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When I was living in CA I used to be a denizen of the Antique and or Art auctions..one of the places that I was a known was at was Abels in the city of Commerce. Abels would hold a weekly auction and a quarterly auction of high end antiques. Over time I got to hanging with the West LA antiques dealers, they got to know me as a person who knew quality, value and who would not over pay for what I bought. One of the Dealers was a guy who specialized in 1920's Spanish Revial furniture, among his clientele was Cher and Nicholas Cage as that is what they liked. Another had Faye Dunway as a client, and another had a Consignment Shop on San Vicente Blvd in West LA, who consigned Walter Matheau estate, George Hamilton and Barbara Streisand stuff in his shop. He sold all of his celebrity consignments on the QT, but because I knew him from the auctions I was told.

Also at Abels weekly auctions you knew people by sight and chit chatted with them but you just didn't know who they might be. One of my show business friends who frequented Abels one day pointed out a guy as being the son of a man who owned high rise buildings on Wilshire Blvd. The point being that people with a lot of money were beating the bushes for high quality bargains.

At one of the quarterly auctions I watched a man win the bidding on a Paul Store Sterling Silver Wine Cooler and Tankard for 250K. I asked him if they were going to be consigned to Sotherbys he said, "NO they are for my dining room." The reason why I remember it was that those pieces are stunning museum quality pieces of Regency period silver.

On the car note, one of the guys I knew from Abels was an expert on American Cut Glass (as having written a book on the subject), he one day walked up and just out of the blue told me that when he graduated from HS in 74 he bought a 57 Tessa Rossa for 4K, and that he could have bought a 62 GTO for 18K, but didn't have the money for it. He sold the Tessa Rosa at Barrett Jackson in 87 for 250K, the proceeds form which he bought a 5000 sq ft Tudor in Hancock Park in LA. He also had a penchant for Tiffany Lamps the last of which I heard about him was that he dropped 250K for a Tiffany Floor lamp. The thing about him is that he drove a mid 80's brown Chrysler sedan.