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Jacobean-Style Great Chair, ca. 1890

Value (2013) | $2,000 None
Watch  

GUEST:
This chair belonged to my husband's grandmother. And so when she passed away, he inherited it from her estate. She lived a little bit north of Boston. She married a man, and they were in embassy work and lived and traveled internationally in London and in Spain. We don't know what it's worth, we don't know where she got it. We just inherited it, and we love it.

APPRAISER:
Okay, well, what your family has here is what we refer to as a great chair, or a master's chair. Now, in order to really understand the quality of this chair, you have to sort of start at the bottom and work your way up. And as you look at the bottom, it exhibits an English style that we call the Jacobean period. It's a very restrained bit of carving. But as you pull up over the chair, you begin to see the chair maker begin to really take a lot of interest in making it. Puts the gadrooned skirt on here and a nice plank seat. And as you work your way up, you have this really interesting paneled back here with inlay. And then you get this big arcaded inlay right in here with a lot of carving around the outside. And it's finally sort of topped off by a really nice frieze of carving. And when we look at a chair, when we look at anything here at Roadshow, we begin to think, "Okay, when should it have been made?" It should have been made probably in the second half of the 1600s, a lot like you were thinking. And then you say, "Well, how many of these elements "really belong in the period in which it should have been made?" And as we begin to look at them, they all begin to sort of jumble together, and it begins to point us in a given direction. Now, Jacobean furniture was made in the late 1600s. Really throughout the 1600s. And then you think, "Well, when was it copied again?" And in this instance, what we have, these were copied, actually, in the very late 1800s. It's made of oak with inlay here. And this is actually very Dutch related. But as you begin to look behind it a little bit, some of these answers begin to come through. What we're talking about here is a chair that someone really wanted to make look a little older. Peekaboo, over on this side. And see these holes at the back here? This panel in the front was actually a furniture panel. This piece of carving at the top is actually a piece of carving from another piece of furniture. So as we put it all together, all of a sudden we think, "Aha, it's a chair that has been made to look old" during the first revival era, where you begin to look at it and say, "This was a cool style. We're going to make this chair, but we're going to add everything to it. It's going to be as good as we can possibly make it." So you have a great revival chair from the 1890s, or around 1900. Have you ever had it appraised?

GUEST:
Never had it appraised, no idea.

APPRAISER:
Well, in today's market, it's worth around $2,000 at auction.

GUEST:
Wow. Cool.

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Appraisal Details

Appraiser
Stuart Whitehurst
Books & Manuscripts, Decorative Arts, Furniture, Pottery & Porcelain, Silver
Appraised value (2013)
$2,000 None
Featured In
Knoxville, Hour 3 (#1821)
Event
Knoxville, TN (July 13, 2013)
Category
Furniture
Period
19th Century , 20th Century
Form
Chair
Material
Oak

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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