re: the post, (snipped), below: we all are famoiliar with the pbs show, antiques roadshow, (a clone of its counterpart in the UK), and the keno twins, two of the top appraisers. i went to a speech these brothers gave and then bought their book, 'Hidden Treasures'. brother leslie works for southeby's, new york. in one chapter he writes: <<"...I never doubted the Appleton secretary would sell but my deepest wish was that it would sell in the millions. The question in my mind was whether or not it would reach a world record. In order to help that process along, part of my job at the auction house is to build the type of interest in a piece that generates competitive bidding. That means in addition to drawing in the ultimat buyer, I also need to find an underbidder--a person whose passion for the piece will ostensibly drive the price up.">> parallel worlds? e-RICHIE
On Fri, 30 Mar 2001 10:46:53 +0100 Chris Wright <Chris.Wright@harpercollins.co.uk> writes: Unfortunately this kind of thing happens all the time in auction houses all over the world, but its usually the auctioneer who instigates it, in order to get the bidding up and over the reserve price (otherwise the auction house gets no sales commission). The trade calls it 'taking a bid from the chandelier', as the auctioneer literally points to the back of the room and takes a bid from thin air.