Me and My Fellow Antiques! - Tuesday, 28 May

One of the specialist firm's
showroom

Well, that was fun!  If you like beautiful “stuff” and controlled chaos, and you can take a break from sightseeing, check out the auction house of Drouot in the 9th arrondissement!  It’s been on my to-do list for years, and today is the first time I experienced it.

One of the generalist firms
even had a grand piano!

Interested in paintings? sculpture? furniture? taxidermy? jewelry? chandeliers? books? photography? frames? pianos? rugs? flatware? porcelain or pottery? tiles? lamps? swords? manuscripts? props? mantles? garden urns and sculptures? fashion drawings? clocks? kitchen equipment? scripts? candlesticks? wine? sconces? toys? vases? mirrors? cinema posters? icons? maps? bug collections?  You might find just the thing when you visit Drouot!  

How about some
Iranian tiles for your
patio?

Drouot is an auction house.  Antique dealers/firms from all over the country create glossy printed catalogs of items for sale, with photos and estimated sale prices, then submit the data to Drouot, which puts it on their website.  Then the dealer uses one of Drouot’s 20 showrooms for a few days to set up their items and make them available for public viewing.  (Most of the dealers bring hundreds of items for auction.)  Then Drouot staff join the dealer in managing a several-hour auction in that showroom.  Some of the dealers are specialists; some are generalists.  I saw items with estimated sale prices of 10 euros to hundreds of thousands of euros!

Some quite amazing
bug collections!

It’s easy to participate!  You just register with Drouot in advance via their website.  If you’re thinking of bidding on something, you give them a credit card number and a photo of your ID (for example, your passport) to verify your identity.  They charge 2 euros to your credit card to authenticate it.  If you want to participate in any particular dealer’s auction, you just register for it.  All of this is very easy to do on Drouot’s website.  

Silver, silver, silver

You should also load their app to your phone/mobile – the app is easy to find in the App Store and Google Play.  You’ll be able to browse, watch the livestream, register, bid, etc. from it.

Go to their website to see info and catalogs for upcoming auctions:  https://drouot.com/en  The day before any auction, and the morning of the auction, you can visit the dealer’s showroom to look at their items in person (and even handle them) and decide what you want to bid on!  The auctions themselves start sometime between 1:30 and 3:00, with several of them happening at the same time in multiple showrooms. 

The auction I attended
just getting ready to start

Then join the fun!  I sat and watched one auction for about an hour while the first 90 of their 300+ items went up for bidding.  I peeked into a couple other auctions where the pace was slightly slower, but a good estimate would be one minute per item.  They are auctioned in item-number order, so you can estimate when a particular item you’re interested in will be presented.  There’s a method for people to bid in person by raising their hand, but the details of how they obtain and present their bidder number were unclear to me.  The good news is that you can bid right from your phone!  If you win something (which I didn’t today 😢 ), there’s a room on the main floor where you can pick it up.  If you can’t be physically present for the auction and are bidding remotely, you have a couple of days to pick up your winnings.  Or you can have them shipped to you!  

Need a break?  Getting hungry/thirsty?  Luckily there are several bars, bistros and cafés just across the street.  Throngs of people come to Drouot, and they must be accommodated!  And you can keep an eye on the auction you’re watching via your phone.  I did so and saw several other buyers from the auction I attended at the bar across the street from the café I chose.  Given their interactions with the staff and others in attendance, they appeared to be “regulars” – maybe they are interior designers, or have a stall at one of the markets or their own small antique shop or one of the bouquiniste stalls along the Seine!

Drouot is located at 9 rue Drouot, just a block north of the Métro Richelieu-Drouot.  Easy peasy!  Maybe too easy peasy!  But check it out – you will thank me!  https://drouot.com/en