French Auction

[Froggy]

Hi All,

Just recently got a call from a friend who went to a local (in France) auction. It was an unfortunate eboniste (cabinet maker) who had gone bust. The thing that caught my imagination was 10 pieces of Oak. Apparantly all from the same giant tree. Each plank was approx. 5mtrs long by 1.2mtrs wide and 10cm thick. According to my friend they were completely straight and practically blemishless. The whole lot went for €4000. I thought this was very cheap considering the relative rarity of the sizes. What do you think? What is the real value of something like that? Before you start reaching for your calculators the volume is 6m3. Actually you may need you calculators because you work in ft3 in England!! In our local timber yard the price of that volume of A grade oak would be slighty over €6000 but with the rarity value added what would be a reasonable value?

I missed the auction, but had I been there I probably wouldn't have bid on it for the simple reason I wouldn't have had the means to transport it!!

Cheers Froggy.

 

[jackss565]

Hi,

We import large volumes of oak from France, and whilst trees like that are rare they are avaliable. If kiln dried then that price was very very good, we would be paying at least double that. If fresh sawn then wholesale value is only around 3k

Thanks
Jack

 

[sue denim]

could have got it in my van... few trips...

and why didn't you tell me ?

'Sue'

 

[Froggy]

Hi Jack, As you may know if you import from France there was a tempest in 1999 in the Limousin region (which is where I live). It downed a large percentage of the vast amoumt of woodland in the area and the locals still have barns full of it (planked but waney edged). Normally this is the wood I buy - 14 year old air dried. I don't know of anyone locally who kiln dries (even the timber yards), so I suspect the wood was either air dried or green. Thanks for your response.

Simon - I didn't find out about it until after the auction, but there is another one coming soon. I'll let you know whebn I have the details.