The Value of Your Quilt

What is the Value of Your Quilt?

by Patricia Lynne Grace Cummings

If I had been given a quarter for every time someone has asked me to tell them the monetary value of a quilt, I would have accumulated enough coins to pay highway tolls for many years!

To know the value of a quilt is to have seen the quiltmaker, choosing the “right” fabrics in a store, from a catalog, or from a scrap bag. To understand the value of a quilt is to have noticed the quilter sewing late into the night, spending hours in piecing, appliquéing, or hand quilting her designs, with optimism and the expectation that she (or he) was creating something beautiful, if only utilitarian.

To appreciate the value of a quilt, is to view the arthritic hands that made many quilts, with bleeding fingers from too many pin pricks and carpal tunnel syndrome that sets in with constant repetitive motions. These results are the physical price a quilter pays to leave behind a “material object.”

Quilts Have Many Enemies

Not all quilts are created equal. Some finished quilts have survived intact, well-cared for by the quilt owner. Other quilts have been injured along the way. Cotton fabrics can fade by exposure to sunlight or to strong detergents. Mice chew through the top layers of a quilt, in storage, seeking soft batting to make a nest for their young. Stains on quilts are a common sight: blood, other organic stains, food and drink stains, and in some cases, stains inadvertently caused by allowing children to lay on top of the quilt, to color with permanent markers. The quilts may have torn bindings, or seams that have been stretched beyond endurance, resulting in broken stitches.

Time itself is an enemy. Some fabrics, like Victorian silks, simply self-destruct. Of course, we have to consider chewing insects, among other potential hazards. All kinds of bad things that can happen to a quilt, some of which are irreversible, and others of which can be somewhat remedied by a trained professional conservator or knowledgeable quilt restorer.

Quilt Appraisals

Since no quilt possesses equal workmanship or is equal in condition to another, it is very hard to fathom the current emphasis, in the quilt world or in the world of antique dealers, on quilt value appraisals. To look at a quilt, and assign a seemingly arbitrary dollar value, based on only that particular appraiser's opinion, seems a bit far-fetched.

Theoretically, quilt appraisers have full knowledge of the current selling prices of quilts in every category, across all time spans, and in any given geographical area, a mind-boggling prospect that anyone could possess that depth and scope of information for even his/her own district, let alone knowledge of prices in the entire country.

Many quilt appraisers work at other facets of the business as quilt business owners, fabric designers, quilt teachers, show judges, and/or in non-related “day jobs.” How can they possibly keep current with this topic?

Track Record Important

When looking at any material object, appraisers in other fields consider the condition, the scarcity, provenance of the item, and the track record of previous sales. If a quilt has not sold before and has no such record, how is it possible to assign a value? Today, with more quilters creating "art" quilts, assigning appraisal values is indeed a challenge for quilt appraisers, some of whom simply refuse to appraise newly-made quilts.

Are Appraisers Always Ethical?

Absolutely not! The human condition invites temptation and greed. There is a chance that some individuals would take unfair advantage of a situation to further their own desires.

A conflict of interest arises when an appraiser sees an early quilt that is known to be quite valuable but low-balls the appraisal and then offers to purchase the quilt and does buy it from an unsuspecting person. This kind of a situation should be considered “stealing." The appraiser is being paid for an honest appraisal. Not all appraisers are inherently dishonest. However, it just takes one to give the greater group of people in this category, a bad name.

To help to avoid conflicts, state documentation projects should be kept totally separate from appraisal days, to avoid complications. In some states, such as Pennsylvania, documentations and appraisal days have always been kept as separate events. There are ethical reasons for this decision.

Appraisals Have Their Place

Monetary appraisals are important in certain situations. Quilters who ship their quilts to shows, or for any other reason, must have proof of value in order to claim damages should the quilt be ruined in transit, or stolen. This type of appraisal is called an "insurance appraisal."

Sometimes, families want to sell a quilt or quilts found in an estate, yet they have no realistic idea of what price to charge. An appraisal will help to establish at least a ball park figure.

Quilts of extreme historic value because of their age, or provenance, or perhaps, the commemorative or political textiles that are included on their surface, should be appraised and insured.

Quilts and other textiles that are donated to a museum should be assessed by an appraiser, particularly if the donation will be claimed on a tax form, as a charitable deduction. This type of appraisal is called a "donation appraisal."

Never pay anyone to appraise a quilt, using only an internet photo. One cannot truly see all of the features and conditions of a quilt without viewing it in person.

Intrinsic Value v. Monetary Value

If you want to know the true value of a quilt, ask an old man who is suffering from cancer, and is feeling chilled all the time, to give you his flannel quilt.

Go to a neo-natal hospital unit where a small quilt is draped over a premature baby's "crib," to protect his eyes.

Ask a child to part with his play-time quilt, upon which he can play cars, before settling down for an afternoon nap.

If you wonder about the value of a quilt, think of all of the extraordinary wedding quilts of the past, exquisitely and elaborately hand-quilted with hearts and lovebirds...but which were so precious, they were never used!

Inquire of a soldier, returning injured from Iraq or Afghanistan, if he or she will give you the quilt that is draped around his wheelchair.

Go to a nursing home and view the beds on which 1930s quilts are laid. You will begin to get a sense of the strong ties to family past that these quilts provide.

Quilts Are Priceless and Value-Less!

In a sense, to me, a quilt is priceless and value-less. A piece of history, a moment in time, the true meaning of any quilt transcends the obvious, and certainly reaches beyond dollars and cents. Quilts mean something different to each of us, based on our past associations.

As material objects, certainly, quilts do have monetary value. Value in dollars has more to do with how much someone is willing to pay for an item, than any intrinsic, definitive worth.

The attraction to quilts today for most quilters continues to be the satisfaction we get from making them. Quilts are a link to our collective past. As icons of simplicity, remembrance, and self-expression, antique quilts remind us that we are part of a “greater tribe” of those (mostly women quilters) who have gone before.

Our quilts are proof that we have been here. We have lived, we have loved, and we will have left behind a piece of our vision.

Note: There are several organizations which certify professional quilt appraisers.

Quilt Appraisers

List of certified American Quilters Society appraisers:

http://www.americanquilter.com/members/appraisers/

New England Appraiser's Association

Stephanie Hatch
Boxford, MA
(978) 887-5091

Copyright 2006, Patricia Cummings, Quilter's Muse Publications. All rights reserved. Do not reprint any part of this article, in part or in whole, nor use any portion of it, out of context, without permission of the publisher. Questions? Comments? pat@quiltersmuse.com