Documenting Possesions For Insurance and Posterity - Provenance

I shared last week that I was headed to my mothers to categorize some of her belonging for my family and for insurance reasons. I went there and took only a few photos and histories before I took her to the ER. You know the rest if you have read my blog for the past few days.

The Provenance of an item is the history of the item. If you acquire an item from a yard sale and you don't get any information on the item. It may be a neat antique but without the history, you will just get the value of any antique of that same age and condition. However, if you have the history of the antique along with the information on where and when it was purchased or acquired by you, along with any history of the item you got from the person you acquired it from, the item then can become more valuable. 

For example, if  I got an old set of golf clubs at a yard sale. They are just that, old club. However, if  I purchase them from an estate sale and I ask about it and find out that the clubs belonged to a golf champion who won a national title and have a picture of the person playing with the clubs and get the name of the title and the player, the club then become worth much more.

My mother traveled the world several times in her lifetime. She was very well known in her youth and toured later for ten or more years with a group. The items she gathered are interesting and unique but no one in my family knows much about them as we have all been busy with our own families and she acquired so much that we couldn't know about them all. 

As we have whittled down her belongings from a mansion house to a two bedroom house and now to a one bedroom apartment, the things she values have become less and more manageable. She had many items we had no idea about and this past weekend, I focused on things that belonged to family members or things off the top of her head.

These were the few things we got pictures of and descriptions about before the ER visit. We took video of her telling about the item and I typed the description of the item and took a picture and inserted it into the text so that each child or grandchild would have the history or Provenance of the item they were inheriting. The document is an example and I have removed the names but you would put in all the names and dates pertaining to your item so that everyone would know the value. If they have receipts from the purchase, you can scan or take a picture of the item as well so that the value is established. If you get an appraisal on the item, you should include that in your documentation as well.

You can print off the document and tape the information to the bottom of the item so that the provenance is attached to the item and the value as well.

I did this with my mothers silverware that I inherited. I researched the pattern and printed up the history of the pattern as well as current prices per piece. I attached it to the sealed silver so if there were ever an issue, the information needed would be there. Here is a link to how I seal the silver to protect it from tarnish and here is a post about documenting them once preserved. 

Just for your information, most insurance companies will only cover silverware and silver items for up to $2,500 total.  A full set of antique silverware can cost thousands and thousands of dollars. My mothers pattern right now on Replacements.ltd.com costs $4,500 for a service for 8 boxed. They are all in various conditions and look like someone collected pieces and made the collection as they are not all in the same  condition. 

Instruments, electronic equipment and jewelry are all the same. Only $2,500 for your entire collection. One piano or one set of diamond earrings or a wedding ring is more than that so you may want to add a separate insurance rider for things of value. You will have to get appraisals and documentation on the items and take pictures of them in your home so there is no question as to the condition of the items as well. 

Below is what I documented about the few items I did get done. They are just for example but it is probably something we should each do for the few things of value or history in the family. 

I have a play rug made for my mother by my grandmother. If my girls found it, they would probably throw it away not knowing anything about it. I think I may get it framed with a plaque saying who made it and when. Those are the type of things our children may not know about that would be good to document. I wish my mother had done it so I wouldn't have to. The tea cup shown is one we have heard my great-grandmother gave my mother but none of us knew which cup it was as my mother has a collection so without us going and getting her telling the story on video and taking pictures, we would never have known which it was. 

Eliza Bennion was the woman who had this platform rocking chair made. She was one of the first white babies born in Utah. She was born in a dug out cave on the banks of the Jordan river where they put hides over the opening of the cave. Mom acquired the chair from a woman she met while taking an upholstery class in about 1968. There was a woman in the class that sold her the chair. She took the chair with her to Alaska when we moved there and a man liked it so much he made one for his new wife. Mom Upholstered it several times over the years. 

The Victrola’s were purchased from someone in an upholstery class that mom took in about 1968. She used one in the play “glass menagerie” at Plaza Playhouse. The records store below the tall one. Some of the records were from the house she lived in as a child (address here). It was a basement house and grandpa built the house. Her father built the top of that house. One of the records she remembered was an original Al Jolson.

The gold corner chair is a birthing chair. It was purchased at an antique store in . It has a hole in the center of the chair so the women could drop the baby through the hole while sitting. mom purchased the chair and upholstered the chair about 1968.

This tea cup belonged to great grandma who was her mother mother. She doesn’t remember when she gave it to her. It is Crown Ducal. She had lots of China in her hutch and was very refined.

This dresser belonged to grandma. Mom remembers that grandma always had it and used to have a lower dresser that matched. Mom got it from the Condo in (where she lived) around the time of Grandma’s death.

Little three tier corner shelf was great grandma's. Her Father Mother. Mom remembers going to visit and playing with the nick-knacks that were on it.  She got it when Grandma died.

This dresser was bought by mom. It is Berl wood and is rare and expensive.

Anyway, That is what I got done last Saturday. I think I may just video tape her talking about each thing walking around the apartment and then type it up later as it was very time consuming the way we did it and I don't know that I will ever get her talking about each thing we got pictures of as my sister just snapped away while I was at the ER. I hope you have more luck in getting your things itemized than I have with my mom's to date!