Since the last full blog on
Notmeguvanomics an Irish follower has sent me a copy of Ambrose Bierce’s
“Devil’s Dictionary”. Oh what joy! Two words—politician and experience. The
former, “An eel in the fundamental mud upon which the super-structure of
organised society is reared…” and the latter, “The wisdom that enables us to
recognise as an undesirable old acquaintance the folly that we have already
embraced”. Well, politicians all over Europe are still in the mud and are if
anything in deeper as the Euro crisis gets worse. Regrettably, it is still
everyone else’s fault and “experience” has done little to wake up the
politicians who to a man say that the deficit must be cut but squirm in the mud
when it comes to action. Meanwhile the debt has grown to £1trillion. Cuts? What
cuts?
On a lighter note, I have
written in the past about boy’s toys and the phenomenal price of an air worthy
spitfire last known to be £8m. Well, a new category of aircraft has reached the
attention of collectors and you do not need to be an oligarch to buy one.
Christies have just sold a SAM missile for £7000. Mind you, at 19ft long you
would need some trophy cupboard to display the deactivated Soviet SA-6. Geeks
will be figuring out how to fit new blue touch paper to the tail fins, best not
go there.
Nearer to home, as promised,
I am able to give you up to date news on the state of the furniture market in
2011, courtesy of the Antique Collectors’ Club’s Annual Furniture Index
recently featured in the Antiques Trade Gazette. More bad news. A further fall
of 2% with the consequence that the index is back to its 1995 level. There are
a number of sub-indices but they nearly all fell apart from Walnut which rose
by 5%. The separate Victorian and Edwardian index fell 11% and is now at its
1988 level. No wonder antique shops are disappearing fast. Clocks are not
measured in these indices but the picture would not be dramatically different.
The message remains that middling run of the mill objects are of little interest.
Only very high quality, rare or specialist interest objects are sustaining the
sector. If the Chinese lose interest in repatriation of their heritage then the
regional auction business would collapse.
The only tavern clock to be
auctioned in January was in the USA; Bonhams sold a curious round dial which
seemed to have a distant relationship with its lacquered trunk for $5000 inc
premium, bearing the name Dwerrihouse. Not much activity otherwise and
therefore time to take a break on the slopes now that snow has arrived in the
alps. Next report may therefore come from San Cassiano in Italy. Davos, who
needs it!!
Finally, a new dictionary
discovery in the Urban Dictionary; just Google the word GOVERNMENTIUM. Enjoy!
