For Better or Worse

Last week, I corresponded with a lovely new collector of early pearlware figures. She said my site had scared her away from eBay, so instead, she wants to try online auctions.  Out of the frying pan into the fire, I fear!  While eBay is full of pitfalls, at the end of the process if you have been misled, eBay gets you a  refund. This, of course, assumes that you are knowledgeable enough about your purchase to know you have been misled!  In fairness, many eBay sellers really don't know what they are selling, and they do their best. But don't think you necessarily get a bargain on eBay. Yes, great 'finds' happen--but well-informed buyers latch onto these and quickly push the bidding up. The odds are that at best, your figure is not worth much more than you paid for it.

What about auctions?  Admittedly, this is where the trade buys. But it is also where the trade sells its mistakes. Every dealer makes mistakes, and a reputable dealer will not want to add a mistake to stock....so off to auction it goes. Similarly, an item that has languished on a dealer's shelf for too long also must go to auction.  When you buy at auction, you have no comeback. When the hammer goes down, you own the item, for better or worse. The small print in each auction house's terms of sale enforce this. So you REALLY have to know what you are doing when you bid at auction. 

A few weeks ago, a new collector contacted me about this New Marriage arbor group he had bought at auction. He feared it was a reproduction.

The group is not a reproduction. It is, I suppose, largely original...but it has several flaws and one very fatal flaw: the bride and groom on the left are entirely made up. Nasty, aren't they? As you see from the correct pearlware arbor group below, the original bride and groom are much taller..

New Marriage Act. Formerly in the stock of Roger de Ville.

The collector had paid quite a lot of money for his problematic auction "win." It was a fraction of the cost of a correct group--but it was also a lot more than it was really worth. After all, who would want a New Marriage Act in this condition at any price?  Talking of condition, what had the condition report disclosed ahead of the sale? Absolutely nothing. Instead, it had gone into a ramble of what the New Marriage Act was.

In this instance, the buyer had not paid, and the auction house backed down. This happens, but only rarely. Usually, the purchase becomes the buyer's, for better or worse.

Potential problem purchases abound at auction. Looking around today, I note this figure described as "A VERY RARE EARLY 19TH CENTURY STAFFORDSHIRE FIGURE OF SHAKESPEARE by Ralph Food, modelled standing beside a column upon a square base. 1ft 10ins high."  

Extensively restored pearlware figure incorrectly desribed as Shakespeare.

Ralph Food?  Ralph Wood...a typo, surely? Shakespeare? Dear Auction House, we collectors know Shakespeare, and this beast is no Shakespeare.

Shakespeare. Courtesy Andrew Dando.

Instead, this figure was once Sir Antony Van Dyck....but he now has a grotesque new head and new arm. Below is a correct example. This is what the auction figure originally looked like before the disfiguring damage and restoration. 

Sir Anthony Van Dyck. Courtesy Dallas Auction Gallery.

A collector friend has dubbed Van Dyk-with-new-body-parts "Elephant Man." That may not be politically correct, but it hits the nail on the head. This figure has been floating around for some time. It was at auction last year, and I wrote about it then. From there, it made its way to eBay, where it, I think, did not sell. So back to auction it now goes.  Perhaps a request for a condition report will disclose the problem to a potential buyer, but buyer beware. Most auction houses are staffed by generalists rather than specialists, so buyers should set their expectations accordingly.

If you want a thorough condition report, ask a restorer. In fact, a restorer often has to strip down all restoration to assess the true condition beneath. So is it really fair to expect total accuracy from an auction house? I think not. Recently, I requested a condition report and it noted "extensive repairs, restorations, damages, and losses."  Talk about covering it all! In truth, the restoration may have been minimal, but this auction house was taking no chances.

As I write this, I note the spill vase group below, which is at auction this month. The description correctly describes it as a bird nesting spill vase. Lovely is it not...but do you know that it is missing two vital components?

Typically, two animals sit to either side of the spill--usually leopards or deer. Perhaps the condition report will note losses to the base, perhaps it won't. But a buyer may not realize how significant that loss is and may pay a significant price for a very undesirable object. I have known members of the trade to get stung in just this way!
 

And then we get to the murky area of figures that are indeed antique and they look just like the pre-1840 figures we collectors love. Indeed, some of them may even have been made in the nineteenth century using old molds. But they are later and shoddier examples of early figures and their value is reduced. The Vicar and Moses (below left) and Nell and Jobson (below right) are described by their auction houses as 'nineteenth century'....but these are not early nineteenth-century figures, and perhaps they were made in the twentieth century.

To complicate matters, another pair of figures like the Nell and Jobson above is also at auction at the same time. The pair below is also late-nineteenth century or perhaps twentieth century, but is described as early nineteenth century! How is a novice collector to know what to do? 

I am not unsympathetic to the problems faced by auction houses. How can a small generalist staff be expected to know everything about everything? But at the same time, the buyer's premium--which is usually well over 20 percent on top of the hammer price--raises expectations, and it should provide something. If only the premium was proportionate to the service/information provided.   

At the end of the day, if you "win" at auction, you have to ship your item home. This can be very, very bothersome and expensive and it is risky. Collectors write to me routinely about their auction issues, but one collector's experience many years ago is seared onto my brain. This then-new collector bought a "Sherratt" Courtship group at auction and used a professional shipper. When the box arrived, it rattled ominously--a death rattle, you might say. See for yourself.

Heart breaking, is it not? The moral of these stories is that unless you really want what you are buying and you are prepared to risk much of what you are spending, buy from a reputable dealer. That is what the purchaser of the shattered Courtship group now does. Putting this disaster behind her with determination that I admire, she has built a fine collection.