At the historic house museum I worked at we used collector's guides that listed prices for the insurance values of collection objects. Most of these guides give prices for objects that are in good to pristine condition and we took the condition of the object into consideration and
adjusted the price accordingly.  You are in a rather unique situation as most of the objects in your collection belonged to the family that owned the house which makes them historically more valuable to your collection than if they were on the open market.  I do not know if the
insurance company would take into consideration that the objects have a higher value because of who they belonged to. Generally insurance companies deal with replacement value of an object, what it would cost you to replace the object,  or adjust the value based on depreciation.
The other suggestion I have is to find a certified appraiser (or several) and see what it would cost to do appraisals of all the objects in the collection. Maybe some of our colleagues on list have better suggestions.

Redcliffe State Historic Site wrote:

> Greetings,
> We are a state operated historic house museum currently insured for $200,000
> on our 1859 Greek Revival mansion and $75,000 for its contents. Our
> collections are the result of four generations of descendents' acquisitions
> and are, in many cases, items that are irreplaceable.  We feel that our
> current coverage is woefully inadequate, however.
>
> How have other historic house museums out there determined the appropriate
> levels of insurance for their structures and collections?
>
> Thank you in advance,
> Redcliffe Plantation
>
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--
Michael Wright
Curator of Collections
Old Capitol Museum
PO Box 571
Jackson, MS 39205-0571
Telephone: 601-359-6929
Facsimile: 601-359-6981
Email: [log in to unmask]

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