A vintage sterling silver Los Ballesteros necklace to be sole sold at auction tomorrow might turn out to be a great deal for someone because the seller has not identified the piece correctly and therefore may not be attracting interest online. As of this posting, no bids have been made for the lot.
If you’re going to buy or sell vintage Mexican silver jewelry or other pieces, it’s important to learn as much as you can about hallmarks and maker’s marks. The must-have reference for vintage Mexican silver marks is Bille Hougart’s The Little Book of Mexican Silver Trade and Hallmarks. Click on the eBay link below to buy this book if you don’t already own it.
The mysterious case of the disappearing Howard Hawks silver belt buckle
Most of the time auction houses do a great job of handling the items they receive from sellers, but mistakes and problems do occur once in a while. A case in point is the mysterious disappearance of a famous silver belt buckle commissioned by the great film director Howard Hawks. As recently reported in the New York Times (“A Howard Hawks Mystery: Case of the ‘Red River’ Buckle”):
This week Heritage Auctions, a prominent brokerage for movie memorabilia, suddenly pulled its offer of a silver belt buckle with a gold inlay of the Red River brand, just as the bidding reached $17,000. It was one of a handful of buckles commissioned in 1946, when the film was shot, as gifts by its director, Howard Hawks.
A Heritage representative called the buckle’s owner, Mara Alexandru, who had been given it by her father, Norman Cook, the production manager on “Red River.” The representative told her it had vanished — the same fate that had befallen at least two of the other “Red River” buckles over the years.
Heritage Auctions is, of course, an established auction house with an excellent reputation, but like any organization, it is made up of people, and we humans do make mistakes.
The lessons: deal only with reputable auction houses, be sure they have insurance to cover loss, document your item before handing it over, and get a receipt for that item.
You can read the complete article here. Take a look at the listing (Lot 46029, now marked “Lot Passed”) at Live Auctioneers here.
