Auctions and Values

Sadly, so many of these items were sold in 1979 and the early 1980's.  Prices were very different in those days, but even then, the question of value was unpredictable too, although it is even more so these days!

Quite often a few good pieces failed to reach the low reserve figures and did not sell, whilst the odd one would sell for more than ten times the carefully considered estimate!

For example in 2015, I had given a fine Jade incense burner to Bonhams to sell in Hong Kong, as they had agreed to a reserve figure of 20,000 Euros.  But it failed to sell, so it was agreed to try again in London about a year later, only this time the reserve was agreed at only 3,000 Euros, in the belief that such a low estimate was more likely to attract more buyers and so the resulting bidding would still then achieve a good result.  It didn't work out, once again it failed to sell!  The quality of this piece is not in question, it is just one that got overlooked, or there was just no interested buyer at the auction.  I am so glad that it did not sell, for a little over the reserve, which was a risk, as I far prefer to own it than to receive so little for it.

In the same auction we sold a figure of Quanyin and attendant for HK$ 750,000 amazing when the high estimate was HK$ 200,000! 

There are so many changes and fashions that influence the prices, for example, consider the question of colour.  When we started collecting, a fine piece that was spinach green, was highly sought after and that colour would certainly add extra value.  But now white is deemed far more desirable and the dark green is just not selling so easily.  This can change again, but who knows?

Generally, the auction catalogue estimates are often regarded as having been far too low.  Because once the bidding results are known, the sold item prices are often much more.

But really it is impossible to predict with any certainty what price will be achieved.  In the end the only true value is simply dependant on how much the buyer, at the time, is prepared to pay.  So before any of them are actually sold, the value can only remain as a guess, which (with hindsight) so often turns out to have been the wrong one!  By wrong, I mean that these antiques can so easily be over valued, or under valued by the experts and not by just a small amount!

The Ozaki Kokusai Owl (item 46 above) broke all auction records, reaching the hammer price of '10,500 it was purchased for a client by Eskenazi.  But the catalogue estimate was only '1,500 and at that time that was considered a reasonable figure.

We have also sold quite a lot of our Chinese snuff bottles to dealers, as well as in auctions.  In 1983 at Sothebys, from the statement above one can see that good bottles were around '300 each, even though some of ours were selected to be illustrated in the catalogue in colour as below.