Let’s have some fun!
I’m launching a new game for Montici Society Members. It’s called “Bid or Pass?, and it’s designed to both entertain and educate. Our goal is to help you become an informed Montici art lover/collector by learning more about a Montici piece and some comparables.
Rules of the game are simple:
1) I select from the “Market Watch” page one Montici artwork currently being offered for sale.
2) I do a comparative market analysis on the work.
3) Society Members vote whether they would “Bid” or “Pass” on it at the asking price.
Ready to play? Andiamo!
Montici artwork for Sale: “Circular Flower Bouquet” (MSID)
Asking Price: $6,000
Dealer: eBay
Seller: “Kyunart” has been selling on eBay since Jan. 1999, and enjoys a 100% positive feedback rating from past customers. Per their website: “Kyunart Inc. offers fine art of quality to the Internet market. All items offered come with a money back guarantee. The representations stated in the description of an item concur with the authorship, state and condition of the actual item. A certificate is provided for each item.”
Analysis: Everybody loves flowers. Floral arrangements have been a popular theme in pietra dura art stretching back to the invention of the Florentine technique in the Medici era. They’ve come to decorate ceilings, chapel walls and palace floors, wooden cabinets, and tabletops.. The best examples find buyers and sell well.
Late 17th century floral arrangement from the Medici Grand Ducal workshop. $15,700, Christie’s, London, Dec. 2007.
Seller Kyunart calls the “Circular Flower Bouquet” mosaic “rare,” and they may be right. In our Society database of 300+ Montici artworks, we have just two floral arrangements. That’s it. Two. Could there be a hundred Montici floral arrangement mosaics still out there? Possibly. We’ve only found and catalogued 300 of the estimated 1,500 mosaic works Blow produced in his career. But it’s unlikely. Richard Blow wasn’t that interested in producing traditional, pietra dura flower arrangements. He wanted to infuse Florentine mosaics with a modern iconography – cubism, surrealism, metaphysical art.
The other work in our database is a circa 1970, pop-art, graphic Montici that barely qualifies as a “floral arrangement” comparable. It’s listed as “Untitled (Bouquet)” in the 2019 Wright-Edelman auction catalogue. The medium-sized, 9 x 8 inch mosaic sold for a rather astonishing (to me) $8,750.
Your Turn — BID or PASS?
Would you bid or pass on this Montici mosaic at $6,000?
Michael Schmicker
P.S. Until our“Comments” button for Michael’s Blog is fixed, you can use the “Contact Us” page to send me your decision, and rationale. I’ll report the results when we post the next “Bid of Pass?” game.