A 50 button Jeffries box is coming up for auction next Friday, June 13th.

Website is www.eastbourneauction.com.

Auction House: Eastbourne Auction Rooms

Auction: Fine Art Antiques & Collectables Sale
Sale Date: Friday 13 June 2008 (From 10:00)


C.Jeffries 50 button concertina with pierced metal end panels, ebonised fittings and tooled leather bellows, engraved 'C.Jeffries Maker 23.Praed St. London W' together with a leather case, retailer's label and a tin containing spare accessories

Estimate: £100.00- £200.00 (Lot 357):













The listed estimate is pretty funny, so there may be a bargain to be had for someone.

Regards

John

Looks like it's probably a Jeffries duet with extra reed pans, but the most unusual feature is that they look like brass reeds!

If so, it's a first for me...

6000$ seems like a lot of money for a Jeffries Duet in such unkempt condition. Perhaps I should start making them....
Best - Ed Jeffries.

C.Jeffries 50 button concertina with pierced metal end panels, ebonised fittings and tooled leather bellows, engraved 'C.Jeffries Maker 23.Praed St. London W' together with a leather case, retailer's label and a tin containing spare accessories
Estimate: £100.00- £200.00 (Lot 357):

The listed estimate is pretty funny, so there may be a bargain to be had for someone.

Regards

John
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Auctionhouses do put items of which they know there will be interest on auction with very low estimates. This will attract more people all hoping to get that bargain. You will find yourself in fierce competition with all of them and prices will go up way more than when a more realistic estimate was given. Auctionhouse tactics.... but you never know, it doesn't work all the time - you may be lucky.

Auction house estimates are totally meaningless.
Although an estimate should signify what the auction house thinks is a fair market price auction houses often operate on the presumption that a low estimate will attract bargain hunters. The houses also hope that a low estimate will at least get the bidding started. But the ridiculously low estimates for concertinas - as compared, say, to antique rugs - show that the houses are clueless as to their real value. All they see is a beat-up old squeeze box.
The low estimate does admit the possibility of a preemptive bid from the floor but this helps neither the seller nor the house - though it could be great for a canny bidder. For instance, if the estimate is £100-200 and when bidding opens a bid of £2,000 is instantly entered, the bidder could surprise the house and walk away with a bargain. People who were lulled into thinking they might get a bargain at £500 could be too shocked to answer the high bid. The wily bidder would be passing on the possibility of winning the instrument for £1,000 but it would still be a great buy at £2,000. It happens.

It went for £3000 on the hammer plus commission