20th-Century Reproduction Northwest Coast Totem Pole
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GUEST:
About 30 years ago, my mom bought this in an antiques store in Bangkok, Thailand. She found it in the corner, and the owner was, like, "I don't even know where that's from," so.
APPRAISER:
Okay, this is the style that we see in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Pretty far from Thailand. It is probably in the style of a Haida pole, but it was made in the wrong place. So in other words, it's made as a reproduction for sale. One of the things that we look for is a natural surface. This is really shiny. It's not the kind of paint that you would see on a traditional Northwest Coast pole. These normally should be cedar, and it's not cedar, it's some wood that's indigenous to Thailand. As a decorative piece, even with the damage, since you have the pieces, this would have a value of $100 to $200.
GUEST:
Oh, wow. Okay, cool. Good to know. I'm glad it's not worth a ton of money because I'm the one who broke it and knocked it over one day and just broke both the ears off it.
Appraisal Details
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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."
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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.
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