Day 1 of this weekends Craftsman Auction just wrapped up. I followed some of it on eBay Live which was quite neat to see the bids popping up in real time, with each bid noted as either from the floor or from the internet. There were also messages popping up like "Please bid fast" and "Fair warning", which gave it a bit of feel like you were really there. Some of the bidding seemed to go lightning fast but that may have just be an internet connection thing. I kept the bidding window open while having the downloaded catalog open in another window. It occurred to me that if a bunch of forum members follow the sale in real time like this, we could have a thread going in the forum at the same time. So with another window open for the forum it would sort of be a chat room thing at the same time, talking about things that just sold, things coming up, teasing someone to bid etc. Something to think about for next time (or Day 2 which is tomorrow, however I won't be at a computer myself tomorrow).

A rare Grueby (one of a kind apparently from the catalog notes) that went for $22,500 with a high estimate of $3000, WOW . Other highlights I caught: Lot #1, Marie Zimmerman box, went for $100,000 over a high estimate of $50,000, and I think this was the top seller of the day; The George Maher floor lamp with an estimate of $80,000-120,000 went under-estimate for $70,000; and several pieces of pottery (Rookwood and Bennet as examples, I recall) that doubled to quadrupled estimates. For the most part things seemed to meet estimates, especially the furniture. Surprisingly, after the double up for Lot 1, most of the rest of the Marie Zimmerman lots did not do too well, many being under estimate. Somewhere in the notes for the sale I also read that buyers premium was 20%. Amazing stuff.

Check it all out tomorrow if you can - there are bound to be some more highlights.

just watched a little of the second day live. very interesting.

art was going well below estimate, some copper did well.

the reason i was watching was a person i work with gave me a picture of a sideboad/china cabinet she had bought and given to her mother some years ago. she asked if i could find anything about it. it appears to be identical to lot 805 that sold today, estimate at $900-1400 but sold for only $750. at least now she has better idea of value.

i would still like to go and see it in person, just to see the original pieces and feel the atmosphere.

a reminder, the V&A exhibit starts next week in indianapolis.

Yes going in person would be neat, or on the other hand maybe they should hook up live streaming video!

I just checked out the website for the V&A show in Indianapolis. It looks like a great show - I found the introduction about the Japanese movement to be very interesting. Take some pictures, if you can, and post them here.

i seriously doubt if they will allow cameras. few major exhibits do, they like the exclusiveness i guess.

i my previous post i mentioned my friends sideboard...it was not quite identical but very similar to the point i would say made by the same people. very nice generic pieces.

Yes I realize photos are a no no, but maybe a shot or two of the entrance banners, posters, the kind of stuff that sets the mood.

Back to the sideboard cabinet - yes a good multifunction piece, great for smaller quarters and would go well with any of a number of table and chair combos, to make a set. It seems like this sale has less and less of the generic pieces all the time - they have come a long way since they started. On that note, Jerry Cohen posted a collection of the early sale catalogues on eBay a couple months back, for dirt cheap - a couple bucks each for 20 odd catalogues, using the "Buy it Now" approach. I missed the original posting but caught wind of it after the fact and contacted him and he put the same deal together for me (he strikes me as quite a nice guy to put up with amateurs like me!!) and he said he plans to do another run at it on eBay. I assume they have several boxes of these to unload. The early catalogues have lots of so called generic pieces and they even had a couple sessions that they called "Affordable Mission" where all pieces were more or less a couple to a few hundred dollars. Times have changed however, because in a related email message he noted that they only want to do appraisels and take on consignments for $700 and up pieces now. The catalogue for the latest sale really only had a handfull of sub $1000 pieces or lots. Here's a pic of the catalogue package (from Sale#1 in 96 to 2001, incl. prices realized) he put together so expect the same coming up on eBay (he has an eBay store just using his name, i.e. Jerry Cohen, so should be easy enough to find and check), if you're interested (or contact him on the side, but I assume he might be very busy right after this recent sale and since he noted a few weeks back he would do this on eBay again maybe that's the best way to go)

Now this is interesting - over 100 lots from this recent sale posted on the Rago site as "passed lots", now up for sale (including your sideboard Don, as of the time I write this)
http://www.ragoarts.com/buying_pastlots.php
Based on the intro description I guess these are all lots that had reserve prices that were not met, because certainly these pieces had bidding action, and the prices they are being offerred at are higher than 50% of the low estimate (for the couple I checked). What a drag to be sitting at the sale as the high bidder on something you really want,thinking you are about to score a great deal because the bidding is slow, to then have the hammer fall and "Didn't meet reserve" echoes through the room. As a result the only way to get the piece is to be forced to pay more later . That's business I guess.

George Maher floor lamp for $75,000 anybody ???

i didnt see anything in the leftovers that i fell i have to run out and get.

the lamp you showed is very nice, but then so is the price.

i'm determined to go to either a cohen or a treadway auction someday just to watch the craziness. treadway is lots closer, but not sure it has the same aura as cohen/rago.

From the time I first saw the list it seems a few things have disappearred but not many (there was a lot of several pieces of Roycroft for $600 that I thought about, but it was gone the next day). I watched the eBay Live bidding on the Maher lamp go to $70,000 on the day of the sale and the low estimate was $80,000, so maybe the reserves that were not met were just under the low estimate - seems like it looking at a couple others. It would be interesting to see if this is typical of previous auctions to have this many lots passed, over 100 out of about 850 or so. Trying to sell these off in the meantime, while trying to organize the next sale seems like it would be a hassle to the gallery. You have to wonder if the market for the high end has softened a bit or if Rago et.al. have gotten ahead of themselves with their estimates. The other side to this is suppose you are a consigner and you have been told by the auction house how great your stuff is and how it deserves a high estimate, and then it doesn't go - so a drag for the consigner as well (e.g. the Maher hasn't sold, even at 75,000 but the high estimate was $120,000, so you have to believe the consigner was hoping for 120t but instead it's still sitting in the gallery, with nobody interested higher than 70t). This leads to the point of letting the market decide what something is worth, not the auction house telling the market what something is worth - sell it to the highest bidder, no reserve, no passed lots.

“VALUE” has always been one of those vague terms that is difficult to pin down. (I still think “scarce” and “rare” are not as understood as most think) People seen to talk about what something is worth as a finite and easily obtained. What any one individual is willing to pay for any particular piece is effected by any number of variables, such as how much did I lose today on energy futures, or how far did I have to dip into reserves to meet payroll… or any number of other things we may never know.

The failure of any high end piece to get reserve or low estimate will never be determined. It may be that the collector that would normally be in the bidding may already have a better example of the form being offered. Or there may be condition issues we may not know about since we haven’t made first hand examinations.

Offering a piece with high potential and no reserve would have to be a terrifying prospect to the seller. What if the person that truly wants the item happens to be out of the country, or just decides not to spend that particular day. If the opening bid is half of the estimate, then that person could take a major loss. Great for the buyer but not the seller.

And just because it doesn’t get top dollar that day, should the next one of the same item come on the market with a greatly reduced estimate? Value is a very ephemeral notion.

And there is always the possibility as mentioned earlier. Maybe the market is saturated, maybe interest is waning, or maybe global economics does play a role is the esoteric world of antiques.