Just up on British ebay one of those prints that make me fully realise just by how much we have been engineers of our own downfall: it is Kenneth Broad's nursery piece 'The coach' at a quite extraordinary starting bid of £500.
This of course is not serious as a price but does give you an idea how much the print blogs have managed to give sellers on ebay the wrong idea. I remember Clive who used to run Art and the Aesthete buying this print and its partner 'The gardener and the lady' a few years back for something like £60 or £70 (but perhaps it was less). That said this looks in pretty good condition and as the seller quite rightly says the colours are remarkably fresh and bright.
Anyway, in case anyone things my primary motive is to give ebay dealers more stick, this time it isn't. I just thought readers ought to see what is a good photo of a nice print - and of course gasp at the chutzpah. And in case anyone is wondering, I will be back to posting more regularly once my new ISP deal comes through around 1st May. My current one has been costing me the earth. Perhaps I should flog Broad's A Sussex Farm on ebay. Anyone like to make an offer? Say £1,000?
Looking forward to the return of the Master after this signal of life. Watching over us and preserving us from ignorance and foolish impuls acquisitions.
ReplyDeleteI must admit I don't remember this particular passage from the sermon on the mount.
ReplyDeleteCharles,
Deleteit's great to hear from you, I have been missing your postings! And for someone who is able to turn water into wine, money should not really be a problem, should it?
Klaus
It is when it's forty pieces of silver.
ReplyDeleteWhat a bloody cheek! The seller has the chutzpah to raid the less than salient parts of my now retired blog and then slap that outrageous price on that woodcut. It's beyond dealer prices...it's delusional prices. It's like the pitiful fool who has Wiston River by F. Morley Fletcher on Ebay for 4,400 and each time the sale ends, and no takers....the field being as esoteric as it is...apparently doesn't deter MANY sellers. Three times round but no change in the price...I am not sure if it's arrogance or hope springing eternal. Having said that, a STUNNING Pieter Irwin Brown sold last week for 300 USD...in mint condition, not laid down but just a little flat and dull to my taste. However...for that price! So it goes to show that there are the deluded and their are the reasonable who declare that the market should find it's own level.
ReplyDeletePeople look at what the trade are asking and appear to forget the trade are buying on ebay. On Saturday alone I saw two prints (one being the recent Ian Fleming etching) for re-sale from established dealers - one online, one at a gallery. Joe Lebovic was asking less for the Broad. I just want to know what makes people think collectors would pay that kind of price. It's now down to £200, I think. These reverse auctions are utterly foolish. Why do ebay let people get away with it?
ReplyDeleteIndeed the trade DO and ARE buying on Ebay. It's easy to see and easy to find, with a regular scan of Ebay and the usual dealers, it is easy to find, especially when many of the works on paper are numbered. I have long given up being outraged by brazen dealers, but regular sellers are a different matter. These are the people who stumble upon something at a job lot auction and then Google it when they get home, thinking they can sell something and fund their Majorca trip.
ReplyDeleteEbay, as you well know Charles, is a free-for-all, and although it can be exciting it can also be an art/antiques equivalent of a car crash. You know you aren't supposed to look but you can't help it.
I think it's a pity some contributions are completely anonymous, I mean not even a name. It's difficult weighing and valuying the contents and is adding to a rather suspicious and secretive atmosphere. In a place were openness and transparency is preached and wanted. Gerrie
ReplyDeleteOh I am sorry Gerrie, this is Clive, and I am anonymous because I have this problem logging in. I do sometimes forget to put my name at the bottom. I am not doing it intentionally I am sure that Charles knows exactly who I am when he sees the comments. My particular turn of phrase and my general ennui is easily detectable from my ramblings at Art and the Aesthete. I am not trying to be mysterious.
ReplyDeleteHello Clive, I knew it was you, ofcourse, but there're usually the most interesting opinions and extra important information in these comments to read. In perticular when the topic is actual, controversial or new. Knowing from whom they came is adding more weight and support to the Blogs reliabillity as a source. I think most critical readers are following and reading the comments also because they want to learn. And there's already so much unreliable stuff on the wwb as it is. I think we should try and treasure and maintain reliable ones like MP (and your late Art and the Aesthete)as a reference. To me they really are.
ReplyDeleteIt would be very hard for any of us to mistake Clive's style for anyone else.
ReplyDeleteAnd anyone who has read this far will want to know the Broad is now down to £125, with just over a day to go. It all helps add to the sense of total anti-climax.
Well firstly, thank you Gerrie. High praise indeed, and very generous. I do understand your point, that yes people can post anything, and it may lack evidence and/or credibility. I think that your larger point regarding veracity of information on the internet is also well taken. The world wide web is more akin to the wild wild west.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Broad, Charles...I wonder if the seller is following the discussion here in the comment section? I think that at 250 USD it's not a bad price, but I think it's more interesting to see where the market takes it...because at this point, the market appears to be taking it nowhere.
Well, exactly. But my feeling is the individual wants to sell and always intended to lower the price if necessary. But like you, my beef is with the buy-it-now schtick. You can hardly blame people for using it if ebay allow the practice. It's getting more common and people keep banging the same thing back in, with the same result.
ReplyDeleteThe other problem is with the image. Not everyone wants to fork out £125 even on a nursery print, no matter how fine it might be.