Antique auctions: the thrill of the chase

The passion for collecting creates as many appetites as it satisfies. Not least among these is the thrill of the chase. The same human emotions come into play whether you are at an annual pre-Christmas jewellery sale in Geneva, a record breaking Irish art sale in London, a gallery in Dingle, a house sale in Dalkey or a community hall in the wilds of west Munster.

If you are the collector it doesn't really matter that much if you are spending hundreds, thousands or millions. What concentrates the mind wonderfully is the knowledge that you must have it and you can't afford it. If you are a discriminating purchaser who is really desperate to get something you can be sure someone else is after it too.

For true collectors most major opportunities are one-off affairs. They are unlikely to repeat in the short term, sometimes never. If you come across something that will fill a gap - it can be in your collection of clocks, miniatures, glass, bronzes, books, 18th century furniture or 20th century Irish art - you have to have it and to hell with the cost.

Your scribe knows someone with 29 first editions of a famous poet. The 30th, and last, has become available through a dealer. The catch - there is always a catch - is that the cost is 900 pounds sterling. You've got to weigh it up. Completing the collection adds value to every other book on the list. The price - considering it is for an equivalent of something he first picked up for 30 old shillings more than 25 years ago - is outrageous.

He is on the horns of a dilemma. He has not finally made up his mind but I know which way he will turn. He is, after all, a true blue genuine collector and as such he doesn't really have a choice.

It takes some time to get to that stage. Most people start by going casually enough to an auction or an antique house and picking up something apparently randomly. You don't at that stage suspect that the purchase was anything but random. What has really happened is that you have displayed a previously unexpressed desire for something. You don't know this will lead to a quest for more knowledge, the quest will lead to more purchases or that you may over time become quite expert in the field.

Should that happen your expertise will be acquired in a way that will enrich your life in a lot of unforeseen ways while at the same time impoverishing your bank balance.

Sometimes a spouse or partner or someone close makes the diagnosis before you do yourself. If on the third Saturday or Sunday afternoon in as many months you are in an antique shop or at an auction view, they can tell that you have been bitten by the bug.

What of it? You could be bitten by something much worse, or acquire other totally horrendous bugs. If you become a good collector, able to discriminate fakes and forgeries and reproductions from the real thing, your heirs will bless you even if they never get to understand about one tenth of the fun you had acquiring all those lovely things.

The chances are that the Ireland of the not too distant future will contain numbers of people who have inherited important collections of one sort or another because there are more serious collectors out there now than ever before. Most people find it a rewarding hobby. For the really well-to-do it is nice to have something solid to put your money into at a time when the property market isn't what it used to be and the stock market is volatile.

The market for antiques hold remarkably steady. They are a good long term investment.

People do not, or should not, pay €10,000 or more for something unless they know what they are about. If you are unsure you must seek expert advice. Most good collections are founded on the advice of experts.

Opportunities are legion. Auctioneer Morgan O'Driscoll decided to hold his furniture sale on a Tuesday afternoon instead of a Monday evening in Cork in September. As it turned out it was a warm and sunny afternoon but that did not deter bidders, who turned out in force. Those who couldn't make it to the sale bid by telephone or through commissions.

Highlight of this section of the sale - the evening art sale later the same day had other spectacular highlights - was a set of eight Cork 11 bar dining chairs. These classic Cork chairs are very comfortable to sit on, were made from the 18th century, and, in fact, are still being made today. This was a 19th century set and it included two carvers. They were estimated at €7,500 to €9,500. Bidding on the lot opened, and it was brisk. They quickly reached the lower end of the estimate but there was no sign that bidding would now cease. The field eventually narrowed to two telephone bidders and one man in the room. He eventually prevailed, at a cost of €11,500.

When something is sold it is sold so these same chairs may not come on the market for another 30/40 years. It is anyone's guess what they will make then but if values follow the pattern of the last 30 years they will mirror inflation and the stock market index and then some. Unlike my friend with the book, the purchaser at auction did not have much time to make up his mind. At auction you have to be able to think on your feet and act fast.

Collectors may appear to the uniniatied as slow moving old fuddy duddies rummaging through the dusty lots at a sale or at the back of the shop. Which only goes to show that the uninitiated, like the rest of us, have much to learn. In the complex realms of collectables, markets, sales and antiques no one, but no one, knows it all.