Hi Beth!
I suggest that your friend visit eBay and look at the antique bobbins
which are listed there all the time. Most importantly, she should look
at the "sold for..." price, not the asking price. This is a very good
indicator of what people will pay for antique bobbins today - unless she
has some very rare and highly-sought-after bobbins. "Hanging bobbins"
come to mind. If she has any bobbins that give a name and state a date
which says, "hung on .....", this is a valuable bobbin. As always, the
condition of the bobbins (*and* their original spangles) is paramount.
Before she (or anyone who does this for her) decided to list bobbins for
sale on eBay, they should be completely sure of what they're talking
about. As we on Arachne know, there is a lot of junk listed with fancy
terms that do not relate to the item itself. On the other hand, failing
to mention that a bobbin is a hanging bobbin (if it is, in fact...) will
mean that lots of interested buyers won't even find it.
I would strongly urge your friend to take her time with disposing of
these treasures. The more time she puts into deciding when and how to
sell the bobbins, the better the outcome.
In the US, there is a very highly regarded vendor who has taken on a
large estate and has priced the items based on her own extensive
knowledge. The seller is patient, and doesn't require that the lot be
"liquidated" immediately. So, gradually all of these lovely pieces are
being sold... to people who can usually examine them "in person" at a
lace day or other gathering, and make a knowledgeable decision. If
there is such a vendor in your (or your friend's) area, I would highly
recommend this approach.
Apologies for this lengthy response, but I do hope Beth and her friend
find good homes (at fair prices) for these treasures.
Clay
On 6/6/2010 5:45 PM, Beth Marshall wrote:
Hello everyone
Just got back from an evenings chat with my neighbour who came back yesterday
from visiting family
in Northamptonshire... bringing all her MIL's lace equipment with her. MIL has
given up lacemaking
due to poor eyesight and arthritic hands, and has given Sue the task of
disposing of it. MIL had
learned lacemaking as a child, then took it up again in the 1980's - her
pillows are modern
polystyrene ones, but her bobbins are all antique ones from an older lacemaker
(or possibly several
lacemakers...) who'd given up.
I had a lovely evening looking through them all - I don't think I've seen so
many antique bone
bobbins in one place before.
Sue's daughters aren't interested in them at all, and Sue has no intention of
trying lacemaking
herself so she wants to sell the bobbins - does anyone have any ideas on how to
value them, or how
to go about selling them without too much time and trouble? There must be about
a hundred bone
bobbins, mostly decorated in some way and quite a few have names or mottoes,
and even more wooden
ones.
(I'd love to have them all myself, but there's no way I could afford that many)
Regards
Beth
in Cheshire, NW England
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