Best Bids

Book excerpt: For first-time bidders mystified and intimidated by the auction process, Best Bids spells it all out -- from the preview to the bidding and from small country auctions to giant internationals like Sotheby's and Christie's to bidding on the Internet. Readers will learn how to bid, how to consign an object for sale, how to evaluate an item, and how to recognize a fake. Best Bids is filled with illustrated examples and advice from experts in the field and covers twenty-five categories of collecting from Chinese Ceramics, Paintings, Silver, and Rugs to American Furniture, Books and Manuscripts, American Folk Art, European Ceramics, and Collectibles. Best Bids is a complete and long-needed guide for enthusiasts and for the avid viewers of PBS's Antiques Roadshow.