Jan 2, 2024
The most obvious change in auctions since the millennium has been the influence of the internet, first with websites that allowed people to view auction lots prior to sale and gave even quite parochial auctioneers a global audience; then live online bidding, which has been the biggest game changer of all. But go back even earlier and you will find other significant developments.
If you attended an auction in the 1960s, you would rarely have found a detailed catalogue outside the London rooms. Where catalogues were available, estimates were not.
Dealers, I’m sure, would love it if that were still the case, but times have moved on, auction houses have learnt the value of the private buyer, there are more niche specialists than generalists, and quality of service for the private punter has become the watchword. Clear guides to everything from how to bid to what fees are involved make the auction process much simpler for the novice to bidder or seller to understand … and rightly so.
Such changes bring their own challenges, but they show how adaptable auctions have been over the years.
This also extends to what people buy. Time was when the industry was dominated by generalists holding weekly sales of antique furniture, silver, ceramics and glass, together with a selection of Victorian and Edwardian pictures. Today it’s a very different prospect. Auctioneers tend to divide up sales by discipline to create specialist niche offerings in everything from 20th century design to jewellery and accessories.
Trainers used to be restricted to sport; now they have moved beyond fashion items to become expensive collectables, with the likes of Sotheby’s holding specialist sales of them.
Heavy, dark furniture may have hit the buffers, but good solid oak and other, lighter woods transformed into stunning early 20th century pieces at the hands of a well-known master craftsman still command a premium. Antiques are far from over; like everything else, they simply evolve along with people’s taste.
- VALUATION DAYS STARTING FRIDAY 19 JANUARY AND EVERY FRIDAY AT JOHN NICHOLSON’S SALEROOM
We are inviting you to bring in your jewellery, watches, clocks, pictures, oriental works of art, antiques, vases, porcelain, etc for valuation on any Friday starting on Friday 19 January from 9am-5pm. We will have specialists on hand to assist you. If you have a car or van load or just one piece, do bring it along. Appointments not necessary.
Dec 5, 2023
It’s that season again. We have the United States to thank for the modern image of Father Christmas, or Santa Claus, as they call him. That’s also true of greetings cards, which became popular, initially in the United States in the 1880s, thanks to the development of offset lithography, a form of printing.
Britain picked up on the trend early. Hallmark, one of the biggest names in greetings cards, has been around since almost the start, when savvy British makers saw what was happening in the US and started exporting cheaper folded versions there not long before the First World War.
The first Christmas cards were hand-coloured for Sir Henry Cole, founder of the Victoria & Albert Museum, who ordered 1000 in 1843. They depicted a family raising their charged glasses in a toast above a draped banner carrying the words A Merry Christmas. He used half himself and sold the rest for a shilling apiece.
It’s thought around nine or ten survive, and each is valued at around £10,000 today.
Some of the most sought-after Christmas cards today are those designed by well-known artists of the late Victorian and early 20th century periods. Kate Greenaway, who illustrated many of the most popular children’s books of the 1880s and ’90s is a favourite, as is her great rival at the time, Walter Crane.
Perhaps the most desirable cards, though are the early Hold-to-Light cards depicting Father Christmas, or Santa Claus. These were generally die-cut and got their name because if you held them up to the light, the die-cut parts lit up, creating a glowing Christmas scene.
When first produced in the US, in postcard form, these were the preserve of the wealthy as each could cost as much as a day’s wages for a working man. Nowadays while religious or other scenes can be had for as little as around £20, the pick of the Santa cards can cost £400.
Collectors tend to specialize in subject matter, such as comic cards, or anniversary type, such as birthday or Christmas cards. Condition can matter a great deal. If they are unused and have not been stuck in albums with the accompanying sticky tape. And particular printers, such as De La Rue, also tempt collectors.
Nov 6, 2023
You’ll be pleased to know that there are several ways to catch the auctioneer’s attention without having to sit in front of them. The first is leaving what is called a commission or absentee bid. You can pick up the relevant form at the viewing for the sale, fill it in with the maximum you are prepared to pay and register it with the auction house. The auctioneer will then bid on your behalf against other bidders up to the maximum. However, if other bidders give up earlier, you may well get the item for less. For slightly more valuable lots, you may be able to bid over the phone. Again, you need to register before the sale – usually at least 24 hours in advance – and can then bid live on the phone via a member of staff. Make sure you answer the phone when they call you to bid.
Finally, you can bid via the internet, either directly with the auction house or, more usually, via one of the live bidding platforms. Check them out early to understand the process.
I’d still advise visiting the saleroom if you can. A recent buyer at one of our jewellery sales was a first-time bidder who had enjoyed the experience so much that he has now started coming to other sales at Fernhurst.
He is one of those people who likes to come prepared, so he had checked our website for everything from buying conditions, including any fees, to bidding methods. With all this in mind he said that although he had been slightly nervous to start with when it came to bidding, his confidence rose as he had set himself a limit and knew he would not go beyond it. Best of all, he said, was the thrill of securing the lot against competition from other bidders, one of whom was in the room, while others were on the internet.
His experience reinforces two key lessons for auctioneers: have a clear and informative website and make sure you give a warm welcome and excellent service if you want them to keep coming back.
Oct 8, 2023
Until the end of October, numerous events celebrate the biggest festival of Asian art in the UK. Centred on the three-week Asian Art in London programme of auctions, gallery exhibitions and museum shows, the focus is on Contemporary and traditional art from China, Japan, India, Cambodia, Vietnam and Korea.
I can’t think of a better opportunity to acquaint yourself with the marvels of this rich Far Eastern heritage, a significant proportion of it pre-dating even the Roman period.
We celebrate these historic traditions in our monthly auctions of Oriental and Islamic works of art, whose catalogues present a microcosm of the art and craftsmanship of the many cultures who come under this banner.
Often, we think of ancient cultures in places such as Egypt, but China was just as developed at the time. Think about the Han (Warring States, c.475-221BC) or Tang dynasties (618-907) with their extraordinary creations in pottery and bronze, a surprising number of which survive today in fine condition.
India and its rich tradition are also part of this mix. I was reminded of this when admiring one of the highlights of our October 17 sale: a fine, possibly 12th century north Indian carved yellow stone torso of a female deity, whose torso is well decorated with beads and jewellery.
Equally impressive was a marvellous piece of Hu porcelain in our timed online auction that ended on October 2: a blue, white and underglaze red porcelain twin-handle vase, decorated with a dragon and the flaming pearl of wisdom. It was a reminder that many of these ancient treasures can be had for reasonable sums. The estimate in this case was just £500-700.
For me, what brings these pieces alive is not just the highly accomplished work that went into creating them, but the thought of the people behind them. Where and how did they live? How did they acquire their skills? What were they like as people? Did they have families and what were the things they dreamed of and worried about? Think of these questions next time your eyes settle on a striking piece of ancient art.
Sep 10, 2023
Students have headed back to college, pupils to schools, but there are also a lot of new graduates and school leavers looking to their careers now. Should they consider becoming auctioneers?
Having started at the bottom and worked my up, I have no regrets. I still think the best way in is the traditional one: starting as a porter at one of the larger auction houses, graduating to cataloguing and developing specialist knowledge in your chosen field while studying for a fine arts valuation qualification. There aren’t many courses left around the country, but they are worth doing if this game is for you.
I have also been impressed with the focus and determination of many in their teens and early twenties who have already harnessed the internet to create micro businesses involving buying, selling and collecting. The internet has created new opportunities, such a drop-sales, which simply did not exist before because there was no way of conducting them. Generation Z may be concerned with disciplines that have not played a part in our collecting tradition up till now – trainers, video games and the like – but they still follow the same patterns and rules as art and antique disciplines: rarity, condition etc.
Best of all, this younger generation has not sat in a classroom to be taught this, but has explored this world for itself and understandably has become enthusiastic about it, both because it can be profitable and because it affords the professional a large degree of autonomy.
A lot of the auction business has already gone online and I have no doubt that more will in future. However, I also believe that there will always be brick-and-mortar salerooms for people to visit, view and handle the goods first, particularly at the top end of the market where prices run into the millions. We sell via both channels.
Auctioneering as a career still holds a lot of promise and the chances of setting up your own business and working for yourself in the long term are greater than in most other industries. It’s something you might want to have a think about.
Aug 14, 2023
September 4 marks 25 years since the founding of Google in a garage in California. And on September 12, it will be 65 years to the day since Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments demonstrated the world’s first integrated circuit.
Technology now has history, nostalgia and rarity on its side, and is gradually fermenting into a highly active and profitable collecting market.
Retro Tech is expected to have a market base worth $51.7 billion by 2026 – almost equalling the value of the entire global art market, so now is the time to search through the attic and the back of your home office drawers for all your old iPhones, Tamagotchis, Walkmans and early Apple computers. Even basic handheld calculators from the late 1970s are doing well, while one of the most popular models in the retro world of mobile phones is the basic Nokia 3210 from 1999.
Institutions such as the Science Museum in London have started to trace the history of Apple products, from the 1984 pre-production model, Mouse for Apple Macintosh, through the 1993 Apple Newton MessagePad, the 1998 iMac G3 to the 2003 Apple iPod and the 2007 iPhone launch to the 2010 iPad.
The Science Museum has them all and provides a fascinating study of the development of technology and its association to social development over the past 30 years and more.
If this is the attitude that the Science Museum has to these objects – presenting them as museum exhibits – then you can be sure that they will also increasingly make their impact on the world of collecting in years to come. Millions of iPhones may be circulating the globe as we speak, but as they get updated and the defunct ones disappear, eventually only a limited number will be left to become sought-after collectables. The development of mobile phone technology, as they morphed into handheld computers, thereby changing the way the world communicates and interacts socially, has been the biggest game changer of all. Expect it to be a major force at auction as a whole new niche collecting area develops in the future.
