2025 - Volume #49, Issue #2, Page #21
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Vintage Textiles Popular At Auctions
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Balsamo has decades of experience with antique textiles, having worked as a dealer, appraiser and historian. She has been an antique textile dealer for over 20 years and is an American Quilt Society Certified Quilt Appraiser and a Quilt Historian.
“Dana Auctions began in my home in Princeton, N.J.,” she says. “I’d gotten my Pennsylvania auctioneer’s license in 2019 and had worked at several auction houses. But when auctions stopped during the pandemic, I needed to stay busy. I had a large inventory, so I sold my personal collection over the first few auctions. Word spread, and consignments started coming in.”
By July 2021, Balsamo had moved the business to a small office. “I hired staff, and we operated simulcast auctions in-person and online. But we outgrew that space quickly,” she says. Now, Dana Actions operates out of a 4,000 sq. ft. warehouse. “We run monthly auctions, sometimes twice a month. The auctions are simulcast or online only, depending on the assets.”
Balsamo and her team take great pride in their catalogs. “The textiles have to be accurately described, including the era or date, fabric content (cotton, linen), size, construction technique (hand, machine, embroidered, quilted, etc.), and condition. And photographs are critical.”
Everything auctioned is guaranteed antique or vintage; most items are gently used. Bidders (both online and in-person) must register in advance, a process that only requires a driver’s license. The LLC charges an 18% Buyer’s Premium on top of the winning bid. In-house shipping is available.
Dana Auctions is popular with buyers and sellers, and Balsamo often takes consignments six months in advance. “We were featured in Quilt Folk Magazine last year, and I assisted the Antiques Roadshow on the Textile Table last year in Urbandale, Iowa,” she says. “Being involved in the antique quilt world for so long has helped build my reputation and business.”
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dana Auctions, LLC. 3490 US-1 Suite 17B, Princeton, N.J. 08540; (ph 732-221-3560; dana@danaauctions.com; www.danaauctions.com).
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