(2 of 2)
Manhattan's Knoedler Gallery managed to secure Meindert Hobbema's The Hamlet in the Wood for $158,400, the highest price of the auction. Messrs. Colnaghi of London bought Rembrandt's Portrait of Burgomaster Six for $39,600, the world's record price for an etching. A total of 64 paintings and 10 Rembrandt etchings were sold. The sales realized $925,012. Of this sum $250,000 had changed hands in four minutes. Auctioner Muller could well afford to smile on the River Amstel. His firm had received the customary 10%, amounting in this case to $92,500. Displaying paintings to serried rows of gentlemen with beards and pince-nez, soliciting their cash, seemed more than ever a genteel and happy profession.
But gladdest of all was Sir Henri. He looked long and lovingly on Amsterdam. Then he returned to the Thames-side with a dual satisfaction. In addition to his auction room success he had persuaded the Six family to withhold a series of ancestral oils from public sale. He, Sir Henry, would dispose of them advantageously, to the credit of Holland, the Sixes, the artists.
