CARENCRO, LA.- A local family from Carencro, a town of about 6,000 residents outside of Lafayette, was stunned recently to discover that the family home held a rare Art Nouveau desk worth an estimated $250,000. It will be sold at auction at Sotheby's in New York on December 27th.

The descendants of Merwin Hale (Bill) Wilkinson Jr., a former Green Beret and avid bow hunter, had no idea until New Orleans appraiser David J. Goldberg saw the desk and its matching chair that the highly stylized set was part of a famous Orchid bedroom suite created in 1903 by the renown French cabinetmaker Louis Majorelle. The cabinetmaker's designs are in many museum collections, including the New Orleans Museum of Art.

Mr. Goldberg said, "It had 'museum quality' written all over it. I had seen the same piece in the Musee D'Orsay in Paris a few years earlier and felt certain the Wilkinson's set was the real thing." On close inspection of the desk Goldberg noticed the label of a Paris warehouse where the desk had been housed, probably just before being shipped to America.

Back in his New Orleans office, Mr. Goldberg confirmed his belief that the desk and chair were the work of Louis Majorelle, one of the co-founders of Ecole d'Nancy, the French breakout movement that helped put Art Nouveau on the map. Majorelle's desks, cabinets and beds personify the curvilinear features of Art Nouveau. Their decorations are inspired by nature. The elaborate gilt decoration on this desk suggests stems and blossoms of the regal Orchid.

If the set seems oddly paired with the tastes of its owner, that is because it was an inheritance item, passed down through the family.

David Goldberg, who has been an appraiser for more than forty years has a reputation for recognizing treasures others have overlooked. Among these is a 19th century William H. Buck Louisiana landscape that had a $75 garage sale tag on it. Mr. Goldberg saw it and sold it on a family's behalf for $300,000. Another find was an Alfred Bierstadt painting originally appraised incorrectly at $2,000. In Mr. Goldberg's hands it brought the family more than $100,000. Another recent find, a Newcomb Pottery Arts and Crafts style ceramic tile series, will be the highlight of an upcoming auction at Rago Auction in New Jersey. Its pre-sale estimate is $75,000 to $100,000.

Mr. Goldberg's advice to families looking to liquidate family heirlooms is this: "Do not guestimate value based on information gleaned from reality shows such as Antiques Roadshow or American Picker. It is likely you are going to pick a visually attractive item that has less value than an item you may not fully understand aesthetically."

To illustrate his point, he refers to the Carencro family's well-meaning home-style appraisal . They showed him a highly carved American sideboard and a mirror that, Goldberg states, "Were nice but not exceptional. If they had taken those items to auction, their net may have been a few thousand dollars. The desk, however, should reap in at least the cost of two college educations for Mr. Wilkinson's grandchildren."

When families and estate managers ask him about his background, Mr. Goldberg recaps his unique resume. Knowledge of art and design was his father's legacy to him. The late Morton Goldberg was among New Orleans' first generation of auctioneers. As a youngster, David was included in the process of appraisals and auctions. As a college student, he majored in history at Columbia University in New York City. He went on to graduate studies at the University of North Carolina and LSU. Eventually, partnering up with his father, he shepherded thousands of antiques over the threshold, through the cataloging process and to the podium. When the auction house went out of business, he taught classes on antiques at Tulane.

In the aftermath of Katrina, Mr. Goldberg was called in on hundreds of appraisals. His expertise and spot-on evaluations resulted in 167 reversals of decisions by insurance companies. He was responsible for delivering good new to nearly 200 families who received enhanced insurance benefits.

He sees his job as a service that covers the gamut of decisions that torment families charged with disposing of a loved one's estate. He will, for instance, when it is appropriate, organize, manage and conduct an Estate sale on the owner's behalf. If an auction is the better answer, Mr. Goldberg reaches out to his connections in the business to deliver the most lucrative offer, as with the Majorelle desk and chair.

Time will tell how well the Louis Majorelle Orchid desk and chair will fare at auction. The last time either of these came to market, they inspired bidding wars and sold for many times their pre-sale estimates. Even in today's age of the "hotel look," rare items such as an Orchid desk will have no problem finding a home.

David J. Goldberg is president of The Appraisal Group, a New Orleans based company. He is co-founder of WYES Public Television and Digital Media Auction. He has appeared on WWLTV, New Orleans. He was an speaker at the inaugural running of the New Orleans Winter Art & Antiques Show at the Old Mint. He has been a guest appraiser at the Louisiana Public Broadcasting Antiques Fair in Baton Rouge.