One involved a presidential automobile flag given to a relative by President Dwight Eisenhower on a trip to buy a shirt in Key West, I think. The President stopped by a store, bought a shirt, made friends with the proprietor and somehow ‘gave’ his official car flag to him. Since just about everything a president does or says is collected and archived, it is curious that there is no mention of such an incident anywhere, even whether he visited the store. I had to evaluate based only on the flag, not the story, and the family was not amused.

Another involved the story of a wash basin that was bought by a distant relative ‘right off the back of a truck’ unloading at an antique mall. The dealer insisted it was one of only two made for Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Harrison who were very close friends and was used in the White House. The family kept it in the house away from kids and revered for at least a generation. When asked to evaluate it, I found that it wasn’t possible that Lincoln and Harrison could even have known each other, the White House never heard of it and the wash stand was considered by an expert as having been mass produced late in the 19th century. Still a good piece, but not historic. Again, the family was not happy.

On the other hand, a gentleman bought a suit at a Goodwill-type store and I was asked to evaluate whether it was really made exclusively for Senator Barack Obama (it was a Worthologist question). It was. The tags sewn inside verified it. Now, that’s provenance.

As President Reagan used to say, “Trust, but verify.”

Tom Carrier
Worthologist