A passion for collecting evolved into a family business for auctioneer and art glass specialist Dr. Jürgen Fischer

Believe it or not, sometimes great collectors get their start in a barnyard. At least that’s the way it happened to Dr. Jürgen Fischer, founder and director of Auktionshaus Dr. Fischer in Heilbronn, Germany.

The auctioneer still remembers his first purchase. At age 14, Fischer paid a farmer the equivalent of a few cents to buy the dish his chickens pecked from. The piece was actually a seibenbürgische ceramic bowl from the 18th century. Now years later, Fischer is still interested in the handmade objects found in the “seven mountain” region of Transylvania, but his taste has moved away from ceramics and more toward seibenbürgische silver. He also collects bronze sculptures.
“Collecting is my passion. And one might say that collecting lies in the genes,” Fischer said. “My great-grandfather was a collector.”

Fischer studied economics and accounting, the field in which he earned his doctorate. But in 1976, his love of antiques edged his career in finance out of the picture, and he founded Auktionshaus Dr. Fischer.

“From the beginning the auction house has specialized in select glass from all eras,” Fischer said. “Our other specialties are ceramics, especially faience and stoneware.”

In the early years the small, family-run business conducted its auctions in the Heilbronn Island Hotel. Then in 1986, after extensive renovations, Dr. Fischer and his team moved into their current home: the Trappenseeschlösschen, or little schloss (castle) on Trappen Lake.

It is a fittingly historic backdrop for Dr. Fischer’s exquisite offerings. Built in 1575 by Bürgermeister Philipp Orth, schloss ownership transferred in 1653 to Johann Bernhard Trapp, from whom the lake gets its name. In 1784 the estate was bought by Dutch Admiral Von Kinkel, who fully redesigned and managed the construction of the structure one sees today.

“The Schlösschen has become a center of attraction for collectors, dealers and art friends from all of the world,” said Fischer. “It is also a popular day-trip destination, especially in the summer months.”

Family members involved in the business include Dr. Fischer’s wife, Isabella, who is in charge of Eastern European art; their daughter, Monia Becker, director of accounting with a specialty in colored glass and Art Nouveau porcelain; and son-in-law Michael Becker, a graphic artist who designs the company’s catalogs and promotional literature. The team has additional specialists for watches and clocks, paintings and graphics, glass of the 16th through 20th centuries, porcelain, ceramics and faience, and religious art. Dr. Fischer, himself, is an expert in glass, ceramics and silver.

“We hold between five and six auctions per year,” said Fisher. “For each auction, the Fischer team painstakingly accepts and thoroughly catalogs from 1000 to 1,300 lots.” Electronic versions of Fischer’s auction catalogs may be viewed online at www.liveauctioneers.com. The Fischer Web site, which is in English and German, provides additional information on sale dates and company events.

Three auctions per year focus on European glass. In addition, Dr. Fischer specializes in auctioning outstanding private collections. “Our very successful inclusion of a Russian Fine and Decorative Arts sale was added two years ago,” said Fischer.

Since 1989, the Fischer summer auction has been held in the Bavarian forest town of Zweisel, which is well known for its art glass. This auction is especially popular with collectors because of its auxiliary lectures, visits to glassworks and opportunities to meet some of the artists who are making names for themselves in contemporary glass.

Auktionshaus Dr. Fischer has had a number of memorable moments over the years. In March of 1997, a 13-inch-tall gold and ruby glass lidded goblet made in Potsdam, 1685-1695, sold for a record setting $205,288. In May of 2005, a hand-formed ceramic bust by Wilhelm Lehmbruck, 1881-1919, soared an even loftier $308,000. And in November of that same year, a single vermeil tulip goblet by Sebastian Hahn, a master artist who worked from 1675 to 1690 in Hermannstadt, Germany, brought an astonishing $630,000. These prices were on the hammer, so technically these pieces sold for even more, once the buyer’s premium was factored in.

Throughout his career Dr. Fischer has watched his customer base, as well as its tastes, change. “Whereas before almost 95 percent of our customers came from the German-speaking areas, today almost 75 percent come from other European countries as well as overseas,” he said. Another interesting statistic is that approximately 50 percent of Fischer’s customers bid and buy via the Internet.

“Increasingly glass is being bought as a decorative object,” Fischer observed. “For this, the work of the studio glass artist is especially suitable.” Fischer noted that studio designers understand sculpture and form; they are not in it purely to produce “curio cabinet objects.”

Dr. Fischer feels the general buying trend is moving in the direction of decorative pieces.

“Studio-glass sculptures fuse harmoniously with the modern living environment. As a result, we’re seeing an ever-increasing demand from younger collectors.”

If Dr. Fischer’s hunch is correct, today’s glass artists will be appearing in the auction marketplace with much greater frequency as the younger generation of collectors begins to “discover this attractive territory.”

“There are surely numerous glass artists who are not yet big names in the global auction market whose work is worthy of collecting,” Fischer said. But he stops short of predicting the names that he believes will rise to the top in years to come, explaining, “All this is a question of taste.”

He does, however, reveal the names of a few contemporary artists whose work is already recognized internationally. The list includes Czech glass artists Stanislav Libensky and Jaroslava Brychtova; Germany’s Erwin Eisch and Klaus Moje; and Americans Dale Chilhuly, Harvey Littleton and Tom Patty.

“Prices for their work is sure to increase in the coming years,” he tipped.