Jul 30, 2018
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 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.
Jul 23, 2018
As Francesco Molinari lifted the famous claret jog at Carnoustie to celebrate his victory at The Open – the first golf major win for an Italian – I recalled once again that this is a sport that hovers close to the top of the collecting table in terms of popularity and values when it comes to memorabilia.
Hickory clubs, rare golf balls and, of course, famous trophies all feature among the top prices at auction, one of the most memorable being Arnold Palmer’s Masters trophy, a rather stunning piece of silverware modelled as a miniature version of the Augusta clubhouse, which went for $444,000 at the appropriately named Green Jacket Auctions in 2016.
While British collectors are very active, the real centre for this field is the US, so it was no surprise when one of the oldest clubs known, a square-toed iron dating to the 1600s, sold from a leading collection for $151,000 at Sotheby’s in New York in 2007. It was designed for use on sandy or stony ground and is one of only half a dozen surviving clubs of a similar age.
Rory McIlroy’s 2014 Open Championship golf ball sold for $52,000 – also at Green Jacket Auctions – beaten only by a signed vintage Bobby Jones ball, which made nearly $56,000 in 2011.
For rare and ancient, the prize for a golf ball goes to an 18th century feathery that took £24,000 in 2004, selling to Jamie Ortiz-Patigos, owner of the Valderama course. The ball was the first ever made by Allan Robertson, one of the best-known early promoters of the game.
Jul 16, 2018
This week I want to draw attention to an auction taking place on Saturday (July 21) in aid of a special cause. Many of you will remember the hugely talented and popular Henry Hope-Frost – ‘Mr Fever’ – one of the best-loved figures in motorsport journalism and commentating, who tragically lost his life in a motorcycle accident in Grayswood in March this year while returning home from Goodwood. He was just 47.
I’m pleased to say that friends and supporters have rallied round to put together an auction of excusive motorsport memorabilia in support of Henry’s family, which will take place at Silverstone Auctions during the Silverstone Class Event.
Among the highlights are five sets of overalls donated by Formula One teams, including a set worn by Lewis Hamilton at the 2017 Russian Grand Prix, and a set of Williams overalls in the special livery used by Felipe Massa at the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix. McLaren have even donated a set of overalls dating back to 1998 that were worn on several occasions by David Coulthard.
Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari has donated a signed pair of his driving gloves, and there are a lot of other goodies to bid on too. It’s heartening to see the esteem in which Henry is still held. Visit www.silverstoneauctions.com
Jul 9, 2018
Whisky is proving to be one of the great modern collectables, attracting a young buying base as well as long-term, well-heeled enthusiasts. But before you dip your toe in the ‘water of life’ – the word whisky comes from the gaelic ‘usquebaugh’ with that meaning – it’s a good idea to develop a little understanding about how the market works.
For a start there are really two whisky markets: one for rare bottles left over from defunct distilleries or age-old bottlings; the other for new limited edition bottlings of rare casks put aside for special occasions some time ago.
To give you an idea of what these can make, a Hong Kong bidder has just beaten off competition from dozens of rivals to win a bottle of Bowmore 1966 Samaroli Bouquet at £50,000. It was first bottled 18 years after distillation in 1984 and only 720 bottles have ever been produced.
Check out its ranking among the 1000 best whiskies of all time on Whiskybase.com and you will find it at… Number One, with a rating of 96.49 out of 100.
Whether you are going to buy for investment or simply for drinking, it pays to start with the great whisky guru, Charles Maclean’s, Whisky Wheel (see whiskymax.co.uk) and to follow some of the experts, like Dave Broom (@davebroomwhisky) and Neil Ridley (@NeilDram).
Jul 3, 2018
Choices, choices. Will you be watching the World Cup Final or the Wimbledon Men’s Final on July 15? The solution is clearly two TVs. As I write this, England are still in with a chance, but as of tonight, who knows? Obviously, if they make the final (we can but dream at this stage) households split between their football and tennis loyalties are likely to see more pressure to watch the former, especially now Andy Murray is no longer in the running at Wimbledon.
When it comes to sporting memorabilia, there is no competition, however. Football memorabilia, especially World Cup Winners medals, leave just about everything else standing. In 2016 Pele’s 1970 World Cup Winners medal took £280,000, setting a new record – in fact the Pele collection of football memorabilia sold for a total of £3.6m at the time.
By contrast, iconic tennis memorabilia can be had for relatively modest sums. Bjorn Borg’s racquet from the 1981 Wimbledon Final sold for as little as $18,500 in 2007, while Fred Perry’s racquet from the 1934 Wimbledon Final took £23,000 in 1997.
A London Underground poster from 1933 promoting the championship sold for £25,000 in 2012, but the top price to date is the $71,500 paid in 1992 for Bill Tilden’s 1920 Men’s Singles trophy for Wimbledon. Mind you, that’s close to $1m in today’s values.
Jun 25, 2018
What’s the auction record for a piece of Star wars memorabilia? I’ll bet anything that most people will now think it is the Han Solo Jedi blaster gun that sold for $550,000 in California on June 24. Guess what: not even close!
It’s certainly a better price than the $172,200 paid for a Chewbacca set mask in 2012, the $191,000 paid for Han Solo’s jacket in 2016 and the $280,600 for a fighter helmet from Episode IV, A New Hope, also in 2016.
Back in 2012 again, an X-Wing fighter model climbed to $221,400, while Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber from Episodes IV and V went as high as $240,000 in 2008 – surely one of the most iconic pieces ever to come up for sale, and quite a price bearing in mind that it didn’t actually work. The buyer was savvy, however, as they resold it for $450,000 just last year.
The prices keep rising though, from the $319,500 paid in 2011 for a Stormtrooper costume to the $402,500 another buyer paid for the TIE Starfighter ship, also from A New Hope. The Rebel Blockade Runner prop from the opening scene of the first film made $465,000 in 2015, but the prize goes to the R2-D2 prop used in several of the films, which went for a cool $2.76m in 2017.
How long before we see a double-digit price in the millions, I wonder?
Jun 18, 2018
Elvis Presley’s gold lion-head ring has just sold for £33,500 at auction, while his first Las Vegas contract, dating from 1956, went for £28,000. Both sold in the UK but to US collectors.
When it comes to the world of entertainment – rock and pop, films and suchlike – memorabilia follows the same rules that religious relics would have followed in the Middle Ages. Think about all those Renaissance churches in Italy, France and Spain with a splinter from the Holy Cross, a saint’s finger bone and the rest. The idea is that the closer you can get to the individual, the closer you also get to God.
It’s the same for items associated with the music greats, like Elvis, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Bowie and the rest. A signature is a good start; a signed album, concert programme or other memento is even better. Stage and screen clothing, unique musical instruments and highly personal items like Elvis’s ring are the jackpot. A Hendrix guitar from a famous concert would make millions: the 1968 Stratocaster he played at Woodstock sold to Paul Allen of Microsoft for his Jimi Hendrix Museum in Seattle for $2 million. There are even investment funds dedicated to this sort of thing. Eric Clapton owned four of the ten most expensive guitars ever sold. It’s all about the rock gods in the end.
Jun 11, 2018
Who wouldn’t want to take €7m for a single painting at auction? What a result!
That’s what happened in Paris earlier this month when the 1882 work Fishing Net Menders in the Dunes came up for sale with an estimate of just €3m-5m.
Why is this interesting? Because the artist was none other than Vincent van Gogh.
But hang on a minute, if it’s van Gogh, then €7m really doesn’t sound that much, let alone a mid estimate of around half that. After all, it was only last November that an 1889 landscape by van Gogh took $72m at auction, while other works have made even more. How come?
In a word, it’s all about timing. Some artists peak early in their careers and never recapture that initial brilliance, but most, van Gogh included, mature into what becomes their recognised style, focusing on subject matter that itself becomes iconic.
In van Gogh’s case, while he remained poor all his life and only managed to sell one painting in his lifetime – Red Vineyard at Arles – his artistic breakthrough came in 1888-89 as his late, vibrant and energetic if troubled style emerged, yielding blasts of colour and movement via strong, obsessive brushstrokes.
This is the art that takes the millions and that collectors will pursue relentlessly.
The painting that sold in Paris in early June dates to seven years before this. Highly accomplished, yes; but without the extraordinary genius of his mature period, and so, while still able to command several million euros, not in the same league as Sunflowers, The Starry Night or his astonishing late self portraits.
Jun 4, 2018
What is the most famous map in English literature: the pirate map in Peter Pan? How about Tolkein’s map of Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings, a highlight of the forthcoming exhibition on the author in Oxford? I’ve always loved EH Shepard’s map of the River, the Wild Wood and Toad Hall in Wind in The Willows. Apparently, though, it is Shepard’s other masterpiece, the map of Hundred Acre Wood in Winnie-the-Pooh, which crowns them all.
The market is about to test this theory as the original 1926 sketch comes up for auction in early July with an estimate that stretches to £150,000. That may sound a lot until you consider that an original Shepard drawing depicting Pooh and his friends playing Pooh sticks sold for £314,500 four years ago – a record for any book illustration sold at auction.
These entrancing pictorial maps are a delight to any child – and adult come to that – even more so now than in times past when you look at the price the Hundred Acre Wood map achieved when it first came to auction exactly 50 years ago: £650. Even with inflation, that would come nowhere near the £150,000 mooted now.
You can feast your eyes on more pictorial maps at the unique London Map Fair this weekend near the Albert Hall, where the event is making a special feature of them.
May 29, 2018
Before the days of Netflix, Amazon Prime and multi-channel TV, the Saturday night viewing choice was restricted to three, then four channels: BBC1, BBC2, ITV and, later, Channel 4. In the golden days of TV light entertainment, the 1970s, the airwaves were dominated by Michael Parkinson, Morecambe & Wise and The Two Ronnies, my own personal favourite.
So it was with some interest that I discovered that Ronnie Barker’s handwritten script to the comedy duo’s most famous sketch, Four Candles, is coming up for auction.
First aired in 1976, it was voted the best ever Two Ronnies sketch, going down in comedy folklore as the ultimate example of the pair’s talent.
Barker famously wrote the sketch under the pseudonym Gerald Wiley to test whether the programme’s producers thought the work good enough for airing, a practice he adopted often.
It is thought that he later donated the script – actually titled Annie Finkhouse – to a charity auction, which is how it eventually surfaced on the Antiques Roadshow last year.
The estimate is £40,000, but I could see it making considerably over that sum if the sale is marketed well enough.
The sketch was so iconic that four candles were lit in tribute at each of Barker and Corbett’s funerals.
Mass digital entertainment may have diluted the power of acts like the Two Ronnies these days, but at lest you can still see the sketch on YouTube.
