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Massachusetts Miniature Card Table, ca. 1790

Value (2005) | $8,000 Retail – $12,000 Retail

GUEST:
It came from my grandparents, and they got it in around 1911. It's supposed to be from the governor of Vermont, when their first child was born. We don't know why, but...

APPRAISER:
Somehow it's connected.

GUEST:
That's right. So then it went from there to my mom's house, who has it right now. And that's basically what we know about it.

APPRAISER:
It's a really rare miniature card table. I asked all my colleagues on the floor, and not one of them has seen a miniature card table.

GUEST:
Oh!

APPRAISER:
A normal card table is 36 inches wide. This one's 28. And half of the 36 deep, which would be 18. This one's 14.

GUEST:
Oh!

APPRAISER:
This skirt is shrunk proportionately. The legs are shrunk half an inch in size. So it is a perfect miniature. They didn't take a big table and lop off the end of it to make it smaller. And it's made as perfectly as a full-size card table. How you tell a perfect miniature is if I took a picture of that and it stood alone, you couldn't tell whether it was full size or miniature.

GUEST:
Huh.

APPRAISER:
It's from Massachusetts.

GUEST:
Okay.

APPRAISER:
And it's about 1790 in period.

GUEST:
Okay.

APPRAISER:
And it's Hepplewhite in style. But some of the beautiful things about it are... you always look at a card table to make sure that the top matches. And you can see this is the same piece of wood, and it's beautiful mahogany. I mean, this is not second grade. This is the first grade island mahogany that they made it out of. And I want to pick it up and set it right up here.

GUEST:
Okay.

APPRAISER:
Because it does have some significant repairs. This is a not-so-old repair, and it must have started to get loose here, and they decided to put this piece of wood on there. And then these are new glue blocks, as you can easily see. Beautiful, beautiful color underneath. You always look to see that the top color matches the side color. We'll just set it down so you can look at it again. And it's a typical D shape. It has wonderful inlay in here. It's got some other condition problems. It's missing a little bit of its banding, but nothing serious. And it has not been refinished. It has its old original finish. I am so glad you didn't touch it. I would say in a retail situation, it would be worth $8,000 to $12,000.

GUEST:
Oh, great!

Support provided by: Learn more

Appraisal Details

Appraiser
Marybeth Keene
Decorative Arts, Folk Art
None
Longmont, CO
Appraised value (2005)
$8,000 Retail – $12,000 Retail
Featured In
Tampa, Hour 2 (#1002)
Big & Little (#1320)
Event
Tampa, FL (June 25, 2005)
Category
Furniture
Period
18th Century
Form
Card Table
Material
Mahogany , Wood

Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.

Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."

Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.

Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.

Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.

Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.

Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.

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