What is an appraisal?

An appraisal is a written or oral report that communicates an estimate of value
--The Appraisal of Personal Property, American Society of Appraisers, 1994.

In more detail, an appraisal is an unbiased and reasoned opinion of value. The value estimation of the property is based upon proper identification of the property and adequate analysis of the market(s) in which that particularly type of property is bought and sold.

An appraisal document, prepared with the appropriate type of value for the intended use of the appraisal, logically explained and substantiated and signed by a professional appraiser, is appropriate for use by insurance companies, by various courts, by the Internal Revenue Service, or by individuals and families in private sale, family estate planning or distribution or a number of other purposes. The particular value estimate, as well as the methods and research implemented to make that value estimate, differ according to the intended use of the appraisal.

What is an antique?

In general, the accepted definition of an antique is an object that pre-dates the mass production of objects that began in the 1830s with the invention of the circular saw and other mechanized tools. U.S. Customs works on a sliding scale for recognition of a property as antique, stating that an object must be 100 years old.

What is decorative art?

Decorative art is generally defined to include functional objects. These objects may be - and generally are - beautiful as well. Decorative arts are sometimes called Applied Arts. Included in the areas of decorative art are furniture – both antique and collectible (or vintage); silver, brass, copper, bronze and other metal objects; quilts, samplers, and other textiles; vintage and couture fashion; porcelain, pottery, and other ceramics; cut glass, pressed and pattern molded glass; paper collectibles (ephemera), and collectibles from hundreds of categories.

Decorative Art would include such categories as:

Antique Furniture
Silver
Native American pottery
Antique baskets
American Folk Art
Antique Glass
Modern art glass
Antique Samplers
Antique Quilts
Clocks

What is fine art?

The Ackland Museum has defined Fine Art as

Art created for purely aesthetic expression, communication, or contemplation. Painting and sculpture are the best known of the fine arts.
<http://www.ackland.org/tours/classes/glossary.html>

Fine art differs from decorative art, not principally by the quality of the work but through the discipline of the matter. Fine art, in general, tends to exclude art forms that would be considered applied art or functional art (crafts).

This concept of fine versus decorative art is somewhat in flux in today’s world, with the term “Visual Art” beginning to be used, a more inclusive view of art, including textile arts in particular, as fine art objects.
The term “FINE ART” is also often used improperly to place a false emphasis on quality of an object rather than to define the discipline of the object.
Fine art can include such categories as:
Painting
Photography
Drawing
Sculpture
Ceramics

What are residential contents?

Residential contents is a part of personal property that would include essentially all objects that would be part of the inventory in a home. A residential contents appraiser must be trained to recognize a very broad range of objects and must know when they encounter an item within a residence that evaluating that particular object may be beyond the scope of their experience and/or knowledge; at that point appraisers will recuse themseves from the appraisal of that particular property or properly affiliate themselves with another appraiser who is qualified to appraise the particular item or collection in question.

Residential contents includes such categories as:

Furniture
Ceramics
Glassware
Video and Audio Equipment
Personal Computers and other Office Equipment
Decorative prints and posters
Crafts
Metals (including normal household silver and silverplate)
Collectibles