What’s in your attic? Or tucked away in a box in the back of your closet? Almost certainly, there is something there that you ponder about sometimes: Could it be valuable? What’s it worth? Could it have been made by someone famous? Maybe even: What in the world is it anyway?
If you’ve got something like that – and don’t we all? – and you’d like to get some answers to your questions, the Town of Lloyd Historical Preservation Society (TOLHPS) has lined up experts to answer your questions at the Society’s next public program, to be held on Monday, June 3, 2019 at 7 pm, in the Vineyard Commons Theater in Highland. Even if you don’t have such an item of your own, the annual TOLHPS Antiques Appraisal Night is as good as digging around in someone else’s attic. How much fun is that!
Admission to the program is free, and the cost of each appraisal is $5. Refreshments – mostly homemade – are free too.
Experts Charles Glasner, Walter Marquez, and Vivian Wadlin will appraise as many items as time allows. To give everyone a chance to participate, they have requested a limit of one item per person. (They will do two if time permits.) It’s also a good idea, if possible, to send a photo of your item in advance to Wadlin at Viv@AboutTown.us.
Glasner, who is president of TOLHPS, has been a Hudson Valley antiques dealer for 35 years. He has a strong knowledge of local vernacular antiques and fine arts, with a passion for Hudson River paintings. Marquez has been an antiques dealer for 12 years and manages the Water Street Market in New Paltz. Wadlin, TOLHPS vice president, has been a collector of antique toys and post cards for more than 30 years. She has published About Town of Ulster County for three decades.
Last year’s appraisal night featured a genuine “piece of eight,” the fabled Spanish coin that circulated throughout the world from the 1500’s to the 1800’s. Possibly rescued from a sunken pirate ship, it was originally worth eight reales (Spanish dollars). Now, the appraisers and the owner agreed, it could go for more than $5,000!
But items don’t have to be that rare to be interesting to their owners, the experts, and the audience. Beautiful glassware and ceramics always bring oohs and ahhs from the audience, as do interesting old pictures, books, and objects d’art. Most people bring such articles to learn more about their provenance, not just their price tag. Owners go home satisfied that they got what they wanted.
TOLHPS sponsors free monthly public programs from September to June, usually on the first Monday of the month. Vineyard Commons is at 300 Vineyard Avenue, about a mile and a quarter from the Hamlet of Highland on Route 44/55, just south of the Hudson Valley Rehabilitation Center. To reach the theater, turn into Vineyard Commons and follow the signs to Building 6. At the request of Vineyard Commons management, audience members are asked to park their cars in the lot at the far right (west) end of the row of buildings that includes Building 6.
For more information about TOLHPS programs and plans, consult the organization’s website, .TOLHPS.org, look for Town of Lloyd Historical Preservation Society on Facebook, or call 255-7742.