Advice for Fast Bidding

Going, going, gone

Some advice for when the bidding gets fast and furious

It’s easy to lose big at an auction, especially if you don’t know some of the tricks of the trade. Here, expert auction-goers from around the country offer some advice to bear in mind before you raise your paddle.

If there is a catalog, read it carefully. Most people gloss over the introductory material that lists the terms and conditions, and that’s a mistake, because often you’re given clues about what the auction house actually thinks about an object by the way they phrase attributions and dates. If the book says “in the Chippendale style,” that means they don’t think it was made in the Chippendale period (mid- to late-18th century).

– Charles Hummel, Deputy director for the Collection at Winterthur in Wilmington, Del.

You should wrote your bid down on the catalog, and remember when you set your limit that on top of the hammer price you’ll pay a 10 percent fee – 15 percent at Sotheby’s and Christie’s – as well as sales tax. I stuck to my game sheet. Auctions are exciting, and all of a sudden things are moving along and you can find yourself bidding $200 when you meant to spend $100.

– Kenneth Newman, Owner of the Old Print Shop in New York City.

Don’t bid on anything you haven’t personally examined or anything you feel uneasy about – the bad feelings you get about an object at an auction will only increase with time and eat away at you over the years. During the preview, stand near what interests you. If you like a table, look at a chair next to it as other people – maybe people who know a lot more than you do – examine the table. Listen to what they say about it.

Advice for miracles. Photo: Elena

– Chuck Muller, Editor of Antique Review.

You might consider commissioning a dealer to bid for you – a typical charge would be 10 percent. Read the magazines and look at the ads for dealers, or go to antique shows and size up the dealers, or go to antique shows and size up the dealers. See what they’re selling. At antique shows, you’re on neutral territory – you both paid to be there, so you’ve both got a stake in the thing. Collecting and buying antiques and art is one place that really rewards knowledge, so go to the best dealers in the field.

– Sam Pennington, Editor of Maine Antique Digest.

I believe in material that has a proven track record – things that have survived bad economic times well. Chinese export porcelain, Delftware, early metal-works, Old master paintings and drawings. These things very rarely even take a down-turn. Reprsentative pieces by outstanding craftsemen – those will always hold their value.

– Mark Allen, Antique Dealer in Putnam Valley, NY.

It’s a good idea to note who the dealers are and how they’re bidding, but you need to take what you hear from them with a grain of salt. Remember that they’re stopping their bidding at close to wholesale prices, so that even if you go above what the dealers are bidding, you can still get a fair price – probably something closer to retail. On the whole, the published estimates are a good guide; the pieces that sell for more than the estimate are very often the finest pieces.

– Karen Keane, Managing director of Skinner auction house in Boston, Mass.

Expert sources: Finding the Auction Action

Here are the leading journals in the world of antiques, art, and auctions, Richard and Sabine Yanul, owner of the Franz Bader Bookstore in Washington, D.C., also recommend their favorite books.

Magazines:

Art & Auction: A classy glossy that covers the international art scene with good gossip and features on collecting. Calendars cover auctions, fairs, museums, events and galleries in the United States and abroad.

Maine Antique Digest: The bible for antique dealers. 300 quirky pages each month with listings of auctions all over the country, and reports on many of them, both famous and obscure. This is the one magazine to get.

Antique review: A 100-page tabloid focused on pre-1900 antiques. It’s best for news about the auction in the Midwest and features great coverage of the artists and makers.

Art & Antiques: More of a coffee-table mag, less market-oriented than the others. A good read, with a column on collecting in different cities and features on artists and trends.

Books:

The New Five Points of Furniture: The classic, first published in 1950, by a son of Israel Sack, one of New York City’s most respected antique dealers. Lives up to subtitle Early American – Good, Better, Best, Superior or Masterpiece with exhaustive, definitive rankings of about 200 different furniture types, including hundreds of photos.

The Collector’s encyclopedia of Antiques: Includes sections on type of furniture, porcelain, tapestries, a glossary, tips on repairs and maintenance, hints about fakes and forgeries, lists of good museum collections, and recommended reading, 2000 (mostly small) illustrations.

Field Guide to American Antique Furniture: Provides an anatomy of furniture types, with easy-to-read line drawings labeled with the relevant terms. Includes an overall history and chapters on different periods, with 1,700 drawings.

Sotheby’s Art and Auction: The Art Market Review. Conran-Octopus, published yearly. Gorgeous color photos of the works on every page, but more useful for window shopping than serious research.

Art an Auction in America: Krexpress, published yearly. The most affordable price guide available – and one of the best that can be found anywhere.