Roycroft Copper Price Guide
Submitted by admin on Sun, 10/11/2009 - 09:43
"First off, let me say that I think Roycroft metalwork is currently undervalued. Consider that the BEST examples of the premier art potteries (Grueby, Rookwood, Marblehead, Newcomb, etc) are generally selling for over $50,000 a pop. And Gus furniture seems to be setting record prices at every auction, with fine Morris chairs over $25,000, "meat and potatos" bookcases over $10,000, and anything truly rare and special completely unaffordable by normal people. The fact that you can still pick up a Roycroft buttress vase for under $6,000 or a mint 19 inch American Beauty vase for under $4,000 tells me the Roycroft market has not yet fully matured. So despite the recent rise in Roycroft copper prices, you have to keep it all in perspective. I recognize that most Roycroft was a production line product, and unique pieces are few and far between, but they do exist, and very rare Kipp or Jennings pieces (real "art" objects) are still not far beyond the production prices. Another way to look at it is that I don't see why a nice Van Erp vase continues to cost two, three, or even five times the price of a nice Kipp or Jennings vase.
As for collecting advice, I may be stating the obvious here, but new collectors should avoid gobbling up every $200 pair of bookends that passes by. The best collections have fewer but better objects. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have one Ford Shelby Cobra than a lot full of Pintos. Remember that better pieces appreciate in value quicker, are easier to sell, and are more enjoyable to own. So leave the bookends, ashtrays, crumb scrapers, and letter openers to the other guy, and go ahead, buy that $7,000 buttress vase!"