Antique appraisal as theater

The Kress Family Branch of the Brown County Library, together with the Friends of the Brown County Library, will present an antiques and collectibles appraisal event featuring author and antiques expert Mark F. Moran on Saturday, Sept. 6.

Moran has 30 years of experience buying and selling antiques, specializing in vintage folk art, Americana art and fine art.

He has also been an appraiser of antiques and fine art for more than 20 years.
Moran’s experience working with antiques also includes time as senior editor of Antiques and Collectibles Books for Krause Publications in Iola, contributing editor for Antique Trader magazine, editor of Antique Review East magazine, producer of Atlantique City, editorial director of F+W Media’s Antiques Group and guest expert on the PBS program Antiques Roadshow for nine seasons.

“These programs that I do at libraries and historical societies and senior communities, it’s antique appraisal as theater,” Moran said. “It’s structured along the lines of Antiques Roadshow, but it’s just me. Having been on Antiques Roadshow for nine seasons, I learned a lot. But I learned even more from the years I spent writing and editing books about antiques.”

But even with all his years of experience, Moran is always learning.

“It seems like every event I do, I see something amazing,” he said. “That, for me, is the best part of my job. I’m always learning. The antiques trade and the appraisal of antiques is such a vast area… I know something about many different categories, so when I see something that I haven’t seen before, it just means that I’m learning more.”

At next weekend’s event, Moran encourages anyone who is curious about an item, regardless of where it came from, to come out and learn more about it.

“One of the things that I learned is that everybody has something that they wonder about — something that’s come down through the family as an inheritance, something they received as a gift, it might be something that they got out of a rummage sale or a flea market or on the side of the road… Part of the fun and part of the challenge for me is to help people understand what they have.”

Oftentimes, Moran said, finding out about the story is worth more to people who bring in items than knowing the item’s value.

“People’s reactions when they discover the truth about what they have, that’s the most fun for me,” Moran said. “The funny thing is, most people don’t care how much an object is worth. They just want to know if the story that they have heard all their lives is true about Aunt Martha’s rocking chair or Uncle Henry’s vase or clock or whatever it is, they just want to know if the story is true.”

Of course, that’s not to say some items brought in to Moran’s antique appraisal events haven’t turned out to be valuable.

“In a program that I did for another Brown County Library about two years ago, this nice young couple brought in a painting that they had inherited,” Moran said. “They didn’t know much about the artists and they didn’t know much about the subject matter, which was this village scene. It turned out it was by a pretty famous Pennsylvania artist whose paintings of that same scene had sold for over $100,000. Theirs was a smaller version of the same scene, but I said, ‘Hey, if you decide you want to sell this, I can put you in touch with a good resource to help you do that.’ A couple years went by and then a few months ago I heard from the auction house in Philadelphia that this couple, on my recommendation, had consigned this painting, and it ended up selling… The hammer price of the painting was, I think, $26,000 or $27,000, but with the buyer’s premium, it ended up being closer to $35,000. That’s a good day at the office when someone, on my recommendation, sees the value of what they have in a very substantial way.”

Even if you don’t have an item to be appraised, Moran said the “antique appraisal as theater” approach means there will be plenty of ways to still enjoy the event.

“We do at least 40 items for appraisal and that works out to about four or five minutes per appraisal, so it’s a full three hours,” Moran said. “[Attendees] can expect a lot of fun, a lot of stories from the road and just in general a lot of enjoyment.”

To have an item appraised at the Kress Family Branch event, participants will need to call (920) 558-4407 to reserve a time slot.

Registration is required to have up to three antiques or collectibles appraised with a $15 per item appraisal fee.

“All of my events for the Brown County Libraries are fundraisers,” Moran said. “I don’t know of any libraries these days that are flush with cash, so an important part of my programs is the fundraising aspect where I give proceeds from the event back to the library… I think it’s important to remember that libraries are the heart of every community and it’s important to support them.”

Categories of objects for appraisal may include Americana, fine art, furniture, ceramics, glassware, vintage photographs, advertising, folk art, assorted toys, metalware, clocks, costume jewelry, musical instruments, books, vintage lighting and sports memorabilia.

More information can be found at browncountylibrary.org.