Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why is this art glass a good investment?
Unlike stocks and other "soft" investments, art glass has enjoyed tremendous stability as an investment medium. In a recent conversation with Steve Early of Early Auction Company, I posed the question to him, "Steve, how do you think this poor economy will affect the glass market?" His response was, "Warner, I've been in this business for about 50 years now, and we've seen upturns and downturns in the economy over that span of time.
As far as glass is concerned, the values have held up remarkably well, even in bad times. The last thing that people give up is something that they are passionate about". As a testament to the validity of Steve's statement, the following two days (October 24th, and 25th, 2008) the Early Auction Company had solid sales results, despite the market opening up Friday morning with the Dow down 5.8%, the S&P 500 was down 6.1%, and the Nasdaq fell 6.9% to a new five-year low. When the market was seemingly falling apart, glass held strong.
We feel that specific contemporary artists hold the most promise in terms of investment potential and the ability to build a collector base going forward. More and more collectors of "old" glass are becoming interested in and aware of some of the contemporary artists which will increase demand (and thus prices) of these artist's works.
I personally saw this happen with Lotton glass just in the few years that I had been collecting it. Prices on the secondary market DOUBLED in those few years, and pieces would occasionally reach or in some cases even exceed their retail prices. The most common reason a piece's value would jump by that much in a short period of time is simply that collectors are slowly becoming aware of the value and beauty of these artist's works. Even in rough economic times, good glass has proven to be a stable investment. At the end of January 2009, a new sales record for a Lotton miniature was set - almost $800 for a piece less than 2 inches tall. This piece sold for well under $100 when it was made in 1993. That's a nice return, and the piece was enjoyed by its owner while it appreciated, unlike a piece of paper that said they owned stock in a company.