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Evaluation
by Wendell Garrett

The evaluation or appraisal of antique objects may be based on two very different premises: one, worth based on an assessment in money, and two, value based on aesthetic excellence or historical significance and other desirable qualities (i.e., rarity) that command esteem. Monetary worth is objective, concrete, and measurable; abstract value is subjective, hypothetical, and idiosyncratic. The financial appraisal and pricing of antiques and works of art, though obviously influenced by the economic law of supply and demand as well as fluctuations in the national and international economy, are more the function of competing collector demands for similar objects d'art and paintings. Fashion and tides of taste, avarice and acquisitiveness, and a hundred other motives, can propel or suppress the financial worth of objects at any point in time, but historically the market price is established by consensus, a sort of collective judgement or general agreement of opinion, information that is generally known and widely shared. The high and low estimates in auction catalogues reflect these current market values. Though market prices oscillate in some degree over time, they are more stable than is generally recognized. What can cause a momentary wild swing in generally accepted price valuations is a heated bidding war between two clients over a single lot on the auction room floor. The rise and fall of the art market has been recorded and published by Gerald Reitlinger in The Economics of Taste (3 vols). The assessment or evaluation of aesthetic beauty and rarity - of the difference between "good, better, and best" in Albert Sack's famous trilogy between three similar, genuine, well-designed, and well-made pieces of furniture - is more subjective and arbitrary, if not capricious, for the connoisseur in making a decision. Charles Montgomery distinguished between the intrinsic or inherent value of an artifact "in terms of materials and long hours of skillful fashioning" and its extrinsic or extraneous value "in terms of association, ownership, or competition" when making a judgment call. In this sort of exploratory inquiry the connoisseur must ask himself a number of questions about the piece: Is it worthy of purchase, and if so at what price? Francis Henry in The Taste of Angels (1948) on the history of art collecting spoke of this sort of quest metaphorically as "penetrating the varnish which has obscured the canvas, and of going still further in the hope of finding the man behind the picture."

EVALUATION by Wendell Garrett, from "The Definitive Appraisal Handbook" (2003), published by the Appraisal Institute of America.

Wendell Garrett is an eminent scholar and senior consultant in American Decorative Arts at Sotheby's. He has authored numerous historical works, including "Monticello and the Legacy of Thomas Jefferson" (1995) and "Colonial America" (1995). He received the Henry Francis du Pont Award for distinguished contribution to the Adams Family Papers and the Antiques Dealers Association of America Award. He is a distinguished lecturer, teacher, and appraiser for the Antiques Road Show and serves as editor-at-large for The Magazine Antiques.

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