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Asian Art Forums

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One of a kind ivory pieces

Posted By: Tim
Posted Date: Nov 30, 2012 (01:51 PM)

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Mr. Sommerfield,

I'm more of a guest than an expert to the Asian Art Forum, so I am not 100% sure how they view using the posting as advertising, but I think they frown on it.

Nevertheless, in viewing your 2 items I am reminded of the adage, size isn't everything, and have the following comments:

First, those familiar with Asian art, and there are many more qualified than myself, know that most of the finest masterpieces (and most valuable) are generally small in stature, sometimes only a few inches in size. This is especially true for ivory.

More important than size, what is relevant to true Asian art enthusiasts is the quality of the craftsmanship/artistry and the historic importance of an artifact. Your 2 pieces are lacking in both of these areas - they were commercially produced for the Western market.

Had you presented these pieces to this forum in a scholarly pursuit, perhaps as someone looking for further information about the items, I think it would be unfair to be overly critical.

However, since you are simply advertising your upcoming auction I feel that I can be blunt. Your auction estimates of $400k-$800k and $40k-$50k are absurd. Aside from being commercially made of low quality, there are no past auction records to support these exorbitant estimates.

I can only surmise you are intentionally misleading a less educated buyer into bidding on items that have only decorative value no where near what you've stated.

I appeal to your sense of responsibility as an honest auctioneer and ask that you adjust your estimates so they are inline with similar quality items. You can do so by checking past sales results on www.liveauctioneers.com (which your auction is listed).

Note that we are now reviewing postings before posting due to the large volume of SPAM and inappropriate postings on the forum. The validation process may take up to 12 hours.

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