Next Sunday is a chance to find out the value of small antiques, art and collectibles, at the third annual Appraisal Event sponsored by the Blackhawk Museum Guild. Bring the items to Blackhawk Museum where a panel of experts will verbally make appraisals for a donation of $10 per item to benefit the Museum’s Children’s Education and Transportation Programs.
“People bring in antiques from all over the Valley,” said Anita Venezia, co-chairwoman and one of the appraisers. “We have an appraiser flying in from Denver, a Native American specialist coming from San Jose, and a coin and historic document person from Lafayette.”
“We give both the value and other historic information we know,” she added.
There will be specialists in rare coins, historical documents and autographs, jewelry, paintings and sculpture, and American Indian basketry and artifacts from Alaska to Arizona.
Venezia is a general-line appraiser of furniture, silver, art glass and pottery. “It is all right to bring in photographs of furniture,” she said. “I can extrapolate a lot of information from a photograph.”
She said that people have had pleasant surprises at appraisal events.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time and once we got a Tiffany Lamp,” she recalled. “The person presumed it to be an ordinary lamp and found out it was worth five figures.”
One time a $17 flea market purchase turned out to be a $3,000 work of art. In another instance, a piece of jewelry that had languished in the bottom of a drawer for years turned out to be a 19th century Russian Carl Faberge worth $5,000.
“In many cases families are surprised, because when something sits in the living room for two generations, you get blasÈ about it,” Venezia said.
The appraisal event is being held from noon to 4 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 2.
Treasures can be appraised next Sunday, Oct. 2, at the Blackhawk Museum Guild’s Appraisal Event.
