Antique authorities

Nearly 250 people brought their family heirlooms, garage sale purchases and “lucky finds” to Heirlooms in Your Attic: Antiques Appraisal Fair at State Fair Community College on Saturday.

Loyce Avis, project coordinator and SFCC student, said this is the first time the fair was held as a fundraiser, “A percentage of the money we raise today will go to the Salvation Army and Open Door Ministries,” she said. “The rest will go to travel scholarships for our class when we go to London over spring break.”

The Service Learning and Civic Engagement classes started planning the fair in Oct. and invited area antique vendors and appraisers to attend. Many vendors brought antique items to sell, including hand-made quilts, books, pottery, glassware and jewelry.

“We were asked to come today because we specialize in antique gifts,” said Harold Nicks, owner of Syracuse Gift Depot. “Everyone has antiques in their attics; people come in all the time to ask what something is worth.”

Narvetta Johnson, owner of Spinning Wheel Gallery in Syracuse said, “I’ve appraised a few things today already. Even if they don’t want to sell it, people like to know what things are worth.”

Earl Bartley, of Sun Rise Beach, brought an antique plate to the fair that he bought over 40 years ago.

“I’ve been trying to find out what this plate set is worth for the past seven or eight years,” said Bartley. “The women I bought it from said it belonged to her great-great grandmother. An appraiser here told me it might have been made in 1900, but no one can tell me anything for certain.”

Bartley said he’s taken the plate to many antique dealers, but they were unable to find out where it originally came from, “One dealer looked back until 1850 and she still couldn’t find it. I’d like to sell the set but I want to know how much they’re worth first.”

Coin appraiser, Bill Martin of Sedalia, said he was having a wonderful time at the fair. Martin has been appraising coins for the past 60 years after starting a coin collection while working as a life insurance salesman in 1948.

“In those days, you would go around collecting the money,” Martin said. “And people would give me old coins, half-dollars and buffalo nickels, with their dollars so I started keeping them in an old cigar box. Pretty soon I had a collection.”

Martin said there’s no training involved to being a coin appraiser, just a dedication to study. He looks at the condition the coin is in, the rarity and the price, when deciding if it’s a worthy collectable.

“I’ve seen some pretty neat coins today,” he said. “There was a man who brought in a 1849 $5 gold piece that was graded extra fine with a C-mint mark, which is very unusual. I offered to buy it, but he said no, it had been in the family for years.”

Martin said the coin was worth between $2,500 and $3,500 because it was in excellent condition and only 64,000 of the coins were originally minted.

“I had my doll appraised today and they told me she was worth $1,000,” said Mildred Bell. “In Kansas City they appraised her between $1,200 and $1,500 but they say the market’s gone down some.”

Bell said the porcelain doll originally belonged to her husband’s oldest sister but she didn’t know how old it was.

“I don’t plan on selling her ever, I just want to see what she was worth,” she said.

Bell also brought a cake plate that was her grandfather’s, “He bought it from one of those wagons that came around selling things,” she said. “After he died it was sold at an auction. Sixty years later I found the woman who bought it and asked if I could buy it from her. She said all I needed to do was buy her another cake place to replace it.”

“This is like our version of the Antiques Roadshow,” said Avis. “Most people have something stashed away somewhere, so it’s a really neat thing to be able to get it appraised at a fair like this.”