By chance, will anyone have the opportunity to preview this auction? I would be interested in opinions on a couple of lots from someone that has seen them in person (other than the gallery).
I just looked at the pottery on line. They have some wonderful stuff but their starting bids are very high. Also, they add a 22.5% buyer's premium to the winning bid. Ouch!
I plan to stop in this weekend or possibly Monday and would be glad to share my opinion. I have the catalog so just let me know the lot numbers and any specific questions. I'm not so good with the pots.
Casequarter, I don't know how or if it's possible to contact you off-list, but I'm headed to Toomeys now. If I can be of help please call me on my cell 847-287-2628.
Did anyone have a chance to go to Treadway this past weekend?
I'm interested in hearing reports, especially about the small Gus chest in ash (link below). Understanding it's uniqueness and relation to the Wiles family notations(as I remember this would have likely been his son-in law Ben and their grandchildren), $14,000 seems like a decent amount of money considering condition. Either I don't know the remainder of the story, and/or some of the big players got involved in a bidding war. If anyone was in the audience, I would be curious if you could tell who was bidding.
Is there a comparison piece from any previous auction that went this high? I would guess not, given the estimate. So was the value in the rarity or in the family connection, or a combination? If it were a stand alone piece with no family connection I wonder what it would have gone for and/or if it could have even been confirmed as a Gus piece?
As an aside, I like the good quality huge pictures Treadway is using in their on-line catalog.
Talking about Treadway, are they a big auction house for A & C? I looked on E-bay and they have problems with poor shipping--things arriving broken and problems with the mechanics of customer's using E-bay during a live auction.
Sometimes, the E-bay freezes up during the live action. Or somehow the item gets sold to somebody on the floor when teh item should have been sold to the E-bayer. It looks like a place to avoid through E-bay. The negative comments are pretty bad.
Has anyone purchased items at a Treadway auction using E-bay? Maybe they just don't put in enough time with those who bid on E-bay to avoid all of those negatvie comments.
Bev Are you sure you are looking at the right info? They have a positive feedback of 99.3% with only one negative but 454 positives in the last 12 months. They are essentially right behind Craftsman in terms of being big in A&C, with Craftsman being the biggest (notwithstanding the occaisional elite sales at Christies and Sothebys).
Check out all their back catalogs on their website and I think you'll see how big they are.
Stonecat - I have to agree with you regarding the new Treadway catalog pictures. I really like the high resolution photos, but wish they showed more views of each lot, especially the "big ticket" items. Craftsman has started providing lots of pictures via the online catalog; now if they could also use the same resolution as Treadway it would be perfect.
Are you sure you are looking at the right info? They have a positive feedback of 99.3% with only one negative but 454 positives in the last 12 months. They are essentially right behind Craftsman in terms of being big in A&C, with Craftsman being the biggest (notwithstanding the occaisional elite sales at Christies and Sothebys).
