MADAM – Bearing in mind that auctioneering can be a university qualification (unlike dealing) and is an occupation that charges for its services, should there not be some form of censure and control over firms that get it so wrong?
The Marchant cameo ring (ATG No 2376) was signed and an item by the same artist had fetched 500 times Tennants’ top estimate in London last year.
Radical idea: selling premium should be charged on the lower estimate only and buyer’s premium on the upper estimate only. This would then not penalise the dealers or knowledgeable collectors who really know and not benefit the auction rooms who do not.