Portrait of Winston Churchill

Do you have any evidence that Washington slept on that bed you want to sell? What about the satin bustier? Did it give more oomph to Mae West’s figure? More curves to Madonna’s? Did that painting really hang in Winston Churchill’s study?

If the answers are “yes,” then you’ve got great provenance.

Great what? In the worlds of art, antiques and collectibles, provenance is something that gives a lithograph, French sideboard or Barbie doll more pizzazz, more interest—more money.

It’s the history of the item. It’s the Hansel-and-Gretel trail of where it began and who owned it or used it along the way.

Establishing provenance for art, antiques and collectibles

What do you need to establish provenance? It’s pretty straightforward—sales receipts, gallery stickers, exhibition catalogs, catalogues raisonnés (for those who took Spanish in high school, that’s French for “carefully thought out,” in other words an annotated catalog), ownership records, newspaper/magazine articles about the work, articles/letters by art experts describing the work and even photographs of the artist or craftsman standing next to it. Audio or video of the artist discussing his or her creation or the testimony of someone close to the artist is also acceptable.

(If you’d like to learn more about an item pictured in this story, click on the image.)

Of course, record keeping through the generations—or even from last week for some of us—can be haphazard. In addition, there are many situations that are beyond control. Some are:

• No records survive for antique works

• Neglect in keeping records or preserving sales documentation when the works have been in the family for centuries

• Dealers and auction houses from previous centuries go out of business

• Wealthy collectors who take great pains to buy and sell anonymously

• Documentation loss due to natural disasters such as earthquake, fire, flooding

• Lack of protection from weather decay or pests

• Losing documents when moving

• Undiscovered or inaccessible archives

In the absence of valid documentation, establishing provenance can be tricky. Especially as the art-market boom has led to a proliferation of forgeries and con men like John Drewe, whose phony art and documentation fooled everyone for decades.

Forged P. Pollaiuolo (1441-1496)

Looted or stolen works, from a wartime era or illegally exported, are a major concern. Be especially wary when buying art and antiques that were in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s. With all the complexities of restituting the more than 250,000 Nazi-looted artworks to their former owners or their descendants, a checkered provenance might very well land you in the legal soup.

Henri Le Sidaner’s "Les Arbres Fleuris" (1933)

So it’s important to consult a reputable expert—someone with in-depth knowledge about that particular art/artist, several scholarly articles/publications to his/her name and well-respected credentials in the art, antiques and collectibles worlds.

Expert appraisal and authentication can, on occasion, lead to a startling revelation, as happened in the case of Tammy H. of Colorado. Thom Pattie, the chief Worthologist here at WorthPoint, recognized her  painting as “Coin De Paris, Rue de Meaux,” a work by the 20th-century Japanese artist, Takanori Oguiss. The painting later garnered $103,000 at Sotheby’s. Tammy tells her story in a WorthPoint video.

Tips for establishing provenance

Get certificates of authentication, warranties and guarantees from the seller.

Provenance documents must mention the work in question and must be original.

Check and cross-check previous owners, galleries and auction houses.

Find out what has gone for what at WorthPoint’s Worthopedia, http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia a vast database that contains prices, photos and descriptions of millions of antiques and collectibles. Also take a look at GoAntique’s PriceMiner, which has only a $9.95 monthly subscription fee.

A valuable source for finding out if works were lost or stolen is the London-based Art Loss Register and the International Foundation for Art Research.

Visit

The World Wide Web has opened the door for easier provenance research. No more having to trek to the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles or Harvard’s hallowed halls in Cambridge. Some clicks, and a wealth of information is available to you.

The Getty Provenance Index has more than 1 million records going back to the end of the 16th century.

The National Gallery of Art Provenance search allows you to search for information by artist, title and subject. It also provides provenance-search tips.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s site deals with Met-owned works, but can give you a better understanding of what establishing provenance is all about.

Chinese Art –Research into Provenance says its mission is to document “records relating to dealers and collectors who specialized in Chinese art during the first half of the twentieth century.”

Protect your investment in art, antiques and collectibles by spending some time researching provenance. You’ll be glad you did. And be sure to follow Jim Sturgill’s advice on inventorying your collection. You’ll be glad you did that, too.

WorthPoint—Discover Your Hidden Wealth

Join WorthPoint on Twitter and Facebook.

Books are a repository of knowledge, a key to a whole world of shared human experience, research and imagination. And apart from what’s inside them, books come with their own portion of interesting history—who wrote them and under what circumstances, who illustrated them and in what way, who published them and how and when, who bought them, and what impact they made, if any, on the readers, how they survived censorships and bans and the effects of time, and much more.

Books have the power to mold and influence human beings, and to hold—and own—something that was instrumental in altering the course of history or culture is part of the thrill of book collecting.

(Photo courtesy of GoAntiques)

Collected throughout the ages, surviving book collections of great men offer us a glimpse into their ideas, interests, motivations and inspirations. Many early collections, however, began for more practical and social reasons than personal ones—to encourage printers, to promote research scholarship, to save books from destruction, to have a fashionable library or to aspire to intellectual pretensions.

Collecting books as an investment is a modern phenomenon and a rather dicey, long-term issue. There are no guarantees, so proceed with caution.

Value of antique books

As age doesn’t automatically translate to wisdom, so it is with old books. All are not valuable. A great many, actually, are destined for the recycling bin. Very few want to read, let alone collect, poetry by unsung poets, technical manuals, out-of-date encyclopedias, etc.

Others like old Bibles, printed in millions, have more sentimental family value than any financial one—unless it’s an earliest edition from the 16th and 17th century, a large, gilt and ornate display-quality Bible, one profusely illustrated by a famous illustrator like Gustave Doré or one owned by a famous personality.

(Photo courtesy of GoAntiques)

Value always depends first and foremost on the demand for a given book—based on popularity of author, title and subject—and the number of copies available for purchase. If there are few copies in existence or in circulation, then it is a rare book and, if highly sought, a valuable one, as well. And then there are other considerations such as—

• Condition of a given copy
• Intact dust jacket
• Printing history
• Quality of paper and binding
• Any controversy surrounding it

What to collect

Collect what you like. You can specialize in specific genres or subgenres, or collect according to author, illustrator, publisher or printer. Or go for—

• First editions
• First issues
• First states
• Earliest imprints
• Advance review copies or galley proofs
• Award-winning books
• Landmark books such as Charles Darwin’s “The Origin of Species” or Newton’s “Principia Mathematica.”
• Art books
• Illustrated books, comic books or graphic novels
• Miniature books
• Series

1924 “Tom Swift and His Great Oil Gusher” (left), 1943 “Cherry Ames Student Nurse” (Photos courtesy of GoAntiques)

Some people collect by cover- or dust-jacket art, binding or book design, or according to paper, parchment or vellum.

Where to buy antique books

• Contact a reputable antiquarian dealer, preferably someone affiliated with the ABA (Antiquarian Booksellers Association) or the ILAB (International League of Antiquarian Booksellers).

• Visit online sites such as GoAntiques (WorthPoint’s sister site), Abebooks, Alibris, Amazon, Bookfinder.com and Bibliofind.
• Visit antique bookshops.
• Attend auctions and charity fundraisers.
• Attend estate, garage, rummage and yard sales.

How to buy antique books

Refer to antiquarian references, bibliographies, book catalogs and annual compilations of auctions.

Collect books in fine or very good condition. Don’t buy worn books unless very rare or scarce, and forget entirely about books with missing pages. Also avoid incomplete series.

Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea” with an inscription by the author (Photos courtesy of GoAntiques)

When buying online, read book-description and book-condition details carefully. Ask the seller for the details if not listed. Inquire about the state of the dust jacket, cover and title lettering, book hinges and endpapers, binding, any written inscriptions by previous owners and any foxing, dust marks or stains on the pages. Be sure to read the selling policy—there should be a money-back guarantee in case you’re not happy with your purchase.

What to keep in mind

• All first editions are not prized—successive editions with corrected errors, significant changes or more information may be more valuable.
• Get familiar with grading terms and terms like edition, printing, first edition, issue, state, variants, first books.
• Ex-libris means it comes from a private collection or from a lending library.
• Things like shelf numbers, date stamps, cardholders reduce value.
• BCE (book club editions) have little value.

WorthPoint—Get the Most from Your Antiques & Collectibles

The famous Venini glassworks was established in 1921 by Paolo Venini on the island of Murano near Venice. A large glass industry already had existed there for centuries, transforming quartz silica and other common materials into three-dimensional art as well as everyday items. But Murano glass had become predictable and commercial.

Venini wasn’t a craftsman; he didn’t blow glass, but he revolutized the way glass was created, marketed and sold.

Venini extended Modernist trends beyond architecture and painting into glass art with dazzling designs that have been the subject of several museum exhibitions and Venini glass still seems fresh today.

His studio’s designs from the 1930s-1950s are especially collectible. While you can find bowls and other simple pieces for $2,000, a tall 1950s-era vase will be valued as high as $17,500. Rare vintage pieces attributed to specific Venini designers now approach $100,000.

Venini visited Venice as a soldier during World War I and the city made a deep impression on the young man drawing him back after the war. His forbearers had been glass-makers, but Paolo Venini was trained as an attorney. He invested in an existing glassworks with antique glass dealer Giacomo Cappellin, but by 1925 the partnership had dissolved and Venini was pursuing a strikingly independent course.

He adopted the French fashion industry’s approach of using designers to create individual styles and lines of glass. Most had never worked in glass, but were painters, architects and other artists who brought fresh ideas to the island. He liberally encouraged them to experiment with new design concepts and new glassmaking techniques. At the same time, Venini insisted that his designers collaborate closely with Murano’s expert glassblowers and other artisans.

He also reached out to a wider audience and new markets and he regularly entered his glassware in major exhibitions throughout Europe.

Distinctive Venini lines are associated with particular designers and art directors including Napoleone Martinuzzi, Carlo Scarpa and Fulvio Bianconi and serious collectors pursue their work.

Napoleone Martinuzzi

Originally a sculptor, he was the art director from 1925 to 1931. Martinuzzi’s designs are notable for their intense colors and originality – glassworks like Vetro pulegoso (bubble glass rendered opaque by millions of bubbles), Pasta vitrea (glass paste), and Incamiciato (double layered colored glass).

Carlo Scarpa

His daring designs became a Venini trademark. He left the glassworks shortly after World War II and became one of the 20th century’s notable architects. He developed glass manufacturing techniques such as “a murrine” that employed small glass patches and designs with ribboned, corroded and milky surfaces. His son developed one of Venini’s signature geometic lines, “Occhi” (eyes), which feature blobby circles within rectangles.

Fulvio Bianconi

Bianconni was an illustrator who renewed the company’s postwar fortunes. His most creative period was in the 1950s when he produced some flamboyant designs, such as the famous “Pezzato” (patches) and “Fazzoletto” (handkerchief) vases.

All true Venini pieces are etched with identifying stamps. These have changed from decade to decade, but they are widely cataloged and make the works easily identifiable. They include the Venini name, the designer’s name, ID numbers and other marks.

Venini managed the enterprise with great verve until his death in 1959. In the 1980s the Venini family sold the glassworks and now it is owned by Royal Scandinavia. Many original designs have been reissued, but if you can afford it, go for the vintage pieces.

Their limited availability only increases their value. And, the older ones were made in charcoal furnaces. Many collectors believe they have a special beauty that pieces fired in modern gas kilns cannot match.

To begin collecting, educate yourself on all aspects of Venini glass.

The Internet is a good place to start. Visit the Venini site for a list of museums with Venini glass.

Click here for the Venini site.

Look for the glass displays at major museums including the Corning Museum of Glass, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Follow the glass sales at major auction houses.

Read books by glass experts; such as “Italian Glass: Murano-Milan, 1930-1970″ by the Kunstmuseum director Helmut Ricke and the glass scholar Eva Schmitt.

Always buy from a reputable dealer or gallery and be sure that you have a certificate of authenticity with the production date for your purchase.

Think of yourself as an athlete getting ready for the Olympics. You must train, strategize and move quickly. With more bidders than good collectibles in the world and with most bidders being pretty canny and well informed these days, you can count on a real contest.

And just as athletes often psych out their opponents, so should you be ready to do some head trips on the other bidders if you’re going to take home the “gold”—that prized collectible you desire. So prepare yourself.

Collectors take your mark—auction tips

Research the works you want to buy. Get acquainted with their provenance. Fix your budget in advance so you don’t get caught up in bidding mania. And decide whether you’re going to bid in person, by phone (register a day before), by absentee bid (register a day before) or online with real-time video and audio (register two days before).

Bidding by phone or online is popular both for the convenience and the anonymity it offers. If you are a bidder that is known for the quality antiques and collectibles you purchase, others might latch onto the item you’re aiming for and push the price far higher.

If attending in person, sit where you can clearly hear what the auctioneer is saying and get him/her to notice your upraised paddle. Misunderstandings are all too common in the fast-paced auction atmosphere.

Keep a cool head. Even if the conversation around you is full of interesting tidbits about the items for sale, don’t be swayed from your predetermined plan or volunteer too much information. It’s every man for himself at an auction, and people aren’t above taking advantage if you show a chink.

Win those collectibles

Alas, there are no surefire bidding strategies. You discover what works for you as you go along. You can—

• Bid from the very beginning and keep bidding until you win. Do this often with the cheaper items and other bidders, seeing your persistence, may just let you coast through when the pricey collectibles you really want come along. Then again, if they have the same idea, the same determination and more money, you’d just end up with a lot of unnecessary memorabilia.

• Wait until the auction is underway before making your bid. This gives you the opportunity to appraise the direction the auction could take.

• Wait until the bidding has slowed down to make your bid. Some collectors like to jump in just before the final hammer. Aside from the dramatic value, it can throw competitors. They may not be prepared to bid higher.

• Bid in small incremental raises. This is playing it safe and smart.

• Or, bid in large incremental raises. If done often, this can have an intimidating effect on other bidders. For example, if you top a $500 bid with $200 and continue at that rate, people will get wary about bidding against you, and you may win—and, if you’re lucky, at way below the estimated sales value.

Consignment auctions: Major auction houses acquire consignments from dealers, private owners, estates, institutions and companies. The auction categories may feature certain genres and price ranges. An item typically carries a reserve price, which is the minimum at which each sells or else be withdrawn. The auction house may host the sale on its premises or at a convenient location. You must register to bid.

Charity auctions and cruise-ship auctions: Charity auctions are organized to raise money for some good cause. Featured works may not always be of the highest order; it’s more about the social scene. But take a close look at the wares—these events often seem to be about getting rid of works the patrons have no use for or perhaps they are hoping for a tax break. Some liner companies, such as Princess, organize auctions as cruise events. With Internet available on most ships now, it’s possible to research the works in advance of the auction. Before you buy on board, you might want to read a cautionary article in The New York Times.

Estate auctions: These involve selling off everything in an estate, property or business, either because the owners want to clear out the place or settle bills. The auction takes place on the property itself or at an auction house. Most items do not have a reserve price, and you may be able to find art at very low prices.

Online auctions: Art, collectibles and antiques are placed for sale online. You can buy and sell directly on WorthPoint in the WorthPoint classifieds. To post items for sale become a WorthPoint subscriber. Also check out the online auctions with WorthPoint’s auction house partners including igavel.com and proxibid.com. For a list of auction partners, visit WorthPoint’s home page.

Ever since the Battle of Plassey in 1757, when Robert Clive of the East India Company defeated Siraj-ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, and gained control of the country’s major resources, there’s been plenty plundering of India’s treasures.

The advantages from the Plassey turning point landed the Company nearly £2.5 million and Robert Clive a tidy sum of nearly £300,000. And this was just the start.

Looting a conquered nation wasn’t a new trend – nor has it gone out of fashion as we saw with the looting of the Baghdad Museum in recent times – but the exceptional thing with India was that the British stuck around to do it for nearly 300 years.

And the fruits of that loot crop up now in prestigious Western auction houses and often go for millions of dollars. To give an example, Robert Clive’s descendants reaped a fortune from his gains a few years back. Christie’s auctioned off “a jewelled Mughal flask, made in jade and studded with bands of emeralds and ruby flowers set in gold, which was once part of the royal collection at the Imperial Court in Delhi, and is now valued at over £1m” and also a hookah encrusted with sapphires which is expected to fetch £50,000 to £80,000, a decorated dagger which should sell for £35,000 to £50,000, a jade bowl and a flywhisk”.

To understand our feelings about this sale here in India, consider how you would feel if someone stripped your house, sold your precious things at a public auction and gleefully recounted the very high price they got. What would you do? Applaud their windfall?

Or if we had defaced the Buckingham Palace or the White House, would you come visit and make polite noises about how neatly we had gouged away the embellishments?

The Sikh armour is priced at £10,000-£12,000, but, with Sotheby’s helpfully mentioning a possible connection to Guru Gobind Singh, it could go for a significantly higher figure.

Sotheby’s haven’t revealed how the armour plate reached the UK. If it was illegally taken from India and this can be proved, we would really like to have it back.

There is a trend currently of returning Nazi-looted artwork. By that same logic, why can’t we have the British-looted Indian artifacts back too?

Every time I bring this up, I get condescending arguments-

• The artifacts belong to the world and civilization is not a civilization unless shared with others.
• The artifacts were taken in order to preserve them for posterity.
• The artifacts are safer and better preserved in foreign hands.
• History shouldn’t be rewinded.
• Museums are enhanced by cultural variety.

I’m sorry, they don’t work; except to show up double standards.

Still, on the other hand, since I’m more a factual than nationalistic person, I must state that -

The British rule did have its positive moments and they did desist from outright looting now and again. All was not got by legitimate conquest; some was actually legitimately purchased or received as a gift.

And the question is can it be proved at this point what was stolen and what was bought/received in gift in a Court of Law?

Sotheby’s catalogue mentions –

“This side plate is virtually identical to a single plate in a complete set of charaina (back, front and two side plates) in the collection of the royal house of Patiala in Punjab….. The existence of this plate from another charaina set points to the possibility that the Guru commissioned more than one such set.”

What struck me first was that the armor is being offered in Sotheby’s ‘Arts of the Islamic World’ sale – how did a Sikh artifact get included in the Islamic category? – Sikhism is after all far removed from Islam.

Next issue was religion. It’s rather crucial here in India – over-done crucial even – and I didn’t expect the Sikh community to react positively to the sale. They had been displeased in April 2007 when Bonham’s auctioned the bust of Maharaja Duleep Singh – and this was an even more sensitive matter – to have a relic belonging to their revered Guru up for auction was going to be nothing short of deeply and profoundly offensive.

A quick look around the net, as well as in the national newspapers, showed they were roiled up alright. There was an on-going online petition to halt the sale, there were heated comments on online forums, there were calls to pool money to bid on the armour, there were protest agitations in several Indian cities and Sikh religious leaders wrote to religious and political leaders in India and Britain to intervene and stop the Sotheby’s auction.

At this point Sotheby’s backtracked on their statement about the possibility of the Guru having commissioned more than one set.

Sotheby’s spokesman Simon Warren said, “It is important that you know that Sotheby’s does not consider the Sikh armour plate to be a relic of Guru Gobind Singh, as our cataloguing and estimate clearly indicate. I can also tell you we believe that complaints about the proposed offering are based on a misreading of Sotheby’s cataloguing, which points to a stylistic similarity to a full set of armour in the possession of the Patiala royal family which the family attributes to Guru Gobind Singh.”

He didn’t say how they know for sure it didn’t belong to the Guru. Guru Gobind Singh engaged in many wars with the Mughals and the Sivalik Hill Kings, and he may very well have commissioned several armours. Sotheby’s must make clear how exactly they came by the armour, or at least allow an independent verification.

It isn’t enough saying that they have “undertaken due diligence to verify the provenance of this piece, believed to date to the 18th Century” and that not having “found or been given any evidence to indicate ownership of this piece by Guru Gobind Singh … we therefore do not deem the piece to be a relic of the Guru.”

If it had belonged to the Guru, their spokesman informed news reporters, we would be offering it for a much higher sum than just 10,000 pounds – more like 150,000 or 300,000, apparently.

The Sikhs are unimpressed. Their religious relics, they say, are priceless and cannot be bartered in auction houses. They ask what the reactions would be amongst the Christians if, say, Sotheby’s decided to auction off the Shroud of Turin next – never mind that it is probably not an original either – or the Holy Grail, if they got their hands on that somehow.

In that case, my guess is, we could look forward to a new Crusade. Westward Ho!

Children in the Victorian Age:
Much like in the present age, the kind of childhood you had in Victorian times depended on the kind of family you had and its social and financial standing.

Children of rich and aristocratic parents invariably had it good, with spacious, well-furnished bedrooms and play areas, plenty of toys and food, and governesses, tutors, nursery maids, riding masters and other servants in attendance. Boys usually later went to a boarding school, where they got the softness beaten out of them and became tough enough to shoulder the responsibilities of ‘the Empire’. Girls mostly studied at home and learnt home-making skills. Both attended dance parties and other social gatherings, and often traveled to popular tourist resorts around the UK or abroad with their families.

Middle-class children attended day schools and, although less privileged than the rich children, led reasonably comfortable lives.

Things could be comparatively tough for the children of the poor and many had to work for a living from a very young age, but life was not as bleak as is often made out. Kenneth Douglas Brown, in his book ‘The British Toy Business: A History Since 1700’, states that “Only 2 per cent of boys and even fewer girls between the ages of five and nine were at work by 1851. For those between ten and fourteen, the percentages of those classified as being gainfully employed were 36.6 for boys and 19.9 for girls. In other words, the overwhelming majority of children up to the age of 14 did have the time to enjoy toys.”

Toys in the Victorian Age:
Toys usually reflect the culture in which they were manufactured and Victorian toys are no exception. They were for most part meant to ‘edify’ rather than just ‘entertain’ and show the prevailing attitudes which keeled towards well-demarcated roles for girls and boys. Girls, expected to stay home and take care of the family, were nudged towards domesticity with an array of beautiful porcelain and wax dolls in silk and lace dresses, cozy and incredibly detailed doll houses and miniature china tea sets. Boys, expected to go out and take charge in a difficult, turbulent world, had sets of tin soldiers, toy guns, bows and arrows, tool sets, marbles, tops, yo-yos, kites, model cars, model trains, cricket bats, fishing tackle and other such sporting paraphernalia. Both girls and boys played with mechanical banks, rocking horses, musical instruments, blocks, chess and checkers.

Of course, only the rich and, to a growing extent, the middle-class children had such toys. Children from poor families had to be content with cheap or home-made toys fashioned from wood, cloth pegs, rags and other materials – unless they had rich neighbors who liked to donate their old, expensive toys at Christmas time.

Recommended Reading –
The British Toy Business: A History since 1700
by Kenneth D. Brown
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1852851368