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Show Many 'Old' Violins Thought Valuable rove Disappointing MILWAUKEE, WIS. Plenty of hopes for easy money are dashed in the history headquarters of the public museum. By phone and in person Milwau-keeans Milwau-keeans call the staff to get estimates esti-mates on the value of their violins, Indian head pennies, manuscripts and spinning wheels. Not many leave the office prospective pro-spective millionaires, staff members mem-bers say. Too many times the articles, arti-cles, turned up in attics or in other remote corners of the house, are neither rare nor in demand. Most have a price but usually it is a low one. Take Stradivarius violins. Inquiries In-quiries about them usually turn up in numbers following publicity about valuable newly found fiddles, according 'to John M. Douglas, assistant as-sistant in the history department "A person who has a violin in his attic remembers it has an old wooden case, cracked and aged looking and that it belonged to his grandfather," Douglas said. "That I automatically makes it 'very valuable.' val-uable.' It comes as a shock to him . to learn it's only worth $20 or $25." The majority of owners are convinced con-vinced when staff members tell them they have copies but some go out thinking they still have the real thing, he declared. Frequent inquiries also are made about old Bibles, said Eldon G. Wolff, acting curator of history. Usually the book has no value as an antique, he said. "In early America, families moved around a great deal," he explained. "If they saved anything at all, it was the family Bible. As a result they're very common. In fact, they are the most common of all books." Few of the numerous Indian head pennies that reach the office have any cash-in value, Wolff said. "Folks have an exaggerated idea of the value of antiquity," he explained. ex-plained. "They get to talking and one tells another: 'This thing must be worth a lot of money. The thought grows and, almost in a dream world, they convince themselves them-selves that this article must be very valuable. We have the unfortunate un-fortunate job of convincing them they're wrong." |
