Late 19th-Century Saltillo Blanket
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GUEST:
I think I've had it for about two years.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
I was at a garage sale, had already purchased my goods, and was leaving, and when I turned around to look at something else, I noticed that I'd overlooked this item, and I went back. It had no price tag, and I walked up to the woman that was having the sale and asked her how much it was, and she said that she hadn't-- wasn't going to offer it for sale, but that I could have it for five dollars, and I gave her my money.
APPRAISER:
Oh, well, great.
GUEST:
And I folded it up and went home.
APPRAISER:
What initially attracted you to the piece?
GUEST:
Um... Just that I needed another item to put over this one chair that my husband had just brought home for me.
APPRAISER:
Oh, great.
GUEST:
And I thought maybe it might be Native American, but I wasn't sure. And the other thing I know is that it belonged to her mother-in-law, and she'd had it for years. That's all I know.
APPRIASER: This piece is actually from Northern Mexico.
GUEST:
Northern Mexico.
APPRIASER: And it is from the very famous weaving center called Saltillo.
GUEST:
Oh, my God.
APPRAISER:
And Saltillo had a fabulous weaving tradition that was particularly rich in the 18th and 19th centuries. When you look at this stylistically, it's a classic Saltillo design, with the center diamond and the white field. And what you have here is indigo blue. Now, on the earlier pieces, this red probably would have been cochineal. This is, however, an aniline red. Okay? And this is probably an early 20th century piece. Now, when we look at a weaving like this, one of the things that we have to be concerned with is condition. You do have some condition problems, as you can see here with the holes, but the lady stabilized it by putting a backing on it. Do you see that?
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
And that's good for the piece. But when you take into consideration these problems, the slight runs that we have, we can come up with a value. This piece is worth $1,000 to $2,000.
GUEST:
(chuckling) Really?
APPRAISER:
It really is. So I think you did very well.
GUEST:
Oh, my gosh, that's great.
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."
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.
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