[Jaysun]

my suggestion would be to contact a local university with a Special Collections dept in the research library - they will no doubt have legit appraisers in their Rolodex...beware of appraiser-auctioneers for obvious reasons

Indeed. I would also offer the following rule of thumb: Sell larger items by auction within in the city. If it's a bunch of smaller "take home today" stuff it tends to do better in rural areas. Why? I have no idea. We bought a mahogany dining room table that seats 12, a matching hutch and china cabinet for $800 in a rural auction. It's worth at least 5 times that. At the same time "trinkets" always went for absurd amounts.

[pandoraou812]

My husband went to a local antique auction at the firehouse and bought a vase for $445. It turned out to be zsolany pecs art glass vase made in Hungry made about 1905. It was shaped like a flower and just beautiful . We put it in a Rago auction and got 10 grand for it.