Be sure to see the video on how to fill out the submission form which needs to be inserted into the package.

WorthPoint – Discover Your Hidden Wealth

WorthPoint – Discover Your Hidden Wealth

This past weekend, I was representing WorthPoint at the live Bob Hope auction in Beverly Hills, Calif., working with Auction Network and Julien’s Auctions. There were more than 700 lots that included political/presidential letters and photographs, memorabilia from Hope’s 70-plus years in the entertainment world and personal items that had the added cachet of being worn by Hope.

One of the surprises? The highest seller of the show, Lot 343, a signed and dedicated photograph of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor taken in 1972 by the well-known photographer, Yousuf Karsh. There was a bidding war on this item, and the hammer went down at $22,000.

Next, and this seemed to be a surprise to Auction Network’s hosts Tava Smiley and Leila Dunbar, was the Gucci suitcase, Lot 44, that went in with an estimate of $200-$300. My prediction was that that estimate would be blown out of the water because this piece was well used and a personal item. Brand-name luggage of this caliber always sells well. The hammer went down at $6,000.

Once again, personal items, a collection of cuff links, Lot 160, was one of my picks of the show. The collection went for $5,250. And it was anyone’s guess as to what the sterling-silver putter made by Tiffany’s would sell for, knowing that it was unique and collectible because of the Tiffany and Hope factor. We were not surprised when it sold for $9,500.

And, yes there were some other surprises. Lot 235, in the sports-memorabilia portion of the sale, a baseball signed by Hope, Johnny Bench, Gloria Loring, Lola Falana, Bobbi Martin, Jennifer Hosten and others from the 1970 USO Christmas tour went for $2,400, where most of the signed baseballs were going in the hundreds. I think Lola bought it.

Lot 423, the Johnny Carson Friars Club Roast program, had an estimate of $500-$700. It sold well at $8,500 in part because of the photo and because it contained autographs by George Burns, Buddy Hackett, Jimmy Stewart and Carroll O’Connor.

Reuters reported that the auction raised $601,000.

Overall, it was a great experience.

Upcoming auctions

Ivey-Selkirk of St. Louis, one of WorthPoint’s more than 400 partner auction companies, is having its Twentieth Century Design Sale November 15-16.

There are more than 800 lots of 20th-century modern that includes glass, pottery, porcelain, furniture, paintings, sculpture from and done by some the leading names in the 20th-century world of design and art. Truly, a comprehensive sale. Let’s take a look at some of my picks.

Lot 8 Handel lamp. Handel lamps are an excellent investment. They have never lost their appeal and foothold in the collectibles market. This one is a reverse-painted glass shade with sunset over a landscape and marsh scene, on a bronzed metal base. Signed and with four labels, the lamp’s overall size is 26-½-inches high and going in with an estimate of $4,000-$6,000.

In the pottery collection, it was tough to pick one, but Lot 15, a scenic vase by Edward Diers for Rookwood signed and dated 1921, may be a sleeper of the show.

Furniture is across the board excellent. Some the best-known names in the design business are represented here. Now is your chance to bid on Lot 34 an original L and JG Stickley oak sideboard with plate rail, series mark 738, with two drawers flanked by a pair of cupboards, circa 1902-26. The estimate is $4,000-$6,000 and will exceed that estimate. Lot 44 is a unique Tiffany Studio five-light gilt-bronze and iridescent-glass candelabrum, signed and impressed 7543 underfoot. The estimate is $8,500-$9,500.

This next one is a sleeper, and I think it may be overlooked because of its low estimate. Lot 74, a Steuben, Aurene, Calcite and gold iridescent glass bowl done in the Ming style, it’s estimated at $600-$800. Frankly, it is perfection in both its design and finish.

In the decorative line, Lot 187 is a Line Vautrin-designed, soleil-a -pointes convexed Talosel mirror similar to one that sold at the Christie’s December ’06 sale. It is going to the block at $6,000-$8,000. This design unique to Vautrin has always sold well.

Dale Patrick Chihuly, world famous as both a personality and glass-design genius, has one item in this modernist sale—Lot 233 from the Persian series, a two-piece vermilion-red to orange with black lip glass sculpture. Signed and numbered, its estimate is $4,000-$5,000. Not one of his more structural or over-the-top pieces but nevertheless a great investment piece.

In the painting collection is American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. This screen print is making its premiere in the auction world and is from his personal collection. Titled “Head,” Lot 375, this screen print is rendered in bold color and is an excellent piece for the seasoned Basquiat collector at $15,000-$18,000.

No modernist sale would be complete without Alexander Calder or Robert Motherwell. Lots 381 and 526 respectively are both signed and dated lithographs making them excellent investments.

Wrapping up the collection is one of the most sought-after artists of fashion art, Erté. Look at Lots 726-728, especially Lot 726. No one “commercial” artist captured the ethereal nature of the draped physical form as he did.

– By Christopher Kent, a member of the WorthPoint board of advisers and director of evaluations for WorthPoint. He is also an antiques and collectibles generalist, fine-arts broker and president of CTK Design.

WorthPoint—Get the Most from Your Antiques & Collectibles

Problems viewing videos?

voxant.com

Dale Chihuly has singularly defined the medium of fine art glass. His blown glass is marked by intense, vibrant color and flowing lines. Sandy Sardella, of Pismo Fine Art Glass, shows some of the beautiful and diverse Chihuly pieces in her Denver gallery.

WorthPoint – Discover Your Hidden Wealth

Not too many years ago the automobile was considered the work of madmen, determined to corrupt the morals of our society, not to mention upset the enterprise of the blacksmith, the horse breeder and the harness maker. (They weren’t far from the truth.) It is difficult for the current generation to understand how the automobile caught the world’s imagination.

The artist with his canvas was best to capture the new found exciting event. No one artist was able to capture the excitement better then Ernest Montaut of Paris, France. Ernest Montaut, artist and lithographer, was the first to mass produce automobile art. Not only were his lithographs sold in Europe, but Motor Magazine of the United States used some of his images, in printed form, as inserts in some of their early issues.

Pictured is a 1908 lithograph showing an early race car with a blue bird on the righthand corner of the lithograph. These, like so many early lithographs, fade quickly if not properly displayed, always away from direct sun light.

The value depends upon the condition, but his lithographs sell for around $250-$350.

Hirst gambles, wins big payoff so far

The results of the first day of Sotheby London’s two-day auction of 223 Damien Hirst works is in. Despite the world’s markets reeling as America’s fourth-largest investment bank, Lehman Brothers, filed for bankruptcy, Monday’s take exceeded expectations.

Hirst, in a move as audacious as his art, said adios to his dealers—London’s White Cube and the Gagosian Gallery of New York and Beverly Hills—and went straight to auction. According to the Independent of London, “it is the first time an artist of Hirst’s stature has bypassed his usual dealer and gallery and sold his works directly to the public.”

So how did it go? Fifty-four works went for $127 million, topping the estimate of $112 million.

And what was sold? Some animals preserved in formaldehyde, such as the bull embellished with gold-cast hooves and horns that gaveled in at $18.6 million, The New York Times reports, and a tiger shark that brought in $17.2 million.

With the world economy looking more than a little shaky, why are buyers coughing up this amount of money for Damien Hirst? Sotheby’s head of contemporary art worldwide feels it’s because he is “a global artist that can defy local economies.”

For those who wonder why anyone would want to own a strange, to say the least, Hirst creation, take heart. His “Devil Worshiper,” a canvas covered with dead flies, found no buyer.

So, what’s in your storage room?

In the case of the Solihull Council—Solihull being a little bit south of Birmingham, England— we’re talking about a John Constable sketch, reports the Daily Telegraph of London.

Picture this. We have the council drowning in millions of dollars (okay, pounds) of debt finding a very pricey, maybe even priceless, Constable sketch of Malvern Hall, a grand English estate. The Tate museum has the oil based on the drawing.

Under the dire-economic circumstances, the council officials decided to auction it. And the auction house, Bonhams London, was more than happy to oblige. “It’s very exciting this has come up,” Bonhams’ Alexandra Ault told the Daily Telegraph. “There are a number of very serious Constable collectors both here and abroad, and we are expecting the piece to attract a lot of attention.”

Takin’ it to the Net

Local thrift stores get all manner of collectibles among their donations. PhillyBurbs.com checked out Care & Share Shoppes in Souderton, Pa. It was given a nice little toy car. The asking price, if sold in the store, would have been maybe three or four dollars.

But instead of putting the car up on one of its shelves, Care & Share, went online where the toy sold for $2,025. The money goes to help the Mennonite Central Committee, which provides disaster relief to communities hit hard by wars and Mother Nature.

Adele Meyer of the National Association of Resale & Thrift Shops says that a store will “get something they don’t have the right customer for, but they’ll sell” online.

Goodwill Industries has sold more than $50-million worth of items since starting up its shopgoodwill.com in 1999. An American Impressionist Frank Weston Benson watercolor brought in $165,000.

If you’re looking for collectibles, antiques and art, you might want to stroll the aisles of online thrift stores.

Art and collectibles as collateral

The skidding economy and the booming art and collectibles world are colliding in ways that can only perplex collectors.

On one hand, high art prices have been a shining beacon in otherwise gloomy portfolios in 2008. The New York Sun reports that wealthy collectors are borrowing against their collections—especially the art hanging on their walls.

Banks and auction houses told the Sun that some clients are using art to finance more art purchases. But others are using the recent spike in fine art and collectibles prices to serve as collateral for loans to purchase undervalued stocks and depressed real estate. Typically banks are offering up to 50% of the value of a painting, important jewelry or other works.

Often, a collector who borrows against his art can keep it on his wall. But banks are taking possession of the collateral when it is jewelry or other collectibles that are highly portable or easily divided.

But in Britain, prices realized at art auctions are stalling after a booming spring.

Summer auctions at Sotheby’s and other houses for Victorian and 20th-century art fell below expectations, with half of the lots failing to sell. High pre-sale estimates are discouraging skittish collectors, dealers told Bloomberg News, and the biggest British collectors like composer Andrew Lloyd Webber have been quiet.

Yves Saint Laurent art valued at nearly $600 million

According to The First Post, a British online magazine, Christie’s has won the battle to sell the renowned art collection of the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. Valued at nearly $600 million, it will be the biggest art sale in history, including works by Picasso, Mondrian, Warhol, Matisse and Goya, as well as ancient and Renaissance statues. Many of the catwalk creations by the French fashion icon, who died in June, were inspired by his collection. It will be held in Paris’s Grand Palais.

Superb U.S. coin to be auctioned

Stack’s Rare Coins is selling one of the rarest and best American coins—the Norweb 1797 MS-66 half dollar coin—at its Baltimore auction on July 28. The draped-bust, small-eagle half-dollar was designed by the Philadelphia Mint’s early engraver Robert Scot. It was reported that 3,918 were struck for the combined 1796 and 1797 mintage with fewer than 100 surviving and only a few in mint state. It previously was in the collection of Emery May Holden Norweb. When her heirs sold the coin in 1988, it fetched $220,000. CoinLink provides detailed background on the collection.

Hair Today, On eBay Tomorrow

A paparazzo hit collectibles gold when Kate Moss dropped her blonde hair extension in Berlin fleeing from prying cameras. An item on Yahoo! News reported that photographer John Farr picked it up and posted it on German eBay to benefit the anti-drug charity, Keine Macht den Drogen (No Power to Drugs). Considering the supermodel’s documented problems with addictions, not a bad choice by Farr. According to Monsters and Critics someone actually paid £637 (that’s more than $1,200) for the item. As experienced eBay watchers know, high sale prices on similar celebrity items have, on more than one occasion, turned out to be bogus bids.

Endowment or the Art

If the students and alumnae of Randolph College in Lynchburg, Va., had their way, Rufino Tamayo’s painting, “Trovador,” would not have gone to auction. But it did, and the Latin work of art set a striking new record for Latin American art. According to The New York Times, Tamayo’s masterpiece was set to hit the auction block in November but was withdrawn after a group of students, donors and alumnae got an injunction forcing a halt of the sale. The painting was put back in Christie’s catalog for its Latin American Evening Sale May 28. As reported by ArtDaily, “Trovador” sold for $7,209,000, surpassing the previous record set by Frida Kahlo’s “Roots,” which went for $5,616,000 in May 2006. The Christie’s sale also set the highest total for an auction of Latin American art: $26,632,850.

Gold Rush Gold Coin

A $20 gold piece known as the Kellogg Twenty goes on public exhibit after 28 years. The blog CoinLink reports that the 154-year-old coin is the only one of its kind with a “specimen strike” and, adding to its value, carries the provenance of historic California Gold Rush figures. The coin was manufactured by John Glover Kellogg, who gave it to a friend, August Humbert. Both men worked in the San Francisco U.S. Assay Office during the Gold Rush. The coin will be a highlight of the American Numismatic Association’s World Fair of Money in Baltimore running from July 30 to August 1.

Phenomenal Dolls

American Girl Doll collectibles have been a phenomenon for some time, but AG fever is expected to hit a new high with the successful release of “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl.” A New York Times article explores the culture of collecting American Girl Dolls and its ramifications on young collectors.

Lessons from a Sports Memorabilia Tragedy

A Wall Street Journal article offers advice to collectors in the event that their beloved sports collectibles are lost or stolen. A lost piece of memorabilia can’t be replaced but it can be insured. This awareness would have softened the blow to Negro League star Art Pennington. According the blog, Sports Collectors Daily, the 85-year-old is reeling after Iowa floods saturated his homegrown baseball museum and destroyed almost all physical evidence of his life’s work. For more details on Pennington, check out this CNN report.

Daryle Lambert’s 31 Club Blog

Did you ever spot a painting but kept on walking because you couldn’t find out who the artist was?

Sunday, at the Chicago Antique, I purchased a small oil painting in a wonderful gilded leaf frame for $120. Cindy asked if I knew the artist, and I told her I didn’t. She asked me why I bought it. Cindy isn’t afraid to ask questions because she wants to learn. I told her I bought it because it’s signed, so if I can figure out who the artist is, I might have found a treasure. Now, I didn’t buy just any signed painting. It was very well done, and it also had a wonderful gilded leaf frame that was worth more than I paid for the painting.

I also purchased a very nice signed watercolor that was also very well done. I couldn’t pass it up for $30. I researched the name on the Internet and have e-mailed the artist to verify that it is her work. If the e-mail comes back positive, it could make my month.

Did I start out looking for a $30 painting? Not at all. Truthfully, I had more like $5,000 on my mind, but this $30 painting could bring a couple thousand. That ain’t so bad, as this country boy would say.

Go to our Fine Art Gallery and look at the Paris Street Scene painting by Jean Faurege. It just sold for $5,000 because it has the quality of an Edouard Leon Cortes or an Antoine Blanchard. No, you won’t find Faurege in Davenport’s or on AskArt.com, but his work is outstanding. True collectors can appreciate it for what it is.

By the way, you did hear me correctly. This painting sold right here on our Marketplace for $5,000. This could have been your painting.

A 31 Club Member called yesterday to ask me about several paintings they spotted, of which only one had any interest. It was what she called a “couch painting.” But, after hearing her describe it, I knew that it should be purchased at about $50, and that had been the price that was in her mind to offer. At $50, she couldn’t go wrong. I’m hoping she acquired it because it might turn out to be a real find.

When you see a painting, you must judge the quality of the piece before you pass it by. No, you can’t pay $5,000 for an unidentified painting, but what about $100 or even $200. This may well be the best buy you make for a while.

The secret is to be able to examine an item and make a quick decision on what to do next. Time can quickly pass by and indecision will cost you money. Even an occasional mistake can be quickly overcome by correct decisions made quickly before someone else beats you out.

I have seen people pay hundreds of dollars for a potato that looks like some special person, knowing full well that the potato will shrivel up and rot after a short period of time. This makes me feel confident in buying items that I think are well worth the money, because I know they won’t shrivel away.

Thursday, I’ll be leaving for the Smokies for ten days, but I’ll have a cell phone and computer if you need me, and also Cindy will be there to serve your emails and calls.

Put a Turbo Charge on your Antique & Collectible Treasure Hunting Skills. Join Daryle Lambert’s 31 Club.

Get FREE MENTORING. Learn Inside the Industry Secrets that help you increase your profits. Then Learn to Grow Your Money Exponentially Buying and Selling only Antiques, Fine Art, and Collectibles with Daryle’s Strategic Business Plan. Our Members are Newbies to Seasoned Dealers, making more money than they thought possible. Join Daryle Lambert’s 31 Club, today.

My 220 page book, 31 Steps to Your Millions in Antiques & Collectibles is FREE with your membership. Join Today!

Check out the new Paintings and new items in our Gallery and Marketplace at Http://www.31corp.com/marketplace

Monet’s Lilies
The 1919 “Le Bassin aux Nymphéas” (“The Water Lily Pond”) set a record for the artist this week when it sold for $80.4 million, dispelling any claim that the Impressionist market is dead. American owners sold the work at Christie’s in London where, according to the Bloomberg news, a “weak dollar and strong demand from Russian buyers have encouraged Americans to sell Impressionist works” there. The story focused on the financial side of the sale that brought in $284.5 million total, a European record, while an article in The New York Times looked closely at the individual works and at their public, some of whom belong to Russia’s newly rich.

Coin Collectors Roll the Dice
Also in The New York Times, coin collectors cum chip collectors turned their attention to defunct casino collectibles at the annual Casino Chip and Gaming Tokens Collectors Club convention in Las Vegas this week. Chips as collectibles from the Desert Inn and the Showboat Casino, both long gone from the Vegas Strip, have recently sold for $20,000 and $29,000, respectively. Most items were moderately priced at the convention. Recent sales indicate that with the right chip, a collector can cash in big. Antique ivory poker chips, casino ashtrays and swizzle sticks competed with slot-token collections for sale.

Titanic at Auction
A canvas, cork-filled life preserver, bloodstained and with the provenance of the Titanic, was estimated to fetch $80,000 at Christie’s Ocean Liner sale June 25. According to the auction house’s Post Sale Summary, it brought in $68,500.
Bloomberg news reported that the preserver belonged to a farmer from Nova Scotia who assisted with the cleanup of the wreckage and found the vest. The 1912 relic is said to bring out “everything about the tragedy,” including the elegant vessel itself, surrounded by frozen passengers floating at sea.

Third Coin’s a Charm
The United States Mint will debut the design for the first United States coin to feature readable Braille on July 2 in Dallas, Texas. According to a press release from the U.S. Mint, the 2009 Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar coin prototype will have the word “Braille” in Braille code on the tail’s side of the coin. The mint has printed Braille coins twice before, but neither was readable. The Alabama commemorative quarter-dollar, part of the 50 State Quarters® Program, used Braille in the Helen Keller image, but the Braille was too small to be readable by the blind. The 1995 and 1996 Paralympics Silver Dollar featured Braille, but, again, the code was too small to be readable. Read the entire press release on CoinLink.

Functional Art
According to insiders, swelling prices in the contemporary-art market are pushing up expectations in the contemporary-furniture market, possibly to its detriment, The New York Times reported. High prices were realized by big names like George Nakashima and Pierre Jeanneret, whose pieces sold for well above their estimated auction prices. Tiffany lamps were a hit, including a rare “Apple Blossom” table lamp that sold for $775,000, setting a new world record. A Jean-Michel Frank wrought-iron table from the 1920s went for $420,000 (estimate: $60,000 to $80,000) while many lots went unsold.

All-Star-Studded Auction
This summer’s All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium will host the auction of 140 collectibles belonging to former New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson, including his World Series rings, Most Valuable Player trophy and uniform. Also included in the July 14-15 sale are Lou Gehrig’s warmup jacket, which he wore during the last game of his 2,130 consecutive-games streak, Hall of Famer Whitey Ford’s ball signed by President Kennedy, the ball Babe Ruth whacked for his 712th home run and a Jackie Robinson game bat. An article on ESPN by the Associated Press notes there couldn’t be a more appropriate place for the star-studded sale than a big game at Yankee Stadium.