PRAIRIE CITY — Prairie City Public Library will present an antique appraisal event featuring author and antiques expert Mark F. Moran of Iola, Wis. The program is set for 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
All items to be appraised must be registered in advance for this program. To register, contact the library help desk or call 515-994-2308.
Moran is available to make home visits for people with big things or fragile things (or a lot of things). House calls are $75 an hour and there is no mileage charge if within 10 miles of the appraisal event site. To arrange, call 715-281-5060 or email moranm1953@gmail.com.
Categories of acceptable objects may include:
• Fine art, including paintings, drawings, prints and statuary.
• Furniture (photos of large pieces may be sent to me in advance).
• Ceramics, including figural pottery, vases, dishes, kitchenware and stoneware.
• Glassware, including lighting, marbles and souvenir items.
• Vintage photographs, including snapshots, tintypes, ambrotypes and daguerreotypes.
• Advertising, including posters, lithographed tin, paper and figural objects.
• Folk art, including carvings, quilts, weathervanes, windmill weights and “outsider” art.
• Assorted toys, including dolls (bisque, composition and plastic), windups and mechanical banks.
• Metalware, including iron, bronze, brass, pot metal, silver, silver plate.
• Clocks, including mantel, hanging and figural; also pocket and wristwatches.
• Costume jewelry, including brooches, bracelets, earrings.
Musical Instruments, including string, wind and reed instruments.
• Books.
• Sporting Memorabilia.
Excluded items: all weapons, including swords and knives (though folding knives with advertising are accepted); traps (like leg-hold); Nazi memorabilia; coins and paper money; fine jewelry, including precious gems; Beanie Babies.
Questions about objects not covered here can be submitted to Moran in advance to determine if they are appropriate. Suggested categories for advance inquiry include, but are not limited to: Oriental, Native American and other tribal objects (African, Oceanic); ancient artifacts (Egyptian and other early cultures); fossils and minerals; books; automotive items; nautical and military-related objects; records; antique tools and technological objects (typewriters, cameras, assorted machinery or instruments for scientific measure, like sextants, telescopes, microscopes, etc.). When in doubt, email inquiry can often address this.
Formerly senior editor of Antiques and Collectibles Books for Krause Publications in Iola, Wis., Moran has also been a contributing editor for Antique Trader magazine. He has served as editor of Antique Review East magazine; as producer of Atlantique City, an antique show held in Atlantic City, N.J.; and as editorial director of F+W Media’s Antiques Group.
He is the author or co-author of more than 25 books on antiques and collectibles, including three editions of the 800-page annual Warman’s Antiques & Collectibles.
Moran bought and sold antiques for more than 30 years, specializing in vintage folk art, Americana, and fine art. He has been active as an appraiser of antiques and fine art for more than 20 years.