How 'Antiques Road Show' is flushing out historical treasures
Doug Johns remembers the photo album.
It contained a series of photographs of San Francisco city views taken in 1856. They were the first, or among the first, such photos ever taken. Seven years ago, a family in San Mateo County wanted to sell the album to help pay for property improvements.
Johns, manager of Johns' Western Gallery in San Francisco, thought the album would fetch $15,000 to $25,000 at auction. He hadn't realized that the photographs, by George Robinson Fardon, were quite so rare and sought after.
He put the album up for auction and after the dust cleared, the sale price had reached $180,000.
"That's the kind of sale everyone dreams about," he said. "That's what they like about the 'Antiques Roadshow.' They're hoping their ship will come in with the sale of one item."
The auction world was abuzz this week with the news of an auction on Super Bowl Sunday at Clars Auction Gallery in Oakland, where a painting owned by a Southern California woman was sold for $560,000, even though it was expected to go for a couple thousand dollars.
The popularity of the road show and online auction sites like eBay has people looking through their garages and basements for what might be buried treasure. You never know if Grandma's end table was one of a kind. ...
Read entire article at San Francisco Chronicle
It contained a series of photographs of San Francisco city views taken in 1856. They were the first, or among the first, such photos ever taken. Seven years ago, a family in San Mateo County wanted to sell the album to help pay for property improvements.
Johns, manager of Johns' Western Gallery in San Francisco, thought the album would fetch $15,000 to $25,000 at auction. He hadn't realized that the photographs, by George Robinson Fardon, were quite so rare and sought after.
He put the album up for auction and after the dust cleared, the sale price had reached $180,000.
"That's the kind of sale everyone dreams about," he said. "That's what they like about the 'Antiques Roadshow.' They're hoping their ship will come in with the sale of one item."
The auction world was abuzz this week with the news of an auction on Super Bowl Sunday at Clars Auction Gallery in Oakland, where a painting owned by a Southern California woman was sold for $560,000, even though it was expected to go for a couple thousand dollars.
The popularity of the road show and online auction sites like eBay has people looking through their garages and basements for what might be buried treasure. You never know if Grandma's end table was one of a kind. ...