Virginia Federal Pembroke Table, ca. 1800
GUEST:
This table has been in my family for seven generations. It was a wedding gift from Thomas Jefferson to his first cousin's daughter. And it always sat in our dining room, and at Christmas we'd put our Christmas village on it. And it's just part of our family.
APPRAISER:
It has a connection to Jefferson, it sounds like. Is there any documentation of the gift?
GUEST:
We can trace the family tree back to Jefferson, and it's just that's always been the family story, so...
APPRAISER:
Okay. A lot of times those sort of family histories are very helpful. We always take them with a grain of salt. We always look at the object and see if the object can help reinforce your own family history with it.
GUEST:
Oh, okay.
APPRAISER:
This is a Pembroke table. A Pembroke table is a versatile form. It can be placed in a collector's house in a lot of different places. Tell me what you think is the most interesting or striking part of the table.
GUEST:
The wear bars on the bottom side of the drawer that show how old it is. Because when you flip it over, you can see that it was hand worked and that it's just got the wear marks on the sides that are down, you know, an eighth of an inch. So I know that it's an old piece.
APPRAISER:
Well, you're right about that. It's an old piece, and it's very carefully crafted. You see the nicely shaped glue blocks here that are helping hold the drawer bottom on. You can see the cut here where they trimmed the edge off. When I look at this, the most striking thing is the color. And you've got beautifully oxidized yellow pine there. And it's a great sign of age on the piece. Yellow pine is also what you would expect to see in a Virginia table, or one of the different woods. So that's a good first clue that your family history may well line up to what the table actually is. Let's get this back in.
GUEST:
We also always heard it was American made.
APPRAISER:
Everything about the table does line up with an American manufacturer. When was her wedding date?
GUEST:
I would suspect it was in 1774 to 1775.
APPRAISER:
Okay, well, I think the table probably dates more...based on the style and what we know of other tables, it probably dates more to the 1790 or 1800 period. To me, the most striking thing when I first saw the table was the inlay, which you see on all four legs. Inlay was available to cabinetmakers through catalogs, and you could order it from specialized inlay makers that provided inlay to cabinetmakers. You notice that subtle shading and color and the green background?
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
All of that suggests that that is something the cabinetmaker didn't do himself.
GUEST:
Oh, okay.
APPRAISER:
But then you get down to the bell flowers here, and you notice they don't have the shading. He's taken a chisel and just tried to give the veining to the leaves and that sort of thing. This little motif at the top, that motif turns up in other Virginia tables. Another striking thing about the table to me is the beautiful color. It has a rich, wonderful color about it. The top is beautifully figured, as is the leaf. Do you think it's ever been refinished?
GUEST:
No.
APPRAISER:
I don't think so either, but there's one thing that tells me it may have had a later varnish put over it. There's a little patch at the corner of this leaf, which is a common thing. It's near the hinges, and oftentimes, you know, they've got a patch there.
GUEST:
Sure.
APPRAISER:
But if you look closely, it has the same finish on the patch as it does on the other part of the table. What do you think about the brass pull on this?
GUEST:
I think that was probably added later, but I don't know that.
APPRAISER:
It was added later. The nice thing about this replaced pull is that they didn't drill new holes in the drawer front. I think that drawer pull dates to probably the 1880s or so.
GUEST:
Oh, okay.
APPRAISER:
And I suspect that's when the work was done on the table. So I think the table is confirming, at least at some level, the family history here. I think this is a Virginia table. It may have been made around Charlottesville. It could have come from the coast and traveled there. But Jefferson, I think, was in Charlottesville at that...
GUEST:
Yeah, he was in that area.
APPRAISER:
During that period. Although I do think it postdates the marriage that you reference. If you were to bring this table to auction, I suspect it would bring probably in the $15,000 to $25,000 range.
GUEST:
Oh, wow. Okay.
APPRAISER:
I don't think the Jefferson connection impacts the value very much.
GUEST:
Oh, okay.
APPRAISER:
If this table was owned by Thomas Jefferson...
GUEST:
Oh, yes.
APPRAISER:
and we knew that he sat by this table, or it was in his house, it might be worth ten times that.
GUEST:
Okay.
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.
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.