AUBURN — Daniel Buck Soules will be the speaker at a meeting of the Androscoggin Historical Society at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24, at the society’s headquarters on the third floor of the County Building, 2 Turner St.

He will discuss the antiques appraisal business and how he works with people who want to learn more about their heirlooms. He will answer questions from the audience. An elevator is available. The program is free, but donations will be accepted.

Soules has lived and worked in Maine for the past four years and has been an antiques appraiser and auctioneer for more than 40 years, traveling throughout the nation. His office is in Auburn, and his home is an 1840s farmhouse in Lisbon Falls.

Maine has a great many antiques, he said, and “I love being in Maine.”

Most of Soules’ appraisal work is for individual clients, and he travels frequently. He made a trip to Germany to have a painting examined by an expert. He spent a day and a half traveling to Berlin, met the expert the following day, traveled back to Frankfurt the day after that, was stuck in Frankfurt by Hurricane Sandy for an additional day, then flew home the day after that — all to have a client’s painting authenticated. The client was thrilled, Soules said.

“I love to get on an airplane and go someplace, especially if I am going to help clients or do an appraisal event somewhere,” he said.

For 11 years he appeared as an independent appraiser of decorative art, silver and collectibles on the PBS television show “Antiques Roadshow.”

He specializes in Americana of the 18th and 19th centuries, Shaker items and 19th and 20th century paintings. He started his career in the family antiques business at the age of 12 and began auctioneering four years later.

Soules graduated from the International Auction School in Deerfield, Mass., at the top of his class. He was employed by the Hancock Shaker Village in Massachusetts for about five years, serving as a cabinetmaker and interpreter, and co-authored “Simple Gifts,” a Shaker how-to book.

Over the years he has been involved with museums, organizations and historical commissions throughout New England, serving on the board of directors for a number of them.

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