We’ve been telling you for a long time that a great deal of buying activity has been occurring at the smaller auction houses. But the mix of property at auctioneers like Doyle, Freeman’s, Heritage Auctions, Los Angeles Modern, Rago, Swann, and Wright is, by necessity, less focused on artworks than on design objects. These houses’ sales are of interest to tastemakers, bargain hunters, and those with decidedly their own feel for quality—the very buyers, sellers, and art professionals that Wall Power counts among its most avid readers.

With that in mind, our friends at ARTDAI were happy to provide us with data from those houses so we could compile a list of the top 50 makers driving their auction successes. Herewith…

The top artist in the middle-market houses was Frazetta, who is known for his paintings and comic book depictions of ferocious beasts and voluptuous women—and famous to a generation raised on Heavy Metal magazine and the albums of Molly Hatchet and Nazareth. Nakashima, meanwhile, is famed for making furniture with old-growth trees. Tiffany Studios showed up here primarily because of the number of their lamps sold by these houses, and Warhol mostly because of his prints.

Grigoriev earned his spot through three high-value paintings sold at Heritage. Ohr got there with a private collection and a dozen other works in Rago’s various-owners pottery sale. The popularity of Picasso’s ceramics drove sales of more than $1 million for the artist. Ten Abercrombie paintings that were sold at Freeman’s and Rago/Wright put the Chicago artist on the list, while 10 works by Le Pho, spread across the houses, did the same for the Vietnamese painter. Rounding out the top 10 was Finnish light designer Paavo Tynell.

Other notable names appearing among the top 50 were Edward Willis Redfield, the American impressionist, who had six works sell for more than $770,000 combined, and Bernard Buffet, with five works sold for more than $610,000. Swiss architect Pierre Jeanneret, who was Le Corbusier’s cousin, had 44 lots sell for a total of more than $510,000. Dale Chihuly, the glass artist, had 45 lots sell for more than $490,000 in total, and Milton Avery saw eight works sell for more than $400,000.

The top 10 artists of the second half of 2025 by maximum price for a single work were:

Frazetta’s work has been quite valuable for some time. Nevertheless, when his Man Ape cover art for Conan fetched $13.5 million at Heritage last September, it more than doubled his record set two years before. The jump might have had to do with the subject matter. (Don’t count those Boomers out yet—they can still spend their kids’ inheritance on a youthful passion.) Bell’s gumball painting, from 1971, also set a record for that artist, exceeding his previous top price, in 2007, for a pinball painting set and far exceeding the prior gumball high, achieved in 2019.

Two Grigoriev paintings fetched strong prices last year at Heritage, but neither came close to the artist’s top price of $3.7 million, achieved at Sotheby’s in 2008, when Russian collectors were far more active in the international art market. Wright managed to get a strong price for a cast-iron Noguchi work. And Rago set a record for Claire Falkenstein’s work.

The top 10 artists of the second half of 2025 by number of lots were:

Lot volumes in the middle market favor design works, which explains the presence of Tiffany Studios, Lalique, the Eameses, Hermès, and Warren McArthur. By contrast, Woelffer, as an abstract expressionist painter, is notable for his high position. Kaws appears because of the traffic in his toys. We’ve already discussed Picasso’s ceramics, but Toshiko Takaezu’s earthenware is particularly popular too.

Other noteworthy appearances further down the list include Émile Gallé, the glass designer; photographer Philippe Halsman; designers George Nelson and Hans Wegner; the painter and designer Erté; Daniel Arsham; the Memphis designer Ettore Sottsass; the painter Hunt Slonem; the abstract expressionist Ralph Rosenborg; mid-century ceramicists Gertrud and Otto Natzler; the woodworker Garry Knox Bennett; the color-field artist Vasa Velizar Mihich; and American glass artist Richard Marquis.

The top 10 artists of the second half of 2025 by hammer ratio were:

By far the most interesting list to come out of ARTDAI’s middle-market data is the ranking of artists and makers by hammer ratio. As Wall Power readers know, that’s the aggregate hammer price divided by the aggregate estimate—the higher the ratio, the more the estimates undervalued the work relative to market demand. The numbers above suggest emerging trends or converging tastes, and an artist or maker has to have a minimum of five lots sold to be considered for the list. Tchelitchew was the highest-ranked artist, with a hammer ratio of 4.59, though the nine sold lots did not have an aggregate price higher than $70,000. Furniture designer Karl Springer had 13 lots sell for a total of more than $120,000, with a hammer ratio of 3.54. Realist artist Grigory Gluckmann had five lots sell for more than $195,000 combined, with a hammer ratio of 3.48. Sixties sensation Peter Max had 12 works sell for a total of more than $85,000 and a hammer ratio of 3.46. Hungarian art nouveau porcelain manufacturer Manufacture Zsolnay had 11 lots sell for a total of nearly $118,000 and a hammer ratio of 3.03.

Pinup artist Olivia de Berardinis had six works sell for almost $60,000 in total and a hammer ratio of 3.01. Joseph Raffael, who died in 2021, saw five lots sell, with a total value of $109,000 and a hammer ratio of 2.99. Architect Ed Moulthrop, who taught himself to turn wood into bowls and vessels, had 11 lots sell for nearly $120,000, with a hammer ratio of 2.93. Arts and crafts ceramics designer Arthur Hennessey had eight works sell for a combined total of almost $109,000 and a 2.88 hammer ratio. And Joseph Christian Leyendecker saw six works sell for a total of $211,000 and a hammer ratio of 2.80. Some other names on the list are Theodore Roszak, Tom Otterness, Richard Howard Hunt, Duncan Grant, Grandma Moses, Sonia Delaunay, and Louise Nevelson.

That’s all for now, friends. I’ll see you back here on Friday.

M