Place: L’Olivier Restaurant, 465 Davis Court, San Francisco in the Club Room. (415-981-7824) The restaurant is easily accessible via BART (Embarcadero Station) Parking is on the side streets while Davis Court is under construction.

NOTE: The dinner is being partly subsidized by the chapter, so the cost is a low $40 for members and spouses; $50 for guests (includes tax, tip and wine!)
RSVP NOW please to Secretary Jack Young at jack@norcalvaluation.com and let him know you are coming. Do not reply to the Newsletter address—Jack is the one who needs to know!

December 9^th Meeting – Spouses Night

Join us on Thursday, Dec 9^th for a fun and informative program on how to evaluate and select fine estate jewelry! Mark Watson founded his company, Watson and Son, in San Francisco in November, 2001. Formerly of England, Mark Watson has specialized in extraordinary jewels and timepieces for over 30 years. Mark is a personal jeweler who works with his clientele one-on-one. Come learn about the values to be had in selecting fine estate jewelry, and how to recognize outstanding estate jewelry (and outstanding opportunities) when you see them.

This is our last meeting this year. Bring your spouse or significant other and enjoy great food, a great program - Mark Watson is a delightful speaker! - and great company with your colleagues. Take the opportunity to ask a seasoned expert on collectible watches and fine jewelry questions about jewelry you own or might like to acquire.

Bring an appraiser friend to the Chapter meeting! Guests are more than welcome.

ASA Fast Read

November was a busy month for the ASA in NorCal. The BV Fair Value Summit was a success with approximately 70 attendees or this diverse and interesting program. NorCal was fortunate to have ASA International President Rob Schlegel give an all-day seminar that covered four topical subjects 1) Improving your Report Writing Skills; 2) Fractional Interest Discounts – Multidisciplinary Considerations; 3) Appraisal Fraud; and 4) Appraisal Review and Management. In addition, NorCal hosted the BV 310 – Valuation of Intangible Asset course for the first time with strong attendance.

Jack Young and I went to Southern California to formally re-kick start the CA lobbying efforts. With our efforts, we hope to build on past lobbying efforts and structure and strategy bring up to date based on current legislative laws. I came away from the meeting very encouraged. he meeting was attended by the NorCal, LA and San Diego chapters as well as our third-party lobbyist, John Russell, ASA’s Government Relations Manager and Rob Schlegel. The meeting was very productive with a reasonable structure agreed upon, objectives set and work plan deadlines put in place. This will be a work-in-progress but it is moving forward with all CA chapters united and working together cohesively. In addition, a structure was established to encourage two way communications between the chapter members and the lobbying leadership to allow for information flow, questions and input from all.

At the BoG level, we had our November conference call and there were a few items I would like to share. First, HQ has hired a new Director of Finance and Administration, David Villani. Second, the Constitution and Bylaws Committee indicated that draft documents are expected to be available by the end of the year. Third, the Chapter Subcommittee has met again and is exploring the role of chapters, how to assist them and how to measure the success of chapters (any feedback is appreciated). Lastly, ASA is operating in accordance with the approved budget with course revenue/registration meeting expectations.

I always appreciate member input, so feel free to contact me at any time. (gansel@fscg.com)

Upcoming Events

January 13, 2011 We have an exciting program meeting on marketing with Professor Subodh Bhat. Professor Bhat is a professor of marketing at San Francisco State University, teaching mainly marketing strategy and brand management to M.B.A. students. He has also been a visiting scholar at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. His research interests include brands and branding, advertising, entrepreneurship, and high tech marketing. He has published several articles in journals such as the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Consumer Marketing, and the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice.

Professor Bhat will share marketing strategies to help us market our appraisal services and the ASA “brand”. In this economy, we will all want to implement Subodh Bhat’s marketing ideas!

Featured Article

Asian Textiles: A Rich Heritage

Reprinted from Chubb Collectors September, 2010

Cynthia Shaver, ASA

September 8, 2010

Recently, I wrote Charitable Contribution Appraisals of notable and rare 20th century Indonesian ikat textiles being donated to different museums - and I placed high prices on these donations. Although one shouldn’t generalize about the global market, international dealers at the San Francisco Tribal Art and Textile Show in February, 2010, confirmed that there was an expanding market in Indonesian textiles.

Influenced by international water-trade routes, historians, world museums and travelers have been actively collecting Indonesian material for the last three centuries. The National Gallery of Australia promotes itself as having one of the richest public collections of Indonesian textiles in the world. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, from October 2008 to June 2009, featured a comprehensive Indonesian textile exhibit entitled Selections of Indonesian Textiles From the Mary Hunt Kahlenburg Collection.

These exotic islands, with individual kingdoms of cultures with very sophisticated weaving skills and dyeing techniques, have been a destination for travelers for centuries - and everyone likes to bring home souvenirs. For example, in August of 2009, the Washington, D.C. Textile Museum exhibition, A Lady Found a Culture in its Cloth: Barack Obama's Mother and Indonesian Batiks, featured batik patterned textiles from the collection of Ann Dunham, President Obama's mother.

Due to the abundance of material and the ease of transporting textiles it is common for Indonesian material to show up in folk art stores and antique shows. Some of these textiles, of course, are not of the finest quality. They often have less saturation of color, unskilled ikat dyeing or, in the case of batik (a paste-resist way of decorating the surface of a woven cloth), sloppy block printing, as well as non-inspirational artistry and/or aniline dyes as opposed to the traditional plant-based dyes that characterize finer pieces. Nevertheless, the modest prices of these lesser pieces allow the non-collector to share in the art of a foreign culture. Indonesian textiles from $100 to $1,000 are extremely popular in the USA. They are used for home decor, yardage, wall hangings and much more. The highest prices - $20,000 to $40,000 for the finest quality pieces - are realized through internationally known retail dealers. Reputable dealers are known for quality and honesty, and can generally command the highest prices. They have spent years in the field and in the market place, and are willing to pay high prices for the best quality pieces at the source. This business practice makes them financially successful, attracting rare properties and loyal clients.

In an appraisal report, the appraiser states and assigns the characteristics of value and quality, discussing with the collector what qualities are important and what to look for in acquiring new property. A bibliography is chosen, supporting the quality characteristics described and the value conclusions drawn; a collector can always suggest the best and most relevant books and publications. The Charitable Contribution reports I compiled for the donated Indonesian ikat textiles discussed and compared six quality characteristics among similar quality ikat textiles sold on the open marketplace. Each quality characteristic influences the fair market value of an individual piece.

For one particular Borneo Indonesian textile included in the report, color was the most important quality characteristic determining where the piece fell between high and low value. Color that is not of superior quality can result in a price closer to $4,000 instead of $40,000. The blues and reds on traditional cotton and silk Indonesian textiles derive from two vegetable dyes: indigo blue, from the shrubs Indigofera tinctoria, and morinda red, from trees in the genus Morinda. Preparing the dye and coloring the threads is labor-intensive and, in certain geographical areas, done exclusively by specially chosen women. For the Iban, a people of Borneo, these particular women are the keepers of dreams and spirits, and are allowed to interpret dreams into designs. Textiles of the Iban have inherent spirit qualities. The authenticity of a weaving is directly related to this quality, and thus the value follows accordingly.

A second quality characteristic is quality of technique or clarity of ikat. Ikat is a way of patterning the cloth before weaving, creating a design by wrapping the threads to resist the dye penetration, another time-consuming and precise skill done only by women. The reading of the patterns of the vertical and horizontal threads should be precise and razor sharp, not fuzzy. Although not so popular in the west, this method of patterning cloth is often used in Indonesia.

A third quality characteristic is the fineness of thread; in the case of the Borneo textile, hand-spun cotton thread, with several thin strands spun together, rather than machine-spun. Machine-spun thread was introduced to Indonesia in the 1930's by the Dutch, and many quality Indonesian textiles were made with machine-spun thread thereafter, so the fact that this particular textile was produced with hand-spun thread was an added value characteristic.

The fourth quality characteristic is artistry. A property can have technical skill, but lack imagination, creative strength and confidence. Artistry is the hardest element for a novice appraiser or collector to judge because it requires years of experience and exposure to a very broad range of textiles. Condition and age are two additional factors that affect quality, with condition often being the most important quality characteristic. An appraisal is generally only cost-effective when the property is in good to excellent condition. Age may not be so defining, since the traditional way of patterning cloth is still practiced, but it can trump the effect of condition because of its rarity.

These are the six primary quality characteristics of Indonesian textiles that can make a price difference in terms of tens of thousands of dollars. A valuable property will be judged favorably based on most, if not all of these considerations. The Borneo textile addressed in the Charitable Contributions appraisal that is the subject of this discussion got high marks in all six quality characteristics, including the fact that its color was superior; the quality of ikat was sharp and precise; it was made of hand-spun thread of very fine quality, and it was of the highest artistry and imagination. I appraised it for $40,000.

For an appraiser in the 21st century, it is essential to maintain good communication with international dealers; one needs information that is confidential as well as valuable. Trust and history between the appraiser and dealers must be built up over years, if not decades.

Along with seeing collections in museums, for further scholarship I would recommend the following publications: To Speak with Cloth: Studies in Indonesian Textiles, edited by Mattiebelle Gittinger, published by the Museum of Cultural History, UCLA in 1989; Splendid Symbols: Textiles and Tradition in Indonesia, by Mattiebelle Gittinger, published by Oxford University Press in 1990; and Indonesian Textiles, by Michael Hitchcock, published by the British Museum Press in association with The Centre for South-East Asian Studies, University of Hull in 1991.

Cynthia Shaver is an Accredited Senior Appraiser of Asian Art with the American Society of Appraisers (ASA) and a former importer of Japanese Antiques with a specialty in textiles. She has a certificate in Appraisal and Decorative Arts from the University of California at Irvine and is currently an appraiser for art donated to the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the Berkeley Art Museum, the San Francisco Fine Arts Museums and many others. She is the author of the essay Sashiko: A Japanese Stitchery in Beyond The Tanabata Bridge, published by the Seattle Art Museum and gives lectures for museums and educational institutions. Ms. Shaver served on the Board of Directors of the Society for Asian Art at the San Francisco Asian Art Museum and as a Board member of the Textile Arts Council for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Book Review

By Jack Young ASA CPA

Finders Keepers, A Tale of Archeological Plunder and Obsession, by Craig Childs

In the mid 1960’s, when my father landed a job in the booming aerospace industry of Phoenix, AZ, we moved out from eastern Pennsylvania to the “Sonora Desert.” One thing I realized at a very young age was that the desert is far from deserted. Llke the author of “Finders Keepers,” who also grew up wandering around in the North Phoenix desert, I quickly learned I was living atop the ancient ruins of the Hohokam civilization. It was commonplace to come across traces of that past civilization amongst the dumped washing machines and old bed frames in an arroyo. My memory of growing up in AZ was that around just about every turn there was a reminder that we weren’t the first to try to make a go of it here in the “arid zone.”

Craig Childs’ most recent book, Finders Keepers, A Tale of Archeological Plunder and Obsession, begins by discussing the substantial industry that has grown up around the antiquities trade in the American Southwest—and the tangle of legal and ethical issues that go hand in hand with this trade. Childs then turns outward from his home ground of the American Southwest, pointing out that the issues surrounding these artifacts are minor compared to the issues of Mesoamerica, Africa, Iraq, and the Greece and Italy … oh and then there is Asia.

Artifacts are, of course, removed from the plundered countries in many different ways. One clever little scam out of India involved taking advantage of reputable appraisers. The smugglers would commission replicas of authentic artifacts and then having the replica appraised as a fake. By attaching the appraisal (of the fake) to the authentic piece, they were able to easily get the authentic piece out of the country, through customs and into the western antiquities marketplace.

One of the main points that Childs makes is that despite all the legal and ethical finger pointing that comes with the global antiquities trade, there is no moral high ground. As Childs concludes, “We have no choice but to live among contradictions. If anyone tells you there is only one right answer to the conundrum of archeology, he is trying to sell you something.”

One conundrum involves repatriation. As native peoples demand that the museum artifacts taken from their lands be returned, they often learn too late that these items were treated with arsenic and other poisons to preserve them, unintentionally causing serious injury to tribal members who have handled the items.

Another difficulty is that of disrupted lives and communities as the U.S. government attempts to stop the illegal artifact smuggling. As federal agents have gone into small towns in the Four Corners area to enforce laws designed to protect antiquities, they have inadvertently left behind communities in shambles as the town’s only physician is hauled away in handcuffs and other key figures, overcome with public shame, have opted to commit suicide.

Questions gets even more complex when Childs focuses on the huge museum, academic, government, personal warehouses and even houses bulging at the seams with collections too large to fathom. He shows us that there are simply more antiquities in our possession than we as a society seem to be able to manage. So when something supposedly “belongs in a museum,” where in the museum does it belong given the abundance of other “priceless” items? I am reminded of the last scene in one of the Indiana Jones movies where the Ark of the Covenant is moved to the basement of a huge anonymous government warehouse. Perhaps, once the true provenance of certain pieces have come to light, major items in the Getty Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will be returned to their countries of origin.

Mr. Childs closes his fine book with a final argument against archeological plunder: “At this point, considering all that has been removed, it is worth leaving the last pieces where they lie. As for what is already out of the ground, by all means, move it around, whether you repatriate it or pass it along to the next collector. … Let us appreciate what has been gathered and for the rest, let it lie.”

As you all know I am a Sacramento area machinery and equipment appraiser. Awhile back I was speaking with my friend Mandy Sabbadini ISA-AM, a Sacramento personal property appraiser who occasionally values Native American artifacts. I told Mandy that I grew up in Arizona and felt like I grew up around artifacts. She was surprised and asked why on earth I didn’t go into appraising them? Well, Mandy, I said, when I look at a John Deere 7330 tractor or a Multi Cam CNC router it is what it is and that’s pretty much it. When you look at an “artifact” how do you really know what it is?

After reading Mr. Childs’ recent book, I have even greater respect for my professional friends who appraise personal property and fine art. I’m also glad to stick to Sacramento area machinery and equipment appraisals.

Jack Young ASA CPA is the owner of Norcal Valuation, which specializes in machinery and equipment appraisals in Northern CA. Jack is also the Chapter Secretary of the Northern California Chapter of the American Society of Appraisers.

Membership Matters: In Memoriam

Charles N. MacNear, Jr. FASA

Charles N. MacNear Jr. FASA (“Charlie”) passed away on November 3, 2010. Charlie, a lifelong member of the American Society of Appraisers, held a designation in Real Property – Urban. He was active in the Society for over 40 years, serving on both the local as well as national level. Charlie served as President of the San Francisco Chapter for 1964-5 and as Regional Governor from 1966 to 1968. In 1972-73 he served as International President of the ASA. Charlie was inducted into the College of Fellows of the Society in 1973, having served as Chancellor in 1975-76.

Charlie was one of the founding members of the California Appraisers Council that was established to monitor and act as a watchdog for the appraisal profession on legislative actions. He served as a mentor to many entering the appraisal profession by providing candidates with counsel, as needed, and encouragement to help them complete the process of becoming professional appraisers.

Charlie was also actively involved with the emergency responses’ search and rescue team for many years. In disaster cases he would help find and coordinate the efforts of various responders.

For many years Charlie worked for Bank of America as a real property appraiser and manager of an appraisal unit. After leaving BofA he joined Lloyd Thomas Coates and Burchard, Inc.

The chapter joins with Charles MacNear’s many friends in ASA in sending our heartfelt condolences to his family.

Events Calendar

December 2010

· 1^st -9^th Hanukkah

· 9^th (Thur) Program Meeting Spouse’s Night (Estate Jewelry) Mark Watson

· 25^th Christmas

January 2011

· 13^th (Thur) Program Meeting Marketing
Prof. Subodh Bhat –rg

· RP Seminar? Site Evaluation –DL

February 2011

· 10^th (Thur)Program Meeting “Websites that Produce Results” -jy

March 2011

· 10^th (Thur) Program Meeting: Prof Rod Hurd “Converging International & GAAP Standards & How They Affect All Disciplines” -bp

· IRS Seminar? –db

April 2011

· 14^th (Thur) Program Meeting PP –la

May 2011

· 12^th(Thur) Program Meeting BV topic for younger members -en

June 2011

· 9^th (Thur) Program Meeting BV “Process Mgt” –jb&ga

July 2011

· 14^th (Thur) Program Meeting

August 2011

· Conference?

· Chapter Retreat

September 2011

· 8^th (Thur) Program Meeting Candidates’ Night?

To be scheduled:

RE Seminars: Site Evaluation; Easements & Right of Way

USPAP: 1-day

USPAP: 2-day

NorCal Officers & Directors

Your Board of Directors serves you, the membership first, and needs your help and cooperation to determine what your most important interests and concerns are regarding programs, seminars, courses, and accreditation, etc. Please contact Bob Lentz with suggestions

Chapter Officers

Chapter President Robert P. Lentz III ASA (BV)

Chapter Vice President John Barnet AM (BBV)

Chapter Secretary Jack Young ASA (MTS)

Chapter Treasurer Gil Mitchell ASA (MTS)

Chapter Past Chair Douglas S. Baxter ASA (PP)

Discipline Directors

Appraisal Review & Management Bob Podwalny FASA

Business Valuation John Barnet AM

Gems & Jewelry Nancy Stacy ASA*

Machinery & Technical Specialties Bob Podwalny FASA

Real Property David Lewis ASA

Personal Property Louise Allrich ASA

*Master Gemologist Appraiser

International Officers

International President Robert Schlegel ASA

Region 5 Governor Greg Ansel ASA

Anyone interested in being an active participant in the chapter should contact Bob Lentz at RobertLent@aol.com and attend a BOD meeting.