Antique Trader Blog with editor Noah Fleisher

Question of the week - Most reliable antiques subset?

2008-04-11T12:35:53.2800000-04:00

I’m asking readers to take few moments and think before they respond to the question this week, just a few deeps breaths and then respond.

It’s too easy to say, if you’re a collector of glassware, that glassware is then the most reliable. Or whatever segment you happen to participate in.

I also want to shy away from making generalizations about the business. “If you buy what you love, then it never loses value.”

This may be true, and I readily acknowledge that you shouldn’t start buying solely as an investment, but we all know it’s happening.

For my part, I’ve always seen good jewelry and good folk art sell, no matter what, a make good on a return. Whether I like these forms or not is irrelevant.

So when you stop and think about it, looking at all the things you come across at shows, shops and auctions – or rummage sales and flea markets, I don’t care – what do you see that, in your experience, reliably sells and holds or increases its value?

Let me know at noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com, or post a comment here.

A synchroncity of antiques - Islamic antiquities dominate

2008-04-11T10:07:33.1090000-04:00

It seems now that Islamic art is absolutely everywhere, and the amount of money that it's fetching - congruent with the amount of ire it's raising in some instances - is pretty amazing.

I've already written about it a few times this week and last week.

It started the attempted sale of some armor once, possibly, belonging to a revered Sikh Guru. Then a 12th century key to the holiest pilgrimage site in Mecca, and now, just yesterday, a dagger once belonging to Shah Jahan - arguably the greatest of India's Golden Age Mugal emporers - the man who built the Taj Mahal, and raised Islamic art and architecture to amazing levels in his reign, sold at Bonham's in London for nearly $3,000,000.

You have to admit, looking at it, that it's a thing of extraordinary beauty, made even more important by its provenance of having belonged to Shah Jahan, a man from whom very few personal relics survive. $3M seems like alot to spend, but as I wrote about the Hajj key yesterday, reclaiming cultural history is an expensive game, and them that have the bucks don't necessarily think of it as a numbers game. Face it, if you have all the bills in the Monopoly game, there's nothing on the board that's out of range.

Again, it went to an anonymous bidder who didn't wish to be identified. Who knows who it is, but most likely it was someone who was unhappy almsot 20 years ago when the Shah of Iran sold it to Jacques Desenfans, along with a lot of other things in the sale, on a visit in 1969, when the Shah's empire was just starting to wobble. That bit of its history has been more downplayed in the hubbub over its sale, but it's all part of the history of such a remarkable piece.

I'm not sure if the dagger is considered a holy relic, so I have no feeling on it being sold. If it is considered such, along with much of the other Islamic "art" that's been coming on the block, then I do have to take issue. Pieces of spiritual significance, whatever the faith, shouldn't be made available for a price. I have to think, though, the Shah Jahan dagger isn't considered spiritually important for Muslims, because there was no outcry, such as the one over the Sikh armor.

Shah Jahan's buildings and his name dot India, most notably the Taj, which he built as a masoleum for his wife, Mumtaz, when she died. I've seen the Taj Mahal, and it's an amazing site, especially if you can get there very early in the morning before the touts, the cars, the tourists and the choking, nasty smog from the copious cars the swarm Agra all day. There are few buildings in the world that can match it, or its creativity.

Auction of recently uncovered Arbus photos abruptly canceled

2008-04-10T10:34:52.3430000-04:00

Wrote about this a few weeks ago. A dealer in NYC sold a box of pics he found in a box lot for $3500. Turns out there was a trove of unknown Diane Arbus photos in there - very interesting ones, to be sure - and they're worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The dealer who sold them is suing the dealer he says duped him out of the find of his life. The sale was supposed to have happened yesterday, I think. Turns out it was abruptly canceled. Both the New York Times and our friend Kristi Roberts at Here Be Old Things have been covering this pretty well, so I'll leave it to them. Kristi was going to the sale, and even went by the showroom to get a sneak peak.

I know that a lot of times it's buy and sell at your own risk in this business, and that they seller should have known that he was giving away a fortune at such a small price - the first clue should have been when the buyer who bought the box said, "there's nothing in there worth much at all, but I'll give you $3500 right now for the whole thing, no questions asked. 'kay?"

Money is money, I suppose, and there are no rules that say you have to play fair. Or are there? The speculation is that the original seller may just hve succeeded in his lawsuit. We'll see later.

Records for Islamic art

2008-04-10T10:11:21.3590000-04:00

It's a bit strange to call religious artifacts "art," but the things are beautiful.

A sale of Islamic art at Sotheby's sold roughly $20M in 282 lots, smashing the previous records for a similar sale. It's a good bet that most of the lots, including a very expensive and revered 12th Century key to Mecca's most holy pilgrimage site, are going to the area of their origin. There's so much wealth focused in the Middle East these days, I'm actually surprised that those items on the block didn't go for much much more.

This, though, hearkens to the same discussion I've been having - with myself, that it - over countries reclaiming cultural heritage. I don't know that the pieces of Islamic art that Sotheby's sold didn't come from a seller in the region already, but it also wouldn't surprise me if they were Colonial spoils from centuries and exploits past.

As changes near, eBay debate encore

2008-04-10T09:56:04.6400000-04:00

Rob Pegoraro, a blogger at The Washington Post, gives the eBay issue a look from both sides of the issue and concludes that eBay is a ~~Monolith~~ Marketplace, and that it's 80M+ users think of it as a community. It's a nice little examination of the debate that the eBay antiques... uh... sector has been having for a few months now.

This conclusion has resulted in the weird disconnect from reality that has emanated from eBay HQ high on its magic mountaintop in the mist, where it's suspected that a few remaining regular human beings actually may say hello now and then as they pass in the hall on the way to bathroom in the basement.

It's also now thought that the great ancient demon Cthulhu might be the real replacement for Meg Whitman. That's just what I hear, though...

Antique Trader 4-23 preview - Comin' at ya

2008-04-09T16:56:30.7960000-04:00

We just got this out the door and off to the press. Here's a sneak peak at 4-23, and a look at our changed cover. Enjoy!

While we're in the Middle East: Go Tiberias! Go!

2008-04-09T15:13:43.7340000-04:00

How could I possibly resist a headline like this:

Ancient Tiberias making a comeback

Tiberias deserves a comeback, right? If Fleetwood Mac can do it, and The Who can do it - and The Stones, who have never even quit - then why not Tiberias?

Man, those guys rocked.

Search still on for looted Iraqi antiquities

2008-04-09T14:54:12.9370000-04:00

This is from the L.A. Times. It's all about the amount of antiquities still missing after being looted when Baghdad fell. That was five years ago today, btw.

At first it was thought the damage done by theft was much much greater, and anyone who loves art and history looked on in horror as numbers like 150,000 were bandied about when those reports mentioned numbers of missing artifacts.

They were talking about the beginings of human civilization - ancient, ancient stuff - that carried with it priceless provenance and importance. Many of those pieces, it turns out, had long ago been hidden by smart curators, well out of harm's way, and that initial massive number dwindled to 15,000.

Of those 15,000 known artifacts, 7500 have been recovered. That still leaves half, and an amazing amount of history still floating around black markets or destroyed and trashed.

The good thing is that these pieces are rare enough that, when one surfaces at auction or on the market, it is usually quickly recognized and taken back to its proper home. This is further heightened in an age when national museums around the world are demanding back priceless antiquities that were looted in past ages of imperialism. Greece is doing it, so are Italy, India and China, among many. This seems to have hit western museums hard. The culture flowing out of Iraq, home to the fertile crescent where it's thought so much life firt streamed out of, is older by millenium than most other countries. It bears direct links to stories in the Old Testament. Of anywhere that deserves its history back, then surely it's there.

Rich Russians gobbling up Russian fine art

2008-04-08T16:24:35.2100000-04:00

I don't know why, but this story off of ReutersUK has struck me oddly.

Basically it just says that the new Russian elite, fueled by massive fortunes made in the odd semi-totalitarian state of Vladimir Putin, are buying up every available piece of fine art - both old and contemporary - that they can get their hands on. Sotheby's and Christies both are setting up Moscow bureaus to take advantage of this tiny percentage with the majority of the Russian dosh.

Collecting like this, to go along side such wealth, have not been seen in Russia since the days of the Czars. At that time it was also anything goes.

I can't blame Russian people for wanting to get back their cultural heritage, especially when it was so abruptly taken from them, scattered to the winds and stomped with a jack boot whenever it tried to reveal itself in the ealry days of Comrade Lenin. I've always been a kind of a student of Russia - give nthat it's in my blood - and the peculiar and difficult path it seems to have always charted for itself. Despite all that, the country has consistently contributed some of the very best literature, paintings, poetry, sculpture, photography, drama and dance the world has, even during the communist era. I also have to mention Russia's contribution to chess, because I love the game and no country has added more to the game.

This competition that seems to have spring up, however, between Russians and themselves over who can acquire the most stunning array of art that can bridge the 100-year gap between the assasination of the Czar and Perestroika and "bring it back home to Russia" is a little discomfitting. No doubt some of it will end up in a museum on display, and some of it may even some day make it on tour to the rest of the world, but it's more likely most of it will end up at country estates, houses in Moscow, and in homes that dot the hills and the country side of Europe and America. It's what the Russian aristocracy did before the revolution. How else do you think so much of it became available to the world at large?

When a penny ain't worth a penny, it's an antique!

2008-04-08T13:07:53.3670000-04:00

I believe this originated with the Chicago Tribune, and seems to be an editorial, but it came to me via The Valdosta State Spectator in GA, certainly one of the more obscure sources I've dug around on. I worked on my college paper and, let's face it, a lot of them are pretty bad.

It is, actually, an argument you can dig up most anywhere. I just couldn't resist a link with something from Valdosta State.

This, however, I happen to agree with. When it costs more than a penny is worth to make one, then it ain't worth it, plus the good, collectible ones that are out there will become that much more valuable, which is good for the business of coins.

Numismatics and antiques unite! Down with the penny!

The Guru and the Auction House

2008-04-07T17:28:24.8980000-04:00

This has been very interesting to watch - somewhat obscure, perhaps, bubt a lot of fun.

Sotheby's claimed some armor being sold belonged to a very important Sikh guru. Sikhs got angry, and Sotheby's claims that the armor is not actually the Guru's, but one of several sets he had made, as he was involved in many wars and military campaigns.

The post linked to above is from a post to WorthPoint.com out of India.

The whole thing is interesting, as I have always associated Sikhism with dervishes and mysticism, a la the sublime poetry of Rumi ("Dissolver of sugar, dissolve me."), not necessarily with warring kings. I'd love to see the armor, but no pics have been released. Check it out if this sort of thing interests you, which it does me, which I bet you've already figured out.

Historic preservation is green

2008-04-07T12:57:35.3980000-04:00

This shouldn't even be up for debate, but it is, and I agree with this article. Historic preservation is good for the environment, as are antiques in general.

The gentleman I used to work with, one John Fiske of Vermont, is a strong advocate for the cause of antiques as a green movement. He's 100% right, and I promise more from the Green Antiques movement very soon.

This is out of London, yet again today, from Richard Moe, president of National Trust for Historic Preservation. Very cool.

Where did they get that?

2008-04-07T12:26:59.3980000-04:00

No, really posted by Karen pretending to be Noah ...

Well, it happened this morning. After limping along on life support for months, my Mac finally gave up its ghost. While IT is diligently readying a replacement, I'm taking advantage of the disruption and putting it to good use...I'm catching up on (or at least chipping away at) my news alerts from the past couple of weeks.

Have you ever watched a period movie and saw a piece of furniture or an item that caught your eye and thought to yourself, "Where did they get that?"

Well, I read an interesting article this morning about a shop in Haverhill, Mass., that has supplied a number of production companies with props.

You can check the story out here ...

omg, can u believe it? spoilt singer demand $140K antique table for signing

2008-04-07T12:06:00.1790000-04:00

Okay, so I couldn't resist this gossip. Some spoiled singer, who's been told for some time now that the sun rises and sets out of her... eyes... demanded that a $140,000 table be flown from NY to London, and covered with silk, so she could do her signings...

I remember Maria Carey from the early 1990s, when she would hit her signature high-C note in every song. I'm a music snob, so I have to admit I literally cannot stand to be in a room where her music playing. She's worth a ton, and has had fools bow to her whims forever and a day, so of course she's going to continue to think that her money gets her anything she wants. I guess it pretty much does. Considering she makes more than the GNP of many small countries, however, I think she should be mortally ashamed of her behavior. That's all any pop star really needs, isn't it? A good talking to...

I would, however, like to see the table.

Question of the week - affected by Wall Street woes?

2008-04-04T14:40:27.0200000-04:00

Do Wall Street ups and downs affect your buying or your business?

These are iffy days in the American economy. No government official has come right out and said it, but the hints of the "R" word are everywhere and, last week at the Atlantique City Antiques Show in Atlantic City, NJ, the economy was very much on the mind of dealers and customers alike.

There's billion dollar losses, and billion dollar bailouts, and a whole shadow economy between the largest banks in the world that's so far bigger than our actual economy that it's frightening to contemplate, especially when you think about what would happen is all these uber-banks went belly up. I've heard it twice now on NPR, so no telling me I'm a conspiracy theorist...

That, however, is enough nay-saying, no nabob of negativism I, but I am curious about whether or not the woes on Wall Street have an actual effect on the nuts and bolts of our businesses and hobbies.

Personally, it seems like a good time to get some money into antiques, as we all know that good items hold their value, and that as the economy worsens, people will most likely sell. Ergo, deals are out there... Go and get 'em.

Here's the question put formally, then: Do Wall Street ups and downs affect your buying or business?

Let me know at noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com, or go write something in the comments section below.

What the Dickens?! Antique desk on the block

2008-04-04T14:24:06.4630000-04:00

Christies will be auctioning of the desk at which Charles Dickens sat to write "Great Expectations."

It's a beautiful antique and its provenance is untouchabe.

It should fetch a pretty penny, and goes to a good cause. I can't imagine any writer wanting to buy it, let alone be in the same house as it. The great author was found dead at the desk and wrote possibly his greatest work in the very same seat, as well - Pip chasing Estella, while she acts coy and plays him off her other suitors... Go Pip! Go! - those are some serious ghosts to contend with.

Still, it is a beauty, and I had the cash, and an extra room, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

A conversation over caviar about architecture

2008-04-04T12:38:37.5360000-04:00

This is a link to an interview with the winner of The Pritzker Prize for Architecture, Jean Nouvel.

The prize is the top award given to modern architects, and is normally the crowning achievement of a glorious career, rather than something that plucks an obscure designer from the mist of anonymity.

Nouvel is an interesting guy, and who am I to say who should and should notbe given what they're given. I have to say that, as interesting as his ideas are, and sound, man-oh-man is this a pretentious interview. I was waiting for the interviewer to ask if he could give him a kiss, or put a polish on that done... (As you can see by my pick above, I need a polist too, now and then...)

Anyway... Check it out. The pic here, though you can't see it too well, is Nouvel's proposed design for the Abu Dhabi Louvre Museum.

Lincoln letter goes for more than $3M

2008-04-03T17:16:45.8050000-04:00

And to think that I was willing to take a triceratops over this, if given the choice...

I love Honest Abe, but I stand by my decision. Besides, I just spent that last $3.4M on a new yacht. I'm a bit tapped at the moment.

This is the Yahoo story, just breaking. Pretty cool, I have to say.

Antique Trader 4-16 preview - Comin' at ya

2008-04-03T13:19:49.8290000-04:00

Just gone to the press - yesterday, that is... Here's what you can expect for the 4-16 issue...

Papa's Brand New Bag on the auction block

2008-04-03T11:57:43.1720000-04:00

When James Brown died on Christmas Day 2006, he left behind a lot more than one modern music's greatest catalogs of work, he left behind a life filled with turmoil and an estate that has been the subject of constant wrangling between his family, his adult children, his ex-girlfriends and his ex-wives.

Finally, Christie's has stepped in and said, "That's enough!"

I actually don't know if that's what Christie's did, but either way, the venerable auction house will be auctioning of the possesions of the Godfather of Soul sometime this summer. This sale will include Brown's awards, instruments and all kinds of various posessions.

No matter what you think of the man personally, his influence on music was, and is, undeniable. He blended together many sounds and came up with something that was totally original, and musically, in his prime, there was absolutely no one more important. The interlocking parts of his songs were pure genius and made countless millions of people understand not only how music worked, but that they too could follow a few simple rules and enjoy playing music. For that, I do have to say, I miss Brown greatly.

To see him covered with a jacket and walked, exhausted, off stage accompanied by one of his crew, only to ruh desperately back to the mic for one last chorus, or word - then to hear the crowd shriek with delight - makes you understand that he truly was... the hardest working man in show business.

And I'd love to get me one them guitars...