Follow-up on Company School Portraits, India miniatures on ivory

Some of you might recall that I was helping a friend with a large set (50) miniature 19th century portraits from India. These are painted on thin 2 1/2 inch ovals of ivory. They remain unsold, it was kind of an interesting process.

We contacted Christies, sent photos, (I was told by phone that they had a $10K minimum in certain categories). Heard back after 4 weeks, these did not make the cut.

I wound up contacting Bonhams, sent photos and 2 weeks later got a phone call that started with, "We've got some good news/bad news". They were interested, and placed an estimate of $4-6K on the set, but their advice was to hold on to them because without a copy of the original import papers (in this case would have been from the mid-1800's) they could not accept them. Was told this was a change from the Fish and Wildlife department on endangered species, spring of 2014. The Bonhams rep even added that we could not donate these to a museum without that documentation, which we did not have.

I wound up giving the group back to my friend, who I think is going to hold on to them.

 

I wonder if these could be "repatriated" back to their home country of India.

 

Yes, we were hoping a bidder from India would get them, alas.

I know there are ways to sell these without going to an auction house (trust me, all of the options ran through my head) but due to the nature of the sale, I was not willing to entertain that as they were not my property and couldn't take any risks.

My friend who has these has been employed as power of attorney for a family who needs to sell some antiques, she asked me to help her identify and appraise them/decide where to go with them (I was paid even --my first time paid for a consult!) One option all along might have been for me to list them on my Ebay account, I mean others are up for sale -- one seller used the language, "painted on some kind of organic material" so there is a way to do it, but I did not want them on my account for a million reasons. Buyer's protections, charge backs, for starters.

I'm an elephant lover, what ever is best, I'm for -- whether this is the way to go, I guess we'll see how this plays out in the world of antiques selling.

 

What I meant was that your friend perhaps contact the Indian Embassy and talk to them.

Probably no money involved , but the portraits would at least "go home".

 

I think the first hope was to sell them, but possibly an idea!

One thing I learned while researching these (if I have it correct...) is that they were produced for export, purchased by the British but I'm sure someone in India would love to have them.

At the moment they are back in the family's hands -- with all notations, comments from auction houses, etc. I won't really be involved from this point on, but it was interesting going through the process. Thanks for the thoughts!

 

Unbelievable some of the stupid laws that have been upheld in this country, and yet no one will even stop Ebola from coming through our borders. SMH