Antiques Appraisal Fair: Meet Appraiser Rob Pollock

Guest appraiser Rob Pollock has been a collector of Mechanical Music and Business Machines since 1974.

The Champaign County Historical Museum’s new spring fundraiser, Antiques Appraisal Fair, will be held in the museum on Thursday, April 25, from 6 to 9 p.m. The event, which will be patterned after the popular PBS series “Antiques Roadshow,” will be sponsored by the locally owned and operated Freshwater Farms of Ohio (fwfarms.com). All proceeds will benefit the museum located at 809 East Lawn Ave., Urbana.

“We hope that this new fundraising event will be a success,” stated Rob Pollock, event chair. “The funds raised will help keep our museum open to the public.”

Rob Pollock
Five experienced appraisers will be positioned in locations throughout the museum to accommodate attendees by describing the history and estimated value of each item presented. The appraiser highlighted today is Rob Pollock.

Pollock has been a collector of Mechanical Music and Business Machines since 1974. Mechanical music items include phonographs, music boxes, automata, self-playing organs, pianos and related ephemera. Business machines include recording devices, adding machines, typewriters, and other office equipment. Pollock restored his first Victrola at age 13 and his first typewriter at age 14. His favorite part of collecting is bringing long silent machines back to life. Pollock is looking forward to the Appraisal Fair and helping you learn what your prized possession is worth.

About the event
The price of is admission is $20 in advance, $25 at the door and includes one appraisal and a wine and cheese “bistro” provided by Freshwater Farms so that folks can socialize during the event and tour the museum rather than simply wait in line. Regarding the “show” component, an appraiser will be announced at five times throughout the evening; he will then present a special item to those gathered in the main meeting room.

Tickets may be purchased at the museum (Mondays and Tuesdays), at local banks – Civista, First Central National, Peoples, Perpetual, all county Security locations – and online until 11am on April 25th. In addition to benefiting the museum and preserving its artifacts, this will be a fun event for people of all ages to enjoy and hopefully one that will build from year to year. This is an excellent opportunity to have a family heirloom, an item from the attic, or perhaps something found when spring cleaning to be evaluated.