New Jersey woman paid $25 for mouldy table; 30 years later, it sold for $541,500

A New Jersey schoolteacher who bought a mouldy, pitch-black table at a garage sale for just $25 ended up owning a rare piece of American furniture worth more than half a million dollars. Claire Wiegand-Beckmann purchased the table roughly three decades before it appeared on Antiques Roadshow, when she was moving into a new home and wanted a small table. She initially saw little reason to believe it was valuable. But when furniture expert Leigh Keno examined it in Secaucus, New Jersey, in 1997, he discovered an original maker's label identifying it as the work of Boston cabinetmakers John and Thomas Seymour. The table was later sold at Sotheby's for $490,000, with the buyer's premium bringing the total to $541,500.

Get breaking news anytime, anywhere. Download the TOI app now!