The folks at Canada’s auction house, Heffel, held their annual spring sale in Vancouver on May 28th and made 9.7m CD which slightly exceeded the pre-sale high estimate of 8m CD when adding the 17% commission. Here’s what they had to say about their sale:

◊ The 135 lots offered in the live auction brought this year’s total to $9.7 million

◊ The evening saw seven record-breaking sales, including new artist records for Lise Gervais, Ken Danby, David Blackwood, Mary Pratt and Joyce Wieland

◊ This season’s Post-War & Contemporary Art cover lot, Pleine saison  by Montreal’s Jean Paul Riopelle sold for $1,298,000 (est. $400,000 – 600,000)

◊ Lawren Stewart Harris’ Lake Superior Sketch LXI sold for $973,500 (est. $500,000 – 700,000)

◊ Eight Emily Carr lots including rare, early illustrations sold for a combined total of $1.5 million. Among them, Emily Carr’s Trees in Swirling Sky nearly tripled its presale low estimate at $590,000 (est. $200,000 – 250,000) Carr shattered records last season with her $3.39 million sale of The Crazy Stair (The Crooked Staircase) at Heffel’s fall auction. Inclusive of this sale, Heffel has offered 233 works by Emily Carr, for a total of $39 million.

◊ Jack Bush’s  Temple set a new Canadian auction record at $438,750 (est. $125,000 – 175,000)

◊ Michael Snow’s  Solar more than doubled its pre-auction estimate of $40,000 –  60,000 selling for $129,800, a record for a painting for the artist

◊ Two anticipated lots by distinguished Quebec artist Jean Paul Lemieux totaled $494,325 in tonight’s sale, led by La Québécoise, which sold for $442,500(est. $250,000 – 350,000)

◊ Sharing the British Columbia spotlight with Carr this evening was E.J. Hughes, whose composition Looking South Over Sooke Harbour surpassed presale estimates and sold for $212,400 (est. $120,000 – 150,000)

◊ Only known through reproduced photographs until its recent consignment to Heffel, A.Y. Jackson’s Mazinaw Lake, March, Bon Echo garnered great interest and achieved a notable $614,250, far exceeding its conservative estimate of $125,000 – 175,000. A total of 12 Jackson pieces sold in the spring auction for a total of $1.1 million