overview

OVERVIEW OF GOLDSMID & ALLEN

Goldsmid & Allen is a partnership of two antiquarian booksellers who each enjoy doing appraisals of books, manuscripts, ephemera and related materials-and enjoy appraising together. Having entered the antiquarian book trade in 1977 and 1982, we have each been doing formal, written appraisals since the early 1980s and, working independently, have each performed several hundred formal written appraisals. Although we have continued to work independently, since 1995 and increasingly, we work together and now have scores of joint appraisals in our portfolio.

Books are second careers for both of us. We are former academics with Ph.D.s from Harvard in English (Allen), and the University of Chicago in Sociology (Goldsmid). Between us, we have written or edited four books, and dozens of articles, reviews, and notes.

Goldsmid and Allen

Perhaps especially because of our prior careers in universities, we try to craft all of our appraisals so as to be useful to the librarians, archivists, and curators who commission our appraisals or who (with client permission) receive copies of them. Thus, our appraisals typically include quite detailed information and background--often more than is requested or required by a private client or by the IRS, a probate court, etc. (Naturally, we do not charge the client for that! It's added work, but it's also our pleasure.)

We are pleased to be able to say that we have been trusted to undertake appraisals of several significant collections and important objects. Recent examples include the archive of a Presidential cabinet member, three original oil paintings by Maynard Dixon, a library's special collection of 8,000 scarce and rare books in Western Americana and exploration; and the 6,500-book stock of a deceased bookseller who specialized in 20th century British and American literature. These appraisals were for donation, estate, and insurance purposes.

For further details on our experience, please see Appraisal Experience. To learn the range of services we offer, please see Services Offered.

Unless otherwise instructed, our appraisals use IRS defined "Fair Market Value," and are based on market prices for the same, similar, or comparable items. In all cases, the basis of our appraisal is explicit.

We are mindful of our limits. Please see When We Don't Appraise.

We are experienced, efficient, and diligent in our work--and our fees, based on time spent, are characteristically modest.

It is appropriate to note that we each continue to be active booksellers. However, we are careful to keep the work of appraisal separate from all buying and selling.

On request, we can provide sample copies of our appraisals (with all identifying information removed), and references (library, trade, and client). Please do not hesitate to get in touch.