This is a detail from a hand painted KPM porcelain plaque from Berlin. This would have been a very expensive item when new around 120 years ago, having taken incredible skill and many firings to create. It has held its value over the last 10 years and remains highly desirable at around £5500.
whereas everything else has fallen by the wayside. However, even the biggest falls cannot compare with the loss in value of buying new items constructed from veneered MDF! Vintage items from antiquity to Art Deco are all accessible to the modern buyer if they have the desire to find them and the old saying “Always buy the best you can afford” has never been more true.
If it was cheap when it was made it will be cheap now. This applies very strongly to the 21st century marketplace. Many traditional collectables have seen their values collapse, especially Victoriana such as Staffordshire figures and Prattware pot lids. These items were virtually given away when they were new so why should they be worth anything now! If it was expensive new, it will be valuable now. Emphasis
should always be on quality.
What does the future hold for antiques and their values? It is virtually impossible for prices of traditional brown furniture and general decorations and art to fall any lower. The values of 20th century design and contemporary art continue their dramatic rise in value. Will they suffer the same fate in 50 or 100 years time?
The highest auction price ever for a work of art was recently achieved with Francis Bacon’s triptych of Lucien Freud, fetching $127 million (£83 million) at Christies New York on November 12. No one in the Art market would ever have predicted these kind of levels. Christies also sold Jeff Coons’ “Balloon Dog (Orange)” for $52 million (£34 million), a record for a living artist. Will these price levels be maintained or are they set to go even higher.
These are a pair of uncommon English china Staffordshire dogs. Once the centre of the collecting craze for Victoriana, they have gone out of fashion and prices have crashed. Once worth £600 they would be lucky to make £100 in auction. This demonstrates how cheaply made items have returned to being cheap now.
Page 88 20/20 Finance & Investment
Of course these items are way out of reach for the average collector, being exclusive to the Super Rich like Roman Abramovich or to amply
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