Friday Night Antique Auction returns this week. Forty-six lots, one room, one auctioneer, and the kind of small, peculiar pieces that don't really belong on a marketplace tile.
The cover this volume is Lot 14 — an 800 silver European filigree cameo necklace with a matching bracelet. Sapphire-blue glass, a hand-cut shell cameo at the throat, and the soft tarnish that an old piece earns honestly. It came in last spring with a note attached and a name we couldn't trace. We've kept it on the wall since.
Below is what's coming, what we know about Lot 14, and how to find a seat at the room.
01 · The cover
Lot 14: The cameo, in brief
European workmanship, almost certainly Edwardian, almost certainly built for evening. The metal carries an 800 mark — common for Continental silver of the period, slightly softer than sterling and easier on a filigree this fine. The center cameo is shell, hand-carved, and the blue stones are paste — period-correct, still beautiful at a quiet distance.
The bracelet matches the necklace stone-for-stone and was almost certainly sold as a set. Suiting two pieces like this back together after a century is rarer than people think; we'd guess they were separated and reunited at some point along the way.
- Estimate: $480 – $720
- Opening bid: $250
- Condition: Very good. Light tarnish. Original clasp, both pieces. No chain repair.
- Provenance: Single-owner consignment, Pacific Northwest, 1979 – present.
02 · The room
What else is on the block this Friday
Friday Night runs forty-six lots and tends to draw a crowd that likes the older, quieter end of the catalogue. We try to keep the pacing steady — three minutes a lot, no theatrics, drinks at the bar between bidding bursts.
A few we're watching this week:
- Lot 03 — Crown Trifari demi-parure, mid-century, with the original box.
- Lot 09 — A small framed Japanese woodblock, late 19th century, attributed to a regional flower-and-bird school.
- Lot 22 — A pair of brass candlesticks pulled from an estate clearance in Astoria. Heavier than they look.
- Lot 31 — Three Elvis 45s, all sleeves intact. We had to be talked into running them on a Friday.
- Lot 40 — A single-owner accumulation of fishing-sinker molds. We are aware this is a strange lot. It's our favorite.
03 · The format
How Friday Night actually runs
It's a live auction with a real auctioneer. Bids come in from the room, the phone, and the floor of the website at the same time. The room sees what the website sees, and the website sees what the room sees. We try not to make it more complicated than that.
If you've never bid online before: you register once, you watch as long as you want, you click when you want a lot. The interface stays out of the way. If you change your mind on a winning bid you have a short window to cancel without ceremony. If a lot doesn't move, we move on. There's no reserve theater.
We don't run a marketplace pretending to be an auction. Friday Night is the auction. Some weeks the room makes the pricing, some weeks the website does, and we don't really mind which.
04 · How to find a seat
Registering and showing up
Register through the live auction page on the marketplace. The doors open thirty minutes before the gavel and the auction starts on the hour. There's no entry fee. Phone bidding is available — if you'd like to register a phone line, send a note by Thursday afternoon and we'll set you up with a clerk.
If you're in town and you want to come look at Lot 14 in person, we keep shop hours Wednesday through Saturday. The cover usually moves to the case by midweek before a big auction night. Ring the bell.
From The Harrison Collection
We've been running these on Friday nights for the better part of two years. The crowd is steady, the lots come and go, and once in a while a piece like Lot 14 shows up and reminds us why we kept the room open in the first place. See you Friday.