Is it rare?

Is it rare?

This question is one that I've pondered about as I've gone through the process of writing the book on The Napier Co. I often see pieces labeled as rare which I personally would not call rare, but could possibly understand why someone else might.

Napier manufactured very small production runs of its designs until the early to mid 1960's. Often only 12 to 25 of any particular design were ever made and it's those pieces, albeit the normal productions levels for Napier, that are the pieces I sometimes call "rare." On the other hand, a "massive" run for Napier would be 1000 + maybe 500 for a second production. That's 1500 pieces total. When you think about how few numbers that is in comparison to the population, it might still be considered "rare" if you see it come up on Ebay every 3 to 6 months but in reality it isn't rare at all. It's mass production. Rarity in my opinion can only be assessed by that actual production numbers and that data is something that we simply don't have. "Rarity" can be a slippery slope. My less than scientific or factual method (regarding Napier) has really been based on how often it shows up on Ebay. If I see a piece maybe once every 3 or 4 years... my guess is that it's "rare." If it comes up every once month or so... The production was probably at least in the 300 range (which was also a common production run) and I still wouldn't call that rare.

It's the museum pieces... The over the top pieces that only a couple samples were ever made that are the true rare pieces of Napier. Where did they sell the most of those pieces you might ask... Florida and Texas. :)