11/16/15 Creative righting 101
11/16/15
Quiet!
11/17/15
Peaceful
11/18/15
Travel day !
Easy, on time , but bumpy in .
Heavy traffic throughout the city .
11/19/15
9 am.
In the beginning it looks like rain.
Where will it go from there ?
4 pm.
Rain really never came into play today and things are looking pretty good .
Everybody I talked to was in a good mood and I saw multiple promising possibilities for tomorrow so it's wait and see with decisions to make , till then patience !
One more thing !
A hot topic of conversation in the market today was the auction last Tuesday , 11/17 at Jackson's in Cedar Falls , IA.
When the sale was first advertised on the ignominious R.R. i went through the the inventory and felt there were to many late insignificant lots to warrant a mention on the Rapistan Review and I still feel that way .
However !
That being said and taking into consideration the weak quality of the group this sale ended up fairly successful for whoever handles the carpet dept. at Jackson's .
The sale consisted of approximately 222 lots and they ended finding new homes for 170 of them.
A sold percentage of right at 77% .
This group was advertised as a collection but unfortunately there were no standout items of any type to support this claim .
More like a rug store inventory .
The sale was also saddled with a hefty 25 % buyers premium .
Rumor has it this house does a substantial business in Russian Icons and that support may have boiled over into the rug portion of the sale ?
In the end though , this sale from a “sold percentage” standpoint topped all the other Auction's of the last 60 days which again proves every “dog” does have his day !
The catalog with prices fetched is posted on Jackson' web site if this type of thing interest you .
11/20/15
Vastly better weather today combined with success on all commerce fronts adds up to another profitable sojourn to the east coast.
Nothing left to do now but pack up for the trip home.
One more minor piece of fresh rug world news.
Groganco , Boston , Ma has a general antique auction scheduled on Dec. 6 that includes 14 lots of oriental rugs , American Indian weaving's and various other textile items .
A small group for sure but it does feature a couple of intriguing rugs.
Lot # 360 , Heriz cpt. Pre-sale est. $6-10,000.00 . An aggressive pre- sale est. , maybe , maybe not but a snappy face in my opinion .
Lot # 362 , Trans Caucasian cpt. Pre- sale est. $ 3-5,000.00 . Interesting look and possibly older than listed with a scarce design .
The piece warrants a close up examination .
11/21/15
Travel day .
Arrived slightly early , nice.
11/22/15
Back on the clock at O.C.G.
Out of town visitors and commerce !
11/23/15
The beginning of the holiday week and as you would imagine not much happening but if your really bored there is one minor thing to contemplate.
Van Ham Auktion , Cologne, Germany has a sale scheduled on Dec 4 that features 284 lots of all manner of rugs ,carpets and flat weaves.
This sale is a standard second tier European selection of mostly shop stock type merchandise .
Not much in the way of serious collectors items at all.
However with that being the case and after going over the inventory lot by lot i did notice 2 Chinese pieces with what appears to be decent age and look pretty good in the illustrations.
Lot # 236 Chinese square , pre- sale est. € 600.00. Seems reasonable. The brown pile is ?
Lot # 237 , Chinese square , pre- sale est. € 1500.00. In my humble opinion the most collectible item in the offering .
Other wise this is a pedestrian selection aimed at local novice rug enthusiast's and rug dealers !
Not much but better than a shut out .
11/24/15
More Quietus ?
11/25/15
Celebrate the day before !
11/26/15
National over eating day !
11/27/15
Black Friday ?
So here we go with the year end auction at “Netherhampton Salesrooms” , Salisbury , U.K., scheduled on Dec. 9 , but unfortunately it's pretty much the same as their previous offerings.
Approximately 450 lots of all manner of rugs , carpets and textiles.
As is their M.O. , nothing in the way of a serious collectors item or high end decorative piece .
Just substantial selection of mid to low end shop stock type merchandise.
Year end house cleaning sales are becoming prevalent in Europe lately and this just may be one of them but Ms Barrett and staff have been doing pretty well in this arena as of late so “good holiday luck” to them !
The only thing I found to be of interest at all was lot # 504 which appears to be a good selection of oriental rug books with a very low pre- sale estimate , £ 1-150.00.
No good to anyone but a local because of the shipping costs but if your in the neighborhood and are interested in rug literature this could be a good starter set.
11/28/15
The big one “you all bin” waiting for !
Finito, finished , done , Austria Auction's V is now in the books !
Well , this just didn't turn out the way Udo and the boys were hoping for that's for sure .
Working off the “liveauctioneers” count which is unaudited , out of the 209 lots put up for sale today it looks like only 78 attracted any attention.
If this is accurate it's a sold percentage of just at 38 %.
Nothing in the way of any upside surprises either.
This percentage could improve if Udo runs true to form and works the phones after the sale.
Like I stated in the earlier blog review of this offering I thought it was a more interesting assortment than the previous sale but unfortunately the rug collecting public did not feel the same way !
Rug auction fatigue , holiday's or whatever, it's back to the drawing board for Mr Langauer and staff , better luck next time .
As for the 4 lots I featured in the earlier review 3 sold one did not.
Lot # 24 Tekke carpet , pre-sale est. € 3-4,000.00 . Sold for € 3,800.00 . My favorite piece in the sale . A decent buy for the new owner .
Lot # 62 Lori Pambak , pre- sale est. € 40-60,000.00 . Unsold . The aggressive starting point could have been a factor in this piece not selling.
Lot # 64 Gabbeh carpet , pre- sale est. € 12-15,000.00 . Sold for € 15,000.00. Again a good buy for the new owner .
Lot # 121 Konya prayer rug , pre- sale est. 10-14,000.00 . Sold for € 10,000.00.
Reasonable purchase .
11/29/15
One last thing to end the week.
Rippon Boswell , Wiesbaden , Germany has posted the date for the second installment of the “Vok” Coll. sales .
This auction will be held on 3/12/16 and feature 88 Vok items .
There is a modest preview of some of the items ( 10 ) posted on the Rippon site now.
The first of what we would hope are many rug events in the new year !
Raspberries on your fanny and an uninformed proposition on your mind doesn't make you an expert , you just might need to roll back to the right a bit and understand your mistaken positions . , Sheik Frederich” , 2015.
Song o the week , Halestorm , I Am the Fire on Into the Wild Life , 2015.
Read More
Posted with Blogsy11/9/15 Ruff & Humble life , existence !
11/9/15
1 pm .
This week starts with today's major rug production at Bonham's , L.A.
Unfortunately this sale is usually a none event because the inventory is always pedestrian at best and this time round it's more of the same but the auction is under way so let's just give'em a chance and see where they land.
Fin !
Out of 268 items passed over the Bonham's podium this afternoon 144 managed to find new homes .
This works out to a sold percentage of right at 54%.
Some what “off” the results of the sales at Sotheby's , Christie's and Skinner's which were more in the range of 60+% to the low 70's.
Considering the mediocre quality of the majority of the pieces put up for sale not bad , but nothing to get amped up about either.
A couple of things i noticed concerning the outcome of this offering were just this.
Late Chinese silk rugs continue to garner fairly strong prices , even in Cali.
Also the second half of the sale featured all the low end pieces and they sold very well pumping up the number of rugs sold and saving outcome from turning into a disaster for the Bonham's rug dept.
I guess it does prove every dog does in fact have his day !
All said and told I guess this could be a considered a decent turn of events for Haji and the Bonham's rug dept. !
11/10/15
Silent contemplation !
11/11/15
Boo Yah , 7 days till NYC !
Adios , Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor , drummer extraordinaire for the legendary Motörhead .
You will certainly be remembered !
11/1215
Quiet !
11/13/15
The dreaded Friday the 13th .
Je Suis Bataclan !
11/14/15
Out of town visitors and commerce but little else.
11/15/15
Modest road trip
The week ends on a slow note and with the holidays upon us it's only gonna et lower .
When you decide to stir the pot or in fact stir the kettle always consider the world may suspect you stirred the “gray matter” between your ears ! , Sheik Frederich , 2015?
Song o the week , Motörhead , Ace of Spades on Ace of Spades , 1980 .
Read More11/2/15 Light sun writer’s !
11/2/15
Out of town visitors .
Nice conversation and modest commerce .
11/3/15
It's a wrap for today's , Sotheby's ” Rugs and Carpets from Distinguished Collection's” , auction “the London version” and it did not fair as well as their sister sale in NYC.
Out of the 124 total lots offered today only 66 attracted any attention . This works out to a sold percentage of right at 53 % .
Somewhat lower than the Sotheby's , NYC sale and their counterpart house Christie's , London's results which booked in at about 61 %.
Not a major miss step but it's still moves them farther away from what would be considered a successful venture .
Sure as shoot'in not what M.J. and staff were hoping for.
Going over the inventory lot by lot it appears Persian City pieces sold better than the collectors items included in the group.
Except for a couple of pieces the Turkmen items in the sale were particularly weak but then the bulk of them were middle of the road at best.
Nothing at all in the way of an upside surprise either .
Most of the pieces that sold were within the designated Sotheby's parameters.
All said done not a disaster but everyone in rug dumb was undoubtably looking for a better outcome!
As for the 3 lots I featured in an earlier post all 3 found buyers .
Lot # 49 , Borchalu Kazak , pre-sale est. £ 20-30,000.00 . Sold for £ 25,000.00 including comm. Right in the zone .
Lot # 56 Tekke cpt. frag. , pre-sale est . £ 2-400.00. Sold for £ 275.00 including comm. A reasonable purchase for the new owner .
Lot # 63 Nurata Susani , pre-sale est. £ 7-10,000.00 . Sold slightly over the estimate at £ 11,875.00 including comm. In my opinion a realistic price for the new owner on what I considered to be one of the better items in the offering !
11/4/15
Two weeks till the next East Coast sojourn !
11/5/15
All hail , Guy Fawkes night !!!
11/6/15
11/7/15
It appears that after so much auction activity and the ART's fair the rug market and world have hit the brakes rolling into the holiday season with only the next Austria Auction Co. sale at the end of this month to look forward to , at least for now.
Rippon Boswell is missing in action for the time being ?
11/8/15
Rose bowl Sunday !
“Saints be praised” modest score at the fair today.
It's been about 3 years since the last one !
The world works in mysterious ways and so does the rug market , don't waste your time trying to figure it out ! , Sheik Frederich , 2015 .
Song o the week , Children of Bodom , Morrigan on I Worship Chaos , 2015.
Read More10/26/15 Hose life win yer chock fulla Demons !
10/26/15
Slower than quiet ?
10/27/15
10/28/15
Substantial road trip and commerce !
10/29/15
3 weeks till NYC !
10/30/15
So it's been a very sluggish week as far as current rug world news goes but we do have one fresh particle of exciting “auction action” updates you've all been waiting for !
Austria Auction's “major ” fall production scheduled on November 28th in Gebirge , Austria is finally live “on the line” now to tempt your rug acquiring taste buds !
For this outing the crew at Austria Auction Co. has assembled a group of 209 total lots of rugs , carpets and various flat weaves and textiles .
First glance through the inventory leaves me feeling its top loaded with Persian city pieces in good condition .
That's not to say there aren't a plethora of other types of collectors items included too , just seems to be a large selection of city pieces.
As for the overall feel of the quality of the complete sale inventory it seems pretty good except for the Turkmen's which appears a little weak across the board .
A few above average items but unfortunately far to many run of the mill pieces.
Again I am not knocking the group just my humble opinion .
One more thing I noticed .
Except for one lot # 62 , Lori Pambak Kazak , pre- sale est. € 40-60,000.00 ( I did not think items of this age were bringing this kind of returns anymore ) , the pre- sale estimates seemed to be fairly realistic .
After all that said I did find a few lots I thought were worth a line or two.
Lot # , 24 Tekke Main Cpt , pre – sale est. € 3-4,000.00 . Not particularly good condition , maybe just a big fragment but good age , a rare main border and reasonable starting point .
Lot # 64 , Qashgai Gabbeh , pre- sale est. € 12-15,000.00 . Striking design , and scarce these days but a slightly aggressive starting point in a somewhat weak European market. 
Lot # 121 , Konya , pre – sale est. € 10 – 14,000.00. Again a little on the steep side as far as the starting point but scarce , good things are never inexpensive .
In the end considering a market place where good to great things are hard to come by Udo and the Gang have done an admirable job so , Good Luck to them on Nov. 28th.
10/31/15
Wholly Halloween !
11/1/15
Dia de los Muertos , 2015 , Viva !
The preoccupation with procrastination and over thinking situations can lead you down the path of poor decision making ! , Sheik Frederich , 2015 .
Song o the week , Just when you thought it couldn't get any better , another 2 fur !
Bob Dylan , All Along the Watchtower on John Wesley Harding , 1967 .
The Jimi Hendrix Experience , All Along the Watchtower on Electric Ladyland , 1968.
It's tough , your choice !