EchoBlog

♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: "Antiques Roadshow" is welcoming treasure seekers at Old Sturbridge Village.

Mwah!

Makes me want to go ride a motorcycle again, huh?

(laughs) I don't think so.

(chuckles) The great escape from the Antiques Roadshow.

This is absolutely superb.

Oh, my gosh.

♪ ♪ PEÑA: Old Sturbridge Village has over 40,000 treasures in its collection.

Some of the most eye-catching are by New Hampshire itinerant artist Ezra Woolson.

The six portraits here make the largest collection of portraits by Woolson, which may not seem like a lot, but his career was cut short when he died in 1845, at the age of 21, from typhoid fever.

In the early 1840s, photography was not very common in the U.S.

So, artists were still traveling the countryside to capture likenesses in paint, moving on when the work was done to the next farm or town.

"Roadshow" is excited to have Old Sturbridge Village as our background for appraisals today.

Check it out.

Where did you get this?

I got this from my mom.

She got it at a flea market.

Oh, she did?

Yeah.

Excellent.

Yeah.

Well, today you'll find out if it should go back to the flea market.

(all laughing) ♪ ♪ This is a copy of one of the telegrams that was sent out of Washington, originally signed by, uh, Secretary of War Stanton in 1865.

And the telegram was sent out, this one to General Sherman-- there was another sent to General Grant-- basically informing them, "President Lincoln has been shot and just died," and President Johnson was about to be sworn in.

This is anywhere from 1900 to 1910 motion picture camera, plus projector.

A friend of mine gave it to me.

Somebody sold it to him in his barber shop for a pack of cigarettes.

Probably a good deal.

And I got it for a favor, I gave him, did a favor, and he gave it to me.

And I've been trying for years to find out about it.

That's why we drove five hours to get here.

GUEST: What I think I have is an iron meteorite... Mm-hmm.

...that had belonged to my father-in-law just out of high school.

Mm-hmm.

He and a friend of his did a natural history museum during the course of a summer.

Mm-hmm.

And they gathered things from around and showed this in the neighborhood.

At the end of the summer, there were a couple of pieces, this being one of them... Mm-hmm.

...that went to the, the two guys.

Where was he?

This was in Scarsdale, New York.

Mm-hmm.

I think they probably charged... Mmm.

...you know, a couple cents, and invited people to come to their museum.

(laughs) So, what, did, like, they took over the front room at Mom's house and put their little treasures...

I think it may have been the basement, but, yeah.

Okay.

It was something along those lines, yes.

And do you know what other kind of treasures they collected?

Only, the only thing I heard about was a giant quartz crystal.

Then, what happened at the end of the summer?

Well, he went off to college.

Mm-hmm.

And so did his friends, and a couple of items remained.

So, the friend took the crystal, and Gerard took the meteorite.

Mm-hmm.

Do you have any idea where the meteorite might be from?

We're guessing from, uh, Meteor Canyon in Winslow, Arizona.

This is from Meteor Crater, also called Barringer Crater, in Northern Arizona.

It is an iron meteorite.

It's from the Canyon Diablo fall, and there are very few large iron meteorite land falls.

So, you can find parts of this meteorite all over the place in Northern Arizona.

It's a 50,000-year-old crater that, by and large, looks like it did right after the impact.

Mm-hmm.

And for a long time, there was a debate of whether it was a volcanic crater or made by some other means.

And they discovered, in fact, that it was created by a meteorite.

Meteor Crater's a privately owned crater.

It's basically a tourist attraction, roadside attraction, in Northern Arizona.

I remember going there as a little kid.

Oh, yeah?

It's incredible.

There are lots of pieces of this iron cr, meteorite around.

Even though it's a smaller piece, it's still a very substantial piece, as far as a meteorite goes.

And it looks exactly like you want it to.

And if you're chasing after that great American meteorite... (laughs) ...this is the best one.

The challenge is, meteorites always need to be authenticated.

Ah.

You need to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt it came from the Meteor Crater, Barringer Crater.

You can take it to a good geologist and make sure it has the right mineral content that is consistent with the crater.

Okay.

But the convenient part is, this is cut from a larger piece.

And you might call some of the major museums that have pieces of the crater and see if this matches up.

Wow, okay.

I mean, that would be a dead giveaway.

It, it, the, yes.

But, appearance-wise, it's absolutely consistent.

I can see some of the mineral crystallization in the back that also is consistent with an iron meteorite from Meteor Crater.

It is very important, and meteorites are very desirable.

Generally, they're sold by the gram.

If this meteorite was to come up for auction, I would give it an auction estimate of $15,000 to $20,000.

(chuckling): R, really?

Whoo!

(laughs) Pretty good for a lump of iron, huh?

(chuckles) I had no idea.

You've probably heard that before, but I just, you know.

(chuckles) No idea, re... (both chuckling) That's very cool.

Wow.

(laughs) I mean, it's not often I get to say, "This is one sexy meteorite."

(laughs) GUEST: It was made by Marcus & Company in New York.

I know that it has a lot of lovely cabochon emeralds mixed with tiny pearls, and a lot of small diamonds in work such as here.

Mm-hmm.

And then some bigger pearls.

Okay, and, and how did you come by the piece?

I mean, did it, was it a family piece or... Well, it passed, uh, down through my husband's family.

Right.

Herman Marcus, um, started his career in Dresden, and then he came over to New York in 1850, and he worked for Tiffany Company and, uh, Ball, Black, & Company.

And then, a few years after that, he set up a partnership with T.B.

Starr... Mm-hmm.

...and then he started working with his son.

And then, in about 1892, he set up Marcus & Company that we know today.

Mm-hmm.

It's a, uh, pearl, diamond, and emerald sautoir.

It's early, an early piece of his.

It's about 1905, 1910.

Oh.

He's very, very famous for work he did a little bit later, more Art Nouveau, sort of plique-à-jour enamel pieces.

Mm-hmm.

We don't find many of his earlier pieces.

The emerald beads are superb.

And they're probably Colombian.

Um, you know, that's very difficult to, to determine without a, a, a test.

The natural pearls, the skins on them are beautiful.

The luster is absolutely wonderful.

You find very, very few pieces, uh, whether it be Cartier or Marcus, from this period.

It's a wonderful thing to see.

In a retail environment, you could easily expect to pay around $120,000 for this necklace.

Wow.

(chuckles) It's one of the best examples I've seen of, of, of his work.

It's absolutely superb.

Oh, my gosh.

What did you say?

A hu, how much?

Around $120,000.

(exhales): Why, I had no idea.

You're very lucky, and I hope you keep it and enjoy it.

Thank you.

Really beautiful.

I may have to start wearing it.

You might, yeah.

(chuckles) I hope so.

GUEST: This tankard was my grandfather's.

Mm-hmm.

And when he died, I got it through the will.

It's a very early piece of American silver.

Cool.

It's made by David Jess, or Jesse.

Jess.

Uh, I've seen it written "Jess," I've seen it written "Jesse."

It was made around 1695 to 1700.

Oh, my gosh.

He was born in 1670 in England.

He was apprenticed around 1682.

Served his apprenticeship for nine years.

So, he would have been, I think, 21 when he finished his apprenticeship.

He would have been 12 when he started it.

When he, uh, ended his apprenticeship, he emigrated to Boston.

Huh.

This would have been about 1691.

So cool.

So, he's making silver in Boston... Yeah?

...uh, 1690s, early 1700s.

And he died in 1705.

So, he didn't live for very long.

And so, there's not very many pieces of silver of his around.

This one does not appear to be recorded.

At all, anywhere?

At all.

So, that makes it very, very interesting.

Tell me a little bit more about your family history, 'cause I know it came through your...

The, the family name is Langdon.

Yes.

Okay.

And who was the, uh, most famous Langdon that, uh, would have owned this?

So, Samuel, I thought Ross, Langdon... Uh-huh.

...was the president of Harvard during the Revolutionary War.

Uh-huh.

Right.

And this was his.

At least, that's what the family lore is.

He was president at Harvard from 1774 to 1780?

Samuel Langdon graduated from Harvard in 1740.

He was in the same class as Samuel Adams.

(gasps) So... No way!

You really do have a real tangible part of history.

Cool.

You can see the, the hammered finish on it, this sort of nice texture on it.

And this is a rat tail here.

Oh.

So, the way it's affixed there, that's, uh, sort of a... (chuckles): Rat tail.

A rat tail join, it's called, yeah.

Ooh!

These initials, "S.E."

below an "L." here, that could be Samuel's father or grandfather.

It does have his maker's mark on it.

It's stamped on the lid, on the body, and on the underside.

It does have this inscription on the front of it.

Mm-hmm.

"Memento mori."

It's a sort of reminder of death, essentially.

Yeah.

We're currently at Sturbridge.

Samuel Langdon's house is here at Sturbridge.

Yes.

So, the house that we have here would have contained this tankard.

Uh, s, so we believe.

I mean, it seems, it stands...

It's amazing.

...to reason, right?

Yeah, right?

But the, the house, obviously, wasn't always at Sturbridge.

It was moved here...

Yes, yeah.

...I think, in the 1950s.

To have a piece of very early American silver be in the presence of the house here...

It's so cool.

...is, I think, absolutely remarkable.

I would feel that for insurance now, you should insure it for $80,000.

(whispering): $80,000?

(chuckles, aloud): Golly.

I think so, yeah.

That's so much money.

Okay, wow.

Well, it's a very important object.

(laughing) Yeah, it tells a great story.

My mom's going to be really happy.

(laughs): It's her family.

♪ ♪ I think it's a rare item.

It was purchased at an antique show several years ago.

It was quite of a lot, a few thousand dollars.

And, I, it's a Steiff, which I think is used maybe as an advertising item, I don't know, in their displays?

I think it's around the 1930s, in that era?

The pitcher belonged originally to my great-grandmother.

As a little girl, I just loved it, and I just thought it was the most beautiful piece, and I use it all the time.

I put f, flowers from my garden in it.

Sure, so, it's completely unmarked.

This was actually made in Japan.

Whoa.

Japanese porcelain made at that point, it was called Nippon.

Uh-huh.

And Nippon is the old name for Japan before World War I.

After about 1891, almost everything is marked... Mm-hmm.

...because of various import-export laws.

Yeah.

So, this is probably right around 1890.

This thickly raised decoration is called moriage.

Actually, if you go to Japan and you look for this, you will not find it.

Hmm.

It was all exported.

Yeah.

Especially to North America.

Yeah.

♪ ♪ PEÑA: Merchant Asa Knight and his wife, Susan Knight, and their child were captured in these paintings by Zedekiah Belknap in 1832.

♪ ♪ A portrait painting could cost the sitter between one week and two months' wages.

In Asa's portrait, the ledger books seen in the background can be found today in the village's research library, and provide insight into the daily business of this rural storekeeper.

GUEST: I bought this one at, uh, five or six years ago, at a garage sale.

The first day, I didn't find, uh, this one.

Okay.

I found a pair of the, uh, porcelain vase.

Okay.

Um, I think it's expensive, so I didn't buy that first day.

On the second day, when I can go back, I found, uh, this one.

Okay.

And so, I ask, uh, her, "How much for this one?"

She say, "Ten dollar."

So, I bought this one.

(chuckles) Great.

You found this at a garage sale for ten dollars about five or six years ago?

Yeah.

Okay, and what we're looking at here is a Sino-Tibetan gilt bronze figure of a seated bodhisattva, who is a devotional figure, which dates to the 18th century, which is in the Qing period.

I can tell that it is a bodhisattva because of the very elaborate jewelry.

You have the necklace there, the earrings, here around the upper arm, and again, around the wrists and the ankles.

So, the hair has been pulled up into this elaborate chignon that's held in place with this bejeweled headdress.

And the hair here falls down gracefully across the, the shoulders and down to the arm.

So, these figures would have been used in temples.

Okay.

And that's, that's part of the reason why they are so brightly colored.

So, we have to imagine what this gilt bronze figure would have looked like in a very dark interior.

Uh-huh.

It would have had this almost magical shimmery effect.

So, these figures are cast fully in the round and it's very crisp.

You have the drapery coming across the back and we get a sense of the body here with the wide shoulders that tapers to a very narrow waist.

A very sensuous figure.

The figure is seated on a double-lotus base.

What's really nice about this figure is that it still has its base plate in place, which means that the sacred texts are still within the figure.

Oftentimes, this plate has been removed and, and the texts are missing.

Do you have any ideas about the value?

$6,000?

(chuckles) I don't know.

(laughing) You're, you're very close.

(laughs): Very close?

So at auction, I would say the value here would be $7,000 to $10,000, at auction.

Oh, okay, okay.

All right, that's good, thank you.

I brought three posters that I think are Pop Art, from an artist named Peter Gee.

They are from my dad, who worked at Merrill Lynch in Boston from the '60s through the '80s.

They were renovating the building and these posters were available.

And he took them home and we've had them ever since.

What do you know about the history of Merrill Lynch, as a company?

Right.

Well, it's, um, bigger and it's been acquired several times since my dad originally worked there.

When he started there, it was called Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner, & Smith.

And now today, most people know it as Merrill Lynch.

Do you remember what year your dad got these?

We think he got them in 1972?

He then shared them with me in the early 2000s.

And as far as you know, these were office decoration?

They were office decorations.

We think they might not have been used.

They were all rolled up in tubes when he got them.

In my opinion, these are absolutely Pop Art.

And yes, the artist is Peter Gee.

Okay.

And I think Peter Gee is the most famous Pop artist that no one's ever heard of.

He was British-born and he moved to America in the early 1960s, and he began working with color form and color field theory and all of these sort of bright, loud, abstract, psychedelic colors.

No surprise he worked with Betsey Johnson, the designer, so a lot of times, he used images of her lips, uh, in advertisements.

His high-water mark, as far as fame, was in 1968, when his work was included in a retrospective of graphic design held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

And so, during that exhibition, Peter Gee's work was on the same wall as Andy Warhol... Oh, wow.

...on the same wall as Robert Indiana.

(softly): Wow.

And I think that really worked to sort of catapult him to a, a new l, layer of, of renown and fame.

Yeah.

And it's my belief that because of that exhibition, he began to get commissions from sort of unusual places, like Wall Street.

And these posters are, they're great.

They're Day-Glo colors, which were so in keeping with the time.

Yeah.

And the time is 1969.

They're serigraphs.

So, they were done with thick layers of ink added on top of each other.

So, if you were to touch them, they would be very thick to the touch as you felt the layers of ink that were applied.

I think they're great as art... Yeah.

...but I also think, in a way, they're great as history, because there's a lot of technological history that's wound up in here.

Like, for example, here, the poster for research.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, these are mainframe computers.

These were sort of ginormous machines.

And then in the middle, for market coverage, you have all these brokers at their desks and not one of them has a computer in front of them.

Mm-hmm.

They're all on the phone.

And then by you, it's so abstract, I, I can't even tell you what's pictured there.

It looks like it might be a calculator there on the bottom or something.

Another great thing about these posters is the typeface.

It's called Moore Computer.

Most people just know it as Computer.

It was designed by James H. Moore in 1968, shortly before these posters were designed.

But it shows us these really were on the cutting edge of the new computerized generation.

It's sort of this tumult of information and art and color.

I think they're superb.

Yeah.

And you've kept them in great shape.

To the best of my knowledge, these are the only three that he did for Merrill Lynch.

Okay.

It's unclear how many of these were printed.

Okay.

Peter Gee was based in New York, so most likely, they were printed there.

As they were advertisements for a financial company, they probably printed enough for the offices around the world, but I can't imagine they printed more than 1,000 or 2,000 copies.

It, it's hard to say.

At auction, for each one, I would estimate them between $600 and $900.

Fantastic.

They're beautiful, we love them.

I keep them in my office at work, and every day, there's something different to see.

They're just magical.

I was, uh, attending summer school at the University of Buffalo in June of 1969, and these were in a box of flyers on the wall.

And I picked up two of them and said, "I'm going to this."

And we went.

Five of us got into the car in, uh, August and drove to Woodstock.

Years later, uh, people say, "If you remember it, you weren't there."

But a friend of mine was commenting about how, uh, he said, "I remember seeing Jimi Hendrix."

And, uh, I said, "Well, he played Monday morning, "and we left Sunday at about noon... (chuckles) ...in pouring rain."

So, you never got to see Jimi?

We didn't see Jimi Hendrix, but I saw some pretty good people.

(chuckles) So, were you both at the concert?

No, my parents wouldn't let me go.

I was too young.

Mm-hmm.

Oh, wow!

(both chuckle) Too young.

(chuckles:) That makes me pretty old, I think.

(all laughing) But we didn't know each other at the time.

No.

Right.

It's just as well, or we probably wouldn't be together now.

(all laugh) That's true.

And they're fantastic, because you immediately can tell that it's Woodstock, just from the design of them... Yeah, yeah, yeah.

...which is really striking.

These are the type of things that were just thrown away.

I mean, they were... Yeah.

...completely disposable items.

No one would have had the forethought to have kept these kind of things.

(chuckling) Which is really good for you, because it makes them so collectible these days, because there's very few of them that have survived.

They don't come up very often at auction, so, they're not easy to appraise.

But I would not be surprised, in this really good condition, that they would sell for in the region of around $500 to $800 for the pair.

And they're a fantastic memento.

Well, thank you, and thanks very much.

I appreciate that.

Thanks so much for bringing them in.

Yeah.

We were thinking $50 to $80.

Oh, really?

If we're lucky.

(all laughing) Nice surprise.

Yeah!

I'd say they're rarer than the tickets.

♪ ♪ Uh, I got it off an internet marketplace.

It's an iPhone 4S display.

Uh, I think it was used for, like, holiday displays, so it would have, like, a demo loop playing on it of, like, the apps and some features that it could do.

We use it at home as a video game system.

Yeah.

We connect our old console to it and play all the good classic games on it.

It still works.

The base itself probably weighs about 50 pounds, 60 pounds.

And then this TV probably weighs, like, another tw, 30 pounds?

It's a heavy one, for sure.

♪ ♪ It's a Vega.

I play at it.

I don't, I can't say that I play it.

When I get frustrated, I hammer on it.

(plucking simple tune) MAN: Better than I can do.

It was purchased by my parents back in the very early 1960s.

They purchased it as, um, an art object and a piece of furniture.

Mm-hmm.

They lived in an apartment in New York City, and it hung literally bolted to the wall.

It has no stand for years.

Mm-hmm.

Was there ever any conversation about what they paid for it?

I wish I knew.

This is a credenza, or a, a buffet or a sideboard.

It's meant to hang against a wall.

And it was designed and fabricated by Paul Evans.

Although he made furniture, I think this is, if it's anything, it's a piece of sculpture.

And what's lovely about it also is that all of its color is very vibrant.

So, Paul Evans was schooled in some of the finest craft schools in America, and then finally at Cranbrook, out in Michigan, which is where many of the great, uh, craftspeople, uh, studied in mid-20th century.

So he actually studied.

Yes, he did.

Uh-huh.

Yes, he, and...

But at Cr, he left Cranbrook.

And do you know where he came after Cranbrook?

I would have thought New York City, but...

He came to Sturbridge Village.

You're kidding!

(laughs): No, no.

How appropriate.

(chuckling) I know.

So, here we are back at Sturbridge Village.

So, this is, um, in the early '60s.

You had mentioned that your parents probably bought this in the early '60s, but in fact, we know it's signed under the base.

It says "Paul Evans," and it also says "68."

So, it was probably made in '68.

He fabricated this.

This is, uh, known as a deep relief design.

You can see this red, great red, uh, interior.

Yes.

They came in, in the same sort of colors here.

There were blue interiors, also greens.

The whole thing was fabricated in these workshops.

They were working in New Hope, Pennsylvania.

At the height of Paul Evans', uh, manufactury, he had over 80 people, uh, working for him.

But this is a one-off, unique piece.

He worked into the '80s and sadly, died very young, at, at 55 years old in, uh, 1987.

Oh.

In, in his vacation home in Nantucket.

Any sense of the value of this?

I only recently found out that it was a "Paul Evans."

Mm-hmm.

I assumed it was more valuable than I thought it was.

(chuckles) Right.

So, I have no idea what it would be worth now.

Right.

Well, we would put an auction estimate on this at, in the $25,000 to $35,000 range.

Uh-huh.

So, it is a, a pretty, uh, you know, wonderful, hefty... Uh-huh.

...uh, price.

And I'm guessing your parents didn't pay anywhere near that.

No, don't forget, too, it was the '60s, so... (chuckles) And I have to say, I'm really proud of my parents.

They were just ordinary people who had this kind of taste and appreciated the...

Right, right.

...this art, 'cause they loved it, I know.

It, I mean, it's the definition of the avant-garde, right?

(laughs) My parents as the avant-garde.

It's great to think about that.

(both laughing) It's funky, right?

I mean, you can really see... Mm-hmm.

...all these welding marks on it.

He wanted to show the handwork.

♪ ♪ PEÑA: A Nipmuc artisan created this ash splint basket with orange and blue painted decoration and a central design of a stockade, to represent tribal boundaries.

Nipmuc lands extend throughout parts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.

This example was made sometime between 1820 and 1840, and is one of several of its kind in the village's collection.

GUEST: I brought in, uh, what I believe to be a World War II bomber jacket.

Do you have any idea who might have worn it?

Yes, a gentleman, and I bought his house.

And, uh, this was in it.

Do you know what unit he was in?

Uh, the 390th.

I know that he, uh...

The unit caught some flak, and so I have a bit of the parachute.

I know he was in the, in the, um, hospital for his shoulder, 'cause he had some shrapnel and, and flak.

But that's all I know.

Where, where was he flying over?

He was dropping bombs in Germany.

So, what you have here is a World War II Army Air Corps A-2 flight jacket.

Would have been worn by individual fighter pilots, um, and also, uh, some bomb crews wore the jacket.

It was made by, by Cable Raincoat Company, and the contract date specifies that it was made in 1942.

They also made them out of goat skin and horse hide.

But this one is made out of the horse hide, not the goat.

So, here we have the, uh, 390th Bomb Group patch on the left, uh, front.

And, as we spin it around, we can see the insignia from his plane, "Prowlin' Tom," with a wonderfully painted cat on the back.

It looks like he's coming out of a cloud.

And then all the bombs on the bottom for their bombing missions.

And there are 26 missions, or 26 bombs painted on the bottom of the jacket.

Now, one of the things I do have to comment on is the condition.

Mm-hmm.

You can see the damage up here on the shoulders from it being on a coat hanger for so long.

And it, it can't be on a hanger anymore.

It needs to go in an acid-free box, uh, with some acid-free paper, and kept flat.

The paint on it is fantastic.

The paint is where the value is.

And we talked about this at, at the table for a little bit, and we figured that the auction value for this would be between $6,000 and $9,000.

No!

Yeah.

Wow.

It's a really nice jacket.

Wow, that's wonderful.

Yeah.

GUEST: This was a painting that my grandmother had.

I inherited it in 1992.

I have a lot of siblings, so, we sort of had to divide up the paintings.

And most of my grandma's paintings were sort of c, contemporary artists in the '60s and '70s.

But the subject matter were all very traditional, which, I just liked this painting.

(laughs) I just thought the subject matter was so wonderful, with the lady riding the zebra.

And where did your grandmother live?

She lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan, her whole life.

And do you know where she got this painting?

I don't.

She used to go a lot of different places.

It's by an artist named Orville Bulman.

And he was from Grand Rapids.

Oh, he was?

Michigan-- yeah.

Oh!

So he was from Grand Rapids, and his family was very prosperous.

His father was an inventor and invented some sort of process for rolling and cutting twine and paper.

So in every grocery store in America, they would have this, so that when you bought something, they could wrap it up in twine or in paper.

And he worked for the family company, but his first love was art.

He was primarily self-taught as an artist, although he did take classes at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and also at Ox-Bow, which is in Saugatuck, Michigan.

He moved to Palm Beach, and he would split his time between Grand Rapids and Palm Beach, and he would travel throughout the South, painting primarily African American subjects and people.

And then in 1952, he took a trip to Haiti, and was just sort of fascinated with the culture and the colors and the life there, and so he took several more trips there.

Ah.

So this painting was probably painted in Haiti in the late '50s or early '60s.

This type of filigree roofing is something very typical of homes in Haiti.

And on the back of the canvas, there's a stamp in French... Mm-hmm.

...which indicates to me that he had purchased the canvas in Haiti.

This is very typical of his style.

He would usually do these sort of fantastical scenes.

This is a very classic example of his paintings.

Because of his access, because of his, his wealth, he traveled in a lot of circles.

So the Duchess of Windsor had paintings by him.

Oh!

Gerald Ford.

Oh.

John F. Kennedy.

Merriweather Post, who built the Mar-a-Lago.

Oh.

She owned several of his works.

Really?

So he was quite a celebrity artist in his day.

He's somebody that has always been appreciated, but in recent years, his works have become more desired.

This is an oil on canvas painting.

In looking at it, there is a little bit of flaking here, and there's a little bit of cracking up here in the sky.

So, in the condition that it's in, it might affect the value slightly.

Mm-hmm.

The retail value might be $20,000 to $25,000.

And once conserved, you might be able to ask as much as $35,000.

Oh, wow.

And how much would it cost to have it reconditioned?

I think a conservator could clean the painting and consolidate some of the cracking, and touch up of this area there for less than $2,000.

Oh, okay.

Okay, thank you.

GUEST: We brought a white jade pendant that was given to our grandmother from one of her students in China.

About what time?

1948-1949.

Right at the tail end of the Republic period in China.

Yeah.

Yes.

Just on the cusp of the Communist Revolution, when a lot of missionaries were politely asked to exit the nation.

(laughs): Yes.

It is a white jade plaque.

It has an inscription on the back, which is poetic, but more importantly, it's signed, and the name is Zigang.

And Zigang is a famous name in jade carvers.

This is an 18th-century carving, perhaps early 19th century.

Wow.

Wow.

Yeah, so it was not, by no means a new gift.

It was an antique.

What do you think it's worth?

No idea.

No idea.

Have you never had it appraised?

No.

No.

I think I would put perhaps a conservative auction estimate in 2023... Uh-huh.

...of $10,000 to $15,000 on this pendant.

No!

Wow!

Wow!

Mom just wears it.

(laughing) She just wears it to work or church.

If she keeps it carefully, I think that's a good...

Yes.

...that's a good place to, to keep it safe... Wow.

...and keep it close at hand.

It's lovely.

It was a vase that my mother acquired from a cousin.

We used to go visit her, and when I was a little girl, I really always looked at it and said, "Geez, that's really nice.

I wish I could have it someday."

And sure enough, it got passed to my mother from this cousin.

And then when my mother passed, I acquired it.

Mm-hmm.

And it's been in my home on a mantel for about 20 years.

Did you love the flowers?

I do.

They're so pretty.

I am a florist, so it just resonated with me.

It's, um, Limoges, and we think of Limoges often as Limoges porcelain.

Yup.

Uh, but it's enamel work.

It's made, um, the studio by, uh, Camille Fauré, made in Limoges, France.

It'll be in the 19, 1925, 1930.

Mm-hmm.

I think he started his life off as a house painter.

He, he sort of segued into, uh, signs and enamel signs, and then opened a studio.

This is very sort of naturalistic and free and has this great sort of surface to it.

They're almost raised right off the surface.

Yeah.

The roses, the lilacs.

So I think for, at, at auction, it would estimate it between $2,000 and $3,000.

Wow.

Um, if you were, you know, holding onto it and insuring it, I would think closer to $6,000.

Wow.

It's beautiful.

Yeah.

Thank you-- I appreciate it.

Well, I'm glad you enjoy it.

Ha!

It's going back on the mantel.

(both laugh) I see you have the telescoping lightsaber right there, which, the person has no idea what it is.

Absolutely no idea.

The fact that it's a double telescope, yeah.

WOMAN: That's amazing.

That's a rarity-- that's like the Holy Grail.

Really cool.

I'm excited.

I'm excited, too-- this is a good one.

Yeah, cool.

GUEST: I was four years old in 1977, and I think, on reflection, that was really the perfect age to be when "Star Wars" came out.

I exited grammar school right around the time the third film came out.

And so I got to spend my childhood with these stories and, uh, came to love them.

It was my mom who got the, the cardboard set for Christmas, and then the, the figures came out, and, you know, I played with all of this to the hilt.

Right.

Um, and at some point in the '80s, we were in a mall and there was a guy at a table selling some comic books, and I think it was, like, $40, $42 sticks in my head.

And we kind of moved on because that was a lot of money.

And at the end of the-- I don't know if we were looking for school clothes or, or whatever-- but she said, "You're still thinking about those figures, aren't you?"

And we went back and, and we got it.

And you picked this up.

The "Star Wars" grouping that we have here represents the three movies that they did, the trilogy, the first trilogy, ranging from 1977 to 1983.

The early bird certificate package and the four figure package came out '77, '78.

Mm-hmm.

You had had one previously, which you had opened, and then sent in for an early bird set.

Well, my mom, my mom sent all of that.

I mean, I was four years old.

Right.

So, so yeah.

I, I, but I played with all the toys during that time when I was a kid.

Gotcha.

And then we saw this package.

She purchased it again to kind of...

Replace it.

Yeah.

And, and, and to kind of remember, you know, what, what that was all about.

Got you, so that kind of explains why it's totally unopened and never used.

And when, when it's put together, it's pretty cool-looking, because it's like a, a display stand where you could put each of the figures in their spot.

It's great visually, but I'm glad you didn't open this one up and left it sealed.

Right.

And I noticed that we have some letters over there.

Maybe you can give me a little idea as to what they're about.

In 1984-'85, the, the stories were over, and, and people quickly moved on to other things.

So I guess Kenner, to try and keep the toy line at least selling one more Christmas, came up with the coins, which would come with each figure.

I had all the figures at that time, and I would have had to buy everything over again.

And so I basically was asking if there was a way to get the coin set without having to collect all those things.

I wrote Kenner.

In the letter, I said, "From the first day 'Star Wars' figures came out, "I have collected them.

"I have everything from the Death Star "to the Imperial Shuttle, "and I am looking forward to getting "the new ones this summer.

"Recently, I noticed the new coin gimmick, "and I would like to say it's cheap.

"I have always trusted Kenner, but now how do I get the coins?

"Randomly?

You would have to buy hundreds before you could get them all."

So you wrote the letter in April of 1985, and you were 12 years old at the time.

Yes.

It's a pretty gutsy letter to write as a 12-year-old to a major corporation.

Yup, yup-- my mom helped me type it and everything, so I guess she, she thought it was a good idea.

She approved.

Yeah.

That's great.

And then they responded.

It says, "This is to reply to your letter concerning the 'Star Wars' coins."

And it says, "Please call me person-to-person collect."

And this is from the Consumer Affairs Department at Kenner, so I thought that was pretty cool, also.

Yes, yes, it was... Did you call them?

We talked, and she said that you could get a whole series of coins if you just sent in $25.

The coin set was issued after the last movie, which was done in 1983.

Mm-hmm.

The coin set was issued '84 through '85.

Yes.

This is a silver set.

And some of them are scarcer than others, but as a whole, the set at auction generally would sell somewhere between $1,000 and $2,000 as a set.

Okay.

Your early bird certificate package, which, it's totally intact, it's an extremely scarce piece, especially in that condition.

Auction estimate on that, easily, would be $6,000 to $9,000.

Wow.

Interesting about this is, I'm sure you know all about the early bird promo with the figures...

Right.

But the thing that you may not know is, if you look at Luke, the lightsaber, that's a double-telescoping lightsaber.

There were three figures that had it.

This one happens to have Luke.

That's extremely rare, and most people would never even notice it.

This particular set, in this condition, which has never been removed, still got the original tape across there, packaging is mint, you have the box with all the paperwork with it, that at auction-- again, being conservative-- I'd estimate at $10,000 to $15,000.

Wow.

That's amazing.

So if it was just a regular lightsaber, maybe the estimate would be in the $6,000 to $8,000 range.

So that double-telescoping lightsaber a, adds quite a bit of value to it.

Mm.

As a package, I think a fair insurance value could be anywhere from $25,000 to $30,000, for insurance purposes.

Wow.

PEÑA: In the militaria exhibit, these experimental volley guns made by Henry Harrington of Southbridge, Massachusetts, in the late 1830s are unusual, as Harrington was more well-known as a high-quality knifemaker.

Harrington was called the Cutler to the People, but his inventive gun designs never went into large-scale production.

GUEST: When I was helping my father move, these were on his shelf, and I asked him about them.

He didn't remember much and said that I could have them.

I remember seeing them growing up.

They were always in his study.

They have been in my possession since about 2015, I'd say.

Would you mind reading the letter for us?

I'd be happy to.

The title is "Baskets of Red Cane."

"Made by the remnant of the tribe of Atakapa Indians "living at Indian Village, "near Charenton, Bayou Teche, Louisiana.

"These aborigines of our country are rapidly disappearing, "and before many years, this branch of industry "will be lost to us.

"The baskets found on the rock salt 20 feet "below the surface of the Earth, "with trees 300 or 400 years old growing through them, were of this same workmanship."

And it's signed "Mary E. McIlhenny, Avery's Island, 1884."

Avery Island, 1884, McIlhenny.

That's a significant name in Louisiana history.

Tell me your relationship to this person who wrote the letter.

Mary McIlhenny w, was her married name.

Her maiden name was Avery.

Mm-hmm.

My family line is Avery, also, so she and I are distant cousins.

Mm-hmm.

She married Mr. McIlhenny, who farmed and grew red peppers, and made sauce from it and bottled it.

And the McIlhennys are famous for...?

Tabasco.

The Atakapa, before colonialism, their territory was from the Gulf of Mexico, which is Texas to Southeast Louisiana.

They were coastal people.

They worked with the river cane.

Their numbers were so few by the time that this letter was written, I think they numbered under 100.

The forementioned bayou in the letter is now the reservation land of the Chitimacha.

The remaining Atakapa joined the Chitimacha about 1915.

This area has always been known for its exquisite basketry making.

These were contemporary to that 1884 time period.

I've never seen these, the two other people at our table, the tribal table, had never seen anything in this flat format before.

You not only have these incredible nesting baskets, but you have 26?

Mm-hmm.

Place mats and probably coasters that were commissioned by your ancestor.

They don't look like they've ever been used.

Mm-hmm.

They are absolutely just spectacular in their design.

There were three groups of the Atakapa.

Like, Snake Group was one.

So the designs interwoven in them have meaning within their language, within their group.

So this really speaks of a, the wild time of the coastal Louisiana, when things were lush and growing of this nature.

At auction, the nesting baskets alone would be around $4,000 to $5,000 for them.

Mm.

And I would place the same estimate on the 26 place mats.

Amazing, mm-hmm.

So you're looking at $8,000 to $10,000 worth of baskets.

Amazing.

But the, the history attached to it...

Yes.

...and the names... Mm-hmm.

...and the poignancy of the letter... Mm-hmm.

...are really significant.

GUEST: I bought the watch in the early '80s from a friend of mine, a jeweler in Phoenix.

And I was gonna buy a Rolex GMT, and he said, "Oh, no, no."

He says, "I've got this watch.

"I want you to see it.

It's, it's a unique watch."

He said, "Rolex made this thing for cave explorers."

He said, "It's got a 24-hour hand on it, "and it's got real bright, luminous, uh, face and hands on it."

And I said, "Okay, I'll take it."

And about six months later, it wouldn't glow in the dark anymore.

So I took it back to him and I said, "I can't see the hands at night."

So he got ahold of Rolex, and they sent a brand-new face and all-new hands for the watch which did glow in the dark.

And they did last for three or four or five years, and he gave me the hands, and he gave me the, the watch face for it.

And I've kept all of it.

About, I guess, ten, 15 years ago, I was in a photo store, and this guy said, "Let me see your watch."

And I showed it to him, and he says, "That's one of those Steve McQueen Rolexes."

So, uh, I better take this thing off and put it into storage for a while, 'cause it could be worth a lot of money.

The watch is in great condition, and one reason it holds up so well is, it's made out of stainless steel.

Another thing is, these early ones had an acrylic crystal because it was made for these speleologists.

Yeah, yeah.

I had to look that one up.

All right, well, I couldn't remember what it was.

I was told that, but I couldn't remember.

It had this very definitive 24-hour bezel, and then it has this big hand, so they could see it quickly with the lume.

It normally is a little brighter.

It's faded over the years.

We've talked about this on "Antiques Roadshow" many times, how people take-- especially a Rolex-- in for service, and they upgrade the dial, and now the original dial is gone.

I know, I know-- they take all that stuff.

You never get it back.

You never get it back.

But in the old days... You got it back.

You, you got it back.

We can see the original dial, and it has zero wear because you had this issue rather quickly.

Yup.

We have all the original hands.

Yup.

And because they've been packed away, the color is wonderful and vibrant.

So affectionately known as a Steve McQueen, or Reference 1655.

What I find interesting is, you bought it in the early '80s.

You look at the serial number on this watch, it's from 1972.

Oh, wow.

An Explorer II.

This watch, much like the Daytona, was not a big seller.

You remember what you paid for it?

No-- I thought maybe around $2,000, I think.

Maybe $1,800.

If you had just brought the watch in, without all the other paraphernalia-- great watch-- at auction, I probably would place this watch $8,000 to $12,000.

Okay.

Okay?

But it's all about the dial.

Everything changes.

So with the dial that could be put back on...

Right.

...and the original hands, and with the box and papers, all of a sudden, this watch goes from $8,000 to $12,000 to being $18,000 to $24,000.

I'm going to need a security guard, Kevin.

We can get that for you.

Okay.

(laughs) Yeah.

Makes me want to go ride a motorcycle again, huh?

(laughs) I don't think so.

(chuckles) The great escape from the "Antiques Roadshow."

So this chair was sitting in the house that our grandparents had on a lake in New Hampshire.

Our uncle built a very beautiful mid-century cottage in about 1963.

He was an engineer, and he also had an amazing eye for architecture.

And these chairs were a fixture, and the whole family would spend a lot of the summer up there.

He had these chairs in there, which were just a, a perfect fit for the whole scene.

MAN: Is it comfortable?

It's wonderful.

Super-comfortable.

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh, they're wonderful.

It was made in 1818 in Pittsfield, Mass., by Abner Stevens, a Black man from Connecticut who had been in the 54th Regiment during the Civil War.

Was fought at Fort Wagner, wounded, came home, and in 1872 started a drum corps in Wallingford, Connecticut.

It was called the Wallingford Dred-Nots, and this is the bass drum.

This is a picture of the drum corps, and there's the drum in the front.

GUEST: They were my dad's.

I found them in the cigar box that you see in the back of the closet under a stack of sweaters.

Mm.

The proverbial cigar box.

(chuckling): Yes.

Where kids, uh, for time immemorial put their cards... And their treasures.

...and marbles and jacks, whatever.

This is the 1948 Leaf card set.

Okay.

It's not a very common card set.

How old would your father have been around this time?

What year did you say?

This is 1948.

Uh, he would have been about 12, 13.

He obviously kept his cards nice.

He, uh...

He, yeah, he loved sports, and, and he was a tidy person in that way.

Everything in order, that kind of thing.

Yeah, and it shows, because, uh, you know, here we are, decades and decades out, and these look, uh, as they say, pack-fresh.

Oh, good.

Great, beautiful color.

And, um, you know, that's what we love to see, and that's what collectors love to see.

Yeah.

So the 1948 Leaf set has always been interesting 'cause it has a, a lot of different types of rookie cards.

1948 was kinda one of the first years after the war that, uh, that a card set was produced.

So there were a lot of rookies in that set.

Okay.

Um, and then, it's an interesting set because, uh, we have guys who were in the war coming back, let's say, Ted Williams.

Mm-hmm.

And then you also have, um, all-time greats that they put in the set, as well, like Babe Ruth and, and this gentleman right here.

Now, you've heard of Honus Wagner.

Yes.

We've talked about the Honus Wagner card.

Sure.

This is a Honus Wagner card.

He's John Wagner.

Now, it's not... Not "the"... ..."the" Honus Wagner card... (chuckling): Okay.

...but this is Honus Wagner.

It's a nice card.

Okay.

And a card like that, in that condition, is probably worth about $500.

Wow.

Yeah.

Not bad, right?

(chuckling): No.

I mentioned Ted Williams.

Ted Williams had come back from the war.

Um, he had some cards before the war, but this was kind of one of his earliest cards when he was back.

And this is a very popular issue and a very great image of the Splendid Splinter here.

Hm.

And you have four of them, right?

Mm-hmm.

And, uh, these are great and very collectible.

And in this type of condition, they could go anywhere from $1,500 to $2,000 each.

Each?

Each.

Okay.

That's not bad.

No.

Right?

Then we have Joe DiMaggio.

Hm.

He was also away during the war.

He came back, and, uh, had a couple of years left in the league.

And we have four of those, as well.

And these generally sell in between $2,500 and $3,000 each.

(chuckling): Oh, wow.

So you see where we're going with this.

(chuckling): Yes.

Uh, and what's nice and interesting here, you can see there's a color variation in there.

And this is something you see in this set, is that sometimes they change the color as they were printing them.

So it's not a mistake, it was just a choice.

Just-- or, or maybe they just ran out of a certain color...

Okay.

...and they just kept printing.

Now... (exhales): Rookie cards.

Stan Musial, great Hall of Famer.

Mm-hmm.

You have four of his rookie cards right there.

Those sell somewhere in the $3,000 range each.

(quietly): Geez.

Each.

(chuckling): Okay.

All right?

And now we go to the all-time great, Babe Ruth.

Okay.

You have six of them, they look great.

Those sell around $3,000 each.

(quietly): Oh, okay.

But here we go.

All right.

The most important card in the set.

Mm-hmm.

The rookie card of one of the most important people of the 20th century, Jackie Robinson.

This is his, considered his rookie card.

Oh, wow.

You have three of them.

Yeah.

Which is great, because these sell for between $15,000 and $20,000 each.

(chuckling): Oh, my God.

All right?

Okay.

And you got three of those.

Yeah.

Now, you also have a stack... Yeah.

...of other cards here.

Yeah.

And there are rookie cards in there.

Not along the same lines as these guys...

Right.

...but really good cards.

You do the math, you got something very significant here.

(chuckling): Yeah?

I would put an insurance estimate on just these 1948 Leaf cards, the whole collection here, of $150,000.

(chuckling): Oh, my God.

Okay, well, I guess a safety deposit box instead of a bureau.

Just for all the viewers out there who are, like...

These are not tacks.

(chuckles) These are magnets.

Oh, yeah.

(laughing): They don't touch the cards.

They, they just hold them up.

PEÑA: And now it's time for the "Roadshow" Feedback Booth.

We came to "Roadshow" to show our treasures.

We've got a cat and a dog.

Um, the cat's face was exciting and hopeful, kind of like what we were, hoping our stuff was worth a lot.

And my face ended up like this cat again... (laughs) ...because I got to meet Nick Lowry.

Yes, she did.

So, woo-hoo!

Love you, Nick.

This is a painting my father dumpster-dove for off an estate sale in Vermont in the '90s.

And, uh, apparently it's worth $400, so, uh, not too bad.

(chuckles) And I got some family heirlooms.

My grandmother traveled the world.

She had good taste, but they're not really worth anything.

But we're just happy to be here today.

Yeah, we had a good time.

Today I brought a 1910 picture book that was illustrated by the woman who created the Campbell's Soup kids.

Um, I paid five dollars for it, and I found out it might be worth up to $150.

So I would say I had a "soup-er" day at "Antiques Roadshow."

We brought in this William Parsons Winchester Dana painting that's been in our family since the late 1800s.

And we found out that people don't really want oil paintings from the 1800s anymore... (laughs) ...but it's worth $7,500, so we're very excited.

(both laugh) And I brought this print produced for the Industrial Workers of the World in 1912, and we found out that it's worth $1,200 to $1,800.

It's been a good day for us.

(laughs) Yeah!

BOTH (in Boston accent): We came to "Antiques Roadshow" with Marty.

We brought jewelry and felt rather hearty.

But the appraiser said, "Meh."

Disappointed, we were.

Still, "Antiques Roadshow" throws one heck of a party.

PEÑA: Thanks for watching.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."

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