How do you value a piece of furniture (for compensation purposes)

A bit long winded, please bear with me

My Mum rents her TV and over the weekend it broke down, so the engineer called out today, told her it couldn't be repaired so replaced it, no problem, but her TV stands of a Solid Oak occasional table that her Mum bought her in the fifties well the engineer scratched the table badly and she is terribly upset about it, after all it has survived unscathed for nearly 60 years, it has put up with me and my brother, numerous dogs and my two kids as well, the rental company have been really lovely about it and are sending out someone tomorrow to see her, assess the damage and fill out a compensation form, but how much would the table be worth now, it originally cost £8 in the fifties, so although it's basically second hand, it's surly got to be worth more than £8, would they ask for a value? to my Mum it's priceless, but they wont be thinking of the sentimental value, any ideas

Thank you

Just had a quick look at e bay and one went for about 80 pounds and the rest for not much or not at all.

Its value is what it would cost to replace it---and thats hard to say.

rune

I think it depends on the type of Insurance cover Christine - some have 'new for old' - where the replacement would be a new item identical, or as identical as possible. The alternative is 'actual' value - i.e. taking account of the furniture's age.

As your Mum is really attached to the item, why not see whether it is capabale of specialist restoration and whether the insurers will cover that cost rather than replacement?