10/20/14 A double shot of aggravation !

10/20/14
Out of the gate today .
“signen's Kunstauktionen”, Cologne , Germany finally posted the results of the carpet portion of their Oct. 11 general antiquity sale . This was again a very small offering but it turned out to be a very reasonable outcome for them . Out of the 15 items put under the hammer 9 found buyers. Far from earthshaking , but not bad either . Looking over the results of the “complete” sale it appears that was only a moderately successful production on the whole for the “signen's ” staff .
One minor thing worth noting , some of the Mid – range , mediocre Turkmen pieces in this offering did sell well over their “modest” pre- sale estimates . A small plus for the signen's Auktioneers , i suppose , in what was an-otherwise unremarkable sale .
Better luck next time !
As for the lot i featured in an earlier post , it did find a new home.
Lot # 411 , Senneh kelim , pre- sale est. € 180.00 . Sold for € 950.00 , a minor upside surprise in this fairly ordinary sale. Unclear if the posted price includes the comm. or not. I felt this piece had very good “eye” appeal .
Next up.Bonham's , L.A.'s “major” rug sale is set to start.
10/21/14
New day , new circumstances.
The Bonham's sale is now in the books and for all intensive purposes it turned out somewhat better than their last few auctions. Out of the approx 275 items offered for acquisition 153 ended up finding new homes which works out to a sold percentage of about 55%. Their sales totals usually come in at something more in the neighborhood of 45 – 50 %.
I did however feel that this group was just slightly better quality than what they generally tender , so good for them !
Austria Auction Co. update !
It appears UDO and staff worked the unsold lots of the last sale pretty hard so their complete / updated sales total bumped up to more in the range of 70 %. This is not something i usually pay attention to but as you may have noticed there has been plenty of interest in the results of this sale recently .
One more thing .
My new BFF “Tyrola ” has suggested I put the popularity / interest in the 4 Sept. rug auctions to a vote .
I guess he missed the fact that you can already vote for your favorite of the 4 sales on the ” La Opinionada ” poll .
Granted i have had some technical issues with the poll and it was out of order for a while but it's been up and running for more than a week now so if you have not yet voted please do so .
I am planning a new poll to be posted in a week or so , so there is only a limited amount of time left.
Let's just see if “Tyrola”is correct in his choice of the most popular Sept. sale .
Another “comment” is also available for your reading pleasure too.
10/22/14
The carpet portion of Sotheby's , ” Important English and European Decorative Arts” sale has just wrapped up and it was a fairly successful affair for their rug dept. Out of the 24 pieces run under the hammer only 6 failed to sell . A sold percentage of 75 % . This was a small group but they were for the most part more high end items. In the end a respectable out come for M.J. and the Sotheby's rug dept.
Concerning the 2 pieces i featured in the previous post they both sold and very well at that.
Lot # 157 Caucasian “Dragon ” carpet , pre- sale est. $ 20-30,000.00 .Sold for $ 68,750.00 including comm. , hardly a surprise.
Lot # 160 Caucasian ” Dragon ” carpet , pre- sale est. $30-50,000.00 . Sold for $ 149,000.00 including comm. Easily the better of the 2 pieces offered .
Both had interesting provenance and were “fresh to the market” which most likely helped boost the price that they fetched.
One other thing worth a mention .
Out of the 12 early tapestries included in the sale only 5 found takers. The ones with the higher pre-sale estimates had the hardest time and failed to sell .
10/23/14
Quiet.
10/24/14
The “Leclere “sale went off today , no posted results yet.
Other than that still on the quiet side .
10/25/14
Still quiet !