Joshua Baer: Qualifications as an appraiser of Antique American Indian Art
Joshua Baer is the managing partner of Joshua Baer & Company, a fine arts gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which specializes in the purchase, resale, appraisal, and restoration of works of antique American Indian art. Joshua Baer & Company is open in Santa Fe by appointment only. Joshua Baer is a recognized appraiser of Navajo blankets, Navajo rugs, and other works of antique American Indian art.
For an appointment, please click here or call 505-988-8944.
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Appraisal experience
Since 1985, Joshua Baer has performed more than 500 written appraisals of antique American Indian art, and more than 5000 verbal appraisals of antique American Indian art. During this period, Mr. Baer has acted as a consultant to auction companies dealing in American Indian art, notably: Butterfield & Butterfield of San Francisco, Christie's of New York, and Sotheby's of New York.
Joshua Baer has appraised works of antique American Indian art which were donated to the Navajo Cultural Museum in Window Rock, Arizona; the Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe; and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe. He has also appraised works of antique American Indian art which were repatriated to the Apache, Hopi, Jemez, and Navajo tribes.
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Court case testimonials and tv appearances
In 1996, Joshua Baer testified as an expert witness in a court case involving the commercial values of works of antique American Indian art (Burke versus Harmon, Lincoln, Nebraska, June, 1996). He has appeared on CNBC (January, 1997), on NBC (January, 1997), and on CBS (October, 2000) as an appraiser of antique American Indian art, and as an expert on the general market for antique American Indian art. He was featured in USA Today (January 14, 1997) as a prominent dealer in Navajo textiles. Between February, 2000, and February, 2001, he performed online appraisals as the American Indian art specialist at AuctionWatch.com.
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Education and publications
Mr. Baer is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of California at Santa Cruz, where he received two bachelor's degrees in 1974, one in Art History and the other English Literature. He has bought, sold, and collected works of American Indian art since 1978. Between 1985 and 1987, he was the director of the Morning Star Gallery in Santa Fe. He started Joshua Baer & Company in October, 1987.
Joshua Baer is the author of three books on American Indian art: Collecting The Navajo Child's Blanket (1986), Twelve Classics (1989), and The Last Blankets (1998). He is the author of numerous magazine articles on American Indian art, including articles about Navajo blankets for Hali Magazine, The Magazine Antiques, Tribal Art Magazine, and the Santa Fean. He has also written articles about antique Navajo blankets and prehistoric Southwestern pottery for AuctionWatch.com.
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Curatorial experience
In 1986, Mr. Baer was the curator of an exhibition of Navajo child's blankets for Morning Star Gallery in Santa Fe. In 1992, he was guest curator of a major exhibition of classic Navajo chief's blankets for The Monterey Peninsula Museum in Monterey, California. In 1998, he curated The Last Blankets, an exhibition of 19th and early 20th century Navajo double saddle blankets. The Last Blankets appeared at Joshua Baer & Company in Santa Fe, and at The Winter Antiques Show in New York. In February, 2001, in cooperation with the San Francisco Folk Art Museum, Joshua Baer curated The Rio Grande Serape, an installation of 19th century Mexican, New Mexican, and Navajo serapes at the Tribal and Textile Show at Fort Mason in San Francisco.
Between 1986 and 1991, Joshua Baer & Company handled a collection of approximately five hundred picture writings on muslin produced by members of the Hathale family, a Navajo family based in Mexican Hat, Utah, and in Farmington, New Mexico. (Picture writings are Navajo sand paintings drawn on muslin.) Approximately the first one hundred picture writings were drawn by Roger Hathale, a Navajo medicine man from Medicine Hat, Utah. The balance of the picture writings were drawn by Roger's wife, Dyna Hathale, and by Roger's two sons, Dennis Hathale, also of Mexican Hat, Utah, and by Bruce Hathale, of Farmington, New Mexico.
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Study of Navajo sand panting
During the course of handling the collection of picture writings by the Hathale family, Mr. Baer undertook a study of Navajo sand painting, both as an art form and as a healing practice. This study included interviews with Roger Hathale in 1987 and Bruce Hathale in 1988. During the same period Mr. Baer also consulted with Jack Beasley, a trader in Farmington, New Mexico, who acted as a broker for the Hathale family's work. Mr. Baer's study of Navajo sand painting was specifically informed by two books, Navajo Sandpainting -- From Religious Act to Commercial Art, by Nancy J. Parezo, (University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1983); and Navajo Medicine Bundles or Jish: Acquisition, Transmission, and Disposition in the Past and Present, by Charlotte J. Frisbie, (University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1987).
Mr. Baer's study of Navajo sand painting and Navajo medicine led to an expanded study of Navajo healing practices, and of Native American medicinal traditions. While those studies do not qualify Mr. Baer as an expert on the level of either Ms. Parezo or Ms. Frisbie, Mr. Baer's familiarity with the iconography and material culture of Native American medicinal practices allows him to provide objects used in Native American medicinal practices with an appropriate context in the appraisal of such objects. Specifically, the difference between an individually owned medicinal object and an object that was property of a clan, a society, or a tribe can be established for almost any object appraised.
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APPRAISAL POLICY
Joshua Baer & Company appraises works of antique American Indian art.
Verbal appraisals
Verbal appraisals are free. If you e-mail us an image of the item you want appraised, and include your telephone number and a good time to call you, we will call and tell you the replacement value and the fair market value of the item. If you are trying to decide whether or not to sell an item, we will also give you limited advice regarding resale strategies for that item, and an estimate of how much the item will be worth in the future. All of that information is free.
Email appraisals
Written appraisals sent to you by e-mail are $50 per item. E-mail appraisals state the circa date, the tribal attribution, and the fair market value of the item being appraised, but do not include consultation regarding cleaning, restoration, resale, or charitable donation of the appraised item. E-mail appraisals are not valid for insurance, loans, tax credits from charitable donations, or other legal valuation purposes.
What an e-mail appraisal will do is give you the information you need to negotiate on an equal footing with dealers, or with the auction companies. Whether you’re buying or selling, the knowledge of what an item is, and of what it’s worth, makes that item more valuable. Again, e-mail appraisals are $50 per item. Discounts are available for multiple item appraisals. Overnight service is also available for an additional $50 per item.
To receive an e-mail appraisal, send pictures of the item or items you want appraised to jb@westernpictures.net. Include dimensions of the item or items you want appraised,and include any history you know about the items. If the item has been damaged, include notes about that damage. If you want to pay for the e-mail appraisal with a credit card, include your credit card number and the expiration date in the text of your e-mail. Finally, make sure to include a telephone number where we can reach you, in case we have questions about the the item you want appraised.
Written appraisals
Written appraisals on paper are billed at the basic flat rate of $250 per hour. Written appraisals in paper include:
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A picture of each item appraised
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The date of the item
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The tribal attribution of the item
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The item’s Fair Market Value
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The item’s Replacement value
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Suggestions and recommendations regarding cleaning or restoration (if necessary)
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Consultation with Joshua Baer regarding the best ways to realize the highest price for the appraised item.
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There are several common sense ways to reduce the cost of a multiple item appraisal. Many of our appraisal clients provide photographs and schedules of the individual items in their collections. After making sure each item is properly listed and described, we list the replacement and fair market value for each item, and then sign and date each photograph. Working that way, we have appraised as many as 10 items an hour.
Many collectors, institutions, banks, and insurance companies have used our written appraisals for loans, insurance claims, charitable donations, and IRS matters. We stand by our written appraisals, in that we can demonstrate to any bank, insurance company, or government agency that the values we assign to any item we appraise can be verified by comparable sales either at public auction or through private sales.
Joshua Baer reserves the right not to appraise any items submitted for appraisal. While almost any item can be appraised from a good photograph, an item of extraordinary value and rarity will usually require examination in person as part of the appraisal process.
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Appraisal fees
Appraisal fees are always billed at the flat rates listed above. Appraisal fees are never based on the values of the items appraised. Discounts on fees are available by request, and for multiple item appraisals. Standard Appraisals include the Replacement Values of the works being appraised. Custom Appraisals include Replacement Values and Fair Market Values of the works being appraised, along with recommendations of how, when, and where to sell or donate the appraised works of art. Color reproductions of the appraised works of art are included with all appraisals.
Consultation and other services
Joshua Baer is available for consultations regarding auction consignments, auction reserves and estimates, bidding representation at auction, and long-term management of private or corporate art collections.
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