McNay Art Museum, Hour 1

♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: "Antiques Roadshow" is having a picture-perfect day at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas.

MAN: This picture is scalawags, all making deals.

I guess I'll have to say a little thank you up to the... (chuckles) ♪ ♪ PEÑA: The McNay was the first modern art museum in Texas when it opened in 1954.

It often takes vision and passion to be the first, and the museum's namesake, Marion Koogler McNay, had plenty of it.

McNay was enthusiastic about art throughout her life.

A watercolorist, she studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

She was an art educator, and as a collector, she was drawn to Southwestern art and then to works by American and European masters.

Many pieces are still in the museum's collection today.

"Roadshow" fans are admiring the museum's artworks as they wait for our experts to admire their treasures.

Take a look.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ WOMAN: It was made in Hawaii, I think maybe 100 years ago.

And the back, it's not flat like modern instruments.

It's carved like a violin would be, on the back of it.

So, that's why I think it's an older one.

WOMAN: This is a merman, uh, a Mexican folk art, and you, uh... For parades, they would walk through the streets.

We have several of them at home, but this is the only one I could carry 'cause it's the smallest one.

MAN: Well, these are a couple of lithographs by Alexandre Hogue, and my mother inherited them from a cousin.

And then she gave them to me, and said, "These would be good in your office."

Do you know what's, uh, going on in the scenes?

Well, in this one, this guy is hooking his pump jacks to the power source.

And in this picture, his land man and geologist and scalawags all making deals for oil and gas leases around the Spindletop well, which was a big blowout.

So the artist is Alexandre Hogue, and he was one of the Dallas Nine.

Yep.

Artists who grouped together in the 1930s making representational art-- regionalist art-- very much like these.

They're both titled in pencil, and both of them are an edition of 50.

I love this scene closest to me, the "Spindletop," which was an oil field just outside of Beaumont.

And my understanding is that the Spindletop was such a, a large oil field that it gushed approximately 100,000 barrels of oil a day for nine days straight, and it led to the formation of Gulf Oil and Texaco oil companies.

My understanding, that out of the 50 editions, he signed five of them "swindletop."

(chuckles): Because these guys are out here... Each, each one of the businessmen is trying to swindle the other... Yeah, they're out to swindle the other guy.

Yeah, and I know, from reading some on Hogue, that he was also somewhat of a preservationist, and didn't completely agree with a lot of things happening to the natural landscape in the West.

I love the detail on this one and all the different scenes that play, where you have the flames from the oil well itself, and you have surveyors marking out plots here, and you can see all the derricks in the background, with that shadowy figure, that horseback rider.

Uh, just kind of wonderful abstraction in, in all the smoke billowing forth from the well there.

And there's just such a nice Precisionist quality to that, and the mechanical nature of that work-- it's wonderful to me.

Have you ever had these evaluated?

Never had them evaluated-- like I said, my mom gave them to me, and they've just, something I've always had.

Hogue is primarily, like, like the rest of the, the Dallas Nine group they're known as painters.

He wasn't much of a printmaker, but he did make a handful of lithographs-- Western scenes, primarily, not so specific, like these oil scenes.

I have only ever seen one impression of one of these prints at auction in the past 30 years, and that's another one of these.

I've never, I've never seen another one of the "Spindletop" ever offer on the market before.

At auction, for the, uh, the one closest to you, I would put an estimate of $5,000 to $8,000 on that.

And on the "Spindletop," which is the larger, more detailed image, I would say, at auction, $10,000 to $15,000.

Hm, pretty good number.

Yeah, they're great images, and just super-scarce, and just so evocative of the oil industry and Texas, and a great Texas artist, too.

My father was stationed in Paris during World War II, and he was told to go pick up parachutes that were in the field in and around France, and one was too badly damaged, so he sent it home to my mother.

Parachute silk, which she'd make into her wedding dress.

This is a painting that my mother gave me.

She got it from an employer that, um, really liked her.

There's a, just the, um, an initial.

So, I'm not certain who paint it.

♪ ♪ WOMAN: It belonged to my father, and I inherit it when he passed away.

I believe it's European.

I don't know the correct name for it.

I consider it sort of a traveling writer's box.

Uh-huh.

It is an English box.

It is what we would call a lap desk or just a folding writing desk.

It's dated from between 1820 and 1830.

This is the reign of George IV.

George IV actually had a lot of interest in furniture which had brass inlay on it, like this.

We call this Boulle marquetry, and it's all over the top of this box, as we can see.

and on the front, as well.

The wood itself is sapele wood, so it's a tropical hardwood, and it's used a lot in these sorts of boxes, because it was very highly prized and had a wonderful figure.

There's a lot more to see inside.

So, we've got a clue here which indicates to us that it is definitely English.

And that's the lock.

"G.R.," here, and the crown patent.

So that is a period lock for George IV.

You would have had your pen tray here.

Sadly absent, now.

And a couple of other bits missing.

We also have this wonderful inlay.

See how tight this is.

Oh, yeah.

This is a tropical inlay, and this actually would have been done probably in Tunbridge Wells.

It's known as Tunbridge ware.

So this could be, uh, the original red leather-- morocco, red morocco leather gilted writing surface, which has been later replaced with this rather, dare I say, unfortunate green velvet.

This has not really seen much light.

So this is pretty much as it would have been at the time.

We actually see pieces like this on "Antiques Roadshow" a lot.

Oh!

Like, these lap desks were really...

They were produced in really, really large numbers, so... Because everybody needed them, they used them.

I mean, you mentioned that they were like traveling desks, but really, they mostly did their traveling within the home.

I mean, they were like portable... Oh, okay.

Writing stations, if you like.

We see a lot of these on "Roadshow," and most of them are pretty also-ran.

This one isn't that.

This one is a very, very high-quality one.

At auction, I would estimate it for between $1,500 and $2,000.

Oh, right, okay.

Thank you, very nice.

PEÑA: The original house cost nearly $140,000 at the time it was built, and took 16 months to complete.

It was finished in the fall of 1929, right before the stock market crashed.

An additional $100,000 covered landscaping.

Because her fortune came from large reserves of oil on land she owned, it's been said Mrs. McNay did not suffer significant financial losses through the Great Depression.

APPRAISER: How did you come across this incredible piece of jewelry?

The usual way-- I inherited it.

The chain starts with my great-grandmother in 1922.

She had been widowed for five years and decided it was time to take a tour of Europe.

She kidnapped my grandfather to be her driver, and the two of them spent a fairly prolonged period of time traveling through Europe.

And how old was your grandfather at that time?

I think he was 19.

Not a bad trip with his mother.

I think he had a good time.

(laughs): I believe it.

What we have here is a gold, silver, diamond, emerald, and pearl pendant brooch.

It's from the Renaissance Revival period and movement, with some Art Nouveau influence.

Colored stones became very popular during that time, as were pearls, so I bet it dates to about 1890.

The craftmanship of this brooch and the use of the metalwork, as well as the hand-chased design, is what tips me off into thinking it's from the Austro-Hungarian region of Europe.

The design with the three pearl drops, the center emerald, and those diamonds is characteristic of that region.

Something else I find interesting about this brooch is the bird phoenix motif that you see on either side of the emerald.

This is a very interesting motif, not completely congruent with that period, but probably part of that Art Nouveau influence that we see.

We have these two fabulous rose-cut diamonds.

In the 1890s, they were cutting diamonds in a more modern way, but this craftsman made the conscious decision to hark back to that Renaissance with the rose-cut diamonds.

Hm!

It's flanking this incredibly enormous cabochon emerald.

We know it's natural, we can see all the fabulous inclusions in it, which is very typical of emeralds from that period.

And then we have these three pearl drops.

They would have been natural pearls in that period, as opposed to cultured pearls that we see more frequently today.

My guess is that it was designed after a stomacher piece, which was a popular piece of jewelry in the 1500s.

Women would have worn these brooches in a similar place in the center of their chest or at the waist of a big, beautiful dress.

To have something from this period that hasn't been broken up into earrings, or hasn't been broken up to make different rings or pieces of jewelry, is a very unusual thing to see, and it's quite special.

And at auction today, I would expect it to bring in the $20,000 to $30,000 range.

Wow!

That's great.

(birds chirping) WOMAN: So my mom got it for me.

She won't tell me exactly where she got it from, but I think she picked it up at a garage sale.

But because it was a Valentine's gift, I think she wanted it to be, like, "Oh, it's special!"

So, yeah.

(laughs) This was in my parents' home and I don't know anything about it.

They are three men, obviously dressed in very old clothes.

I don't what, know what material they're made out of or anything.

They were in my parents' home growing up, and they were just always around.

And that's the only thing I know.

Well, what you have are Neapolitan crèche figures, and in 18th-century Italy, they started making nativity scenes, with Mary and Joseph and the shepherds and the three wise men, and then they added camels.

Well, these, these collections, and private collections, got so big, they started making figures of people in the town.

Oh.

So, you might have a butcher or you might have the mayor, or all the figures, and every year, they would add to these massive collections of crèche figures.

The size is very nice.

They're not overwhelmingly large.

They are all original, and their clothing, and this dome has protected them.

The dolls are all carved wood.

Then they're gessoed, and they are exquisitely painted.

And I don't see any, um, damage on the dolls.

I think on the retail market today, they would probably, the dome with the three dolls would sell for $3,500.

Oh, wow!

That's wonderful.

I'm so glad to know what they are.

There's a collection in the Smithsonian.

It has angels, and it has the Nativity at the bottom.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

And they've added to their collection, also.

PEÑA: Peacocks are a prominent presence at the McNay mansion.

Outside in the patio area, a colorful peacock is surrounded by blue, yellow, and white Talavera tiles.

The former dining room is a virtual peacock sanctuary, with iron doors with peacock designs and stenciled peacocks on the ceiling.

During Mrs. McNay's time, live peacocks were used as a sort of alarm system.

Their loud screeches were supposed to scare off intruders.

MAN: I have a first-edition "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz."

My dad actually purchased this back in the mid-'60s.

I have the mailing envelope from Texian Press in Waco, Texas.

I think they were book dealers...

They were probably a local bookseller, or...

Exactly.

Yeah.

And so, it was in that mailing envelope.

Fabulous.

And it was postmarked December of '65 And I was only two years old.

Right, right, I don't know how much he paid for it.

My father passed away when I was 11.

Then the books went to my mother, and I just remember growing up with them.

He was obsessed with "The Wizard of Oz," so he started collecting them.

What's unique about this particular first edition is that it's autographed by the illustrator, who is W.W. Denslow.

He also has an original piece of art inside the cover of this book.

Yeah.

W.W. Denslow, a very popular illustrator at the turn of the century.

Yes.

And he and Baum collaborated in a really special way on "The Wizard of Oz."

Yes.

And it's where both of their names were immortalized, especially Denslow, in this alliance.

My understanding is even he was maybe a little bit more well-known than, than the author, at the time.

At the time.

Yeah.

And then after the book took off...

Yes.

But they were both willing to-- it's kind of one of those situations.

Exactly.

And I think they share the copyright, if I'm not mistaken.

Yup.

It was an expensive book, and it was so important to them that it be illustrated in color.

Color printing back then was expensive.

You needed... it was a very complicated process.

They agreed it was so important, Denslow and Baum, that they paid to have that done.

And then later on, there was a falling-out, and issues, I think, over copyright ensued.

Yes, sure.

Because they were both big celebrities by that point.

Yes.

That can lead to friction.

This is their ideal partnership, was here.

This is the front free endpaper.

And what Denslow has done is really quite extraordinary, because it really matches...

This is a printed illustration, but you can see his style.

He went to very great degree to draw the Scarecrow.

This is a cat-like figure, I'm not sure who that is.

With the whip, like a...

I'm, I'm not even sure.

Like a circus ringmaster, almost looks like, but it's inscribed within that piece of paper.

So he took a lot of time.

So I'm thinking, "Wow, that's interesting."

First of all, it's a fabulous book.

The book itself, "The Wizard of Oz," is valuable, but when I see this, this isn't just signed at a book signing.

What's so special is this drawing, which is an ink drawing.

It's clearly an original drawing that was clearly done for the person the book was inscribed to, Dorothy Rountree.

Now, Dorothy, you think, "Okay, that's interesting."

"Her book, from Den," which was his abbreviation of Denslow.

And then he puts "Christmas, 1900," which is just, just soon after the book was really just being published.

Yeah.

And he signs with his signature seahorse monogram.

It's, it's notable as his symbol.

It's on the spine of the book.

It's everywhere.

So the book was published in 1900, Chicago, by George M. Hill.

Your dad, the appeal was "Wizard of Oz," do you think?

Denslow, or...

I think initially "Wizard of Oz."

He was born in 1914, so obviously, when he's growing up, as a child, I'm assuming "Oz" was very, very popular.

Sure, sure.

That was a childhood obsession.

Yep.

And so in adulthood, he had the means to start collecting, and he collected thousands and thousands of books.

I started to ask myself why... You know, what's the connection?

This is not just a little casual signature.

I looked up Rountree, and what is interesting is the association, there was a, a Harrison Rountree, who was Dorothy's father, and Harrison H. Rountree was a very wealthy Chicago banker, investor.

Okay.

He, in fact, helped Baum out.

You know about, Baum had financial problems.

Yes, all through his life, I think.

Rountree was very much linked to the whole Baum-Denslow story.

I gotcha.

Which, further investigation, we find that there is even a suggestion that the Dorothy character might have been named after Rountree's daughter.

Oh, wow.

So, this could be the original Dorothy.

There's a lot of dispute because he had a niece named Dorothy who passed away as a child.

Okay.

Baum did, by the name of Dorothy, and they thought maybe it was a homage to her.

Okay.

At the same time, we find out that a good close associate had a daughter named Dorothy who was very meaningful to the whole enterprise.

Sure.

And to have that inscription done with such care, obviously, a Christmas gift... Sure.

This is no longer just, you know, a girl named Dorothy.

This might really be the Dorothy, possibly.

So, the book itself is fabulous.

It's a second-state text, which I would assume was given as a presentation, because the text is accurate.

Yes.

It's most up-to-date, still from the year of publication.

The book, by the way, is in very nice condition.

I'd say it's close to fine.

It's very good to find hinges are good, it hasn't been repaired.

Yes.

No restoration.

No, no.

It's just an honest copy, we call it.

The book itself-- auction estimate would be in the $20,000 to $30,000... Yeah.

You know, just a copy.

No signature, no Denslow.

Yeah.

With the added Denslow, with that fine drawing, presenting it, and with the depth of the potential Dorothy association, it really elevates this thing, you know?

Okay.

So I would say, safely, if we were an auction estimate, we put $60,000 to $80,000 estimate.

Oh, my goodness!

Yeah.

Now, that-- and that's an estimate.

And it's not for sale.

(laughs) Good.

I would insure it, it's worth $100,000 insurance.

Okay, yeah.

APPRAISER: They're made by one of the few toy companies that made it from the '20s and '30s into the... after the war era.

And after the war, they made it as Mickey Mouse... Yeah, Mickey's on that side.

When, uh, "Mickey Mouse Club" and everything came out.

The boxes mean a lot.

WOMAN: Even though they look like a rat chewed them?

Even though.

(laughs) Well, these are some powder horns, two of eight that I have at home.

Mm-hmm.

My grandparents handed them down through the family.

They came from, probably, sometime during the... After the Revolutionary War, 'cause our family was here before the Revolutionary War.

And where were they?

Mostly around in the New York State area.

New York area?

Upstate New York.

Okay, all right.

Well, we're gonna start with this horn right here.

This one was carried by a guy named Daniel Hayden of Marlborough-- which is Marlborough, Massachusetts-- 1758, during the French and Indian War period.

Wonderful soldier figures carved on here.

Really, really naive and crude, very nice.

Now, everybody in the Massachusetts colony, and every other colony, had to be in the militia from the time they were 16 to 60.

Um, it's wonderful cow horn.

These are spokeshaved, and then they probably are carved with a pen knife and inked.

And these areas are carved and filed to get these points, and to file this down.

It's all one piece.

As far as who carved these horns, um, it could have been the name, the people who are named on them.

But a lot of times, these would have been purchased.

Sometimes they have the carver's name, sometimes they don't.

I didn't find a carver's name on either of these, but like I said, a lot of times they would be purchased.

People would carve them, get them prepped up, and then, when they had a buyer, they would put their name on it and sell it to him.

This one is a little bit later, and it's William Churchill.

William Churchill was from Plymouth, Mass.

And do you have ancestors from that area?

Not that I'm aware of.

Well, that's where he was from.

He enlisted at the beginning of the war, and I found his record stating he was in the service at this time, 1779.

Would have been used pretty much at the height of the American Revolution.

Um, have you ever had them appraised before?

No, sir.

Okay.

Well, I would put an auction estimate for each horn at between $8,000 and $12,000.

I've seen them pretty expensive before, but not that much.

(chuckles): Yeah, it's... (chuckles) They're really nice, and they've got some great value, and they've got some great historical value.

They're a great piece of Massachusetts history.

I'm from Concord, the next town over from Sudbury.

Well, there you go.

So, yeah, so they're close to home for me.

APPRAISER: These were passed down in your family.

Yes.

Dates about 1830.

This period, this style.

I'm not recognizing any specific hand, and clearly, they've been cleaned.

And you said you had them cleaned?

I did, yeah.

Yeah.

Do you see the in-painting on the face reflected with the black light?

And that's, that's a real negative for a potential buyer.

I, I think she's lovely.

You have a picture of her, of her husband, but I think together, in today's marketplace, they're in that $400 to $600 range for the pair.

Okay.

Ten, 15 years ago, it would have been $2,500 for the pair.

This is an old double-barreled Damascus steel... double-barreled 12-gauge shotgun that I got from my great-aunt.

I don't have a date, though I... That's what I'd like to try to find out, if someone could tell me when it was made.

The last photo like this was a lineup.

(chuckling) Well, my mother used to collect loose stones when she traveled around the world, and she was in Australia, and she decided she wanted to buy a black opal while she was there.

Do you happen to know how much your mother paid for the stone itself in Australia?

I have no idea.

Black opals are great things to have brought back from Australia.

They're much more highly valued than white opals.

It would be nicer if this stone had little flecks of orange or flecks of red in it-- that would make it even more important.

Right.

But it's still a very pretty stone.

What you see from the top here... Mm-hmm.

Is what we call a ballerina mount.

Oh, okay.

Because, you see the, the undulation of the... Of the tutu.

Of the diamonds, just like a tutu.

(chuckles) But this type of mount was, was much more popular later, in the, uh...

Sort of in the, in the '60s and '70s, into the '80s.

Yeah.

And that's, that's probably about when she would have had it mounted.

Mm-hmm.

And so, this is probably from the '70s.

But these are particularly nice small stones, lot of detailed work.

Yeah.

Really undulates just like the, the tutu in, uh, in motion.

A ballerina.

So I just love the combination.

We don't know who actually made it.

Unfortunately, it doesn't have everything one wants in a black opal.

Mm-hmm.

Color is almost more important than the size.

Yeah.

Nonetheless, you'd probably have to pay $12,000 to $15,000 in a retail setting... Really?

To, to buy this one today.

Holy Outback!

(both laughing) WOMAN: My mother-in-law gave it to me years ago.

I saw it on her wall, and I really admired it.

And I told her that it reminded me of Charleston, South Carolina, where I had visited with her son on my honeymoon.

And she told me that was where she had bought it.

I think she said she bought it in a street fair, but she bought it in the 1950s.

Mm-hmm.

But I just thought she was charming.

When you look at her face, and her flowers, and she has such strength and purpose.

I love it.

I do, too.

The artist is Elizabeth O'Neill Verner.

It's very hard to make out.

The "Elizabeth" is the easiest part to make out of the signature.

Right?

But it is all down here.

So, she was born in 1883, lived most of her life in Charleston, traveled a bit.

Uh-huh.

But she studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and was married with a couple of children.

But her husband died in 1925.

Mm-hmm.

She said up till 1925, she had two hobbies, art and her love of Charleston, and she was able to combine the two of them into a profession.

And she really had to make a living as an artist after her husband died.

She also was known as doing very sensitive portraits of African Americans.

Mm-hmm.

And particularly did numerous renditions of these flower sellers.

Mm-hmm.

And at one point, the mayor wanted to ban them from being able to sell the flowers on the street, and the artist actually fought on their behalf for them to be allowed to remain.

But her love for Charleston really extended to the architecture, and particularly, old buildings that were in decay or about to be torn down.

And she really did a lot for preserving the old buildings through her art, and she was sort of considered the matriarch of the Charleston Renaissance.

Mm-hmm.

And after she died, a lot of her work was actually left to the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

Mm-hmm.

But at the end of her life, what she was most proud of was not so much her art, but the work she had done as an architectural preservationist.

Which I thought was interesting.

Mm-hmm, I understand that, yes.

She also invented a certain technique, which was layering the pastel on top of silk.

Mm-hmm.

And then mounting the silk on board.

And she called it Verner Color.

Although she did a lot of pastels on silk, I don't think that's what you have.

Mm-hmm.

But we would have to have had it unframed it to be positive.

Have you ever had this appraised?

No.

Do you want to make a guess as to the value?

I, I thought it might be worth maybe $500 at the most.

I don't know.

My mother-in-law was not a wealthy woman, you know.

Well, these are very sensitive, dignified portraits, and they're held in high regard.

Mm-hmm.

Now, there is a condition issue, which we can see here, with these numerous polka dots.

Yes.

I think, in this condition, it might be worth about $15,000 in a retail gallery, but if you were to have it conserved, it might be as much as $25,000.

Wow.

Wow!

(chuckles) I guess I'll have to say a little thank you up to the... (chuckles) Thank you so much!

Oh, you're so welcome.

Mystery solved!

I love it, it's excellent.

I brought a, uh, Gold Liqueur Ballerina Bols music box.

It's, uh, belonged to my first wife, she passed away several years ago.

I don't know a whole lot about it, but I always thought it was really just the coolest thing.

PRODUCER: Have you tasted the liquor?

Oh, no, no, no, no.

I don't want to open it!

(laughs) It's a Fender Esquire, about a 1953.

I was in a band, and back in the '60s, and these were my, my guitars.

I got it in 1967.

PRODUCER: How much did you have to pay for it?

$200.

(chuckles) Do you think it's gone up in value?

Oh, yeah.

(chuckles) MAN: It belonged to my grandmother, who passed away when my father was only 16.

So it's been in the family.

However, it was sold in an estate sale back when he was 16, for money for him, and a distant cousin bought it.

And then, as we grew together as a family, again, after later in life, the cousin said, well, she had a plant stand that belonged to my dad's mother.

And so we went up to Missouri, in Joplin, Missouri, and picked it up.

We figured out that we can firmly attribute this table to this company, Charles Parker of Meriden, Connecticut.

It started in the early 1830s and it continued throughout, almost till the end of the 19th century.

Oh.

I would date this table somewhere around 1880.

And they were known for making flatware, spectacles, spectacle cases... Wow.

Coffee mills, some furniture.

So they were a big company.

Yeah.

But not particularly well-known, like some of their contemporaries.

But this, to me, this table is a wonderful example of sort of the Aesthetic sort of Japanesque design.

There's a, there's a design of elements that's unexpected and, for me, exciting to look at.

This is definitely my kind of thing.

And I think you mentioned that your dad fixed it up.

It looks like he polished it up a bit.

He polished it up, he did, and replaced the marble piece on top.

All right.

And did a little painting on the background only, of this piece, but other than that...

So we've...

So we've got, we've got thistles and, uh, an exotic dancer.

Yes.

With a tambourine.

Tambourine player.

We found other examples.

There's an example in the Brooklyn Museum.

There's an example in the Victoria and Albert Museum and other places.

Not exactly like this, but with many of the same elements.

Mm-hmm.

So I find this very exciting because it's, it's kind of dazzling.

I can see a big Boston fern on top of it, that kind of thing.

And the company called this table, its category, artistic bronze goods.

Huh!

So, kinda, kinda nifty.

So I've learned a little bit, like, looking into this.

Sure.

About the company and the table.

But the thing that attracted me the most to it is that it's just plain wonderful.

Well, thank you.

So do you have any idea as to what its value would be?

Not at all-- I mean, family.

But other than that, we really don't.

Well, this Aesthetic Movement furniture continues to be popular.

Hm.

At auction, I would estimate the value of the table between $800 and $1,200.

Wow, great.

That's wonderful.

Thank you.

Thanks, thanks for lugging it in here.

I appreciate it.

Oh, absolutely, no.

It's one of my favorite pieces.

♪ ♪ PEÑA: The first oil painting Marion McNay purchased was Diego Rivera's 1927 piece "Delfina Flores."

It's not known how much she paid for the artwork, but Rivera's paintings have brought millions of dollars at auction in recent years.

MAN: This was my great-grandfather's watch, and because we have the same initials, it sort of has come down to me through the family.

Do you have any idea where the watch came from?

I have no idea.

Was he someone who traveled to Paris?

There's a good chance.

They were wealthy and did travel.

Cartier was based both in, in Paris and in London and in New York.

Okay.

So this is a Cartier Paris watch.

The watch itself was made in Switzerland.

Now, every watch, um, of this period would have been customized, so it's really nice to have this enameled monogram on the back of the watch.

But we can see the rest of the watch.

We can see the face, which is what most people are interested in, and you can see that it's a very, very thin watch.

Cartier was instrumental in designing modern watches.

And one of the things they were most successful doing was making watches that were very, very thin.

And it's very hard to put complications inside a watch that's very, very thin.

What makes this watch interesting is that not only is it thin, it's also a watch that chimes.

Mm-hmm.

By pulling the slide on the side of the case, it will tell you the time-- it'll give you the chime for the hour, the chime for the quarter, and the chime for the minutes, and it's called a minute-repeating watch.

Unfortunately, it's not gonna cooperate with us today.

The watch is 80 years old and needs a good cleaning.

This is an 18-karat-gold French-made case.

Because the watch is by Cartier, and because it's so thin, it puts it into a whole new level of value.

Such an interesting early watch by Cartier would be worth many times what a normal repeating watch would be worth.

And were this in an auction, I would expect to see a pre-sale estimate in the range of $12,000 to $18,000.

Wow.

That's, that's great to know.

Yeah.

The problem is, the market for good china right now is terrible because kids don't want Grandma's china, they don't want Mom's china.

They generally don't want china at all, because you can't put it in a dishwasher.

My kids eat on paper plates.

(laughing) Okay.

What're you gonna do?

It's, I believe, a Civil War-era sword.

I've had it almost 60 years, got it out of my grandfather's garage.

I don't know if it's Union or Confederate.

I just want to learn about it.

I'm excited.

It's from Austria, and there are actually three patterns of Austrian heavy cavalry sword that got used during the American Civil War: the pattern 1845, the pattern 1850, and the pattern 1858.

This one is a pattern 1850.

And we can identify it by two means.

One are the seven pierced holes in the guard, and the other are these pierced holes here that allowed the addition of a sword knot, which you would wrap around your wrist, so when you're using it on horseback, if you drop the sword, you don't lose the sword.

Honestly, it's difficult to know if it was here for the war, but more than likely, it was, and more than likely, it was actually a Confederate purchase.

The Confederacy bought a lot of surplus arms from Austria, and it's dated actually... 1852 is the date.

The dies were a little funky then, and sometimes the five will look like a six, but the blade is dated 1852, and on the other side of the scabbard, that's actually 1853.

Sure, yeah.

And again, the dies were a little funky, and that's a little bit of a light stamping with some wear.

So I don't have any problem with this scabbard and this sword being contemporary to each other.

Married.

They weren't married.

I think they absolutely went together.

Just because there's a year difference between the scabbard date and the blade date doesn't mean they didn't get delivered together, and they're from the same maker.

So all of that hangs together very well.

As you know, it's got a couple of, uh, carry loops that allow you to attach it to your sword belt.

And these were used by the Confederate cavalry.

This was just a regular trooper's saber.

It's not a high, high-end decorative piece.

This is a weapon, and this is a heavy cavalry weapon that you would ride people down with.

Uh, in today's market, now that people are understanding these were actually bought and used by the Confederacy, there's actually a little bit more of a market for them.

Ten, 15 years ago, people didn't even realize these came here.

And I'd say in today's market, it would probably bring between $500 and $700.

It's a really nice-- in an auction setting.

This is a really nice example of an untouched sword.

And who knows?

Coming out of Pennsylvania, it might have been left over from Gettysburg or something like that.

WOMAN: They came out of the house that my father grew up in, in Wheeling, West Virginia.

They were, uh, panels that were in the front door of their home.

Well, can you tell me what you are seeing in the cartouches here?

Well, uh, beautiful urns and leaves and flowers and...

I thought that these were a picture of a steamboat, because Wheeling, West Virginia, was on the Ohio River, but...

Yes, okay, well, this is a steamboat picture.

I'm guessing that's their logo.

J & C Ritchie, also known as Wheeling Flint Glass Works, operated in Wheeling, West Virginia, where your family home was.

Mm-hmm.

These panes were made about 1833.

Wow.

That's older than I imagined, too.

Did they give you any more information about the pieces or...?

No, they were... My brothers and my sister each have one.

So there were four of these that were made.

Well, I want to tell you they are some of the rarest of the American lacy glass.

Really?

(laughs) And it's a pressed glass made to look like a cut glass.

Oh.

Um, it even feels like a cut, but it is a pressed-- it's pressed into a mold.

And recently, 2018, one panel came up for auction, and it sold for $3,200.

I am surprised.

(laughs) I'm very surprised.

One panel.

My goodness.

And we're talking about three here.

Wow.

That's incredible-- that's wonderful.

WOMAN: I brought in, uh, an award that's a NASA award.

Actually, I found it in a burn pile.

And there was this little Snoopy pin with this, uh, letter, and it explains the first black man into space rode on the last successful mission of the Challenger with this Snoopy pin.

WOMAN: I brought a Planters peanut jar.

I got it from my grandmother.

She had it on her shelf, a cookie jar for a long time.

I know that they used to have a general store, and that was, uh...

I want to say the '30s.

And I believe she may have kept it from the store.

So in 1921, my great-grandmother came from Pössneck, Germany, and she brought these items, along with a few other items from home, that her grandfather had carved out of wood.

First of all, let's talk about what they are.

These are relief-carved panels, and I think they date from around 1870, 1880.

Your grandfather, or your great-grandfather... Is...

It would have been my great-great-grandfather.

Great-grand, I was going to say.

(laughs) There's a lot of greats in there.

Yes!

He, he was very highly skilled, just the way he did the mountains and everything.

The fact that he was from Germany sort of puzzled me a little bit with, on this bigger one.

Exactly.

Because that's a Norwegian flag.

Yes.

But sometimes, they did things like this from prints.

Oh, okay.

The images were print-inspired.

They weren't necessarily something that they just sort of took out of nature.

Okay.

But your great-great-grandfather was, was way better than average because of the way he did the mountains, the way he did the people's faces, and everything is so animated.

Yes.

And I especially love the one up front here that has the trees.

Yeah.

The other thing I like about this stuff is that it has the original finish.

Yeah.

The frame is, is integral to the whole thing.

Right.

It's-- the frame is not added.

Right.

The whole thing is one solid piece of wood.

One piece, yeah.

Well, personally, I'd hang them in my house.

(chuckles) In a heartbeat.

Yes.

So in a good retail setting, I would say, on this large one, we'd be at about $1,000 to $1,500.

Okay.

And each one of these would be about $400 to $600 each, give or take.

Very nice.

Yes, they mean a lot to me and been in my family a long time, and they'll keep hanging on my wall till I go.

(laughs) ♪ ♪ PEÑA: Marion McNay admired folk art made by Native Americans and New Mexicans.

In the 1920s, when Catholic churches in that part of the country were replacing their folk art works with contemporary religious art, Mrs. McNay saw an opportunity.

The bulto on the right is a colorful 19th-century wood carving of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Our Lady of Guadalupe, from Mrs. McNay's own collection.

♪ ♪ WOMAN: An Apache Indian gave these to General John Bullis.

After General Bullis moved to San Antonio, Texas, he gave a lot of his Apache Indian things to my great-grandmother.

They had named one of their children William Bullis Cassin.

You know, after General Bullis.

She had them put in the Witte Museum, uh, just loaned them to the museum, for a long time.

But when the museum wanted them donated, she did not want to donate it.

Mm-hmm.

So she took it back.

And I think it was all stored for quite some time, and then my mother had these things framed.

John Lapham Bullis was born in 1841 in Macedon, New York.

And he was a Quaker, and he enlisted in the New York infantry as a volunteer at the beginning of the Civil War.

Mm-hmm.

He goes to Harpers Ferry, gets shot up and taken prisoner.

He recovers, and the Union government trades for him and gets him back.

He was wounded again, and goes, gets sent to Libby Prison, one of, you know, the most notorious Confederate prison that ever existed.

They get him out again, and he goes back into service.

He wants to be an officer.

He's not, he enlists as a private.

He begins working with what was called the U.S.

Colored Troops, and they were an infantry group that was made up of ex-slaves and freemen from the North.

They were all African Americans fighting against the Confederacy for the Union Army, and he worked his way up as a white officer rapidly.

Uh-huh.

After he was in the wars, he, he went to Arizona, where he served at San Carlos, which is Apache.

And people started giving him gifts, and he also started buying things.

These moccasins were made by the Jicarilla Apache for a dance called the Mountain Spirit Dance, and they're some of the few known with all of these figures on them.

He got these things about 1880, 1882, so pretty early.

Everything in this case is Apache.

This was probably a pouch for a peace medal.

This, and this piece here, held iron strikers for making fires.

They were called strike-a-lights.

And this probably did, also.

This is a war club for horseback, and this is a woman's awl case, because women sewed a lot.

Mm-hmm.

Because of this incredible history, and because you can trace where he was, it makes it very important.

There are, there are not many pieces you can trace like that.

If they were to come up for sale, I think they would bring, on the low end at an auction, $25,000 for what's in this case here.

Mm-hmm.

And on the high end, probably as much as $35,000, maybe a little more.

It's wonderful to know that.

I brought in my third-great-grandfather's Civil War belt and the two pouches that were on it.

And who did he serve with?

He served with a Pennsylvania regiment.

They armed a multimillion-man army with these.

Mm-hmm.

So there's a lot of them around.

But on the back of this one, we have his initials, so we know it's his.

Right.

And that's a wonderful touch, rather than just being an original belt buckle.

Mm-hmm.

What do you know about these pouches?

I know that they go on the belt and that they do hold... Armaments, I guess?

(chuckles) Minié balls, blasting caps, and some tinder, I think.

Well, what's cool about these is that they held percussion caps.

Mm-hmm.

Which you had to have if you were gonna fire your guns, whether it be a pistol, a carbine, or a musket, and...

He served with the North, out of Pennsylvania.

Right.

And that regiment, the 206th Pennsylvania, actually mustered in in Pittsburgh.

And if we open up this flap, we've got the mark of Oliver and Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Ah!

So it would have come...

I didn't know that.

Straight from the factory when he had it.

(chuckles) And there's a few differences about these.

This one is made out of standard bridle leather, and it has a little brass piece.

And the brass piece is called a finial.

Mm-hmm.

And that's what the closure tab fits around to keep it closed.

Mm-hmm.

Did you ever notice that this one's made a little differently, and that it's lead?

No.

And it's also made of pigskin.

Oh, okay.

That's a couple of traits of it being a Confederate-manufactured cap box.

Oh!

So, somewhere along the line, he decided he was gonna take him home a souvenir, and he got one from the other side.

Excellent.

So we have the very well-made one from Pittsburgh, and the one that's made in the South, the Confederate one.

Okay.

Because they're family, I'm sure they'd be priceless.

But have you ever checked into a value?

Never.

For collector value, the belt, without the name on it, they usually sell in the $300 range.

Okay.

Because we have that name and association of your ancestor with it, it'll double that.

It'll sell for about $600.

Okay.

As for the percussion cap box, the Union one, a lot of them out there.

Mm-hmm.

Even with the name on it.

And it's probably worth somewhere in the $150 range.

Okay.

The Confederate one is a lot rarer.

And we do have the tab.

It's separated, but you still have it.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

It's amazing that that didn't get lost over the years.

One like this, in this condition, will sell for about $1,000.

Okay.

So, it's worth more than... (both laughing) All right.

(giggles) So it's worth more than the belt and the other cap box put together.

Amazing.

Okay, great.

(birds chirping) Well, this is a prototype model of the Mercury capsule and booster rocket tested in the wind tunnels at Langley Field Research Center in Virginia as the country prepared to launch the Mercury capsule for the first time.

And my father was an aeronautical engineer with NASA, and he was the one that tested these models, and from time to time, they would throw them in a junk pile behind the wind tunnel.

And one day, for whatever reason, he took one home, and it, uh, sat in the garage for over 40 years and was discovered when we moved my father and mother up here from Seabrook, Texas, where he worked at the Johnson Space Center.

He gave it to me in 2008.

It's been on a shelf in my office ever since.

I knew sort of what it was, I asked him about it.

He did tell me that, that this had actually been mounted in the wind tunnels and tested.

He started with the National Advisory Council for Aeronautics, N.A.C.A., in 1948.

And in 1958, he became part of the space task group.

Mm-hmm.

Then we were moved to Virginia, where we lived, nestled in the community near all the astronauts, and he knew all of them quite well.

I had a little boat I kept in John Glenn's backyard, who was... Who lived four doors down from us, and next door to Scott Carpenter, so...

Knew a lot of the...

In fact, knew all the first seven astronauts.

My father was asked by the people at NASA to teach the first seven astronauts aeronautics.

What was it like growing up around all those astronauts?

It was very exciting.

Very exciting.

I recall television cameras set up in our front yard when John Glenn was sent into space in one of the Mercury capsules.

This, for me, is one of the most exciting things I've seen, NASA-related, to come in to "Roadshow."

This is from the, Project Mercury, like you said, and that was our first manned space program.

And its goal was to launch the first American into space, and then to follow it up, to eventually land Americans on the moon.

The Mercury rocket system was primarily developed by Maxime Faget, and what he was most remembered for was his development of the launch escape system.

All this superstructure on the top is part of the launch escape system, and what it was was a couple of solid rocket boosters that, in the case of an emergency, those rockets would fire and pull the capsule away, and hopefully, you know, it'll allow the, uh, passenger to survive.

Passenger to survive, yes.

Project Mercury ran from 1958 to 1963, and throughout that process, they went with many different designs of not only the capsule, but the launch escape system.

And this would have had to have been very early in the development cycle, because they had to test so many different configurations, and they finally launched the first American into space in 1961.

In three years, they were able to completely design the capsule, the launch escape system, and everything-- all the life support inside-- that was necessary to launch a American into space.

Most likely, this was made in 1958, 1959.

And by the shape of it, we can tell this is nearing the final design of the Mercury capsule itself.

Most of the time, when you see the wind tunnel models of the, like this, they're in museums.

You very rarely see them in private hands.

And more often than not, it's just a capsule or the entire rocket.

You almost never see one with the entire superstructure on top, with all the great little details of all the little rocket nozzles, all four of them-- the three on the side and the one below.

I mean, it's very well-made, out of stainless steel, soldered together.

It's such a rare and highly desirable piece that I'm sure any collector would love to have it.

I would give it a conservative auction estimate of between $60,000 and $80,000.

That's interesting.

Interesting.

Yeah, interesting.

(laughs) It's not for sale.

It's not gonna be sold, it might end up in a museum.

I would have no problem giving a very conservative insurance value of $80,000 to $120,000.

All right.

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

I brought this supposedly authentic Betsy Ross-era flag that a guy gave me that owed me $50,000, and...

It's worth about $150.

To $200.

To $200.

(chuckles) Yay!

I brought in some discs today, and what I found out was the most valuable were our bubble gum discs.

They're $20 apiece.

What are you chewing?!

I have a lovely French tin toy bear.

He's from the '50s.

I paid about $35 American for him, and he's worth from $75 to $100.

Woo-hoo!

Woo-hoo!

Thank you, "Antiques Roadshow."

This is a 1936 Texas Centennial pitcher, and because I live in the great state of Texas, it's worth about $125.

But if I were from Massachusetts, it'd be worth about $25.

(chuckles) And today, I brought with me golf clubs from the Hazelden Golf Course in Indiana, and I learned that they're not really worth anything, which is par for the course for every antique that I own.

I'm holding an opal brooch and a matching set of earrings, and I learned that the lovely little appraiser, who is cute as a doll, loved it as much as I did.

And she said it's worth between $800 and $1,200, which is fine with me.

Thanks, and thanks, "Antiques Roadshow."

Glad you got to Texas.

PEÑA: Thanks for watching.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."