We can’t guarantee that you’ll see these 1800s’ antique Victorian button charm bracelet and jewelry at the Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion Antiques Appraisal Day, but we do know that the Freeman’s specialists will appraise your family heirlooms and attic discoveries professionally.

The Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion at 200 W. Tulpehocken St. in West Central Germantown will host its first “Antiques Appraisal Day” Saturday May 30 from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Mansion. The Antiques Appraisal Day will feature professional appraisers from Freeman’s, America’s oldest auction house, including Anita Heriot, Head of Freeman’s Appraisals Department, and Amy Parenti, specialist for American Furniture, Decorative and Folk Arts. 

The event is part of Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion’s year-long Sesquicentennial Celebration. Freeman family members, whose auction house is the oldest in the nation, are residents of Chestnut Hill.

The Freeman’s specialists will appraise your family heirlooms and attic discoveries including paintings, works on paper, jewelry, silver, glassware, pottery, clocks, tools and other treasures. All types of items both large and small are welcomed, except stamps, coins, weapons, toys, and dolls.  Freeman’s Auctioneers are donating the time of their appraisers, and all proceeds from the event will benefit the Mansion.

Admission of $20 ($30 for two people) covers refreshments, self-tour of the Mansion and garden, and appraisal of two items. Additional appraisals may be purchased for an additional $5 per item. Photos may be taken of items that are too large to carry to the event, and approximate appraisals will be made on the basis of the photographs. 

“I am excited that this internationally known team of appraisers and auctioneers from this distinguished auction house will offer their professional time and expertise to our fund raising event.  This is a terrific opportunity for participants to learn the history and value of their possessions,” said Susan Harrison, Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion board member.

The Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion is a restored historic house museum that appears on the National Register of Historic Places. The Eclectic Revival stone “country villa” is located in the Tulpehocken Station Historic District, one of America’s first railroad suburbs that was built following the extension of the Reading Railroad to the area in the mid-nineteenth century.  

The museum offers 12 rooms furnished in the Victorian-era taste of its first inhabitants, the Ebenezer Maxwell family, who lived in the house from 1859 to 1862, and the Hunter Stevenson family who resided in the house from 1862 into the 20th century.

Reservations for this event are encouraged. For reservations or more information, call Diane Richardson, Executive Director, at 215-438-1861; or email emaxwellmansion@yahoo.com