FAIR WARNING
by
Yolanda M. Deen
Delivered to The Chicago Literary Club
March 6, 2000
This paper is dedicated to the late Harriet Bougereal-Knouff.
Come with me now into a world of greed, of intrigue, drama, fraud, heartbreak, pathos and publicity. A world inhabited by the rich, nouveau riche, the bargain hunter, the thrill seeker, the tax collector, the pretender, the sleazy and the sentimental.
We are in Los Angeles now it's the mid-seventies--the show is about to begin. I enter the "big room" accompanied by a dealer intent on making a major killing. It is the occasion of the sale of the Metro - Goldwin - Mayer collection of the furniture, objects of art, carpets, porcelains and bronzes from the movie set of Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With The Wind". It is my first significant foray into the auction world.
The sale was conducted for two evenings a Hollywood social affair and a major business deal. Dealers and collectors from across the country assembled to bid on these objects virtually unused by the studio since the movie was shot in 1939. The auction catalog, the important reference book listing all items, included a description of each and the year each was made. The catalog came complete with pictures of each sale item and notations about which character in the movie had used it, sat upon it, wore it, owned it, dined upon it, or had thrown it! My dealer friend had instructed me to "wear something stunning and be prepared to sit near the front". Before the first item is brought forward for sale by the porter, the crowd is rustling about, auction catalogs fluttering (clients notes and prices entered as if to serve as an imaginary and wishful price ceiling for the bidder). Heads are turning to see who has arrived, where the notable dealers and collectors are seated and if any celebrities are present.
It is a whirlwind of bidding now that the auction has begun. Scarlet's favorite rosewood sofa goes, Aunt Pitty Pat's foot stool goes, the silver set at table by Pork the valet-butler goes, the furniture from Tara goes, the bronzes, the paintings, the silver, the porcelains, the rose strewn lavish rugs from the house which Rhett Butler built for Scarlet Goes. My companion buys lot after lot! I wonder where will this end? A quarter of a million dollars and a Wall Street Journal interview is the answer! The next morning we are pursued by the press asking what will become of the items which he has purchased the previous evening and will we be back for more bidding and buying. It's a quick and nervous supper that evening and then off to the second evening session. We find our same places near the front of the "big room". Someone behind us leans forward and whispers, "You haven't disappointed us yet!" Ah, the drama of it. A day later, there we are on page one of the Wall Street Journal which describes the sale and the major purchase made by my companion. I am described as a mysterious dark haired woman who has accompanied this free spending dealer!
Who has profited? Almost everyone! The consigner, in this case MGM, the auction house which takes a 15% buyer's premium, the successful purchaser (if the price is right), the dealer who intends to re-sell for a handsome profit particularly if the provenance of the object is known.
All emotion aside, this is big business! It is a big business fanned by publicity, image making and, even, public hysteria but, we will save that part of our drama for later.
The major fine arts auction houses which are familiar Christie, Manson and Woods, Limited better known as Christie's, founded in 1766 by James Christie and Sotheby's founded in 1744 dominate today's market, as we know it, controlling 97% of the world's fine arts auction business. Along with them dozens of local and specialized auction houses, Doyles of New York, a new comer founded in 1965, or the Drouet Richelieu, Paris, specializing only in art auctions, have sprung up to capitalize on the amazing growth of this highly specialized business. One cannot wonder if the early beginnings of the auction goes back to biblical times an auction in Sodom and Gomorrah, perhaps, or Jerusalem, or in the great markets in the Middle East and India.
But, back to our more familiar time and world! 1958 was a disastrous year for Christie's and one which would set them on a chase for goods, profits and publicity with their chief competitor, Sotheby's.
On April 2, 1958, a new company had been formed which grew out of the original founding of Christie's. Out of necessity, the previous company, a private limited company was reorganized to theoretically install a younger management and to broaden the ownership of the company. An attempt to "modernize" it, if you will. The new company's issued capital in April, 1958 was 60,000 British pounds or approximately $96,000 U.S. at today's exchange. Christie's had had a 150 year monopoly in auctioning works of art which was the property of the titled, the gentry and the wealthy. The reorganization of Christie's was directed at saying good - bye to the old guard and hello to the brave new world. It was to be a leap from the world of the old masters into the newly emerging art and antique markets. But, there remained an inbred Board of Directors with a staff thin on expertise.
In May, 1958, Christie's was about to conduct an auction of pictures, and furniture including a painting cataloged as from the Veronese School. At the last moment before the auction, quite by accident, the painting was correctly identified, as an El Greco by a newly arrived staff member on his first day at work. It was the famous El Greco, "Christ Healing the Blind." The mistake had been made by the recently departed managing Director, Sir Alec Martin, who had left his post just prior to the reorganization of the firm. The mistakenly identified painting, the sale and the way it was handled did great harm to Christie's. It substantiated the notion that all was not well in the picture department.
The El Greco was bought by Geoffrey Agnew of Agnew's of London. If properly identified and promoted, the painting would have sold for twice the sale amount of 35,000 Guineas. The picture was resold shortly thereafter to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman for 178,000 Pounds and was put on indefinite loan to the Metropolitan Museum. It was a costly case of mistaken identity on the part of Christie's. Client's fled in the direction of Sotheby's.
The worse was yet to come for Christie's in 1958. On October 15, 1958 the late Jacob Goldschmidt's Impressionist and Post-Impressionist pictures were sold at Sotheby's, not Christie's, on behalf of Jacob by his son Erwin.
It appeared that Erwin had first decided to deal with Christie's because his father had uses the firm to sell his great collection of Eighteenth Century Chinese porcelain in 1938. Erwin Goldschmidt had actually decided to visit both Christie's and Sotheby's before determining which house he would award the auction. He tried first at Christie's where Sir Alec Martin was floored at the reserved prices Goldschmidt was stipulating. Sir Alec stubbornly refused to accept the tough terms and besides he considered this new Impressionist art to be, as he called it "filth".
His taste was strictly for the Old Masters! He could not see the value of the Impressionists. It was he who had kept the firm alive during the Second World War even after a stick of incendiaries had totally destroyed Christie's premises on April 16, 1941. Not to be defeated by Hitler, Sir Alec led the way to the rebuilding of the firm's premises on King Street, St. James in 1953 where he clung to his old waysselling old masters.
After some negotiations, Erwin decided to award the sale to Sotheby's. Among many others there were seven important pictures: Cezanne's Le Garcon au Gilet Rouge and his Still Life of Apples; Van Gogh's Le Jardin du Poete, Arles; Renoir's La Pensee and three Manets, La Rue de Berne, La Promenade and a Self Portrait. Some of these pictures had been seized by the Nazis from the Goldschmidt family. They were first auctioned by the Nazi Ministry of Finance in 1941. Erwin Goldschmidt got them back only after years of legal battles and he was not going to let them go easily or cheaply. Under the terms of his father's will, his picture collection was to be sold and the proceeds divided among family members. Erwin was not going to accept lower reserve prices from Christie's.
Sotheby's was now ahead in the race with Christie's due to the Goldschmidt sale. Never done before, Sotheby's produced a special catalogue with every picture illustrated in color. The seven pictures sold for 781,000 pounds. Sotheby's of New Bond Street had established a new method of doing business, as well, by working directly with a collector instead of through a dealer which had been the normal modus operandi; before this negotiation.
A number of years later, I am heading up the street to Number 8 King Street, London carrying a small package containing a rare porcelain tea pot in the shape of a parrot. A friend of mine in Chicago who worked for a porcelain collector, had asked me to transport the pot to Christie's as he preferred personal delivery rather that shipping. What a great adventure on my London trip! Carefully guarding this precious cargo, I make my way through customs and ventured to Christie's the next day. The man I was to see at Christie's was an old Second World War friend of the collector. Great friends! Old wartime buddies! Met during a bombing, shared rations, stayed pen pals!
The parrot pot I was told would be placed for auction for a reserve price of 3,500 Pounds. I arrive, announce my name and am met by the gentleman. He is wearing gray trousers and pin stripped tails! He seems delighted at my arrival, in a reserved English way, and can hardly wait to see the teapot. He sentimentally tells me a story about his old war time friend with whom he shared tins of American Rations. He unwraps the tea pot carefully, sets it on the table and exclaims it's beauty and rarity. It is the first time I have seen it. What a thrill! My heart leaps! He picks up the pot, turning it over to see the markings on the bottom. Much to my shock he suddenly cries out "Madam you must take this back it is not worth 3,500 Pounds but only a mere 1,500 Pounds there is a repair to the bottom of the pot. Christie's has been duped as to the value of this pot." Gathering my composure I declare, "The pot is Christie's to hold, you can argue with your old friend, the collector about the reserve price I am only the messenger!" Who was to know the truth of the real value? Eventually, the parrot tea pot went up for auction at Christie's for a reserve price of 2,200 Pounds.
In the fifties Sotheby's and Christie's began to expand their reach in terms of the types of items to be sold. The question of where to establish new offices in Europe was not for purposes of holding more auctions, but for the purpose of finding collections to sell. Both began to branch out from the traditional old masters, porcelains, old silver, French and English furniture, objects of art and vertu. Soon extensive collections of Impressionist paintings, ancient Japanese prints, manuscripts, Faberge, Russian icons, medieval and renaissance jewelry were on the sales stage. Sotheby's gained a reputation as a house of great expertise and specialization, offering for sale a collection of Ghilhou rings dating from the time of the Pharaohs to the French Empire.
Christie's badly needed to make significant advances in the depth of it's knowledge. It hired a cousin of Lady Exeter, a young man who at the tender age of twenty-two became the youngest head of a department of any auction house in the world. He led the way by introducing ethnographic and exotic jewelry collections. It was he who arranged for the first of it's kind exhibition called the Ageless Diamond Exhibition during a break in the January sales program. The exhibit featured four pieces of jewelry belonging to Queen Elizabeth and one to the Queen Mother. The De Beer's Diamond Company mounted the exhibit which took place in Christie's rooms. The six most important jewelers in London also provided diamond pieces for the exhibit. And what pieces they were! There was the Queen's bronch made of two parts of the famous Cullinan diamond, there was the Queen Alexandra's tiara, similar to a Russian peasant's head-dress, and the Williamson Pink, a 23 carat brilliant cut pink diamond given to the Queen by Dr. J. Williamson of Tanganyika on the occasion of her wedding.
In spite of bad weather, the lines of spectators extended for blocks! And, a new touch, 8,500 Pounds were raised for charities during the exhibit. It was the birth of charity auctions and exhibitions!
Now the era of publicity, mega-merchandise, exhibit events, new auction venues become more and more important!
Yet Christie's failed to capitalize on this and continued to languish. Sales at Sotheby's were threefold compared to Christie's in the early sixties. Christie's clearly needed to branch out. Having originally established itself as great friends to artists and dealers and nobility in the 1700's, in the mid 1900's, Christie's seemed unable to cope with it's recent mistakes and sluggish prices of old masters let alone the creative expansion of the auction world. An evolution, even revolution of the auction world was clearly under way.
Great collections have continually been built over the centuries with the death of the collector triggering the opportunity for the auction house to come sniffing at the door step of the bereaved and often tax poor family. The auction house had developed a ghoulish but fruitful practice of circulating the obituaries of departed Londoners and Parisians to their staff.
Sotheby's and Christie's would, over the years, be called upon to advise the descendants and beneficiaries of major art collections on how best to dispose of important items to meet the "financial stringency's of the times". Indeed, great art collections were sold through the auction houses directly to national governments, museums and galleries through private treaty in lieu of heavy capital transfer tax liabilities. Now family beneficiaries can line up with the commoners to view such magnificent paintings as Jacopo Pontormo's "The Triumph of Joseph" painted in 1515, or Rembrandt's only equestrian portrait depicting Vicomte de Turenne or the important drawing by Signorelli of "Portrait of a Man" at the National Gallery, London or Norwich Castle Museum weeping no doubt from the loss of their loved ones and their loss to the British Treasury.
The search for goods widened with Sotheby's clearly in the lead. Not to be outdone in the hunt for goods, an imaginative idea blossomed with Christie staffers in hot pursuit of a collection of works of art originally owned by Americans which had been confiscated by Castro when he came to power in 1959. This set off a series of secret meetings and discussions with a Cuban syndicate representing Castro under the close watch of armed escorts. If completed --- the negotiations and sale would have jeopardized all future American business for Christie's.
I remember what excitement signing up for my first auction paddle at Hanzel's Galleries in Chicago at just about that time the mid 60's. All the old jokes about a nod at the wrong moment or the scratch of your head awarding you the purchase of an ugly marble bust of an unknown patriot were dispelled for the time being as I looked at my paddle #132. Did it have a particular numerary significance to my beginnings as a bidder - and what type of techniques would I learn to employ as I ventured into this sly world of buying at auction? I remembered the story of the sale of Rembrandt's "Titus" which sparked a controversy over the pre-sale agreements often made between the auction house and the prospective buyer particularly for highly important lots. The Titus was one of those! At the seeming end of the bidding between two prominent buyers, the losing bidder Norton Simon challenged the house and indicated that the auctioneer had not honored the pre-sale agreement between Christie's and himself. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out the agreement and read it aloud for the audience and the press, "When Mr. Simon is sitting down he is bidding. If he bids openly -- he is bidding!" Mr. Simon had been seated as the auctioneer repeated 740,000 Guineas, any more more, 740,000 Guineas for the last time, fair warning, 740,000 Guineas against you (staring directly at Simon) sold to Marlborough Fine Arts. Pandemonium! Simon objects vehemently! Simon's reading of the pre-sale agreement forces the bidding to reopen. The Titus is put up for sale again. The bidding continues at 750,000 Guineas in open bidding. Simon wins and buys the Titus knocked down, as they say in the auction world, for 760,000 Guineas.
Norton Simon's motive for the strange pre-sale agreement? He wanted to buy the Titan anonymously!
Shortly after this episode, a cartoon appeared in the London Times depicting a porter, an auctioneer and a painting with the caption "Don't forget that by private arrangement, Lady Little Hampton is still in the bidding as long as she is standing on her head."
With paddle in hand, I decide to seat myself strategically slightly off center of the big room not too far forward or too far to the rear. After all, the auctioneer does not know me I am no Mr. Simon and the item of my quest is not a Titus! The dealers are either front and center in the Big Room or the very rear. Finally, my item comes up! Two porters carry it forward, a Regency sofa with perfect English grape vine upholstery, completely covered, never used! The bidding starts I decide to wait quite past the early bids. Now mid-way through, I raise my paddle. Still bidding, I raise again, trying to spot where my opponents paddle is located in the room. No time now, I raise again again finally, those slightly stunning words "For the last time fair warning, do I hear more bids? Gavel down "sold to the lady near the aisle (pause) paddle #132!"
Bidding techniques are a thing of mystery! The secretive bidder, the anonymous bidder all aided now by the telephone with bids coming in to banks of yuppie like auction staffers straight out of Wellesly or Cambridge. Pre-sale bids made by absentee bidders give the auctioneer a basis for establishing the opening bid price with those dreaded words, "I have a great deal of interest in this lot I shall start the bidding at" usually a much higher price than you had hoped.
Nowadays, bids are not only executed by elite collectors and dealers but by professional surrogates, museum representatives, interior decorators, restaurateurs, hoteliers and Internet buyers. Did I say Internet buyers? But we'll save that for later too!
So the chase continues. From the pursuit of the estate involving the heirs and lawyers for the estate, the wooing of widows, children and grandchildren. The identification of rich collectors who might dispose of part of a collection, for the rich but no longer rich forced to sell their collection or contents of their beloved old manor house. The better known and the bigger the collector's name the better the publicity! The better the feeding frenzy the better for the press offices set up prior to auctions in such exclusive places as the Hotel Richemond in Geneva or the Palazzo Lancellotti in the Piazza Navona in Italy or at a house sale venue at Newport, Rhode Island.
By 1977, both auction houses had finally established themselves in New York. Christie's had clearly hired a larger that life lady to carry -off it's PR in New York Letitia Baldridge, previously, Chief of Staff to Jacqueline Kennedy. At the time, the New York site for Christie's was the Delmonico Hotel Building on Park Avenue. The launch of Christie's New York was complete with cartoon advertisements in the New Yorker, society cocktail parties and a row of limousines lined up to make way to the entrance. The press was all there, CBS, NBC, ABC and the BBC was also expected. The press was primed the demand for information about the opening sale at New York's Christie's from the New York Times was unbearable as the press pitted Christie's and now Sotheby's Parke Bernet against one another. For Sotheby's had moved swiftly into the New York market by purchasing the New York Auction House Parke Bernet.
The black-tie crowd of 1,000 was in place at Christie's including those in a spill over space fitted with closed circuit TV at Regine's, the neighboring night club. The mood was one just short of hysteria but the success of the opening would depend on the sales results. The results turned out to be disappointing even dismal.
I remember sitting about two-thirds of the way down the main aisle in the Great Room at Christie's. A dealer friend had managed to get me a coveted ticket to this prized event. The crowd was not bidding feverishly! "Cezanne's Study for the Card Player," one of the most important pictures in the sale, was met with little enthusiasm and was bought for a mere $480,000. By the short intermission the crowd had settled down --- the fever had subsided! Later the press was brutal. I was happy though having experienced the Christie's debut!
Christie's did not stall out in it's race with Sotheby's though and gradually established itself as "the place to be" on a Sunday morning to sip champagne and see the exquisite items on view for next auction. One fall morning in 1997, after a 10 year absence in attendance at Christie's New York I appeared and asked to be registered for an upcoming auction. Looking at a computer - no longer a simple card catalog of clients the clerk quickly responds. "Oh, yes, Madame, we have missed you in New York, we will issue your paddle immediately!" Modern marketing at work, I thought. The paddle appeared as though I had never missed a New York auction for Christie's had developed it's worldwide data base and knew of my appearances at Christie's Chicago previews and my Christie's, London attendances over the years. The Great Room was now equipped with an electronic board converting U.S. currency bid prices into Japanese Yen, British Pounds and German Marks.
In December, 1978, modern auctioneering was truly born with the sale of the late Coco Chanel's wardrobe and jewelry the property of her longtime friend Madame Lilian GrumBach.
Oddly enough, the Chanel sale at Christie's had been preceded by the biggest British collection that Sotheby's had conducted that of the contents of Mentmore Towers on behalf of the 7th Earl of Roseberry. Mentmore was designed in the Jacobean style in the 1850's for Baron Meyer Am Schel de Rothschild to house a great family art collection. The 7th Earl of Roseberry inherited Mentmore in 1974 and death duties of 4.5 million pounds. After two years of unsuccessful efforts to persuade the British government to buy the house and collection for a museum -- the collection was auctioned at Sotheby's London. It included an "untraced work" which was incorrectly catalogued as the "Toilet of Venus" by Carle Van Loo which sold for 8,800 pounds of the total sales of 6.3 million pounds conducted in eight sessions. A lucky purchaser of the so-called Toilet of Venus, however, had done his homework and was convinced that the painting was actually the "Phyche Showing Her Sisters Her Gifts from Cupid" by Fragonard. To make sure, the purchaser had visited Mentmore and searched records to make sure it was not a copy. It was not and turned out to be valued not at 8,800 Pounds but 500,000 Pounds or $850,000 U.S. at the time or over 8% of the total sales at Mentmore!
The Sotheby's sale of Mentmore was the biggest ever complete with a vast amount of publicity due to the Rothschild background.
The Christie's Chanel sale which followed was a Hallmark of marketing genius complete with a fashion show of the forty suits and dresses and forty-four pieces of costume jewelry from Coco's personal collection. The sale took place in the London Great Room at Christie's replete with garlands of white flowers. The crowd included Gunter Sachs, Mrs. Riva representing Marlene Dietrich, his excellency Faisal Alhegelan the Ambassador for Saudi Arabia and Mousier Terlon from the Musee de Costume, Paris. An illustrious crowd, but somewhat nouveau. The prices seemingly high. A beige tweed suit with pink braid 2,400 pounds or $4,800 U.S. Dollars at the time bought by the Oslo Museum. The famed little black dress made famous by Chanel bought by the Baroness de Rothschild for 1,500 pounds or $3,000 U.S., the Smithsonian Institution bid on and won a classic Chanel suit for 1,000 pounds or $2,000 U.S. The sale was considered a resounding success. More importantly, it was the birth of the celebrity auction! Not because of the celebrities in attendance -- that had always been the case but because the items had been owned by a celebrity!! Fifteen hundred people including gate crashers had mobbed into the Christie's rooms where there was seating for six hundred. The champagne flowed, the press was out and without exaggeration the Christie's Coco sale had generated as much world-wide publicity as the $6 million Sotheby's Mentmore sale. What has followed are the celebrity auctions of goods as diverse as the costumes and famous jump suits of Elvis Presley to the on-site sale of the contents of the home of Sir Cecil Beaton.
On the center stage of the auction drama, is, of course, the auctioneer sometimes referred to as the elegant auctioneer. The auctioneer mans the rostrum like a symphony conductor, hand out, gavel poised. electrifying the crowd of collectors with his posture, his timing and his beckoning glances at the bidder. Coaxing, cajoling, tempting and teasing! A strategic pause -- a rush of words getting an individual bidder in his sights and under his spell with lightening quick mesmerizing phrases "Stay with me now" "You can do better than that" "Going now" "Fair warning" "Last bid"! Spoken like a trained actor charming the bidders to have just one more go with "One more?" "Do we have one more now?"
Today's contemporary auctioneers come dressed for the part well tailored dinner suits for evening auctions, trademark accessories like Henry Wyndham of Sotheby's Europe fire-engine red socks, or the cutting edge dark gray pradaesque suits worn by Tobias Meyer of Sothby's New York, exuding a kind of downtown cool so he can lock psyches with the collectors. Said of the well-known Christopher Burge of Christie's "when you are bidding it's like the two of you are engaged in sort of a dance." Eyes lock, the auctioneer sensing if another bid is forth coming or not.
Burge's style paid off in November of 1999 with the auction of Van Gogh's "Portrait of The Artist Without a Beard". First working the crowd with an opening bid of $14 million U.S., then pausing, then taking bids from both the room and the banks of phones set up to take calls from all over the world. Burge did his dance, up on toes, sweeping his arm, crouched down, leaning far out of his Rostrum -- zeroing in on a hesitant bidder he suggested, "Have another go!" The bidder swallowed hard and nodded! The crowd roared, the hammer went down at $65 million! Where was Sir Alec Martin now! Would he have believed a price like this for an impressionist?
Auction prices are relative, in fact! Relative to the mood of the stock market, the current popularity of categories of goods, the rate of inflation and the availability of goods. And, possibly, the rigging of prices! For both Christie's, International, now owned since 1998 by French Mogul Francois Pinault, and Sotheby's Holdings, Inc. are, as of December, 1999, the target of a sweeping investigation by the Justice Department into possible price fixing by art dealers. Christie's, now taking the lead as the world's largest auctioneer, has recently stunned the art world by cutting a deal with prosecutors and has received "conditional amnesty" in exchange for information on price fixing in the industry. Under investigation are the practices of both auction houses regarding collusion in raising their commissions within weeks of each other to the illegal practice in which art dealers decide in advance not to bid against each other at auction but to later conduct pre-arranged private auction known as a "knockout" or bid-off. Now representatives of the Manhattan Justice Department can be seen taking a stroll through the Christie's and Sotheby's show rooms to preview auction items. A kind of Sherlock Holmes approach to carrying on the investigation of commissions and prices. In the latest unfolding of this drama, Sotheby's Chairman and it's President have abruptly departed the company preferring, perhaps, quiet talks with the Treasury instead of the daily glare of publicity counteracted by their own PR Departments.
Fancy the last recorded sale of Renoir's "La Pensee" painted in 1877 which sold as part of the Goldschmidt collection in 1958 for 72,000 pounds or $108,000 US and, in 1984 was valued at $2.8 million by the British Government taken in lieu of taxes. Or, fancy the 1997 sale at Sotheby's New York of the dresses of Diana, Princess of Wales where an Victor Edelstein gown which might have been sold at retail for $5,000 went for $222,500 and was billed as the most expensive single garment ever sold at auction.
It's 1999, I am sitting cross legged in front of my television tuned in to the AMC Live Cable auction of Christie's sale of the couture, now dubbed "star contour", of Marilyn Monroe. It's not as much fun as being there in person as this auction is meant for a broad audience of auction goers in person, on phone and via cable. Pre-auction arrangements and absentee bid forms have been completed. Serious phone bidders have supplied bank account, credit information, and proof of identity ahead of the auction opening to assure bonafide buyers with money!
A pair of Marilyn's platform shoes worn in 1956 for the royal film performance before Queen Elizabeth sold for $29,000. A cocktail dress by Galonos worn at the press call for the movie "The Prince and the Show Girl" goes for $65,000. Now the piece de resistance the Happy Birthday dress worn in 1962 on the occasion of her birthday song to President Kennedy. "Lot #55, $200,000, $300,000, $500,000, $700,000, $1,000,000 in the audience now, once, twice, $1,150,000. Gone at $1,150,000." A price far exceeding the couture sale of the Princess Diana dress in 1997. Another leap forward onto the stage of television for the auction houses of the world!
And suddenly, the entrance to the new stage the Internet auction!
Not targeting the nobility and wealthy! Internet sites such as EBAY and Amazon.com are busy luring a whole new mass audience. As I enter my office, one on my staff runs up excitedly. Look, oh look, at what I bought on EBAY. I look curiously at a shrunken pendant of tiny insignificant beads. She exclaims, "What a bargain I got, this was hand-crafted in Arizona, only $39 dollars." It reminded me of a Girl Scout project. EBAY, launched by the investment bankers Goldman Sachs touts itself as a "person to person trading community for exchange of coins, collectibles, computers, memorabilia, stamps and toys" and we must add junk! A 24 hour service on which sellers can list items for sale and buyers can bid. EBAY's recent per share value $170.00. It's recent sale price -- for plastic beads $39!
Not ignoring the Internet market, Sotheby's simoltaneously announces the beginning of Sotheby's.com! So, fear not! There will be something for sale at auction for everyone no matter what the price, no matter what your interest!
Because of the scarcity of high end antiques and serious collections, the auction houses such as Sotheby's must also go to a different market place. Soon out of elite attracting goods, Sotheby's announces it will channel all sales of "household goods" to their Internet site. As a recent magazine article guipped about the major auction houses "All dressed up and nothing to buy!" That's true, too, no need to get "dressed up" to click your mouse to an Internet Auction!
But, new approaches to high end merchandise are taking on a new aura. Sotheby's offers the ultimate in Anglophile fantasy study tours of English country houses for viewing of rare collections, with commentary by top curators and so called aristocratic black tie dinner parties as it launches it's new Sotheby's Institute of Art. After all, new cash happy cyber executives who have launched the "Dot.Coms" must fill their massive mansions with something!
Again, not to be outdone, Christie's follows suit and now sponsors an annual European trip stressing education to view collections so private that the names and places of destinations cannot be divulged prior to the trip!
It's The Winter Sale at Sotheby's, December 6, 1999. Items of note, according to the catalog, from the Harriet Prentiss Bougearel-Knouff Trust include a collection of Chinese export porcelain blue and white serving pieces and decorative articles. The catalog goes on "during her tenure in the antiques department at Marshall Field's, Mrs. Knouff sold examples similar to the offered pieces of Chinese porcelain."
I turn to Page 78 where there is a stately picture of my dear friend Harriet. It cites her memberships in The Ceramic Circle, the daughters of the American Revolution, the Antiquarian Society of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Winterthur Guild and her furnishing of the Colonial Village during the 1934 Century of Progress World's Fair in Chicago with period pieces from her home. She is noted in the catalog for her exquisite taste and encyclopedic knowledge, in particular, her knowledge about the history of Wedgewood, American and English furniture and Heraldry.
I am determined to be winning bidder for some of the prized "blue and white" on which I had enjoyed lunches and tea service with her. My preview of the blue and white focused my attention on a 19th Century cider jug and cover, painted with pagodas and water scenes, applied with reeded strapped handles, headed by foliage with a Fu dog finial. How I loved her blue and white!
And, there was Lot #347 composed of 57 pieces of a fish platter, dinner plates and bowls. What a temptation why should some stranger have this! Why not me -- her dear friend! Yes, I will bid for the prized cider jug and the 57 pieces including the fish platter!
It's only five minutes to the start of the auction. I look about to see how the audience looks. My heart sinks there at the cabinet holding the blue and white is a well known dealer on a cell phone describing in detail the blue and white to a client. But, he's talking about Lot #346 complete with tea service pieces. A big lot of 158 pieces. A lot I had not considered due to it's size and price.
The auctioneer appears. He is unfamiliar to me. What will be his style rapid fire, goading comments? Gentle persuasive lures? Lot #333 to begin! We work our way to Lot #339 the cider jug. Lively bidding -- but I am the high bidder. The jug is mine. All lots are sold at considerably higher prices that the estimates. Now we are at Lot #346 the 158 pieces! The dealer is bidding and bidding against several others in the crowd and an aggressive phone bidder! Suddenly, I realize! No -- I am not going to see that exquisite lot go to a dealer I must rescue Lot #339! Paddle up! Again, again the dealer bids! I raise again. Again! Then -- yes, it's mine! One hundred and fifty eight pieces all painted with pagodas! Harriet would be so pleased!
It's a few days later now. The blue and white is safely tucked away in my cupboard. Numerous pieces adorn my sideboard. I am attending a reception and I see a friend rushing towards me. She cries out in distress, "Yolanda, Yolanda, did you hear Harriet's blue and white went up for auction at Sotheby's and we will never see it again!"
A sentimental smile comes over my face, "Oh, I do know Rosemary, but, don't worry, I bought 159 pieces of it!"
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Inside Christie's - John Herbert - St. Martin's Press, 1990
Christie's - Review of the season 1980 - Printed in Great Britain, 1981
Connoisseur's World - 1998
Town and Country Magazine, January, 1999
Bloomberg Professional - 1999, Frankfort, Hong Kong, London, N.Y., Singapore,
Sydney, Tokyo, San Paulo
Sotheby's Chicago Auction Information - 1999
Sotheby's Winter Sale Catalogue - December, 1999
Wall Street Journal - February 4, 2000
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