3/7/16 Comments , mindless comments !

3/7/16
Monday , Happy , Monday !
3/8/16
First up today , the results from last Wednesdays rug auction at the vaunted “Netherhampton” Salesrooms in Salisbury , U.K.
Well in general this sale turned out pretty much inline with their previous offerings .
Out of the 415 items offered up for sale only 137 remained unsold which works out to a sold percentage of right at 67% .
Just slightly better than they usually do .
That’s the only positive aspect of the production , now for the downside .
Only 9 pieces in the sale crossed the £ 1,000.00 barrier and there was nothing at all in the way of an upside surprise .
As for the handful of room size carpets with fairly aggressive pre- sale estimates none of them ended up selling .
The only thing I noticed in the whole sale worth mentioning was a small “Kozak” carpet , lot 273 and a Turkish kelim lot # 274 sold well over their pre- sale estimates but that’s about the extent of it as far as sale highlights go.
So that’s that , another lackluster event is in the books for Ms Barrett & staff , better luck next time !
3/9/16
3/10/16
3/11/16
3/12/16
Morning road trip and substantial commerce !

“Vok Day ”
Let the fun begin !
The unaudited results are posted live “on the line” presently on “liveauctioneers” as we speak and unfortunately for Mr Maltzahn and staff it was not a repeat of the near sell out of the first portion of the “Vok” Collection .
Out of the 88 items run across the podium only 74 pieces managed to garner any attention this time around .
This works out to a sold percentage of right at 84 % , very good by most standards but aways away from the almost complete sellout of “Vok” Pt. 1 .
As is Mr Maltzahn’s M O he will most certainly work the phones in the days after the sale and the sold total should bounce up a bit .
Going over the prices fetched there was not much in the way of any serious upside pops either .
Some of the kelims and flat weaves did show a little spark but nothing really exciting as far as price surges .
Most of the pieces that sold were within or near their pre-sale ranges .
This was most certainly a successful sale and I think the total number of sold items will improve by the time Mr Maltzahn posts his audited results down the road but I doubt the total sold figure will be as impressive as the first sale , however we shall see .
Concerning the two lots I featured in the earlier review ,1 sold 1 did not .
Lot # 135, Large Medallion Suzani , pre-sale est. € 40-45,000.00 failed to sell .
As I said in the previous post a good item but saddled with an aggressive starting point .
Maybe the piece had problems not visible in the illustration or had been around the block once to often?
Lot # 138 , Shakhrisyabz Suzani , pre- sale est. € 40-45,000.00 .
Sold for € 46,360.00 including comm. , over its low opening estimate but still a serious figure .
One last thing .
My first impression of “Vok” 2 was that it was not as good as “Vok” 1 and I waffled a bit on that but maybe my first impression was right after all !
3/13/16
Skinner’s is under way , let’s just see were this endeavor ends up !
Just over half way through the the sale and Skinner’s is as usual moving some merchandise .
Not for memorable numbers by any stretch of the imagination but as we all know , sold is in fact , sold.
Up to this point nothing much in the way of fireworks but one lot , # 153 Bidjar cpt. , pre- sale a very modest $1,5-1,800.00 , sold for $15,990.00 including comm.
Nice for the consigner !
It’s a wrap and this is my take on how it turned out .
The group consisted of 333 total lots offered up and 283 ended up finding new homes .
A sold percentage of right around 85% .
This makes for a large number of items moved but the total sales figure will unfortunately not be something to get excited about for the Skinner’s Rug Dept.
All that said and done a lot of these pieces sold at very reasonable prices , good for the buyers , not so much for the consigner’s but there gone which what they wanted .
However as I stated in the earlier post there was also not much in the way of high end collectors pieces included in this sale as to create a real buzz , just another mid -range rug auction.
One thing worth noting , Kashmir shawls were strong again.
Not quite as lively as last time but overall they did very well again .
The one lot I mentioned in a previous post , lot # 84 Ming fragment , the only serious collectors item in the inventory , pre- sale est. $ 8-10,000.00 sold for $9,840.00 including comm.
Right in the parameters of the estimate so no surprise there .
So there you have it another reasonably successful venture for Mr Kearney and the Skinner’s rug dept.