Anyone ever find a really good deal at an antique store/flea market/yard sale etc? I bought this painting today from an antique store. The painting was in the back up on a ledge all alone without a price sticker and I thought it looked nice and was in a nice frame (the white part of the frame is stretched cloth which I thought was cool). So I negotiated a price of $40. When I got home I looked it up and it is some artist from Vienna and they are selling for around $2,000 in the galleries in the US that I am finding online. The photo is a little fuzzy. please log in to view this image
Well done to you "Elle" and if you said you had found this in an 'Op' shop it could well be worth a couple of grand or more. However, you said you bought it from and 'Antique Shop' and any 'Antique' dealer will know if what he has is a genuine article (and how much it is worth). Is it a 'painting' or is it a 'print'? I do hope you have got yourself a bargain but I would think that it is doubtful under the circumstances. My wife shops around 'garage sales', 'op shops' and 'country markets' and has become quite an expert on some items. She bought a 'Golly' Doll for $6, put it up for auction and had someone ring up asking her to withdraw it from the auction and she would give her 3 grand for it. She did. These are few and far between but she picks up quite a lot of "Willow Patterned" stuff and makes quite a bit, as well as 'Cut Glass' items and certain figurines. It's the old adage that someone's rubbish is somebody else's treasure. I wish you luck and I'd be interested to know the outcome.
One of the best buys I bought was from Walton st car boot sale was a Leak stereo 20 valve amplifier from the 60,s for £2, their worth around £600-£700. Also had from the same car boot sale a Herman Miller Aeron office chair for £10 which is a bit of a bargain.
It's definitly not a print and is an oil painting. The signature seems dead on to me but I suppose you could fake that. The frame is really nice and clearly was made for the painting which is why I bought it. I measured the canvass on the back and it was done in cm and not inches so if it is a fake it was at least faked by someone who knew the painter wouldn't be stretching the canvass in US measurements. I found a gallery in London that sells his paintings directly from him and all their canvass measurements match mine. The dude is apparantly 91 and still painting. Not sure how else to check unless I drive to SF and try to have it authenticated. I wouldn't call where I bought it an antique dealer we call that type of place an antique store but its just a shop full of old junk and this one is in a small gold mining town down the road. There was even a sign on the door that said if you owned a cell phone you weren't allowed in the store. The place is clearly run by crazy people although I don't own a cell phone so maybe I shouldn't be talking. How they got it not sure. Someone died and they bought the estate? It was covered in dust so it had clearly been back there for years. The canvass on the back looks old to me so if it is a fake it would seem to me to have to be a really old fake.
I once spotted a brook compton folding bicycle at Walton Street car boot. I knew they cost anything up to £600 new so was expecting some fun haggling. I asked how much, the lady said ten quid!!!!! I didn't have the heart to haggle any lower and handed the tenner over. Hours later sold it on eBay buy it now for £250 . I suppose Walton Street car boot is abit like Tk Maxx, if you trawl through the **** long enough you might find something good
I bought a copy of "Biggles Flies Again", pubd. by Penguin (1941) at a church hall book-sale in 1982-ish. I didn't know much about the book, except I'd never seen a Penguin publication of Biggles. There was a collector there and I watched his eyes when I showed him it. He was no poker-player, so I knwe I'd found something.... It cost me 10p and I sold it through Book Collector mag. for £23. Just looked on AbeBooks and they've got one @ over £400.......
working with my Dad in Kirk Ella on an empty property - we found in the loft numerous pot pipes with the Hull 3 crowns stamp , a small bunch of empty cigarette boxes and cards a silver knife and the best was a porcelain doll in its harrods box and bag - the doll was a sample type . we sold it for only £60 a fair amount of money around 1986-1988 ish - ive still got all the other bits . my other find was in 2007 - 10p for a first edition Shakespeare book of sonnets & poems - what made it more unique was on the cover is a stamped crest for a school in Aberdeen - the book was printed in the 1880s - bought at Crathie church nr Balmoral next door to our holiday spot - it was the day we went to see Queenie at the castle , but saw her returning by car ... on way home we went to the church for a look at the charity sale only to find the queen had parked in our driveway and spent some time in the bloody church ha !
My wife picked up a golfing cartoon book at a pub auction. We sent it to Philips who sold it at the auction they run at the Open for £150. It cost her £1.50
This thread just brings back memories of nights in the old New York night club. Picked a fair few antiques, but I don't know if 'best' is a superlative I'd use.
Ah what great nights I had in Jacks, happy days. Antiques they might of been but you know what they say about old tunes and fiddles. Much better than Tower where I am sure the song "Who let the dogs out " was penned
My best find was an old Fiesta XR2i, in immaculate condition, private plate, 90k on the clock, full service history and only two owners for £250. Can't remmber what I haggled her down to think it was around £200. The girl had had it as a first car and didn't have a ****ing clue what it was, she just thought it was a really old worthless Fiesta. I'd had it two days before I sold it for £650, I'd been told by someone from ford owners club the enthusiasts would pay upwards of £1500 for it, but there was another lad selling an extremely rare motocross bike for £400 which I desperately wanted. Again the lad had no idea what it was. The bikes sat in my warehouse now but is worth £2500-£3000 and will probably only go up in value. Lovely old two stroke thing.
91! Wait for him to snuff it before selling. The value of the painting will only increase because of it & time's on your side, not his.
Bought a series of books online (Tim and Tobias) that id read when I was little. They rarely appeared on ebay as they were out of print so I listed all 8 individually. Within an hour i had someone contact me demanding i take them off sale for 50 quid. I said no, I wanted to see how they would do. This person hounded me for the whole 10 days saying id made a mistake and his was the best price. In the end the bids went mental and i made close to £300 for the set of 8. At least this chap ate humble pie at the end and said id done the right thing
Ben, Ellewood lives in America, he will probably go and bump the artist off just so the value of the painting goes up. I see it on TV every week....
couple of things to check - 1. whether its been painted over a print (embellished) - that happens a lot - 2. whether its a copy of an earlier painting - again that happens a lot - 3. the chinese pour fakes out and are pretty good at it - a good auction house will help also google artist on images and see copies of his work and see whether its recorded anywhere - the frame doesn't look all that old although the canvas may have been reframed at some stage
Elle.....remember to add it to your insurance....you know what them fires are like in your neck of the woods !
