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Hess Fine Art wins Tama Bay Times Best of the Best Award 2019. The Best of the Best Awards celebrate businesses and organizations loved by the Tampa Bay community.
Hess Fine Art - Tampa Bay's oldest & most reliable buyer of gold, silver, fine watches, jewelry & antiques. Located on 4th Street for over 30 years!
What's It Worth? To Clean Or Not To Clean
One of the most enduring debates in the world of fine art and collectibles is more nuanced than just whether or not to clean an item.
This controversial subject is generally debated in a cerebral and studious manner among aficionados, experts, collectors and academics. But often the discussion turns ugly. I have never seen fisticuffs or weaponry used, but believe me, the discussion is passionate.
What's It Worth? German Porcelain From Dresden & Meissen
The city of Dresden and the Meissen factory area are known for their fine porcelain manufacturing, going back centuries. While most pieces of this type are soft (price wise) right now, we recently purchased a nice collection (one piece of which is pictured here).
What's It Worth? Large Items In The Age Of E-Commerce
One of our most frequent hurdles in buying and brokering estate artwork is being certain the cost of shipping the item to the buyer doesn’t equal or exceed the selling price. Recently we sold two fine-arts auction lots that our customers in other parts of the country and overseas would have been willing to pay over $500 to $1,000 for – but in each case they informed us that the cost of shipping cut them out of the bidding process.
What's It Worth? Unusual Serving Pieces
Before income taxes, and when prosperous households had help, stainless steel flatware was not only a must but also meticulously designed for a distinct purpose. These pieces required special care, and thorough knowledge of their use – as you wouldn’t want to embarrass yourself by serving a food with the wrong utensil.
What's It Worth? The Egg-Citing History Of Fabergé Eggs
Peter Carl Fabergé, a Russian artisan of Frencch Huguenot ancestry, made about 50 gold and jeweled eggs when he was the royal jeweler to Russian aristocracy from 1885 forward. Only 45 of them have been accounted for. The legacy of these eggs is far-reaching, and a simple internet search will unearth hundreds of stories about them.
What's It Worth? Legos. Great To Sell, Not So Great To Step On
I hate Legos. Despise them. I was reminded of them when an executive here in town brought them up after we sold a large baseball card collection for him and his retired father. He still collected them at age 40!
Yes, I played with them briefly in the ’60s. So I can appreciate them. And Legos were the first thing I ever saw traded on the internet back in 1988. I get the fascination. I hate them for another reason.
What's It Worth? Age Influences Value ... On Many Levels
Sometimes the past that got us into this business has a way of coming back to us in pleasant ways.
I first read Walden; or, Life in the Woods, by Henry David Thoreau, when I was in eighth grade. I reread it in college – and of course, it had a completely different meaning to me those eight years later. I have reread it a couple of times since then, but not in the last 20 years.
What's It Worth? Winners vs. Losers
As mentioned before, I’m not a big gambler, because at poker and Vegas games, I typically lose. However, Katrina allows me – even encourages me – to gamble on antiques and fine paintings.
In 2007, a “picker” (a smart, seasoned antique dealer who doesn’t have a shop but sells to other dealers) started bringing us extraordinary, valuable art books and mid-level paintings by well-known artists.
He was buying from a retiree who lived in a mobile home.
What's It Worth? On Age and Rarity In Valuation
The Adoration of the Magi is an oft-depicted scene in medieval art, and this triptych icon (a triptych has three pieces) made of carved wood puzzled us at first with regard to its age.
We bought it for less than $1,000 due to its condition (it is falling apart; and like most icons this old, shows a lot of paint loss).
Our gallerist, who helped buy it from the customer, insisted it was an 18th-century tribute to a 15th-century subject. Another expert was not so sure.
