Made in West Germany
THE ANTQR
Does anyone know the value (or is there one) for West or East Germany
Items, since the wall has been torn down?
Dalchicago
things made in West Germany are insignificant with
regards to the fall of the wall... that country didn't go
away!
East German items will likely become more expensive
if they have some political or social significance. For
example, I have some rare dishes and napkins from the
Royal Palace with the logos on each piece which will
likely become quite collectible..... (imagine having official
White House dishes if the US got overthrown....)
Political pins, buttons, wartime memorabilia etc may be
collectible if it was rare...... not something every soldier
had.
Any comments would be appreciated. Do you think I am
correct? incorrect???/
Connie Zeigler
In article <4on59a$7...@newsbf02.news.aol.com>,
dalch...@aol.com (Dalchicago) wrote:
>things made in West Germany are insignificant with
>regards to the fall of the wall... that country didn't go
>away!
>East German items will likely become more expensive
>if they have some political or social significance.
Well, actually, West Germany did "go away", there is now a united Germany once
again, so items marked either East or West Germany, if they are intrinsically
valuable--let your own sense of good taste guide you here--will become more
valuable as time passes, simply because it will be possible to easily date
them to a period only a few decades long. There are many areas of collecting
other than political or culturally significant items, so I don't see why
quality items marked with either East or West Germany would not accelerate in
value at the same rate.
Connie Zeigler
--
Durwyn Smedley Antiques
Visit our web site... http://www.iquest.net/smedley/index
E-mail us at......... sme...@iquest.net
Specializing in: Arts & Crafts Movement, Art Deco, and Mid-Century Designs, Russel Wright, and Art Pottery
Charleen Bunjiovianna
In article <4p1uuc$1g0...@ind-011-237-165.iquest.net> sme...@iquest.net (Connie Zeigler) writes:
>
>Well, actually, West Germany did "go away", there is now a united Germany once
>again, so items marked either East or West Germany, if they are intrinsically
>valuable--let your own sense of good taste guide you here--will become more
>valuable as time passes, simply because it will be possible to easily date
>them to a period only a few decades long. There are many areas of collecting
>other than political or culturally significant items, so I don't see why
>quality items marked with either East or West Germany would not accelerate in
>value at the same rate.
I would like to respectfully disagree with one aspect of what Connie is
saying, and that is that I don't think there's going to be any premium at
all on East/West Germany goods for quite a long time, perhaps even our
lifetimes. It's because there is simply so much of the stuff out there.
While it's true that the time period was only a few decades long,
West Germany at least was one of the most highly-industrialized nations
in the world.
I have occasionally run across old items marked simply "Germany", and
I have found that there is no premium attached to this mark, even though
it dates the object to a certain time period. So I suspect that will
continue to be true for objects marked "East" or "West".
There may very well be an attempt to artificially drive up market prices
by trumpeting East/West items as rare and collectible, much as we've seen
it done with items coming out of the former Soviet Union, if in fact this
hasn't already happened. But while prices may shoot up immediately, the
market corrects itself for true conditions in the long run.
Charleen
--
Buying Haviland "Silver Anniversary" porcelain...do you have any for sale?
antiques and collectibles for sale... URL: http://www.diadem.com
Alan Zanker
char...@netcom.com (Charleen Bunjiovianna) wrote:
>I would like to respectfully disagree with one aspect of what Connie is
>saying, and that is that I don't think there's going to be any premium at
>all on East/West Germany goods for quite a long time, perhaps even our
>lifetimes. It's because there is simply so much of the stuff out there.
>While it's true that the time period was only a few decades long,
>West Germany at least was one of the most highly-industrialized nations
>in the world.
I do think there are *good* items from former GDR producers which can
be expected to increase in value.
For the last four years we've spent part of our summer holiday
visiting porcelain producers in Thuringen and Sachsen. AFAIK all of
these (with the obvious exception of Meissen) were privatised after
the fall of the SED (communist) government, but some have subsequently
been acquired by W German companies (eg Wallendorf of Lichte, Aelteste
Volkstedter Porzellan of Rudolstadt), and others (eg Karl Ens of
Volkstedt) have gone out of business altogether.
We have several Karl Ens figures of birds - they're beautifully made
and coloured, and although we see quite a number at antique fairs here
in England (fewer in Germany) numbers seem to be dwindling. I think
they might turn out to be a good investment as well as a source of
much pleasure - at least I hope so!
One other point - there is still material from some of the Eastern
German producers (eg Plaue, Reichenbach etc) made in GDR days and
marked as such. This seems to sell for much *less* than the material
produced since 1990 - and just marked 'Germany' - by the same firms!
BTW, I'd be interested to hear from any other collectors of German
porcelain, who like us are fairly fanatical!
Alan
--
Alan Zanker | e-mail:al...@bittern.demon.co.uk
Leeds |
csurz...@infoave.net
>
> In article <4on59a$7...@newsbf02.news.aol.com>,
> dalch...@aol.com (Dalchicago) wrote:
> >things made in West Germany are insignificant with
> >regards to the fall of the wall... that country didn't go
> >away!
I hate to disagree with you. Antique dealers in the South East are buying up
anything that has West Germany written on it and they are selling it, big $$$.
Folks are coming in asking for anything that has West Germany written on it.
Maybe it isn't worth anything in your part of the world but it is here.
> Well, actually, West Germany did "go away", there is now a united Germany
once
> again, so items marked either East or West Germany, if they are
intrinsically
> valuable--let your own sense of good taste guide you here--will become more
> valuable as time passes, simply because it will be possible to easily date
> them to a period only a few decades long. There are many areas of
collecting
> other than political or culturally significant items, so I don't see why
> quality items marked with either East or West Germany would not accelerate
in
> value at the same rate.
>
For some strange reason folks looking for the German stuff don't want any but
West Germany written on it, at least in my part of the world. I'm being paid
a substantial finders fee to look for the stuff.
