Finding Maritime Items at Art Auctions

I find some really nice maritime items for my collection at art auctions.  I went to an art auction in Charleston last year and found a pair of candle powered navigation lights that were used on ships in the 19th century.  These types of candles were also used in lighthouse stairwells.

In my prior collection also included a maritime item that was made in 1891.  It is a chronometer and it still kept great time.  It was very special because the broad arrow on it indicates that it was purchased by the British Navy and they are known to have only the best time pieces.  I found this piece of my collection at an art auction in San Luis Obispo.

I had another chronometer in my collection that I found at an art auction in Santa Barbara.  It was sold to me in a wooden box from someone that had owned it for fifty years.  They had kept this maritime relic in a closet.  I had planned to keep it to display but,sold it to a collector in Portugal.

I was at an art auction in San Francisco a couple of years ago and found a fantastic maritime item for my personal collection.  The compass that I won was over 100 years old and was made in Persia.  The compass face has all twelve signs of the zodiac engraved on it.  I thought that this was a great find.

Maritime items don’t seem to be in as much demand anymore in the Eastern USA.  A few years ago, my collection got easier to add to for some reason.  Art auctions everywhere I went started having really great things on the auction block due to estate sales after the mortgage meltdown in 2007-2008.

The brass plaques from old ships have always been one of my favorite things to find up for sale at art auctions.  One of my favorite maritime plaques came from a ship that was used in WWII.  The ship that the plaque was on was called the Marechal Joffre and it was taken from the French in 1942.  The Maritime Commission renamed the ship USS Rochambeau.

Lighthouse items are of interest to me more and more lately.  I am researching upcoming auctions in San Diego where there are going to be antique brass oil lamps up for auction and I plan to win at least one.  The prices will probably get up to fifteen hundred dollars, but I can flip it for a handsome price!  I need this maritime item in my collection to offer if I am to attract world-class investors!