Attendees munched on sandwiches and cookies while talking about the items they brought to the 13th Annual Antiques Appraisal Luncheon held outside the Harris-Lass House Museum on July 14. Julie Frazier brought a sapphire gold band and her father-in-law’s Pan Am tie clip and cuff links. Linda Eserini showed an old Japanese dish she won from a Sister Cities Association silent auction. Bearing vintage dolls were Kimberly Redfield and Tricia Lally Boltz.
“My mom Anita Marencia was the event chair for a number of years and I have always helped her. She passed away in 2011 and I took over,” says Donna Marencia, event chair.
Sponsoring the event was the Historic Preservation Society of Santa Clara, led by Bob Byrd.
“Today I brought a tea set from a company called Roseville Pottery from Roseville, Ohio; the company has been in business since 1890,” Byrd says. “Here’s a teapot, a sugar bowl and a creamer. I want to know how much it’s worth.”
The promise of a verbal appraisal for a cherished item motivated 55 people to purchase luncheon tickets. The professional antiques appraisers were Steven Yvaska, columnist for The San Jose Mercury News, Craig Trimble, general partner with San Jose’s Antiques Colony and Vicki Cirner, also with Antiques Colony and Roseville’s Antique Trove.
Appraising Jeannie Mahan’s chocolate set (used to serve hot cocoa), Yvaska noted its gold and floral decorations and estimated it would retail for $300 to $350.
“We have the chocolate pot and the cups and saucers. These are [from Japan],” says Yvaska. “These pieces would date probably between 1890 and 1921…These days, let’s face it, if you have grandchildren and they come over, you get out the squeeze bottle of Bosco and Hershey’s syrup and that’s how a lot of people have chocolate milk. But in the olden days and in another life, you do it up a little bit fancier. Let me say they’re very rare- chocolate spoons which have a small round bowl and the rarer chocolate muddler, which is a long spoon. If you are the hostess, before you pour [the milk], you stir that thick chocolate up from the bottom with the chocolate muddler.”
Trimble appraised a mantle clock from the New Haven Clock Company valued to be in the $700 range.
“When I looked online, I saw one [similar to this clock] that was not quite as detailed,” Trimble says. “It was a clock that’s even simpler than this one and that was listed as $500. This one, there’s a little condition issue. The face has a little bump on the front. But it does have the original paper label on the back which is really cool.”
Cirner appraised Joan Cabral’s radio, worth about $100 to $125 unrestored, and $300 to $325 if it’s restored.
“This radio is called a Philco Junior; the cathedral style is very popular,” Cirner says. “Even today, it’s probably the most popular table type of radio that my husband sells. The Philco Junior is from 1931 to 1932, right after the Depression. Not a whole lot were sold mainly because people just didn’t have the money.”
