11/14/16
Quiet beginning to the travel week .
J.T. at Rugtracker is back on the job with a new post titled ” weibe turkische Teppiche ” on as you might imagine early Turkish carpets and as usual it’s very good and well worth your time to check out . Nice work J .T . ,
11/15/16
Final preparations in full swing .
11/16/16
Travel day on the way .
Looks good so far .
Smooth out , smooth early in.
But with the protests and road construction traffic is even worse than last month !
11/17/16
Time to hit the streets .
Unfortunately the happy faces have turned down and the overall mood of the market is somber. What I am seeing is that not much in the way of fresh interesting merchandise has been turning up and the everybody is complacent as far as how things are going but it’s still early and it could change .
One more thing to note traffic is still an adventure to deal with but tomorrow is another day . The weather is however very good !
11/18/16
Traffic is much improved to start the day so that’s at least a minor improvement . Now back on the hunt. Weather is still very good another modest plus .
So far today i am encountering much better attitudes and things are beginning to appear so it looks like this little foray to the east coast will end up on a more or less positive and modestly profitable note. In the end all is well that ends up in the plus column !
11/19/16
9 am , NYC .
Udo day is about to begin .
Where to start , where to begin ?
What we have here is a truly unfortunate set of circumstances for Mr Langauer and the staff at Austria Auction Co today. Out of the 389 iota run across the podium only 110 ended up creating any interest. This works out to a sold percentage of right at 28 % . Not a complete and total disaster but just about as close as you would want to get. A few of the high end items did sell but many of the better pieces with aggressive pre- sale estimates met with resistance . It remains to be seen how this sale will affect A.A.C. in the future but this is certainly a sad turn of events for them . My thoughts are that they just might forge ahead but maybe with something along the lines of a general antique auction that features a large number of rugs and carpets but it would appeal more to of the whole antique arena. Just a thought but you never know . At this juncture I would assume they will work the phones on the unsold lots to pump up the sale total and head back to the drawing board so better luck next time , if there is one .
One other thing worth a mention regarding one of the lots included in the sale .
Lot # 226 , Prototype Perepedil rug . Plenty of internet chatter about the age , authenticity and or amount of possible restoration done to the piece that could have contributed to the piece failing to garner any buyer interest. I am sure we have not heard the end of it !
Concerning the item I featured in the earlier review , lot # 208 Qashgai gabbeh , pre-sale est. € 6-8,000.00 , it sold for € 5,000.00 . Well under the low starting point . I thought this piece would do better but maybe the condition held it down.
Travel day . Smooth out and it looks good so far .
Early in to end the day . A pleasant surprise all things considered.
11/20/16
On the job at O.C.G. and the “Rudnick day ” sale at Grogan’s with hopefully better results than yesterday’s Austria Auction co. debacle !
The sale is under way and so far its night and day in comparison to yesterday’s A.A.C. auction . Up to this point all most everything is selling and some of the pieces are posting pretty good numbers with a few very tasty up side pops for Mr Grogan and the Rudnicks which was to be expected but is still is very nice for all concerned . That said some of the less important items are selling for their correct current market values , bargains possibly ?
The sale is now complete and as is the norm for a Grogan rug auction he’s posted the best result of this fall rug auction season with only the Rippon sale on Dec.3rd left on the calendar as any real competition . Out of the 107 lots offered for sale only 5 failed to sell and they were unimportant pieces . Yes it was a much smaller offering than most all the other rug auctions but by keeping the pre- sale estimates within reason it created much more of a buzz because buyers felt there was at least a shot at the better items and some did sell for realistic prices in this soft market unlike many of the better items at the A.A.C. sale that featured aggressive pre- sale estimates and went unsold , but that’s my opinion. One does wonder how much this sale affected the results of yesterday’s A.A.C. sale ?
The 2 lots I featured in the earlier review both sold . One over the high estimate one under the low estimate . Go figure !
Lot # 19 S. Caucasian frag. Pre- sale est. $4-6,000.00 ,sold for $2,750.00 plus the juice .
Lot # 55 S. Caucasian prayer rug . Pre- sale set. $20-30,000.00 , sold for $37,500.00 plus .
Next up Rippon and we shall see .
And don’t forget to vote on the new ” La Opinionada” poll !!!!
Who’da thunk that in this day and age ( 21st century ) being a poor loser would be considered COOL ! , Sheik Frederich, 2016 .
Song o the week , Ten Years After , I’d Love to Change the World on A Space in Time , 1971 .
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