When a reader sends a photo and description of an antique and asks “How much is this worth?”, a lot goes on behind the scenes before they receive a suggested replacement value. The replacement value is an estimated cost of what you would pay for an item if you had to substitute the same thing for that item: for example, your house is burglarized, and your china vase is stolen. Your insurance covers replacement value, so we need to determine how much it would be to purchase the same item. But this is not as easy as just checking a price guide or handbook. There’s a mix of knowledge, research, skill and even a bit of luck involved, so we thought you might be interested in the process.
1. Identify the item.
We work from photos and descriptions of condition, marks, materials, etc., and that is why we are not offering appraisals which require a physical inspection. We are offering an opinion on what the antique might be, and what it might cost to replace, and we base this on knowledge of the field, research, and consulting with other antiques experts. First, we look at what the item was used for (decorative? medical?) and then we begin to piece together its history. If we can find a comparable item at a museum archive or collector’s guidebook, that’s a plus. We figure out what the item was made from (wood? metal?), how it was manufactured (by hand? machine?), how old it is (does the flag have 48 stars?). We ask dozens of questions and narrow down the item’s use and age to discover its place in history. Next, we start to think about value.
2. Find comparable items.
A “comp” is an item that resembles as closely as possible the item we are identifying. Sometimes, we do find a twin of the antique under scrutiny, other times we discover something like the antique: same materials, same design, maybe a different manufacturer. We check handbooks, price and field guides to antiques, collectors’ guides, museum websites and photo archives. We subscribe to a number of online pricing guides, which list tens of thousands of items, and allow us to determine what item sold for what, where it sold and when. Placing the antique in question within a time framework and next to a comparable item, or items, helps us to figure out if this is a unique piece or one of thousands produced by a company.
3. Compare selling prices.
An item may have been a hot collectible (remember Cabbage Patch dolls?), so a listing from 25 years ago doesn’t tell us much about what the dolls are worth today. We use “sold” prices only: just because an antiques dealer asks $10,000 for an item, doesn’t mean someone will pay that. We look at online auction sites (you can filter for “sold listings”). We check auction catalogues, which are often published online, along with the prices realized at the sales. When we use databases, we check for the most recently sold items: if an item has not been sold over the past 5 years or so, we start to consider whether the item is scarce and therefore, may command a higher price when it does go up for sale.
4. Identify intrinsic value.
This is based upon the value of the item to the purchaser, and may involve nostalgia or celebrity. For example, someone has an oak pedestal dining table from 1900 and we are establishing replacement value. In our research, we might find the following prices online: $350 at WorthPoint, $600 at eBay, $5,000 at Christie’s. Now, let’s see what the differences are: the lowest priced table was in good condition, sold at an auction in Iowa and was listed six months ago on WorthPoint. The eBay table was an exact duplicate, but sold for nearly twice as much. Perhaps there was a bidding war or the buyer lived in a city where antiques may be in high demand? The Christie’s table — again, the exact same table — was owned by a famous author, who wrote his novels there. The buyer who purchased that table wanted it at any cost because of the table’s association value, and not because the table itself was any different from the table sold in Iowa.
5. Determine provenance.
This is the history of an item. Where the family purchased the table. Who owned it. Whether there are documents proving stories. You can say that your desk was used in the US Senate, but can you show us a photo of your great-uncle Horace who was a Senator, sitting at the desk? Is there a way you can support your stories? Without proof, we cannot use your stories to determine replacement value: while it may not matter to the buyer who is willing to pay more based on your word, it certainly matters to an insurance company, who is not willing to replace your item at a higher price.
6. Determine replacement value.
Here’s where we look at the complete package: item, condition, rarity, comparable values, recent sales, and something I’ll call “style,” for lack of a better term. Some items have a flair: perhaps a doll is dressed in a hat with the original egret feathers. Or a book was bound by an unknown, but highly skilled, artist. Sometimes we know that there are many oak roll top desks to be had in the mainland US, but not in Alaska or Puerto Rico; therefore, we have to factor in costs locating or transporting a comparable item to these regions. The Internet has changed the antiques world, and it is now possible to locate an item and have it shipped almost anywhere. The final replacement value may be much lower or much higher than you think it should be, but an appraiser should tell you how she reached that value, and provide information and data to back up her work.
Above all, a replacement value has to be fair: values change constantly, so that a painting you paid $30 for twenty years ago may be worth $30 or $3,000 today. A lost item may never be duplicated as far as emotional ties go, but it often can be replaced, and sometimes, that’s enough.