For Boston-area collectors, estate attorneys, and academic households across Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Cambridge, Brookline, and the North Shore. Our Digital and Certified appraisals are fully remote — submit photos and receive a signed report within 3–5 business days. From $35.
Boston has one of the most established old-money rug markets in the United States. Many Beacon Hill, Back Bay, and North Shore households hold rugs that were imported through Boston dealers during the long late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century period of Anglo-Persian trade, and have been passed through three or four generations — with documentation, where it exists at all, kept in family papers rather than appraisal files. Pieces of this provenance often carry meaningful premiums, but only when the documentation can be verified.
We work regularly with Boston-area estate attorneys, particularly on Back Bay and Cambridge estates where a single household may have multiple antique rugs alongside other personal property. Our Legal/Estate reports are accepted by the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court and meet the qualified-appraisal requirements for IRS Form 8283 charitable donations — a common path for families wishing to donate inherited rugs to museums or universities.
The most common gap we see is insurance under-coverage. A rug purchased two or three decades ago at fair market is now often worth 3–6× its original price at retail-replacement — the figure your insurer actually needs. A current RUG Index appraisal corrects the schedule before a loss event. Formatted to meet documentation requirements commonly requested by U.S. insurance carriers. Acceptance is subject to individual carrier requirements and policy terms.
For collections inherited or being settled in Massachusetts, our Legal/Estate report ($150) is a USPAP appraisal report formatted for potential use in probate proceedings and IRS filings; admissibility and acceptance are determined solely by the court or agency. The signed PDF is delivered remotely.
Our Digital and Certified appraisals are 100% remote. Submit photos and rug details online; we handle the rest.
No travel fee, no in-person required. Same prices as anywhere else in the U.S.
Submit photos online and receive a certified report by email in 3–5 business days. Plans start at $35.