However, this poor showing was not due to a general collapse of the stone market. The very next day, Christie’s held a jewelery sale in New York in which the quality level was quite high, and, remarkably enough, 84 percent of the lots were sold. A few good acquisitions could be made at reasonable prices. An Art Deco Tiffany lapel watch and brooch studded with diamonds and colored gems of the "tutti-frutti" type cost $23,750, slightly below the estimate’s lower end.

On December 16 in Paris, where Christie’s was dispersing French 17th- and 18th-century decorative art, the story repeated itself. While obviously splendid pieces sold at correspondingly splendid prices, one or two brilliant coups could be made. The session ended with a group of 11 works that had been acquired at top dollar from the Paris dealer Maurice Segoura and were estimated at a maximum level. A late Louis XIV commode in the manner of André Charles Boulle, mentioned as early as 1720 in an estate inventory, shot up to €4.1 million ($5.6 million), the highest auction price for a piece of furniture in 2008. Originally commissioned by a top-level official toward the end of the reign of Louis XIV, the commode remained with the official’s descendants until the mid-1980s and thus had the cachet of history.

On the other hand, a pair of beautiful armoires probably made in the workshop run by Boulle went for €1.7 million ($2.4 million), a third less than the estimate’s low end. Unlike the commode, these pieces are not unique: Three virtually identical pairs of armoires are in existence, plus a number of later variants. It is fair to add that even though the price fell well below expectations, it remains enormous.

However, one rarity was inexpensive. A pair of cabinets in the Boulle manner made in the 1760s — but more probably adapted from earlier pieces — failed to reach the lower estimate, going for €313,000 ($429,000). The essential reason for the low price is that it takes a great connoisseur of Boulle furniture to respond to such pieces, which are unusual for their period. Their stark geometrical shape is in total contradiction with the Rococo style and its sinuous, fussy lines.

In other words, the obviously rare goes through the roof in the new market, but coups are now possible on works that have a subtle appeal, apparent only to highly specialized collectors. It only takes one or two connoisseurs to be prevented from attending an auction for the prices of rarefied pieces to remain modest. This was far less likely in spring 2008, a time when speculation-minded buyers, nudged by auction-house specialists or advised by independent consultants, all with a vested interest in selling as much as possible, scooped up pretty much everything.

In this new context, the place to go is Drouot. With all its weaknesses, the Paris auction house has two incomparable assets. Price manipulation through exaggerated reserves imposed by consignors is not as systematic at Drouot as it is at international auctions. The least powerful among the 71 auctioneering outfits registered in Paris are the most rewarding for buyers because their limited resources make it too costly for them to handle overestimated goods that may fail to match their reserves. Moreover, the proportion of property from genuinely private sources sold as part of an estate or following a change of personal circumstances is often higher at Drouot, offering buyers a good chance of finding very fine unrecorded works.

On December 19, Jean-Marc Delvaux was conducting a traditional Drouot auction in which lots ranged from minor Old Master paintings to antiquities. Warehouse dust was still ingrained in the carved gilt-wood ornament of some of the furniture. The media rarely cover such auctions because reporters do not know what to look at and find little help in catalogue descriptions that run only three or four lines.

In a typical sequence, a beautiful French gilt-wood mirror dating from about 1710 to 1720 was allowed to go for €6,619 ($9,600), well below the low estimate. This was cheap, given its appeal. Next, a large side table with a marble top of the same period, gray with dust but actually in very good condition, climbed to €20,457 ($29,600). Perfectly genuine, but not well proportioned or carved, it was on the expensive side. A rarity followed: A wrought iron coffee mill, signed around 1740 by the well-known maker Jean-Baptiste Frecon, realized the same price as the table. Although missing its handle, this small arts-and-crafts museum piece is well worth it. Another lot that attracted some attention was a cast-brass bird of prey from Moghul India. Broadly dated to the 17th or 18th century, but possibly as late as the 19th, the piece flew off to a steep €13,838 ($20,000), paid by a phone bidder through the expert Anne-Marie Kevorkian, who sat near the auctioneer’s podium and addressed her client in English.