Antiques: hunt brief

Antiques reward patience and punish guessing. The lab hunts estate and consignment auctions where collections sell piece by piece, often to a room that came for the furniture.

What we look for

• Documented makers and marks: signed glass, hallmarked silver, dated crocks and jugs, named clock and watch makers.
• Regional pieces with a local market: Indiana pottery, Hoosier cabinets and kitchen ware, Great Lakes maritime and advertising.
• Paper and ephemera lots that rooms undervalue: maps, trade catalogs, photograph albums with identified places.
• Complete sets over singles: a full service or a run of chairs prices differently than the same pieces scattered.

Where we look

HiBid and AuctionZip estate listings across northern Indiana, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis consignment houses, and the estate-sale circuit the lab already walks for furniture. Online lots get the same treatment as floor lots: photos read closely, condition language weighed, provenance asked after.

How a find is scored

Against realized prices for the same maker and form — not asking prices. Condition is graded from the listing evidence only; anything the photos cannot prove is costed as a risk, not assumed. The full scoring method is on the method page, and graded finds land in the deal log.