Task 63 & 65 - Buy 1 Antique / Piece fof Art

Store: Boston Consignment
            238 Highland Ave
           Needham, MA 02494
           (781) 449-0900

Rating: 4-Stars

This past weekend I stopped by Boston Consignment. It is a pretty non-descript building but something in one of the windows made me decide to stop in and see what they had. Almost immediately when I entered a Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus poster caught my eye.

The colors were bright and vivid and the growling leopard head really captured my attention. I noticed that there were two other circus posters as well. The posters were all in excellent condition. I asked the owner of the shop Sheila the story behind the poster’s and she told me that they came from the estate of a printer and that these posters were printed for the circus in his shop and he had retained a few copies for his personal collection.

Dan also saw a huge mirror he was interested in but it wasn’t cheap at $695. He decided to think about it and the poster priced at $450 required that do a little research before pulling the trigger. While driving away I called my father to get his opinion and sent him a picture of the poster. I also began looking online from my phone and discovered several of these poster’s for sale ranging from $650 - $795 unframed. 

After some conversation Dan decided he wanted the mirror and I decided I wanted the poster. We returned to the store and Sheila and I negotiated a price of $1000 for both items. The way her shop and most consignment shops work is that these items are owned not by here but the original owners and she is tasked with the job of selling the items on their behalf. She is allowed some flexibility on each item’s price but it varies from item to item. 

Net cost of the poster with tax for me was $413.00 and I was pleased with my purchase. Anyone that has ever had anything framed knows that a poster this size would cost $200 - $300 to frame alone.

I was torn which one of my 101 things tasks to put this one as. Antique or piece of art. I decided since it was old and not something that they still make today and that there was a limited number of them printed I would count it as an antique.