A Certified and Professional Appraiser in Richmond, VA
Experience
Christine N. Corbin
ASA Senior Appraiser
ISA Certified Appraiser of Personal Property
Licensed VA Auctioneer #1615
Appraisals since 1988
As the owner and senior appraiser of Corbin Appraisal Services, Inc, Christine provides qualified appraisals, and directs a team of independent appraisers and specialists with proven expertise in professional report writing. Christine has appraised presidential collections, major art & antique collections for resorts, museums, historic homes, educational and industrial foundations, handled major insurance damage appraisals and restorations, and worn Hazmet suits in damage claim inspections.
She is enthusiastic about meeting and working with professionals and studying their client's collections. She appraises for equitable distributions, donations, estate and gift tax, sale placement, damage claims, and many additional appraisal needs.
Knowing what is in a client's collection and researching actual sale results also informs clients, who are so inclined, to best sell their collections. Christine is active in the auction and estate sale community and regularly meets with Specialty Auctioneers and Appraisers from across the country as an agent for clients. She believes that it is the client’s bottom line that is most important and word of mouth advertising has been positively reinforced with higher net returns and happy sellers.
She served as a Trustee for the Appraisal Foundation * for 5 years, and has lead The Appraisal Foundation Advisory Council's Personal Property Issues Committee in reviewing and advising the Appraisal Qualifications Board on the updates of the 1998 Qualification Criteria. She served as a member of a special appraisal group/society task force meeting with and advising the IRS on Appraisal Review and USPAP and updating requirements for qualified appraisals and qualified appraisers. She served as subject matter expert and as a member of the Personal Property Advisory Council Task Force through the Appraisal Foundation.
Christine works closely with Trust and Estate Attorneys and Trustees. She testifies frequently in court as an expert witness, works with insurance auditors on opposing sides of the negotiating table, as well as in many other volatile situations. She believes that information, education, methodology and ethics are the key to valuation.
Service
Christine Corbin served on the Board of Directors of the International Society of Appraisers (ISA) from 2006 - 2011, as Executive Officer 2007-2009. She has been ISA Certified since 1999, and ASA Senior Appraiser since 2014.
* Christine was appointed by TAFAC to The Appraisal Foundation Board of Trustees in 2010. She was re-appointed for a second term 2013-2016.
The Appraisal Foundation advises and writes the standards of USPAP and minimum appraisal qualifications requirements (education and experience). The Foundation is Congressionally sanctioned and serves to protect the users of appraisals, as well as inform appraisers of procedures and practices in their professional report writing. She is also available to speak to professional groups about USPAP for users of appraisals and serves on the Foundation Personal Property Task Force
Background
Christine began her auction career in 1988 working as Auction Director at Shields Auctions (for George Shields of Danville - VAA president in 1965). Following the move of Shield’s from Richmond in 1991, Christine spent 17 years at Motleys Auctions, as auction director, estate and benefit auctioneer, and as senior appraiser. She auctioned an average of 600 to 1000 objects per month, leaving at the end of 2007 to be an Independent Appraiser.
In 2009 Christine was invited to became owner of SOLD, INC. a Fine Estate Sale company which has served Richmond since 1988. Christine took over the reins and expanded the business to include Timed Online Auctions, Specialty Benefit Auctions, and Brokerage of Collections.
SOLD, INC. has now come under the umbrella of Corbin Appraisal Services, Inc., where we broker fine art and antique and mid century decorative arts. Projects include appraising and brokering a 1065 painting by the Chinese/French artist Zao Wou Ki to Sotheby’s in Hong Kong where it sold for $2,600,000. In 2016, as well as a painting by Vietnam Artist Pho to Brunk’s where it sold for a record of $165,000. You can see these photographs on our website. She has also sent objects from Abraham Lincoln and his family’s private collections to Cowan’s in Cincinnati.
Qualifications
Christine Corbin, ISA—CAPP
Affiliations:
Licensed and Bonded Virginia Auctioneer - # 1615
ASA Senior Appraiser, Decorative Arts, 2014 - American Society of Appraisers
ISA Certified Appraiser since 1999, Antiques and Residential Contents (ISA CAPP) through the International Society of Appraisers
Board of Trustees, The Appraisal Foundation, 2011 to 2016
Member, TAFAC-The Appraisal Foundation Advisory Council, Washington, DC 2007-Present
Chair, Emerging Issues Committee, The Appraisal Foundation Advisory Council, 2010-2011, Former Vice Chair
Vice Chair, Personal Property Working Group, TAFAC, The Appraisal Foundation Advisory Council, 2010-2011, working with the Appraisal Qualifications Board as the TAFAC Representative on the updates of the 1998 Personal Property Appraiser Minimum Qualifications
Member, The Appraisal Foundation Personal Property Task Force and Boards Nominating Committee
Expert Witness Testimony, National Auctioneers’ Association, 2008
Board of Directors, Int’l Society of Appraisers, 2005-2011, Executive Committee 2007 to 2009
Board of Directors, Virginia Auctioneers Association,
2010-2013
Designation and Review, ISA, 2006 – 2014, Reviewing appraisal reports for appraiser certification
Old Dominion Chapter of ISA – President, & Charter Member 1989 to 1998
Member, American Society of Appraisers, and the ASA Richmond Chapter
2010-Present
Chairman, ISA Antiques & Residential Contents (ARC) Committee – ISA 1999-2002
Coordinator of ISA Toronto 2001 and Seattle 2002 Antiques Educational Symposiums
Member - Virginia Auctioneers Association and National Auctioneers Association
Member – Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, 2004-2008
Presenter – National Auctioneers Association, Virginia Auctioneers Association, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, International Society of Appraisers, Virginia Commonwealth University Alumnae Association,
Fundraising Appraiser – APVA, the Association for Preservation of VA Antiquities Identification days in Yorktown and Smithfield, Virginia Historical Society, Historic Petersburg Foundation
Benefit Auctioneer - The Gloucester Mathews Humane Society, Virginia 2012-2015
Benefit Auctioneer - The Bay School for the Arts, Mathews, Virginia, 2014
Other Information
Much of the history of colonial Virginia and 19th century America has flowed through her gloved hands. She has appraised items in the collection of the Claremont Plantation, in Surry County, Virginia, once owned by the William Orgain Allen, known as the richest man in Virginia. Corbin has also appraised items in the Brandon Plantation in Prince George County, first granted to John Martin, who came over with John Smith and was a member of His Majesty’s first council. Thomas Jefferson designed the Main House, George Washington was a frequent visitor and a former owner was a U.S. Supreme Court justice.
Corbin has valued items in the collection of the Westover Plantation, a historic tobacco plantation on the James River in Charles City County Westover was the seat of the William Byrd family in Virginia. William Byrd II was the founder of Richmond and is thought to have built the mansion c. 1730.
She has appraised antiques and original Randolph and Carter family silver and portraits from Shirley Plantation, regarded as the oldest active plantation in the Old Dominion and the oldest family-owned business in North America, dating back to 1614.
She’s appraised George Washington’s gavel from the Society of Cincinnati, a fraternal organization of Continental Army officers, as well as Washington's blue and white Fitzhugh border Cincinnati porcelain service which descended through Martha Washington’s family. Colonel Henry ("Light Horse Harry") Lee purchased the set in August, 1786. The 302-piece dinner and tea service was delivered to George and Martha Washington's Mount Vernon plantation in September, 1786.
Abraham Lincoln’s presidential collection, including White House china, signed documents, spectacles, books and personal artifacts. She has appraised the collection of Robert Todd Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln; James Buchanan’s White House China and Paul Revere Sterling and items from Thomas Jefferson’s library, his presidential letters and a hand-drawn survey map.