A dream came true for two people selling things at online auctions this week. A man who regularly travels to Europe often buys antiques and later sells his finds at Aspire Auctions of Cleveland. He recently brought in an ivory box etched with wavy patterns of gold and niello (a black alloy), set with turquoise and a cabochon ruby on the top and another ruby on the inside cover. It was listed as mid-19th-century Persian and estimated at $700 to $900. The bidding was all by computer or phone, so it was a huge surprise when the box sold for $410,025 (plus premium, for a total of $471,529). We talked to Cynthia Colling of Aspire who said the bidding ended as a war between two European bidders. It opened at $250 and moved quickly to over $5,000. Then there were a series of bids jumping by $100 or so each time. At $60,025 there were two bidders and the bid jumped to $160,000. Six bids later, with less than one minute to go, the bid was $410,000. But an automatic bid came in 44 seconds later to win at $410,025. The seller made the right choice, to sell online to an international audience.
Cynthia said they are translating the foreign writing on the box. It is thought that it belonged to royalty and was used to hold jewels. The new owner didn't say what made this box such a treasure.
The second winner was a woman who brought an 18th-century oil painting of the Venice Grand Canal to be auctioned at nearby Sloans & Kenyon in Chevy Chase, Md. It was unsigned but from the school of Canaletto and was priced a modest $6,000 to $8,000. The owner said her family owned it since her grandmother bought it on a European trip about 1881. The lucky seller must have been surprised when the painting sold to a European buyer for $687,125.
