FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Rossini SVV]

Dear all,

Please note the following announcement for this mineral auction in Paris on 17th June 2016.

[Jordi Fabre]

As is well known this site is a non-commercial site, but as before other mineral auctions were described here due the peculiar characteristics of them I will maintain this thread just as a source of information for everybody.
I diminished a little bit in the original text some of the commercial descriptions and here it is ;-)

Just to clarify: I'm not personally related with this auction at all, I'm not familiar with the auctioneers and I will not attend it.

[lluis]

Hi, List

French ones and those that like antiquities probably know very well Druot. It is a magnificent house for antiquities in Paris (just I am too poor to buy his items... Many time ago I have seen a handwritten page of a symphony of Beethoven for sale... Price, well.....I would like to have it to literally exhaust the inventory of Jordi.... :-)

In minerals, who knows?

With best wishes

Lluís

[Peter Seroka]

Hi

I would not over-rate the auction house Druot in Paris, at least not when it comes to mineral auctions.(antiques might be different, I don' t know).

I have attended a few auctions and I have run my own auction of minerals at the Druot, together with M. Delerme. The outcome of the auction was more or less disappointing; the inexpensive pieces sold almost immediately for moderate prices; the higher priced goodies remained untouched.

The main reason for that disappointing auction was that only few of the potential buyers live in Paris or in the Paris area, whereas for many of the important collectors with spending power, who live anywhere else in France, Belgium or Germany, this Druot-auction is too far away.

I have had the opportunity to get to know Delerme at his Paris house, seeing his interesting collection, and during later occasions at the Munich show. Not few of Delerme's specimen come from my collection; some of those are high-end, some are just fine. Judging Delerme's collection (as I had seen it), I would not agree, that it would sell for the price of a Beethoven symphony. Just opposite - there are a number of well known mineral dealers, whose prices are far more expensive than a Louis XIV chair.

My honest opinion is, that selling minerals at the Druot may be an adventure, but not the most promising way of getting rid of a collection.

Peter

[James Catmur]

The catalog does seem to be a bit error prone so it does not fill me with confidence that they know what they are doing. Never heard of Fluorite from Birmingham.

[lluis]

Hi, Peter

I thought same... But knowing your opinion and knowing the collection, well, as I said

In minerals, who knows....?

I would not go there also....I travel very few for minerals... Say me Commodus.... :-)

With best wishes

Lluís

[Bob Harman]

Interesting discussions and while I do not collect this material and won't consider bidding on anything, I do have some auction experience.
I had a large and hi end stamp collection until I sold it in the mid 1990s and used to bid regularly in classic stamp auctions (after all I never "field collected" classic stamps).
One major difference between hi end mineral specimens and classic stamps is that many classic stamps come with accepted certificates of authenticity while most mid and hi end mineral specimens do not. This seems very important to me; if a stamp has been repaired or altered it usually is noted with the description and its certificate(s). If a mineral is expertly altered or repaired in any way, a non-mineral auction house may either inadvertently or purposely miss these changes when describing and labeling the specimen. Buyer beware especially when buying from an auction house that doesn't regularly specialize in mineral specimens.
Having said all this there might be 2 opposing outcome scenarios here. One possibility, already alluded to, is that the final auction results might be disappointing. But the other possibility is that several interested mineral collector buyers with financial wherewithal will travel to see the specimens offered in the auction. Their reasoning might be that if the examples are of truly hi quality and exactly as described with no misstatements, and if the starting bids are in the bargain range, they might get some specimens at real bargain prices.
Someone should follow up after the auction is over and let us know how it went. CHEERS.....BOB

[alfredo]

Don't they offer bidding by phone for collectors who live far away? When Sotheby's in Manhattan offered the Freilich collection, there was a row of phone operators taking remote bids.

But interestingly, where the photo in the catalogue did not do justice to the specimen, the rock sold to one of the bidders physically present in the room. And when the catalogue photo looked better than the real rock, it sold to a phone bidder. There's a lesson in there somewhere...)

[Rossini SVV]

Sure! We offer bidding by phone. You can write us a mail so that we can call you or call us directly before the auction.

For those you would like to receive the PDF version of the catalog, please send me a private message.