An auction of a private collection of ceramics, carefully curated by our ceramics expert Dr Richard Halliday, has won warm praise from a client.
Tim Roberts, Doctoral Researcher, School of Education University of Birmingham, wrote: ‘I would like to commend the work undertaken by Richard Halliday in preparing and organising the sale of the ‘Arthur and Julia Roberts Collection of Ceramics’. Having lived with the collection for most of a lifetime and then packed it up prior to shipping, the way Richard photographed it made it look better than we recalled it in real life. The display in the ballroom actually showed a different version of real life, it looked at its very best, and for this we are immensely grateful.
‘Having done my ‘due diligence’ regarding the auctioning of the collection, and considered three other auction houses, I am certain the collection was better presented, better ‘lotted’, and better described than any of the other three would have managed by a country mile. Add in the contacts in the trade and the promotion of the event, and I am sure we realised a much higher sale price than we would have managed any other way.
‘As a philosophical stance I value substance over style by a huge margin and despise spin. However, this was a commercial transaction, having looked at several online auctions in my opinion whatever is being sold does need to be presented to its best advantage, that which is shown in an indifferent ‘as found’ condition often seems to do poorly. Therefore, we really appreciate the care and attention to detail shown by Richard in presenting our possessions with complete honesty, in their best light; the skill with which he assembled the Art Deco pieces into coherent groups for each lot transformed that section of the collection.
Hansons also receives many appreciative emails for its in-house postage department which sends items purchased at auction all over the world. The speed and quality of packaging is often commented on. Every year thousands of items are dispatched to all corners of the globe by our dedicated postage team.
We also hear from buyers who are delighted with their purchases. The huge variety of objects sold at auction appeal to a multitude of people and collectors and sometimes the lot purchased exceeds expectations. The buyer, below, was delighted with the sheer volume of music that arrived at their door – and the joy it brought them.
