(No title) April 14, 1997 – Posted in: Press

By DAVID ROEDER
Published: April 14, 1997
Chicago Sun-Times

It’s the eve of April 15 and business has been brisk the last few weeks for accountants, tax preparers and maybe your local jeweler.

From the Gold Coast to the North Shore and points inland, people are cleaning out dresser drawers and safe deposit boxes of family heirlooms. Specialists in antique and estate jewelry said more people have been selling the items in recent years, sometimes to pay off the IRS but for many other reasons as well. “Lately, I’ve had all the business I can handle,” said Tobina Kahn, vice president of House of Kahn estate jewelers, with offices at 919 N. Michigan.

She said revenues have grown at least 30 percent over the last three years as more people bring in everything from single pieces to collections. “People have realized their old jewelry can be a liquid asset,” Kahn said.

“I’ve been in this business for 40 years and I’d say, yes, it’s been picking up lately,” said Charles Horberg, owner of a shop in the jewelers’ complex at 5 S. Wabash.

Sellers have a catalog of motivations, dealers said. Some have to pay taxes, while others need to eliminate credit card debt. Recent losses in the stock market have forced some sales.
In other cases, an heir is peddling an unwanted treasure. “They don’t want it, they don’t care for it, they won’t wear it, it’s not their style,” said Richard Matson, a veteran jeweler in Geneva. He said he branched into the estate and antique markets a dozen years ago, and they now account for almost two-thirds of his business, with much of the growth coming in the last five years.

Other jewelers describe their resale business as increasing steadily since the late 1980s. While no statistics are kept, a decade of growth also was cited by a spokeswoman for the Jewelers of America trade group based in New York.

The quest for cash hasn’t extended to other possessions, such as art, experts said. Barbara Schnitzer, owner of Fine Arts Appraisers in Chicago, commented that jewelry is a far more liquid asset.

Many dealers will pay a customer almost instantly, whereas Schnitzer said a painting’s owner can wait as long as four months for the proceeds. She said more art sales are occurring, but only because owners are getting out of a market that was depressed in the early 1990s.

Often, jewelry sellers are simply deciding that precious gems and metals can’t outshine a college fund for the kids.
Kahn, involved in a business her father started in the 1930s, said many customers in her well-to-do clientele express fear over the next generation’s economic prospects. “People wonder about the education of their children and their grandchildren, so they’d rather give them a trust fund than a diamond ring,” she said.
“The standards of living are not necessarily slipping, but lifestyles are changing. People want to know they’ll have enough money to retire,” Kahn said.

The strategy looks particularly good now, when certain types of jewelry command a high price. “The Americans are selling and the Europeans are buying,” said Kahn, who deals heavily with foreign buyers and has almost no retail trade. Europeans are “obsessed with any kind of American-made item.”
Norm Milin, owner of the Leni M Inc. jewelry store on Wabash, also said the international market has grown. “The fine antique jewelry is understood more by the Europeans than by the Americans. Americans are looking for style more than quality,” he said.

But even that level of taste has produced a strong domestic market, depending on the piece. Jewelers said anything in a 1920s or 1930s Art Deco-style is big, as are platinum items.
“Pocket watches are big. I have to scramble to find them and it used to be I couldn’t get rid of them,” said John Kozicki, owner of Glenview Coin & Collectibles Inc.

Interest in the market also has caused more jewelry to be sold through auctions, but experts said that route works best mostly for rare pieces or those in a celebrity’s collection.
“Lately, I’ve had all the business I can handle,” says Tobina Kahn of House of Kahn estate jewelers in Chicago.