It has come to my attention that most people dread seeking out the services of an appraiser because they have been told by a lawyer, accountant or insurance agent that an appraisal must be done. Appraisals for such ‘must-have’ reasons (settling an estate, probate, marital dispute, tax reasons, insurance) run into the thousands of dollars,…
In the High and Far-Off Times the Elephant, O Best Beloved, had no trunk… …and so begins the tale of The Elephant’s Child. Written by Rudyard Kipling and published in 1902 as one of the Just So stories, The Elephant’s Child relates the slightly improbable manner in which the Elephant’s Child ended up with a…
Before Covid-19, there was no question as to how appraisals were performed. An appraiser visited the site where the items of appraisal are located, did their work, then wrote up a report and submitted it to the person for whom the appraisal report was prepared. Enter the pandemic and a world under lockdown. Online appraisals…
Once upon a time, long long ago I lived in a duplex in a logging town lodged in a remote area of British Columbia. The other side of the duplex was occupied by my landlady, who snowbirded off to Mexico every winter. I had access to her duplex to do laundry and check that everything…
In recent months, I’ve had many discussions about the relevance of antiques in the 21st century. Some people grump that millennials only care about IKEA furniture and the latest smartphone; others see antiques as fusty, useless dust-collectors. Even worse, some see them as garbage and treat them as such. Yet I see millennials visiting flea…
Ah, the joys of coming in to work at an auction house on unboxing day! Boxes and totes full of potential goodies from a fresh batch of consignors are wheeled into the unboxing area. You reach for your boxcutter, slice through the tape on top of a generic brown box, part the flaps and find……..