Old floppy, help with pricing?
 

Our church is having a yard sale tomorrow and someone brought a very old quilt top, made, she thinks by her aunt who was born very early 20th century or before. It is light fabric, some of it shirting, much of it gingham. All hand stitched. A few seams are coming apart, a bit of foxing, but not much.

I'm posting pictures, and wondered if anyone would know how we should price it. Sometimes when we get something really good, we put it on ebay. This has good red, white & blue colors and a nice pattern, with a narrow border and plaid corner squares. What do you think? Oh, it is 73" x 89"
Thanks for your help.
Lynn[ATTACH=CONFIG]336301[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]336302[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]336303[/ATTACH]

were you planning to repair the areas that are coming apart? or finishing it up - backing/batting/quilting?
or trying to sell it -as is-?
location matters and so does the venue-
around here- as is you may get $5-$10 for it-
repaired and finished you may get $100+ but it takes the right person at the right time/right place-
if you had some sort of documentation- and it was in better shape it may be worth more- but with nothing other than...she thinks... it will probably not be worth as much as you would hope----unless of course a quilter who collects old quilt tops shows up at your sale & falls in love with it- but collectors generally want some sort of documentation.
you could see if you could locate a local quilt judge/appraiser & have it looked at.

We would prefer to just sell the top as is. It's a lovely project for a quilter. Years ago I bought a similar top from this church yard sale and only paid a couple of dollars for it. I've since put it together and hand quilt on it now and then while watching TV. If we don't sell it, I might take that on and we could sell it at our craft sale in the fall. It would have to be hand quilted of course. We don't have anyone handy to appraise it, and the person really doesn't know any more about it. Thank you for your reply.

It would be a shame to let it go for a couple of bucks or so. Maybe the church ladies could get together and do repairs to the places that are coming apart and at least have it in good repair. It won't bring much in the present state it's in. It would be a nice keepsake when quilted and washed if it's in good condition. If it doesn't have a known history, that's alright. Just knowing that it is an antique or oldie is enough to hang on to if in good shape.
Good luck with it and hope it finds a good home.

sassy granny

I have no idea about pricing this one, but I bought an old quilt top for $50. Yours would be so pretty if it were mended. You might could sell it at an antique shop.

I know as quilters we all love "old"/vintage/antique quilts and textiles. But we also too often have an inflated idea of their monetary value because we value them merely for their age and the work/love that went into them by a "sister" from years ago.

But you need to look at these quilts with a critical eye for their sale value, the replacement value, an insurance value, and so forth. Those are the values an appraiser will look at for any quilt for which they've been approached for appraisal; and their appraisals are what set the fairly standard values across the country. Emotion doesn’t sell well.

In "general", across the country, most certified quilt appraisers are finding that the quilts appraised 5-10 years ago would not appraise for the same value today. The market, along with much else in the economy, has declined.

There are more vintage/antique quilts around being offered for sale than most people realize, and their quality is usually very much higher than anything we can find at a yard sale, flea market, or even an antique store. The quilts that are bringing in upwards of $400+ are often to be found with reputable dealers, not for sale by your average owner/quilter.

There are thousands and thousands of quilt tops in this country that were never completed, like this one, all too often because they had construction problems in the first place -- and that made completing them nearly impossible without reworking in a major way. I'll bet every single one of us has seen one somewhere.

All this to say, that since you are selling this top in a rummage sale venue, you'll need to ask rummage sale prices for it. It is only worth what a willing seller will sell for and a willing buyer will pay; if you want to sell it during THIS sale, don't drive your buyer away with a price too high to even start a negotiation.

Jan in VA

Thank you all. Jan, very good insights. We have an antique shop just down the block, and one of the owners stopped by today to give us some advice on antiques we've been given. His advice in general was similar to your regarding things like Limoges china, 19th century silver tea set, etc. The quilt top came in after he left, so I may show it to him, since he does have quilts from time to time. We can put a modest price on this, and since the woman who donated it will be working at the sale tomorrow, I'll ask if she would like me to fix it and quilt it. Maybe we could get a bit more for it at our craft sale in September that way. Basically, it's someone's UFO and we'd just like to get a little something from it. It was made in CT, brought here to VT, just as most people in our state were. (Including me.)

It would make a lovely heirloom for someone who would fix it and quilt it.

Repair it and put it on Ebay for $100.

It occurred to me as an after thought....this quilt has SO many triangles in the blocks, and it appears they were all cut so the long edge is on the bias, it is likely the blocks have stretched a bit against the sashings. It may be hard to "quilt out" the stretch.

Still blue quilts are always a favorite for everybody. Good luck with it!

Jan in VA