Edmund Cyril Vale,
b. 1962, Albany.
Edmund Vale spent thirty-one years as an estate appraiser for the New York State Surrogate's Court. He inventoried the belongings of nine hundred and four people, forty-one of whom had died by means the District Attorney took an interest in. None of those cases is open. None of the families have, to our knowledge, ever asked to speak to him a second time.
In the autumn of 2024 he retired without warning, sold his apartment in three days, and drove north until the road ran out. He stopped, by his own account, because the radio did. Ashveil was the next town with a hardware store.
He bought the old Tannery on Mill Road for one dollar from the County, on the condition that he keep the building standing. He has kept it standing. He has done other things in it as well.
How he handles a lot
- Step 01
Receipt from the County
Each lot arrives in a numbered crate, sealed by the Probate Office. I open it alone, in the back room, by the light of a single bulb. I do not open more than one crate in a day.
- Step 02
Photograph and weigh
Every object is photographed against the same grey wall, weighed, and described in a leather-bound register. The register stays in the shop. It does not leave the building.
- Step 03
Quarantine
Any object that disturbs the back room — by sound, by movement, or by the behaviour of the cat — is set aside for thirty nights. If it persists, it is withdrawn from sale and returned to the County's archive.
- Step 04
Listing
Surviving lots are listed in the catalog with the provenance recorded as given to me. I do not embellish. I do not interpret. I tell you the date, the location, and the name of the field officer who signed the chain of custody.
- Step 05
Bid review
Bids are reviewed every Friday at noon. Successful bidders are written to by post. I do not telephone, and I do not e-mail confirmations after sunset.
- Step 06
Handover
Collection is by appointment, in daylight, on the premises. I will not ship. I will not courier. Every lot leaves wrapped in butcher paper, with a card bearing a single line of instruction written by hand.
What I will and will not do
- § 01. I will not narrate the case to customers, in person or by telephone.
- § 02. I will not authenticate any object as belonging to a named victim. I will tell you only what the County's paperwork tells me.
- § 03. I will not sell, at any price, any item I judge to be unsafe in a private home. Three lots have been removed from the catalog on this basis. There may be more.
- § 04. I will not take payment from the accused, his estate, his counsel, or any party connected to his defence. The County audits us quarterly. So does the State.
- § 05. I will not, after October 30th, 2026, continue to operate this mercantile. The lease runs out. I have not decided where I will go.
“I came to Ashveil for the quiet. I have learned that the quiet here is not an absence of sound. It is the sound of something choosing not to speak.”
— E. V., from a letter to his sister, never sent.