Another 19th century fork

I picked up this 1860's-1880's fork last night for one dollar. It is three tine, wood handled with a pewter inlay. My efforts to find any good solid research on forks of this type has not  been too successful. But I am always happy to pick up something that is a 'true' antique. I still have the other one I got last week and have it up for sale already, we'll see how this one does along with it. From what I can find the three tine forks are older than last weeks four tine. The poking part of the fork is made of a soft iron, probably rolled and stamped.  

Rare

Rare is a word that has bothered me for a long time in online auctions. Seems like I am not the only one. While I don't know anything about WorthPoint, I really liked this article.

Appraisals

I liked this article about appraisals and the role of 'field work'

Flea market.

One of the places I hunt for antiques is the local flea market. It is a mix of junk, trash, household goods and various detritus of mankind. Sometimes there are good things to be had. Sometimes I can spend a couple hours looking around to find nothing. There are a few dealers there that do have nicer material, but I rarely buy from them because they already took their premium from buying previously. This means that I cannot profit from the resell. As you can see, in some places there is some digging to be done.

On this day my best find was a hand bound book from the Roycrofters. Not a rare one, but a good condition version of Elbert Hubbard's Scrap Book. I picked it up for five dollars, and believe I can sell it for a little more. I also was supposed to pick up some Charter Oak silverware, but the chap that was supposed to bring it forgot it at home.

One thing I forgot to mention is how often I have to stop and wash my hands here. Not five minutes after I arrived I picked up a Navy WWII issue syrup pitcher and got sticky crap all over them. 

What Makes an Expert?

I meet a lot of folks that know a lot of things about antiques.  I trust and follow the advice of many of them. I also meet a lot of people that tell me things about antiques that I know to be false or find out later that they were misinformed. When I first started in the trade I believed everybody.  I don't do this anymore.  I still try to listen to everybody because even if I know they are misinformed, it is good to know how and possibly why this is.

I don't get to meet many true experts. These folks have spent hours studying the nuance of history of objects. I read recently that to understand a category of antiques you need to handle at least 500 pieces. I think this might be true.

I had a boss tell me once that one became an expert when others started to refer you to you as an expert. I think this might be true as well.

Working definition of the Antiques Trade

Working definition of the Antiques Trade

The antiques trade relies on the movement of a material object from a place where it is undervalued to a place where it is valued and extracting the surplus value created in that movement.

Example One:

            At the flea market, I purchased a 1940’s Boy Scout fork knife and spoon set for a dollar.  A person or persons (I don’t know) comes through my booth and buys anything Boy Scout related that I put out.  I moved the object across town. It did not require any modification, cleaning, repair etc. I mean I literally moved it less than three miles across a geographic space. It sold for sixty dollars. The total profit is about 45 dollars if we consider booth rent, gas time etc. That is 45 dollars for moving an object from a space where it was undervalued to a space where it has greater value.

            Of course, this makes it sound easy.  There is an art to knowing what objects to purchase, research time, expertise etc. Knowing what to buy and where to sell it is a bit trickier than it sounds but in the end, this is the whole game of antiques.

And yeah, a 1940’s BSA mess kit is probably more a collectable than an antique but lets keep some fluid definitions here.  I might talk about the difference later but right now, I don’t want to get in to it.

Example Two:

            A friend of mine bought a group of dolls on top of a table at an estate auction. Within twenty minutes, he had sold a portion of these dolls to another person for about twice the cost of the original purchase. This covered his table cost and created a surplus value or profit. The purchaser had been busy when this table came up for sale and still wanted this group of objects.  In this case, the movement was not across space but across time.

The Takeaway:

          Knowing what to purchase, and where to sell it is tricky but in the end the antique dealer is an object mover that extracts value by shifting the market of the object. To do this the antiques dealer must know the object and its surplus value. Or just get lucky.