What Treasures Do You Have?

St Rose Church is hosting an antiques appraisal clinic Sunday, July 15, from 1 to 5 pm. Experts from Fairfield Auction will be on hand to evaluate items for a cost of $5 per item with all proceeds going directly to St Rose Church. The event will be held at the Fairfield Auction Gallery at 53 Church Hill Road in Newtown.

Jack DeStories of Fairfield Auction has conducted numerous appraisal clinics in the past for non-profits such as the Leukemia Society and the McPherson Museum of Art and History. At a recent clinic he was brought a small green pottery vase that had been stored in a kitchen cupboard with other assorted vases for over 30 years. The owner’s aunt had been given the vase as a wedding present about 1915. To the owner’s surprise it was a rare Grueby vase that appraised at $8,000-12,000 and was eventually sold at auction by DeStories on her behalf for $17,000.

“We are always surprised what turns up at these appraisal clinics,” Jack DeStories said. “At one event a lady presented me with a photograph of a mangled metal file cabinet. Her husband had salvaged it from the Watergate break-in and she was preparing to donate it to the Smithsonian.

“We enjoy these events and are very pleased to be working for the benefit of St Rose. This is a great chance for us to help the community,” he said.

The public is invited to bring items (or photographs of large items) to the Fairfield Auction Gallery this Sunday, from 1 to 5 pm. Fairfield Auction is located at 53 Church Hill Road in the Sonics & Materials Complex. Up to three items per person in categories such as American and European furniture, paintings, bronzes, silver, carpets, porcelains, glassware, lamps, clocks, music boxes, famous autographs, baseball cards, toy trains, jewelry, and antique firearms will be evaluated. For further information contact Fairfield Auction at 364-1555.