Finding antique globes part 2 A day antique hunting....

     I just spent this past Saturday May 17th on the antiques hunt.  I was in the Finger Lakes region of NY south of Rochester, a great place to see quality antiques in small shops, co-ops and malls the little towns in and around this region are a local antiques hot spot.   As I mentioned in an earlier post I have struck globe gold once here before, and I have also spotted several other very old but not collection worthy globes in these shops before.  I want to share a few pictures that are typical of scouting a generalist antiques store for globes.

 

1920 Rand McNally 8"

   This small globe shown to the left really got my hopes up because I found it very early in my day, but it was by far the best globe of my day, and it stayed in it's display case and did not become part of my collection.  So what kept me from buying?  Actually this is a nice model from Rand McNally, that I don't own, but condition problems abound.  Lets critique this globe together.  On the plus side it is 90 plus years old, and it is a harder to find size as an 8 inch model.  On the negative, it is dirty ( not a deal breaker ) it's equator has a rather large crack, but that in itself is not horrible, but the base was repainted at some point, it should have a bronzed finish.  I suspect from looking at the finial of this globe that the base rusted, and someone sprayed it green to hide the rust.  That is the deal breaker, that devalued this globe.  I must mention the price clearly visible on the tag in the picture  $325  if the base of this globe were untouched then yes with negotiation a fair price could have been arrived at, but this dealer is dreaming with a hastily repaired piece like this.  By the way, to spark conversation what would a fair price be for this globe? If the base were intact?  In my opinion with a good base but just a dirty orb, and cracked equator, I think $200 would have been fair, you could have had it repaired, and cleaned a little ( another $200 )  and ended up with a respectable globe that is not easily found.

     I generally don't like co-ops and malls because I am of the belief that other dealers pick these places long before the public gets inside and " all the good stuff" ends up scooped up before I get to buy.  I know I will upset some people with that statement, and I think I would do the same, so I can't really cast blame.....but still....

     Here are a couple other pictures from my day, typical 1980's stuff that comes up at every mall and co-op out there.

  So where have all the good globes gone.....?  Are they already in collections?  Are they scooped up by pickers at estate sales, then channeled to specialist dealers?  Yes great globes show up at auction, both eBay and traditional,  but for an item that was mass produced there seem to be precious few still out there.
     I'm headed to Brimfield this September, for 5 days of raw antique hunting, I'm going to find out for myself just what's out there.  I'm going early and mid week I want to see if I can't get first crack on a globe or two " fresh to market" if you will.
     As always lets discuss, feel free to disagree, or criticize, we'll all learn!

 

UPDATE:   5/25/14   Where have all the good globes gone......?   Not a week after I wrote this, I found a globe that I've been hunting for a long time!  post to follow, so you never really know where and when.....