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The Anatomy of Estate Sales, Part Three
In the last part of this series we made a reference to an estate sale whose potential worth was so great that the formalities of contracts became almost secondary. This is a rare occurrence but when Canning & Watson received a call about this proposed estate sale in New Canaan, Connecticut, the partners already knew they wanted to do it. The owner of the property was the widow of two exceptional men, both powerful and influential in the fields of politics and business. In her own right, she was a generous benefactor to the town.
The house was not yet on the market; the date for a sale was unknown as, too, was the inventory to be sold. The owner was moving to Maine and knew what furnishings she would like to take with her but she had a large family, all of whom would lay claim to the available remains. Quite often, the claims of a family bring out a level of animosity and greed that you'd prefer not to see. You knew instinctively, however, that with this owner, there would be an equitable distribution of the remaining objects handled with grace...and they were.
The physical setting was extraordinary -- a gracious house set back from the road on 25 or so manicured acres. The house itself was beautifully maintained and, therefore, a pleasure in preparing for that estate sale. Even the most ordinary set of glasses seemed to be worth more in this setting because everything showed so well in these lovely surroundings. The owner displayed a remarkable level of trust in Canning & Watson; she moved to her residence in Maine and left them free to price, appraise and display the contents to their best advantage. Needless to say, these were ideal working conditions.
Although now sparsely furnished, the furniture was very good: two Georgian chests, one in oak, one in mahogany; a Regency child's convertible high chair; a miniature rosewood piano forte. There were also leather and Chinese screens, Oriental rugs, good crystal, silver, a considerable amount of corporate memorabilia and many things French, probably from the owners government tenure in Paris.
The art work and clocks, though, were the major features of the sale. The clocks included a French Empire figural clock; a Regency brass inlaid rosewood bracket clock; a Dresden ormolu pagoda-shaped clock encrusted with cameos and jewels by Johan Geyger; an English William and Mary ebonized bracket clock by John War; a Louis XVI mahogany four pillar clock by LePin, the horologist to the King, etc. etc. The value of these clocks were in the many, many thousands of dollars. The art work included oil paintings by Georg Inness, Jonas Lie, A.H.. Wyant, Alfred Mira, Marcel Dyf, to name a few, as well as many watercolors, lithographs, pastels and gouaches. The total value of the paintings was staggering even for an estate sale as rich as this one would be.
Everyone was excited about this sale. The public wanted to see the house and maybe buy a token along the way. The retail buying crowd was salivating over the possibilities. Their zeal, however, was sublime compared to the anticipation on the part of the dealers. Here was an opportunity to buy pieces of very high quality which were part of a private collection and therefore fresh to the market. In addition, their provence (having belonged to this particular owner) increased the value of what they would be able to purchase. Once the ads appeared, the estate sale company was inundated with phone calls.
By 8 a.m., the line of prospective customers was 200 or more deep. Some few....the voyeurs...were quite content to wait for the chance to wander this wonderful house. Their patience level was helped by the appearance of fair weather but for most part, however, the amount of tension evident in the line was very high. All the competitive urges typical of a smaller sale were magnified. There was endless sniping and occasional physical jockeying for position. The cluster of groups were talking together in hushed tones, their bodies rigid, their hand motion clearly twitchy.
This was a sale that would delight most but would enrage a few who would be unsuccessful in their buying. As I looked at the lineup, I could already sense a fault line. Two dealers with a long and vocal history of animosity between them unfortunately stood next to each other in line. They both collected the same kinds of merchandise and both were keeping score of who would possibly get what, when and how. Both would enter the house in the first wave and hopefully would disperse to opposite ends of the house or, at the very least, opposite ends of a room.
At 9 a.m., when the door opened, I saw both dealers running madly in my direction screaming over each other: "I want this, this and this." Despite the fact that the same scene was being played out throughout the room for different merchandise, I had no trouble hearing the frantic tones of this dynamic...and antagonistic...duo. Obviously, the dealer with the lower number was a nanosecond ahead of her rival who, for unknown reason, continued to follow rather than chart a new course. When their buying frenzy finally stopped, there was no gracious loser or winner to be found. They were both equally backbiting; the only difference being that one was gloating and the other scowling. I felt badly for the dealer who came up empty handed but there it was; her timing was off by a millimeter. It was about 9:20 a.m. when this particular scene ended; I felt that I had already done a day's work.
The little war story, however, was in contrast to the generally upbeat mood of the sale which was to be an unqualified success. Almost everybody left with mission accomplished: a tour of the house; some nice pieces of corporate memorabilia; the perfect dining table for their own house or some exceptional new inventory for their antiques or art gallery business. And the bottom line was eminently satisfying for both the owner and the estate sale sellers.
Most sales fall short of this sale but there was one in the offing that had great promise. This sale also took more than a year from the time of the first house call to its day of fruition. The tentative inventory at the beginning was staggering; an unusually wonderful array of antiques to be sold. The house was being ut on the market immediately and there was already a prospective buyer. The seller-to-be agreed to do some initial set up to expedite both the sale of the house by arranging pieces to enhance its appearance and pricing to help the heirs decide which pieces they wanted to keep in the family. The prospective buyer never materialized and the house remained unsold, month after month.
When the house finally did go to contract the owners were disappointed to find that the heirs were keeping so many things from the initial tentative inventory. But even a diminished inventory left some wonderful pieces to sell: an English Regency mahogany game table, gilt mirrors, one a convex with eagle cresting; a Sheraton mahogany table; Empire mahogany sleigh beds, a Chippendale drop front desk; many porcelains, Oriental rugs and a very nice coastal oil scene by Witness. This was definitely a very good sale, despite what might have been.
In the last part of this series, Jean reveals the glitches of this well endowed sale, along with the secret of the chicken coop.
