Featured Antiques you sold that you now regret selling.

I doubt I will see another one of these crates.

 

A pair of Argillite candlesticks.... pre 1900

 

ps. I have no regrets ......
I could have held some items longer...
asked for more at certain times..
some items got away from me....
& on occasion I could have researched better.....

but as a dealer I understood I'd have to sell some of my best items , or collectors would not have come around for more !

 

Everything I sold on Catawiki with no reserve price

 

I sold a ca. 1860 mahogany washstand with a ceramic tile backsplash from Belgium by way of Brazil. I traded it out for a Meeks rosewood etagere from New York ca. 1855.
I still have the etagere and I love it, but I REALLY wish I still had that one-of-a-kind washstand. I’ve never seen anything remotely like it, and I’m told that the dealer re-sold it the same afternoon she got it.

 

Ugh!

 

Dang, those are nice. What did they bring?

 

not nearly enuf.........

 

Fair nuff!

 

I picked them up at a Waddingtons auction.....
sitting there with a dealer / pal..... we kinda got everyone's attention ....
bidding ruthlessly hither and yon .....
lots of argillite poles that my pal went after....... but he ignored the candlesticks , as he did not understand the history........... but I did !
At one point we were bidding against each other ...sitting right next to each other....and the auctioneer paused the auction...... to question us on our intent..... or as it would seem......our stupidity........ the crowd got a hearty laugh !!!!

I missed a lot that day too..... full large polar bear rug..... I let slip away for $ 700.

 

I had a Stanley Mouse original painting that I really loved. I put an I don’t want to sell it price on it and eventually someone paid it. I didn’t really follow the trend in the uptick on prices on his work and what was a somewhat crazy price when I listed it wasn’t quite as crazy when it sold I realized. I made a couple k on it but I think it would have been a good long term investment piece in addition to being something that gave me a lot of joy to live with. For anyone who is not familiar with him he was, among other things a prominent 60’s and 70’s rock n roll poster artist. He created a lot of the iconic Grateful Dead imagery that has become ubiquitous in that world. The buyer managed an art gallery that was doing a big show on his work and was including my painting. I think that’s the one that hurt the most to sell. I had been considering pulling it down or hiking the price way higher slightly before it sold too. I had been doing thought exercises on how I’d feel if it sold and then it did. Oh well c’est la vie!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Mouse

 

Sounds like a good auction! The ones that got away hurt almost as much as the ones you had and sold.

I have what I believe is a small argillite pole. I went back and forth on it being real at first but I think it is. I’ll have to show it one day.

I brought a friend to an auction once. His first one. He bid against me on a box of NA stone artifacts. I ripped him a new one on the spot. It then occurred to me that many of the other bidders and the auctioneer heard me. I still feel bad about it. I assumed that it went without saying that since I was showing him the ropes he wouldn’t do that. He had no idea what was what and so figured if I was bidding on something it must be good value. That one really twisted my knobs.

 

breastplate....... coins , Indian head pennies.... 1895 to 1903 ...
the wear, was undeniable !!
the bone tubes had dug themselves into the leather strips....

Boy would I like to have held on to that one.....

 

Yup....that was one of my 1st in the room auctions....
and, he.....told me what he was going to bid on....more or less, I was free to go after anything else.............. but neither of us noticed that we were bidding on the same item......until the auctioneer stopped us in our tracks !!

Christ was I embarrassed !

 

u got a pole ?....... throw it up !

 

Yep, THIS.

There has been the occasional, "Oh, I wish I'd kept that!" but the feeling doesn't last long.
But I also sometimes had things sell at a higher price than I felt they should have.
It all washes out, in the end.

 

It all evens out in the end.............is what my current auction house vp keeps telling me......

and ya....some stuff..... POPS......... while other stuff...does not ..... but last fall...it did not..... even out !!

That happens too !

 

I haven't sold much I wish I'd kept. Wish I'd gotten more money when I sold it maybe....

 

Every now and then I think of this image. I sold it 30+ years ago. I still like it, but don't need it.

Not hard regrets.