French and international trade, presumably with nowhere else to turn during the auction dearth, as well as telephone bids from abroad.
Bordeaux first growths performed particularly well-even in mediocre vintages-with good prices fetched elsewhere for Henri Jayer and Didier Dagueneau wines. August, too, was characteristically slow in most markets, prices on the Bordeaux Index rising only 0. August in Cannes saw telephone and absentee bids rife again.
