Visit From The Auction Guy

There was so much stuff we hoped he'd come and take away for an auction. It would save us a lot of work and bring in a bit of money here and there.

He arrived with other ideas, and an SUV to haul away what he thought he could get a really good price on. Limited to what would fit in the back of it of course. There was no extra room in the front since his wife was driving while he waited for eye surgery.

Display cabinet? Nope. Tree Man? Yep, he could sell that and Rich could haul it out to his vehicle. I brought out the gazing globe which sat on its top. Roll top desk? Nobody wants those apparently. Wicker trunk? Wood and glass hutch? Contents? Nope, nope and nope. Not enough profit in them for him. Now if the glass pieces said Tiffany, like Louis Comfort and not Carl... but alas, no. (At least the stuff I make comes with love if not a famous name earned by a huge talent. Oh well.)

Native American pottery? Boy Howdy, you betcha! That was his primary prize. If you call him with something to sell, make sure it's either that or sterling silver, either flatware or jewelry would do. Kachinas have no market these days now that they come in huge numbers from China with plastic instead of leather and feather costumes, and while Steve's were from here, the market was overloaded, thus dead. At the very least they had lost any spiritual significance they might have had. Those got packed up to head north with full protection from their trip as soon as the auction guy's car vanished. Steve knows somebody who'd love them.

I'd had the forsight to print out the original list of my pottery I'd made back when I was collection them, containing pueblo of origin, description of the piece, and any info given at purchase like the artist's name. I had been getting pretty fussy about that as I got into collecting them. He pooh-poohed the list but took it anyway, saying there were experts at the auction company who could tell the pueblo of origin on sight of the design. Since he said  that while holding a Jemez pot done in the Acoma thin-line pattern, I held back a chuckle. I'll let them scratch their heads over the list when it all gets there, as it covers the entire collection and I'm selling off over half and keeping the rest. In Mata Ortiz alone there are two pots in a fish effigy pattern. I kept the one with the bigger fish. Let them figure it out. At least there is only one hummingbird sgraffito pot. I had two in "geometric" design as well, one kept, one gone to auction.

He did take some tea pots and cups, possibly Japanese, one a heavy metal one with a burner under it,the other nearly as heavy with no burner, and a matched pair of cloisonne dragon-design large vases which he said aren't actually cloisonne, "just enamel". They were in the original box, with the original stands. Then he took a wooden "arm dragon" and an antique iron which looked like a heavy pot with a handle, a very flat bottom which held hot coals.

After going over contract details, and making sure a check would head up north in care of my son, with whom we'll be staying until we get settled once the house sells, he started loading. His usual procedure is to roll pottery in packing blankets scattered across the back of his SUV. That means, since they tend to be round, that they are invited to roll free and clunk/crack into other pieces on their trip to the auction house. I offered about a dozen middling small boxes to pack them in plus old folded newspaper to wrap then in to protect them. He said no, his wife disagreed. So she and I had a wonderful chat while I hauled out boxes and newspaper and she wrapped up the pottery and set in boxes to protect it properly. The two of us had a very firm meeting of the minds on that topic, and discussed auctions in general to fill in any conversational gaps.

We all were somewhat disappointed by what was left. The auctions we all had worked at were in a small town and lots of inexpensive things were up for sale. On the other hand, were I selling my collectible pottery up there, there would be no market appreciating it. Looking around, we changed our minds yet again about what to move north and what to (try to) sell off at garage sale prices, mentally dropping the asking prices down to divest ourselves of things we didn't believe we'd have room for in our new smaller abode. We're looking at one less bathroom and one less bedroom, with no spillover room like we have here. Of course we can't actually use it here since Rich moved in, so there's that adjustment already made. We'll also have laundry space we can actually reach without climbing over piles of... whatever it all is. If we arrive north with too much stuff, especially furniture, we can get rid of it up there. I just hesitate to have to pay for a larger space to carry more stuff when we don't think we'll put it to good use.

The real change is not that we'll be getting lots less money, since the auction house will be both paying after we hope to leave town, as well as taking out a bigger chunk than Doug Auctions did from the profits. However there will be live internet bidding, good quality descriptions of the items, and they ship around the world instead of relying on just the locals to show up. But it's not just that. We'll have to be holding more garage sales in the next couple weeks. So... busy busy busy. 

And it's scheduled to rain this weekend. California is sharing their leftovers from the Pineapple Express. It's already sprinkled twice here today! Whoopee! Hard to set out wood furniture along the driveway to attract attention when it won't stay dry.

We do have unqualified good news however. Steve's oldest son and his wife are coming down for a week to help load, clean, paint, etc, so the work thus far delayed can get done. We timed their visit for the day after the second bathroom gets fixed/remodeled. Five people just don't share one bathroom comfortably!