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The Current State of the Bottle Hobby

The Current State of the Bottle Hobby

martin

As Stated in a Speech given by Jeff Wichmann of American Bottle Auctions, August 7, 2010.

Click here for our podcast with Jeff.

At the FOHBC conference in Wilmington, Ohio.

Did you know that in the 1970’s bottle collecting was one of the most popular hobbies in America? Yep. Right up there with stamps and coins. But of course bottle collecting started much earlier than that.  Let’s take a look.

Did you know that Andrew Carnegie and Henry Ford collected old bottles? As early as 1900, Edwin A. Barber wrote American Glassware.  To our knowledge it is the first reference that dealt solely with the subject of American Glass.  By 1914 Frederick William Hunter wrote Stiegel Glass which also looked at the Wistars and their association with glass in America. In 1920 American Bottles Old & New by William S. Walbridge was published out of Toledo, Ohio.  His book was interesting, Walbridge’s idea of new was the invention of the fifteen-arm bottle making machine.  He points out it weighed 100,000 pounds and had an increased production capacity over the first commercial machine of 202%.  A picture of this new fangled equipment reminds one more of a Terminator movie than bottles. He also points out that in the year 1916, the production of the entire Owens owned plants for the year amounted to 613,959,696 bottles.  A lofty number even by today’s standards.

Soon came Early American Bottles and Flasks by Stephen Van Rensselaer in 1921 and a Revised Version in 1926. Here was a book that set a new level for books on the subject for years to come. Van Rensselaer was the first to chronicle bottles by category. He had 26 groups, which were divided into definitive categories based on their embossed patterns. It was a boon to collectors of the day, and the fuel that would fire what was to come. Van Rensselaer was considered the leading expert on glass as his exhaustive efforts not only cataloged most of the known examples, but also showed pictures of each one.  It was a Herculean effort that was to be the mainstay of the bottle-collecting world.

Another early contributor was a man named Harry Hall White who wrote a series of articles on Kentucky Glass Works and early Pittsburgh glasshouses in a magazine called Antiques in 1926. He was to write articles for Antique over the next 15 years on everything from excavations at Mantua to Coventry Glass Works in Connecticut. When talking American glass, one must not forget a woman named Rhea Mansfield Knittle who in 1924 wrote an article named Muskingham County, Ohio, Glass, which was two years before the contributions of White. She delivered another five articles for Antique and then a very popular book called Early American Glass, published in 1927.  Interestingly, another book written by a woman named Mary Harrod Northend entitled, American Glass, was published a year earlier.  In it, she discussed everything from Sandwich to Wistarberg.  It contained plates of some very rare pieces including what she calls “The Famous “Booz” Bottle,” in light green no less. Although her name is not mentioned in many of the books I’ve researched, surely she was a major contributor in her day. In her preface she writes, “The story of glass is in reality one that has never been fully told, but it has been my endeavor to keep close to the spirit of the times so that he who reads may learn of its evolution which finally ended in acknowledged success.” Boy, if she were around today.  What Northend would ultimately find out is how plastic is now largely the future of glass.

Glass by the Metropolitan Museum of Art came out in 1936.  It was a compilation of the history of glass making throughout the world.  It starts in Egypt with the first recorded evidence of glass making in 3200 B.C.   Meanwhile Ruth Webb Lee’s Sandwich Glass Handbook done in 1939 began her lifelong love affair with Sandwich Glass. The series of Barlow/Kaiser books on the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company in Massachusetts was to come later and although Lee’s efforts were groundbreaking, the new contributions of Barlow/Kaiser included beautiful photographs and an incredible source of information for those interested in Sandwich glass.  Early American Glass-the Magnificent Collection Formed by the late William T.H. Howe of Cincinnati, Ohio was published in 1940 and was one of the first published auction catalogs of strictly bottles and glass.  It included “so-called Stiegel and Ohio techniques in all of the available colors,” and “Blown Three-Mold technique in pressed glass are also to be found in a rich assortment of patterns and colors. Furthermore, the group of historical flasks contains many of the most highly prized specimens.” This collection came with much help from George S. McKearin, generally thought to be one of the founding fathers of the hobby.  Today an offering such as the Howe collection would be considered an almost impossible task. Outside of the very top collectors in the world, few could offer such an amazing array of early bottles and flasks.

Early American Bottles and Flasks Collected by the Late Alfred B. Maclay written in 1945 came next, offering an amazing display of bottles for auction. The catalog is hard bound and contains mostly historical flasks. Many are extremely rare and no doubt some are on collector’s shelves today.  In 1947 a book about a specific area of collecting appeared in the form of Bitters Bottles by J.H. Thompson. He choose to concentrate on one area and even as early as the 1947, you could see a pattern evolving, the rare and valuable versus the more common examples we still differentiate today.  American Glass by Valentine VanTassel appeared in 1950. His attempt at chronicling the history of glass in the United States was worthy of any research collection and as I’ve seen numerous copies of the book, it must have been fairly well received.  It includes a number of black and white prints including a picture of the Harrison Hard Cider flask produced in 1840.  American Historical Flasks by Helen McKearin was the first of her hobby changing efforts in 1953 with more, much more to come. Arlene Palmer’s Glass in Early America started using full-color along with black and white pictures which brought the photography of bottles and glass to a new level.  The remarkable photographs are still right up there with some of the finest ever done. Palmer’s book is regarded as one of the most concise and well-written books ever published on early American glass and is still a mainstay in the collecting world.

Bitters Bottles by Richard Watson appeared in 1965, another important addition which focused on one particular area of this newly evolving hobby. While Thompson had the first book on bitters, Watson was able to expand the category with newly found information.  A Treasury of American Bottles by William Ketchum in 1975 was again one of the first books to fully utilize full-color pictures and with the presentation of much of the Burt Spiller collection, is still considered a major addition to the hobby. In 1978 the bottle and glass world was soon to change forever with the publishing of the newest and most up to date version of American Bottles and Flasks and Their Ancestry by Helen McKearin and Kenneth M. Wilson.  Together, Wilson and McKearin produced not only the most thorough and concise assemblage of information ever seen in one book; they also developed the classification system for flasks and bottles that is still in use today.  The book originally appeared in 1948 and was reprinted again as late as 1989.  By our estimations it is the most reprinted book of it’s type ever written. So from Edwin Barber’s American Glassware to the bible of bottles and glass in the McKearin/Wilson effort, collectors had a much larger volume of information and form of reference than ever before.   There are many other books out there we fail to mention here due to space, but it’s estimated by our count that there are over 500 books that have been written on the subject.

So if one were to look at the books printed up to this point, especially the early contributions, they all had one thing in common, the words “Early,” and “American.” But one needed only to glance westward as the hobby had already gained a head of steam on the Pacific Coast.  The first recognized bottle club was actually started in Sacramento, California by John Tibbitts during the mid 1960’s. It was called The Antique Bottle Collectors Association, which later became the Federation of Historic Bottle Collectors or FOHBC. Tibbits had been writing a newsletter he called Chips from the Pontil and eventually it turned into a book in 1967 called John Doe Bottle Collector. Chips from the Pontil was published from 1959 to 68.  Tibbits also wrote a book, How To Collect Antique Bottles in 1969.  By the 1970’s, the bottle fever had started out west in a big way.  Collecting Bottles by Cecil Munsey came out in 1970.  This 308-page effort contained loads of great photographs and drawings with a well-constructed history of bottles and glass. The Muncie work was one of the firsts to lay out the history from beginning to end and it is still a terrific book for anyone interested in the hobby.  Grace Kendrick had already written a book called The Antique Bottle Collector in 1963 out of Nevada. Bob and Pat Ferraro, also from Nevada wrote A Bottle Collectors Book in 1966 along with The Past in Glass soon thereafter.  Both Kendrick and the Ferraro’s were from Nevada which was picking up a great deal of steam in it’s own right. Many, many bottles were shipped to Nevada from San Francisco and it became a breeding ground for collectors eager to find western glass.

Peck and his wife Audie Markota wrote Western Blob Top Soda and Mineral Water Bottles in the 1970’s. Still the definitive reference on western blob sodas. John Thomas wrote Whiskey Bottles of the Old West in 1969 and he also wrote a number of other related books in the years that followed.  Thomas virtually created the demand for western whiskey fifths and flasks.  His efforts started an excitement among collectors that still lives on today.  His expertise in bottle hunting and ability to write and draw pictures of virtually every western whiskey bottle and flask was monumental in securing the future of whiskey collectors in the west. You could say he gave spirit to those who collected spirit bottles.  Betty (Wilson) Zumwalt wrote Spirit Bottles of the Old West in 1968 along with Western Bitters 1n 1969 and 19th Century Medicine in Glass in 1971.  Zumwalt was soon to write the definitive book on pickle and sauce bottles in an aptly named book, Ketchup, Pickles and Sauces 19th Century Food In Glass. Her work was along with Thomas and Markota the foundation for the huge upsurge in collecting western bottles.  Byron and Vicky Martin wrote Here’s to Beers, still the bible for beer bottle collectors despite the efforts of a number of other beer collectors writings, many of which are valuable contributions. The Martin book was primarily on western beer bottles. Doug Leybourne wrote The Red Book of Fruit Jars which is also considered the bible for fruit jar collectors. Bitters Bottles by Carolyn Ring and later in conjunction with Bill Ham would be considered the must have of bitters bottles books along with it’s supplement. Ring especially, developed the reference system used for bitters bottles today. A specific bitters book focusing on just western bitters bottles also appeared in the form of Antique Western Bitters Bottles written by this author in 1999.  Like the Thomas whiskey book or the Zumwalt medicine book, here was a bitters book dealing with a particular geographical area of collecting a particular type of bottle. It was just one of the many books written for a specific type of western made or distributed bottles to come.

So at this point, we had almost as many books written for the western bottle scene as we did for the east.  Granted, the works of  Ferraro or Tibbits may not have been the masterpieces of Arlene Palmer or Helen McKearin, but there weren’t the number of bottles to discuss in a western book not to mention the glasshouses and overall history.  The first glasshouse in the west didn’t occur until 1859, however in the east that would have been just a few years too late.  It is believed the first glass made in America was by the Wistarburgh Glass Manufactory in 1738.  Established by Caspar Wistar in Southern New Jersey, it lasted for 40 years. So you had quite a jump on western glass production in the east and you had a lot more people that needed bottles. So lots more production, earlier bottles and hence the classic “Early American” glass, collectors strive so hard to find.  That doesn’t mean that bottles made in the west or for the west can’t compete in their own right.  When I say in the west or for the west, there are a couple schools of thought regarding this.  If a bottle was made after 1859 out west specifically San Francisco, it was without question a western bottle.  But some bottles were made in Ohio, New York and other eastern glasshouses that were made specifically for the west.  They were only distributed in the west and are generally considered western.

Soda or mineral water bottles are a good example.  The earliest and most prized examples were made in the east during the 1850’s and 60’s.  Since many have the name San Francisco, Sacramento or even Shasta on them, they are collected by western collectors as western bottles.  Even bottles that don’t have a town name but are only found in the west are considered western.  Some of these include the Catawba Wine Bitters, the Wister’s Club House Gin, and the Bryant’s Bitters.  Bottle collecting then is pretty much divided up into east and west, some collect western bottles and some collect eastern bottles.   Sometime a collector will go after both.  But generally we’ve found that western and eastern collectors are pretty much into the bottles made on which side of the country they live in. Bitters bottles could be the one exception.

So we now had a very well thought out, bevy of bottle books that were giving people new insight into the hobby in a way that hadn’t happened before.  For good reason, the 1970’s ushered in a new era of bottle collecting.  It was a nationwide event when Charles Gardner, a well-known collector of his day sold his collection in 1975. Of course the popularity of bottles meant one more thing, just what were these bottles worth?

In the late 1950’s, early 60’s, there was a guy named Bruce Scott who collected lunch boxes.  He had a house full of them and decided to write a book about lunch boxes and he entitled it simply enough, The 50’s and 60’s Lunchbox.  In it, he included prices based on the number of particular boxes he had seen and pretty much had his way creating a book which essentially was written about his own collection.  How did it go?  Well, once people discovered a lunch box was actually collectible, there was really only one place to turn to get more information. The Bruce Scott book took off and soon people were digging through their garages and basements looking for their hidden treasure.  Lunch boxes began to become popular, his modest investment in lunch boxes was soon worth a fortune and he’s still selling books today.  The point of the story is that here we have a guy who just happened to like collecting lunch boxes.  He then went on to not only write a book, but also created a whole new area of collecting.  He was the lunch box market and he could put any price he wanted on any lunch box.  So he took what was essentially nothing and virtually created a new hobby.

So now we move on to the 1980’s. In the 1960’s bottles were easier to get; their appeal was based mainly on their looks.  As time went on, books came out and the hobby established prices.  Rarity became clearer, we were able to create a base on which to value bottles. I hear many stories of people trading a valuable bottle for a common one, not knowing the Tippecano they traded for a green Old Sachem’s bitters would later turned out to be a disaster. Collectors in the early years were simply basing their decision on pure aesthetics. Minor chips, dings?  They didn’t become a big deal until people started putting out big money for them. As a friend of mine, Ken Salazar recently said, “when I started digging for bottles I didn’t know they were even worth money.”  In addition, we were soon to learn about the so-called 20-year cycle in collecting.  So what happened in the 80’s?  Well, although we had a load of collectors, they didn’t have a real means to talk to each other. Oh there were telephones, people bought and sold bottles through the mail. There were guys like Bob Barnett who wrote a price guide on whiskey bottles called Western Whiskey Bottles.  He sent out a monthly list of bottles for sale.  There were bottle shows but they were scattered and infrequent and in essence there wasn’t the ability to converse with other collectors in a national way.  There was no real highway of information. No way in which collectors could easily share their finds and discuss bottles in general.  Sure, bottles were still very popular, there was a bottle magazine, you could write letters and call people but it wasn’t like the burst of enthusiasm we saw in the 60’s and 70’s. So we had the excitement, discovery and all-out interest from the 70’s waning in the 1980’s.  Was Bottle collecting beginning to suffer from the 20-year cycle?

It’s known that in collecting, there is a period where something will become very popular and then lose that popularity.  Beanie Babies are a good example, but it happens with almost every area of collecting.  A generation is considered 40 years but it takes time and experience to appreciate some collectibles.  So let’s say you collected stamps at age 30 and you eagerly sought out better and better examples and went to stamp shows and basically immersed yourself in stamps for 20 years and now you’re 50.  You decide that stamps are neat, but you just can’t devote the time you once did and decide to sell them. So Bill decides to sell his collection and another stamp collector named Fred does the same.  They’ve gone up in value and it’s time to take a break, sell the collection and even possibly start collecting something else.  When a number of people do this, you do two things, you lose a buyer and you make the availability of stamps more plentiful. If you have 10 collectors of something and five decide to sell, you are left with a huge influx of those items and less people to buy them.  A number of factors begin to occur, more stamps, less interest, less buyers.  This 20-year rule or cycle isn’t in stone, it can change in both time and duration, sometimes it’s 30 years or like the Beanie Babies craze in 1995 through 2000, just five years. But as you look through the history of collecting, lulls in the hobby happen in just about every area of collecting.

From experience we know that people collect things that other people want.  It’s rare that you find the lone lunch box collector but rather more often people who collect things that are more mainstream, allowing them to meet and share their collections.  In our auctions for instance, a piece may sit there for a week in a 10-day auction.  Finally someone puts in a bid and next thing you know there are five people bidding on the item. It’s that, “if he wants it I want it,” syndrome.  Have you ever noticed that when maybe you’re at a bottle show and there’s a bottle you want and you walk around thinking about it and you finally decide to go back and make an offer and it’s gone?  Now you really want it and most likely so do a few other people that couldn’t pull the trigger.  The “I want it if you want it” syndrome also works the other way.  Sometimes we’ll have a person buy a bottle and return it or simply not pay for it.  We will call the underbidder who just a week before had to have it but was outbid at the last minute.  We explain to them that their bid is now the top bid and the item is theirs.  “No thanks,” we hear more often than not.  “I’ve purchased something else,” or “well, I think I’ve changed my mind,” is the general mindset.  If they don’t want it why would I want it?  It’s the “if he doesn’t want it, I don’t want it,” syndrome.

So as people were spreading the word about bottles in the 60’s and 70’s, towards the end of the 70’s and into the early 80’s we saw a bit of a lull.  If you look around, you don’t see many books being published on bottles in the 80’s, there was that communication problem and interest slowed. It wasn’t earth shattering, it rarely is, but it’s a sign that there just wasn’t the interest that there was 10 years prior. Looking back, it was a great time to load up.  Some collectors did and are smiling all the way to the bank. Others sold off their collections, only to wish later they’d sat on their green Sachem’s or yellow Indian Queen. Bottles were still a fairly strong collectible, you just didn’t have the enthusiasm you saw earlier.  Of course there are other factors that can affect certain areas of collecting.  Economic unrest, a lack of items in that collecting circle, infighting among the leading collectors, there is a myriad of reasons for the checks and balance system in collecting.  For Beanie Babies it was over production, it was the same with baseball cards in the late 1980’s and 90’s.  In addition, with Beanie Babies they were new, they had no real history to speak of, they were just a phenomena.  Ty Warner, the company that gave birth to these babies knew the magic words in collecting, people want what others want.  Their main strategy was to offer their products in very limited editions. People ate it up. Collectors wanted Beanie Babies and it was only because others did also.  Once people looked around and came to their senses, they realized how ridiculous it was paying hundreds of dollars for a brand new toy just because it was one of only five hundred made.  Try selling a dark blue Peanut the Elephant these days.  A recent search on Ebay revealed hundreds of the Ty Warner Beanie Babies offered for as low as 25 cents apiece with no bids.

As the new decade arrived, so did the ability to spread the word about bottles. Websites sprang up and there was the beginning of national auctions like Skinners and Glass Works Auctions.  Out west we had Western Glass Auctions, these were auctions that were selling specifically antique bottles and glass. Also, people like Ralph and Terry Kovel had been publishing a newsletter and were now producing books on bottles along with other numerous books on antiques.  They even had their own television show.  Terry Kovel still is an internationally known syndicated columnist with her Kovel’s Corner appearing in newspapers across the country and around the world.  Terry and her late husband’s contribution to collecting in America has led the way in fulfilling generations of Americans thirst for collecting.  The American version of The Antiques Roadshow, which began in 1996, generated a new interest in antiques. But maybe the most important event was Ebay, which started in 1995.  Ebay was now a major player in the selling of everything from buttons to bottles. So out from the closets came the current collectors but in addition you had new people taking a look at bottles as a collectible.  The beauty of antique bottles was again gaining momentum. Bottle had become more definitive.  We now knew that particular bottles were rare and others weren’t.  As time went on, we saw more books. The hobby was back on track and as we headed into the new century, bottle collecting was very strong.  We had a way to convey our information.  The computer was making the hobby more accessible to everyone.  The hobby seemed secure and strong.  But just how strong was it?

Today we have collectors from all over the world collecting bottles and glass. Collectors are learning more and more about bottles everyday.  There are now hundreds of websites devoted to bottle collecting. With self-publishing there are a number of books being written on very specific areas of collecting. I counted close to 30 books that I have on my shelf that have been written in the last few years alone. More auction houses have sprung up. Ironically, Ebay, who some could argue really got the thing started has now taken a back seat to live auctions.  It would seem however, that by all accounts, bottle collecting is now thriving.  But for every step forward the hobby makes, it seems to take a step back.  We have a federation, which meets on a regular basis, but just what they actually accomplish is more of a question mark than brick and mortar.  A series of fakes appeared years ago and seem to pop up now and again.  Bottle shows just aren’t what they used to be.  People used to spend days preparing their displays in anticipation of winning a blue ribbon.  These days it’s a much less eager effort accomplished by the few who still care to spend the time to present bottles in grand fashion.  Why travel to a bottle show in Keene, New Hampshire when you could sit in your pajamas at home and purchase bottles online?  In my mind there is nothing that compares to attending a bottle show.  You can’t replace the personal examination of a bottle and the excitement of meeting friends old and new at a bottle show with cruising the Internet.  You can’t go to all the shows but it’s really the best way to learn more.  With the ammunition you’ve gleaned from books and the Internet, a bottle show is the final piece of the puzzle, a wonderland of glass, all there for your inspection.  For more information on shows in your area, check out our website or the FOHBC site.  There are numerous online sites that will give you the information you need.

As in any hobby, once categories are defined, rarity established and collectors become knowledgeable about the hobby, the prices are going to escalate.  The important word here is knowledge. Like the lunch box phenomena, we now have a roadmap of what is what. With the present day bottle collector, what they are learning or have the capacity to learn has never been greater. So where is the hobby today in terms of popularity in comparison to other hobbies?  Is this the beginning of the end or the beginning of the beginning?   Are we heading into a new 20-year down or up cycle? The last 20 years haven’t been all butterflies and jelly beans. We’ve had some ups and downs but a somewhat steady progression in general.  Certainly some areas of collecting has slowed, others hastened but it seems in just the last few years, or more specifically this year, we’ve seen some staggering prices paid for some bottles. Is this current year of 2010 the signal of the beginning?  The start of the beginning of a new age in bottle collecting?

The year 2010 was and is a great year for the bottle-collecting hobby.  As I write this in September, I look back at some of the transactions that occurred and see a new perspective creeping in on the horizon. Consider these bargains; a blue Homestead Bitters sold privately for $200,000, a blue firecracker GI-14 flask set a new world’s auction record selling for $100,000 at a Norm Heckler sale.  A purple Masonic GIV-1 brought  $75,000 in a private sale.  A Druids Bitters in green, $50,000.  A GII-69 yellow and olive Eagle/Cornucopia, brought $44,850.  These are just a few of the bottles that sold at never before seen prices. A recent article printed in Maine Antique Digest included some observations on the state of the bottle hobby from the Norman Heckler camp.  It read, “In the end, it is not simply the record prices but the overall strength of the bottle and flask market that is most impressive.  While other categories have floundered in the so-called downturn, bottle and flask prices have never wavered, and with an ever-increasing crop of buyers, the future for the category is rosy.” When asked the reason for the resurgence, Heckler pointed out simply, “new blood.”

When you think about bottles compared to art for instance, what is the difference?  In many cases they’re both old, they are beautiful to look at and often both have historical significance. Neither of them will drive you to work or cook you dinner, but really, there’s not a lot of difference; except in price. Not value, price. If an Andy Warhol self-portrait sells for $32.56 million dollars as it did in a recent Sotheby’s auction, what is so darn crazy about $200,000 for a one known Homestead Bitters in blue? A Jasper Johns painting of a flag entitled oddly enough “Flag” sold for $28.6 million recently at a Christie’s auction.  And $100,000 is too much for a blue GI-14 firecracker? A mechanical bank called “Breadwinnners,” just brought $94,000 in a RSL auction in Maryland. Baseball cards and memorabilia?  A Mickey Mantle game used jersey just sold for $125,000 in a recent SCP auction in Southern California. One of a number of Mantle jerseys.  To obtain the truly rare Honus Wagner T-206 baseball card in a grade 8, plan on paying around $2.8 million, if you can find one.  A bargain for sure. But you can buy a much lesser grade example for around a million. As far as practical collecting, there’s some to be found.  But people generally collect things that give them visceral entertainment or possibly memories of the past. Cars you can at least drive. A Boston and Sandwich candlestick can light your room with a candle in it. Guns you can target practice with or an old book you can read. Photography gives us insight into the past, memories again, with records you can listen to music. With furniture you can sit down and eat dinner at an old Stickley dining table. A collectible watch will tell you the time. Many of these collectibles fit into the “memory” category. But most of the collectibles today that bring the highest dollar value have beauty, which lies in the eye of the collector. Art is the most expensive, stamps and jewelry can get up there, too. A Batman comic book just did $400,000 at auction. Coins, they can be made of gold but you will most likely be paying a lot more than the real gold value of the coin.

When you think about it, it’s the beauty of the world, those alluring, captivating images, textures and charmingly presented items that light up our eyes, that strike a nerve in the beauty center of our brain that captures our greatest attention. Whether it be a Monet painting or a green Fish Bitters.  $75,000 for a purple Masonic GIV-1 might seem like a ton of money but it’s one of only a few known.  Show me a stamp or coin that costs the same amount and there might be 50 known. So clearly the comparison to rare bottles and rare stamps or coins and many other collectibles just hasn’t caught up yet. And of course art has no bounds.  As you’ve seen, art is in a category of it’s own.

So, the current state of the bottle hobby is in good shape from what I’ve seen.  Average bottles sell for average prices, probably more than ten years ago. But they sell. Certain bottles have increased in price.  Some areas of bottle collecting has slowed, but generally across the board it’s been pretty strong.  It’s the rarest of the rare however that has taken a huge upswing over the past year or two. It’s difficult to ascertain the value of bottles; it’s almost a little depressing.  What’s it worth I am constantly asked.  I have friends that feel the hobby is becoming a money hobby, the innocence lost.  Why does everything have to have a price tag?  Well, I ask them, what’s the one question they ask you on the Antiques Roadshow when they’re through looking at the object?  What’s it worth?  Like it or not, there’s always going to be the price element in collecting, anything.  From old cigar boxes to Rolex watches. You can’t get away from it.  Some bottles don’t cost a lot and that’s great.  You can put together a wonderful, colorful collection for a relatively cheap amount.  But like most collecting, as you continue to learn, knowledge and experience brings you to understand the finer examples and it becomes a lot about money.  Remember that it’s the knowledge and experience. That isn’t to say you can’t collect beautiful average valued bottles your whole life, but experience tells me as one grows, a Volkswagen bug just ain’t gonna cut it anymore when you see your friends moving up to a new Audi or Mercedes.

You can only hope to predict the future by learning from the past. If we are nearing the end you’ll know it. The end starts with a decline in interest.  For whatever reason, the number of people involved in the hobby declines, people start selling their collections and there is a flood of sellers and prices begin to decline. Try selling even the rarest of the Beanie Babies today. Good luck.  It can also happen gradually like after the 1970’s.  Don’t forget the 20-year rule.  You need that new influx of collectors to sustain a hobby.  Most likely what’s going to happen isn’t any different than what happens with any area of collecting.  Things will ebb and flow.  Some bottles will go up and some will come down.  But overall, it’s all up to us to keep the hobby growing.  People don’t live forever and new blood is essential.

Click here for American Bottle Auctions’ website. Click here for our podcast with Jeff.

Mid-Century Modern Design

Mid-Century Modern Design

martin

by Martin Willis

I will be the first to admit that I am not well versed in this era of furniture but have been trying to educate myself a little on it. Some pieces I do not find appealing, but others are very pleasing to the eye. I tend to like the furniture that is simple in design. I also go to the other extreme and love to see out of control, crazy looking pieces.

If I remember correctly only about 20 years ago, we auctioneers and dealers used to call the era “that 50s stuff” with disdain, of course. The term “retro” was used sometimes and can be used for eternity for all things of our more recent past. I always think too much about things like this and wonder what will be the next term of a recent era. What will they call “Contemporary Design” forty years from now? In 2050 will we be calling the pieces produced at that time “Mid-century” all over again? I sure hope we are not currently living in what will be later termed: The IKEA Movement! This makes me wonder who is in charge for naming our eras of design anyway? I think it should be an elected global official with a wordsmith background. The candidate will have good taste and a keen eye before they get my vote.

Turning back the clock 25 years ago, I got a house call in New Hampshire from someone that said their grandfather passed away and they had a house full to sell. The house was built in 1952 and fully furnished at that time. Everything in it was as wild & unusual looking to me, from lamps to furniture. It was packed full and all I can remember today is that I said that I was sorry, but could not help them. That was the way it was then, no one wanted any of it. If you did take it for auction, no one bid and you ended up disposing of functional pieces that are valuable today.

A lot has changed since that time and things will change again. When I say this, I do so because I have seen repeatedly how trends change and collecting in a certain area falls out of fashion. Collections drop and rise in value like a roller coaster. When asked I tell people to collect what they like, not purely for investment. If what they collect is not a passion of theirs, they may end up living with it longer then they planned to. You can almost always be safe if you acquire the top of the line of whatever category you collect in.

The Mid-century Modern Design was at it’s height in the years following WWII. Post War optimism stirred designers to think outside the box. There is often and exaggerated futuristic look to many pieces. I enjoy this aspect of the art deco era as well.

There were a number of people involved in creating the designs of Mid-century Modern furniture.
Here are a few names: George Nelson, Charles & Ray Eames, Herman Miller, Isamu Noguchi, Harry Bertoia, Mies van der Rohe, George Nakashima, Edward Wormley, Gio Ponti. Paul McCobb, Milo Baughman and many more.

Danish Moderns designers include such famous names as Arne Jacobsen, Hans Wegner, Finn Juhl, Borge Mogensen and Poul Kjaerholm.

You can often find original pieces for a lot less then the reproductions cost. Good ways to scout out pieces is to watch for yard sales at housing developments that were built in the 50s-60s. Look on Craiglist, go to auctions, shops, shows and flea markets. You may find the the search alone will bring you great pleasure. Many seasoned collectors and dealers freely share their knowledge. If you are on a budget, I would suggest looking for pieces that need a little work, whether it is finish work or upholstery. Furniture made during the Mid-century will last several lifetimes.

Back awhile on podcast #36 we spoke with a well known Mid-century collector/dealer, Dave Shaw of the Berkeley Hills in California. Besides having a great sense of humor, Dave was way ahead of most dealers in the 1970s and saw that Mid-century furniture was going to have it’s day. One example is, he began collecting Eames lounge chairs for $15 each, because no one else wanted them at the time. He claims he buys things because he loves them and his keen eye has served him well. Click here to listen to his podcast.

We are in a day where design and form is more important then age. Design and form have always mattered but it used to be coupled with age and rarity to make it special.

On parting, if you were asking me for advice on what level to collect, I would say buy the best with what you can afford. In all areas of collecting, it is better to buy one great piece, then ten mediocre pieces. If you are a collector, I hope you have success in finding what you are looking for and most of all, I hope you enjoy the hunt.

Click here to listen to LA Modern, Peter Loughrey

The Writings of Abraham Lincoln

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by Martin Willis

This week’s podcast is an interview with Harold Holzer, one of the leading scholars on Abraham Lincoln. I am very thrilled to write this article about Abraham Lincoln’s writings and some of my thoughts on the great leader.

Abraham Lincoln is one of my favorite people in history and has been since I learned about him at an early age. It helped that a friend of mine in grade school was a direct descendent as well. Besides our founding fathers, there is no other example of any president who gave of himself so completely to shape our nation. He had extremely difficult decisions to make, in some he stood alone, yet almost all of them were the best judgment that one could have made. We look at history as a backward glance. We see the events and the outcomes of decisions as the solid past. He was living in such turbulent moments and trying to change a way of wrongful thinking. Our country was founded and continued with slavery as a way of life. Through all of Lincoln’s actions, he was walking with unsure footing on thin ice. As the losses mounted during the Civil War, the burden of it all aged him greatly, yet he plodded on. He lived just long enough to see that his dream and efforts were coming to fruition. It was a sad day in 1865 when John Wilkes Booth stepped forward with common feelings of many other Confederate sympathizers and detractors to take the life of the great man. One can only speculate the additional achievements Lincoln would have made with the nearly four years remaining of his presidency.

This is not a specific history lesson, as it would take me too long to write about the amazing life of Lincoln starting from his humble beginnings through his presidency. What I will discuss is Abraham Lincoln’s documents, letters and signatures. I have handled dozens of these in my career and had the honor of handling the second to last writing that the great man penned just before he left for Ford’s Theater on April 14, 1865. Even though it was only one sentence, it was amazing to hold in my hands the second to last thing he put down on paper. See article here.

As in Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln wrote many thousands of letters and had an amazing artistic talent for the craft of writing. The Gettysburg Address had only 272 words, yet so much was said in that brief speech that it lives on as one of the greatest in American history. Here is a wonderful example of Lincoln’s talent in a letter he wrote to his son’s teacher. Click here to read.

His law career spanned for over 25 years and his signature was on thousands of documents during that time. Signatures of all presidents are more valuable during the time that they are in office.    Lincoln’s writings during the time he was a lawyer and before is not as valuable unless substantial for a particular reason. A large number of deeds, wills and similar documents were clipped for his signature over the years. You will often find clipped signatures mounted and framed under an image of Lincoln. These “clipped signatures” are the least valuable of his writings. Depending on the vibrancy of the ink color they usually sell at auction for around $2-3,000. With all the legal documents he produced, you can just imagine how many are undiscovered and sitting in attics or storage. Some will continue to remain that way until they are disposed of or disintegrate by being uncared for. If your family had any connection with Lincoln in anyway, make sure to explore all known remaining documents.

The descendents of Hugh McCulloch, Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury lived in the family home in Kennebunkport, Maine. They called me with some items for sale and I was able to visit their beautiful Colonial home in what used to be the center of town. This home was built for the family in the 1700s and still had a number of original period furnishings. The walls on the second floor bedrooms were hinged and would latch to the ceiling to create a ballroom for the entire second floor. It was a fantastic early home. They had a number of McCulloch’s affects including his desk from the Capitol that was curved in design and would connect to other desks to form a semicircle. While I was writing up the consignment contract for the desk and other period furniture, I looked over at the wall and saw a one-page letter with the distinct writing and signature of Lincoln. I asked if I could take a minute and read it. I do not remember the content of the letter as I almost fell over when I read the date. I asked them if they realized that it was Lincoln’s last day when he wrote it. They told me they had dozens of Lincoln’s letters in a safe and enjoyed hanging that one on the wall. Needless to say, I could not talk them into consigning it.

As an appraiser I have been asked dozens of times over the years if newspapers have value. I always say there are only a few that have any value, such as Lincoln’s Assassination. A reward broadside (poster) can sell for as high as $80,000. This is an example of how much Lincoln remains venerated by collectors of Lincoln memorabilia.

Most of Lincoln’s signatures such as discharges and commissions are signed: “A. Lincoln”, but he did sign a full signature occasionally. As all things of value there are fakes and some people are pretty good at it. The forgers look for blank period paper that can be found at auctions and other venues. If you are looking to buy a letter or signature, make sure your source is solid and remember if it is too good to be true then it is just that. There are lithographs of Lincoln’s portrait with his signature below. A number of people have shown these to me thinking they have an original signature.

As far as record prices of Lincoln’s work, a copy of copy of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Lincoln and previously purchased by Robert F. Kennedy has sold for more than $3.7 million in New York City last December 10th. Secondly, his election victory speech, hand written and delivered by him from the White House window on the evening of November 10th, 1864 sold at auction for $3, 442,500.

To give a few examples of other average prices, Civil War commissions, depending on who they are for and the condition can sell for as little as $2,500 to around $7,500 up. Lincoln letters generally sell from $5,000 up. Content and condition is everything.

A few other examples of other Lincoln articles that sold at auction are: his spectacles for $150,000, a wooden inkstand, $67,500 and a pair of brass dividers used by him sold for $70,000. Keep in mind that there are probably hundreds of thousands of items that people claim belonged to Lincoln. This is called “family hearsay” in the antique and auction business and very difficult to prove. The pieces I mention above had solid provenance leading back to the 16th president.

Collectors aggressively seek rare images of Lincoln as well.

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum acquired the renowned Taper Collection in 2007, partly though the generosity of the Taper family. It is an unparalleled collection of more than 1,500 artifacts, manuscripts and artworks that span Lincoln’s entire life including his famous stovepipe hat. From what I understand it is an in depth collection well worth the viewing.

The Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton was one of the people who remained at Lincoln’s side during his final hours. At the end he was quoted as saying “Now he belongs to the ages” and he does. He remains for evermore in our hearts and our nation’s history.

Click here to listen to the podcast with Harold Holzer.

Incredible Finds!

Incredible Finds!

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by Martin Willis

All of us in the business like to hear about best finds that someone scoops at an estate sale, flea market, auction or by other means.

I decided not to go into my own personal best finds in this article,  but will go into finds that I have heard from first hand accounts. Either I know the person, or know someone directly involved. I have many stories and can only share a few, as it would take too much writing for a single blog.

The one thing I want people to understand that have not been at this awhile is, finds are few and far in between. You may go your whole life as a dealer with a good eye and know what you are doing, and never run across a substantial one. It is like winning the lottery. I have seen people that do not have a clue what they are doing, stop at a yard sale or two and find a major treasure.  There are a few examples below and it is often just dumb luck.

I will start out with a bang, the highest one I know of in the last few years.

Only a few miles away from where I am sitting right now in Marin County, California there was an instance like I mentioned above. A gentleman that infrequently stops at estate sales decided to stop at one just outside of his neighborhood. He said there were some interesting things being offered from this particular woman’s estate. Her relatives were in town settling things, putting the real estate up for sale and selling her personal belongings. He saw what he thought was a small copy of a Picasso painting for $65 and decided to buy it. When he brought it home, he kept looking at it and thought that the work was incredible for a copy. He sent an image to a major New York auction house and the head of the painting department called him right away. The following day two people showed up at his door from that auction house and after close examination they were certain that the painting was an original piece by the artist. The ecstatic gentleman was concerned that if the painting sold at auction, the relatives of the woman’s estate may find out, so he requested a private treaty sale. After the official authentication, the auction house brokered the Picasso painting to a private buyer for an undisclosed seven figure amount.

Ever since A & E’s “Storage Wars”aired, you hear all this hoopla about storage auctions. Since that time attendance at these auctions have increased by a major amount. Before you go and spend your hard earned cash at one, keep in mind it is a big gamble. About 25 years ago, my father and his good friend, fellow auctioneer Merle Straw went to such an auction and when they lifted the door to a unit, all they saw were boxes stacked high. They paid $400 for the unit and discovered it was all outdated computer paper. It cost them good money to dispose of it. The lesson I am trying to get across to you is, you will only see or hear about the great finds, but not too much about the more common duds. Keep that in mind when I tell you these two stories. At an appraisal clinic I worked at a guy came in with a big smile on his face and opened a folded sheet that contained a book. He said he bought it at a storage auction and knew it was in Spanish, but did not know what it was. I was quite excited as I was looking at an inscription that read “Santa Gertrudis” and noticed it was written in Latin as well as Spanish.  After researching, I figured out it was a 1755-1768 Mission Christian Confirmation register. How it ended up in a storage locker I don’t know. It was sold for $15,000 at auction. That is not bad for the few hundred he spent.  About ten years ago an active buyer of antique furniture at my auctions went through a difficult financial time and had to close down his shop and warehouse. A few years ago he was at a storage auction and when the door opened, all anyone could see was wooden crates. He did not pay too much for the unit and to his surprise it was all crated American & European high end paintings. He ended up auctioning them off for just over $900,000!

Several years ago I got a phone call from a fellow who claimed he had an old vase he just got at a yard sale and wanted to show it to me. I was going to be setting up for an auction at a busy function hall on a Thursday and I told him to meet me there. At that time there was another auction going on that Wednesday and he showed up then by accident and asked for me. The auctioneer talked him into putting the vase in their auction unadvertised and to everyone’s surprise (including me) the vase sold for an amazing $17,000. The guy actually called me to brag about what it sold for and said the rumor was it was a rare Korean vase. He also told me it was the first thing he ever bought at a yard sale and paid a whopping $15 for it. Who knows what it would have brought if properly advertised.

I will end on this one that I mentioned it in podcast 35. Americana Exchange last year. A faithful auction attendee of mine was at a local antique shop and saw boxes of books on the floor containing a few books each for $15 a lot. After looking through them, he found the biggest find I had heard about at the time. He told me his hands were shaking when he paid for the box that contained a special book. He knew it was good, but not at the magnitude it was. The book ended up selling in New York for over a million dollars! To back up a little, the shop owner had bought an entire library of books at a public auction for a few hundred dollars the night before. When I asked him how he felt about letting the book slip through, he laughed and said, “knowledge is power”.

So I will end here for now and perhaps in a few months, I will tell some more best find stories. You are welcome to submit stories below if you wish.

Antique Whaling Scrimshaw

Antique Whaling Scrimshaw

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By Martin Willis

For a related podcast, click here.

For several years I assisted Chuck DeLuca from Maine with his maritime auctions. He would have such interesting pieces pass through his sales. From what I could see, there were a lot of collectors from far and wide that collect all kinds of historical maritime. The time spent helping Chuck was a great learning experience for me. On my own, I have been lucky enough to see some fabulous whale’s tooth scrimshaw work. Back in the 1980s I spent several days with Barbara Johnson in Princeton, NJ. I went over her entire collection, which was a premier selection of some of the finest pieces known. This collection was considered the foremost in the world and left a big impression on me.

There are no real reasons for whaling today, but in the earlier days, whales were harvested for numerous demands. Almost the entire whale was used for a large variety of products and the most important of them was the oil. It was created from boiling down blubber on board, then stored in casks. It was used for lamp oil, soaps, beauty products, varnishes, lubricants and more. As sad as it seems to some, this was a part of our past.

For long extended times, sometimes years, a sailor was at sea on a whaling expedition. Little of that time in comparison was actual whaling work and sometimes months would pass between sightings. Sailors had hours upon end of idle time and some chose to create trinkets and art.

Examples of sailor’s work are: scrimshawed whale’s teeth and bone, fancy rope knot work, wood and ivory carvings such as whimsies, cane heads, pie crimpers, pipe tampers, fids (made for splicing rope) and more. There were sailor’s valentines made with seashells, swifts (yarn winders), corset busks and many more interesting and beautiful pieces.

Scrimshaw started in the early 1800s and is still practiced today. A scrimshaw artist is called a scrimshander. He had to start with a raw tooth, meaning in the natural state with ridges. He spent hours and hours polishing it down to a smooth surface, and then he would start working on his design with a sharp needle and India ink. Most of the time black ink was used, but sometimes there were other colors, mostly red.

Scrimshaw work can tell a story and often times has a design of the whale caught on the verso side. Sometimes the work can have high value for a folk art, primitive look, but most collectors want high detail and a great subject. On some teeth you will find beautiful maidens, couples (pair), portraits, whaling ships, American eagles and political, whaling scenes, home ports or ports visited, and sometimes a tooth is completely covered with intricate stories, some with named places and dates. Surprisingly, most scrimshaw work is not signed.

An original period scrimshaw tooth is very desirable and can sell from several hundred dollars to fifty thousand or more. In rare cases a few have sold for as much as $100,000. These were called a “Susan’s Tooth”, from the whaling ship Susan (known as: “Susan’s Teeth”). The scrimshander’s name was Frederick Myrick. However, the record goes to scrimshander known only as “The Pagoda Artist.” An unsigned and attributed tooth sold several years ago in Portsmouth, NH for $303,000.

World Record Tooth, $303,000

If you are looking to buy a scrimshawed tooth and are not familiar with how to tell if it is a period whale’s tooth, then I would suggest to seek and expert’s opinion. There are resin fakes that could fool a novice and there are antique whale’s teeth that have been recently scrimshawed. The ink is usually very dark in these pieces. An old tooth should have a nice mellow patina and the ink color somewhat faded. Whale’s teeth are hollow on the underside, unless cut. Of course, there are later teeth as well, these usually look very white. Sometimes people confuse walrus or elephant ivory as whale ivory. Walrus tusks are scrimshawed as well, but have a fraction of the value of a whale’s tooth.

A few years ago, I decided to try to scrimshaw a blank polished antique whale’s tooth I had lying around. Let me tell you, it is not easy at all, even if you are artistically inclined.  You have to apply a lot of pressure and try not to slip past your penciled sketch. After I completed, I still thought it looked pretty primitive in comparison to other work. This gave me even a better appreciation of the fine pieces I have seen.

This is a contemporary scrimshaw

Collecting had fallen out of favor for many years until John F. Kennedy came to office as an avid collector. It spawned a renewed interest and there are many collectors worldwide to this day. I believe there will always be a demand to collect this beautiful art from a time when harvesting whales was our way of life.

Here is a source for books on the subject. Click Here

Fine examples are at the New Bedford Whaling Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem Massachusetts.

Click Above Image to View The Website

Peabody Essex Museum

My Ten Rules For Buying Art At Auction

My Ten Rules For Buying Art At Auction

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by Dr. J. Darragh M. Elliott, M.Sc., Ph.D.

“AN INSATIABLE COLLECTOR – Part Three”

There are all types of auctions. The most famous being those of Sothebys and Christies. Other auctions include, auctions held in arenas, hotel ball rooms, homes, farms, stores, and so on. Not every auctioneer has the luxury of having his own auction house. Some only have a warehouse and a office, and others may not even have a warehouse.

I would like to believe that most auction houses would prefer any potential customer to think that all of the items that the auctioneer has to be auctioned have been consigned to the auction house for that purpose. Therefore, my first rule for buying at auction is to not be naive enough to believe that all auction houses, all the time, only sell consigned items. In many instances right from a large auction house down to a one or two man farm auction, is to understand that some of the items that are going to be auctioned, are indeed owned by the auctioneer.

Consequently, in these cases the auctioneer is selling for his or her own profit, and not a commission. No auctioneer is going to tell you the he owns a certain item but, it is worthwhile remembering, as I will discuss later on.

The hardest part of an auctioneer’s job is the finding of good quality items to sell, not the actual selling of the items. Fortunately, for the large auction houses many of these items become available to them because, of their reputation. But even the largest of auction houses do not sit back on their laurels and wait for people to offer items for them to sell. They are continually out looking and advertising.

Other than on consignment, there are a number of ways that a auction house can acquire its merchandise to sell at auction, although the consignment method is the most preferred because, the auction house does not have to tie up its own money in merchandise. Some of these are to purchase a complete estate or estates, and there are various methods that a auction house will go about finding this type of merchandise. It is important to note that a auction house may purchase a complete estate for just one item, such as a rare painting. The balance of the estate may be sold at a lesser advertised or quality auction, or to people that sell items at flea markets etc. I will discuss this further in another article on selling at auction.

Other methods are to acquire end runs, over runs, merchandise from bankrupt stores, or companies, excess, or unsold inventory from manufacturers, or stores, and so on.

My second rule for purchasing at auction is to be aware as to where the item or items that you are interested in have come from. In some cases this can be easy to tell that they have been brought in for the auction. For example, if you are attending a auction of the contents of a house, and contained within that auction are a few pieces of furniture or jewelry that you know that the owner either could not have afforded, or did not fit in with the rest of the merchandise, then it is a pretty good bet that they have been brought in for that particular auction, and most likely by the auctioneer. The simplest of reasons may be that the contents of the house were not enough to support having a auction at the house and therefore, the auctioneer brought in some of his own merchandise.

Therefore, my third rule for buying at auction is to be realistic. If there are two or more complete dining room sets for sale at a house or farm auction, or if there are three antique back to the walls, hutches, or more items than the house of this type could, or would normally contain, then it is a very good bet that a lot of fillers have been brought in to sell at the auction. It is quite possibly done because, of the location of the auction. Which, if the location is a prominent one, then from the auctioneers point of view, why not?

My fourth rule of buying at auction is, if you can, always attend the preview, or to send someone on your behalf at the very least. That is assuming that there is a preview, which if there is not, you can always arrive early, and generally you will be allowed to inspect the merchandise being offered for sale at auction. Depending on the type of auction, and where it is being held etc. If it is a major auction, and you have registered, or purchased items from the auctioneer before, no doubt you will be on his mailing list, and you will have been sent a flier or a catalog, if you subscribe for them, of the up coming sale.

The earlier that you can inspect the item(s) that you are interested in the better because, this allows you more time to do your homework, or research.

Remember, it is not always what you have to pay for the item but, the what the cost of restoration is afterwards, which can exceed the purchase price, to put the item in pristine condition as, discussed in my previous article.

Therefore, my fifth rule for buying at auction is, to know as much as you can about what it is that you are interested in buying. As discussed in previous articles, is again to do your homework or research. Purchase the catalog, and purchase, and use your reference books. Research price guides, and previous sales indexes. Obtain other opinions, talk to the auctioneer and so on. Obtain as much knowledge as you can about the item(s) before the auction.

Now that you have seen the items being offered for sale at the auction, it is extremely important that you look up in the catalog the items that you are interested in and make note of the numbers, and any remarks about the item, such as damage, beside its notation in the catalog. With any auction, you have to know that what you are looking at with a number on it is the same item as, described in the catalog. In catalogs most major auction houses have many disclaimers printed in the inside covers or elsewhere, within the catalog. It is very important to read these so you know exactly what the rules are because, they can differ from one auction to the next.

Now that you have done this, read the description very slowly and very carefully. Note, the little words such as after, style, similar, etc. All of these mean that the item is not original but, a copy. Note, and compare the dates. Sometimes mistakes are made, and the catalog states a certain date or circa, and the item was not of that time period. With the hundreds of items that have to be cataloged, unintentional mistakes turn up here and there, and at a auction you have to remember that it is, (cravat emptor) buyer beware. You should also read carefully the descriptions “that in the auctioneer’s considered opinion”, that this states or means that etc.

I have spent up to two solid weeks of work just researching one painting. I found out all about the artist, why this painting was being sold where it was, and why not in New York, or Europe, where this painting had been before, if, when, and by whom, had sold it at auction before, and all of the other recent sales made, at a major auction house, of any works by this artist, anywhere in the world. Who had sold them, the size, the subject, the medium, and the price that the works had sold for, and when. The result was, that when I arrived at the auction to bid on this particular painting, I knew exactly what it was worth to me. This was a fully authenticated painting, and I ended up the lucky buyer at less than twenty five percent of what a painting, by the same artist, and of a similar subject, size, and medium but, and here is a big but, that the other painting had recently sold, in New York, by a major auction house, and that the painting had only been attributed, to the same artist, and was not fully authenticated. A big difference. I was told afterwards by the auctioneer that they had been given the whole estate to sell, and that they agreed with me that the painting should have been sold in New York, or Europe. Further, that they had even contacted some other auction houses about it, and that the other auction houses wanted the painting but, they had not been able to come to a deal within the time period that they had.

No auction house is going to risk loosing possibly of all, or most of an estate by telling its executors that they would obtain more money for only one painting elsewhere. They want to make their commission because, that is why they are in business.

Not all times am I so lucky but, it has happened to me on a number of occasions, to the point that while I am an acquisitionist of fine art, other collectors and dealers have asked me, and pay me to buy for them.

This then brings on my sixth rule for buying at auction. It is important that you get to know the auctioneer, and that he get to know you. Depending on what you are purchasing and where, a number of regular purchasers have worked out with the auctioneer certain signals that they are bidding. The reason for this is, if a well known person, or a large dealer attends a auction and bids on a certain item, it can tell other people that this is an important item, and that they should make a try for it as well. This can result in driving up the price to a point higher than it normally would have gone, or that to which the large dealer was prepared to pay, and therefore, he did not, or could not, purchase the item so as to make a profit on it at the time of resale to his customer. As a result, a lot of people who attend a preview never show up at the auction but, either have someone there to bid for them, have left a bid with the auctioneer, or are on the telephone with the auctioneer at the time the item is on the block.

My seventh rule for buying at auction is, the strategy of bidding. By this time, I have arrived at the auction, have my catalog in hand, and have registered with the auctioneer to obtain a bidding number or a “paddle”. I never tell anyone at the auction that I am going to bid on this or that item. The strategy here is to out fox the foxes without being outfoxed yourself. Much of this is to have, as stated again, “done your homework”. The first thing here is to set a limit on what you are prepared to pay for the item, and no matter what happens, don’t catch “auction fever”, and go over your previously set limit with your bidding. My eighth rule for buying at auction is, to decide on how you are going to bid on the item. Are you going to start of bidding at the beginning, or come in at the middle, or wait to the end. The catch here is, not to let the auctioneer control your bidding but, you control the amount that you are prepared to pay, which is as little as possible. So here we go. Let’s assume that you want the next item up for bid, you have done your homework, and set the limit on the amount that you are prepared to pay. You have read the catalog and noted the auctioneer’s estimates of what he feels that the item will sell for. Now to determine the reserve bid, note the lower of the two estimates, and deduct ten percent. This will usually be very close to the “reserve” bid which is either held by the auction house, or a consignor as previously discussed. The reserve means that the auctioneer will not sell the item unless the price being paid equals, or is higher than the reserved amount. The main point here is to remember that the auctioneer also, has strategies too, these are designed to make you pay more for an item than you normally would. At auction, you should remember that you are buying at the wholesale level, and not at the retail. How many times I have seen people become caught up with “auction fever” and end up paying a way more for the item than even the retail price. Because, they simply have to had it at that moment.

Not all of the following examples of various strategies always work, all of the time, and it is fun to vary them, just to see what other people do. And by no means are these all of the strategies used, however, these are some of the more effective and simpler one’s.

One way is, to sit or stand at the front of the auction audience, and that on every item that you want, that you just hold up your card or “paddle” high in the air, so everyone at the auction can see it. Keep it there until the bidding against you stops, and you have bought the item. This may sound silly but, it becomes very effective as, you may start off paying a higher price for, say the less expensive items that you are bidding on but, after a few purchases everyone attending the auction knows that no matter what, that you are going to end up buying the item.

When the items that you really want come up, and perhaps they are now the more expensive one’s, as soon as, the other people see your card up in the air, they quit bidding against you because, they suspect that you will out bid them anyway, so what’s the use. On the other hand, if they really want the item, then they think that they are going to have to pay the retail or higher price for it. Maybe, in some instances you force them to do it, and then they realize too late that they overpaid. Another strategy is, having decided in your mind what the item is worth to you, is let’s say the auctioneer asks one thousand dollars for the item. No one bids. Then he reduces the asking price to the point that either there are no bids or the item is withdrawn, or the item is bought in by the auctioneer. This is accomplished in a number of ways. One is that he just points to the back of the room and says thank you, and sold to number 123. This number being the house number. Another way is that he actually has an employee(s) in the audience bidding up to the reserve price and then quits. If you are bidding against this kind of situation, it is important for you to know that the auctioneer will try to have your bid land on the reserve bid so he sells the item to you. A gutsy way to bid is, that first you really have to know what the item is really worth by doing your homework in great detail first. Now let’s say that the item starts out again at one thousand dollars and the auctioneer reduces the price down to say five hundred dollars when the first bid is taken. Now he asks seven hundred and fifty dollars. You can either come in here or wait but, I think that the sooner that you come in is better. Now instead of raising your hand or card to acknowledge that you are prepared to pay seven hundred and fifty dollars, you yell out, and I mean yell out, one thousand dollars. The auctioneer just hates this because, he has to accept your bid because, it is higher than what he is asking. So now the auctioneer tries to get control back again and asks twelve hundred and fifty dollars, and let’s suppose someone bids twelve hundred and fifty dollars, now you again yell out, loud enough, so that everyone in the room can hear you, two thousand dollars. Now what you have done is thrown your competition off base. They obviously know that you want the item but, at first the incremental increase started at two hundred and fifty dollars, and you changed it to five hundred dollars. Now on the next time around the asked increment was two hundred and fifty dollars, and you have pushed it up by seven hundred and fifty dollars. If it comes back to you again, your competition now realizes that you are going to push them up by at least a thousand dollars or more, so they quit. They also quit because, they can’t think fast enough to know whether to bid again or not, or what is going to happen. They just say that it isn’t worth it, let him have it. What you then have accomplished is that you have bought the item for two thousand dollars, that if the auctioneer had his way, he would have been able to run it up to five thousand dollars, or more. It can become really exciting if the increments go into the tens of thousands of dollars.

Another piece of strategy here is to sometimes bid against your competition in such a manner that you stop short, and he is left in such a manner that your competition is paying more than he would have otherwise. Let’s say that the incremental increase is one hundred dollars, and the estimates are twenty five hundred to three thousand dollars. By deducting ten percent from twenty five hundred dollars, you know that the reserve price is approximately twenty two hundred and fifty dollars. You can either jump bid as I just outlined, or you follow up with the incremental increases. Now if the auctioneer is smart, he will know that when you make a back and forth slash motion with your hand, that you are telling him that you are prepared to pay a further half of the incremental increase. Now you run this up in such a way that you land on lets say twenty six hundred dollars. Your competition says twenty seven hundred dollars, you make the slash motion, meaning twenty seven hundred and fifty dollars, your competition comes in at twenty eight hundred and fifty dollars, and you stop bidding. Your competition has bought the item for twenty eight hundred and fifty dollars plus ten or fifteen percent buyers premium, plus taxes, and he is a way over the estimated amount, and he knows that you have forced him to overpay for the item. Do this a few times, and your competition won’t bid against you anymore, or if they do, by only the merest of margins.

This will work against absentee buyers too. Now because, you are there, and he is not there, and you can pick up the other items that you want at very good prices because, you have intimidated your competition. They want no part in bidding against you.

Coming in, in the middle, usually creates a three way split. Here again the bidding can sort of go around in a circle. Make sure that you are going to be the person who will land on the reserve bid, and even jump the bid a bit to do this. This can create enough of a pause that the auctioneer may just bring the hammer down soon enough to allow you to buy the item at the reserve price. The auctioneer doesn’t know whether or not anyone else will bid as, everything has stopped. It is better to sell it now, and have a sure sale, rather than take the risk that you may withdraw your bid. This works especially well, if it is the auction house who is the owner of the item. They have made their profit, and want to move on, as quickly as, possible.

A good point to note here is that the auctioneer wants to sell as many items as quickly as possible because, if the auction drags out, people will get tired or bored or both and leave. This he does not want to happen.

Coming in at the end is another good way to not only confuse but, disappoint your competition. Especially, if you have bought previous items. The bidding has come to a halt and the auctioneer is saying “going once, going twice, last call”, and then you come in with your bid. Your competition is almost rejoicing that they have bought the item, and then you step in. Now what do they do?

Maybe, they will bid against you a bit. They have to think fast, usually too fast. What if you just push them up, and stop? How much more should they pay? Do they just let the item go, and try for another one? All of these questions are whirling around in their mind, all at once, all at the same time. Now, if they have done their homework as you have, you may have a battle, and therefore, you go to your preset limit again, and stop bidding. You have a fifty -fifty chance of buying the item at your price. But, if they haven’t done their homework, guess who has the advantage now?

My ninth rule for buying at auction is, to know what is going on, and what is going to go on beforehand. Some auctioneers try to make the sale a fun time, while others are extremely serious. The fun sale, usually is the better one. But you have to be on your guard at all times. Here is an example of what can happen. At certain auctions, the auctioneer can have two or three of his employees “working the crowd”. This means that at the preview, or perhaps just before the auction, they have been talking to or watching who is interested in what. They may carry a rolled up catalog with them, and just as your item comes up they get you to bid, they point their rolled up catalog at you, and they yell out your bid or say yeah, or here, or some other word, indicating to everyone, that you are bidding. As the bidding starts to wane they are on you saying look only another fifty dollars, and it’s yours. You are very tempted to go that extra fifty. Especially, with all of the hype going on around you, and everyone in the room watching you. They may intimidate you to go that extra fifty but, when you do, then someone else is trying to get another person to go that further extra fifty too. This way they run you up an extra two or three hundred dollars that you wouldn’t otherwise have paid. But, no one should think badly of this because, this is their business. The only thing is to remain calm, and stick to your limit. I personally think that this is a wonderful way to hold a charitable auction. But then it is for charity and not business.

My tenth rule for buying at auction is, listen to every word that the auctioneer says. Sometimes things go so fast you have to be on your toe’s. Like three items being sold every minute. On the other hand the auctioneer may say ” he really wants it”. This is simply doing a customer a favor by telling him that he knows that you are going to end up buying the item. This has happened to me, exactly in this way. The auction house’s estimate on a painting was twelve to sixteen hundred dollars. I ended up paying sixty six hundred dollars for this painting. Why? Because, I had done my homework. Obviously, someone else had too! But, when the auction records came out the next year, I looked up what the sales had been for the previous year for this artist, and guess what? This was the lowest of all of the sales of this artists works. The average sale including mine was fourteen thousand dollars.

The auctioneer’s strategy may be to try to intimidate you too. To make it look as if you are almost stealing the item. He might say “you mean only X dollars for this wonderful gem of a work by so and so? Will not someone at least give fifty dollars more”?

Further, the auctioneer may move the bid up very fast, and it is extremely important to listen, and to hear every word that he or she is saying. Because, this is what can happen. If the increments are one hundred dollar amounts, when the item reaches one or two thousand dollars, the auctioneer may not ask one thousand one hundred dollars, or two thousand one hundred dollars, or eleven hundred dollars, or twenty one hundred dollars. He can just say one, or one hundred. He is implying that the one or two thousand mark has already been met, and that he is asking for one hundred dollars more. If you haven’t been paying strict attention, you could end up bidding twenty one hundred dollars while thinking that you are bidding eleven hundred dollars. The auctioneer’s reason for this is purely psychological. He wants you to be thinking in terms of hundreds of dollars, rather than in the thousands of dollars.

This way he wants you and others to bid more without realizing it. It could end up being very embarrassing for you, if you were the buyer when the hammer fell at one or two thousand dollars more than what you thought that you were going to pay. The auctioneer further, has the advantage here as, if you do not take the item, you have embarrassed yourself in front of everyone at the auction, so to avoid this you end up overpaying for the item, or if you do not take the item, he then asks the next lower bid to take the item, and that person generally will because, they do not want to be embarrassed also. Using this strategy, the auctioneer has sold the item, possibly for a far greater price than anyone at the auction ever intended to pay for it.

Now that you have bought those items that you wanted and have them home, check them out again, and compare them with your catalog. If you have bought your items from a major auction, and paid a lot of money, it really pays to check them out. With fine art, take the painting out of the frame, see if it is really that oil on canvas, or is it a print glued to canvas and overpainted? Take a ultra violet light and in a dark room run it all over the painting. Any repaired areas will come up black. Therefore, is the signature black? If it is, the painting more than likely is a fake. Now you have approximately two weeks to return it to the auction house together with the proof that the item is not that as exactly stated in the catalog to obtain a refund of your money. Check your furniture for replaced wood, rugs for repairs, glass for cracks, chips, verify that jewelry, and so on. After everything checks out then display, and appreciate it.

Now, let’s suppose that a item did not sell, and was bought in by the house. It may be owned by the auction house, or consigned. Usually, not all items sell at auction but, the auction house by buying them in during the auction wants to make it look as if every item sold. If you have the suspicion, or are still interested, there is nothing to be lost by telephoning the auctioneer the next day to ascertain if the item was actually sold or not. If it hasn’t sold, and you still want the item, make an offer. Sometimes you will be lucky and get the item at a even lower price because, the auction house wants to be rid of it as, they need fresh merchandise for their next auction.

In closing, I want to leave you with a good extra rule that my father taught me, which also pertains to anything, and this is, if you really want something, and you don’t get it, it means that the Good Lord, God, Allah, Buddha etc., has something better in store for you. This has always proven to be correct without exception. It’s also known by a better name called “FAITH”. Believe me; it will always happen for the better, no matter what the situation. So now you know beforehand that you are not going to be successful with everything that you try. However, at auctions, and everywhere else, with “FAITH”, the law of averages will always look after you.