Fakes and Finds

Interesting times out there, economically and otherwise.

We have been gratified to be on the receiving end of several new finds lately as individuals and families pass their items on to us, either for display in our collection of early California, police, and military items - or for passage on to you.

We had a great collection of 19th and 20th Century art come through Antiqueswest.com and it all went quickly, with some nice French impressionist canvasses selling well and briskly. Furniture is coming in by the van load and selling slowly, it seems, as the power and price point of Ikea holds until people come to their senses and realized nice, early pieces are selling for a relative song.

The forgers, or copyists perhaps, are also out in force during economic times... knocking out a quick painting or Crimean War letter to make ends meet or just to say they fooled their area's resident "expert."

Please be careful of autographs, particularly those sports stars we've all heard of as this market has been flooded by spurious examples of signed mementoes. Civil War items, once red hot and highly desirable, have fallen off slightly as interest - and family fortunes - wane in light of recent givebacks in the stock market.

Still, there are still buyers out there and people hoping to counter the vagaries of the antique market with that one, great "Eureka" of a find. They're still talking about two recent finds here in the Bay Area we'll get into a bit later.