1734 American Paper Filigree Crest
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GUEST:
I think it's a family coat of arms. My aunt passed way recently, and before she passed away she knew I was interested in family history, and she thought I might like to have this. And she told me it came down through the Shapley family. So I tried to do some research on that, and it's a crest from the families of Jackson and Phillips. And when I did some of my research on that, I found a Jackson family that had married into the Shapley family. And so that's how it came down to me.
APPRAISER:
So you're a descendant of those two families?
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
Wonderful. Do you know what it's made of?
GUEST:
Well, I thought it was made of paper, but I'm not sure it is because I'm not sure that paper would have held up all of these years. And it's from 1734, so it's very old.
APPRAISER:
Okay, so I'm here to tell you today that it is made from paper.
GUEST:
It is?
APPRAISER:
Yes. As some people call quilling, or paper filigree, or paper scroll. You can see each little piece of paper is wound very tightly and inserted in next to each other. You do have the two coats of arms coming together. On the left we have "Arms of the lion rampant" by the name "Phillips." And on the right side we have "Arms of the lion rampant" by the name "Jackson." And then underneath we have "Executed by Sarah Jackson, A.D. 1734." So we have the two family names made by what we believe to be the daughter of those two families. Both of these families were great New England families. When you brought it to me, the first thing I thought was, "It's English." Quilling or paper filigree was a thoroughly British thing, and it was something which ladies would do in their spare time, very much like needlework, and it wasn't considered too strenuous on their delicate sensibilities. If it were English, it would be a very nice thing. Because it's American, it's an extremely nice thing. To have both of these crests together, great New England families coming together, 1734 if I were to see this come up for auction-- and my colleagues and I, we talked at length about this-- we think an auction estimate should be in the range of $30,000 to $50,000.
GUEST:
Well, happy birthday to me.
APPRAISER:
Happy birthday to you.
GUEST:
That's wonderful news.
APPRAISER:
It's exceptionally rare to see American scroll paperwork. Exceptionally rare. For insurance purposes, you're probably around $100,000.
GUEST:
Oh, my goodness.
APPRAISER:
If this piece were to be English, the value would be in the $4,000 to $6,000 range.
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