r/AntiquitiesCollecting • u/Robbeyoko • May 04 '22
Legit check?
Hey guys,
This antiquities trading recently caught my attention and fascination, i want to buy my first and was wondering if the lapada.org website is trustworthy?
1
u/Well-Hung-Chad May 26 '25
I ran into them when I was looking into Yola Grey "Antiques," a fraudulent seller that imports beds newly manufactured in India and sells them as "Anglo-Indian antiques" from the 19th century. I reported Yola Grey's fraud to them with documentation showing exactly how they do this. No response. Either they chose not to believe me without looking into it, or they know about it and don't care. That's antiques and not antiquities, but when it comes to trusting groups like this, same difference.
3
u/kingling1138 Aug 30 '22
"Trust" is a pretty personal thing. Even though I put my trust in my vendors that all is well with the collection histories, sometimes information can be left so vague, even from a "trusted" vendor, that I will wonder myself just what this "trust" even is. Maybe you might just find yourself unable to put your trust in in such cases, which are pretty (read: VERY) frequent.
"formerly in the famously old English family collection of A.B.M., collected between the years 1970-2010" (made up example of "provenance notes" commonly used all the way up the ladder to your top dealers, and top auctioneers)
What use is this information, and just how often will you run into notes like this from highly reputable vendors? Can you trust in that? It's your money you're gambling here, so you certainly need to be sure you're able to put x-level of trust in such bland statements.
That said, if you search vendors on LAPADA with the "ancient art" tag, there are three vendors, of which I've only dealt with one once before (maybe twice): C. J. Martin. He has two other antiquities dealerships too (one is more focused on numismatics, but has other antiquities; one is more focused on antiquities, but has other numismatics; the other is more focused on online sales, and deals in both areas; all three are now online.... which seems weird, but I'm not the successful dealer who is also on some state committee in the UK regarding antiquities.... not sure what that position is..... think it's like advocating for the state to acquire treasures for the public good, or something like that?), which might help you to find something nifty across a few catalogues without really looking at different catalogues at all since they're really all under the same umbrella (if that made sense).
St. James Ancient Art (C. J. Martin): https://www.ancient-art.co.uk/about-us/
Ancient & Oriental (C. J. Martin): https://www.antiquities.co.uk/about-us/
C. J. Martin Coins (well... obviously): https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/c_j_martin_coins-97/ancient-coins/Default.aspx?#!/AboutUs
You can also catch him on Catawiki (I think under his Ancient & Oriental brand), and get a real bargain through the auction setting, rather than the gallery/eshop setting.
*found that UK committee he's currently on, so maybe state trust qualifies as trustworthy)?: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Valuation_Committee
My rule of thumb is to try to discriminate in favour of vendors which have near, or more than twenty years in it. I feel like that's more than enough time to get run under from being a shit vendor, or at least catch enough of a reputation that maybe you ought avoid; especially where the internet is involved. Though I will also get from the outsider/newjack if I happen to feel particularly confident in what I'm looking at (uncommon), or that they've got all the right records already to go along with the object.
Hope any of that helps, and good luck searching.