Tales from ebay: Leslie Moffat Ward

Readers will know I don't generally hand out tips on ebay items up for sale and this post is no exception. But it is a cautionary tale of just how badly things can go wrong if you don't pay almost constant attention to our favourite website. There is no point being occasional about ebay; you must be unremitting. And this is why. The colour print you see above is by the British artist Leslie Moffat Ward (1888 - 1978). Perhaps not exciting but an artist I've liked for a long time without ever finding anything decent by him ie one of his better landscape etchings from the 1920s. This rare woodcut is from the same period, I would say, and looks very much like a steal from SG Boxsius' Autumn. Some few weeks back it came up on ebay with the far-fetched starting price of £90. Having failed to sell, it came back a week or two later, now starting at a more reasonable £75. Even so, no one was biting. So, finally the vendor put it in at £50. And what happened? Two charlies slogged it out, bid after bid, and took the price to £156! I mean I like Ward but I don't want to make a fool of myself. You couldn't make it up.