How To Value Your Daum Nancy Vase
There is not a single price guide, either printed or online, that accurately prices Daum Nancy vases. The reason for this is that there is no exact price for what any vase is worth. An identical vase might sell three times over the course of ten years for $2,000, $1,400, and $3,200. So what is it worth? The answer is that it is worth whatever a willing buyer and a willing seller decide it is worth. Just because I want to pay $3,000 for a vase does not mean that it isn’t worth $1,500 to another party or $4,500 to someone else. Now that probably does mean that the vase isn’t worth $500, and it probably isn’t worth $10,000 either. If you asked ten different honest dealers and collectors to value the same vase, you would likely get ten different answers.
The following guide is as good as it gets when it comes to trying to come up with your own value. Please remember that I am available to answer any and all questions related to the value of your vase. Info@DaumNancy.com
Most Important Value Factor: Pattern
I don’t know that any collectors refer to the type of scene a vase depicts as the pattern. However, that is term I hear non-collectors use frequently. We have a list of dozens of different standard decorations used by Daum. Some patterns are rare and some are common. Some patterns are more popular than others. We are showing three different patterns below. Out of the three listed, the black birds is the rarest, followed by the rain, and finally the fall scene. All of these are considered very desirable by collectors. It would be impossible to rank all patterns from most popular to least popular, but you do need to be aware that there is a definite hierarchy.
We will also mention that there are even different levels of popularity within seemingly similar patterns. For example, certain floral designs are far more popular than others. Not all landscapes are valued the same. I would be happy to advise where your pattern ranks with collectors and how that affects how much it is worth.
Height Is Important, But It Isn’t Everything
All things equal, if the scene is the same, if the shape is the same, a taller vase will be worth more money than a smaller vase. Don’t interpret that to mean that a tall vase is always worth a lot of money. That simply isn’t true. There are plenty of six inch vases that are worth more than twenty inch vases. Height is really only important when you are comparing apples to apples. For example, let’s look at the rain vase pictured above. That shape comes in at three different heights, 5″, 7″, and 11″. The five inch vase is worth about $6,000. The seven inch vase is worth about $7,500. The eleven inch vase is worth about $12,000.
Vases Are King
With exception of a few very rare lamps, vases are the king of Daum Nancy art glass. If you lined up a vase, bowl, pitcher, and jar side by side, despite being the most common, the vase would absolutely be the easiest to sell, and it would probably be the most valuable. There are not a lot of Daum Nancy collectors in general. For every ten people who would be interested in a nice vase, probably only one of those people would also buy a bowl or a jar. It’s not that there is anything wrong with other items, collectors are just picky and are usually buying for aesthetic reasons. Vases fit in the majority of established collections, but other items are often outliers. Now, please don’t read that statement and think that by having a vase you just hit the jackpot. I am just saying that you definitely didn’t hit the jackpot just because you have an odd shape.
Age & Provenance Don’t Really Matter
This is one of the hardest things for most non-collectors to understand. There is a general misconception that the older something is, the more valuable is. I have talked to people who have spent hours online trying to date their vase to an exact year by examining the mark and old advertisements. While it is interesting to know how old a vase is, just because something dates to 1894 instead of 1914, doesn’t mean that the older vase is going to be more valuable. In fact, vases from the early 20th century are almost always worth more than vases from the late 19th century.
Provenance is also not terribly important. If an important museum deaccessioned some vases, then I could see those commanding a premium. However, lots of famous and wealthy people have had art glass collections. The fact that a celebrity or your town’s eccentric doctor owned the vase does not add any value. Collectors are buying Daum Nancy vases for their beauty and rarity. The previous ownership is rarely a factor in the valuation equation.
Other Things To Consider
Generally speaking, art glass is not increasing in value a lot. In fact, many vases were worth more ten years ago than they are today. And some vases were even worth more in the 1980s. Tastes are always changing, so vases are always fluctuating in value, but there is no evidence to suggest that a vase worth $2,000 today is going to be worth $5,000 in the next generation.
Now What?
So you just read the entire guide and you still have no idea what your vase is worth, right? Unfortunately, that is just how it is. It just isn’t possible to list every pattern, every height, and every shape Daum Nancy made. The good news is that the actual value of your vase can be obtained simply by emailing me. Just be sure to include pictures and dimensions.
