Doctored Maple Butterfly Table
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GUEST:
I found it online and I bought it.
APPRAISER:
So what did you see about it that you like?
GUEST:
It was a butterfly table, and I had never seen a butterfly table on the ROADSHOW.
APPRAISER:
Well, let's open, let's open it up, because you don't see too many. One of the most important things on the ROADSHOW that we talk about is when to know when something's right and when there's, know something's not right. Come on down...
GUEST:
Is it a reproduction?
APPRAISER:
It's not a reproduction-- let's flip it over, gentle...
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
I'm going to show you, real carefully, let's come forward. It's not a reproduction, but it's one of the pitfalls of buying online, some... Sometimes it's good, but you're not looking at it firsthand. If you look right in here, this is oxidized wood. You can actually scratch it. Here, you can't make a mark because it's not oxidized. It hasn't been exposed to air.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
And the top here, you can see, is pretty fresh. So that's, that's a replaced skirt. What this is supposed to be is a 1720-1740 butterfly table, right?
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
So those, those weren't next to each other for that long, okay?
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
The second thing, the most important thing on this, are these butterfly wings.
GUEST:
Uh-huh. Yes, yes.
APPRAISER:
Now, the reason is that, of course, it was made out of an old board that was already scratched. No scratch would stop right there at the seam where, where two pieces of wood are added together.
GUEST:
If it was a real piece there, would that have been in one piece of wood?
APPRAISER:
It'd be all one piece of wood, almost certainly.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
But for, but, but certainly all the scratches would go all the way through and both sides would be scratched. There's no scratches on this side.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And basically, you have a wonderful piece and, that actually, basically, through the years were, was faked-- this form has been faked since the 1920s.
GUEST:
Oh, gosh.
APPRAISER:
So somebody faked it up, but it, it's worth less than $3,000. It's worth about a tenth of that. And now, you're going to have other things that you found, that you found that are worth ten times what you paid.
GUEST:
It's worth a tenth of that.
APPRAISER:
And in this case, yeah, in worst case, $300. And that's probably being generous.
GUEST:
Oh, my gosh.
APPRAISER:
Now, and I'm, and I'm telling you that just so we can learn from it, you know?
GUEST:
Ah, jeez.
Appraisal Details
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.
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