Please advise on some Japanese Cloisonné at local auction?

The items I liked start with lot 278, about a dozen lots. Aside from the abviously damaged pieces, do the rest of the lots seem to correspond more or less with the estimated prices listed? Are they mostly high quality of the type and collectible, or just ordinary tourist stuff? Auction is tonite but that cloisonné is the only part that made me stop and look.

http://quinnsauction.hibid.com/cata...re-auction-may-4th--2016/?sortOrder=2&cpage=6

 

Yikes! The auction estimates for this auction seem quite high in general to me. I can't speak specifically to the cloisonne' value but it does seem to be older and of reasonably good quality. Does this auction house routinely meet estimates? If so, I want to sell with them. To heck with this selling at retail stuff.

 

Circa 1900-1930 cloisonne. This style is tricky, it sells but not a really high prices on ebay at least. Tall pairs and height over 7" seemed to sell better than the small more common vases. I would buy these auction lots for much less than the estimated price. Look for items with maker mark, silver wire, wireless, and older scenic all which garner very good selling prices sometimes in the $1000s.

 

They've got pie in the sky estimates on some things I saw. There are three "costume jewelry" lots on the same page with $150 estimates on each. All three together for one money might be worth about that, and that's a big "might", but one of the bags is full of Mardi Gras beads. The other has some too. I pay about $5/ton for those for donating to Operation Christmas Child. There was a string of malachite beads in the first one but I couldn't see anything else worth much.

 

Thanks, appreciate the sage advice. Yes the estimates all seemed high to me at least on the small portion of the items with which I'm familiar. I'm probably going to inspect in person and maybe attend during sale if I see anything I want. Yes I'm not too interested in ordinary Japanese cloisonné unless it sells pretty cheap, and thanks for letting me know about the types that might be worth good money. This biz owner (Quinn) is an occasional appraiser on ARS and although his biz is almost in my neighborhood, have never been to a sale there. He's referred folks to me on certain military items so I think it is time to thank him in person and maybe buy something. If you haven't been around antiques and collectibles long enough to have learned this, remember that the very best items and collections and sales for that matter come to you through your personal network of friends and associates.

 

And occasionally at blind luck yard sales. Never underestimate those. The estimates are just that, and from the looks of things I think they used a "standard" rather than actually looking at what was in the lot. That's especially true of the jewelry. They had $350 on a pair of sterling and gold accent rings too, which might be on the money if they're John Hardy or something similar. If they're marked with the JH (see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hardy_(jewelry) ) they could well be worth that price.

 

Thanks, I looked at the cloisonné and it was all under 7" tall, and I didn't bid on any of it. Nothing else in the sale really talked to me so I left with empty arms and full wallet for once. They went really fast, about 400 lots in 2 1/4 hours!