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The following article appeared in the St Louis Post-Dispatch (MO), August 9, 2003:
FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH; APPRAISERS PUT A PRICE ON SENTIMENTAL TREASURES AS PART OF A MUSEUM FUND-RAISER
I THINK this note is worth more than the teapot," said Mark Howald with a smile. The note
was inside a brown ceramic pot that Laura and Bill Outman of Ballwin took to the
Missouri History Museum's recent "Trash or Treasure" antiques appraisal evening.
The handwritten note said Outman's great-grandmother had made sassafras tea
in the teapot. It also told where family members lived and whom they were
related to. Howald, executive vice president at Ivey-Selkirk Auctioneers in
Clayton, which provided the appraisals, said the unusual teapot with a lid
that didn't quite match was probably worth about $50. But family history is priceless.
Sentiment was an important part of the currency in the mix of treasure that some
300 people took to the History Museum on a recent summer evening. Dollar values
ranged from $20 or so to $15,000 for a beautiful Russian-made Edwardian necklace.
But the cash value had little to do with the pleasure people were experiencing in
showing their treasures to experts in china, decorative arts, furniture, painting and jewelry.
The article continues on....
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