Antique Appraisals
 Remember When Pricing Antiques:
Two Heads Are Better Than One!
by Wayne Mattox
For larger estate
appraisals, I frequently invite my buddy and business partner,
Carl Hotkowski to join me. Providing that the two appraisers
work, for the most part, independently, I believe clients
benefit in such instances. The benefit has nothing to do with
rate advantages. Like almost all appraisers, we bill our time
out per man-hour. It has to do with accuracy. Two heads are
better than one.
Carl's knowledge
exceeds mine in some fields. And I likewise have areas
where my interests and experiences are finely tuned. When
he's looking at silver, I'm often turning old chairs
upside down. After a while, when each of us have
made a detailed assessment as to the age, origin,
condition and value of a list of items, we swap lists to
quickly see if our opinions match up.You see … antique
appraisal can be an imprecise subjective business-more
art than science. Still, I have not arrived at my real
point. Let me blurt it out. Sometimes, even
antique "experts" get it wrong.
One such story
revolves around a two-generation antique dealer family,
consisting of a husband, wife and their son, who was
reasonably new in the business in the time. Among
their family heirlooms, from the wife's side, was a
9-inch wide celluloid pin back photo button. In the
1890's technology was introduced that brought forth
political and advertising buttons. A few years later, for
a handsome sum, people could have their own family images
printed on such buttons as a means of a keepsake. The
button of our story pictures the 1922 images of sisters,
Beatrice and Helen Landers. Their mother, who was
known as Aunt Sil, saved up money to have three buttons
produced; one for her, and one each for her two sisters.
Everybody in the strong Irish catholic family were
immensely proud of the two 17 years olds, for they were
about to take their vows and become Sister Daria and
Sister Geraldine.
In the coming
years, one of the buttons would hang proudly in the
kitchen of Aunt Sil's sister, Mary, while the nuns would
rise in order. Sister Geraldine would serve as principal
to a catholic girl's school. Sister Daria would earn
the title of Mother Superior and Mary would name one of
her daughters after her. Daria grew up, married, had her
own children and became an antique dealer. She also
inherited the one family possession that she wanted most
of all -- the picture button that hung for years in her
mom's kitchen.
 Eventually
Daria's oldest son found his way into her business,
becoming an antique dealer. He studied nightly. One
of his first assignments would be the running of a tag
sale for his mom and dad, using his knowledge to price
items from their attic. In his wisdom, he priced the
picture button with Sister Geraldine and Sister Daria,
from whom his mother owed her very name -- for 50
cents.
Knowing that two
eyes are better than one, Daria checked her son's prices
and retrieved the button. It hangs in her kitchen
today. On the back of the button there is now,
scotch-taped, a note reading the following: "This
is a photo of Sister Daria (left) and Sister Geraldine
(right) before they entered the convent. They were my
mother's nieces. I was named after Sister Daria.
They were beautiful ladies. Sister Daria became "Mother
Superior" and sister Geraldine was principal of a
catholic girl's school. Each lived to their 80's.
(DO NOT SELL!)
The note was
hand-written by Daria Mattox -- my
mother.
by
AntiqueTalk.com
Reprinted with
permission
Copyright by Wayne
Mattox ©
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