p4A Antiques Database Training

The first thing you should know: "p4A stands for "price for antiques."

The second thing: it's a database of auction results (drawn from 140 auction houses), and as such what it does well is give you an idea of the at-auction value of an antique you own. If you can't find that 1970s Fisher-Price school bus in it, it's because that's not the sort of thing that turns up at auctions at Sotheby's. That's not to say that there's nothing 20th century in the database: there's some good modern furniture and we saw a sample search with some great early Superman stuff. (It also doesn't mean that some antiques mall won't pay you 5 bucks for your 70s toy so they can sell it for $25, but I digress.)

Now, the details:
BACKGROUND
- clicking "auction list" on that top bar will give you some forthcoming auctions; people must contact the auction house to find out about bidding
- the 140 auction houses range from leading fine art and antiques establishments (Sotheby's) to specialty houses
- the auction results presented are the prices realized at that sale
- prices realized are for the purposes of research and comparison
- auctioneers, appraisers, law offices settling estates, the IRS, and collectors use the database
- the database also gets a lot of one-time users: the yard-sale goer with a box of Roseville pottery (look it up! ;-) ) or a family settling an estate on their own.
- p4A does not purchase the auction data; they are a "disinterested third party"
- p4A employs appraisers, auctioneers, and librarians to manage the database and to input data by hand -- no data-dumping

FEATURES
(the choices on the menu bar at the top)
Database Search - start searching here. Results screen gives you click-able pictures.
Help - includes tips on recommended search operators
Table of Contents - a good way to browse and perhaps check your vocabulary (Move from "furniture" to "tables -- card & game" to see if pictures look like what you have.)
Auction List - recently held auctions on one side, forth-coming on the other.
Related Links and Resource Center kind of repeat each other.

FORTHCOMING
- some kind of Library Toolkit so we could print handouts, bookmarks
- better indexing (I hope to the extra articles, which now you mostly find by searching. Many terms are hot links to brief articles defining a term. For example, "Roseville" links to this)

More on Searching
- The best searches are based on information in hand. Just because they family always said it came over on the Mayflower, don't assume it really is 17th century chest.
- Search by makers marks, words on item.
- Search results include auction house, date of auction, picture (almost always enlarge-able), and sometimes notes written by p4A staff.
- If browsing or broad search terms leads you to items that look like item in hand, steal search terms: "Queen Anne" or "Epernge."
- Note they have a Search Help e-mail. Patrons are invited to send pictures.
- Be aware that the antiques world is not big on controlled vocabulary. For instance, furniture forms have different names in different parts of the country.
- p4A presents little in the way of coins & stamps: partly because standard print resources are widely available and partly because the image resolution required for collectors and dealers would be very hard to achieve.