Junk in the Trunk 10

♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: Can't get enough treasures from "Roadshow's" 24th-season tour?

Well, you're in luck.

That's more than we thought.

(laughs) Good.

PEÑA: That's right.

More treasures, more discoveries, in our tenth episode of "Antiques Roadshow: Junk in the Trunk."

♪ ♪ PEÑA: The Desert Botanical Garden was the perfect spot in Phoenix to start our tour.

For the first time in "Roadshow's" history, the backdrop to our appraisal event was filled with cactuses.

WOMAN: I brought in my mother-in-law's gold bracelet.

I know nothing about it.

I'm hoping I can find out more about it today.

This is a approximately 200-year-old American School portrait I picked up at a thrift store.

I'm hoping it's a Rembrandt Peale, even though secretly I know it's not.

(laughs) You think this is the Romanov crest?

MAN: Yeah, of course, it's the Romanov crest.

Those are the city crests.

Yes.

For St. Petersburg, Moscow.

Nothing says the symbol of power and dominance like something like this-- if you go into somebody's house, it's something to intimidate guests when they arrive.

My mother always told me that this was given to my grandfather by this man, Mike Short Man, who was a friend of his.

My grandparents moved to Browning, Montana, in 1917.

Somewhere along the line, Mike Short Man gave this to my grandfather.

We've just had it in the family ever since.

What do you know about Short Man?

I think he was, like, a sub-chief of the Blackfeet, the Piegan tribe.

There are three branches of the Blackfeet Nation, and the Piegans are basically the ones that are in Browning, which, in the United States, is the center of the Blackfoot world, the reservation there.

Very close to Glacier National Park.

Well, that's where the railroad was going.

Yes, that's where it is.

And that's where...

I mean, it became a tourist mecca, 1899, 1900, through that era.

Short Man was a sub-chief, and he was known as a warrior.

And the fact that this shirt came from that makes it especially important.

If you look, the porcupine quill- decorated strips here are pretty much the same as what he's got on his shirt.

I don't think this is the exact same shirt.

I think this is a Lakota shirt that...

They traded stuff.

Things went back and forth.

Now, it was made probably between 1870 and the mid-1880s.

It has a type of quill work that's real particular to that period.

This is your nice dress jacket.

This is, "We're going to a ceremony that so-and-so's, "so-and-so's having in his tepee, and we're going to dress up."

And he would have had fancy leggings, he would have had his hair decorated.

He would have had all his finery.

And this was a shirt that represented importance.

Now, what really made this guy a celebrity is, Short Man was photographed around 1910 by Edward S. Curtis.

Oh, I wasn't aware of that.

And he's shown as a person who represented that tribe.

Now, the print, Great Northern Railroad hired Winold Reiss, who was a German artist, to do these pieces of artworks to promote the railroad.

They were on calendars, they had the paintings in the offices, and a lot of these people who he did paintings of, they were all alive at the time.

These people were actually hanging around Glacier Park.

And I'm sure you want to know what the value is.

The print, you see them for anywhere from $25 to $75.

The thing about this print, it helps tell that story, and show the importance of this man in culture at that time.

The shirt, if it came up at auction, I would estimate it conservatively at $18,000, $25,000, something like that.

This is a bigger responsibility than I realized.

It is.

But it's a...

It's a, it's...

It's a piece of my family history, so it's very important-- thank you.

MAN: It's a very unique instrument, and it has family history, because it had to do with my father's business during the Depression.

Okay, well, let's take a look.

Cover lifts off.

And it would have had a handle here, but then this could become the base for it.

I never saw it until my mother and dad had passed away, and we were cleaning out the garage.

And of course, they never threw anything away, so it took me a while.

(chuckles) And I found this box, and I had no idea what was in it.

And I opened it up and saw that it was a very old typewriter, and my dad had been in the typewriter business.

I did a little research on it and saw that it was patented in 1890, and one of the first typewriters.

The evolution of the typewriter is interesting, because, for many years, they tried to get something that really worked.

It wasn't really until, like, the 1860s that a real patent came along, and then they really started to mass-produce typewriters.

But they were the ones that you are more normally used to seeing with a full keyboard set.

But those were very expensive.

They could be as much, back in the day, as maybe $50 to $70, right?

This actually came after the full-keyboard typewriter.

It's what's known as an index typewriter, "index" meaning your index finger, because you would-- you have to do it one keystroke at a time, versus a full set of hands on it.

And the reason it came out was because it was cheaper.

This is a Merritt, Merritt Index-- can see the Merritt name down here.

Right.

The Merritt Index back in the day-- 1890, right about when it came out-- sold for $15, and that was its selling point.

But the reality is, because it's an index, it's really, really hard to use, right?

So, to... Well, you don't speed-type on it, that's for sure.

(laughing): Exactly.

So it never really kind of caught on.

But in the world of typewriter collectors, the less it looks like a typewriter, the more kind of engaging it is.

There are certain desirability for this type of thing, especially, you have the original box, which often gets lost.

And it's still in pretty good shape overall.

At auction, this kind of typewriter would sell for maybe $500 to $700.

So I'm psyched to see it here, and I'm glad you brought it.

Well, I was happy to bring it.

WOMAN: It was given to me 50 years ago.

It was purchased in Paris for about $800 equivalent in francs at the time, and I was told that it was from Tsarist Russia.

It's not Russian.

It's not Russian.

It's not Russian, all right?

Okay.

Usually, what we do is, we look for hallmarks.

You look for a stamp, a cartouche-- something.

Mm-hmm.

There's really nothing on this.

There's some influences here that remind me of Buccellati, which is Italian, especially the way this engraving is done on the yellow gold.

That's 18-karat yellow gold here.

But it's not Italian, either.

This piece to me looks like it's from around 1912, 1915.

Buccellati was around when this piece was made, but they really didn't get going till the 1920s.

It's platinum, with that yellow gold, but it is most definitely French.

Okay.

It has old European-cut diamonds throughout it.

There's not really that much diamonds in it.

There's about a carat worth of diamonds, if you add them all up.

Another nice touch is, you have these pearls.

These are not cultured pearls.

These are all natural pearls.

So you had an evaluation on this done at one time?

Yes, I was offered $2,000 for it.

Okay-- too little.

If I put this into auction today, I would comfortably put it in for $8,000 to $12,000.

Whew!

That is a nice piece of news.

(laughs) (laughing): Sound better?

Thank you, yes.

Yeah.

It certainly does.

So, Jane, Jane Crafter.

When you came in line, I recognized you immediately.

So for those at home who are not golf junkies like myself, please tell everyone a little bit about your background and career in golf.

Well, I came over from Australia in 1981, the daughter of a golf professional.

I had a good amateur career in Australia, and I came over to play on the LPGA, and I played from 1981 till 2004, lucky enough to win one official event on the LPGA down in Florida.

Wow.

And then also won three times in Australia.

Having gone into TV commentary, I've been around golf all my life.

Mm-hmm.

But I've always been a collector.

I love golf antiques, and this particular one is one of my favorites in my collection.

I invested, I think, no more than $300 in this club.

But never used in a tournament.

Oh, no, never, never.

(laughing): Okay.

So golf has been played for many centuries, and Scotland's considered to be its home.

In the 1800s, clubs started be made by well-known club-makers, and they were stamped, like your club is stamped.

Mm-hmm.

And the major club-makers of the time were celebrated for their skills.

The major era of long-nose clubs was in the 1800s, and by the 1900s, though, with the advent as golf for the leisure class, many more people wanted to play.

The demand became so much higher.

So you had all these golf manufacturers, both in Scotland and the United States, that made hundreds of millions hickory-shafting clubs.

So let's talk about your golf club in value.

First of all, long-nose play clubs, these were drivers or woods today.

That's what they'd be considered.

So I'm looking at this club, when you brought it in, I wasn't sure about it.

Now, I've-- I've sold a lot of golf clubs, I've appraised a lot of golf clubs, and sometimes, things are just shades of gray.

So I'm going to use kind of a... A golf term that you'll appreciate.

Stymie.

Right.

I'm a little stymied right now.

'Cause you see how it's stamped "Stewart" here?

Yes.

There is no major club-maker named Stewart.

Right.

There's Tom Stewart out of Scotland, but he was known for cleeks, or what are known as irons today.

Right.

So that, to me, was confusing right off the top.

Mm-hmm.

But it's possible that this stamping was for the owner or the player, not by the actual maker.

Okay, right.

I talked to three different specialists and I sent them photos and, about this club, because, look, there's just something about it, I'm not quite sure.

So I got one opinion from one longtime golf auctioneer who felt it was from the 1880s.

Right.

So then I went to specialist number two, and he felt this head did not have the workmanship or the craftsmanship of heads that were made by the major club-makers at that time, and he thought that possibly this may have been a later head that was married to the shaft.

Ah.

I have a third that did tell me that Tom Stewart, for a brief period in the 1890s, made transitional golf clubs.

Huh.

But transitional heads tend to be much squatter, like the clubs of today.

Right.

So what we're gonna do is try to do a little bit more research on this.

Oh, good.

We think an auction estimate is between $400 to $600.

Mm-hmm.

And we think you should insure it for about $1,500.

Mm-hmm.

So you're in good shape.

Right.

It's a beautiful work of art.

It is beautiful, and I appreciate your time, and thanks for having me.

PEÑA: In San Antonio, "Roadshow" set up at the first modern art museum in Texas, the McNay Art Museum.

Our guests brought artworks, heirlooms, and so much more.

From what I can tell, it's a World War I-issued field surgical kit.

I don't think I have ever seen a complete set, not just at "Roadshow," but out in the world.

They just simply don't exist.

I would expect to see this bring a price between $2,000 and $3,000.

Wow.

Not what I... Not what I expected.

(chuckles) APPRAISER: This is Chinese.

It has an old 18th-century shape, but unfortunately, in 18th century, they couldn't use this color.

Oh, okay, so it isn't 18th-century?

Okay?

It's actually 20th-century.

Oh, really?

Okay.

Right.

MAN: Well, I was visiting my father-in-law, and I found it upside down on its back with its legs off on top of the pantry, and I asked him about it, and he said I should take it home.

But it really was his father's clock.

Okay.

His father was Anglo-Irish, came over from Ireland at, at the end of the 19th century, and lived in New York City, and loved antiques.

And this was a piece that he, he bought and he had throughout his whole life.

Yeah.

He loved it.

It says on the face of it, it says it's Weeks, from London, and so I know that it's Weeks, and maybe Thomas Weeks from Coventry Street, London, England.

But most of that's coming right off the face.

I think that the clock probably dates from about 1800.

This maker, Thomas Weeks, was known for his clocks made in the French taste, and that's what we have here today.

He made statue clocks and different things that the London makers typically were not making, and that's what makes this clock exciting.

You'll notice it has three hands.

In addition to the minute and hour hand, you have a sweep secondhand.

The clockmaker that would make a clock with a center-sweep secondhand, he was sort of showing off.

That feature kicks it up a little bit.

We have the satinwood case with ebony.

Originally, the gilding was a little bit brighter.

You are missing the little finial that topped off the clock.

Overall, the condition is very good.

But this guy, he was about the mechanics, also.

He had a museum with his establishment in a natural history museum.

So he was also showing off these mechanical marvels that he was producing and things that he had acquired, along with things out of natural history.

He was capable of producing the best.

He also was renowned for making these high-grade cases.

The movement is just a jewel.

He was at the top of his game.

This is a timepiece, and what a timepiece means-- it just keeps time, it does not strike.

You'll see what we call the escape wheel.

So we call that an outside-the-plate escapement, and it's what we call deadbeat escapement.

That was a superior form of escapement.

Notice also the quality, the engraving on the back plate of the movement.

It is superior.

It's all part of just doing the best.

And it's neat to see these people that were making these things that were marvels at a time when people were working by the light of day with very rudimentary machinery.

Used to have a door sort of keyed into this rabbeted edge and was tied off with a, a little nut that you would unscrew and access the pendulum.

Those things can all be repaired.

A lot of times, we'll refer to these as a gentleman's table regulator.

Value.

If I saw this clock in just this as-is condition right here, I'd expect to see this clock sell for about $6,000 retail.

Hmm.

But in restored condition, if you threw a couple of thousand dollars at it and had someone that was really good, gosh, I'd see this in London sell for $10,000, $12,000.

(exhales) As I use the phrase "jewel box."

That's what this clock is, a jewel box.

♪ ♪ WOMAN: This is a Chinese embroidery, I believe.

My grandfather was in China during the Boxer Rebellion.

He was part of the relief expedition.

He bought this from a vendor in the streets of Beijing after the empress left the palace with her entourage.

And evidently, there were people that must have gone into the palace, I'm assuming.

Before he would give it to him, after he paid him, he took the face, and the face was evidently painted on silk.

And that's why we think it came from the palace, because we're assuming that it might have been the empress dowager, and a commoner was never allowed to see the face of the empress dowager.

Those at the Asian table have seen this figure depicted in Chinese art often, and it's not the empress dowager.

Oh, okay.

This is a court beauty, a celestial beauty.

She's more than likely holding bars that would contain the elixir of long life, which is a popular motif in Chinese works of art.

She's also flanked by celestial attendants with attributes of shou, or long life.

Mm-hmm.

She has a pendant here, which has the shou symbol of long life.

Uh-huh.

These peaches are representative of long life.

In reference to the face, these are padded and they are often painted, and they are the most fragile element of the textile.

So the story of it being removed is a possibility.

Mm-hmm.

But it being removed because it represented the empress dowager...

Yes.

...is likely incorrect.

Okay.

This would have been something hung in a merchant, upper-middle- class Chinese family.

You can have a face made inexpensively, and it will affect the value, but people are more willing to accept textiles, especially, with alteration.

Good color, some rubbing.

Mm-hmm.

Vibrant image.

In need of repair, but it would have an auction estimate of around $1,000 to $1,500.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

And in a retail setting with a repaired face, with a little bit of in-painting, perhaps, or rethreading, it would have a value of $3,500.

I see, okay.

All right, I'm...

I'm used to her without the face.

In our family, it's always been known as the faceless lady, so we... (laughing): I, I would feel funny with the face on her, I think.

I had a friend who was cleaning out her mother-in-law's closet, and she knew I liked vintage, and she gave it to me.

Well, this is a fabulous dress from James Galanos.

Designed in the early '50s, it's what they called the new look, which was started in Paris by Christian Dior.

After the Second World War, when there was no longer a shortage of fabrics, they went to all types of excess in the skirts.

Mm-hmm.

There was lots of fullness, and as you can see in this one, they've even added all these pleats to give it more fullness on the sides and the back of the skirt.

You can see how the back falls out, almost in a bustle effect.

Galanos was born in Philadelphia, he did his design work in California, unlike most American designers, who were working in New York, and he's had many, many, many single-designer exhibits.

He passed away in 2016, but kept designing almost until the very end.

This dress was retailed by Neiman Marcus, so it has their label, and as well as having the Galanos label inside.

In the 1950s, this dress probably would have retailed for about $300.

His dresses were quite pricey.

He went to Paris to select his fabrics, and always bought the best and spared no amount of yardage to make the right look.

And I would put a retail price on this of between $1,000 and $1,200.

Well, that's wonderful, thank you.

It's a beautiful example of his work.

WOMAN: My husband was in Santa Fe, and he purchased this from a gallery there, and he believed it to be by Charles Loloma.

APPRAISER: Do you recall what he paid for it at that time?

He seems to recall that it was about $700.

$700, in, roughly, 1980.

Or early '90s, he thinks.

Early '90s.

Yeah.

Okay.

It is indeed made by Charles Loloma, and he happens to be the pre-eminent jeweler of all Native American art jewelers.

He's an extraordinarily important artist.

This is a belt buckle.

It has a little loop at the back to catch into a leather belt.

The loop that would hold the leather belt is missing.

Very easy to replicate what Charles typically used.

Inexpensive restoration, not important at all.

This is his very distinct Charles Loloma signature.

He's known for innovative treatment of jewelry, utilizing natural ingredients.

This has the whole panoply of ingredients.

Oh, great.

Design, composition, and color.

These are the three standards of his work.

Now, Charles Loloma was born in 1921, he passed away in 1991.

In terms of the dating, maybe the '60s or the '70s.

Oh.

It's not in mint condition.

Okay.

It's highly patinated with human contact.

Okay.

I'm sure that that would please Charles Loloma.

(chuckles) I think on a retail basis, this would sell for $10,000.

Wow.

I believe, if, if you wanted to go and insure this, maybe $12,500.

Great.

PEÑA: The first public art museum in California, the Crocker Art Museum, was our gracious host in Sacramento.

"Roadshow" fans brought in all kinds of heirlooms and collected finds, from interesting yet ordinary to really extraordinary.

(people talking in background) The spinning wheel and a spinning reel is what I've always been told.

Passed down for, like, 200 years.

We're, like, eh, might as well check it out and see what the real story is, and if it's been embellished over the years.

(laughs) MAN: This item came from my great-grandfather, and from what the family lore says, he traded it in Africa for something, and it's some sort of skin on this, and the spears have, I think, what's lion hair on them.

APPRAISER: Clearly, these have a lot of age, but the spears and the shield are not functional.

MAN: Right.

I mean, if some lion came after some guy with a shield, they'd eat him up.

This was carved from a single piece of wood, a white pine post, and it was carved over a period of four years by Theodore Strollo.

He carved out these little windows in the outer, uh, section, carved on between them, so that he could separate it, and it's two pieces.

And then the inner piece... Is actually the carving.

And it has different parts, some that turn in these little windows here.

And there's a scroll that accompanying it, the sculpture, that describes his theory of life, which this is a physical representation of.

It's named "The Mystery Tower, or Game of Life."

I became acquainted with a gentleman who was a friend of Theodore's.

When Theodore died, the gentleman inherited this.

I didn't pay anything for it, it was gifted to me, just because he was looking for a home for it.

Apparently, he lived in a shack on the creek and did this over a period of time, and I guess had various odd jobs to sustain himself while working on this and, and other things.

Is there any other work known by him?

Not that I'm aware of.

This is the only thing I know that he did.

And when he finished it in 1938, it was exhibited at the International Exposition at Treasure Island in San Francisco, in 1939.

It was later exhibited at the World's Fair in New York City as part of Ripley's Oddities, and it was in Ripley's Oddities in New York for a period of time before Theodore retrieved it.

And, and I've sort of gathered from reading a newspaper account that that was his dream.

He truly wanted this to be exhibited because it was, well, it was four years of his life.

Theo has signed it at the base, and it continues, saying 1938 is the year in which it was completed, right?

Mm-hmm.

And we continue here.

This is California, and it, it was completed... Los... Los Gatos.

So, he wanted to make sure that we knew who he was and where he performed this.

I truly think it's a remarkable piece of sculpture.

It's unique, and it...

Yes.

How often can you say that?

There's not another one in the world that...

It's one of a kind.

It really is.

So, coming up with estimate as to what, like, what something like this is worth, you get all kinds of opinions.

I think this can be called a piece of outsider art.

So I think, being in the auction business, we're thinking somewhere, let's say $5,000 or more.

A little bit of guesswork going on here.

Mm-hmm.

But there are people in America who collect outsider art pieces, and this one is of great quality.

It's an amazing thing.

And I want to thank you for lugging it in here.

(laughing): Well, you're certainly welcome.

Thank you for the appraisal.

I had no idea what it was worth.

MAN: I got these two dresses that I got from England, a small antique shop in England.

And how long ago was that?

Five, six years ago.

I paid, like, 800 for both.

I'll start with the one closest to you.

Mm-hmm.

It is unlabeled.

Mm-hmm.

It is a lady's green velvet jacket, and the bell-shaped sleeves are split and lined about ten inches up with a gold lamé fabric.

It is all handmade, hand-embroidered with metallic thread, a gold and a silver thread, and it's in excellent condition.

It dates from about 1910.

This is labeled.

It is Liberty's of London, and Liberty of London started in 1875.

In 1884, Liberty of London opened a costume department, and they presented things that were reminiscent of historical costumes.

So this is a beautiful 1890s silk tea gown in the medieval style.

And we've got these split sleeves.

It is made out of a beautiful pink silk satin and hand-decorated in this scrolling vines, and the back is a Watteau back, and there's a lovely train.

This piece is in very good condition.

Liberty of London in this period would have been the epitome of the Aesthetic movement, exactly what they were looking for: art for art's sake, medieval historical costumes.

So, in terms of value, the green jacket has a retail value of $2,500 to $3,000, and the Liberty medieval-styled tea gown has a value between $5,000 and $6,000 at retail.

Sold.

(laughs) You did-- "Sold," exactly.

♪ ♪ MAN: I brought a map of Philadelphia circa 1770s.

It was a part of my aunt's estate, and I purchased it from the estate after her death.

I thought it was charming, and I love Philadelphia, and I spent a lot of time there as a young man, so I wanted the piece.

May I ask how much you paid for it from the estate?

About $750.

Do you have any idea when your aunt may have purchased this map or how she acquired it?

I, I really don't know the background of when she purchased the map.

I got the map from the estate about 2006.

Well, this is a copperplate-engraved map.

The publisher is a London publisher named William Faden, and his father was also a printer, as well.

And Faden created an atlas of North America that was published in London.

He was a royal cartographer, the official cartographer for the king, and so he printed a lot of very important maps.

It was published in 1777.

This map would have been popular in 1777 because of the beginning of the American Revolution.

And because Philadelphia was the seat of the Continental Congress, people wanted to understand, in Europe, overseas, exactly what the layout was of the city, and you can see the grid of the city in here, and then the outlying towns, including all of the owners of property.

It was patterned after a map that was engraved in 1752 by these cartographers here.

Scull and Heap did the survey.

It also had an image of the state house, but it had it at the top.

Faden made the map larger, and he moved the illustration of the state house down to the bottom.

We can identify a first and second state of this map by looking at this island here, right between Hog Island and Mud Island.

In the first state of this map, this island in between has absolutely no name and no features on it.

So that's how we know that this is a, a second state.

If you look at the legend, we have locations A, B, and C. And if you look down here, you'll see that those are batteries.

Batteries are, are assortment of cannons.

Exactly.

It has these horizontal folds, meaning that this map was most likely originally in an atlas.

When I was talking about the original version of this map, the Scull and Heap survey that was published in 1752... Mm-hmm.

That map is very, very rare, to the point where some people in the trade just call it unobtainable.

As the 1777 version of this map, it still isn't very common.

In the last 20 years, there have been about three coming up for auction.

I would say it should sell between $7,000 and $9,000 at auction.

I'm proud to have it.

It's not, not something I feel like I'll let go of.

I love to show it.

WOMAN: They're inherited pieces from my husband's aunt, who died in 1991.

She was the wife of Jay Marchant, who was a director in the movie industry in L.A. and in Japan.

And so you had these two pieces.

Did she collect jewelry, also?

She collected antiques-- Asian art, furniture, and jewelry.

She wore the jewelry all the time.

So the two items you brought, first the boxed bracelet here, this is from the Georgian period, so this would date anywhere from about 1820 to 1840.

Most likely, it's English.

Although there no hallmarks, stylistically, it's very much in the English style.

These reddish, purplish stones are garnets.

These stones are beautifully matched.

It's unusual to find such large, crystal-clear, beautifully matched garnets like this.

They're quite nice.

The other stones, the little accent stones, which have a slightly yellowish gold tone to them, these are topaz.

These would have probably come from Brazil.

It's in extremely fine condition, in the original box.

The earrings, they're done with pearls.

And I would date these earrings around 1850, 1860.

So these would be natural pearls, little diamonds, and these are really a classic chandelier earring in terms of the way that they move.

The diamonds in the top are set in silver.

The bottom portion is gold, and right at the join here, there's a microscopic French hallmark.

So that tells me these pieces were French.

They're quite lovely.

Have you ever had these pieces appraised?

No, I never have.

When she died, there were four of us who divided all her jewelry, and she had between 500 and 1,000 pieces of jewelry.

And we found some of the receipts.

So there was a receipt for the earrings, and I think she paid $4,500 for the earrings.

Do you know what year that was?

It would have been in the '80s.

At the time that she bought these, she paid a very fair price for them.

And I would say, for insurance purposes these days, they would probably be around the same price, $4,500 to $5,000.

The market for these type of earrings had gone up, it has gone down, and now it's just coming back up again.

Now, back to the bracelet.

The bracelet, also, because of condition-- this is really in exceptionally fine condition-- I would value the bracelet for insurance purposes around $5,000 to $6,000.

Okay.

PEÑA: It was like stepping back in time when "Roadshow" visited the pioneer town Bonanzaville in West Fargo, North Dakota.

And a bonanza of antique and vintage treasures turned up all day long.

WOMAN: This was given to my mother by my grandmother.

APPRAISER: It's wonderful.

This is an Ideal box, but I know nothing about Ideal.

Well, I think we're gonna send you over to the dolls, and they'll be able to take care of you and help you figure that out.

These buttons are gonna date from between 1900 to 1915.

There's some fabulous ones there.

We have a baseball player here.

The Boston Rustlers.

Then we have some good advertising in here, too.

And then we have the actress series here.

This particular grouping, you're probably looking at somewhere around $500 or $600.

Okay.

MAN: We found this at a thrift store near Minneapolis, Minnesota.

I stopped at the hardware store, my wife didn't want to go to the hardware store, so I dropped her off at the thrift store to kill some time.

When I went back in to pick her up, I found this painting there.

How much did it cost in the thrift store?

$6.99 plus tax.

It was in very poor condition.

It was torn, it was dirty, had a hole in it.

It was Halloween weekend, and it appeared to me it had been decorated for Halloween, because there were some pumpkins there around it.

And the figure's eyes were blackened in with a permanent marker, like a jack-o'-lantern eye.

And her fingernails were blackened.

Everything about it looked old and original, and I just thought it deserved a little more research.

We actually researched it while we were still in the store.

And lo and behold, it pops up, and...

I couldn't believe it.

Well, what you've brought is an oil-on-canvas painting, and it is signed in the lower right, E. Potthast.

And Edward Henry Potthast was a Cincinnati-born artist, got his basic training, but he really ended up in New York, and he carved out his reputation for painting in New York City.

And he was best known for painting scenes of Coney Island.

When Potthast was in New York, he would have very likely painted commissioned portraits.

It was a means to make a living.

Potthast really reached his maturity when he was in New York.

The neat thing about this particular portrait is that it is from his mature period.

The landscape work in the background is much more advanced than the kind of work he was doing in Cincinnati.

Edward Potthast moved permanently to New York City in 1895.

And I would place this probably 19-teens or 1920s.

You had it restored.

Probably a significant amount of restoration, right?

$1,400.

What about the frame?

That was $300 extra.

An example like this, in a nice restored condition, at auction would be expected to fetch around $8,000 to $12,000.

(chuckling): Very good, very good.

That's proof that, that it can still happen, that people can still find great things in thrift stores.

Yeah, it can be done.

My father bought it probably 30 years ago, and I'm quite sure, probably at an auction.

He would always bring things to me, because I kind of had a little museum at that time, also, so... We think it is a photograph of a company in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, in their basement.

Well, as you may have been aware, as you were bringing this photograph to the table, I think all eyes were on this photograph.

The composition is so dynamic and exciting, and it really draws you in.

Mm-hmm.

It is a very large, oversized albumen print.

We think it's most likely was printed between the 1880s and 1900.

After speaking with one of our musical instruments experts, he believes this might be from Germany.

Markneukirchen, Germany, is a town that's known for this amazing production of brass instruments.

Okay.

And he, he thinks this might be from that area, because of the depth and quality of the instruments on display.

This is a type of work that most likely would have been commissioned by a musical instrument production company.

It would have hung really proudly in their offices.

The print is pasted to an older mount.

As you can see, the mount is breaking.

Right.

Definitely non-archival, not good for the print to be on.

Right.

Overall, the photograph is in excellent condition.

I heard someone say, as a joke, it could be made into a jigsaw puzzle, and it would be the best one ever and so fun.

(laughs) We do have a signature in the lower corner.

We couldn't really make out the signature, but that's actually not what makes this print so special.

What's really special is the composition, the size of the print, and the subject matter.

At auction, I would estimate this for $1,200 to $1,800, and I think it could sell for a lot more than that.

Thank you, that's... (chuckles): A lot more than I expected.

MAN: Well, this document belongs to my wife, who got it from her late husband's estate.

He ran a used-book store.

APPRAISER: It's an engraved copy of a signed souvenir edition of the 13th Amendment.

So, in 1863, Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, which frees the slaves in the rebelling states.

But there was always a worry that once those states reentered the union, they might try to slip slavery back in.

So it was very important to pass a constitutional amendment that banned slavery, which is what the 13th Amendment was, and the 13th Amendment is the first in a series that address civil rights.

The 13th Amendment abolishes slavery, the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship, and the 15th Amendment guarantees the right to vote.

If you look here, this gives us the text of the 13th Amendment, and it tells us that it passed in the Senate first, in April of 1864, and then it passed in the House in January of 1865, and then Lincoln signed it in February of 1865.

And then the next step is that it goes to the states to be ratified.

In 1865, when this law is passed, people worked to create souvenir copies.

There are at least four handwritten copies-- they were done after the fact-- of the 13th Amendment that are just signed by Lincoln and Hamlin and Schuyler Colfax, and one other.

And then some of the congressmen decided that they would like their own copy.

And so there probably are maybe five or six of those copies, so they're signed by Lincoln and by the congressmen.

There's also a copy that's just signed by the congressmen and not signed by Lincoln.

So this particular print was printed by a company called the Western Bank Note Company, and the year of publication was 1868.

So I thought, "That's weird.

That's a weird three-year delay."

But guess what was ratified in 1868?

The 14th Amendment.

So it's celebrating the 13th Amendment, but it's really probably motivated by the passage of the 14th Amendment.

So someone at this Western Bank Note Company got a copy of one of those signed souvenir copies, and created this beautiful engraving, which was sold in a very limited number.

It's rare-- there are only a handful of copies that have turned up at auction.

It conservatively sells for between $4,000 and $6,000.

Goodness.

If you had the real one... (chuckles) If you had the real one, signed by Lincoln, do you want take a guess at what that one... Oh, I couldn't imagine.

A million.

The last two copies sold for two.

Two million?

Two million.

Yeah, pretty nice.

But this is pretty great, too.

Great.

MAN: I'm the president of the local historical society, and they belong to the historical society.

For as long as anyone can remember, they hung in a country schoolhouse.

The school finally closed in 1975.

I believe they hung in the courthouse for a while.

And then, when the historical society was formed in the mid-'80s, they just moved across the street to the historical society.

They were painted by this J.F.

Kernan, and he was an illustrator, and he painted a lot of pictures, mostly action pictures, sometimes with a little humor in them.

And these two particular ones ended up on the cover of "Country Gentleman" magazines in 1924 sometime.

They're wonderful examples of his work, and Kernan was an illustrator during the golden age of American illustration, roughly from 1880 to the, the '20s.

They were painted in 1923, and as you said, these were used as cover art for "Country Gentleman" in 1924.

The artist is interesting in that he paid for his way through art school in Boston by being a professional baseball player, and he was always a sportsman.

And you can see that, especially in the happily unsuccessful hunting scene, and also in just the very sportsmanlike scenes that he does in general.

The piece on my right is titled "RFD Delivery," I believe, is one of the titles.

And the piece on the left is titled "Rabbits."

They're in very good condition, they're oil on canvas, and they're both signed lower right.

They're wonderful examples of his work.

Well, have you ever had them appraised?

Well, about 20 years ago, someone sent us an appraisal, said they sold them-- similar ones-- for a couple of thousand dollars.

But that was 20 years ago, so I have no idea what they're worth now.

That was 20 years ago, and I think a little under the mark.

And belonging to the historical society, I know you have no intention of selling them, but in this market, I would insure them individually at $20,000.

Ooh!

Well.

Yes.

Hm, that's more than we thought.

(both laugh) Good.

PEÑA: "Roadshow"'s tour season ended at one of Delaware's cultural hot spots: Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, once home to Henry Francis du Pont.

It was in my grandmother's estate, and we emptied the house out, and both of these things were in there.

Did you play with them as a kid?

No.

(chuckling): I didn't even know they existed until we had to empty the house.

My wife, who I've been with for 40 years, her birthday's February 14, Valentine's Day.

I didn't have anything for her.

I was getting really nervous.

(laughs) A week before, I went to an auction in Towson, Maryland.

This came up, and it is dated February 14, 1853.

I just thought it was cool.

Yeah, these-- we see these in American folk art.

These are valentines.

Right.

What'd you pay for it?

$150.

Okay.

This is probably a $450 piece on today's market.

Okay, perfect.

Well, my dad was an artist during World War II, and he worked in England for the whole war, and part of what he was asked to do was, he developed a series of posters.

And my family doesn't know very much about them-- where they went, how they were distributed.

But they were printed in England, and he would roll them up in a tube and send them home to his mother.

And we discovered them in my mother's closet about a year ago.

He did get a letter from two brigadier generals thanking him for doing the posters.

So I actually think your father might have been more prolific than you even think.

I saw the letters that you brought from the generals, thanking him for his work.

I believe that's for a different series of posters.

Okay.

These are a series of posters that are usually done as factory production posters, or work incentive posters, to get factory workers to focus more on the job ahead.

Now, I say I think your father was more prolific than you believe.

I have never seen his work before, and I've never heard his name before.

And I'm so excited about that.

We are the first documenters of his work.

There's none of it on the internet, and seeing something for the first time is really exciting in and of itself.

But these are great graphic images.

These are, in my opinion, classic examples of mid-century design.

"Geared for Accuracy," which has the American flag in the middle of the clockworks of a stopwatch.

"Bonds Buy Bombs."

"Speed and Accuracy," and the compass so intelligently splayed out like the letter A, for accuracy.

And then, "Think, Then Move."

It's really sort of encouraging people to get into the war effort, to focus on their work.

Some of them on the bottom have the date 1943.

On some of them, you see his initials, Arthur Rothenberg?

Yes.

On this one, you actually see his name.

He wrote "Arthur" there on the compass, which I think is wonderful.

One of the things about these that I think is extra-appealing: They're of such a convenient size.

They're easy to hang.

I'm going to suggest a conservative estimate as to their value, which I think, each one of these, at auction, I would appraise between $400 and $600 apiece, for a total of $1,600 to $2,400 for the group.

That's very nice, thank you.

I really appreciate knowing more about it.

WOMAN: It's, far as I know, a carved sapphire marked Cartier.

APPRAISER: Wow.

I got it for a birthday one year, found it at a flea market in our area.

Okay.

My husband got it for me, just fell in love with it.

And what did you pay for it?

Some hundreds, not more than $1,000.

When was that?

Ten or so years ago.

This is a carved sapphire, I would say right around 1920 to 1925.

Okay, okay.

It's a beautiful flower motif on the top.

Around early 1900s, Cartier became fascinated with Indian-carved gemstones.

Mm-hmm.

This particular stone, I believe, would be a Ceylon sapphire, it's a lighter-color sapphire.

Mm-hmm.

It's not as saturated as, let's say, a Burma sapphire would be.

But Cartier didn't care if it was really that saturated.

They just wanted the design.

We have platinum shoulders with small diamonds on either side, in that triangular shape.

It's also enhanced by black enamel.

It goes all the way around the sapphire.

It's almost bezel-set, if you will.

There's no prongs, and the enamel work is in excellent condition.

It's also signed Cartier.

Mm-hmm.

It's stamped inside, and it is a New York piece.

The base metal is platinum, and then it's also 14-karat white gold on the bottom.

Oh.

I would say auction estimate would be between $5,000 and $7,000.

Oh, my goodness.

Yeah.

Oh, my goodness.

Great, thank you.

It was my late husband's chair when he was a small child.

It used to be his time out chair.

So... Aww.

He was born in '35.

He said it was old even then, so that's really about all I know.

And it's almost a history of American furniture.

There's this wonderful-- starting at the top, a Chippendale crest rail, which is great.

Right.

And vigorous, but kind of wildly over-exaggerated, you know?

Mm-hmm.

And a comb-back Windsor chair...

Yes.

It moves through.

It's got a bow back going on with it, as well.

Right.

And then you move around to these wrap-around arms.

And so it's also a round-about chair, meant to go into the corner.

We move down into the seat itself...

Yes.

And somebody has fashioned it so it would be super-comfy to sit in.

Yes.

And they describe this in Windsor chairs sometimes as a saddle seat.

There are pierced splats on it, which is part of a Chippendale tradition.

So these are all 18th-century forms, but it's so crazy, it's out of the playbook, absolutely.

Then you move down to the base, and you start to get a little bit of the area here that we're in, the Winterthur- Delaware Valley area.

These little Queen Anne side chairs have turnings that are similar to this.

I believe it's an 18th-century chair, say, 1780 or so.

It has a variety of, of woods in it, which you would expect to see in a Windsor.

Yes.

There's maple in it.

There is ash, and then it's all sort of homogeneously painted with this nice red-brown finish.

Yes.

So, I'm kind of thinking an estimate might be in the $1,000 to $2,000 range.

Oh, okay.

You know?

Great, yeah.

And, and take it from there.

(chuckling): It's-- yeah.

It's got a lot of personality, and we love it.

I purchased these back in the mid-'80s from a friend of mine that was coming up short on a mortgage payment.

They cost him about $3,000 apiece.

Each is an original screen print by Andy Warhol, who is arguably the single most important figure in the Pop Art movement of the 20th century.

Warhol was fascinated with everyday objects.

He was fascinated with celebrity.

These prints are great, not only in terms of the images, but in terms of the condition.

"Fiesta Pig", closest to me, was made in 1979.

"Turtle" was made in 1985.

Each one is clearly signed, and each one is numbered.

"Fiesta Pig" is an edition of 200.

"Turtle" is an edition of 250.

They are not titled, but we know the titles of the prints because we have the Catalogue Raisonné, and these conform exactly to the edition size, the date of publication, as well as the coloration.

"Fiesta Pig" was a print that shows basically-- a very amusing print, I think-- a pig in the aftermath of a party.

The "Turtle" was completed two years subsequent to his having done a series called "Endangered Species," and it was based upon a photograph, and it coincided with a film which was a sort of romantic comedy which centered around sea turtles in the London Zoo.

Interest in Warhol's work and in his career has really skyrocketed since his untimely passing in the '80s.

Do you have any idea what these might be worth if offered at auction?

No idea.

"Fiesta Pig" would probably be offered at around $8,000 to $12,000.

Mm-hmm.

"Turtle" would be in at $30,000 to $50,000.

Okay, great.

That's exciting.

PEÑA: We hope you enjoyed this special episode of "Junk in the Trunk."

Can't get enough "Roadshow"?

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The Feedback Booth is right after this.

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

This is Ellie, we brought today to the Antiques Roadshow, and we actually stumped them bad, because none of the appraisers had ever seen anything quite like her.

Now, they said she wasn't really worth that much, but I really think that they were D-O-G people.

We have a 1940s, early '50s Eames plywood chair.

Uh, I've taken a lot of grief from the family over the years, saying it's not worth carrying around, but it's worth anywhere from $1,500 to $2,500, and now I can say to my family, you know, well, I can't say it on camera.

What the young man told me was, it's made in China.

It was made back, maybe in the 1900s.

And like some people, it's beautiful, but totally useless.

(laughs) We brought our grandfather's Norwegian Viking spoon to the Antiques Roadshow.

We found out that it's actually made in India, but we had a good time anyway.

And I brought my cousin Janice, and I found out that she is priceless.

I brought my collection of 59 psychedelic rock-and-roll posters made by David Singer.

They're artist's proofs.

All 59 posters are signed by David Singer.

Appraised value: $10,000 to $15,000.

Thank you, "Antiques Roadshow."

PEÑA: Thanks for watching.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."