News and Events

Antique Appraisals: What is it? What’s it worth? Let’s do some!

Wednesday, September 29 from 6:00 PM (EDT)
Robin Sinclair, Ph.D.

Everyone has that piece we wonder about. Maybe it came from grandmother, maybe it was found at an estate sale, maybe it was found in trash, but where ever it came from, there are three questions about it: What is it? How do you know?  What's it worth?  This ESU Happy Hour will answer those three questions about YOUR PIECE! 

As an antique appraiser with thirty years of experience,  Robin (Susan) Sinclair, Ph.D., will be looking at and evaluating pieces submitted by our members in photographs and written descriptions.  A veteran of many appraisal fairs, she has also appeared on Nashville Public Television numerous times. She will do a discussion of as many objects as possible within our time frame, so please submit your objects early!  (Please submit by the 20^th of September.)  She will also show us what an appraisal is, what an appraisal is not, (very important), and how value is determined.

Robin Sinclair, Ph.D.

Dr. Sinclair has been collecting, studying, appraising and selling antiques since childhood. She has attended numerous seminars and study groups, amassing over three hundred hours in appraisal education over the past eight years, as well as visiting shows and exhibitions around the United State and Europe.  She gives seminars in antique silver and has aided a house-museum in assessing its decorative arts collection, and another museum in its important edged weapons and guns collection. During her three years of living in Europe, she appraised and sold antiques and art.  She makes trips to London and New York for antiques shows and seminars.  She is a frequent consultant of antique dealers and collectors, as well as several auction houses.  In addition, she has worked for insurance companies in resolving questions of value of losses.  The author of a seminar on collecting and evaluating antique silver, she has also written for The Association of Collectors of Small Silver. 

Signature Cocktail

"For a drink: As a Scot, I must suggest a single malt Scotch (not a blend). Choose either a Speyside, a Highland, or, if you are brave, one of the mighty Islays, full of peat smoke and sea air, like Laphroaig.  Speyside single malts, such as The Macallan, are sweeter. Highlands are often lighter.

The drink is called "a wee dram" (about a tablespoon) with about three drops of water (five if you insist). The art of drinking a great single malt consists of sniffing at length, then a tiny sip, allowing the whiskey taste to fill your nose and mouth, accompanied, in succession, by breathing in, exhaling, relaxing, thinking, feeling at one with the misty Highlands, followed by a long-lost memory, and at its conclusion, another tiny sip, perhaps, "for auld lang syne." A wee dram should take at least an hour, preferably by a low fire on a cool evening. Good friends make that hour even better!"