Study 194: The Objects Nobody Chose: What Probate Sees That the Market Cannot

Most objects in most homes were acquired without being chosen: inherited, given, or left behind. Because no transaction occurs, no price is generated, and the market vocabulary this institution normally uses cannot describe them. Probate is the exception. It is the only institution legally obliged to produce a defensible valuation for every object in a house, including those the market has already refused. This study reads that compulsory survey across one generation and finds the collapse of brown furniture: Victorian and Edwardian mahogany that fell by an order of magnitude while the objects