We had Selma Paul appraise a number of items for us about a year ago. She wanted to meet us at an Atlanta antique store, but was very late because her car had broken down. When finally she arrived, she found us in the shop. We waited to hear where, in the disorganized (in the process of closing) shop we should do the appraisal, but she wanted to do it in the parking lot. She followed us to our car and started "appraising" things right there at our opened trunk. We requested that we find a place out of the hot sun inside to spread out our belongings, and then we spent the next ten minutes wandering, looking for a space. When finally we squeezed into a corner somewhere, Selma began looking at our belongings. She looked at an ivory netsuke, told us that it was made of resin and therefore valueless. We told her that it was very old, and we were sure it was ivory, so again she picked it up and looked at it for a long, long time, finally pronouncing: yes, it is ivory. She looked at a Navajo blanket but had no clue. I told her that a seller out west had offered to sell it on consignment; she was scornful of that ("What? He expects you to mail it???") but had no suggestions or price ideas. She looked at a large Persian rug and told us that we should have it looked at by a rug expert, and she had one in mind, if only she could remember who it was.... and on and on it went in this fashion. She looked at an intricate antique clock, previously appraised professionally as having a value of $5,000. But because it wasn't signed, she said that it was impossible to assign a value. Apparently a lack of signature, in her world, means that she is helpless. Finally the appraisal was over (with not a single helpful thing having occurred). She informed us that she would charge us only for one hour, since she had been late. Her saying this made me assume we'd gone over an hour--but as she walked away we consulted our watches, and discovered that she'd been with us exactly one hour, much of that time standing in the parking lot and wandering about the shop looking for a place to spread out. So she actually overcharged us. I cannot recommend this appraiser--she had an appalling lack of knowledge and was just unprofessional overall. read more
