Leading New Zealand firm Webb’s – established by Auckland gallery owner Peter Webb in 1976 – became part of Mossgreen in October 2014. Two businessmen and art collectors from the city, Ewen Mackenzie-Bowie and Bruce Qin, rescued the saleroom earlier this year following the collapse of the parent company and a regular calendar of sales is now in operation from new premises in Mount Eden.
A week of multi-department auctions in September included, on September 24, this copy of Sir Walter Lawry Buller’s A History of the Birds of New Zealand (London, 1873) with coloured illustrations by JG Keulemans in original blue and gilt cloth. It sold at NZ$3400 (£1700).
