One of the Kiplinger financial publications recently included an article chronicling 10 'Treasures' Your Adult Children Don't Want You to Pass Down. I could guess some. For instance, vintage china once coveted by grandparents and new brides. Today, there is clear indifference to any classic china patterns families once fought over. Seasoned auction companies even attest that china sets once worth hundreds or many thousands are now relegated to “bargain bins....”
So too for “brown” furniture, old photos and books. In fairness, many dated items can be still collectible and highly valuable. The trick is not only differentiating the two but detecting them.
A great example happened a few years ago with a family downsizing after the mother’s death. Part of that meant emptying bookshelves of volumes amassed over many years. While they were doing so, another son stopped by. He noticed a box filled with books the other family members had chosen to dispose of. He went through it and pulled out one particular book.
The son took the book into an adjoining room where the rest of the family was. He asked about the books in the box. They said all were being given away. The son asked if they were sure. The family replied “yes.” He asked again. Quite annoyed they all again demanded they were quite sure. Case closed? Hardly.
The young man paused, held up that ordinary appearing book and said, “even this one?” All irritatedly declared they had no interest. He could have it.
The son then opened the cover revealing to them it was in fact a hollowed-out book “safe” they had given their parents as a gift years prior. Inside were all of the mother’s jewels and jewelry made of gold and platinum. Even the young man’s father sitting in the room had overlooked it. Oops.
Certainly, such honesty is admirable. So are such finds. A similar exciting and unexpected discovery happened just over a month ago in the tiny town of Wells, Maine. There, a village clerk was leafing through some of the town’s old record books. In one from July of 1776, he discovered one of our country’s earliest handwritten copies of the Declaration of Independence. The full original had been dispatched to various locales in New England. The version he found had been hand-transcribed from one of those. Such historic finds are certainly rare though they still happen today.
In London, England, an American volunteer named Michael Scurr proved that while glancing through a stack of correspondence from the 1700s in some old London archives. As he went through a box of letters connected to a British naval captain of the American Revolution, he unfolded an attached copy of the Declaration printed in Exeter, New Hampshire. The word, “DECLARATION” in capital letters was emblazoned at the top.
The document had gotten to Britain after the American ship Dalton was captured by a British warship. The printed broadside was part of the plunder taken back to England. The exact number of copies printed in Exeter in 1776 is unknown. It’s estimated to be around 200. What is known is that only 11 copies are recognized to still survive – for now.
Stumbling across one anywhere would be exceptional. Making this one even more so is that it is one of the only versions, and possibly the very first printing, to arrive in England after the Declaration was created. Surely, King George III was made aware of it upon its arrival. If that were the case, it may have even been the final catalyst for Britain waging full-fledged war.
Just how significant finds such as these is unquantifiable. Historically speaking, it would be hard to put a value on such a discovery. Putting a price on it isn’t quite as perplexing.
Barely a month ago, in July, one of the Exeter printings sold at auction for $3.6 million. That doesn’t hold a candle to one sold in 2000 to television producer Norman Lear. For that printing, Lear paid a whopping $8.1 million. Ironically, the copy Lear bought was originally found mounted in a framed behind an unattractive and forgettable painting purchased at a flea market. The price paid…$4. For those with keen eyes, the treasure hunt is always on.
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