And now, perhaps we’re art dealers?

And now, perhaps we’re art dealers?  So here in the Dusty Museum, our decluttering continues and unwittingly we feel as if we are gaining yet another role in our retirement.  Yep, art dealers.  That’s on top of interior designers, supreme Olio-ers, carers and decorators.

Thoughts of being the Del Boy of the art world horrifies me, trying not to think of Trotter’s Independent dealers and the yellow three wheeler van.  Please don’t, just don’t even think about it..

I explained in a recent blog post how I came across this painting on top of a tall tallboy.  Thankfully it was stored face down as there were decades of dust up there.

Rachel thinks the portrait is of someone in the Daniell family but cannot be completely certain.  I am thinking that if there is genuinely a family connection, it would be nice to keep it, although it would probably need some restoration before hanging it again.  We wonder if the custodians of Tapley Hall in Cheshire might be interested, since they already have a painting of a Daniell there.  Long story short, a few centuries ago there was a family connection with the Leycesters who owned Tapley Hall.  We once visited and were surprised to see a painting which resembled Rachel and it turned out to be an ancestor, so who knows….

Perhaps some detective work might be helpful, to try and ascertain who the subject is and who the artist might have been.  Rachel, a former Librarian, is pretty darn good at finding information and crucially, knowing where to look so it will be interesting to see where this might take us.  All that will come a little later on.

And this quaint rural scene

Rachel found this quaint rural scene somewhere in the house.  As you can see it is slightly damaged and yet it was possible to see the artist’s signature.  The painting, interestingly enough, is directly onto a wooden board.  Rachel thought she would post it on eBay to see what the reaction was and immediately someone bid £50.

“Well, if someone is that interested that quickly, I’m gonna explore this a little more”

She got in touch with an auction house in Bedford who valued it considerably higher than £50 and offered to collect it in time for the next auction.  Rachel pressed on and, not wanting to unnecessarily pay too many commissions, fees and so on, was able to re-list it on eBay.  In no time at all, it was bought by an Italian art dealer and that seems quite fitting as it is an Italian artist.

And the erotic furniture?

I have talked about this grotesque piece of furniture before.  Neither of us liked it, Grandma hated it and our daughters always thought it was a bit creepy.  So it had to go.

We knew it was one of a pair originally.  It always struck us as too imposing, quite ugly and just not our style.  Our friend Tim, who knows a thing or two about antiques, said it was probably Dutch or German and a little over 200 years old.  It isn’t as fancy as it might first appear and is probably a mixture of different pieces of furniture blended together.

I thought I would advertise it with some spoof wording.  Perhaps

Grotesque dresser for sale.  Evidence of previous woodworm, complete with questionable mildly erotic carvings and would grace any gaudy home.  Buyer collects.

Rachel thought that was a bad idea (why is she always right about these things?) and quickly advertised it in a more upbeat way.  Within an hour someone had made a decent offer and said he would confirm the following day.  He said the prospect of acquiring this piece of furniture had caused “a domestic” and was pulling out in the interests of maintaining peaceful relations at home.  That didn’t matter as someone else had quickly put in a much higher offer with collection possible the very next day.

The deal was done.  A youngish woman got her Dad to drive over to collect it and hand the cash over.  It was touch-and-go as to whether it would fit in their car; luckily it did, just.  She wrote later on to say how pleased she was with her new piece of furniture.  We too were delighted and I’m amazed at how quickly and easily we managed to move this piece of furniture on.  At least it has now gone to an appreciative home.

The tricky bit

It is quite hard sifting through stuff when we know little about it.  Some things which Rachel’s father had said was quite valuable, we now learn is almost worthless.  Any yet we don’t want to be taken advantage of.  It is hard discerning what has some value and what doesn’t.

Regardless of the value of things, we like the idea of keeping things which we like, or has some meaning.  Some of the most interesting things aren’t valuable at all – for example, Rachel’s father’s bee keeping paraphernalia is low-tech but quite ingenious. The last thing we want to do is sell something for peanuts, only to later find we have given away a masterpiece.  This is where we need to do our research, take trustworthy advice and weigh things up.

Although it takes time, this decluttering can be really interesting and a welcome distraction from other things going on.