Oct 7, 2024
If you want to find out more about how the art and antiques market works these days, you can sign up to innumerable email newsletters giving you the inside information on the latest trends.
That’s fine if all you are interested in is Contemporary and Modern art sales in London and New York that make millions, or what’s happening with blockchain and bitcoin and how they may help change the way the market works.
Try looking for news on the sort of art, antiques and collectables that interest you, me and most of the rest of the world, however, and your eyes will ache from too much screen time as you search in vain. Ok, top-end prices may make better headlines, but it astonishes me how the media tends to ignore 95 per cent of what is changing hands day to day.
Let’s face it, if you are interested in collecting and want to know about any given field, you need to know the ins and outs, what to look for, what to avoid and what factors affect values. That’s where collecting clubs come into their own.
What about the new collecting fields that are springing up all the time – the antiques of the future, as so many people call them?
Look at all of the websites and apps set up to recycle second-hand clothing and fashion items. I know teenagers who have effectively set themselves up as dealers as they market this gear, while others are already well versed in the online auction process as they chase the rarities and bargains.
Think, too, of all the new antiques dealers out there. They may be purveyors of retro furniture and design, 1970s jewellery and suchlike; they may be selling out of pop-up shops in trendy markets like Spitalfields; and it may not have occurred to them at all that they have anything to do with our wonderful world. But you know what? They are no different in their passions, approach and ambitions from all of the other antiques dealers over the years; they simply specialise in something different.
And that’s the key: as time passes, so antiques change as well. Few may seek out Victorian sideboards now, but they compete fiercely for their replacements: early and mid-20th century artist-craftsman pieces and post-war Scandinavian design.
So, yes, I am confident that our ever-evolving industry will prosper.
Sep 10, 2024
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.
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.
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.
Meanwhile, with the release of the new iPhone 16 Pro at £1,000, it’s worth remembering that Apple products are already sought-after collectables, with some of the earliest Macs selling for hundreds of thousands of pounds. The 1993 Apple Newton MessagePad, the 1998 iMac G3, the 2003 Apple iPod and the 2007 iPhone can already command decent prices if the condition is right.
They all feature in the collection of the Science Museum, providing a fascinating study of the development of technology and its association to social development over the past 40 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 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 force at auction as a whole new niche collecting area develops in the future.
Aug 13, 2024
This is an area of pheasant shoots, and while those ready to take aim will have to wait until October 1 for that, August 12 was the start of the Red Grouse season.
While blasting birds out of the sky has never been my passion, the paintings of game birds by Archibald Thorburn (1860-1935) are. His depictions of pheasant, grouse and ptarmigan are pre-eminent among British bird painters of the past century, as prices at auction will confirm. A decent watercolour of any of these birds in a moorland setting will have no problem encouraging bids up to the £25,000 mark.
Collectors have long taken aim at Thorburn but I suppose he really came into his own when the popularity of shooting spread from the landed gentry to commercial shoots in the 1980s. Born the son of a miniaturist painter who worked for Queen Victoria near Edinburgh in 1860, Thorburn had little to no formal training except for a brief stint at art school in St John’s Wood. What really set him on the road to his life’s work was a stroke of luck. In 1887 when the Dutch artist J.G. Keulemans fell ill, Thorburn took over the commission from Lord Lilford of Northampton to complete the illustrations for the seven-volume Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands. By the time he finished his career had taken flight. He even designed the first Christmas card for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), of which he became a Vice President.
The son of Robert Thorburn (1818-85), portrait miniaturist to Queen Victoria, Archibald was a Scottish artist with an obvious yearning for the unequalled grouse moors of The Highlands, but nonetheless spent the second half of his life in Surrey.
He moved to Hascombe, not far from our Fernhurst rooms, after his marriage in 1902, and his grave can be found at St John the Baptist church in Busbridge near Godalming.
Jul 15, 2024
It never ceases to amaze me how what are, frankly, in my opinion a series of unattractive daubs flung together in the name of Contemporary art can make millions at auction when highly accomplished and rather beautiful Victorian landscapes can be had for buttons.
I suppose that fashions change and, with them, tastes. Don’t get me wrong, I think a great deal of Modern and Contemporary art has a lot to offer, but it is also rife with mountebanks. However, the flipside of what has been a rather subdued market for late Victorian and Edwardian painting is that you can pick up stunning art for very little indeed.
Just browsing through one of the online auction platforms the other day, I worked out that, with a fair wind behind me, I could fill a whole wall with stunning Victorian and Edwardian watercolours for less than £2000. Some of the pictures looked a bit tired, but closer inspection revealed that they simply needed a new mount and frame, and at these prices this was very much a realistic option.
I have also seen some evidence of prices recovering for rather better examples of the period, and, of course, outstanding artists like our own much-heralded local talent, Helen Allingham (1848-1926), have always done well.
Tastes may change but a devotion to their craft, with a painterly approach and sensitive treatment of subject matter, means that the potential for Victorian and Edwardian artists will always be there.
I have no idea whether art like this will enjoy a renaissance in years to come – although it certainly deserves to – but those cherry picking now will be in the best position to capitalise if it does. And if prices remain in the doldrums, well they will have a fantastic selection of art gracing their walls, which they will never tire of.
Jun 13, 2024
One of the great obsessions in our industry is how you attract the next generation of buyers and sellers. Forty or fifty years ago, newly married couples tended to go to auction to buy furniture and decorations for their first home. Then the era of mass consumerism, with its disposable, flatpack furnishings, took over, tastes changed, and the local general weekly auction started to look like a thing of the past.
Well, half a century on we’re still here and as relevant today as we have always been. Yes, we have had to adapt, offering more specialist sales, better catalogues, clear costings and, in the advanced technological age, live bidding via the internet.
What hasn’t changed are the twin thrills of finding something special hidden among the day-to-day items and the charged atmosphere of competitive bidding and ultimate victory as the hammer comes down. I’d say they are as attractive characteristics of the auction process for the young as they are for the more mature among us. However, by themselves, they are not enough to sustain a healthy level of business going forward. As auctioneers, we must make sure that the new generation feels as well-informed and comfortable with the process as its predecessors. In modern parlance, it’s known as building a trusted brand.
Dealers face similar challenges. I was chatting to one last week about his recent experiences standing at antiques fairs. When times are uncertain or tough, he said, he adapts the stock he presents on his stand so that it appeals to richer, older people who are less likely to be affected by fluctuating financial fortunes.
However, what he really wants for long-term success are new, younger buyers who are setting off along the road to a life of collecting. They may spend less in the short term, but they will be around longer, graduating to more valuable pieces as life goes on.
The other challenge for both him and auctioneers like me is the changing nature of buyers. When I started in the business, most people who bought at auction were dealers who would turn up every week to restock and spend a reasonable sum. Now more private buyers are raising a hand or clicking a mouse to bid – and very welcome they are too. However, fewer take the form of traditional collectors looking to see what’s on offer, week in, week out. A far greater percentage are those wanting something to decorate their house with, which means they tend to be one-off purchasers. This means we must all be much more proactive than ever before to make a success of this business.
May 21, 2024
The Paris Olympic Games start on July 26, and as we build up to the excitement, I am reminded of some of the exceptional prices achieved for collectables linked to this global sporting event.
When the Games were revived in 1896 – the first of modern times – winners received silver medals, with runners-up getting bronze and nothing for third place. One of those silver winner’s medals came up for sale in January this year at RR Auction of Boston where it took $112,000, although RR sold another in 2021 for $180,000.
However, the real money is reserved for the rarest of Olympic torches. In 2015 a Helsinki 1952 Olympic Games torch sold for £420,000 at auction. In this case, the torch was one of three – along with the first torch, introduced at the summer games in Berlin in 1936, and the first winter games torch, from Oslo in 1952 – needed to complete a collection.
The price beat the record set by another Helsinki 1952 torch, which had sold for €290,000 in Paris in early 2011.
The reason the Helsinki torch is so treasured is that very few were made – only 22, in fact, 15 of them with hallmarked silver bowls. To put that in context, London’s 2012 Games produced 8,000 torches, and as many as 15,000 were produced for the Sochi 2014 Winter Games.
That £420,000 is certainly a high price, but only the third highest in terms of Olympic collectables.
The price of £450,000 was paid for a silver cup given to Spyros Louis, who won the marathon at the first modern Olympic Games, held in Athens in 1896. The winning bid was placed in London in April 2012, just before the capital’s own Games were held – showing just how important timing can be for auctions.
Out in front at a massive $1.47m, though, is one of the four gold medals won by Jesse Owens, perhaps the most famous Olympian of all time, at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Owens won his medals for the 100m, 200m, 400m relay and Long Jump, but it was what he represented above and beyond these feats that have made him such an icon. His triumphs were a direct challenge to Hitler’s belief in the supremacy of the Aryan race, and Owens rubbed his face in it at the very Olympics that Hitler staged to prove his point. Good for him!
Apr 22, 2024
You would have thought after all these years of antiques TV shows that just about everybody would be at ease with auctions, but we still get a few shy ones coming through the doors in Fernhurst. They’re clearly interested in the whole process, or they wouldn’t be there. If you’re one of them, have no fear, we don’t bite, and I’d be amazed if you couldn’t find anything to spark your interest.
My advice to anyone who hasn’t yet got to grips with auctions but would like to find out more is to come to a viewing before the sale. That way you can wander around and look at everything that’s on offer in a relaxed fashion. At viewings you will find lot numbers attached to each piece on display, and they correspond with the numbers in the catalogues, which are also around the saleroom so you can check out the description and estimate. Staff are on hand to answer any questions or help you get a better look at anything – you’ll find that’s true at any decent auction house.
And if you want to see a great bit of traditional auction drama, come along to the early part of one of our general auctions when the saleroom manager takes bids in the back viewing room rather than from the rostrum. You will find all the bidders standing together among the pieces being sold. There’s nothing quite like it to get you hooked.
If you do decide to bid, here are a couple of tips: firstly, how are you going to get your purchase home? If it’s a small piece of jewellery or a collectable, no problem; but what if it is a sideboard or a sofa? If you won’t be able to transport it yourself, find out how much it would cost to have it shipped to you before you bid. That way you won’t suffer any nasty surprises. Most auction houses will either be able to arrange shipping for you or give you the details of a reliable shipper.
Secondly, running auctions costs money, and some of the costs are passed on to the buyer in the form of fees charged as a percentage of the hammer price. Again, find out what they would be before you bid so that you have a clear understanding of what the final invoice total will be. That way you can bid with confidence.
Mar 25, 2024
Watching the Antiques Roadshow recently, I was reminded of the most important question a professional should ask when valuing something: why are you having it valued? This is because valuations will differ depending on the answer.
Let’s consider a diamond ring, for instance. If you want it valued for insurance, you are going to need enough cover to replace it at retail cost. If you want it valued for sale to a dealer, the valuation must consider what a dealer might pay for it, so that they can build in a profit margin for resale. So, the insurance valuation might be as much as four times the resale value to a dealer.
Getting the asking price right is as much a skill at chattels auctions as it is when putting your home on the market: price it too high and you can kill demand but undercook it and you risk giving it away.
Overexposure over a prolonged period tends to raise questions as to the condition of the property on offer. A newly redeveloped house near me has recently gone on the market for around 30 per cent more than I would think is reasonable. This is because it will have been priced according to what the plot cost to buy, what the developer paid to knock it down and create the house that now stands there, and what their projected profit is added on top. No one has shown any interest. After a while, market reality will kick in and it will be re-priced accordingly, but that exposure will cost the owner dear and they may well end up with less than if they had simply pitched it at a more competitive rate in the first place.
It’s the same for chattels auctions. Those prepared to consign items at come-and-get-me estimates very often spark a bidding battle, with lots selling for what they really hoped to get for them, or even higher. Auctioneers will agree a reserve price with you, as a safety net, below which an item cannot be sold, so as a seller you are protected.
Feb 23, 2024
Go to most art, antique and design fairs and you will see stands set out like shop windows or room sets. Many of the fairs have ditched the word antique in favour of decorative, design or modern – or they use a completely different word to emphasise exclusivity and luxury.
All this reflects the fact that most people have moved away from the notion of collecting and towards that of decorating and lifestyle enhancement. That means those who sell desirable items must package them in different ways.
Take accessories like scarves, costume jewellery and vintage handbags. They used to be tail-end offerings at general auctions where you would be lucky to scrape together a few pounds from them. Now, though, they enjoy dedicated sales, which bring in new, younger buyers eager to get the look and pick up a rarity usually available only as a modern re-issue. Some of these things remain antiques but have just been re-labeled. It’s a great marketing lesson and shows that whatever you call them, some antiques never really go out of fashion.
It’s a lesson the leading luxury brands themselves have learnt, going as far as to set up their own pre-loved divisions, buying up and reselling their own vintage products.
With social media, pop-ups, drop sales and drop shipping all new phenomena competing for business these days, our industry is obsessed with staying relevant in attracting the next generation of buyers and sellers. Fifty years ago, newly married couples tended to go to auction to buy furniture and decorations for their first home. Then the era of mass consumerism, with its disposable, flatpack furnishings, took over, tastes changed, and the local general weekly auction started to look like a thing of the past.
Well, close to half a century on we’re still here and as relevant today as we have always been. Yes, we have had to adapt, offering more specialist sales, better catalogues, clear costings and, in the advanced technological age, live bidding via the internet.
What hasn’t changed are the twin thrills of finding something special hidden among the day-to-day items and the charged atmosphere of competitive bidding and ultimate victory as the hammer comes down.
Feb 12, 2024
Thanks to our eagle-eyed specialist, bowls that lay unnoticed during a house clearance sold in Fernhurst for £35,000
As we continue with our new weekly series of consignment valuation days at John Nicholson’s, we can reveal that we have already found amazing treasures locally – and we know many more are waiting to come out of hiding!
Take the pair of Chinese famille rose porcelain bowls shown here. Beautifully decorated with coral red fish to the exterior, this 14.5cm diameter pair has a wonderful interior, garnished with blue and white sprays of flora. Each bowl has a Daoguang mark to the base. They may well be contemporary with that period of the Qing dynasty, which lasted from 1820-50.
The bowls came to light during a routine house clearance in Hindhead. The owner was moving to the United States and had called in John Nicholson’s to assess the contents and manage the process of their dispersal. Unaware of the significance of the bowls, the owner did not single them out for inspection, but luckily our specialist spotted them during a visit. Estimated at £4,000-6,000 in our May 17, 2023 Islamic & Oriental auction, they sold to a collector in Hong Kong for £35,000.
Also sold from the clearance were several antique Chinese jade pieces, which attracted very healthy prices indeed
The Surrey/Sussex border region has also proved to be very fertile ground for antique and Contemporary Islamic art. A recent example of this was the abstract study by the Turkish artist Mubin Orhon (1924-81). Signed and dated 1961, the 80cm square canvas left its £3,000-5,000 far behind when it sold for £15,000 at our November 17, 2023 Islamic & Oriental auction.
Now it’s time to see what treasures you may have in your home. Bring them along to our consignment valuation day at Fernhurst saleroom each Friday between 9am and 5pm. No appointment necessary. Or on other days by appointment only.
