Nov 23, 2020
The current debate around the TV series The Crown reminds me of the great closing line from the film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, starring James Stewart: “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
I suppose it was an early example of what we now call Fake News, something that has become endemic in the multi-media modern age. Does it matter that much of what is broadcast in The Crown did not happen? I suppose it doesn’t if you approach the whole series as fictional entertainment, but because it is so clearly presented as the story of our current Royal Family, the risk is that many, if not most, people will take it at face value, and that may be neither fair nor healthy.
A similar challenge has arisen among all the art and antiques programmes on TV over the past 20 years or so. Have they been a good thing?
Many in the industry dislike them because in some cases they have presented a rather misleading picture of how things work. In reality, few people would buy from dealers in order to sell at auction – i.e. buying retail to sell wholesale – because it reverses the process, meaning you are more than likely to lose money. But sometimes the truth has to take a back seat in the interests of drama and entertainment.
It’s an irony that this fantasy is now referred to as Reality TV. Having said that, the burgeoning interest that these programmes have created in our wonderful industry is only to be welcomed.
Nov 16, 2020
One of the best things about auctions is that they bring an opportunity to tell little-known or forgotten stories. My favourite of the past week or so has been news that a copy of an early folio of Shakespeare’s plays is being offered with an estimate of £30,000-50,000.
This is a fourth folio dating to 1685 – a first folio would be priced in the millions; one sold in New York in October for nearly $10 million.
Comparatively little is known about our nation’s finest writer, but we do know that at the time of his death in 1616 no single volume existed bringing all his 36 plays together. That task, creating what is now known as the First Folio, was only completed seven years later in 1623 by the playwright’s colleagues and fellow actors, John Heminge and Henry Condell. Without them, it is unlikely that Shakespeare would enjoy the status he now has in our historical firmament, especially as without Heminge and Condell’s work, we would have lost at least 18 of the plays, including The Tempest, Twelfth Night, As You Like It and even Macbeth.
The First Folio was never guaranteed. The two actors had to spend some time acquiring the rights to publish and then at least as long persuading the publisher that it was a good idea. In the end it came out a year later than expected.
The Second Folio came out almost a decade later in 1632, with a third emerging in 1663.
That Third Folio is actually the rarest because it is believed so many copies were destroyed in the Great Fire of London three years later.
First Folios are, by comparison, easier to find and the latest tally is 235 copies survive today.
Nov 9, 2020
It was fascinating to discover that the latest Nobel Prize for Economics was awarded for work on auction theory. Not so concerned with chattels auctions as those for broadcast and phone bandwidth licensing, the theorists who scooped the prize needed to solve problems that arose for organisations setting out to bid hundreds of millions of pounds in what is ultimately an uncertain market.
I won’t bore you with the nuts and bolts of this; suffice to say that uncertainty tends to blunt the appetite in this sort of setting, which can mean that all interested parties lose out, so the challenge is to come up with a new type of auction that gets round this.
Ultimately, though, whatever you are selling, auctions depend on supply, demand, expert knowledge of what is being sold and a deep understanding of human nature. You don’t need a Nobel Prize to work that out, but you do need a great deal of experience to be effective as an auctioneer.
As someone who has been on the rostrum for more years than I care to remember, my first objective is to secure as good a price as I can for the consignor, but it is also important to ensure that the buyer gets what they pay for.
The best way to create demand, as a marketing guru once told me, is to show a group of people something wonderful and then tell them they can’t have it.
Nov 2, 2020
I’m often asked what the antiques of the future will be; what things people generally discard or fail to take care of today that they should really be keeping hold of.
While there are no guarantees of what will become collectable, you can narrow the odds by following a few rules.
Firstly, what is there around today that the public is likely to feel nostalgic about in 20 years’ time? TV programmes, music, clothing and toys are a good place to start. But while you can now collect vinyl and CDs from a couple of decades ago, these days music tends to be delivered by streaming, so what will there be to collect in 2040 on that front? Certainly well-preserved posters, limited edition memorabilia and such like.
We are already seeing branded clothing from as little as ten years ago making decent money at auction and via sites like eBay; that trend is likely to continue.
Anything deliberately issued in a limited edition or withdrawn from sale early, thereby effectively creating a limited edition, could well be a candidate, as well as technology, because it updates and moves onto the next generation so quickly. A market in old iPhones already exists.
Whatever takes your fancy, remember this: original condition is all. If you want to keep something back as an investment, where possible keep it in its original box or wrapping and as undamaged as possible. If you have the original sales paperwork – receipt, guarantee etc – to go with it, then keep that too.
Oct 26, 2020
When most people think about antiques and auctions, the old cliché of a dusty saleroom staffed by crusty retainers comes to mind. However, the reality is that it is our industry that has often led the way in innovation, especially with technology.
It may have something to do with the incredible ability of auction houses and dealers to adapt and survive, an attribute that has come into ever sharper focus during the pandemic.
Online bidding, in some shape, has been around for the best part of 20 years now, and has reached a level of sophistication that brings comfort to the least initiated when dipping their toe in the water. Galleries that previously depended on footfall are doing rather nicely, thank you, after swiftly moving planned exhibitions online, even adopting newly developed virtual viewing rooms that grant easy access and help boost sales.
As a longstanding member of our profession, for me nothing will ever replace the thrill and buzz of the live saleroom, with ranks of bidders seated before me as I conduct proceedings from the rostrum. But technology has proved a boon, not just in helping us continue in these dark times, but in extending our geographical reach well beyond the limits of our region to penetrate the furthest corners of the globe.
It has also brought us a new younger audience, who have been getting their first glimpse of antiques. The word ‘antique’ may not be for them, but what they see certainly is, as I can vouch.
Oct 19, 2020
As soon as the auctioneer has handed over the sales record from the rostrum – which they will do at regular intervals throughout the sale – and passed it to the office, payment will be processed via your online registration.
You will receive confirmation of payment and, together with the catalogue description and any condition report you may have applied for prior to the sale, this is an important document as it forms part of the item’s history or provenance, showing that title has passed to you and what condition the item was in when you purchased it.
One of the reasons that this is important is that, unlike buying from a shop or in a retail situation, at auction there is no automatic right of return on goods once you have bought them. Once the hammer comes down, as long as the item is sold as described, it becomes the property of the successful bidder.
This is another reason why inspecting the item carefully before the auction is so important. Auction houses understand this, which is why online images and condition reports are now so clear and detailed.
Don’t forget to file the paperwork safely as it can be of enormous help should you ever wish to sell the item on. A clear provenance not only makes an object easier to sell on, it can, in certain circumstances, even add to its value.
Once payment has cleared, there should also no bar to you removing your purchase from the saleroom, provided you do not disrupt the ongoing sale in the process. So before bidding on something large or delicate, think about how it is going to be delivered to you if you succeed in buying it. Check out the cost of delivery too.
Once you take possession of the goods, you will be responsible for their safe transport.
Oct 12, 2020
Now that so many people who have never bought at auction before are starting to bid, here’s a timely reminder of how it works and why it is different from buying in a retail situation.
Firstly, even though access to salerooms in the pandemic are generally restricted these days, you can still bid in a number of ways: leave a commission bid, bid by phone or via the internet. Whichever you choose to do, the first thing you will have to do is register. If you want to bid in the room itself, give yourself plenty of time to fill in the registration form and pick up a numbered paddle. Information required will include your name, address, a contact phone number and email address.
The auctioneer will need similar details if you leave a commission bid or wish to bid by phone, and they may also require credit or debit card details at that point. If you bid live via the internet, you are likely to be doing so on one of the live auction platform portals such as the-saleroom.com and will have to register via them. They will take you through the simple, step-by-step registration process and will also require credit card details. Again, leave plenty of time to do this before the sale starts so that you don’t miss the opportunity to bid on the item you are interested in.
When the lot you are interested in comes up for sale, the auctioneer will announce it from the rostrum and ask for an opening bid, or will declare that they already have an opening bid on commission (usually announced as “with me”).
More on buying at auction next week.
Oct 5, 2020
Of great interest in the past week has been the emergence of a collection of what are thought to be the earliest photographs taken of Sussex. Dating to 1851 and depicting portraits, as well as rural scenes around Horsham, they were the work of Captain Thomas Honeywood, a well-known local figure who led the volunteer fire brigade in the town, a body of men who appear in the crowd of one of the scenes that he captured.
Estimated to make up to £70,000 at auction later this month, the real value of this collection is not only in its capturing of early views of the county and its folk, but in the way is brings history and our connection with the past alive.
Many of the portraits show people in their finery, with a finger tucked into the pages of a book, as though they have just been interrupted reading. Why so? Among other things to convey the message to anyone looking at the image that this was a person who could read and was a cut above the hoi polloi.
Perhaps even more reassuring is just how familiar many of the country scenes remain today. For all the industrial and commercial development of the 20th century, with its urban sprawl, cottages, farms and hillsides survive now as they did then. So these photos are not simply historic records, they are food for the soul. Long may this be the case.
Sep 28, 2020
Correlation does not equal causation. This is one of the wisest pieces of advice I have ever heard. In short, it effectively means don’t assume because it might lead you up completely the wrong path.
We can all understand how this might apply to the pandemic crisis – in fact it is a basic rule of general research and epidemiology. In one case a study directly linked football matches taking place in March with an increase in cases of COVID in April. However, as one critic put it: “They have not actually linked cases or outbreaks to football matches and there is no mention of contact tracing or outbreaks that have been obviously linked back to football attendance.” It could all simply have been a coincidence with another, as-yet unidentified source responsible.
I am keeping this example at the forefront of my thinking in assessing the extraordinary turn of events at my auctions since the lockdown started: soaring prices, unprecedented sell-through rates and a much wider net of bidders. A number of obvious causes spring to mind, from bored workers sitting at home looking for somewhere to spend their money to new bidders finally logging on to take part because there was no other way of buying at auction.
I’m sure both of these play a part, but it is clear that other factors are also at play.
Opening bids of ten times the estimate for fairly run-of-the-mill items at our latest books sale are a case in point. I haven’t got to the bottom of this phenomenon yet, but believe me, I’m working on it.
Sep 21, 2020
One of the most important anniversaries has recently passed: 80 years since the beginning of the Battle of Britain. Lasting from July 10 to October 31, 1940, it was arguably the first major turning point of the Second World war. Certainly, Hitler’s failure to beat The Few effectively ended any ambitions he might had had to invade across the Channel.
As with other major conflicts, it is the engagements that changed the course of history or were so heroic (and sometimes foolish) that they have captured the public’s imagination like no other, that give rise to the most sought after militaria and campaign medals at auction.
The romantic ideal of the Spitfire pilot soaring through the clouds above our heads comes second to none in filling the role of the dashing hero, so anything associated with them, especially now that we are down to the very last one still alive, will create considerable excitement.
I was reminded of all this by the news of the sale of a nine carat gold Caterpillar Club Irvin pin put up for sale in the past week, with final bids in by October 4.
Awarded to Supermarine Spitfire pilot Kapitan Stanislaw Zygmunt Krol in 1942, the pin honoured the successful escape by parachute of airmen bailing out of a disabled plane wearing a parachute made by the Irvin Air Chute Company. The Caterpillar is a nod to the silkworm, whose efforts created the material for the parachute.
Krol’s own history is remarkable. Repeatedly escaping as a prisoner of war, he ended up in Stalag Luft III, setting for the film The Great Escape.
