Found a pocket book....216 years old! APPRAISAL!

[NGE]

.................... SPEACHLESS!

 

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[cameraman]

Im just speechless. An AMAZING FIND MAN WTG!

 

[Stroover]

Wow! this is the most interesting thread I've read in a long time!

 

[GL]

On to the desk now. Whats up with it? Did you ever get to see the back? Are there any tags or labels or marks on the underside that might lend provenance? I'm dyin here!

 

[cntrydncr1]

I dont know how I"ve missed this story but it is absolutely incredible!!! What a cool find for sure and some nice pieces of furniture also. congratulations!!!

 

[narragansett]

Wow, talk about incrediable shape.

 

[KTMRIDER]

Check out Christies or Sotheby's past auctions on furniture and ephemera from this time period and you will be shocked beyond belief. Me thinks you may be very wealthy. Do not try to clean or alter any of these things in any way. Bring in the experts. Contact Sotheby's and/or Christies. Also the Keenon(spelling?) brothers may help with the furniture. From what I could see in the pics this is some of the best I've seen and I've been in the antiques/furniture restoration & construction/paper/ephemera business for a number of years. A friend of a friend found a game table from this period at an estate auction, paid around $1600 for it....it fetched, I think, $1.2 million at auction.
Everyone in my business dreams of such a find. Man, all i can say is WOW!!! What a find!
BTW, if you need any help with this, I have a very good friend in Sandwich,Mass., very honest and very intelligent, and knows this stuff well. If he can't ID it, he could definitely point you in the right direction. What ever you decide to do...Good Luck!

 

[KTMRIDER]

BTW, you may already know this but, a couple of other places to check in the house are the doors(I'd heard of people drilling holes into the tops and dropping coins in then plugging the holes) and door hardware can be worth a good bit too, some knobs into the thousands. Also check the typically cast iron window weights(I've heard of these being replaced with melted down silver).
Also, wide boards(over say 14-18", wider the better), especially pine, are worth a premium, I even buy these and any architectural items, columns, moldings, built in cabinets, etc. I build "new" very large furniture from reclaimed lumber and arch. items. Again Good Luck, and can't wait to hear more about this spectacular find.

 

[Skrimpy]

BTW, you may already know this but, a couple of other places to check in the house are the doors(I'd heard of people drilling holes into the tops and dropping coins in then plugging the holes) and door hardware can be worth a good bit too, some knobs into the thousands. Also check the typically cast iron window weights(I've heard of these being replaced with melted down silver).
Also, wide boards(over say 14-18", wider the better), especially pine, are worth a premium, I even buy these and any architectural items, columns, moldings, built in cabinets, etc. I build "new" very large furniture from reclaimed lumber and arch. items. Again Good Luck, and can't wait to hear more about this spectacular find.

Well if we are talking tear the house down here (which I doubt, but if he did he could probably make more than the property value in materials) you can also get a real pretty penny for the main support beams, especially if they are made from hard woods that aren't legal to log anymore or are just not abundant enough.

 

[pegleglooker]

I would think finding a museum to put them on display with some pictures of the house and how you found them would be GREAT !!!! Maybe a museum with early American ties. Oh and they also will pay you a " rental " fee to show the items. Could possibly make some extra cash for a looong time. I for one would like to see them up close.

PLL

 

[Kellyco]

Re: Found a pocket book....216 years old!

Congrats on your find. I found your story very uplifting and the research is amazing with everyone getting together and helping you with it. Good Luck in the Future.
Kellyco Chick

 

[ctalmadg]

Neat find.. I collect a ton of emphemra stuff.. documents etc of this age is pretty common...unless it has ties to some famous individual they are not worth a ton of money.. What may be worth big $$ is that furniture if it's 1700's stuff. I'm talking THOUSANDS... see if you can find a maker on it and do some research.. I saw one pic of the desk front and it caught my eye!!! Good luck!

 

[Old Dog]

Mojax,

Seriously ...I know you are laughing at me in my earlier rant about the desk.
Take the time to look for a maker's mark.
we are talking the difference between a couple thousand dollars and a couple hundred thousand,
IF you have the right furniture maker.

The mark can be found on the inside of the main cabinet body, the underside of drawers or even simply branded or on a written label glued to the back.

Thom

PS... I hope you make a million.

 

[LadyDigger]

Here's a newspaper article I found. Sorry for it's condition...this is the best I could find. Hope you are able to read it ok....

I went back and found the original post they spoke of....

 

[LadyD]

I am with everyone else WOW!!! I love old furniture...I love old houses...Congrats...you have the find of a lifetime

Deedy

 

[Ty18769]

outstanding find. coolest story I've read so far. Please keep us posted on events related to the items you find.

 

[bottlebum]

THE END ?

 

[GreenMeanie]

I would be restoring that house why are you letting it fall apart?

 

[pegleglooker]

hey gang,
Just goes to show how important research is....GREAT JOB !!!!!!

PLL

 

[Skrimpy]

Re: Found a pocket book....216 years old!

I would go and search every nook and cranny in the old structures, looking for hidden walls, hidden areas under the staricase, over each door .......etc., etc.

Look Mo, your purse thing is killing me. To me, this dude has a revolutionary song hand written and HIDDEN in his house. Things like this were so, so important to the cause of revolution that they were kept (and kept hidden), and in this instance regardless if he was the author of the poem or not. My thinking is that if this guy were a revolutionary and was hiding this poem and FORGOT ABOUT IT somehow, there is bound to be more significant finds in that house. What else would have been seen as contraband to the Brits? Copies of the declaration of independence? Have all of the silk originals been found? What about other revolutionary material like other poems, weapons caches, or militia records/money? Anything is possible here and I have to 2nd what someone else said about there being a reason you have become involved in this. After seeing how you handled the curious mountain stick my thinking is there is no other person to be working this old house but you.