Do You Need Your Rugs Appraised?

Mary Lou Bleakley

If you are planning to send your rugs through the mail, UPS or FedEx, to exhibits, rug schools, children, etc. how much insurance should you purchase? And in the awful event that something should happen to your rug, can you prove its value? The Post Office, UPS, FedEx will ask you for written proof of its value. If these pieces of art are burned, stolen or damaged in some way, can you convince the insurance company of their worth? Did you save all your receipts for pattern, wool, binding wool and any other materials you have used? If you are like most, you don’t have a clue about the expense of your materials or how to justify the value of your labor. Rug hookers are their own worst enemies when it comes to evaluating their rugs. We don’t sell many of the beautiful pieces of art that we create. There are some fiber artists that work on commission or sell at shows, but the majority of us either gift them to family and friends or roll them up and put them under the bed. It is difficult to find sales prices when we are trying to establish a value.

In 2004 Janet Lennon and I decided to see what we could do about this situation. Janet contacted several of the appraisal societies and using their lists attempted to find a certified appraiser who did hand hooked rugs. She learned that you can have your business, your personal property, your antiques, your jewelry, your quilts, your airplane, your fine arts and your business machinery appraised by a certified appraiser but not your hooked rugs. Jesse Turbayne does appraise antique rugs and as a recognized published authority can do an appraisal on your rugs. Jane Olsen also will appraise rugs in certain situations, but prefers not to get into the business of appraising. Janet and I spoke with many of our leading fiber artists about the need for appraisals of our rugs. All agreed with the need to protect our work but did not see how it could be done. Most of us have heard of the theft of six rugs from Jane Olsen’s van in Charlotte N.C. and sympathize with her loss. She was compensated by her insurance company a small amount compared to the actual value. Mary Shepherd Burton lost most of her beautiful rugs in a house fire. These are unthinkable events but they do happen.

A certified quilt appraiser in our area spoke with us about the appraisal process for a quilt. The Quilt Guild has a two year program for certifying their appraisers. We asked, "Why can’t we have some sort of program also?" Janet and I then took a 15 hour course through the American Society of Appraisers on the Unified Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) which are regulations drawn up by The Appraisal Foundation, authorized by Congress as the source of Appraisal Standards and Appraiser qualifications. This course is a requirement of the Appraisal Qualification Board of The Appraisal Foundation. At present, this is as far as we can go in our quest to become certified since no one offers a program of certification to become a hand hooked rug appraiser. So with my 25 year background in teaching rug hooking, Janet’s nine years of experience, a willingness to learn and an understanding for the need to document, we set out on our journey.

Our area is limited to contemporary hand hooked rugs. Jesse Turbayne is the acknowledged expert on antique rugs. Antique rugs are not our area of interest. We appraise new pieces for replacement value with particular relevance to insurance coverage. This value is for time and materials replacement. We do not do market value or donation value, which could be totally different from replacement value. Much time was spent researching the field and criteria have been created for establishing values for contemporary hooked rugs. We have a set fee for our services and give a written appraisal to our clients. We feel that our scope of work is sufficient to stand up in court should that be necessary and are willing to back up our findings.

Until recently, appraisals have been limited to our immediate area. We are now able to travel to give programs to guild chapters, or rug schools and to do appraisals. A code of ethics has been established. We will only do appraisals on rugs we have seen and examined. We do not base our fee on a percentage of the appraisal. If you find an appraiser who does this for any item, find some one else to do the appraisal. Appraisal society standards find charging a percentage to be unethical.

The next time you watch "Antique Road Show", notice that the appraisers are very careful not to say that this is an appraisal. They will state "if I were insuring this" or "in an auction, this could bring". Unless there is a written evaluation, it is only "an opinion of value". It probably is an educated guess, but it is still only hearsay as far as the insurance companies are concerned. They want written proof.

In the beginning of this article I asked if you needed your rugs appraised. The answer is YES!