The cover of this special section, “Baccarat Dealer (The Girls of Caesars Palace)” (30 in. by 24 in.) by LeRoy Neiman, sold for $43,750 at Heritage’s recent American Art Signature Auction on
Nov. 17, 2014 in New York.
This image is particularly apropos, as Baccarat is a counting game, in which each card, and by extension, each hand, is assessed a particular numerical value. The hand with the highest value wins. Cards 1 through 9 are worth their face value, 10 and the face cards are worth zero and Aces are worth 1. The value of the hand is the rightmost numeral in the sum of all the cards in it. For example, a hand with a 2 and a 3 would be worth 5, but one with a 6 and a 7 would only be worth 3 (3 being the rightmost numeral of 13). The dealer plays two hands, based on a complicated table of pre-set draw rules known as the tableaux, and people bet on which will win.
Valuation professionals must conduct their business according to an even more complicated tableaux than that employed by Baccarat players. The authors in this supplement hope that their insights can help clear up some of this confusion.