Metal Abstract Modern Wall Art Sculpture by Jon Allen – Constant Variation

Metal Abstract Modern Wall Art Sculpture by Jon Allen - Constant Variation
Photo Credit: Metal-Wall-Art-by-Statements2000

Metal Abstract Modern Wall Art Sculpture by Jon Allen – Constant Variation

Buy It Now Price: $125 (price as of 2016; item no longer available)

Pros:

-This is a contemporary wall sculpture that measures 14 inches (35.6 cm) wide by 14 (35.6 cm) inches tall by 2 inches (5.1 cm) deep.  It was created by Jon Allen, a well-known contemporary artist currently working in Florida.

-It is made from high quality aircraft-grade aluminum and is finished with a UV resistant clear coat.  These are good quality materials and the piece is obviously professionally crafted with great attention to detail.

-This contemporary wall sculpture is a phenomenal example of what I call “neo-cubism” – a.k.a. 1980s style.  The bold use of primary colors, coupled with simple shapes and varied textures, combine to give a visually stunning effect.  The play of shadows across the work as one changes viewing angles as well as the textured, guilloche enamel-like appearance of the colored metal blocks also contributes meaningfully to the work’s je ne sais quoi.

-While neo-cubism is most closely associated with the 1980s in the common conscience, the style staged a significant comeback in the 2000s after hibernating throughout the 1990s.  The look is still current as of 2016.

-Although this work appears as if a Rubik’s cube barfed on a wall after drinking too much vodka, it perfectly embodies the spirit of neo-cubism.  The $125 price point seems reasonable for a piece that so utterly exudes the zeitgeist of the contemporary era.

 

Cons:

-The work is non-representational and very contemporary, which could be either a pro or a con, depending on your tastes.

-This work is not one-of-a-kind; the artist has sold other copies.  I don’t see that as being a large drawback, but for some people who strictly demand uniqueness it would be an important factor.

-This contemporary wall sculpture is absolutely new, fresh from the artist.  It is not antique, or even vintage, and therefore is not seasoned at all.  Seasoning is the process where lower quality or faddish items are removed from the pool of potential investment-grade antiques via attrition.  Because I have screened this item carefully for both high quality materials and composition, however, I don’t believe that will be an issue.

-Buying art directly from the artist for investment purposes is generally quite challenging.  It is sort of like investing in penny stocks.  There is a great deal of risk offset by a lot of reward if you choose wisely.

Benjamin Graham’s Margin of Safety as Applied to Investment Grade Antiques

Benjamin Graham's Margin of Safety as Applied to Investment Grade Antiques

Benjamin Graham was one of the most famous and intellectually important investors of the 20th century.  He is sometimes known as the “Father of Value Investing” for his groundbreaking research in the field of equity investing during the 1930s and 1940s.  His two most famous books – Security Analysis and The Intelligent Investor – are considered classics.  They are still read today by those looking for greater insight into his seminal style of investing.  One of the key themes that Benjamin Graham propounded was the idea of margin of safety when investing.

Margin of safety can be defined as only buying a stock at an appropriate discount to its intrinsic value.  The intrinsic value of a stock is usually characterized as its tangible book value – the value of all the real assets of the underlying company like cash, property and salable inventory minus its liabilities.  This calculation explicitly excludes goodwill, patents, trademarks and other potentially valuable intangible assets that a company might own.  The fundamental idea behind margin of safety investing is that the risk of future loss is greatly reduced if an investor only buys a company’s stock when it trades below intrinsic value.

This Grahamian concept of margin of safety has been a mainstay of value investors in the securities markets for decades.  However, the idea can also be adapted for use in the fine antiques market as well.  Many investment grade antiques are made from precious metals or gemstones, giving them an intrinsic value component.  The intrinsic value of precious materials in antiques can be considered equivalent to the tangible book value of publicly traded companies.

In other words, intrinsic value effectively puts a floor underneath the market value of a fine antique in the same way that it does in a stock.  As an added bonus, high intrinsic value also tends to enhance the desirability and therefore the collector’s premium applied to investment grade antiques.

Now, there are some subtle differences when applying margin of safety in stocks versus investment grade antiques.  First, while uncommon, equities do occasionally trade below their intrinsic value.  Antiques, in contrast, very rarely do; specimens that sell for less than their intrinsic value are quickly snapped up in the marketplace.  Instead, investment grade antiques usually trade at a premium (sometimes a large premium) to their underlying intrinsic value.  This premium is attributable to the artistic, historical or collector’s value of the item.

However, the fact that investment grade antiques rarely sell below their intrinsic value doesn’t invalidate the core concept of the Grahamian margin of safety.  To the contrary, intrinsic value tends to create a hard floor under an antique’s purchase price.  So, for example, an engine-turned, Art Deco era, sterling silver cigarette case may sell for $150, but have an intrinsic value – the bullion value of its sterling silver – of $80.  This means the artistic or collector’s premium you’re paying is $70.

In this hypothetical situation, the intrinsic bullion value of our chosen objet d’art would effectively limit your potential loss to about 47% in a worst case scenario.  No one intentionally buys an investment grade antique expecting it to drop in value, but in the unlikely event it does, the item’s intrinsic value prevents your loss from being excessively severe.

Now the margin of safety idea cannot be universally applied to any work of art.  For example, it usually cannot be utilized with the major arts, like paintings and sculpture.  Paintings are made from canvas and paints and therefore have no intrinsic value.  Likewise, sculptures are usually created from stone or bronze which also have either no, or minimal intrinsic value.

When you purchase a work of major art, you’re exclusively purchasing artistic premium.  This can either be very good, or very bad, depending on future price movements.  In any case, you can’t rely on margin of safety to reduce risk in these situations.

Using the Grahamian concept of margin of safety to limit risk is a godsend to risk-averse investors who wish to allocate a portion of their portfolio to investment grade antiques.  It allows you to boldly invest in a largely unexplored, but high-return-potential asset class while simultaneously mitigating the possibility of severe loss.  Margin of safety has worked for stock investors for decades and there is no reason it can’t work for savvy antique investors as well.

I Have a Furniture Dream

I Have a Furniture Dream

As I rapidly approach 40 years in age, I have a furniture dream.  And that dream is to one day purchase large pieces of unupholstered furniture that I do not have to assemble myself.  I know it might seem like a simple dream to some people, but it is important to me nonetheless.

You see, when I was 11 years old my parents purchased me one of those cheap $100 entertainment centers made out of compressed chipboard with a plastic, wood-grained veneer.  I put it together myself and used it to store books, my various collections and whatever else I had lying around my room.  It was a wonderful, useful piece of furniture that was perfect for a pre-teen.  It was also a terrible piece of furniture quality-wise.  It aged unnaturally fast – quickly became an eyesore with badly sagging shelves and ugly, scuffed-up veneer.

“No problem” I thought to myself.  When I’m older I’ll be able to buy real wood furniture – the kind that doesn’t come in a box with its own mini, disposable hex wrench.  Unfortunately, as I grew into an adult, it seemed that regardless of my stage of life I was always forced to buy and then assemble a dresser, desk, or bookcase.

My parent’s house never had nearly as much self-assemble furniture in it as my various apartments (and later, my house) did.  However, I always felt certain that at some point I would break through the barrier between college dorm living with its cheap, self-assembled chipboard furniture and the more adult lifestyle of permanent, quality, real-wood furniture that had been pre-assembled in a dedicated factory.

Alas, that day has not come yet.  Even as I have gotten older and earned more, my dream of buying new, high quality furniture has gradually receded beyond the horizon.  Sure, I could buy some new real furniture from a high-end boutique if I really wanted to, but it would cost a lot of money – an awful lot of money.  Somehow, between the late 1980s when I was 11 and today, furniture that you don’t have to assemble yourself became an aspirational luxury good…although I don’t know quite how or why that happened.

This is one reason why I gravitate towards antiques, rather than pursue new consumer items.  All the furniture made in the mid 20th century and before is pre-assembled and constructed of fine, sold-wood.  And the same goes for almost any other item manufactured 50 years ago or more – the excellent build quality is unmistakable.  Ultimately, antiques may end up being the only realistic way to achieve my dream of owning furniture I don’t have to build myself.

Tsuchiya Koitsu Woodblock Print, Japan, Benkei Bridge, Shin Hanga Style, Listed Artist

Tsuchiya Koitsu Woodblock Print, Japan, Benkei Bridge, Shin Hanga Style, Listed Artist
Photo Credit: alembix

Tsuchiya Koitsu Woodblock Print, Japan, Benkei Bridge, Shin hanga Style, Listed Artist

Buy It Now Price: $298 (price as of 2016; item no longer available)

Pros:

-This is a Japanese woodblock print in the “shin hanga” style.  Shin hanga translates from the Japanese as “new woodblock prints” and are descendents of the traditional Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock prints of the Edo and Meiji eras.

-Shin hanga was an early to mid 20th century Japanese print movement that combined traditional Japanese themes with groundbreaking Western artistic understanding of light and perspective.  It was an export-oriented artistic movement that was wildly popular in the West in the period between World War I and World War II.  Even today, shin hanga prints possess an attractive, unmistakably modern quality.

-This particular shin hanga print is titled “Benkei Bridge” and was created by Tsuchiya Koitsu in 1934 and published by Doi Hangaten.  It shows a famous bridge in Kyoto, lined with blooming cherry trees, in an atmospheric night scene.

– The seller claims this Benkei Bridge woodblock print is a reprint from just after World War II.  The offset seal in the lower left-hand corner is consistent with an early post-war impression.

-Tsuchiya Koitsu (born 1870; died 1949) was a landscape specialist Japanese woodblock print artist renowned for his striking use of light and shadow.  Benkei Bridge is one of his most popular works.

-The print measures 10.5 by 15.6 inches (26.7 by 39.6 centimeters).  This is an “oban” format print, the largest of the commonly encountered sizes.

-The work is unframed and in good condition, with no apparent rips, stains, or trimmed margins.  $298 is an excellent price, provided the work is genuine and as described.

 

Cons:

-Almost all shin hanga Japanese woodblock prints were reprinted one or more times in the mid to late 20th century.  An original is, of course, far more desirable and expensive than a reprint.  Among reprints, those made during the lifetime of the artist are also more valuable then later reprints from the 1980s or 1990s.  You should assume that any print you find for sale online is a reprint, unless it comes from a highly reputable source.

-I would have preferred that the seller include a photo of the back of the print.  All woodblock prints bleed through to the back to some extent.  This is considered a sign of authenticity as any copy of a woodblock print created via laser-jet or other modern printing method will not have this bleed-through.