Browsing Category

Spotlight

1930s French Ebony & Chrome Art Deco Box

1930s French Ebony & Chrome Art Deco Box
Photo Credit: FeelingOfDejaVu

1930s French Ebony & Chrome Art Deco Box

Asking Price: $344.59 (price as of 2019; item no longer available)

Pros:

-This exquisite Macassar Ebony wood and chrome metal Art Deco box originates from 1930s France and drips with chic Streamline Moderne aesthetic.

-This elegant French Art Deco box measures 9.65 inches (24.5 cm) long by 4.35 inches (11.0 cm) wide by 2.75 inches (7.0 cm) high.  It weighs 1.2 pounds (545 grams).

-The Art Deco period, which spanned the 1920s and 1930s, was characterized by an emphasis on sharp angles, sleek contours and metallic or glass finishes.  Most of these stylish attributes are plainly visible on this fine French Art Deco box.

-Macassar Ebony (scientific name: Diospyros celebica) is a fine exotic hardwood that primarily grows on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.  Like other members of the ebony family, it is prized for its naturally lustrous finish and extreme hardness.  But unlike most ebony species, Macassar Ebony exhibits a variegated or striped brownish-black appearance.  This is substantially different than the pure jet black color associated with most ebonies.

-France was the world leader in fine art and design during the 1930s – a fact plainly visible when looking at this Art Deco masterpiece.

-Macassar Ebony is an incredibly desirable and expensive wood, even among tropical hardwoods (which in turn tend to be pricier than temperate hardwoods).  The fact that Macassar Ebony grows slowly and is restricted to a small corner of the Indonesian archipelago, combined with its incredibly beautiful wood grain, contributes to its extremely high price.  It isn’t unusual for the wood to sell for a dizzyingly high $100 a board foot at specialist lumber mills.

-This wonderful French Art Deco box could be used for jewelry, cigars or as a men’s valet.  It would also be a completely unique gift, as I’m certain that you couldn’t possibly find anything like it regardless of how long you looked.

-It is quite common for vintage or antique boxes made from tropical hardwoods or exotic burls to employ veneers in order to reduce costs.  However, this 1930s Art Deco box is constructed from solid Macassar Ebony without even a single piece of veneer present.  This underscores the incredibly high build quality of this piece; no expense was spared.

-The asking price of less than $350 is an absolute steal for this fine French antique box, especially considering that the stripped-down Mid-Century Modern and Art Deco styles are very much in vogue right now.

 

Other Vintage French & European Items for Sale on Etsy

(These are affiliate links for which I may be compensated)

 

Cons:

-Macassar Ebony is not currently (as of November 2019) CITES listed as an endangered timber species, meaning that it can be legally purchased, sold and transported across international borders.  However, it is possible that this designation could change in the future.  So if you have any interest in this gorgeous Macassar Ebony and chrome Art Deco box, I would recommend that you pick it up sooner rather than later.

 

Read more fascinating Antique Sage fine hardwood item spotlight posts here.

-or-

Read in-depth Antique Sage investment guides here.

1956 Bernard Buffet Lithograph Print – St. Martin Canal

1956 Bernard Buffet Lithograph Print - St. Martin Canal
Photo Credit: fineestates

1956 Bernard Buffet Lithograph Print – St. Martin Canal

Asking Price: $100 (price as of 2019; item no longer available)

Pros:

-This vintage 1956 Bernard Buffet lithograph print titled “St. Martin Canal” features a skyline of the famous Parisian canal in an Expressionist style.

-This vintage print measures 29 inches (74 cm) wide by 21.5 inches (55 cm) tall (including margins), with the image itself being 22.5 inches (57 cm) wide by 14.5 inches (37 cm) tall.

-The French artist Bernard Buffet was born in 1928 and died in 1999.  He studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (National School of the Fine Arts) in Paris, France in the 1940s before briefly working as an apprentice to the painter Eugène Narbonne.

-Original prints are much more readily available at lower prices than paintings, making this Bernard Buffet lithograph the perfect piece of décor for art lovers on a tight budget.

-Bernard Buffet was a prolific artist during his 50-plus year career, creating an estimated 8,000 paintings, prints, and watercolors.

-This Bernard Buffet print was rendered in an Expressionist style, with his typical emphasis on geometry and grids.  But the artist is perhaps best known for his work in the Miserabilist style, which was often characterized by portraits with haunting, angular faces.

-The subject of this landscape – the St. Martin Canal – is located in the heart of Paris, just adjacent to the Seine River.  Napoleon ordered its construction in 1802, which was finally completed in 1825.  Today it is a popular tourist destination in the City of Lights.

-This signed and dated Bernard Buffet lithograph print is a very approachable, wonderfully affordable example of post-World War II contemporary art by a known artist.

-Bernard Buffet revisited the St. Martin Canal in his work several times throughout his career, making several different print versions of the subject.

-I find it stunning that you can pick up an original Mid-Century print from a renowned 20th century French artist for only a single C-note.  This shows just how beaten down the low end of the art market is right now.  But if the market is going to be irrational, I say take advantage of it!

-This Bernard Buffet lithograph print is larger in size, making it an excellent candidate for hanging in a living room or great room as a centerpiece work.

-Why pay $40 or $50 for a reproduction art print (which will never have any collector’s value) when you can invest in this original 1950s Bernard Buffet lithograph print for only $100?

 

Cons:

-This print does not come with a frame.  So before you can hang it on your wall, you will need to pay another $100 to $250 to have it properly mounted.  I find it ironic that fine art is so cheap these days that the framing will cost you more than the work itself!

 

Read more fascinating Antique Sage print & wall art spotlight posts here.

-or-

Read in-depth Antique Sage vintage investment guides here.

1963 Mystery Dial LeCoultre Galaxy Watch with Diamonds

1963 Mystery Dial LeCoultre Galaxy Watch with Diamonds
Photo Credit: coins-jewelry-collectibles

1963 Mystery Dial LeCoultre Galaxy Watch with Diamonds

Asking Price: $1,230.25 (price as of 2019; item no longer available)

Pros:

-This solid 14 karat white gold Jaeger-LeCoultre Galaxy wristwatch features a mystery dial packed with 37 diamonds and a 17-jewel, manual-wind K480/CW movement.

-This watch measures 34.3 mm (1.35 inches) in diameter (including the crown) and 38 mm (1.50 inches) long from lug tip to lug tip.  It is also only 9.4 mm (0.37 inches) thick, which would have qualified it as an “ultra-thin” watch for the time (although not close to the thinnest models available).

-Jaeger-LeCoultre produced some of the world’s most stylish, technically accomplished mechanical wristwatches between the 1940s and the 1970s.  Because of this, the company’s old watches often draw strong premiums in the marketplace from its devoted collector base.

-This Jaeger-LeCoultre Galaxy features a mystery dial.  A mystery dial is any watch where the hands seem to move in an inscrutable way.  In this case, the diamond hour and minute hands appear to float around the dial completely detached from the watch’s underlying movement.

-Founded in 1833 in Le Sentier, Switzerland, Jaeger-LeCoultre grew into a watchmaking powerhouse by the late 19th century.  Between the 1940s and 1976, Jaeger-LeCoultre exported its finished movements to the U.S. where they were locally cased and then sold under the “LeCoultre” brand.

-This LeCoultre Galaxy mystery dial watch is quadruple signed!  It bears the LeCoultre name or logo on the dial, the movement, the case and also the crown.

-During the mid-20th century, Jaeger-LeCoultre teamed up with Vacheron & Constantin to distribute watches in North America.  In fact, some vintage watch experts consider the Galaxy model to have been jointly-produced by Vacheron & Constantin and Jaeger-LeCoultre for the U.S. market.

-This Jaeger-LeCoultre mystery dial Galaxy wristwatch still retains its original, unrefinished dial.  The dial is in fairly good condition too, which is a big plus for watch enthusiasts.

-The LeCoultre Galaxy watch was an upscale luxury model produced from the late 1950s until the mid 1960s.  As befits a luxury watch, it was cased in solid 14 karat gold, solid 18 karat gold or stainless steel.

-Vintage solid karat gold dress watches from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s are incredibly undervalued in today’s horological market, especially when compared to vintage dive and chronograph watches.  It is ludicrous that you can purchase this vintage luxury watch by a storied European maker for only $1,230 when it probably contains 1/5 of an ounce of gold (worth about $300 at today’s spot price).

 

Cons:

-If you purchase this vintage masterpiece you will need to have the movement serviced and the strap replaced.  I’m going to guess that this will run you an extra $250 to $500 (assuming no major issues are found), which would drive the total price of the watch up to somewhere between $1,480 and $1,730.  But even at the higher price range, this LeCoultre mystery dial Galaxy wristwatch is still a bargain.  I’ve seen similar, pre-serviced models selling for $2,200 to $3,000.

-The seller doesn’t show a photo of the watch’s movement, but does claim that it still keeps time.  I wouldn’t expect the movement to be in perfect condition, but it would be nice to see a picture just to make sure it isn’t a rusty mess.  Having said that, I don’t think the watch would run at all if the movement was excessively rusty, so a photo would just be for verification purposes.

 

Read more fascinating Antique Sage vintage watch spotlight posts here.

-or-

Read in-depth Antique Sage vintage watch investment guides here.

16th Century Mexican 4 Reales Silver Cob Coin

16th Century Mexican 4 Reales Silver Cob Coin
Photo Credit: EMPEROR’S TREASURE TROVE

16th Century Mexican 4 Reales Silver Cob Coin

Asking Price: $499.99 (price as of 2019; item no longer available)

Pros:

-This late 16th century silver 4 reales cob coin was struck during the reign of Felipe II of Spain between 1556 and 1598 in Mexico City.

-This coin has a weight of 13.69 grams (0.4401 troy ounces) and is minted from 93.05% fine silver.

-Even though this Mexican 4 reales silver coin was struck in the late 16th century, it almost certainly would have circulated during the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean between about 1640 and 1725.  This is because Spanish colonial coinage often remained in circulation for 100 to 200 years after striking during this period.

-This Spanish colonial cob coin is graded XF-40 by NGC (Numismatic Guaranty Corporation).  NGC is a well-respected third-party certification service that guarantees both the grade and the authenticity of the piece.

-The Spanish struck 5 different silver denominations throughout their realms: the 1/2 real, 1 real, 2 reales, 4 reales and 8 reales coins.  The largest of these, the 8 reales, was also known as the infamous “piece-of-eight”.  It was the predecessor coin to the American silver dollar and was widely coveted throughout the New World by both pirates and honest shopkeepers alike.

-Pirates were surprisingly progressive and egalitarian for their time.  The crew elected its own captain (and could un-elect him as well).  Any captured booty was divided fairly among the crew, with the captain generally receiving only 2 to 6 times the share of the average crewman.  They even enjoyed a primitive form of disability insurance, where any pirate crew member injured in action would receive a special payout to compensate him for the loss of a hand, foot or an eye.

-This Mexican 4 reales is a cob coin, which was made by cutting a blank off the end of a roughly-formed silver bar.  The Spanish word for end is “cabo”, hence the English adoption of the term “cob” in reference to this coinage.  The ill-formed lump was then hand-struck between two dies, resulting in a fairly crude coin where major design elements were frequently off the flan.

-As mentioned previously, cob coins are usually very poorly struck.  In addition, it is quite common for them to suffer damage from saltwater immersion (shipwreck coins), cleaning or modification into jewelry.  However, this Mexican 4 reales example is effectively pristine, with a well-formed planchet, excellent centering and good striking.

-Considering the enduring romance of the pirate age (as evidenced by the popularity of movies like Pirates of the Caribbean), cob pieces from the 16th and 17th century are in perennially high demand.  Therefore, I find the $500 asking price for this Mexican silver 4 reales cob coin to be quite fair, especially in light of its excellent state of preservation.  You can verify this by checking recent auction results for similar pieces here.

 

Cons:

-For those purists out there, this silver 4 reales isn’t one of those legendary “piece-of-eight” coins.  Instead, it is a “four-bit” coin – exactly half of a piece-of-eight.  But I hardly consider this a con.

 

Read more fascinating Antique Sage numismatic spotlight posts here.

-or-

Read in-depth Antique Sage rare coin investment guides here.