Shrinking world for collectors

Press, 26 July 1986, Page 22

Shrinking world for collectors

Sotheby’s World Guide to Antiques and Their Prices. 1986 Edition, r Penguin, 1985. 688 pp. Illustrations. * (Reviewed by Mervyn Palmer) i Half a decade ago, it seemed that Sotheby’s, one of the world’s antique auction houses in the vanguard, was going through troubled times. The international scale of its operations, across the range of collectables from millionaire-level paintings at one end to postcards and trendy junk at the other, must have placed enormous stress on resources in a market which is, to say the least, fickle. With little time to waste, hard decisions had to be made if Sotheby’s business was not to be lost to a flock of keen and in some cases efficient competitors. If the new venture of Sotheby’s made concrete in this latest of price guide annuals is any indication, it suggests that the London-based international auction house has done its homework and its internal sorting out with efficiency. This publication will do well if it continues as it has commenced.

? When the reader leafs through the nearly 700 closely packed pages, certain impressions are gained which are largely confirmed by closer acquaintance with the book. First, one is struck by the sheer volume of the material handled by Sotheby’s in the course of a year.

Second, one cannot help being impressed by the geographical coverage of the auction house which holds its sales not only in London and New York, but also in Amsterdam, Florence, Madrid, Monaco, Geneva, Zurich and Hong Kong. Third, the quality of the concise descriptions of every article, immaculate or battle-scarred, worth $2OO or $200,000 is as impressive as it is useful. True, the descriptions assume reasonably knowledgeable readers so far as the teminology of antique collectors is concerned, but that is no bad thing. The alternative would be a sea of adjectives which can easily get in the way of a clear description. The more general reader is helped by a series of short articles at the beginning of each major section of the guide, written by one or more of the authorities engaged by Sotheby’s to

appraise the pieces that pass through their hands.

An actual auction price is recorded for each of the articles illustrated and there are some 8000 illustrations in the volume. The sale figure is recorded in the currency of the country where the auction took place and the figure is converted into its equivalent in British pounds and American dollars at the time of the sale.

Readers may wonder that this level of attention to value is of any real use in New Zealand, but in the last decade so many changes have taken place relating to values in general and to what is valuable in particular, that we cannot have too much information, provided always that it is genuine. For antique hunters, like so many others, the communications revolution has made the world much smaller. A significant collectors’ item in New Zealand should no longer be valued in isolation from its potential in the centres of greater population and wealth. It is quite possible that a wonderful piece like the T’ang Dynasty camel illustrated, could turn up in a New Zealand home. Provided that its authenticity can be

proven, the certainty is that if its owners plan to sell such a piece, they need all the information they can find about value and its variations from place to place. In London, it sold in June, 1984 for £23,100. Convert that to New Zealand dollars and you realise that it was the price of an upper bracket motor car. Such a figure is not likely to be reached for a similar item if it turns up without provenance in a New Zealand auction house and the bidding is limited to local talent. A word of warning probably will not go amiss on the opposite side of the ledger. Careful readers will note that there are many items recorded in Sotheby’s Guide which have sold at prices that are quite modest when compared with prices made in New Zealand for apparently similar pieces. Fashion plays its part in the world of the antique collector, and what may be out in London and New York may well be all the rage in Auckland and Christchurch. “Sotheby’s World Guide to Antiques and Their Prices,” appears to defenestrate the conservative definition of “antique.” The present writer was brought up rigidly on the rule — one hundred years or it’s out! Such a background makes it hard to come to terms with memorabilia, in a collection of antiques, relating to the Beatles and Elvis Presley. It seems that anything may be possible. If John Lennon’s green corduroy jacket can fetch about £2OOO, what might the possibilities be for my 30-year-old student gaberdine raincoat mouldering in the cloak cupboard, provided of course that I get around to doing something more sensational with my life than I have done up to now?

Frank Davis, that grand old man of the antique world noted for his contribution to “Country Life,” has written some reminiscences from the saleroom together with very useful observations about buying and selling at auction. Such observations are as valuable in New Zealand as they are in London, Paris, or Tokyo. This is a well presented, meaty, and amply illustrated volume. Hoping that it is the first of many from Sotheby’s, I imagine the conscientious reader will just about have time to digest its contents before the next volume appears.