ANTIQUE APPRAISALS TO BENEFIT JACKSON HERITAGE GROUP

JACKSON -- Dust off your Mona Lisa. Antique Appraisal Day is coming.

Jackson's homegrown version of the TV program "Antiques Roadshow" will premiere Saturday. Antique Appraisal Day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Jackson High School cafeteria is a benefit sponsored by the Jackson Heritage Association.

The cost of the appraisal is $5 per item. Verbal appraisals will be provided for general merchandise, glassware, furniture, art and quilts. In cases of large pieces of furniture, the appraiser will go to the owner's truck to see it.

Appraising antiques en masse is a relatively recent phenomenon popularized by a PBS program in which experts travel the country providing people with revelations about family heirlooms they have brought in. The experts Saturday will be local dealers in antiques and people such as Thelma Stone, who has been making quilts for some 50 years.

The appraiser will provide information about what the item is, the time period when it was produced and its approximate value.

Stone said the time period for a quilt is determined by assessing the fabric. But, she said: "You have to know that some people kept fabric 25 years before they made the quilt. And you have to date it from the newest fabric in the quilt."

Stone bases her appraisals of quilts primarily on the condition, followed by the color, design and workmanship. Quilts don't have to be old to be worth getting an appraisal, she said.

The antique appraisal show has become so popular that 80 people had to be turned away at one antiques dealer in which Harlan Smothers participated recently in Butler County. Smothers will appraise the general merchandise Saturday.

The popularity of such shows has unearthed many beautiful things, Smothers says. In Butler County someone brought in an alabaster and brass French clock he judged to be worth about $1,200. The Midwest is a happy hunting ground for stoneware and items that demonstrate German craftsmanship, he says.

The other side of appraising is telling people their treasure isn't as valuable as they thought

"Sometimes you have to burst their bubble," Smothers said.

Dorothy Palisch will assess glassware brought in. Robert Friedrich, who teaches art and pottery at Central High School, is another of the appraisers.

Barbara Lohr, chairwoman of the event, said proceeds will go toward upkeep of the Oliver House, a National Register of Historic Places site at 224 E. Adams St. The association recently reroofed the house.

"Because of its historical significance, we had to go to great extremes to make sure the roof matched the time period and was authentic to the house in order to keep its standing as a landmark," Lohr said.

For those who can't get enough antiques Saturday, PBS's "Antiques Roadshow" will film an episode June 17 in St. Louis. Information about the show is available by calling (888) 762-3749 or at its website: www.pbs.org/antiques