Valuation
Probate, insurance and loss
Fur and leather are among the few chattels where over-valuation and under-valuation are equally common, and equally productive of litigation.
Probate and estates
A wardrobe, a fur collection or a set of leather goods to be divided between heirs, or declared to a notary or to a revenue authority. International estates make this harder: the heirs are in three countries, nobody has seen the pieces, and an unreasoned figure satisfies no one.
What the report contains
A numbered inventory, item by item: species and quality, estimated age, condition, alterations carried out, and a reasoned valuation — replacement value or realisable value, stated separately, because they are not the same figure and the difference is frequently the dispute.
For whom
Notaries, solicitors and estate practitioners, executors, heirs and their advisers. The report is drafted to be annexed to a deed and to be shown to every party.
Insurance and loss adjusting
Water, fire, smoke, mould, moth, theft or vandalism. The question is rarely whether there is damage, but how much of it is attributable to the incident and what a proper restoration actually costs.
What I establish
Nature and cause of the damage, attributability, condition and value before the loss, whether restoration is possible, the real cost of cleaning, repair or replacement, and any residual diminution in value.
Before I attend
Do not clean anything. A cleaned garment has usually lost the evidence that would have established the cause, and with it the claim. This is the most common and the most expensive mistake in this field.
Authentication and condition reports
For auction houses, dealers, specialist insurers and private collectors: what the piece is, when it was made, what has been done to it since, and what condition it is genuinely in.