Bonanzaville, Hour 1

♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: "Antiques Roadshow" is gathering a bumper crop of treasures at Bonanzaville in West Fargo, North Dakota.

It was the first antique I ever bought.

(people laughing) You okay?

♪ ♪ PEÑA: This is Bonanzaville, U.S.A., a town created to take visitors back in time to discover the area's early settler history.

Bonanzaville was named for the so-called bonanza farms that sprang up around this part of the Midwest in the late 1800s.

And it was wheat that brought great wealth to those who owned those farms.

Excitement is growing today as "Roadshow" fans share stories about their treasures.

Take a look.

Roadshow!

MAN: Roadshow!

♪ ♪ ...over there and they will take you to... ♪ ♪ MAN: I brought a clock that my grandma gave me when we bought our first house, which was a mid-century house, so she thought a mid-century clock would go well with that, so...

They're a lot noisier than what we're used to at this point in our life, so...

I use it as a dog bed, not a doll... A dog!

I use it for my dog.

You must have a small dog.

(laughing): Yes.

Oh, wow.

I love it.

Thank you for bringing it in.

Thank you.

MAN: I bought it at an estate sale in Minneapolis, approximately 40 years ago.

I brought it home, and we ran it for about...

I'd say one summer, and then took it down.

You were afraid it was going to get damaged?

Yeah, it... it looked sort of fragile, so we, uh, we just put it away, and it sat for 40 years in the garage.

This started out with somebody making something for pure entertainment, just to put it out in the yard and let the wind hit it.

And the reason things like this are somewhat rare is because they fall apart if you leave them out in the weather too long.

It's a nice, articulated, very compact form.

But the thing I like the most is this figure.

His coat is nicely sculpted.

You can see his face.

You know, he looks a little bit like Abraham Lincoln, but as far as I know, Abraham Lincoln never wore a, a derby hat.

(laughs) Well, no conversation about a whirligig is complete without some action.

From here, you need to show us how this works.

Well, if the wind's blowing, and it will get going, it'll...

I love that.

He'll start cranking.

What'd you pay for it when you got it?

Not very much.

At the absolute most, it would have been five dollars.

I wouldn't have paid more than five dollars.

Well... Back then.

It's got all the things that you look for in something like this, and some people might think, "Well, the figure is very well done.

The rest of this is very simplistic."

But I actually think the juxtaposition of those two things makes it more interesting.

And the other thing is, when you start taking things like this and putting them in your house, you have to think about how much room they take up.

And this is a very compact form.

The age you said was about 100 years old?

Yeah...

I would say first quarter, um, of the 20th century-- about 1900, 1925.

Those nails that are in there, they probably wouldn't have existed before 1890 or 1900.

Just in fabulous condition.

And I wish that we could say for sure who made it.

My guess is it was made wherever that estate was.

Was that estate in Minneapolis?

Yes, it was.

It takes a village to build a consensus sometimes on where you think values would be on something like this.

But the fact that it is so simple, and the fact that the figure is done so well, we feel like, in a really good retail setting, that this would be $2,000 to $3,000.

(chuckling): I find...

I find that hard to believe, but... that's great.

Earlier today in the parking lot, we really had him going with the breeze.

Well, he's still working.

Yup, works good, yup.

♪ ♪ You want to know that I don't know what this is, don't you?

I am not sure what I brought in today.

It's a what's-it that nobody that has seen it has been able to tell me exactly what it is for.

APPRAISER: So this book actually is the first "Horton" book.

"Horton Hears a Who," which is the more famous title, is 1954.

This one's 1940.

And usually, the earlier title is the more collectible one, but because that one is more famous and more beloved, that would be worth a lot more.

That one sells routinely from $300 on the low end to $700 to $800 on the high end.

This is not a 1937 Dodgers ball.

BOTH: Okay.

All right?

It's much better than that.

This is a 1930s Yankee ball.

Yeah, okay!

Great!

(cheers): Thank you!

(laughs) (talking in background) I brought a cup that I had purchased about 50 years ago in an antique shop in Georgetown, District of Columbia.

It was a present for my soon-to-be husband.

I paid about $50.

And I was told it was Vietnamese.

It was the first antique I ever bought, but I knew my husband-to-be was interested in antiques, so...

It just appealed to me-- the artistic design, the dragon handle.

I just liked it.

Well, what you've brought today is a really interesting and unusual example of a Chinese export silver cup by Leeching in Guangdong, in Hong Kong.

So this qualifies as Qing Dynasty.

The form is very interesting in that it's very atypical of a form the Chinese would have been making for export to England or America.

And perhaps the form could have indicated that this was made for export to either the Turkish market or the Russian market.

So this is just a very odd vase-y form, then with the attached dragon handle.

And you mentioned the scene drew you to it.

And what we have here is a very interesting interior and exterior scene, the interior showing preparations for a feast, and the exterior showing guests on their way to the feast.

The manner of decoration is what we call repoussé decoration.

And you can see, if I tilt this and you look inside, that the decoration was done by punching the metal out.

And not only is it decorated in the full round, the silversmith marked his work, putting hallmarks on the bottom.

And the "LC" is for Leeching.

Examples come up from time to time on the secondary auction market, and can sometimes also be found in retail silver shops.

If this were in a retail silver shop today, I would expect them to have a price of $2,500 on it.

Oh, my goodness.

Oh!

(laughing): I'm so surprised.

My goodness.

Wonderful.

Well, I'm very pleased.

My husband was worth it and I'll keep it.

(laughs) Keep him.

And him.

(laughs) Very good.

♪ ♪ PEÑA: Bonanzaville, set on 12 acres of land, has over three dozen buildings open to the public.

All were relocated from towns across Cass County, North Dakota.

Among the first to arrive at Bonanzaville in the late 1960s was this cabin, built by farmers Helmer and Emma Habberstad out of oak logs in 1874.

♪ ♪ WOMAN: Charles White became part of my household once I came into possession of this work through my sister-in-law Maria.

She gave these to me about a year ago.

She thought maybe I should just frame these and, and share them with my family members.

And I said, "No, "I think we should see, you know, get more information about Charles White."

Well, you brought in two wonderful sets of prints by Charles White.

Charles White is really a fantastic American artist, an African-American artist.

And, and these are very good examples of his work.

Charles White is a pre-eminent modern American artist, and he was born in 1918 in Chicago.

He studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as a teenager.

Uh-huh.

And he rose to prominence, was a part of the WPA program.

He did mural paintings.

And then he became really known as a graphic artist.

His work is in many museum collections.

And he was celebrated during his lifetime, but just recently, he's risen to much greater prominence, well deserved.

Presently, there's a retrospective of his work that's traveling.

It was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and in Chicago, at the Art Institute of Chicago.

And it's now in Los Angeles.

He was a political artist, and he wanted to say more about the African-American experience, the struggles that they were going through, especially in the 1960s, when these were done.

These are reproduction prints.

They're offset lithographs of his drawings.

And they were printed in the early 1960s with his gallery, Heritage Gallery, and A.C.A.

Gallery in New York.

And he really wanted to make his work more available.

So these portfolios were printed to promote his, his work.

They reproduced his drawings.

And you have two sets here.

We have a set of six and a set of ten.

Each image is a drawing he did from the time, from, like, the late 1950s and early '60s.

This is what his work was all about.

So we actually don't know how many of these are printed in each edition.

The numbers were quite large.

I imagine hundreds were printed.

The original drawings would be very large.

They were, like, four feet high, five feet wide.

Oh!

Artist reproductions usually don't rise to the value that they would be something you would see at an auction house or a gallery, but these were critical to Charles White's work.

He wanted them to be represented.

He wanted more people to obtain them.

And because of his significance, because of his importance now, these are highly collectible.

And they are also pristine examples and the complete sets.

And that's really the difference.

They haven't been framed.

They're almost as if you obtained them the day they were issued in the '60s.

At auction today, the set of six I would estimate at $1,000 to $1,500, and the set of ten would reach $2,000 to $3,000 at auction.

Awesome, awesome.

Yeah.

That's good to know.

I brought the hockey sticks from the first...

I have to read upside down.

(laughs) From the first hockey game in 1910 here in North Dakota.

♪ ♪ The color is so vibrant.

It's beautiful.

It's, it's kind of a miracle that silk lasts.

It's almost 170 years now.

So what an amazing kind of family piece to have.

Yes.

It was probably between $150 and $200.

♪ ♪ (people talking in background) WOMAN: Well, this portrait I inherited from my great-uncle, and as a young man, he moved from South Dakota to California, and became a restorative dentist in Beverly Hills.

And he worked on a lot of movie stars and famous people.

And Nicolai Fechin, the artist, happened to be not only one of his patients, but a friend of his.

And he did this portrait of my uncle's son, and it was his only son.

And when he was in college, this... his son got killed in a car accident.

So this was also a gift of love, and very special to myself and our family.

Well, it's a spectacular portrait, as we would expect of Nicolai Fechin.

It's charcoal on paper, as he did many of his portraits.

It's initialed lower right, "N.F."

He is an artist that led a really international life, and that's had a big impact on his value in the market today.

He started his life in Russia.

He ended up having to flee, due to the Bolshevik Revolution.

Through the good graces of a few American collectors who knew his work, he came to New York.

He was there for a few short years, and then tuberculosis drove him to New Mexico, as the climate was thought to be best for his health.

Taos is where he really became quite famous in America.

And the Taos works are, in many ways, his most well regarded.

Then unfortunately, through divorce, he ended up leaving Taos and moving to Santa Monica, and I'm sure during that time, around 1936, is probably when he met your great-uncle.

He could do these portraits at this quality consistently, but the intersection of these different markets-- the Russian market, the Taos market, and then later, he traveled further abroad to Java and Japan, as well-- all of this broad interest is why they're still so collectible, regardless of what period they're from.

Right now, in 2019, I would place the value at auction at $15,000 to $25,000.

Thank you.

I think my great-uncle would be very proud.

It's such a moving story.

We were all trying not to cry when you told us.

(chuckles) ♪ ♪ MAN: This is a soldier's memorial that my great-great-grandfather received after the Civil War.

And I also brought in a blanket that he carried during the war.

And these items were passed down to my grandmother.

And because I was such a Civil War buff as a young child, she passed these on to me.

In collecting, we run across things that are fairly common, and then we run across things that are special.

You've brought in one of each.

These, even though it's very beautiful, are fairly common, because the soldiers were proud of where they served.

They would buy these that had their men that served in the regiment with them.

And they had a good history.

They fought at Second Bull Run.

They fought at Antietam.

They fought at the Battle of Winchester.

Good unit.

It's nice, it's pretty.

But the common-looking thing is the rare thing.

This is one of the most elusive of all pieces that you can get that went with a Civil War soldier.

And it's a simple blanket.

But it's a very important thing during the Civil War, because they ran out of them.

And when you hear the word "shoddy," you think of poor craftsmanship, very hurriedly made.

This is what's referred to by collectors as a shoddy blanket.

Do you know what the lines are for?

I do not know, no.

To know where to cut them.

They would run about 100 of them, and then cut along the center.

So you actually have two blankets.

And you notice the hole where his head would go through.

Mm-hmm.

He wore it as a poncho.

(chuckling) (chuckling): So...

I never would have guessed that.

I would not have guessed that.

To a collector, even though it's missing some sections, it's got the hole, it's got a lot of wear... Mm-hmm.

It's beautiful because you don't see them.

Have you ever had the pieces appraised?

No, I haven't.

Well, today, the soldier memorials-- we do see a lot-- these will sell in the $300 to $400 range.

The blanket is a little different.

This one is full of character, and it would probably retail today for about $2,000.

Wow.

(laughing): Wow, that's really amazing.

I would never have guessed that.

You know, you're, you're exactly right.

I kind of thought this would be the piece that maybe was, was more attractive.

Um, that's incredible.

Thank you, Grandpa.

Yes, absolutely.

(laughs) What a great gift.

♪ ♪ So it's Japanese.

Okay.

And it's silk, of course.

And these are, like, festival toys.

It's really sweet.

It reminds me of a modern-day computer game.

(laughs) It does look like it, yes?

Yeah.

Early 20th century, maybe about $30 to $50.

This is American.

Okay.

It's 14-karat white gold.

Probably early 20th century, but it's about...

I'd say just under a carat, and then you got about a quarter of a carat in stones going around the outside, as well.

♪ ♪ PEÑA: Old Abe the eagle was the iconic logo of the Case Company, Midwestern makers of threshers and other farming equipment for over a century.

This Old Abe was inspired by a real bird who was the mascot of the 8th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Civil War.

That old bird, a symbol of patriotic zeal and fortitude, was named after President Abraham Lincoln.

♪ ♪ MAN: I brought a collection of boxing cards that I found in a rental unit about 20 years ago.

The renters had left, and other renters came in, and maybe two or three down the road, they found them back in the back of the closet.

They were basically abandoned.

Yeah.

Then to your possession.

Yeah, right.

Well, what we have here are four beautiful examples of early 1900s real-photo postcards.

These were actually printed with the intention of being mailed.

The nice thing we have here today is that, from the backs of these, none of these were mailed.

Right.

So what we have here today are the three different boxers in four postcards.

On the top two, both are of Jack Johnson, first African-American world champion in 1908.

And then Peter Jackson, the closest to you on the bottom.

Okay.

He was the Australian champion.

Then we come down to the lowest one next to me, and that's Jim Jeffries.

Okay.

Jim Jeffries was also an American world championship boxer.

In 1910, Jim Jeffries comes out of retirement.

Okay.

Far past his peak.

Comes out of retirement to fight Jack Johnson strictly for the purpose of showing that the white man's a better boxer.

And in 15 rounds, he was defeated by Jack Johnson.

On the one closest to you, Peter Jackson, Australian world championship.

In 1891, he went up against James Corbett.

I don't know if you heard about that fight.

That fight was stopped in the 61st round when the referee decided there just will not be a winner in this fight.

The 61st round.

61st... And I saw some reports that said the 64th round.

Yeah.

In fact, there was a little label with yours that said, "64th round."

Right.

My research says the 61st round.

Okay.

But, still, that's remarkable.

Yeah.

These are all between approximately 1908 to 1912 or so.

Some really great examples of early boxing history right here.

Have you ever had these appraised or... Have you offered them to anybody before?

I had a whole, a collection of them.

They offered me $150 for all of them.

For all of them that... All of them.

Yeah, that I have.

Well, it's a good thing you didn't take that offer.

That was a good move.

So we'll start with the Jack Johnson closest to me.

I have not seen that real-photo postcard of Jack Johnson before.

That one I would expect to sell at auction for $1,000 to $1,500, for that one alone.

Okay.

The other Jack Johnson image, of him getting ready for the punch, I've seen that one trade hands before at auction.

About $500 for that one.

The Peter Jackson, I've also seen that postcard come up before.

That one, again, would sell at auction for $500 or so.

The Jim Jeffries on the bottom, I've not seen that one before.

That's likely a one-of-a-kind or never-before-seen image.

This is, somebody took that, obviously, where he's either in training, beginning of training, or even just simulating training.

Yeah.

That one I would say, at auction, $300 to $500.

Okay.

♪ ♪ APPRAISER: They're real scrimshaw, they're real teeth, but they're done later.

So they're, they're done kind of in the spirit of tourist art.

Someone would buy these and, you know, bring them home as a souvenir.

They're beautifully done, but they're not period scrimshaw.

Okay.

The teeth may be older, almost assuredly, than the actual artwork.

Right.

The floral beadwork on this is, is fantastic.

A lot of beads.

Yes.

Lots of beads.

The flower on the back, that's, that's fantastic.

Yes, I love that.

Those are glass seed beads, and it dates to about 1925.

APPRAISER: Every once in a while, something just comes up to the table at Roadshow and I just start to giggle, because I see some really exciting things.

What did you bring in today?

This is a pencil vending machine that will actually print your name on the pencil.

Mm-hmm.

It's from about 1925.

I actually collect pencils.

I collect advertising pencils.

And so I found some from a fellow collector that said Vendex.

And I'm, like, "There's got to be a machine that goes along with this."

So I spent two or three years just looking for the machine, and finally found one.

And how long ago did you buy this?

It was about three years ago.

I paid $325 for it.

Now, pencil collecting is a very specific art.

How did you get into that?

When I was younger, I would tag along with my grandpa to flea markets.

And any time Grandpa would be buying something, it was something cheap for me to pick up at the same time.

And how many do you have now?

I have about 60,000.

And the other collectors, where do you in the hierarchy of collecting pencils?

I'd say I'm about in the middle.

There's, there's a few that have more than me, but mine, mine's getting up there.

And how many more have the Vendex pencil-embossing machine?

I've only seen one other.

Mm-hmm.

Well, so, doing research on this, I mean, I was looking at the patent.

I've seen two show up before.

Okay.

One has been in restored shape.

I have never seen one in original condition.

And the best that I can tell, this is all original.

Yes.

It has a few little replacement bits, but overall, it looks original.

The paint looks correct.

The glass in the front is perfect.

It looks fantastic.

Finding records on it was a tough one.

Okay.

Trying to find auction records and sales records.

And the most recent one was a restored version.

And as we all know, restored sells for less than original.

Right.

In this condition, unrestored, and unfortunately, inoperable at the moment...

Right.

We'd be looking at around a $500 to $800 auction estimate.

Wow, that's awesome.

If it worked, I guess about $1,000, $1,200, top end.

But it's a just fun, exciting, weird little piece.

So this is a charming-looking scene.

What do you, what do you think's going on here?

I think this boy might be in a little bit of trouble.

Got his ball in the flower bed there.

And Mom doesn't look too happy.

Yeah, she looks none too pleased, the wagging finger right there.

I'm sure many of us can relate to this scene from our childhood.

Uh-huh.

And tell me a little bit about the painting.

How, how did you come by it?

I bought it at a rummage sale a few years ago.

A rummage sale.

Yes.

Okay.

Less than ten bucks.

Less than ten dollars, okay.

And do you know who the artist is?

Um, Andrew Loomis.

Andrew Loomis, yes.

It's signed down in the bottom right here quite clearly.

Yep, right.

And he was best known for being an illustrator, but he was, actually, he was also very well known as a, as an educator.

Huh.

He wrote a series of books, how-to books.

The first one is "Fun with your Pencil," I believe it was called.

And that was published in 1939.

So these books were really, really popular and influenced a whole generation of illustrators and art students about drawing, and how to do figure drawing, that kind of thing, so...

But what we're dealing with here is the illustration art side of his career.

And he was from New York state originally, born there at the tail end of the 19th century, 1892.

But mainly connected with Chicago.

Spent quite a lot of time there, set up his own design studio, his own, his own business there.

He'd previously worked in advertising for companies who worked with Coca-Cola, Lucky Strikes, um... Kellogg's-- all those sort of things.

But this one was probably done for a magazine.

We don't know which one yet.

We will probably need a little bit more research on that.

Looking at the, the costume and just the overall feel of it, it may have been painted in the 1930s or so.

This is oil on canvas.

And it tells a very nice story here.

It's an interesting market for illustration art just now.

For many years, the American art market was really very much focused on 19th-century paintings-- you know, the Hudson River School, American Impressionism, that kind of thing.

And while there's still a lot of interest in those fields, they've kind of been taken over by Western art, modernism, and very much illustration art.

And the big sales of American art that you would get, quite often, illustration art back in the day was relegated to the end of the catalogue.

Now it's likely to be on the front cover, so there's a lot more interest than there used to be, led by the great titans of illustration art-- artists like Norman Rockwell and N.C. Wyeth.

Now, Mr. Loomis isn't quite of that caliber, but he's still very well regarded.

You know, you could think of him as sort of second or third tier, perhaps, of illustration artists.

Have you ever given any thought as to the value of the work that you bought?

Well, I know it was worth ten bucks.

(laughs) I think it's worth a little bit more than ten bucks now.

Great.

I think at auction, you should be looking at, comfortably, $4,000 to $6,000.

Nice!

Not bad, right?

Very nice.

Not a bad return.

That's awesome, thank you.

Good.

Well, I hope you're pleased with that.

Yes, very much.

I hope you continue to go to rummage sales.

Oh, definitely.

I had it hung the opposite way.

You had it hung this way?

Yeah, that's how the piece in the back is set up to hang it.

You had it this way.

But then all of the decoration's at the bottom.

Yeah.

And then if you sort of turn it, the numbers on the back are upside down.

So I reckon it's been later hung up like this.

And it should... You know, it sort of looks really like, like it's all been sucked to the bottom.

If you turn it up here, I think it, I think this is the sort of crest of the mirror, if you like.

And then these églomisé panels really pop.

APPRAISER: One of the things that we always ask people when we're doing posters, when I used to work at one of the auction companies, someone would call and say, "I've got a 'King Kong' poster."

Uh-huh.

And I would say, "Oh, great, can you read at the bottom?

Does it say Portal Publications?"

Okay.

Because that's a commercial company that used to re-release the posters and sell them at the souvenir shops.

Oh, okay.

So it's, it's the real artwork from the film, but it was put out later, after the fact, and it's not one of the official studio posters.

Okay.

Anywhere between $25, $40, depending upon the condition.

Yours is in great condition.

Uh-huh.

But if it were the original, it would obviously be quite a bit more than that.

It would be.

MAN: Well, I brought my wife's and our collection of "Star Wars" figures from the late '70s and early '80s.

Her and her mother started going, when the movie came out, they went seven times straight in a row, and so my wife said, "Mom, I want to collect them."

And so her mom started buying as they released them.

So...

So you're a family of dedicated "Star Wars" fans.

(laughing): Oh, yes, oh, yes.

(laughing) Well, "Star Wars" came out May 25, 1977.

But what's funny is, the toys weren't released until 1978.

And that's because Kenner actually produced the toys for the "Star Wars" franchise.

But there was such a mass hype for the production of the toys, they weren't able to meet the need for the 1977 Christmas season.

So what they had released was something called an Early Bird kit, where you would go to the store, and you would buy an envelope, you would mail it in, and then they would send you a four-pack of figures.

But in 1978, you have the official release of the "Star Wars" toy line.

Now, the one figure in particular that's important is the Jawa, because when the Jawa was first released, there was a release with a vinyl cape, which is what you have here.

And then Kenner switched him to a cloth cape, which is the much more common of the two figures in the variation.

Have you ever thought what these toys would be worth?

No, not really, but we figured this would always be our retirement.

So when it comes to toys in general-- condition, condition, condition.

And now, typically, when it comes to "Star Wars" collecting-- just to give you an example-- if you were to have this Jawa right here, this cloth one individually is only worth about $25.

It's in really good condition.

If it was on the card, factory-sealed, it would be $500 to $800, minimum.

Correct.

But the vinyl-caped Jawa is an exception to the rule, because it's just so exceedingly rare that you just don't find them in circulation.

And, actually, in, within the past ten years, they've actually been knocking them off.

You can buy a fake vinyl cape to put on your Jawa.

But yours is 100% real.

It is so clean.

His cape has no scuffs.

There's no stickiness to his plastic.

There's the tiniest, tiniest little white mark on the back of the cape.

That little mark is going to make a difference.

But conservatively, at auction, for the vinyl-caped Jawa alone, you're easily looking at between $2,000 and $3,000 for the single Jawa.

Oh, wow.

(laughs) (laughing): Oh, wow.

Yeah, for that little Jawa.

Now, look at the difference in the cape!

Because if you just have a cloth cape, you're only $25.

Right.

Jawa, $2,000 to $3,000 in the vinyl.

Now, the remainder of the collection, excluding the vinyl-caped Jawa, you're in the $400 to $600 range, conservatively.

Oh, wow-- wow.

Pretty cool day, right?

Yeah, yup, yup.

Well, I'm glad my wife took care of them, and kept them put away.

That's all I can say.

♪ ♪ I got this many years ago from my husband, in, probably in 1969.

Circus posters themselves, especially from this era-- the 1950s, 1960s-- were printed in huge numbers and are not really that rare.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, it's great that you got to meet him.

But his signature really only adds about $50 to $100 to the piece.

I see.

So all told, I think we're looking about $300 to $400.

Okay.

Because it's interesting-- I mean, everybody wants a squirrel.

Yeah.

(chuckles) You know.

Because it's interesting, it might bring $50 or $70.

Oh!

Um... More than I expected, actually.

Come on, it's a squirrel.

(laughing) ♪ ♪ WOMAN: This is a piece that I purchased at a flea market in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, in about 1969 or 1970.

And we bought it so that we would have a change table for our firstborn baby.

I have pictures of my daughter at six months sitting in a bathtub on top of this buffet.

Do you remember how much you paid for it?

This antique dealer down there had several buffets of different types, and he wanted to clean out his antique store because they were taking up so much room, so he said that we could have any one we wanted for $25.

Wow!

And do you know who made it?

I believe it's a Stickley, because I found the labels, actually, like, this week, as I'm getting it ready to bring it here.

So the piece is by Stickley, and the firm, while not owned by the family, is still in business today.

But this piece was made by Craftsman, which was a Stickley company, which was started at around 1900.

What we also know is that it was retailed through their New York showrooms, and then that's really helpful, because then we have a better sense of when it was made, and we are able to say it was between about 1905 and 1910.

So the paper label on the back has all of that information for us, which is really, really helpful.

The Stickley Brothers firm was established in upstate New York just outside of Syracuse.

So they're very firmly an upstate New York company.

The Arts and Crafts movement, which came over from England, sort of was really established in upstate New York by Stickley.

Some people refer to this as Mission-style furniture.

Mm-hmm.

And Stickley really didn't like the use of that term.

He really preferred Arts and Crafts.

It's a much more simplistic term.

He had these very simplistic visions in life and in community, and this is a really wonderful example of one of his pieces.

It's made of oak, with these wonderful quarter-sawn oak panels here and this absolutely fabulous hammered-copper hardware-- these wonderful big hinges.

You've got the big ring handle, cabinet door handles, and then also the drawer pulls.

Also, this piece back here, do you know what this is for?

Yeah, for plates.

I always have put plates in there.

Yup, that's exactly right, that's for plates.

And then what's really nice... We have the Stickley mark in there.

Mm-hmm.

Which is a joiner's compass.

And it says, "Als Ik Kan," which, loosely translated, means "To the best of my ability."

I would call it a sideboard.

I think you had called it a buffet.

Mm-hmm.

They're very interchangeable terms.

What's really lovely about this piece is that the finish is almost completely original.

Do you see there's a color variation along this front edge?

It's a little lighter, this warm honey color here?

Yeah.

Well, that's simply because when people were cleaning and dusting it, they really just focused on dusting the front edge, so then you have this transition back to the back, where it maybe wasn't dusted as much.

That's a really good way to look at the finish and have a sense of whether it's original or not.

Really?

I can tell you $25 was a very good investment.

(laughs) If I were to see this come up for auction today, I would expect to see an auction estimate of between around about $3,000 and $5,000.

Okay.

Well, that's exciting.

That's fun.

Now we, now we know.

♪ ♪ I mean, the paint is still great.

It's the original paint.

But I love the fact that he's got shot holes.

But he's still...

He's still gorgeous.

I think this is a pretty good decoy.

My mom bought it at an antique store about 25 years ago.

Okay.

In California.

In California.

Yeah.

She had it propped against a wall instead of vertical hanging up.

Right.

So it just slowly warped over, like, ten, 15 years that she had it displayed.

Well, it's a beautiful piece, and restoration is possible.

But you need to look at the dollars versus what it would be worth after.

Mm-hmm.

And it might be a wash.

In its current condition, probably $400, $500.

Okay.

You might have to put $1,000 into it to fix it.

Yeah.

And you might have a piece worth $1,000.

Right.

Maybe a little more, it's hard to say.

It depends on how well they do the job.

Okay.

PEÑA: Bjerklie Drugstore was once in Gilby, North Dakota.

The store was recreated here and includes the original soda fountain, which operated in the early 1900s until the 1940s.

Back then, you may have come in for the nerve syrup, but stayed for the ice cream soda.

♪ ♪ WOMAN: It is something that my mother-in-law had in her house for close to 70 years.

She and my father-in-law were in Chicago in the late '40s.

He was a commercial artist.

The story that she told was that he shared a building space with Haddon Sundblom, and that when they were clearing things out, that they did not want this anymore.

And I don't know if he asked for it, he was given it-- really, details are a little sketchy.

But he ended up with this.

And who was Mr. Sundblom?

He was the Coca-Cola Santa Claus artist.

Mm-hmm, yes.

This is just an amazing piece of original Coca-Cola advertising art.

There are not a lot of them left out there.

And a lot of them did wind up in the trash, because they were not considered valuable.

The Coca-Cola collectors, they are rabid.

This is a real rarity for them.

Coca-Cola art is highly collectible, especially the earlier art, because it shows an America that doesn't exist anymore.

Mm-hmm.

I actually was able to find this image.

It was used in a 1942 ad, and it is just such an amazing piece of our history.

Given all of the parameters of this piece and given how beautiful it just is, even with all of the issues, I would have no troubles valuing this at $4,000 to $6,000.

Cool, very cool.

You should get it framed.

Okay.

Because it will protect the paint from cracking any further.

And hang it on a wall.

This is history.

Yes.

Thank you.

♪ ♪ WOMAN: This has been passed down to me through my family.

It is a pool table game board that belonged to my great-grandfather.

He had it in his pool hall in Ringsted, Iowa.

APPRAISER: So when do you think that it was actually first in business in the pool hall?

I haven't been able to find out, but I think through the 1930s and '40s.

How long have you had it?

I've had it two years.

It's really a kind of a neat thing, you know?

And a lot of people wouldn't even know what this is.

I had a bit of an ill-spent youth and spent some time in the pool halls, and I remember games like this.

This whole board would lay on a pool table.

Yes.

And this part would be nudged up under the cushion.

And because there was a slope here, you would, you would shoot a pool ball up there, and the pool balls would lodge right in these things and stay there.

Well, it would stay there because the table is flat.

And you can play three different games.

You can play a poker game.

So you'd shoot five balls, and whoever got the highest hand won.

And then you could play a keno game, where you, whoever got the highest number won the game.

Or you could play the baseball game, which is this beautiful green here.

As we see, it's a Schafer combination recreation board, made in Peoria, Illinois.

That's really kind of interesting.

Peoria is not too far from Chicago, and in the roaring '20s, Chicago was a major manufacturing place for gambling machines, slot machines, all manner of table games.

And it would make sense that a company like this would be there, because this is a gambling sort of device, and also a gaming implement.

I think this dates from the 1920s.

What's really appealing about this is, it's so colorful, and it's really in wonderful condition.

What I really like is the fact that you got this beautiful graphic of the baseball game.

Oh, it's pretty sturdily manufactured, so, I mean, it had to stand up to a lot of abuse with all these pool balls scattering around.

It's good thick plywood, and nicely finished, and then decorated with these wonderful decals.

Yes.

Do you have any idea exactly what it cost?

It cost $22 when it's new.

It's in pencil on the back.

$22.

It's worth a little more now.

It's very hard to evaluate some things, especially when it's a really rare thing.

This is only the third one I know of that have been sold at auction.

If I were to put a reasonable auction estimate on this, I think I would probably... try to be conservative, try to be realistic.

I think it should have an auction estimate of around $1,200 to $1,500.

Mm-hmm.

Oh, very good.

And, you know, I'm just really excited to see it.

It brings back my youth in the pool halls.

♪ ♪ Okay, so, this trunk we got from my grandma.

Apparently, her cousin had it, and they had it outside on the porch, and they had it full of feed for the cattle.

And then her cousin brought it in, and she scrubbed it up really good, and she put wheels on the bottom of it.

It's from Norway, and it's only worth about $600 now.

But he said it's really cool.

My father played it in the '30s and '40s.

So this was made in 1916.

Well, it's in beautiful condition, and the maker did a very nice job.

And I... he might have been trained in Norway or he was self-taught and extremely talented.

But he certainly adhered to the traditions of, of the 400-year-old world of violin making.

He did, and did a very nice job.

Retail replacement value of about $2,000.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Oh, nice.

WOMAN: Well, it was a gift to my father.

My father was a surgeon who took very good care of little old ladies.

And late in his career, one of the little old ladies gave him this.

And she wrote a letter, and in the letter, it said that the plaque was made in 1790 by Josiah Wedgwood for his personal friend John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist religion.

And this patient told him that she'd spent her life looking for a Methodist bishop to whom she could gift the plaque, but she couldn't find one.

(chuckles) And she said then in the letter that she found an angel in the cloth of a surgeon, and she gave it to my father.

That's wonderful.

And so when did you get it?

How did you get it?

Well, I'm the only Methodist of my siblings, and so it came to me after my father died.

Okay, well, great.

Well, I, what I love is, I love family stories of, with objects that have a history like that, especially when they concern important and famous people.

Certainly, Josiah Wedgwood was important.

And John Wesley was, he was even very important and famous in his own time, and many different English pottery and porcelain manufacturers made figurines and depictions of him because he was so important.

Now, according to the story, the gift was in 1790.

Well, Josiah Wedgwood died in 1795, and John Wesley died in 1791, so that would seem to fit the story.

But then you have to look at the object and see if the object fits the story.

So in 1860s, Wedgwood started a date mark system.

The back is impressed with three letters, and the last letter is the year that it was made.

And so this piece has a date mark on the back, and it was made in 1884.

So this plaque was first made in the 18th century, but throughout the, the period of Wedgwood manufacturing, they remade the plaque because John Wesley was such an interesting and important figure.

So, unfortunately, this doesn't fit the story exactly, because it was actually made in 1884.

It was made by the Wedgwood company, it does depict John Wesley, but it was made much, much later.

In today's market, this would probably be worth between $200 and $300.

I still love that written documentation, and I would recommend that you still keep it with it, but now you can write something else about, you brought it to the Antiques Roadshow, and it will just be part of the history of the piece.

Thank you very much.

PEÑA: Working antique presses can still churn out newsletters and cards at the "Hunter Times" building.

This 1897 hand-fed platen press, made by the Chandler & Price Company, is a sought-after machine by artists who want to use old tech to make art.

Bonanzaville uses it to print souvenirs for visitors.

♪ ♪ (talking in background) I brought in a Rolex watch that I had purchased while I was in the military.

I was stationed in Thailand from 1973 to 1975.

And while I was there, I flew on Air America Airlines and Continental Airlines, and I noticed that most of the pilots that were flying those aircraft wore Rolex watches, and I was intrigued by them.

I always wanted to purchase them, but they were very expensive.

Later, when I was transferred to another base, I did some scuba diving, and I knew that the Rolex watch was good for scuba diving.

I found this particular watch where I could afford it, and I never used it.

I looked at it and I said, "You know, this is really too nice to take down in salty water."

Yeah.

I just kept it.

After I got out of the service, I had other watches I wore and I just put this one into a safety deposit box.

It stayed there for 30 or 40 years.

I only took it out, like, two or three times to look at it, and that was about the extent of it before I brought it here.

What branch of service were you in?

I was in the United States Air Force.

I entered in 1971.

My draft number was seven.

That's a pretty low number, huh?

(chuckles) That's not really lucky in the, in the draft, right?

No.

When I found out about that, I either had to join the Air Force or another branch, or I was enlisted by the first of January.

And what'd you do in the service?

I worked in munitions, but there's, like, four different branches, and I worked in explosive ordnance disposal.

To put it simply, I helped clear roads of land mines.

Munitions storage areas that had been blown up or sabotaged, we cleaned those up.

There were... multiple children and adults that were injured as a result of unexploded ordnance.

And it's, the hazard still is there today.

You bought this where?

Was it, was it at a military store?

I ordered it in November 1974 through the base exchange.

I believe it came in in April 1975.

The amount that you paid, you even got a ten percent discount.

It says $345.97.

Was that a lot of money in 1975 to you?

It was a lot of money for myself.

What were salaries back then?

It ranged between $300 and $400 a month, if I have it correct.

As you know, it's a Rolex.

This particular model is referred to as an Oyster Cosmograph.

They're also referred to as Daytonas.

This is a reference 6263.

You saved everything, which is really wonderful.

The warranty paper was never filled out and was never numbered, so you have, actually have a blank guarantee, which is quite unusual.

And even over here, this paper is blank.

A blank paper today is probably worth about $2,000, because it can be made to match any watch and add value to it, so guys would pay money to buy a blank paper.

You have the original Rolex brochure here for the Cosmograph.

You have two receipts-- the order receipt and your payment receipt here.

You have the original box.

Even the outer box here.

So these watches, as we've talked on "Antiques Roadshow," have become very collectible and valuable.

It's got a couple of very special features about it.

Underneath the word "Rolex" and above the word "Cosmograph," it says "Oyster," and that refers to these screw-down buttons here.

They made this version with and without screw-down buttons.

The ones without the screw-down buttons are still water-resistant, but this was a much better water-resistant case, because you could lock down the chronograph buttons on it.

It still has the foil sticker on the back with the reference number of the watch, 6263.

Had it be worn, that would be the first thing that would wear off the watch.

The date mark on the bracelet shows that it was made in the first quarter of 1971.

Your watch was made approximately 1971, and you ordered it a couple of years later.

Collectors love this watch because Paul Newman wore it in a movie called "Winning."

It wasn't this particular model, it did not have the screw-down buttons.

The one that Paul Newman wore, currently at auction, those watches are going for approximately $150,000 to $200,000.

Your watch is more special.

It says... You got to be kidding me.

It says "Oyster" on it.

Yes.

They did that for an extremely short period of time.

We refer to that as a Mark II dial.

And this particular model, being marked "oyster," is extremely, extremely rare.

A watch like this at auction is worth about $400,000.

(people laughing in background) You okay?

(people laughing) (chuckles) Don't fall.

I'm not done yet.

I said, "A watch like yours."

Because of the condition of it-- basically, it's a new old stock watch: no wear on it; the original foil sticker on the back of it; and the fact that we have all this complete documentation here, also, maybe one of the very few in the whole world that still was never worn-- your watch, at auction, today, $500,000 to $700,000.

You got to be (no audio).

(laughing) No, I'm very serious.

(chuckles and murmurs) It's an absolute fabulous find.

It's one of the rarest Paul Newman models, and in this condition, I don't think there's a better one in the world.

I can't thank you enough for bringing me one of the greatest watches to ever see on "Antiques Roadshow."

And thank you very much for your service.

Unbelievable.

You can't wear it, though.

(murmurs) If you wear it, it drops down to the $400,000 value.

PEÑA: You're watching "Antiques Roadshow" PEÑA: And now it's time for the "Roadshow" Feedback Booth.

I first saw this in a homemaker's book as the oldest quilt in Pembina County.

And here it was that I was dating a guy whose grandma owned it.

So I guess it was the beginning of a love story.

Are my books worth anything?

Neigh!

And we found that this attractive painting of Sammy Davis, Jr., if it was part of his estate, would be worth $200 to $300.

And any wives or roommates that didn't want it hanging on their wall were dead wrong.

(laughs) I came up here to Bonanzaville to, for the Antiques Roadshow.

I have a Swiss cow bell, and it... (metal clanging) ...it works.

I brought in a color lithograph print from a deceased Chinese artist called Zao Wou-Ki, but the real treasure is right here.

I'd agree with that appraisal.

We drove four hours just to get to Fargo so we could come to the Antiques Roadshow!

To find out our stuff is a no-go.

(laughing): Thanks, "Antiques Roadshow."

This was an engagement present from an American man I married in Iran, and it has quite a lot of value, but definitely not as much value as our Persian wedding certificate, which had room for four wives, and I was wife number one.

Brought a few different items, but nothing of value.

(in high-pitched voice): Didn't make any money, but I had a great time!

(laughing): Thanks, "Antiques Roadshow."

Bye-bye!

PEÑA: Thanks for watching.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."