Featured Guess the value.

Hi AF,
Congratulations. My appraiser also did some other things. They charge a lot here especially for European stuff. They have an hourly rate, of course if it takes 15 sec they charge for the full hour. Any way he did do three hours of "work". It was mostly 18th Century silver from here so very little markings. I see him on the Antiques Roadshow. The one from here not the British one. My one piece he did not ID but plain Sue from here scored it perfectly. Anyway I thought my land swap was worth a lot more than 35 but you never know. I had an invitation to the Statue of Liberty Dedication which was valued at 30 dollars and sold at auction for 700, so you never know.
greg

 

50 years ago a British title deed was usually a bundle of deeds relating to the property dating back as far as they went, somtimes for several hundred years. Solicitor's offices would have deed boxes filed away for decades, even centuries with all this paper.

Then the Land Registry was introduced. Gradually all land was included in the Land Registry records, and an entry in the records was legally equivalent to all those bundles of paper and parchment.

Eventually, those obsolete documents were chucked out, some to the rubbish tip, others to auction rooms and from there they were sold piecemeal to anyone.

I bought and sold many of them, even as late as 1999, they were fetching good prices on ebay, and I could be picky enough only to sell the 18th C and earlier ones, as you'd expect something dating from the 1600s was a big deal in the US market where I sold most of them.

I think by now they have all left the solicitors offices and been dispersed. I still see some 19th C ones, and probably have a few still in the shed somewhere.

Unless your document relates to the sale of Buckingham Palace to the Hitler family, it's really only likely to fetch that modest value quoted.

No typewriters before 1900 or so, so all were hand written, reading them, especially the older ones, was training to read the very early ones. The style and phrasing of these documents was very conventional and the exact writing style very rigid and prescribed, so all 'scribes hands' looks pretty much the same.

Once you are used to it, even if the document is in a totally foreign language, the style of the writing is glaringly obvious, and very difficult to fake.

There was an example of a very poor condition but early document on the ebay art and collectables board a few months ago where the document could be authenticated and approximately dated just from the clerkly script.

 

I have the original deed packet to my house. The maps go back to the 18th century, although the house itself is quite new, being only 1920s. Being a local history nut, I love them.

 

THAT'S AMAZING.
And I'm speechless.

 

Great return on the document. Any chance of finding out who bought it and getting their perspective on it?

I once had a Canadian land grant on parchment. As I recall it was from the 1830's, which is old enough from around here. It was a printed document with fill-in-the-blank spaces for the particulars. I wonder if the wording on yours might have been standard legal formula, pretty much copied verbatim from one document to another with only the specifics changing.

The Canadian document had attached the Great Seal of the Province of Upper Canada, a wax thing covered in parchment, 3" or 4" across and about 1/2" thick. In the document, the Crown retained rights to any gold or silver finds, and to any stands of white pine, which was used for ship's masts.

 

The buyer was an internet bidder, could be anywhere, and even if the auctioneers told me, which they should not, I doubt if the buyer would be helpful.

I think we have the old deeds to this house somewhere, I don't know how far they go back, but probably only to the conveyance of the land it stands on to the builder in 1920s.

 

There was, and still is, and probably always will be "conventional" writing used in "legal" documents: "Now therefore it is Ordered and Adjudged . . ." with Latin words/phrasing used within the document, all according to "the formula." [I have not employed the "usual" all-caps or bolded type in my abbreviated example.]

 

1920s is newish for here. I can walk to a fourteenth century building!

 

Just like the ol' Crown to do that !!!

 

Wow. Congratulations AF!

 

Nice sale!

I was wondering how the carved coconut flask you sent to auction last year did. I tried to search the forum and found the discussions but didn't find a result.

 

That was a disappointment, only about $100 equivalent.

 

Not surprised you are disappointed. If that had been on a Bargain Hunt I'd have happily paid £100 and would have expected it to have the legs to get to £200-300 at auction.

Still, you must have been pleased with the document sale.

 

I see it as swings and roundabouts. In the same sale that the coconut bombed, an old lock fetched about £200, about 4 times what I expected.

Plus it is all profit anyway.

 

Ya, real sellers and buyers in the real world.......maybe if it was televised it would have gone for more !

 

Too bad. I thought it to be one of the most interesting items in the hoard. Perhaps the missing strap attachments kept the value down.

Here in the states we say; It all comes out in the wash. I am sure there are other similar sayings.