Evaluation Day w/ Bonhams Skinner, Saturday, October 17, 10 am - 2 pm *Advanced Registration Required - see our website for details

Have you always wanted to know the value of the treasures lying around your home? For $10 per item, or 3 items for $25, Bonhams Skinner’s Robin Starr and Christopher Fox will assess your items. Register with Scott Davis, sdavis@stjathenaeum.org or 820-745-1393. Starr is a fine art expert, and Fox’s expertise includes decorative arts and furniture. Starr and a crew from Bonhams came to the Athenaeum in the spring of 2026 to do an assessment of our art.

Robin Starr is the General Manager of Bonhams Skinner, New England's oldest auction house, with a distinguished history dating back to its founding in 1962. As Director of American & European Paintings & Prints, Robin Starr heads one of Skinner’s most important specialty departments. In this key role she oversees a staff of specialists who appraise and catalog prints, paintings, sculpture, and works on paper for a wide variety of Skinner clients, including arts and cultural institutions, estates, major collectors, and private individuals. She is also widely regarded as one of Skinner’s most vibrant and animated auctioneers, bringing an enthusiastic spirit to the podium at Skinner’s American & European Paintings & Prints auctions, held three times annually.

Starr’s area of specialization is in American paintings and prints from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Outside her role at Skinner, Starr is a major contributor to the success of Boston’s thriving arts and culture community. She conducts numerous benefit appraisal days, lectures, and benefit auctions throughout the year. Starr has lectured in art history at various colleges throughout New England, including as a Lecturer in Art History at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

Christopher D. Fox is Bonhams Skinner's Vice President and Director of Historic Arms & Militaria and Associate Director of American Furniture and Decorative Arts. He specializes in military and civil arms used in 18th and 19th century America, and early American material culture, including early metalware, ceramics, and household items.

Christopher has spent much of his life immersed in early American material culture. He has authored numerous articles and lectured on a wide variety of topics including 18th-century British military firearms and powder horns, early New York militia uniforms, Seven Years' War period barrack room arrangements, mid-18th century English ceramics, and the material culture associated with chocolate in the 18th-century. He has assisted in exhibition development at local history museums.

This event is ADA accessible.