11/11/19 Snowflakes melting in a blaze of Red Fire !

11/11/19

Sotheby’s , London’s , “Rugs and Carpets of a Connoisseur” scheduled on Nov. 27th is now live “on the line” for your viewing education at this very moment ?

After multiple excursions through the auction inventory my first thoughts are this , Ms Coulter and the Sotheby’s rug dept. are ‘swingin’ for the fences with this little adventure into the rug marketing hemisphere .
As far as the selection goes it includes 116 total lots of a little bit of everything from a “single collector” thats trying to attract pretty much everyone interested in oriental rugs of any type !

That said the outcome of this sale is a little in doubt for me . Many of the better lots in the sale have been through the rug auction market in the last few years already and i wonder if todays rug collecting public will accept the recent retreads even if some are at lower levels ?

One other thing worth mentioning is that the sale inventory is loaded will better items , of which some come with fairly aggressive pre- sale estimates , but some may be a little more in the realistic realm. The pre-sale estimates are really kinda all over the place in this offering.

My final notion is this an impressive offering except for the fact that so many of the best pieces are well known to the market already which could easily hurt the sold total .
All in it’s a fairly flashy selection except for the fact it’s lacking fresh to the market items . With that i hope it turns out well for Ms Coulter and staff !
No matter how you look at it a production like this still a lot of work , so “Good Luck” to them!

11/12/19

11/13/19

11/14/19

Henry’s Auktion House , Mutterstadt , Germany is having a rug , carpet and textile sale on Dec. 14th that features 380 lots that includes a little bit of every type of oriental weaving your little heart could “desire”.
Like most sales in Germany these days most of the items in the group are late and in German / very good condition.
As you might also expect with this type of sale after more than a few passes through the sale inventory i did not find much that would get the international Rug- Mob or myself worked up , just a large selection of late pieces aimed straight at the European retail market .
To be unbiased there are a modest number of older items . Unfortunately nothing particularly important , maybe just a cut above the majority of pieces in the sale on the scale of collectability.

In the end this is for the most part a large but rather ordinary , uninteresting rug auction but it’s still worth a quick look if your a rug and textile aficionado !

A few lots i felt were sort of interesting are posted below , all for different reasons .

Lot # 105 , Pao Tao rug. Pre-sale est. € 2,1- 3,200.00 . In a twisted way it reminds of the Previous POTUS in a space helmet !

Lot # 150 , Early fragment , ( Tibetan ) ? Pre-sale est.€ 550-1,200.00 . My favorite lot in the sale .

Lot # 247 , Arabachi ensi . Pre- sale est. € 7-8,500.00 . Nice looking but tricky with all the cochineal pile ?

11/15/19

11/16/19

Happy A.A.C. Day , now on with the sale outcome .

First up these are “Invaluable” unaudited results .

Out of the 31 lots offered only 4 failed to find new homes . A sold percentage of right at 85 %. Granted this was a very small offering but the pieces were for the most part of a higher level .

Not too much in the way of upside action but a couple of pieces did pop up a little , lot numbers , 9 , 22 and unexpectedly from where i sit # 28 which did take off a bit but thats about it as far as excitement goes .

Concerning the two items i featured in the sale review both sold .

Lot # 13 , Sarkisla rug . Pre- sale est. € 20-30,000.00 . Sold for € 25,000.00 , right in the zone .

Lot # 19 , Transylvanian prayer . Pre- sale est. € 20-30,000.00 . Sold for € 30,000.00 . Nice but i thought this piece might do a bit better !

My final thought is this , Mr Langauer and staff should feel pretty good about the outcome of this excursion.
Hat’s off to you !

11/17/19