About Personal Property

Appraisal Resource Associates (ARA) appraises many types of personal property including fine art, antiques, decorative arts, oriental rugs, and the contents of homes and offices. Although the categories often intersect and overlap, the following definitions and explanations will help distinguish the types of personal property.

Webster defines art in many ways. Additionally, there are many categories of art such as fine art, antiques, and decorative arts. Consider these definitions.

Technically fine art is distinguished from "art, craft, and applied art, i.e. the decorative arts." The modern concept of fine art has its roots in the Renaissance, when Leonardo Da Vinci made a distinction between painting and sculpture, the former being an intellectual pursuit, the latter being a manual skill. Today the term fine art is extended to include those forms of art which fulfill a practical function, but in a decorative and aesthetic manner.

Here are two more definitions to consider.

Decorative arts, sometimes called applied arts, includes functional objects many of which are exceedingly beautiful. In fact, in terms of today's market, they are often considered works of art. Decorative arts include antique and vintage furniture, ceramics (pottery, porcelain, earthenware), silverware and plate, contemporary crafts, metalware, vintage costume, glassware, ephemera, textiles, carvings and sculpture, and collectibles of all kinds.

Oriental Rugs:
Oriental rugs are technically limited to those produced in non-western areas, i.e. Persia (Iran), Turkey, the Caucus Mountain Region (Russia), Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, China, Tibet, Morocco and other areas of North Africa. Although some appraisers accredited in antiques and decorative arts also appraise them, this is a specialty area of valuation.

Because of the great variety and large number of reproduction and imitation rugs, buying or selling oriental rugs can be a daunting experience. Most dealers agree that an independent appraisal, such as an ARA appraisal, is the only way to confirm the identity, quality and price of an Oriental rug.

Specialists in Oriental rugs also appraise tapestries, related textiles, and European carpets such as needlepoint, and Aubusson. You can see how that overlaps with our final category of personal property, home and office contents.

Home and Office Contents:
The proper name for this category, which includes almost anything in the home or office, is residential contents. To be accredited in this category, an appraiser has to develop a broader range of knowledge than for other specialities, including training to recognize property that requires valuation by another specialist.

The residential contents appraiser can value furniture, floor coverings, audio/video equipment, silverware and plate, chinaware and glassware, decorative art work, crafts, metalware, collectibles, other items such as non-edition decorative prints and posters. Since many of these items also fall under decorative arts, you might use an accredited antiques and decorative arts appraiser for higher tier properties or specific collections, and a residential contents appraiser for everything else.