American Pastimes

In my previous post for this fortnightly series on Top eBay Chess Items by Price, titled Quest for Logic, I mentioned that my most favorite posts are about paintings. It's even more of a treat to have two consecutive posts featuring paintings.

The item pictured below, titled 'LOUIS CHARLES MOELLER, (American, 1855-1930), THE CHESS GAME, oil on canvas', subtitled 'Part of a live auction event on Sunday, Oct 26', sold for US $6500 after receiving 12 bids from a single bidder. The bidding history shows the bidder increasing his bids from a 'Starting Price' of US $2250 to the winning bid over a timeframe of less than a minute. Someone really wanted that painting.

Why not just set the starting price to the minimum acceptable bid? Knowing nothing about eBay live auctions, I can't answer that question.

The description added,

LOT 77; Seller's Estimate: USD 3000 - 5000

THE CHESS GAME; oil on canvas; signed Louis Moeller, l.r.; 18 x 24 1/4 in. (25 x 31 in.); bears Brockton Arts Center, Brockton, Massachusetts label, verso

Exhibitions: "American Pastimes", Brockton Arts Center, Brockton, Massachusetts, January 27 - April 17, 1977.

For more about the artist, see Wikipedia's entry on Louis Moeller.