Appraisal Surprises

At my antiques appraisal shows across the country, I review art, antiques, collectibles and, dare I say, oddities. That’s right, some of the stuff that people bring me to appraise is downright odd.

For instance, there was the guy who argued with me over his $8 old glass canning jar during a show in St. Petersburg, Fla. He thought he had the first glass jar ever made by the Ball company because it had a date on it. He didn’t. They all have dates on them. He had an old glass jar worth about $8 that pop up at nearly every estate sale and yard sale. He didn’t like my appraisal, but he wasn’t the first person whose heart I had to break with the truth about an antique.

I was asked to appraise a pair of shoes that were worn to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953 by an audience member’s mother at my event in Bucks County. According to the original owner’s daughter, her mother paid a pretty penny for the shoes which matched a pea-green gown that she wore to the coronation. I tried to explain that the shoes would have been worth more if they were worn by the Queen on that historic day, but that information and explanation about provenance didn’t go over too well. Appraised value was $150 included the original shoebox.

In Louisville, Ky., I appraised the blueprints to the Jefferson Memorial built on the National Mall. The plans were brought in for appraisal by the grandson of the foreman for the famous site. I told the owner to protect them in an acid free storage box or frame them up. They were worth $1,500.

In Seattle, Wash., I appraised a Jim Beam bottle made especially for the 1962 World’s Fair held in that city. It featured an embossed image of the fair and the highly recognizable Space Needle. With these bottles, it’s good to have the unbroken seal and the original whiskey inside. All said and done, the bottle was worth $75.

In Columbus, Ohio, I appraised a Pre-Columbian polychromed Moche vessel, circa 100-800 AD, for $15,000 and a rare 1880s Swiss music box with a moving bird that also sang beautifully (complete with real feathers and a wind-up key) was a great family heirloom worth $12,000. An unusual Native American basket with a baleen carving on the lid was brought to one of my events in Indianapolis, Ind. and it was a real gem. The piece was purchased for $20 at a thrift store and had a market value for Native American collectibles of $8,000 to $10,000.

These and others make up the approximately 20,000 objects a year that I appraise during in-home appraisal sessions and public appraisal events. I conduct more than 100 antiques appraisal events for the public where I teach people what to look for when antiquing and just how much grandma’s old stuff is really worth.

One fan drove four hours to the Annapolis Home Show in Annapolis, Md. in order to have me evaluate a sculpture that had been in her family since the 1950s. The piece was a gift for her mother from her college roommate on the occasion of her mother giving birth to her first child. The gift was not just any sculpture, but it was a small-scale Alexander Calder mobile, perfect for a newborn’s nursery. Albeit small, the piece was the real deal. Based on similar Calder pieces that have sold recently it was worth $75,000-$80,000. That is what a willing buyer will pay a willing seller for it. People have actually paid that much for mobile like this one!

While the objects that I evaluate at my antiques appraisal events are fascinating, I am most intrigued by the people and their stories. I hope you’ll join me and have something you cherish appraised when I visit your neck of the woods.