Before you refurbish antique furniture: READ THIS

I had a client email me today regarding their grandparent’s antique sofa and 2 chairs. They wanted them appraised and sold for the ‘appropriate’ money. They pointed out that they had been professionally reupholstered and that the ‘original springs and woodwork remain’. 

It is not the first time I have had this type of email, it’s not even the 10^th or 20^th. Sadly and understandably people get impressed with the look of a piece of antique seating be it a couch, fancy armchairs or a chaise lounge and they choose to make an investment in it. They all too often meet up with an unscrupulous restoration person who sells them on a big refurbishing job that’s going to cost many times more than the pieces are worth, perhaps mentioning that they will keep the ‘original springs and woodwork’.

I could hear the conversation in my head ‘Oh yes, $4,000 might sound like a lot of money but you’ve got a piece here that’s going to be worth $12,000 once I’m done with it.’

First off, keeping the original springs has absolutely no effect on value (in fact it sounds downright uncomfortable!), secondly, original woodwork? Isn’t that a given? You’re refinishing the piece, not building a new one. 

So the client gets sold a bill of goods and goes ahead with the job. Once they get it home they may enjoy it for a bit but soon realize that it doesn’t really suit their living arrangement or style anymore (see BLOG) and want to sell it. Now they’re in for a surprise and the reseller has to be the bearer of bad news.

Be careful what someone who has an interest in getting you to invest in something is telling you what it is worth, especially if it’s how they earn their living. This goes for reupholstering and refinishing of any piece of antique furniture. Make sure you’re doing it for you and not because it’s going to increase its value.

Ottawa Auction's $1,000,000 Surprise

When a blue and white plate came in to Walker’s Auctions in Ottawa it seemed like any other nice antique Chinese plate, however it would soon become obvious that the initial estimate of $700-$900 was a little low, and boy were they right.

While experts are saying there has been a slight dip in the remarkably buoyant Chinese art and antique market, it was barely noticeable the night this plate hit the auction block, as the bidding ended at just over $1,000,000 million dollars.

Originating from a Belleville, Ontario estate it had been willed to the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art who in turn sent it to auction to raise funds. And that it did.

The foreign buyer who had flown in to specifically bid on the plate wished to remain anonymous.

For more information click this link.

Happy Holidays!

Valuable Household Items to Watch Out For

It’s a question I’m often asked - ‘What’s collectible’?  And it’s a good one in this seemingly soft marketplace where supply outweighs demand.  In working with clients and downsizing and estate professionals alike I’ve been asked numerous times to put together a list of stuff to watch for when you are sorting through a home and its lifetime of accumulation; so here it is. Most people know that fine jewelry and Group of Seven paintings are going to hold value, so this is really a list of unexpected items that you may overlook or wouldn't think of.

 

Old Toys

Often times in going through an estate I find a stash of children’s toys from the 1950s. Vestiges of the baby boomers being babies, it may be a collection of dinky toys, or Barbies or a stuffed Punkinhead. They sit in the closet - to precious for parents to throw out but not something their original owners want anymore. If still in good condition, these items have a collectible value.

 

Costume Jewelry

Yes everyone knows to grab the jewelry box because gold and diamonds have value, but I’m talking about costume jewelry like rhinestones and plastic stuff. Just because something isn’t made from ‘the real thing’ doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable. Don’t dismiss these pieces, there have been whole books written on the subject and fortunes made in buying and selling costume jewelry. A month ago a plastic pumpkin brooch sold on eBay for $8,400.

 

Militaria

Still desirable are military items. The further away we get from WWI and WWII the rarer this stuff becomes, and the fascination and thus the demand grows. In this category the more the better, a single pin may only bring a few dollars but if it’s part of a larger collection of stuff that belonged to the soldier then it creates a story, and this is what collectors will pay a premium for.

 

Christmas & Halloween

This may or may not catch you off guard. Halloween actually supersedes Christmas in some ways as the most collectible holiday. It may be due to the fact that there is a lot more Christmas stuff than Halloween which is a relative minor holiday by comparison but both are certainly hot collecting fields. I’m talking old paper decorations to glass ornaments, postcards to figural pieces. The key here is the older the better.

 

 

Photos

Yes, photos. And I mean snapshots. Photography was invented in about 1820 so by 1900 virtually every household had a camera. Flash forward 5-6 generations and what we’ve got is tons of photos that we have no attachment to or memory of, this creates the supply, all these photos are now coming into the market. As for collectability, they are a cheap thing to start collecting and intensely personal and thus fascinating for a whole variety of reasons to the collector. For more info you can click here to visit a blog entry I wrote about photography.

 

 

Buttons

Yes another surprise. They are something that virtually every house has and they often get thrown out or sent out for donation, but buttons can collectible. This is a bit of a needle in a haystack because it’s only one in a thousand that are worth good money but they’re worth more than a toss.

 

Dress Patterns

Sought after by collectors and designers and dressmakers alike, vintage women’s dress patterns are hot. Again these are things that are found in many homes and often end up in the trash but groupings regularly go for good money, while the odd desirable single patterns have been known to go in the high hundreds.

 

 Silver

Namely sterling silver. Whether it's flatware or larger pieces, it’s really important to know if what you’re dealing with is sterling or silver plate. Most North American pieces should be stamped ‘Sterling’ or ‘925’ and European often ‘800’ so that’s helpful. It gets a little trickier with British sterling because of the hallmark system they use. Hallmarks are a series of little square marks, but be careful because silver plate companies got smart early on and started using similar markings. Go to www.925-1000.com for more information.

Top Ten selling books: Sex sells while Spiderman climbs to the top!

Here we have eBay's top ten selling books from the last few years, starting with number 10.

10. Wizard of OZ  $8,243

1st edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. (Sold January 21, 2010).

9. 1st Alchoholics Anonymous $8,351
First Edition, Alchoholics Anonymous book, dated 1939. (Sold March 11, 2010).

8. Ulysses 1935 Edition $12,900
"Ulysses" 1935 Limited Edition signed by James Joyce and Henri Matisse. (Sold February 23, 2010).

7. Astronomy Book $15,202
1617 Astronomy Book. Sold (February 3, 2010).

6. Antique Homann Atlas $16,100
Homann Atlas (1728-50) with 97 engraved, hand colored maps.  (Sold September 25, 2010).

5. Medieval Book of Hours  $17,799
Medieval Book of Hours written in Rouen, France, circa 1470. (Sold June 1, 2010).

4. National Geographic $20,155
National Geographic Magazine set (1888 - 1990) includes issue #1. (Sold January 18th, 2010).

3. Vintage Playboy Magazine $39,900
1953 Playboy Magazine featuring Marilyn Monroe. (Sold April 13, 2011).

2. Antique Golf Poem/Pamphlet $50,400
1751 pamphlet featured an early Golf poem. (Sold January 19, 2011).

1. Spider-Man Comic Book $107,300
1962 Amazing Fantasy #15 / Spider-Man Comic Book. (Sold October 19, 2011).

I find this interesting for several reasons. Firstly every home has books, and usually many, many books, and the old needle in a haystack expression comes to mind when thinking about ones that are valuable. So it’s always a question people have when clearing an estate or downsizing.

Secondly, it is a category that is rather hard to navigate when determining value because of things like condition, edition number, hardcover vs. soft cover, autographed or not, Canadian edition vs. US edition not to mention weeding out those ‘Book Club’ versions which seem to carry no value except decorative.

I pre-warn my clients that there will be books that won’t sell and in fact that certain charities won’t even want for free. It’s a case of supply and demand and changing lifestyles again. With so many books in every single house there simply aren’t enough collectors or book enthusiast to pick them up. And if you think about it people aren’t even reading paper bound books so much anymore, they’ll purchase the e-book version for their Kindle or buy the audio version for the car or iPod.

Let’s talk about the top five. At number 5 we have what sounds like an incredibly valuable and interesting book, a circa 1470 Book of Hours. To me, I would think a medieval book should be number one. It’s not however, it’s number five.

Number 4 is definitely interesting, a complete set of National Geographic magazines. Now before you go running downstairs to inventory your own collection of NG, the key word here is complete. National Geographic began in 1888 and there were 165 subscribers (versus 10 million by 1980) so to say that these early editions are rare is a big understatement. The first eight years of publication are called the ‘red brick’ editions and are the most highly sought after. But by 1896 they were printing more than 1200 magazines a month which makes anything past this date, relatively speaking more common. So the value is in these first 8 years of publication.

Number 3 is the Holy Grail of Playboy magazine, edition #1 with Marilyn Monroe on the cover. Let’s face it, sex sells (just ask Hef) and with the most famous sexy symbol of all time on the cover how could they go wrong.

Number 2. Ah yes, an incredibly early and rare golf pamphlet. Not surprised on this one, there always seems to be good money for sports collectibles and or ones related to ‘rich men’s’ hobbies; golf, horses, sailing come to mind. And in my experience good golf collectibles have always commanded a premium.

Number 1. I want to be surprised, but I’m not totally. But let’s face it, the #15 Spider Man comic book is the top selling book of the past few years on eBay??? And by more than double selling for a whopping $107,000! Well it must be an incredibly rare one with a very low printing, and comic collectors are an incredibly passionate group when it comes to their field. We have to keep in mind also that this is a top ten EBAY list, which is a ‘collectibles’ marketplace where collectibles sell best. However it still shocks me. Does whatever a spider can…and then some!

 

A hot collectible that is found in almost every household

 

People often ask me ‘What’s hot?’ in terms of antiques and collectibles. It’s a question that usually follows my grim speech about the largely declining resale marketplace.

One of the first things that comes to mind is photos. And I’m referring to everyday snapshots, the kind that are often found in shoeboxes in closets. Many times people are shocked by this ‘You mean collectors are interested in photos of people they don’t know?” they ask. And the answer is Indeed they do, it’s called vernacular photography;  photos taken by unknown or anonymous photographers for themselves, family photos essentially. And it’s a burgeoning collecting field. 

Supply

Photography was invented in the 1820s so by 1900 almost every household had a camera. Flash forward 5-6 generations and what we got are literally thousands of snap shots of ancestors we didn’t know. These often have little interest to families and therefore end up being given away, sold or (god forbid) thrown out and are currently flooding flea markets, auctions and antique store shelves.

Demand

Now one of the big appeals to photography is the human element. Nothing is much more personal than a photo, it allows us to look into a person’s face, examine their clothing, analyze the people they are with or the situation they are in, and imagine what was going on or why the photo was taken, by whom and so on. It allows us to fill in our own narrative.

Diversity

Additionally, the potential variations within the field are limitless. For example, I have a client who collects photos of wedding cakes, some people collect images with dogs or cats in them, while others may be interested in photos that depict a certain geographic area like their city or cottage area. So you can see there are literally thousands of categories appealing to a huge range of collectors.

Affordability

There’s something for every budget. Lastly, because you can go down to your local flea market or antique show and buy a photo starting at a few dollars or less, it means the bar to entry to starting a collection is very low and virtually anyone can begin. It makes them very accessible to a lot of people.  The reverse is also true, some photos and photo albums regularly sell in the hundreds and thousands of dollars locally and on eBay. An early photo of Billy the Kid sold for 2.3 million dollars in 2011.

So there you have it, supply, demand, diversity and affordability all colliding to create a very robust and growing field of collecting.

 
Tips

· Black and white is a good cut-off point. Anything later is generally of less interest.

· Unusual subject matter (different lifestyles, exciting images, buildings that don’t exist anymore).

· Specific subject matter (profession related, local interest).

· Gay interest. Photos depicting the gay lifestyle and same sex affection are very popular.

· Photos that tell a story. Photo albums that are well laid out and follow someone’s journey, through life or on a trip can be of interest to collectors.