The Auction

I spent this afternoon nervously waiting for lot 109 to come up. So many questions were running through my mind. Would there be any bidders other than me? How how would the bidding get? If the bid goes well beyond the estimate does that mean that there are some experts bidding who are convinced that it is a Drysdale, or does that just mean that there are other suckers out there like me? If I can get if for below the estimate, does the lack of interest provide further evidence that it might be a fake?

The auctioneer starts off with an absentee bid of $900. I wait a few moments before raising my hand (don't want to show that Im too keen!) for a bid of $1000. The auctioneer takes my bid and scans the rest of the room for a better one. She is about to drop the gavel when someone chimes in with a bid of $1100. Bugger! I think its the dealer at the back who has been buying just about everything. Oh well. At least I may not be the only fool. We battle it out for a minute or so and the gavel finally drops at $1600 - to me! A bit more than I wanted to pay, but I was willing to go a bit higher so not a bad result in the end.