Looking to sell
It is an hour before the Bonhams & Butterfields auction house in Los Angeles is scheduled to open for its monthly consignment clinic, and the line is already wrapped around the block.
People file in with possessions in milk crates and take a number, waiting for appraisers to estimate the fair market value of paintings, lamps, French art glass or Civil War commemorative medals. It’s like “Antiques Roadshow,” only on Sunset Boulevard.
The crowd bears a wild assortment of things: Tahirah Brown brings antique golf clubs, which she says once belonged to actor Jim Backus, perhaps best known as Thurston Howell III in “Gilligan’s Island.” Robert Greer and Michael Baird have an antique bronze temple bell.
The prevailing sentiment is the same: In a struggling economy, people just want to be informed about what they own.
“We’ve held on to these long enough,” Baird says. “We want to get a feeling for what these items are worth.”
Carolyn Mani, Bonhams’ director of the monthly Sunset Estate sale where some of these items may be sold, offers a more sober reason why the auction house has seen a surge in traffic at the free appraisal clinics held on the last Wednesday of every month.
“People are downsizing or moving because they have lost their jobs,” Mani says. “We have definitely seen an increase in people trying to find the best way to sell their items.”
In some instances, Mani says, calls come from people whose houses had been on the market for a year, and now they need to empty the place to close escrow.
The majority of people who lined up at Bonhams on Wednesday didn’t have items worth at least $500, the auction house’s minimum to qualify for the Sunset Estate sales. Bonhams considers consignments in 26 categories, including cars and wine, and some, such as paintings, remain level. Decorative arts and furnishings, however, have seen a spike in the number of would-be sellers hoping their garage or attic has yielded something of high value.
Appraisers give estimates with lightning speed -- often with disappointing results. “Those frames were made in Mexico” is the refrain overheard multiple times on this day. But sometimes, the results are surprising.
A Bufano bronze cat sculpture is estimated between $4,000 to $6,000 -- “a total surprise,” says Jason Stein, a specialist in 20th century decorative arts.
“I’ve seen some phenomenal things come through this venue that we normally wouldn’t see,” Mani says. “We recently sold a wonderful piece of Korean pottery that came in through the clinic.”
The pottery later sold at auction for $2.1 million.
“These are rare and unusual and tangible items that you can enjoy and will appreciate,” Stein says. And for many, it beats the stock market.
“It’s a buyer’s market,” says Scot Levitt, Bonhams director of fine arts.
Because of the precarious state of real estate, prices for collectible furnishings are down.
“It is a great time to buy a piano,” Mani says. Look for several -- including a Steinway and a Wurlitzer -- from $500 to $5,000 at the June 7 Sunset Estate auction.
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