The Floyd E. Risvold Sale

By Charles F. Shreve, President, Spink Shreves Galleries, Inc.

There was a time in my career as an auctioneer that I never dreamed we would have been asked to present a proposal to sell the Floyd E. Risvold Collection – a collection that had reached legendary status. It seemed destined to go to elsewhere. But through Spink and Spink Shreves growing status in the collectibles world we were asked to make an auction proposal, as were three other firms.

Through the extraordinary and inventive efforts of our marketing staff, our “secret weapon” of Holly Cornwell (our consultant graphic artist) and our C.O.O. Tracy Shreves’ help we presented one of the most professional and impressive auction “pitches” I have ever been involved with. The Risvold family chose the combination of Spink Shreve and Spink Smythe to handle the sale. That was an exciting moment – but then the real challenge was ahead of us.

The Risvold collection – while clearly quite special – presented unique marketing challenges as it was not just postal history, but it contained other very important items from other diverse collecting fields: documents, maps, books, signed letters, etc. Our “dream” for the collection was first to create a catalog that would bring all of these elements together, telling a great story of America’s movement westward – and ultimately brings bidders from widely divergent collecting fields to the auction.

For anyone who has seen the catalogs the reaction has been universal – we have never had more compliments on a catalog, ever. Many seasoned clients described it as the “finest auction catalog they have ever seen.” I cannot begin to tell everyone how proud we are of our entire staff who helped create this extraordinary catalog. It’s a catalog that all Spink specialists around the world will be able to proudly show future clients of the job we can do for their collections. The auction descriptions by George Eveleth and Robert Litzenberger as just remarkable. The catalog design by our marketing team guided by Tracy Shreve again is just spectacular. In fact, we believe it will win many printing awards at the end of the year.

Getting the catalog out involved many others as well and as the sale approached we could sense something special could happen, but we never like to assume success, rather it’s best to keep pushing until the sale itself to make sure every element was in place. On the morning of the auction it was obvious that we succeeded in one thing – everyone important in all of the various collectibles fields was there in attendance, on the Internet, on the telephone or represented by agents. The auction room was filled to capacity.

The end result? The sale had high-end estimates of $3,250,000. We secretly hoped the sale was going to realize between $5 and $6M. From the very beginning of the sale the bidding was intense and exciting – with virtually every lot commanding multiple bids and realizing well in excess of the estimates. At the end the sale realized an impressive $7,001,000.00 – not including the buyer’s premium – with 99.5% of the lots sold! We had a record number of telephone bidders (over 100), over 600 different people at one time or another bidding live on the Internet. And record price after record price was achieved. There were private collectors bidding, as well as dealers, museums (including the Smithsonian and the Mountain Man Museum, curators of private collections and even representatives from the Mormon Church who pushed up prices to stunning levels on the Mormon material.

It truly was an exciting moment for our staff, but just as important it was an exciting moment for Spink as a company worldwide. It added to a legacy that London started many years ago and continues today worldwide. I know Olivier Stocker our C.E.O., along with Tracy and myself, want to thank everyone involved who helped create, promote and conduct this exciting sale. To the entire staff in the US, Tracy and I cannot personally thank you enough for your tireless efforts, your loyalty and caring. What an amazing sale to begin 2010!