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The Theater of Estate Sales, Part One
by Jean
Hubbell Asher
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What all
estate sales have in common is the element of theater. There are
two aspects of the staged event: the behind the scenes phase of set
up and the public face of the sale itself. Both aspects of the sale
are rich subjects for high drama, theater of the absurd or sometimes
a farce. Perhaps the sales could best be described as improvisational
with deeply moving personal sagas tempered with, in some instances, comic
relief.
The main characters
for these plays are the owners, the sellers who are the professional group
hired to run the sale and the buyers. Sometimes even the inanimate
objects, the items to be sold, take on a life of their own. All the characters
touch these objects for a moment in time. The per diem workers are
both vital participants as well as being observers not quite central to
the main plot. It is the location of the sale and the prominence of the
house acting as scenery and stage set that are the key elements; a good
setting attracts a wide audience. The core themes of the sale are
played out between the interrelationships of the main characters - the
owners, the sellers and the buyers
Before the
curtain rises on a sale there are a predictable list of chores to be performed:
physically setting up the sale, pricing, appraising, bringing in the props
(showcases, tables, signs, marking materials), arranging for police to
direct traffic, getting a permit from the town and promoting the sale through
ads.
These routine
chores take on a life of their own in the workings between owner and seller.
The owner is generally absent from the actual sale but in the pre-sale
phase is a dominant force. Many owners are very reluctant to part
with their possessions; they have already sold their house and find it
difficult to let go of these furnishings. Although they have hired
professionals to run the sale, the owners often want to micro-manage. They
might balk at prices or remove a piece from the agreed upon inventory.
These tensions express much about the human resistance to change -- especially
when the change means very reduced circumstance
One rather painful
sale was for just such a pair of owners who were an antiques dealer and
her husband in the process of moving South. The wife was clearly
not reconciled to the move. Her despair was compounded by the task
at hand of selling their personal belongings which their new house could
not accommodate and selling off the balance of her antiques inventory.
As hard as she tried to mask her despair it would become more obvious as
each piece was priced. The wife had hoped that everything would be priced
at full retail market value.
Finally, she was
persuaded to sell in bulk during a two day sale as they needed to do and
empty the house of the remaining inventory. She would have to trust the
firm’s best judgment and experience with pricing. Intellectually, she understood
and the problem seemed to be solved.
Set-up week went
very well. It was physically demanding on us all as we filled the
basement with the contents of the attic. It was logistically demanding
as we tried to set up in and around the furniture they were to keep and
which would not be moved out until two days prior to the sale. It was time
consuming as there were literally more than a thousand plus items to price.
In addition to antiques from her business, both she and her husband had
an extensive personal collection of smalls, consisting of boxes and banks.
They seemed appreciative
of our attention to detail and were very gracious. We had daily coffee
breaks with them, sometimes lunch and they were helpful at every turn.
The couple provided a wealth of knowledge about any piece in question which
eliminated the need for research. The night before the sale everyone
was pleased. The house looked great and the prices, although a bit
on the optimistic side were within the realm of possibility.
When we arrived at the
sale the next morning, however, we found that prices had been altered
on piece after piece, both small and large. We experienced
a sinking feeling that comes with running a sale and knowing that you had
been priced out of the market. Instead of the usual brisk buying
frenzy, many buyers looked, admired and walked out empty handed.
Over the course of the two day sale many, many things did find buyers but
the success of the sale was capped before it even began.
The owners stayed
at the house those two days. It must have been agonizing for them
to see that so many prized possessions went begging for a buyer.
The buyers themselves were disappointed with the sale and frustrated that
the sellers had set such high limits on the inventory. The sellers
were depleted by all the effort that had gone into the sale only to have
the owners undermine their efforts. On a much deeper level, however,
it was sad to think of the hours the owners had spent looking at each item
and then, on many of them raising a price $5 to $10 or, with major pieces,
several hundreds of dollars. Here they were at the end of the
day with more than they could ever use for their new smaller quarters.
They had been guided by their heartfelt resistance to moving and it was
costly.
Indeed,
the stories of the owners could fill a book and then some. The circumstance
in which they find themselves at the point when they need to move determines,
in large measure, how they will respond to impending changes. This
common human experience which we all face or have already faced is probably
reflected in the following thumbnail sketches of various owners.
One owner had lived
in a small apartment filled with Scandinavian antiques which reflected
her heritage. She was suffering, though, from the ravages of Alzheimer’s
disease and was living in a nursing home. The possessions left behind were
cut, burned, broken, slashed and in disarray. The owner was past
the point of knowing or caring that these damaged goods were highly desirable
because of her once pedigreed eye.
Some owners are very
unsentimental about the whole process. A woman in her seventies was
leaving her contemporary suburban house for a farmhouse in Maryland, replete
with pigs living indoors and out, chickens, llamas - and a fourth husband.
She had no trouble selling what she wouldn’t need but she did know what
she had in terms of value. She was more than happy to see something
sell as long as it met her price. The unsentimental ones tend to
be people who are moving on to a happier place.
A totally detached
owner, interested only in maximizing his profit, was a contractor who had
purchased the house and its contents from the estate of a local veterinarian.
Working for him was tedious; his financial expectations unrealistic.
But the shadow of the deceased veterinarian hung over the sale and working
for this man we never met was a pleasure. The doctor had been a master
woodcarver and had a passion for duck carving - his extensive collection
of carved birds was in fact the feature of the sale. He had been
a very generous man, judging from arrangements he made for his housekeeper
after his death. He had been a very loving husband, judging by the
tender daily notes to his wife, who predeceased him. He had been
highly literate, judging by his well worn books. The deceased owner
carried this sale.
Next time, Jeannie will continue will her profiles
of those owners who are broken-hearted, fragile and shrouded in mystery
as well as the buyers who use the sale as weekend sport, or as voyeurs,
and specialists. But wait for the tale of the Irish 'castle owner' and
a bout of fisticuffs.
Part
Two >>
Jean Hubbell Asher has had her own decorating
business for the last 30 years and worked with her mother, Ruth Hubbell,
for 18 years as an exhibitor at the Winter Antiques Show. More recently,
Jeannie managed the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Antiques Show in Norwalk,
Connecticut from 1993-1996. Married to an artist, the mother of three children
and grandmother to three, Jean can be e-mailed at jhasher13@aol.com
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©2000 Jean Hubbell
Asher for SeniorWomenWeb |
