Jan 20, 2020
As we prepare for out next fine art auction in Fernhurst, I continue to be astonished by the number of people who think that you have to have some sort of specialist knowledge to bid at a sale of paintings and drawings. The most important question you can possibly ask yourself about a picture or piece of sculpture coming up for auction is: Do I like it? If it’s something you think you can live with for a long time and get plenty of enjoyment out of, you have passed the vital hurdle. Next: What am I prepared to pay for it? That’s what the estimate is there for. Sometimes lots can soar over estimate, at other times they can go at a bargain price or not sell at all. In the end, only you can decide what your upper limit is – and don’t forget to account for any auction charges like the buyer’s premium.
It’s also a good idea to check out the work’s condition; these days, if you can’t attend the view, you should find most of the details about this online in the catalogue description.
Apart from that, your main consideration will be getting it home if you are successful. Can you collect it personally? Is it something you can put in the back of your car? Will you have to pay for delivery, which will mean packing and shipping costs? If so, what are they?
Follow these simple steps and you will find you are, indeed, qualified to bid. As the saying goes: come on down!
Jan 13, 2020
It’s hard to think of a more sought-after book at auction than a First Folio Shakespeare. Published in 1623 – seven years after the great man’s death – it constitutes the finest collection of poetry and drama in any language.
The announcement that a copy will come up for auction April with an estimate of around $4 million to $6 million is a timely reminder of a few things we know about Shakespeare and few things we don’t.
The first thing is that none of the playwright’s original scripts for his 37 plays has survived and it is only through the printed editions that we know his works at all. Without the First Folio, 18 of the plays would probably have not survived, including Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, The Tempest and Measure For Measure. How many of the more famous and widely used sayings would also have been lost to the English language as a result? Shakespeare is known to have contributed at least 1700 words to English for a start.
If Shakespeare himself is the god of the written word, then John Heminge and Henry Condell are its guardian angels. Fellow actors and friends of The Bard, it was they who edited the First Folio and had it printed, dividing the plays into comedies, histories and tragedies.
Jan 2, 2020
Last week I told you about a young man whose dedication had built a substantial art and antiques business from nothing over just five years. Now I have further evidence of the enduring appeal of auctions and the indisputable fact that this process is not a dying tradition limited to old folk.
As the old year gave way to the new, one of the more interesting revelations was that Kim Kardashian (if you’ve not heard of her, where have you been?!) is ‘obsessed’ with auctions and has already put a significant sum where her mouth is by snapping up rock ’n’ roll relics under the hammer.
As a stocking filler for her six-year-old son North, she bought a jacket (for $65,625) that had once belonged to his idol, Michael Jackson, while adding the Smooth Criminal star’s white fedora ($7680) to top it off. Meanwhile Kardashian added rings ($7000 and $8000) worn by The King, Elvis Presley, to the list of gifts she handed to her brother for the Festive Season.
This is all pretty impressive stuff. Of course, the problem with buying all this for a six year old is how you go one better for next Christmas!
Dec 23, 2019
Anyone who thinks that young people today don’t know how to graft should read the tale of a twenty-something lad who set out to conquer the world of art and antiques just five years ago and has now built himself a business valued at around £350,000.
He’s still some way from realising his dream of having the most successful dealing business online in the country, but I take my hat off to him for what he’s done so far. It’s all been the result of a little bit of luck and a great deal of sweat. The luck was discovering that what everyone else took to be worthless tat – 20-plus year old children’s TV VHS videos – turned out to have a great deal of retro appeal that meant he could buy them for 10p to 50p at car boot sales and retail them online for up to £15. This gave him the nest egg for his proper launch into antiques and collectables, while brushing up his skills and knowledge of the auction world by working as a porter and a cataloguer at an auction house.
From the sound of it, there have been precious few hours left to do anything else, but imagine the sense of achievement. The future looks bright after all.
Dec 16, 2019
There are 25 drams in a bottle of whisky, a dram being a one-ounce shot, and the price of a dram at current rates of the 1926 Macallan coming to auction is round £60,000. No, that’s not a misprint, it’s the most expensive bottle of whisky ever sold at £1.5 million.
It belonged to the late Richard Gooding, who ironically made his fortune from bottling Pepsi Cola and who built the most enviable collection of whisky in the world.
Gooding housed his 3900 bottle collection a specially built bar in his Colorado home, travelling to Scotland on a regular basis to top it up.
That collection is now estimated at £8 million, and while I find the prices fairly staggering, it is the passion that whisky instils in collectors that is the really captivating aspect. It may be distilled alcohol, but its real value is in the romance of the history and landscape of Scotland, as well as the science of the process itself.
Japanese whiskies and single malts from Australia to Wales attract avid fans too, but it is the Scotch version in its many varieties – Highland, Islands, Lowlands and Speyside – that remains king. And the modern, hi-tech way it is marketed and sold these days has attracted a whole new collector base among the young. It’s an auctioneer’s dream really.
Dec 9, 2019
One of the most important factors affecting value at auction can be the historical significance of an item – copies of the US Declaration of Independence are among the best examples of this. Often overlooked, however, are those seemingly unimportant pieces of ephemera that cast light on largely forgotten episodes from our past.
I was reminded of this by a news article about two small sheets of paper consigned for auction that recall the 1740 frost fair on the Thames. Each expected to fetch around £1500, they detail all sorts of activities on the ice as the river froze over: football, horse racing, ox-roasting, merry-go-rounds, skittle alleys and puppet shows.
It’s hard to imagine the Thames freezing over now – in fact since the building of the comparatively modern set of bridges with their pontoons, this has been made much more unlikely. No one alive now can remember these events, so even the faded memory is lost, which makes these written records so much more important.
One of my favourite examples of this is a 15th century French illustrated manuscript that appears to show an early game of cricket. The known history of the game dates back to the late 16th century in south east England, although it is thought to have its origins in Anglo Saxon times. What if another document appeared that forced us to re-attribute its invention to another country?
Dec 2, 2019
This time of year the news is full of headlines talking about Contemporary artworks that have sold for tens of millions of dollars at auction in New York. Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Jackson Pollock and others whose masterpieces can attract prices that dominate the upper end of the art market obviously earn their moment in the limelight, and every national and international magazine and newspaper column dedicated to the art and antiques market will be full of news about these sales.
Far less often they also report what is going on at the bottom and middle of the market. Selling a decent Victorian watercolour at £150 is just not news, and I get that. But we should not forget that for all the stratospheric sums paid for the trophy Contemporary works, it is the comparatively workaday pieces that oil the wheels of the global art market, attract new buyers for the first time and form the bedrock of the grander sales.
Think about the billions of pounds worth of stuff sold on eBay each year. A global player for the best part of 20 years now, it has also delved into online auctions of art – albeit with mixed success. But it all started because a collector of humble Pez sweet dispensers wanted to be able to trade them over the internet. It’s another case of mighty oaks growing from tiny acorns. So next time you read about a $50 million Hockney, remember that £150 Victorian watercolour and the indomitable roots of the great world of auctions.
Nov 25, 2019
As I have written before, one of the most important factors in valuing items for auction is their historic associations. This especially true for film props and costumes and musical instruments. A guitar played by John Lennon or Paul McCartney would be valuable; a guitar owned by them even more so. However, a guitar used by either of them at one of their most famous concerts, such as the 1965 Shea Stadium event, or for recording their most famous hits, would be worth considerably more because of its iconic status. So it comes as no surprise that the auction record for a Beatles-associated instrument is the $2.1m that the late singer George Michael paid for the piano on which John Lennon wrote his solo hit Imagine.
I thought about all this when that a dress once worn by Princess Diana would be coming up for sale. In itself, this is not such a rarity; a number of gowns worn by her have sold at auction over the years, ranging in price from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of pounds.
However, apart from the famous wedding dress, I can’t think of a more iconic dress than the Victor Edelstein creation the Princess wore to a White House gala dinner in 1985. Why? Because she was wearing it when she made headlines all over the world at the event by dancing with the actor John Travolta to music from the film Grease.
The dress previously sold in 2013 for £240,000. The estimate this time? £350,000.
There’s iconic and ICONIC!
Nov 18, 2019
Please note that we will ONLY be open on a Sunday prior to a Painting auction once a month between 10.00am-2.00pm. This will be for preview only and not for collecting or payment of goods from other auctions.
For payment and collection of goods, the office will be open Monday-Friday 09.00-5.00pm.
Many thanks
Nov 18, 2019
Last week I wrote about brown furniture and how the fact that it is so competitively priced these days creates an ideal opportunity for getting young people looking to furnish their first home into the saleroom.
Of course, that presumes that just because they are young they have no idea about the auction process – wrong!
As I have discovered in recent years, while Generation Z have moved on from the millennial obsession with Facebook and tend to favour Snapchat, a huge number of them are also very much at home trading clothing and other possessions via apps like Depop.
The online trade in collectable trainers – especially limited edition versions issued by celebrity musicians and sports stars in the US – is now worth billions of dollars a year. What we are seeing here is the evolution of auctions and dealing platforms where teenagers are becoming as adept at negotiating, assessing value and spotting flaws as well-seasoned art and antiques dealers and collectors.
This tells me that chasing a bargain is a strong part of the human psyche and the auction process is one of the best means of meeting that need. Whatever the age and the technology, then, the essentials remain the same. And that’s rather reassuring for industry professionals, like me, who have been around for a bit.
