2013 was a monumental and exciting year for Consignor Canadian Fine Art. In June, a partnership began between Rob Cowley, Ryan Mayberry and Lydia Abbott to take Consignor.ca, previously the online auction branch of Mayberry Fine Art, into a bricks-and-mortar business. The vision of the new partnership was simple: to create a hybridized business model that combined tradition and technology, as well as the aspects of the auction and private gallery industries, providing an unparalleled level of personalized service to the Canadian art market. After an astounding fall season, our team could not be happier with the reception of our vision and the success of our inaugural sales, not only securing our place within the continually changing art industry in Canada, but also providing us with clear feedback to continue our evolution in 2014.
We have been delighted with the media response to the establishment of Consignor Canadian Fine Art and our inaugural Fall Auction of Important Canadian Art. Below you will find some visual highlights of the coverage so far and we will continue to post media clips and highlights as they emerge!
We did it! Last night we hit 500 likes on Facebook! This milestone means a great deal to us as we have been working hard to create original content (such as videos, blog posts, photos and updates) and the “likes” provide us with direct and positive feedback.
Rob regularly donates his time to conduct auctions for charitable purposes. Below is a video of Rob acting as auctioneer for this year’s ORT Art Auction at Toronto’s TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning.
Our November auction of Important Canadian Art is open for bidding between November 20th and 29th with previews starting November 1st. We understand that not everyone can make it into our gallery in downtown Toronto, to view the artwork in person, therefore we happy to provide a video tour! Enjoy!
Tom Thomson, Daydreaming
TORONTO (For Immediate Release) – A rare 100-year-old portrait by Tom Thomson is going up for auction online. Consignor Canadian Fine Art says Daydreaming is a portrait of artist Thoreau MacDonald, the son of Group of Seven member J.E.H. MacDonald. The auction house dates the work to sometime between 1913-1915, a few years before Thomson’s untimely death in 1917. Consignor says “Daydreaming” represents a rare portrait by Thomson, who is best known for painting landscapes of northern Ontario. It estimates the work could fetch between $200,000 and $250,000.
If you follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (which you should!), you will see that we’ve been very excited lately and we wanted to take a moment to share why.
Consignor regularly receives contact from clients, looking to receive guidance regarding the possible valuation of their artwork. It is our pleasure to be of service in providing preliminary “verbal” auction estimates at no charge, based on the auction market for comparable works of art.
If you are interested in speaking with our specialists and engaging in this confidential and complimentary process, we recommend that you gather certain pertinent details regarding your artwork to assist our team in providing you with the highest (and most accurate) level of initial service.
The following questions will help provide you with some direction through the preliminary steps in the valuation process with our firm.
1. Who is the artist of your artwork?
Examine the front and reverse sides of the artwork, looking for a signature from the artist and/or potentially a notation which might
be present on a gallery or exhibition label. The identity of the artist is an important valuation factor for our specialists as it allows us
to compare the artwork directly with other works by the artist which have appeared at auction.
