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Value Opinions by E-mail or Mail
This service is for fine art and decorative art (paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, textiles, ceramics, etc.) that, due to distance, we are unable to easily personally examine. If you would like a professional opinion for artwork, please follow the instructions below:
In order to provide a researched, written professional opinion for your artwork, we need to receive the following items:
1. The completed information form below
2. Clear photographs of your artwork sent either as attachments uploaded to the form below or sent by U.S. Mail to:
Caroline Ashleigh Associates, LLC
1000 South Old Woodward, Suite 201
Birmingham, MI 48009-6734
Please note that you may also print this form and send it with your pictures via U.S. mail (please fill in all information before printing.)
Please be advised that we are unable to return photos sent to us by mail. Once we receive all necessary information, we will contact you with a fee for a report. Fees reflect the type of research required to provide a professional opinion at our current hourly rate. Payment by check or credit card is necessary before any work is begun.
Our value opinion given from a photograph does not guarantee value, selling price, or authenticity of an item(s). Should your item(s) be eligible to place in private sale or bring to auction we will contact you.
Do's and Don'ts for Sending Images to Caroline Ashleigh Appraisers & Auctioneers
Every week we receive thousands of emails and phone calls from clients asking us to evaluate their property. Almost always, our first response is: send us a photograph of the item. The old adage "A picture is worth a thousand words" is very true... but only when the "picture" provides useful information. Here's a list of basic do's and don'ts when sending photographs of your property to our specialists for review.
DO send photographs of the entire front and the entire back.
Close-up photographs are great, but don't forget to send us a photograph of the overall front and back of the piece. We don't want to miss anything important because it was cropped out of the photograph.
DO send a detail of the signature and any other markings.
Signatures, dates, titles, inscriptions, labels — they are all important and the detail images that you send assist us in determining the best value for your piece.
DO send photographs that are in focus and have enough light to see the item being photographed.
If you can't see what it is, then we can't either.
DON'T send photographs with large glares.
Camera flashes and direct sunlight often produce glares in photographs, especially on pieces that are framed with glass or have very shiny surfaces. In order to avoid glares, you may have to take the piece off the wall or remove the glass in order to photograph it.
DON'T email photographs larger than 1MB each.
Larger-sized digital photographs are easier to zoom in and see the details, but too many extremely large photographs in one email completely crashes our computer system. Use a zip file if you need to send more than a dozen images. On the other hand...
DON'T email photographs too small.
Digital photographs less than 100KB are so small that we can't see the item well enough to give an opinion on its age, quality, and value.
DO be sure to include any other information that you know about the piece.
Receipts, provenance, exhibition history, and personal stories are always helpful and add distinction.
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