E-Photo
Issue #213  3/5/2015
 
Auction Help Available for Upcoming Paris Auctions

By Alex Novak

Paris Auctions are a bit more casual affair. (photo by Alex Novak)
Paris Auctions are a bit more casual affair. (photo by Alex Novak)

Just a reminder, I will be attending most of the upcoming Paris photo auctions later this month and would be happy to represent your interests there. We usually preview and bid for clients, who arrange their payments and shipping with the auction houses directly (although we can assist here as well if you require).

Our basic charge is 5% of the hammer price (about half the normal going rate) against a minimum charge of $250 in Europe. This minimum charge is in case you choose not to bid after our condition report and advice or are unsuccessful in your bidding. Only the 5% fee is charged if you are successful and the hammer price is over $5,000 in Europe. Believe me when I say that we have saved clients thousands of dollars in bad bids and have helped others attain top pieces at auction.

Just call Marthe Smith or me at Vintage Works, Ltd. at 1-215-822-5662 to make arrangements; or call me direct in Europe at 1-215-518-6962 on my mobile. I would also be very happy to meet clients while in Paris from March 14-27.

Novak has over 47 years experience in the photography-collecting arena. He is a long-time member and formally board member of the Daguerreian Society, and, when it was still functioning, he was a member of the American Photographic Historical Society (APHS). He organized the 2016 19th-century Photography Show and Conference for the Daguerreian Society. He is also a long-time member of the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, or AIPAD. Novak has been a member of the board of the nonprofit Photo Review, which publishes both the Photo Review and the Photograph Collector, and is currently on the Photo Review's advisory board. He was a founding member of the Getty Museum Photography Council. He is author of French 19th-Century Master Photographers: Life into Art.

Novak has had photography articles and columns published in several newspapers, the American Photographic Historical Society newsletter, the Photograph Collector and the Daguerreian Society newsletter. He writes and publishes the E-Photo Newsletter, the largest circulation newsletter in the field. Novak is also president and owner of Contemporary Works/Vintage Works, a private photography dealer, which sells by appointment and has sold at exhibit shows, such as AIPAD New York and Miami, Art Chicago, Classic Photography LA, Photo LA, Paris Photo, The 19th-century Photography Show, Art Miami, etc.