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size vs. price - do americans really buy art by the pound?

updated mon 1 aug 05

 

John Rodgers on tue 26 jul 05


I have heard it said quite a bit that Americans do buy their art by the
pound, and have seen the idea seemingly at work with my own stuff
occasionally, especially back when I was doing porcelain figurine work.
Bigger was better so it seemed, and brought more money per piece. But
often there was far more work in a very small piece than a large piece.

Small can bring big bucks, if you can figure out the market. I attended
an ACC show in Atlanta and saw a miniature chess set with one set of
chess pieces turned from Ebony wood and the other from Tauga nut
(vegetable ivory). The chessboard was ebony and tauga nut squares, and
measured 2 inches by 2 inches. While I was there, the set sold to a
collector for $3000.

So small can be good, but my experience is that such sales are few.
Usually it's the other way around. Big pieces = big bucks.
How does one motivate a customer to appreciate the effort and artistic
touch in a small piece sufficiently to be willing to pay what it is worth?

Regards,

John Rodgers
Chelsea, AL

Earl Brunner on tue 26 jul 05


LOL this made me think about some of the student pots I loaded in the kiln yesterday for bisque. Sell one of them by the pound and retire!!!!!!!!!! My hernia appointment is next week........ They really made want to rethink top loading kilns........ Now those were some ROBUST pots...... Not a dainty little thing among them......

John Rodgers wrote:I have heard it said quite a bit that Americans do buy their art by the
pound, and have seen the idea seemingly at work with my own stuff
occasionally, especially back when I was doing porcelain figurine work.
Bigger was better so it seemed, and brought more money per piece. But
often there was far more work in a very small piece than a large piece.




Earl Brunner
e-mail: brunv53@yahoo.com

Susan Stern on sun 31 jul 05


In a message dated 7/26/2005 9:31:36 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
brunv53@YAHOO.COM writes:

> LOL this made me think about some of the student pots I loaded in the kiln
> yesterday for bisque. Sell one of them by the pound and retire!!!!!!!!!! My
> hernia appointment is next week........ They really made want to rethink
> top loading kilns........ Now those were some ROBUST pots...... Not a dainty
> little thing among them......

An instructor I had a while ago used to call those Kansasware -- they're so
heavy they won't blow away in a tornado.

Susie