Consignment - Step by step to the art auction #
You can always make an appointment with us, anywhere and at any time for consigning, evaluation and appraisal. It is quick and easy, whether at our auction house, with our representatives, or at your home.
Step 1: First contact
Do you have photographs, dimensions, and any possible further information about the object or collection? Then forward everything you have to us by mail or email. If not, we can make an appointment by telephone (+49 931 17721) or e-mail ([email protected]) and invite you to our premises. We can also visit you at your home, whether it is in Switzerland, France, the UK or USA, we take time for you.
Step 2: First assessment and valuation
For the first assessment and valuation, our experts take the objects in their hands, and do not base their opinions on photographs. The criteria for the pieces are age, origin, authenticity, originality, quality and aesthetics. This service is free and has no obligations. If you are considering selling, our expert will agree a limit price with you, this means a minimum price below which your object cannot be sold. The agreed limit prices are contractually regulated (see Consignment terms ).
Step 3: Consignment deadlines
So that we have sufficient time to assess your object we suggest that you deliver it to us at least ten weeks before the auction.
Step 4: Our real work begins now - you can sit back
After the initial examination we now make a thorough scientifically based assessment for the catalogue: Far more than just a description of the object we additionally put the object into an art-historical and ethnological context and research the provenance and collecting history. When possible we even research which master carver or artist’s workshop was responsible for the work. Through extensive comparisons with other works and artists, we give your artwork its rightful artistic and qualitative ranking.
We put your object in the right light. For this our photographers provide excellent, professional photographs for our glossy catalogues. Your object will receive maximum due to our press and public relations work for international print and online media and Social media. In addition we present your object in our showrooms so it can be viewed during our preview. We ensure that your object is put into a context that takes into account the importance, function, origin and aesthetics.
Schritt 5: Hammer price and payment
What does it cost for you? We entirely bear the financial risk, you only have to wait for the proceeds. As soon as the auction finishes, we will inform you by email of the price achieved for your artwork. The auction proceeds (less commission, photograph and insurance costs in accordance with contract) will be forwarded to you approximately four weeks after the end of the auction.
Highlights 2024 #
- Côte d'Ivoire, Dan-Nyor, Uopie (ca. 1890-1950) or follower
Anthropomorphic face mask "deangle"
ProvenanceMathias Komor (1909-1984), New York City, USA (ca.1966) Dorothy and James Schram, Burlington, Iowa, USA, 1976 donated to: Iowa Wesleyan University Collection, Mount Pleasant, Iowa, USA (Deaccessioned by the above in 2023)sold EUR 16,000 - Papua New Guinea - Bismarck Archipelago - New Ireland
Magnificent "malagan" figure
ProvenanceLudwig Bretschneider, Munich, Germany Munich Private Collectionsold EUR 170,000 - Marquesas Islands
Club "u'u"
ProvenanceJohann F. Gustav Umlauff, Hamburg, Germany Ernst von Sieglin (1848-1927), Stuttgart, Germany Linden-Museum, Stuttgart, Germany (1905) Ludwig Bretschneider, Munich, Germany (1969) Munich Private Collectionsold EUR 100,000 - South America, Guyana
Club "macana"
ProvenanceErwin & Susanne Melchardt, Vienna, Austriasold EUR 18,000 - Europe-Antiques, Greece, Cyclades
Fragment of a female Cycladic idol
ProvenanceBruno Heimberg (1933-2023), Munich, Germanysold EUR 17,000 - Europe-Antiques, Romano-Egyptian
Sarcophagus mask of a youth, ca. 2nd century AD
ProvenanceAmerican Private Collection, New York Jean-David Cahn, Basel, Switzerland (2001) Angela Henkel-Küsters, Düsseldorf, Germanysold EUR 22,000 - Papua New Guinea - Bismarck Archipelago - New Ireland
Kneeling female figure "malagan"
ProvenanceLudwig Bretschneider, Munich, Germany Munich Private Collectionsold EUR 80,000 - Namibia, Ovambo, Ondonga
Rare prestige dagger with scabbard "omuele guosipika"
ProvenanceErwin & Susanne Melchardt, Vienna, Austriasold EUR 16,800 - Papua New Guinea - Bismarck Archipelago - New Ireland
Rare friction drum "livika" or "lunet"
ProvenanceMaximilian (“Max”) Franz Thiel (1865-1939), Hamburg, Germany Linden-Museum, Stuttgart, Germany (1908) Ludwig Bretschneider, Munich, Germany (1970) Munich Private Collection Maximilian Franz Thiel was the son of Rosetta Albertina Hernsheim, the sister of Eduard and Franz Hernsheim, the founders of the trading company Hernsheim & Co. From 16 January 1884, he worked for the company on Jaluit (Marshall Islands). In 1886 he went to German New Guinea, where he lived on Matupi(t) near Rabaul and in the Bismarck Archipelago. He became a partner in Hernsheim & Co in 1892 and managing director by 1903 at the latest. On 16 May 1910, Thiel left German New Guinea and returned to Germany, where he managed the Hernsheim company as director until 1932. He died in Hamburg in 1939. Ethnographic collections were an important side business for Thiel and Hernsheim & Co. Objects from Thiel’s collections can be found today in many museums in Europe and the United States. Between 1911 and 1921, the Museum für Völkerkunde Hamburg received over 450 objects from Germany’s Pacific colonies through Thiel, which the museum claims were “high-quality donations”. Felix von Luschan, who was responsible for the Africa and Oceania collections of the Ethnological Museum in Berlin, was also supplied with ethnographic artefacts by Thiel. Another of Thiel’s customers was Karl von Linden, whose ethnological collection was to lead to the founding of the Linden Museum in Stuttgart.sold EUR 45,000 - Australia
Rare stone "tjuringa" ("churinga") of unusual size
ProvenanceErwin & Susanne Melchardt, Vienna, Austriasold EUR 10,500 - Marquesas Islands
Stilt step "tapuva'e"
ProvenanceJohann F. Gustav Umlauff, Hamburg, Germany Ernst von Sieglin (1848-1927), Stuttgart, Germany Linden-Museum, Stuttgart, Germany (1905) German Private Collection (1965) Alexander Kubetz, Munich, Germanysold EUR 11,000
