It's here that the story gets interesting Crawford sold the first fireboard to Dr. Henry Deyerle who had it restored and put in a custom frame. Then in May of 1995, Sotheby's held a sale of the Deyerle collection in Charlottesville. According to Farmer, the consignor, a Virginia collector, had traded a cupboard to the original Pennsylvania purchaser in exchange for the fireboard. The Virginia collector currently is planning to donate the lion fireboard to a museum. Some dealers and collectors stated that the price dropped so drastically on both fireboards due to their large size and painted border rather than the overall image on the surface.
Bidders get excited and emotions run high.
Sit on your wallet and not your heart the next time you attend a sale at Grandma's house. We all get excited at the prospect of buying a bargain and therein lies the roots of all competitive bidding situations. The firm is negotiating privately to secure a sale. Therein lies the second lesson. At catalogue auctions don't allow a low estimate to create overconfidence in your bidding and always be prepared to make offers on highly estimated and passed objects after the sale.