Professional lends expertise for historical society’s appraisal fair
John Robinson’s late uncle Tom Bennett was stationed in Europe when he recognized a young fellow soldier named Elvis Presley in a train station.
Robinson said his uncle asked for an autograph. The King, who was doing a two-year stint after being drafted in 1958, asked if he had a piece of paper.
“He ripped it off of something. I have no idea what,” said Robinson, 68, of Blainsburg. “But then he put it in an envelope and sent it to my aunt (Bonnie Bennett). She’s had it ever since.”
Robinson brought the yellowing scrap of paper with the rock ‘n’ roll star’s signature scrawled across it to show to Kurt Shaw, a Pittsburgh-based certified appraiser who was plying his trade that day for an event organized by California Area Historical Society.
The roughly three-hour fair was held the Center in the Woods, which is in the Mon Valley borough.
Shaw put the autograph’s value at $475 to $500. For that price, Robinson said he’d rather hang onto it.
About 40 people who made appointments to see Shaw that day. They came with artwork, sports memorabilia, ceramics and handguns.
“I’ve seen it all,” said Shaw, who’s been doing appraisals since 2002. He’s a regular guest on “Pittsburgh’s Hidden Treasures,” which airs on KDKA.
Shaw passed out printed lists of auction houses in case owners wanted to sell their items.
Society President Mary Beth Graf said Saturday’s event was the second appraisal fair the group’s held.
“I think there’s an interest,” said Gary Gregg, the society’s program chairman. “And when people have an interest, you want to accommodate them.”
The group, which paid Shaw for his appearance, charged $10 an item. Shaw declined to discuss the fees he receives for appraisal fairs like Saturday’s, which he said vary.
Marsha Papini, 62, of California was about to run home for more items just after she’d had Shaw look at two pieces she’d acquired while living in Italy. Her husband, Larry, a now-retired Army colonel, was posted to the U.S. Embassy in Rome at the time.
The three-handled terra cotta jug turned out to be worth $300 or $350. An art nouveau sculpture in bronze of an elephant and bare-chested rider was worth $800 or $900.
“That was only because they can’t find a marking to determine who made it,” Papini said of the elephant. She said its value would have been greater if its maker could be identified.
Judy Schwallon of Charleroi, who works at the Center, brought in a teapot and two pottery pieces. She said she’d gotten the items from a deceased relative and two elderly women she’d cared for.
She was surprised to find the largest of them – a Japanese vase Shaw dated to between 1890 and World War II – was only worth about $100.
Another, an avocado green decorative chalise made by Roseville Pottery Co. in the 1940s, was worth about three times as much.
“It’s all in the name,” Shaw said.
Schwallon doubted she’d sell the keepsakes, even after consulting Shaw.
“Probably no, because it’s more sentimental,” she said. “Because they all come from wonderful people that have been in my life.”