And so the March show came.....

Just a quick follow up to the last post, the 30 something guy never came back.

A high end maritime art dealer and auctioneer came by, checked out the Selby, whipped out his cell phone, called a customer, got a positive response, and bought the piece for a small discount from the 1500 asking price.

I'd have to say that that is a happy ending.

West Palm Beach Antique Festival

So this guy, 30 something, comes in my booth at the December show and wants a price on a Nautical painting that I have in inventory. Nice size, 14x24, and in perfect condition, dated 1954.

 

It's not by a highwayman, but by another African-American artist from Miami, locally famous, by the name of Joe Selby (1893-1960), a listed artist whose subjects were the ships and yachts that docked at the Miami city pier between 1921 and 1959.
I give the guy full disclosure, as I will often do, tell him I paid a grand for it and I'm asking $1500.00.
Selby has auction records for similar things from $950 to $3500. I have printed them out to show potential customers as proof if they don't know me. So, I think it's reasonable for me to price it at that level, all the while expecting some sort of counter-offer.

Well, it's way too much for this guy, so he passed on any further meaningful conversation. He studied it for 10 minutes, though, and left only to come back to the booth to gaze longingly at it another 3 or 4 times during that show.

Then he comes back for the January show. He's decided, at this point, to get his tongue wagging, and decided to teach me all about the Selby market.

He really likes it, wants it, but he "informs" me that Selby's work from the 50's are worth no more than, say 4 or 500. He thinks I'd be smart to "cut my losses" and let him buy it.

Naturally, knowing better, I tune that out and tell him I'm still asking 1500, but that price is not carved in stone. But I'm not going to take a loss on a recent purchase, especially when I'm comfortable with the pricing structure.

So, his next idea is to offer a trade.

Now, I LOVE trades, and consider them, from my point of view, the opportunity to make a profit twice. Once on the outgoing inventory (in theory, anyway) and again on whatever I get in trade when I sell the new piece.

So I answer, "Sure. What do you have in mind?"

He's got a 24x36 Sam Newton painting on upson. Naturally, it's wonderful, etc, and his wife will kill him if he lets it go, all that sort of posturing nonsense to make it sound very desirable.

I tell him, "I think we can make some kind of deal, I just have to inspect it". He agrees with that, and off he goes.

Now it's the February show, he shows up and says he's got it in his car, so I tell him to bring it in, which he does. It's in a nice big box and I'm hoping it's one of the gorgeous ones. I have probably bought and sold 400 to 500 of Sam's paintings since 1995, so I'm ready for anything. It could be worth 300 or 3000. I can't wait for him to get it out of the box.

Out it comes, and it looks just like this, only stretched out to 36 inches:

A scene repeated many times by all three Newton brothers (and all the rest of the highwaymen) in every imaginable size. It's pretty, yes, but most collectors already have one, a blue river moonlight with a couple of cabbage palms and some rudimentary dock remnants, there are so many of them, and its value is close to entry level for a decent Sam in perfect condition. If I owned it, it would be for sale at about 750, or half of my Selby asking price. This determination at first glance.

Then I pick it up, angle it in the light, and I see evidence of scrapes, paint loss, and clumsy attempts at cleaning dirt off.  Now, I'm thinking, "condition issues, sell at 500 max" if I had it.

Then I check the signature. It's a genuine scratch-in, done in the 60's or 70's in wet paint, and it clearly reads, "L, Newton".

Wait.....what? "You told me you were bringing a SAM Newton. This is clearly signed by Lemuel."

He ignores that completely and tells me it's actually by HAROLD Newton, and that he signed some of his paintings with an L instead of an H.

I told him that that was preposterous and proceeded to shamelessly state my qualifications for knowledge in the highwaymen market, and specifically my expertise regarding the Newton brothers and their work.

Now this is a guy, who I suspect has seen, besides the 8 Sams, 4 Harolds, and the one lonely Lemuel I have available in my booth at the time, maybe a couple of dozen highwaymen paintings.

He elaborates that "a couple of respected knowledgeable highwaymen dealers have told him that H signed some paintings L".

Of course, I know that can't be true unless these guys are "THOSE KINDS OF DEALERS" who are smart enough to know that Harold's work is the most valuable of the three brothers (and the rest of the group as well) and just happen to have a Lemuel or two for sale while they're spinning their yarn.

So, I think he just made that story up to cover his first lie, or maybe his mistake, that he was bringing a Sam to try and trade.

Rather than call him a liar, which would be counter productive to any possible business, I simply told him that  "those" dealers either were misinformed, certainly not knowledgeable or flat out lying to him.

However, since I felt disrespected that he didn't believe me, but insisted that they were experts, and he believed them, I decided to risk being disrespectful back at him by saying, "Well, those guys are FULL OF SHIT".

Now, Jim Fitch told me almost a decade ago, when I sent him a draft of my first article to be published in Antiques and Art Around Florida, and asked him his thoughts, "Profanity is never acceptable".

In this case, I respectfully disagree.

The next West Palm Beach Antique show is in a couple of weeks. I can't wait to see if this clown shows up, once again to lovingly gaze at the painting he so badly wants.

Mary Ann Carroll appraisal

Typical request:

Hi,

Just recently I have found three paintings by Mary Ann Carroll. According to my mom, they have been in our family for 50 years. I live and have always lived here in Tennessee. They were apparently bought near Orlando, fl in the 60's. I know very little about art, however: I was told that her early work can be worth some money? Any help would be great. One is a 36 by 24 and the other two are both 12 by 24. All three are signed. The larger one has a plain back and the two smaller ones say "canvas board". I can and will send you pictures. My questions would be: how rare are they and how much are they worth?

Thank you again for your help.

 

Typical response:

 

Hi, -----.

This is called a triptych (trip-tick), a matching set of 3 pictures. Most of the highwaymen artists did them.

I can see that they are genuine, and from the 60's, but you already knew that.

The market for these is variable, and yes, they have value as collectible art.

They are worth considerably more now than they were in the 60's when she probably sold them for about $20.00, 5.00 and 5.00

They are also worth less than what they were trading for 5 or 6 years ago before the economy went into the toilet.

This is a cyclical supply and demand market and current prices reflect lack of demand for vintage pieces.

Since she is alive and aggressively marketing her new work it has affected the supply side as well, if only psychologically.

You have not indicated whether or not you want to sell them or keep them.

In either case, you obviously need to know what they are worth.

As well as buying and selling these paintings, I also established a specialized appraisal service about 12 years ago..

Since my knowlege has value, I provide this service for a fee of $ 100.00 per painting.

As a triptych, I would include all three in one certificate for a single fee of $150.00, payable by check or $155.00 payable through Paypal.

The appraisal is based on so-called "replacement price" which we consider "insurance value".

The liquid value, my immediate "turn them into cash" buy price, is about half of that somewhat inflated number.

If you wish to sell them to me, I would need to physically inspect them, here in Florida, before issuing a check.

I can issue the certificate of appraisal by using the images you sent and asking a couple of relevant questions.

An example is on my first website linked below.

If you agree that seems fair, we can continue.

If not, please let me know with a simple email so I can delete these files which tend to accumulate.

regards,

BOB

cell 727 809 1691

www.highwaymen-buy-sell-trade.com

Florida Highwaymen recent appraisals

Getting right to it, here are a few of the highwaymen certificates of authenticity and evaluation that we've done for customers in the last few months..

Highwaymen paint loss

Here we go again. Ebay, of course, as always.

I hope the images are  clear when I transfer it onto the blog.

In any case, if you're new to this market and beginning to learn about the vintage works on upson board, here's fair warning regarding what at one time was a very pretty Sam Newton ocean scene.

At first glance, this looks like a reliable seller in Jensen Beach with 3999 positive feedbacks (100%). It popped up last night and my jaw dropped when I saw the description which I will copy and paste for you. It's short and to the point.

 THIS A EARLY SAM NEWTON OCEAN SCENE . THE PAINTING IS ABOUT 34" X 22". IT IS PAINTED ON UPSON BOARD.THEIR SPOT OF PAINT MISSING. THIS IS NORMAL FOR THE OLDER PAINTING.

This is currently listing #350672856857,. The description is comprised of five sentences:

1. TRUE
2  ASSUME IT'S TRUE
3. TRUE
4. TRUE. YOU GET THE IDEA, RIGHT? THERE IS MISSING PAINT.
5. PURE UNADULTERATED BULLSHIT!

This would be normal if someone got some heavy duty sandpaper and worked on the surface for a little while. I don't need to go into what I think it's worth, do I?

Be careful out there.

And stay safe through the holidays.

Highwaymen Harold Newton Forgery

Here we go again, eBay skulduggery at it's finest.

We don't know if the seller forged this signature, or if someone else did and the seller is (sort of) innocent of fraud.

Here's the seller and the disclaimer after a nice smokescreen copy/paste of factual information.

Interesting that the seller added a standard disclaimer.

Seller information

utmstudent (172)

100% Positive feedback

Item number 271112718669 listed 12.29, 2012

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HAROLD-NEWTON-1934-1994-FLORIDA-HIGHWAYMEN-OIL-PAINTING-/271112718669?pt=Art_Paintings&hash=item3f1f93c94d

Terms of Sale: Sold as described.

The paintings are sold as "attributed" or as in the "style of" the artist unless otherwise specified.

A Hair, unsigned pieces.

I stumbled on an old file that I had thought was lost the other day, and I saw things I hadn't seen in almost a decade.

I haven't seen much in the way of eBay skulduggery for a few weeks, but I want to share with you three pieces from this file by Alfred Hair which I sold back in 2004-2006 which he had left unsigned.

All three were standard size 24x36's on upson.
All three sold to other highwaymen dealers at a market discount because of it.
All three reappeared shortly thereafter on eBay as signed paintings.

This is not meant to be accusatory to any specific dealers, it simply states facts.
These three separate eBay sales were generated from Ft. Pierce, Vero and Arcadia.

Apparently Alfred would occasionally return from his grave and sign his unsigned paintings for these people. That's the only possible explanation.

Right?

Not to confuse things, but the two seascapes are similar but different, easily distinguished by comparing the clouds. I honestly don't remember which one was unsigned, but I think it was the darker one. 

The images I'm posting today are in their original unsigned state when they were in inventory, except for one of the seascapes which was in fact signed.