Dear All
I see that Karen has asked colleagues to reply off list - but the valuations
of documents on programmes such as the Antiques Roadshow is an issue which
impacts on all of us.
Increasingly records are seen, not as part of our common heritage, but as
commodities with a monetary value which can be realised via e-bay.
On two separate occasions in the last year, records of a Hull children's
hospital (other records of which were deposited with us as public records)
have been sold on e-bay. If we had wanted these items, we would have had to
bid for them - and indeed did so, but were unsuccessful. A county record
office of my acquaintance sought advice from TNA when a collection of
manorial court rolls appeared for sale on e-bay. TNA's advice was apparently
to bid for them.
Valuations by Clive Farahar (the Roadshows antiquarian books expert) and his
colleagues surely feed into the increasingly active on-line market in
documents.
Is this a good thing? Should we as a profession co-operate with Farahar and
his ilk? By bidding for the volumes on e-bay was I ramping up prices in a
market which, unchecked, will damage our mission to preserve our written
heritage? Or is it safer not to rock any boats and remain invisible as a
profession?
I'm sorry in a way that this has come up on a Friday afternoon - discussions
of professional issues shouldn't be regarded as a Friday afternoon
irrelevance!
Martin Taylor
City Archivist
Hull City Archives
79 Lowgate
Hull
HU1 1HN
United Kingdom
T: 01482 613559
F: 01482 613051
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-----Original Message-----
From: COOKE, Karen [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 18 August 2006 14:00
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Antiques Roadshow and valuations of documents
Dear all
We at Gloucestershire Archives would be very grateful if anyone with
experience of dealing with TV programmes such as Antiques Roadshow (or
similar) over valuations of documents, or anyone with policies for dealing
with such things, could contact us as a matter of urgency. (replies off-list
please, to Paul Evans, Head of Access, on [log in to unmask],
rather than to me.)
With many thanks
Karen Cooke
*******************************************
Karen Cooke
Archivist
Gloucestershire Archives
Clarence Row
Alvin Street
Gloucester GL1 3DW
01452 425081
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