Word: wells
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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American folk art, however humble its origin, is soaring in value as well-crafted objects like pewter pots, duck decoys, quilts and scrimshaw (erotic examples in particular) become ever scarcer. Photographs are commanding fine arts prices; an original print of Ansel Adams' Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico sold last week for a record $22,000. "We can see the day when a single photograph will fetch $100,000," says Philippe Garner, a Sotheby's photographic expert. Almost any object from the once scorned 19th century now seems as precious as Suez Canal Co. stock was in its heyday. Twenty...
...enamels; Italian baroque paintings and Renaissance statuary; American primitives; Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities. Also upward bound are American Indian artifacts, antique gold watches, rare manuscripts, books and autographs, Victorian and Edwardian jewelry, and art deco furniture. It seems that nothing that can be collected is being neglected. Well, almost nothing. Among the few items that have not appreciably gained in value in recent years: Jacobean furniture and portraits by lesser English artists of the 18th and 19th centuries...
...average buyer today is fairly young, probably in his 40s, and well-to-do. "Along with old money and society," says Atlanta Auctioneer David Ramos, "the young guy who scored in real estate is becoming an increasing part of our clientele. Also there are successful young lawyers who are investing in antiques for their homes and offices." The protests of purists notwithstanding, many people are buying tangibles as a green hedge against wilting paper of whatever kind, dollars or marks, stocks or bonds. As Sotheby's chairman, Peter Wilson, points out: "There's not a single person...
...where the city slicker might once snap up for a song a Revere salver or a federal highboy is as distant a memory as the nickel newspaper. Says Scudder Smith, editor of Antiques and Arts Weekly, "You look around some of these little country auctions and there are 25 well-known dealers there...
English auction firms are particularly renowned for their well-connected staffers' ability to sniff out what they delicately call "aristocratic sales of necessity" (translation: the duke needs cash). Even the sophisticated rich often have unexpected treasures on their premises. Before sitting down to lunch at their country estate with the Earl and Countess of Verulam, Christie's Oriental ceramics director, Sir John Figgess, asked his host "if there was a cloakroom [bathroom] handy." There were two cloakrooms, allowed Verulam: "You take this one and I'll take that one." In the John that Sir John took...