The roundup - Some top sellers from the past week

The world is a mighty big place, and so much gets sold in even one week's time. Here are some highlights from the past week on eBay, where all manner of stuff gets sold, some of it for big dollars. These are by category, as they are listed on eBay.

Daguerreotypes:

1. 1/4 PL EXPLORER OCCUPATIONAL SURVEYOR DAG Antique Photo - $4000

2. 3 Rare Daguerreotypes 1850s DEERING HOLWELL Maine USA - $2245

3. Very Rare 1/4 Plate Musician with Horn Daguerreotype - $915

Ambrotypes:

1. MAGNIFICENT 1860 STEPHEN DOUGLAS GEORGE CLARK AMBROTYPE - $18658.88

2. Rare Ambrotype 1856 Watson Paw Foot Sewing Machine - $695

 3. REVENUE CUTTER SERVICE RARE AMBROTYPE CIRCA 1860 NAVY - $300

 Tintypes:

1. Wounded Civil War Hero Colonel Egbert 1/2 Plate Tintype - $1250

2. young Civil War soldier tintype in a case - $503.97

3. Fantastic Western Tintype Town Scene, Hides and Pelts - $485

Militaria:

1. NAPOLEONIC SWORD HONOUR GUARD OF THE KINGDOM OF ITALY - $4980

2. WW II A-2 Pilot Flight Jacket & Grouping 458th 8th AF - $4957.88

3. WWII Vet Treasured 1630s Dated Signed Japanese Sword" - $4500

Early Folk Art:

1. Antique 19thC Folk Art Carved & Painted *Bellamy Eagle* - $1912.87

2. AN OUTSTANDING HAND CARVED AMERICAN EAGLE ,ON CREST !! - $1606.15

3. IMPORTANT HISTORICAL PAINTING: FREDERICK DOUGLASS - $1500

Learning the biz

I sometimes get asked how I know about all this stuff about antiques, as if one either knows it all, or is totally ignorant on this front. But that "all this stuff about antiques" question starts things on the wrong foot. Some know more than others, but no one knows about everything under that big umbrella called antiques, which in its broadest sense is the material summation of human kind since its dawn.

So, I don't know about antiques per se. I know about certain segments of the marketplace. Early photos, folk art and military are some of my favorites. But I also do early silver, jewelry, timepieces and guns. Furniture, too. It's a hierarchy. There are categories that are at the very apex of my pyramid-shaped knowledge base. This is true for most general dealers and auctioneers that deal in antiques. At that top of the pyramid is a focused area about which they know the most. As you expand outward the depth of knowledge decrease, but the breadth of subjects increases. Most of us in the antiques business knew, early on, a mentor who was one of those folks with a gigantic pyramid. That pyramid didn't see its layers get bigger, but instead grew in its entirety, gobbling up everything it could about a stunning array of fields in antiques. Sure, they had their apex, and what a big apex it was, they truly knew a very lot about quite a few things, and knew enough about an even bigger group of objects.

Rarer is the true expert, the person who has only the top of the pyramid, and who has chosen to abandon the other layers to make that peak enormous. These are the gurus in their fields. They devote a lifetime to one subsection, and they rule that area along with a few peers. They trade on their depth of knowledge, and the reputation that comes with it. They run specialized shops, or trade in just one type of object, and because they become known as the cream of the crop in one area, they often command many of the very best objects in their fields.

The jack of all trades go to these most devoted dealers when they get stuck or research, or have a particularly choice piece to sell.

Perhaps the pyramids of each of the best of both groups wind up as roughly the same size. While one is all encompassing, the other is a focused slice that has been cut off and grown for decades. There are categorical specialists that are very happy in their nook of the antiques business.

But there is only so much room in a brain, and that pyramid can only get so big. There are only so many hours in the day. One eventually chooses to become one type or the other.

At 30, I'm interested in a host of subjects, and continue to grow my knowledge in those areas. But I can't resist continuing to explore the world of antiques at large, and the many areas of material it offers. In a fast-paced world, this may creep up as the way to go for someone who makes a career in this business. The more focused, academic track can be a fulfilling, enriching path on which much is learned about a specific subject. But if one hopes to feed his family in this business, the broader road is looking more like the way to go.

For one thing, business is about seizing opportunities. The more general knowledge one has, the more opportunities there are to seize. And with every opportunity is the chance to grow a business.

Tastes are also changing all the time. Plenty of antique dealers remember when Victorian furniture was in demand and pricey. I can't imagine what the uber Victorian specialists/dealers are doing today. Making it, but not in the world they once enjoyed. Perhaps they don't care, maybe the learning is enough.

But again, when it's a business, antiques can not only be about that. So the broad path is also a good hedge against changing buying habits. Today's mid-century modern will eventually become yesterday's Victorian hall tree. I want to be there, and in the running, when that next hot thing comes along.

The roundup - Some top sellers from the past week

The world is a mighty big place, and so much gets sold in even one week's time. Here are some highlights from the past week on eBay, where all manner of stuff gets sold, some of it for big dollars. These are by category, as they are listed on eBay.

Daguerreotypes:

1. OUTDOOR Mom & Boy w Book OUTSIDE - Tinted Daguerreotype - $710.05

2. POST MORTEM 1/4 PLATE DAGUERREOTYPE SEALED ID'D 1854 - $440.27

3. Antique Clean Crisp Mother Child Art Pose Daguerreotype - $377.77

Ambrotypes:

1. CIVIL WAR AMBROTYPE PHOTOGRAPH - SOLDIER w GUN & KNIFE - $525

2. ANTIQ. AMBROTYPE: Little Girl w doll, c. mid 1850s-60s? - $294.50

 3. 1860'S AMBROTYPE YOUNG GIRL UNUSUAL TASSLES IN HAIR EC - $224.50

 Tintypes:

1. Civil War Soldier Tin Type - $1282

2. 1/2 Plate Tintype Photo Of Lookout Mountain.Clear Image - $565

3. LARGE Tin Type of an American Icon - The COWBOY w/gun & - $385

Militaria:

1. General George Meade’s Gettysburg Victory Broadside - $22,000

2. USS INDIANAPOLIS FINE ART MODELS LIMITED EDITION 1:192 $4302

3. IMPERIAL RUSSIAN GENERAL'S SHASHKA SABRE ZLATOUST c1892 - $4000

Early Folk Art:

1. FANTASTIC 19th c AMERICAN FOLK ART PORTRAIT PAINTING - $3150.01

2. Antique Folk Art Theorem Basket Of Flowers Still Life - $2650

3. "BEST" Antique 19C. Folk Art Painting of Boy w/ Book - $1408.03

The roundup - Some top sellers from the past week

The world is a mighty big place, and so much gets sold in even one week's time. Here are some highlights from the past week on eBay, where all manner of stuff gets sold, some of it for big dollars. These are by category, as they are listed on eBay.

Daguerreotypes:

1. Civil War Daguerreotype Photo 7th Virginia Cavalry ID - $1993.56

2. 1/4 Daguerreotype 3 MEN, PUBLISHERS- M.A. ROOT PHILA. $805.50

3. GREAT HALF PLATE DAGUERREOTYPE OF THREE SIBLINGS - $675

Ambrotypes:

1. 6th pl. ambrotype EARLIEST KNOWN PHOTO of a TORNADO nr - $1026.01

2. Very Rare 1/2 Plate Gutta Purcha w/ Sisters Ambrotype - $1000

 3. Civil War 1/6 Plate Ruby Ambrotype Armed Soldier - $350

 Tintypes:

1. MEN & AUDIO INVENTION with HEADPHONES - RARE TINTYPE - $1338

2. Rare Large Tintype, Photographer’s Traveling Wagon? NR - $620

3. 1/6Pl Outdoor Tintype-Mounted With Tent!! NR - $450

Militaria:

1. RARE WW1 FRENCH DUNAND HELMET WITH VISOR - $14700

2. Original Polish Model 1934 Cavalry Sword Saber Ludwikow - $7100

3. ORIGINAL CIVIL WAR U.S.NATIONAL 34 STAR FLAG - $6200.99

Early Folk Art:

1. Antique Carved Walnut Folk Art Masonic Mason Mirror - $1975

2. Florida Art Highwaymen Painting -L.Roberts 23x46 Upson - $1800

3. Antique 19thC Folk Art Carved *Birch Bark* Pantry Box -$1556

Where do steampunks fit in?

 
Steampunk. What the heck is it? Here is a primer. Why should anyone care about it? Because it's a big deal among some folks, and the movement seems to be growing. Look, there are 12,795 eBay listings that include the keyword Steampunk. What's there? A ray gun  and old cloths. But look further. There are clock parts. Another futuristic gun. Mad scientist glasses. More ray guns. Jewelry made of watch parts. Ok.

So, science fiction, mechanical (analog, really) stuff, old-timey clothes such as big dresses and corsets. I read the Wikipedia article, as I hope you did, and figure this is a pretty odd set. Ray guns and watch parts? You couldn't make this stuff up. But this Steampunk stuff still seems to be a pretty big deal. There are 4.6 million google results for it.

But lots of Google and eBay hits shouldn't automatically make me care about something. I mean, like many folks, Google is at least partially responsible for a lot of what I know. But I also wonder about where these Steampunk people fit into collecting and dealing in antiques.

I still hear a lot of folks say "young people don't like this stuff, antiques are dead." Well, when did young people EVER like antiques (more on this in a future blog). I really doubt that during the 1960s  you could go to an auction and see a bunch of young people there. They were all out having fun being young (for some, like me, going to auctions IS fun, even at a young age), and would grow older and eventually turn into today's auction goers.

But these Steampunks are different. It's a typically young movement, in so far as the fashion, art and decorative movements are concerned. So that means young people truly are getting excited by the past. It's a complicated movement too. I think it takes the constant drumbeat of modern technology and alters it to fit this quaint time that was the Victorian Age (in retrospect). So it may be about a reaction to modern technology, and a not uncommon yearning for some filtered image of the past.

But it also opens the door for the exploration of the love of the past, and respect for it, and appreciation for its material tailings. And so I hope that it also continues to drive a market in old stuff. There just can't be too many young people with an attraction for the past and its artifacts.

Sure, there are things that annoy me about Steampunk. I'm kind of a purist, I don't overlay modern or futuristic science and technology atop earlier times. I just like to experience antiques for exactly their time period, with nothing wacky, a la Steampunk. Making a tintype, skeleton key and lamp pull chian into a necklace sort of torques me off. Tintypes weren't meant to be put on a necklace with a skeleton key, just hanging like that from a pull chain!!!!

But, I also appreciate the fact that Steampunk is not antique collecting per se, it is this strange amalgamation between fantasy, science and a love and nostalgia for the Victorian Age. In that time, like today, techonology was progressing quickly, and the world was changing fast. Cities were coming into being, farms towns were shrinking. But purist collecting it is not.

With that being said, it still keeps the flame of a love for history alive. And when that Steampunk-associated couple buys that previously unsellable, over-the-top, dark, elaborate piece of Victorian furniture for $650, I will be very happy. And they do. And that's why I have started paying attention to Steampunks.

PS: Check this out. I went looking, on Google of course, for Steampunk Victorian furniture. I came to this link and it took me forever to figure out what I was looking at.. Even Second Life has Steampunk. Yes, there are people creating this Victorian/Science Fiction fantasy world in the modern computer fantasy world of Second Life.

I'm going to bed. (it's late as I write this, I've had it)