opal/sterling pottery: difficult to vlaue/sell

Yes. I have higher resolution pics that I was going to send to Quilpie Opal. I emailed them years ago about setting up a visit to their sorting shed in Quilpie, and they were pretty nice. I just thought I would ask here too, since that store does not really do pottery, and the value of the piece is much more than the value of the opal in it.

I also found a professional appraisal service that will send a report for just a few bucks. Someone is also going to post the info on an Opal Auctions board.

Feedback so far has been to sell it in a venue where it will fetch true value, and then donate the cash. I am going to have a frank talk with the auction chairperson to ask whether she thinks there will be bidders who might value something like this.

Thus far OA only got feedback concerning how nice it looks, but no estimate on value yet.

Yea, it might draw some interest in a place like California, or Vancouver, British Columbia, but not here in the Midwest. I don't know that pottery collectors would recognize the value of the opal either. There's a lot of that created stuff around, you have to wonder how many people understand that the "opal" they think isn't so expensive, isn't real.

here is the two i like best:

Well -

Some advice here and on another board was almost insistent that I "find a suitable venue" for selling this bow. Almost a suggestion that it was damaging to art in general to let it sell for much less than some unspecified potential value by offering to non-savvy buyers in a small auction.

I was encouraged to contact auction houses. I did not imaging this item was quite appropriate for art auction houses, nor was I confidant that they would spend a lot of time telling me just the right place to go. The problem is that enough original owners have not died yet to create a secondary market for Georgina Elms pottery. Catch 22. Until there is a secondary market to establish value you can't really get into auctions, and until pieces get into auctions, there won't be a secondary market. - But with phrases like "nothing ventured, nothing gained" I was chastised not to be so defeatist or at least so passive.

I did contact one auction house in Los Angeles because they did contemporary/modern items, and they had a pottery/porcelain section. It took two emails and 10 days to get a reply, and I can't say I was surprised:

"I was not immediately familiar with this pottery/artist and had difficulty finding other auction results here in the US. As such, I do not think we are the right market place for you to realize its potential value. I feel that this vase would be more suitable for auction in the Australian market. Or perhaps this vase would be better suited in a contemporary ceramics gallery that handles the work of Australian potters?"

The issue would be finding an Australian online auction site, and attracting a buyer willing to bid on an item from an international seller (and pay international shipping). Actually going on ebay and cross listing on regular ebay might still be a good idea.

There are a few galleries in Australia that can be found online, and they specialize in contemporary Australian pottery - some secondary market - BUT the logistics seem impractical. I would need to have them agree to take the item on consignment, then ship it at my expense, and then wait some indeterminate amount of time for it to sell.

I think I would be better off finding a local gallery that would be willing to take an item on consignment , and save the shipping.

It is still available to the local charity auction if they want to offer it with a $450 min bid. After that, I may try ebay. failing that, I will tuck it back into my curio cabinet and enjoy looking at it for a while longer.

It has been an interesting/educational, if somewhat frustrating experience.

yes, I think ebay is a relatively easy/free step if I don't get a $450 offer at the charity auction.