Tools of the Trade II – The “eyes” have it! Item Number: 100012 $0.00

DescriptionLast week I wrote of the necessity to go out and get yourself a few key items/tools if you’re going to take a serious, hands-on approach to this passion of yours. Granted, some of you are probably able to simply pick up the phone, call your NYC or Beverly Hills gallery and say something like “Hey Jerry, send me your best Attic amphora. Money is no object…” For the rest of you, I’ll spend this week talking about what attributes define a quality piece of art. And we will concentrate on your eyes, and what is between your ears.

Back in 1996 Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart tried to explain "hard-core" pornography, or what is obscene, by saying, "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced . . . but I know it when I see it.“ Well one can pretty much say the same thing when it comes to high-quality antiquities, but unlike Justice Stewart, I will actually try to take a stab at it.

We’ve already discussed that high-quality art and antiquities should be as unaltered and “un-restored” as possible. And last week we reviewed some of the many tools one can use to spot any degree of restoration. But, what else should one look at when considering buying an item of ancient art? Here might be my list of things to consider:

1. Condition. The more perfect, the more desirable. No questions here, but there are many examples of very desirable ancient artifacts that are not perfect, not complete or partially restored. I think the best rule of thumb is to buy the best condition you can afford. If you have $1,000 to spend, buy what you like, but make sure for that price you get a piece that is in as good a condition as you can find.

2. Size. Generally, the larger an item, the more important or more desirable the piece. People love to show off their art and it’s much easier to show something off when it’s larger than life and make s a huge statement. A huge Greek Column krater makes a statement! A large Roman marble statue makes a statement, a complete Egyptian sarcophagus makes a statement - but, let’s look at the quintessential exception – The Guennol Lioness. Here is a 3 -1/4” (8.25cm) piece of carved rock that sold at auction for $57 million. Yes, Fifty Seven Million dollars! Even with a weakened dollar, that’s still a big chunk of change!! And the Guennol Lioness makes a HUGE statement!

3. Rarity. The reason the Guennol rock sold for such a high price was its rarity. 5000 years old and the finest example ever made available from this time period. But be very careful with this rarity thing. Most of us cannot afford items of great rarity, and often one of the first clues a piece is not as described (aka – a dud) is that there are no pieces exactly like it. Remember, the people who made these artifacts 2500 years ago had workshops that were trying to make money by mass-producing their wares – not by creating one-of-a-kind masterpieces. You want to buy items that are not available everywhere – Holyland oil lamps that you can buy by the bushel are a pretty good example – but you also probably want to find items with an exact or nearly exact parallel.

4. Quality. And while we touch on quality, there are two other elements at quality we should consider. One is “provincial” art versus art produced in an “artistic center” and the other looks at how the quality of art generally degrades as the culture itself degraded. Provincial art is generally a term used to describe art that was produced outside the major artistic hubs of a civilization. Athens (Attica) was the artistic hub of Greece while Apulia, Campania, Beoetia and other less populated centers produced art that was of generally lower artistic quality. Maybe one of the hardest attribute to define, quality is another one of those things that must be looked at as it relates to other similar examples from the same time period. The Guennol Lioness is of such high quality compared to the other examples of artifacts one finds from this Neolithic time period. An Attic red-figure amphora by the “Berlin Painter” is of far better quality than one by the “Fat Boy Painter” – no joke here. The Fat Boy Painter is identifiable by his fat, disproportional figures. Quality can be reviewed in terms of the artistic competence of the artist vis-à-vis those who created at about the same time period. The Berlin Painter created scenes and characters that were comprised of complicated elements and fabrics. The Fat Boy Painter threw pigment on a pot in the form of squatty, simple, almost “caricaturesque” individuals – usually no more than two per vessel. Mayan artists on the Jaina Island off the coast of Yucatan created astoundingly realistic portrait figures in clay, while other Mayan artists created far simpler, far less artistic mold-made figures in other regions of the Mayan territory – at the exact same time period.

And while we touch on quality, there are two other elements at quality we should consider. One is “provincial” art versus art produced in an “artistic center” and the other looks at how the quality of art generally degrades as the culture itself degraded. Provincial art is generally a term used to describe art that was produced outside the major artistic hubs of a civilization. Athens (Attica) was the artistic hub of Greece while Apulia, Campania, Beoetia and other less populated centers produced art that was of generally lower artistic quality. Rome was the artistic hub of the great Roman empire. Roman redware pottery (or glass, or bronzes or jewelry, etc) produced in Rome itself is almost always of superior artistic skill than that produced in the production centers of North Africa. One reason is that to be successful (again, these were businesses trying first to survive) the workshops in Rome could hire the best artists available. The Mayan workshops in the Peten region produced far superior potteries than their “provincial” neighbors in the Copador regions. Supply and demand was clearly at work then just as it is today.

And the final element of quality, artistic quality tends to degrade as a civilization begins to weaken. As we look at the artistic product of almost every ancient civilization, we see there is always a “classical” period where the finest quality goods are produced. The classical periods happened when the civilizations were strong, expanding, and prosperous and had the luxury to enjoy the world around them. As problems arose and the civilizations weakened, the arts tended to become less important (read Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs…), the artistic product of lower quality. To be honest, I have seen some rather “butt-ugly” products coming from post-classic artists!

Happy collecting!

Bob