PRACTICAL VIEW : Treasures Turn Up on Appraisal Day

If you’d like to know just how valuable Grandma’s turn-of-the-century music box is, you can find out from experts at the Pacific Asia Museum’s Heirloom Discovery Day on Saturday.

The Pasadena museum has teamed up with Sotheby’s, the international auction house, to sponsor appraisals of valuables from noon to 5 p.m. Appraisals are verbal--none will be done for insurance purposes--and cost $10 for museum members and $15 for non-members for each item.

Sotheby’s appraisers will evaluate such items as paintings, pottery, glass, silver, pewter, textiles, prints, drawings, porcelain and music boxes--but no books, coins, stamps or modern jewelry.

Sotheby’s, originally known as Sotheby Park Bernet, is the world’s oldest and largest auction house, founded in 1744. The idea for the appraisal day came after Sotheby’s appraisers noted an increase in important art discoveries through routine appraisals. This is Sotheby’s first collaboration on an appraisal day in Los Angeles in more than five years.

If you decide you want to sell an item and consign it to Sotheby’s, the museum will receive a percentage of the commission.

In addition to the appraisals, the museum will host a series of free lectures on Japanese lacquer, Chinese architecture and contemporary Japanese prints.

For more information, call (818) 449-2742, Ext. 0.