Auction Sold

The two most important, most active art auction rooms in the U. S. are the Anderson Galleries and the American Art Galleries, both in Manhattan. Last week, Cortland Field Bishop, the owner of the latter, made a purchase from Mitchell Kennerley, book publisher, connoisseur, and president of the Anderson Galleries. The exact price of his purchase he refused to divulge; almost certainly it was more than $1,000,000. In exchange, Mr. Bishop acquired control of the Anderson Galleries. No real estate, no stock, not even a chipped picture frame changed hands. By buying the Anderson Galleries, Mr. Bishop had merely purchased access to its clientele, the opportunity to pay rent on an old four-story building, and a vast quantity of that dubious commodity described, in financial sheets and aeronautical despatches, as "goodwill."

Of late, the type of property handled by the two galleries has differed little. Not so in the past: the Anderson Galleries, founded about 45 years ago and known as "Bangs," specialized in book sales; the American Galleries, which was started in the early 80's and thrived thereafter under Gustavus T. Kirby, was a far more pretentious organization. Its evening auction sales of paintings and oriental knickknacks, held at Chickering Hall, were social diversions. Manhattan art patrons would fill themselves with quail and chilled champagne, call for their broughams, and drive through the streets, quite quiet except for the soft drumming of horses' hoofs, to the auction room. The men would smoke long cigars during the sale and bid furiously because it was good fun and a Wall Street habit.

Mitchell Kennerley took over the Anderson Galleries when it was an obscure and relatively insignificant house; since then he has increased its business to an enormous extent. The Leverhulme sale, held in his rooms two years ago, was probably the most spectacular art auction ever held in the U. S. The American Galleries, nonetheless, is still ahead; its total business averages about $6,000,000 a year. When the two galleries are merged, they will accept bids which aggregate about $9,000,000 every year; thus surpassing, financially at least, famed Christie's, in London, which has, during the last 150 years, housed more beautiful paintings than the Louvre.

Cortland Field Bishop bought the American Galleries five years ago. His interest in art auctions went back to the days when his father had taken him to the sales at Chickering Hall and he had felt for the first time the insidious excitement and the delicious thrill of bidding for beautiful things. Since then, he has dropped in at many auctions, adding to his private collection of French books, manuscripts, prints, and etchings. Had his father never taken him to Chickering Hall, Cortland Bishop would probably have been an inventor. He surprised his neighbors at Lenox, Mass., by buying a baby tank; in this staggering vehicle he would ride amiably up and down the solemn rocks and rills of New England, accompanied by two or more large, barking, shaggy dogs. Verbose, clever, dynamic, Cortland Bishop has vast enthusiasms; it is now his plan for the indefinite future to build, upon one of his properties in Manhattan, an art auction gallery that will enable him to surpass Christie's in every detail and thus to secure for U. S. collectors some of the great paintings that have hitherto escaped them.