12/12/16 Never Fear , Salvation is on the Way !
12/12/16
Languishing in the doldrums to start the week .
12/13/16
Quiet before the storm !
12/14/16
Smooth out . Looks decent up to this point .
Bumpy in , but ahead of schedule arrival.
12/15/16
Off to a wicked start with a warm and balmy 25 degrees ! The weather is really affecting the hunt for interesting pieces with nothing turning up so far . Not so much in the way of smiling faces either.
12/16/16
Crispy’er than ever this morning at 18 degrees , still not much in the way of tempting items are surfacing. Just 2 pieces up to this point but that’s about it . Easily the least productive soujourn to the east coast to end this year .
So you just can’t clear the bases on every trip .
12/17/16
Travel day and morning snow.
On time out and on time in . Good luck for a change !
12/18/16
Back to silence .
12/19/16
Gros & Delettrez , Paris , France held their rug , tapestry and textile auction today and it unfortunately did not turnout particularly successful for them . Out of the approximately 242 lots offered up for sale only 70 ended up attracting any attention . Somewhat of a dismal sold percentage of just at 29% . Right in the neighborhood of the Austria Auction Co. sale a few weeks ago and at the bottom of the list of sales to close out this fall auction season. When I reviewed this sale inventory for the earlier post I really felt it had a reasonable chance of attracting wide spread appeal because of the diversity of the items included in the group but based on the results I was way off base on that one. The sale was weak across the board with no area showing any strength at all. Although this sale was advertised “on the line” the lack of piece’s selling could certainly indicate a stagnant French rug and textile market ?
One more thing to note .
Lot # 186 , Chinese chair back , pre- sale € 1,2 – 2,400.00 which I featured in the previous post as you might surmise also failed to sell. Perhaps the rather stiff pre-sale estimate-reserve was a little much for the French rug merchants to handle !
12/20/16
12/21/16
Head long into the Christmas , Hanukkah holiday weekend .
12/22/16
It appears the rug market is taking some time off to celebrate the holidays too !
12/23/16
Hellacious rain in the O.C.
12/24/16
Eve of the big day!
12/25/16
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah !
Morning road trip.
12/26/16
All Hail Boxing Day . And that’s all Folks ?
Could there be light at the dark end of the black hole ? , Sheik Frederich ,2016 .
Song o the week , End of the year 2 fur !
Led Zeppelin, I Can’t Quit You Baby on Led Zeppelin, 1969 .
Rolling Stones , I Can’t Quit You Baby on Blue & Lonesome , 2016 .
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12/5/16 The edge of Armageddon?
12/5/16
Looks to be a slow week as far as rugdumb goes but there is one piece of fresh auction news worth a line or two.
Gros & Delettrez auctioneers, Paris , France have a rug , textile and tapestry sale scheduled on Dec. 19th that includes a very eclectic array of all manner of hand woven items from all the major weaving areas and then some. Nothing in the group could be considered high end collectors piece but there are more than a few unusual entries for your viewing pleasure and because the inventory is so varied it’s well worth your time to take a quick look . One lot that caught my eye is posted below .
Lot # 186 , Ningxia Throne Cover , pre- sale set. € 1,2-2,400.00 . Not the best condition and a rather stiff starting point but a fairly scarce design layout and kinda cool to my eye . As it’s been lately Chinese items are still “hot” which could bode well for this piece and maybe the other Chinese items in the group .
Keeping on the subject of early Chinese rugs Christie’s , NYC held their ” Living with Art ” sale on Dec.2-3 and as you might expect it was a reasonably fruitful undertaking for them . 21 of the 25 rug and tapestry items offered up for sale ended up selling . Not a major production by any stretch of the imagination but still decent for Ms Parker and the Christie’s rug dept. in what has become a stagnate rug auction schedule in NYC lately .
Without a major rug sale at Sotheby’s or Christie’s this is what we have left to fill the void , sad ! It would be healthy for the rug market in general if they got back in game but unfortunately not in the near future as far as I know .
The piece I featured in the previous post , lot # 152 , Ningxia carpet , pre-sale est. $ 80-120,000.00 went unsold . A high reserve or over restoration could have contributed to it not garnering any attention!
12/6/16
12/7/16
Remembering the day of infamy and the ” Netherhampton “sale today .
So it’s in the books for Ms Barrett and the Netherhampton rug dept. and they have another modestly successful venture on their hands today .
So here you go .
Out of the 429 total lots run across the podium 264 ended up finding new homes . This works out to a sold percentage of right at 62%. Not a raging success but far better than some of the bigger auction houses posted in this fall season. Granted these are unaudited online results from ” the saleroom ” online service and could vary at the end of the day but it still looks pretty good.
A couple things worth noting . They had little or no luck with the high estimate room size carpets in the group and only 9 items crossed the £ 1,000.00 threshold . Just 2 lots , #’s 140 & 526 could have been considered to be anything in the way of an upside surprise. Also the large group of mediocre Turkmens seemed to be especially weak this time around . That said they still ended up moving a large amount of merchandise so ” hats off ” to Ms Barrett and the Netherhampton rug dept. on a job fairly well done considering the large amount of items run through the various auction houses in the last 60 days or so .
More auction activity this time at Christie’s , London . Their “From Ancient to Modren” concluded today and from a rug and tapestry standpoint it was a fairly successful venture for them . Not a big deal by any stretch of the imagination but 7 out of the 10 rugs and carpets sold and 1 of the 2 tapestries.
Both items I mentioned in the previous post ended up selling .
Lot # 95 , Transylvanian prayer rug . Pre-sale est. £ 20-30,000.00 . Sold for £ 35,000.00 . I thought highly of this piece and figured it would do somewhat better but that was not to be !
Lot # 112 18th century Kurdish cot. Pre- sale est. £ 10-15,000.00 . Sold for £ 12,500.00 . Right in the zone .
7 days and back on the road .
12/8/16
Quiet !
12/9/16
A pictures worth a 1,000 words . Especially on this occasion !
12/10/16
Out of town visitors and conversation !
12/11/16
Early morning road trip.
The week ends with many things on the plate to consider.
Trials and tribulations of living in these diverse and divisive times ? , Sheik Frederich , 2016 .
Song o the week , The Rolling Stones , Ride ‘Em On Down on Blue & Lonesome, 2016 . Far better than I expected !
Read More11/28/16 Dark mirage of Laudanum !
11//16
For a change we are in a position to start the new week with a bit of fresh and interesting rug world news .
Christie’s , London has a single owner general antiquities sale titled ” From Ancient to Modern : A Distinguished Collection ” , scheduled on as one would have it on Dec. 7th that features 2 classic tapestries and 10 various rugs and carpets some of which could fall into the mid classic period . The catalog does not say who owns this collection but besides the rugs and carpets there’s a lot of other very interesting items in the group. To my eye this collector had pretty good all around taste.
Two of the carpets ( lot #’s 95 – 112 ) really caught my attention . The one I thought could be the star is posted below .
Lot # 95 , Transylvanian coupled- column prayer rug , 2nd half 17th century. Pre-sale estimate £ 20-30,000.00 . If this piece is as good in person as it is in the illustrations it’s a fairly reasonable starting point and it should do very well for the consigner , in my humble opinion.
11/29/16
Bonham’s, Hong Kong held their ” Images of Devotion ” sale today and from an all over standpoint it went fairly well for them with only 15 lots out of 42 offered not finding new homes . The lot I featured in the previous post did sell right in the middle of the pre- sale estimate .
Lot # 123 , Silk & gold foil Vairocana , pre- sale est. $100-150,00.00 , sold for approx. $128,926.00 and that is as they say that !
11/30/16
Two weeks till my return to the road .
12/1/16
Quiet on the day before .
12/2/16
Dec. 2 1950 , possibly one of the most noteworthy days ever !
12/3/16
Rippon day !
The results are in , so here we go . After well over 1,000 rugs being run across the podium in the last 60 days or so Mr Maltzahn and the Rippon rug dept. ended up with a fairly successful auction outcome today . Out of the 241 total lots offered only 84 failed to attract any attention. This works out to a sold percentage of right at 65%. Keeping in mind these are Liveauctioneer’s unaudited results and D. M. tends to work the phones on the unsold lots after the sale so the total number of items sold may increase. Not bad considering all the auction arena competition lately. The auction game has become very competitive recently with a fight going on for better pieces.
As for the sale itself this my take on how it went . Sumak bags seemed strong and Chinese items continue to sell well. There were also a few of the sought after upside surprises too. That said the weak side appeared to be Tukish kelims and “run of the mill” Caucasian carpets . In general all areas sold just some better than others .
Concerning the 2 lots I featured in the earlier post one sold one did not .
Lot # 76 , Shakhrisyabz susani , pre-sale est. , € 40,000.00 failed to sell. I really thought highly of this piece but maybe the starting bid of € 34,000.00 was just to much for the market to handle ?
Lot # 193 Jaffa Kurd bag . Pre – sale est. € 1-1,500.00 . Sold for € 1,500.00 . Right in the zone.
Out of town visitors and commerce to end the day .
12/4/16
More out of town visitors and commerce.
Keep in mind that just because you read it / see it on the inter-web doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true ! , Sheik Frederich , 2016 .
Song o the week, Grave Digger , Healed By Metal on Healed By Metal , 2016.
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