# Hammer, Premium, and Why the Reported Price Is Usually Wrong
> One Maine hammer of USD 1,175,000 produced three published prices, two of them from the auction house itself. The arithmetic is public and almost nobody does it.
> The Study - 2026-08-02
> Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/study/hammer-premium-and-the-reported-price/
## Key points
- The Camden Rembrandt hammered at USD 1,175,000 and was reported at USD 1.2 million, USD 1.41 million and USD 1.47 million, all correctly.
- Thomaston Place charges 20 per cent to room, absentee and phone bidders and 25 per cent to internet bidders, which produces both of the higher figures exactly.
- The Canaletto's GBP 31.9 million, USD 43.8 million and EUR 37.8 million are one premium-inclusive sum at three exchange rates; the hammer was GBP 27.5 million.
- Sotheby's New York premium runs 28 per cent to USD 2 million, 22 per cent to USD 8 million and 15 per cent above.
## Two numbers, one lot
## One Maine hammer, three published prices
## When the reporting is clean, and what it still hides
## The premium is tiered, and the tiers move
## Currency introduces a third figure, and the hammer disappears
## The habit, and why it matters at the bottom of the market too
A price with no label is not a fact, it is half of one. A single Maine hammer of USD 1,175,000 generated three published prices, two of them from the auction house itself, and every one of them was arithmetically correct. The discipline that fixes this costs nothing: record the currency of the sale, record the hammer, record the total, and treat every conversion as derived. Do that consistently and the market's own numbers become usable. Skip it and even the most famous price in the field, the USD 1,175 paid in New Orleans in 2005, turns out to be the wrong kind of number.
## Questions
**Which number should be quoted?**
Both, labelled. If only one is available, say which it is. Records are conventionally quoted with premium and estimates are always without it, so a record and an estimate cannot be compared directly without adjusting one of them.
**How large is the buyer's premium?**
It is tiered and house-specific. Sotheby's New York currently runs 28 per cent to USD 2 million, 22 per cent to USD 8 million and 15 per cent above; Christie's uses similar percentages at different thresholds; a Maine regional house charged 20 per cent in the room and 25 per cent online.
**Why do two outlets report different totals for the same lot?**
Usually because they applied different premium tiers, or because one used the hammer and the other the total, or because they converted the same premium-inclusive figure on different days. The Camden Rembrandt produced three correct prices from one hammer for the first two reasons.
**Do sellers pay a fee as well?**
Often, though for major consignments it is frequently negotiated away or offset through a guarantee arrangement. Seller's commission does not appear in either published figure, so neither the hammer nor the premium-inclusive total tells you what the consignor received.
## Sources
- [1] Bangor Daily News, on the Camden, Maine portrait selling for USD 1.175 million at Thomaston Place Auction Galleries on 24 August 2024.
- [2] Thomaston Place Auction Galleries, press release announcing the sale at USD 1,410,000.
- [3] Thomaston Place Auction Galleries, Conditions of Sale, setting the buyer's premium at 20 per cent for in-house, absentee and phone bidders and 25 per cent for internet bidders.
- [4] Boston.com, reporting the Camden portrait at USD 1,175,000 and headlining almost USD 1.2 million.
- [5] The Art Newspaper, 'Sotheby's $51.8m Saunders collection falls short, but still breaks Old Masters record', 21 May 2025, giving the Frans Post at USD 6m hammer and USD 7.3m with fees.
- [6] Sotheby's, 'What is a buyer's premium?', giving the current tiered schedule by saleroom.
- [7] The Art Newspaper, 'Sotheby's adjusts buyer's premiums and fee structures', 17 February 2026, including the reported Christie's schedule.
- [8] The Art Newspaper, 'Canaletto painting of Venice sells for record 31.9m pounds', 1 July 2025, giving GBP 27.5m hammer and GBP 31.9m with fees.
- [9] Euronews, on the Canaletto sale, printing both the premium-inclusive EUR 37.8m and the hammer in euros.
- [10] HENI, results report for Christie's Old Masters Evening Sale, London, 1 July 2025, noting that all results include fees and premiums.
- [11] St Charles Gallery, New Orleans, Prices Realized sheet for the April 2005 sale, listing lot 664 at an aggregate of 1,175.
- [12] Anna Brady, 'Turner painting bought last year for 500 pounds sells for almost 2m pounds at Sotheby's', The Art Newspaper, 4 July 2025, giving GBP 524.80 with fees in 2024 and GBP 1.5m hammer, GBP 1.9m with fees in 2025.