The Antique Register

48 Nov-Dec 07
� Feature Story �
Taking a Chance on ‘Striking It Rich’ Doesn’t Always Pay Off
The media loves stories about individuals who went to a
flea market or garage sale and purchased an object for a few
dollars only to sell it later for thousands, tens of thousands,
and even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Discovery of the
“great bargain,” also known as the “hidden treasure,” is the
dream of everyone who hunts collectibles.
The September 5, 2007, issue of Antique Trader contained
an article about an Austrian woman who was seeking old
crockery in a trash container and found instead a cross
from Limoges, France, dating to about 1200. Relatives of a
deceased owner were cleaning out his home and tossed the
piece. The woman who discovered the cross even showed it
to the niece of the deceased man who promptly told her to
take it. The cross is estimated to be worth $500,000.
The smile on my face turned sour as I continued reading.
When a friend of the woman took the cross to a nearby
museum, the curator alerted police. As luck would have
it, the cross was part of a Polish art collection belonging
to Izabella Elzbieta of Czartoryski Dzialinkska that was
confiscated by the Nazis. How the cross wound up in the
possession of the deceased owner is unknown.
The cross currently is housed at the museum. Heirs of the
former owner have asked the London-based Commission
for Looted Art in Europe to assist them in securing the
return of the cross. It is not clear at this point whether or not
the woman who saved the cross from the trash will receive
any reward other than “thanks.”
Sometimes when you take a chance, things do not turn
out as you expect.
In the case of collectibles, the expected turns out to be
negative far more often than it turns out to be positive. I
see basically three types of objects during the appraisal
clinics that I conduct. The first are family heirlooms. Most
have a strong family provenance and are fun to handle.
Occasionally the family stories that accompany them are
false, more often than not, dating the object far older than
it is. The second group is objects about which the owner is
fully knowledgeable and simply wants to show them off
and/or share them with the appraiser. Once again, these are
fun.
It is the third group of objects, those that individuals
purchased believing they were one thing and now have
serious doubts, that relates to this column’s theme. Ninety
percent or more of the time, I confirm their suspicions. They
did not buy what they thought they did.
During a recent appraisal clinic I did at the Saucon Valley
Farmers’ Market in Hellertown, Pennsylvania, a Whatcha
Got? listener who hears my nationally syndicated antiques
and collectibles call-in radio show on Sunday mornings on
WAEB-AM in Allentown, Pennsylvania, brought a group
of four Barnum and Bailey circus posters she had recently
purchased for me to inspect. She had called in to the radio
show to ask about the posters. Playing “guess the goodies”
on the radio is a challenge. Based upon the information the
listener gave me over the telephone, I strongly suspected
the posters were mass-produced reproductions designed to
By Harry Rinker
hang on the wall. However, I told her that if she brought the
posters to the appraisal clinic, I could most likely take one
look and tell her if they were period or reproduction.
One of the things you learn after being around antiques
and collectibles is that reproductions (exact copies) and
copycats (stylistic copies) are not necessarily poorly made.
The quality of printing on these posters was extremely high.
They had the brilliance and clarity normally associated with
early twentieth century lithographs.
Earlier in the appraisal clinic, a person came with one of
the reproduction Bull Durham Black-themed posters that
had been put into a frame and sold at auction. The color
registration was terrible. The image was fuzzy. There was
no need to use a loupe to see if the colors were the result
of the modern four color dot printing technique. They
most definitely were. The person took a chance it might
be period. Fortunately, he paid under fifty dollars, a clear
sign to anyone in the trade that it was definitely wrong.
“Beware of bargains” is a good basic rule in the collectibles
business.
In the case of the Whatcha Got? listener’s circus posters,
they were the wrong size and printed on the wrong paper
to date from the early part of the twentieth century. When I
did put a loupe on the colors, I saw dots. I did consider the
possibility that they may have been modern posters used
to promote a present day appearance. However, they had
no blank area for the insertion of the location where the
circus was playing. Clearly, they were simply well made
reproductions, albeit not true to size. I never did ask the
listener what she paid, hopefully less than fifteen dollars
each.
Individuals in search of hidden treasure cannot resist
taking the occasional chance in hopes of striking it rich.
Time to lay down a few ground rules that will help them
avoid mistakes and possibly find that treasure they are
seeking.
Very few hidden bargains are found at auctions. Novice
collectors and dealers often find themselves watching a
piece being sold at auction and think, “that piece is selling
for too little. I should buy it.” No, it is not, and you should
not buy it. It is naîve to think for one moment that advanced
collectors and dealers have missed a piece. If they are not
bidding, there is something wrong with the item, i.e., it is
damaged, incomplete, or a reproduction/copycat. “Do not
buy what you do not know” is a good rule for those wishing
to avoid getting stung.
Never pay more than you are prepared to lose when
buying an object on the chance that it is a hidden treasure. I
refer to buying mistakes made by collectors and dealers as
tuition, one of the prices they pay to learn the trade. Your
goal is to keep you tuition payments low.
Of course, the fun in finding a hidden treasure is to
find it at a bargain price. Yet, discovering an object priced
significantly below its standard secondary market retail
value should set off a series of alarm bells transmitting a very
Continued on next page...