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The Ceramic Art of Japan
The Ceramic Art of Japan
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Probably the best place to pick up a real bargain (and also the best place to acquire worthless junk) is the auction room. Here it is important always to examine the pieces while they are on display before the auction actually takes place. It might also be wise to ask the advice of some experienced dealer or scholar ahead of time. Once you have placed your bid, it is too late to change your mind, for every auction purchase is final, regardless of what flaws may be discovered later on. Furthermore, the atmosphere of the auction room, with its excitement and fast pace, often tempts people to buy things they really do not want or prevents them from bidding for objects they would like to have but were too slow to bid for. Yet there is no question—especially if one happens to attend an auction where other people are not interested in what one has come for—that wonderful purchases can be made for relatively little money, and this, of course, is particularly true of objects that are not in fashion.
The question of taste and fashion has a great deal to do with the price an object is likely to fetch. Haniwa, which today are extremely fashionable and therefore bring very high prices, were readily available ten or twenty years ago at a fraction of their present cost, while Satsuma enameled wares, which fifty years ago were enormously popular among Western collectors and brought high prices, are practically worthless today. Unless the collector is so well-to-do that he does not have to consider money, it is best not to go in for something that is very fashionable, but rather to purchase some good wares that, though neglected at the time, are artistically outstanding and of permanent value. Today, for example, Japanese porcelains are relatively cheap, while cruder wares such as Shino and Oribe, which are closer to modern taste, are in great demand and therefore more difficult to get and more expensive when they do turn up. Here again, however, personal preference should be the primary consideration.
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