McNay Art Museum, Hour 3

♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: "Antiques Roadshow" is finding great treasures as folks bring their cherished objects to the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio.

She refused to take it off, she was very... Mm-hmm.

You know, sentimental about it.

Right.

Maybe the diamond.

Not so much the marriage.

(laughing): Not the... ♪ ♪ PEÑA: When the McNay Art Museum opened in 1954, it was a flag bearer for modern art in Texas.

The museum's first exhibition focused on the art of Spanish master Pablo Picasso.

Two Picasso pieces came directly from the museum's benefactor, Marion McNay: "Woman with a Plumed Hat" and "Guitar and Wine Glass."

Today, the museum owns over 90 Picasso works.

In fact, the museum's collection has grown from 700 works gifted from Mrs. McNay to over 20,000 art objects.

"Roadshow" is seeing all kinds of objects come into the McNay Art Museum, but which ones are making their television debut?

Check it out.

WOMAN (in background): Y'all have a wonderful time.

♪ ♪ (laughing) Uh... We have no idea.

(laughs) Not sure.

We think maybe it's, like... Maybe, like, 100, 150 years...

It's, like, I think it's a cigar box, basically.

Um, we wanted to see if we could learn a little bit more about it.

I brought a lamp that I bought, and I had been to a museum exhibit in France, and it looked a lot like some of the stuff that this one artist had done.

I'm hoping it's by him.

His name was Nicolas Schöffer, I think.

It hangs in a bathroom.

(laughs) ♪ ♪ MAN: My father has a small collection of canes.

He used to just keep them by the door in a, in a holder.

And one day, I was looking at this particular cane and noticed it's got a inscription plaque on it.

And I was fascinated by it, and I asked him if I could take it home and do a little research.

And he said, "You can have it-- it's yours."

Just like that.

Just like that.

So when did you get it from your dad?

It's been about three months.

So what did you find out?

Almost nothing.

All I could do was get a loop and read what's on the engraved plaque.

And it's very hard to see; it's very finely engraved.

The plaque says, "Made by G. Donato Lovece, work commenced October 1, '96, finished April 15, A.D. 97.

So we assume that's 1896.

I've always assumed it's 1896.

Yeah, yeah.

So when did your dad get this cane?

It had to be at least 20 years ago, probably no more than 40.

He couldn't remember the name of the store, but he definitely bought it here in San Antonio.

You showed me something at the top that really got my attention.

What was that?

At the very top, it has a little carving of the Alamo.

The local shrine, the Alamo.

And then below it is the inscription tag, and it's probably silver.

And then the whole shaft is covered with these wonderful scenes.

I don't recognize what they are, but I'm guessing they're probably from Italian operas.

This is the kind of thing that folk art cane collectors really love.

There's lots of carving with lots of figures and lots of action.

I started going back into the census records, and what I was able to find was that Daniel Lovece immigrated to New York, New York, from Anzi, Italy.

And it's a little town today, still in existence, of about 1,800 people.

And by 1890, he was here.

The Loveces were here in San Antonio.

Well, the Loveces ran a fruit stand on Alamo Plaza.

Perfect.

And that's what this wagon shows-- their fruit delivery, produce delivery wagon.

It all ties together, except for the name of the Lovece who carved the cane.

Right.

I can't find him!

To me, this cane represents the sort of classic immigrant story of America.

In terms of the value, did your dad say what he paid for it?

No.

When he was actively buying canes, he would never pay more than, let's say, a few hundred dollars.

But he did not remember what he paid for it.

It's, has great carving.

It has some traces of green paint in here.

It is missing, at the very tip, there was a little screw-on metal tip, a ferrule, there at one time.

But overall, it's, it's in fabulous condition.

And I would think, in a, in a cane auction to people who collect folk art canes, it might bring $1,500 to $2,500.

That's excellent to know.

I brought in a few things, but this is a painting that my dad purchased quite a few years ago.

And so I'm curious about the story behind it and what it might be worth.

APPRAISER: These are very desirable in the tribal art world, but the old ones, the ones made for tribal use.

Yes, sir.

It's a large piece of jade.

It's huge.

That was what caught my attention.

So I think probably $600 to $800, or something like that.

Okay.

Six to eight?

I don't know what you paid for it.

Um, $40.

I had no idea.

Well, I think you're ahead, don't you?

WOMAN: Yeah, I'm okay with that.

MAN (laughing): Hopefully.

This is a painting, one of three, purchased by my parents in Southeast Louisiana in the very early 1970s.

I am told it is a Clementine Hunter, who was a regional artist that lived in Southeast Louisiana.

This is the piece I wound up with, and was one of the first artworks I rescued from the house prior to Hurricane Katrina.

Mm-hmm.

It is my understanding that they purchased the three paintings together at an arts fair, I think, at some place like Madewood Plantation, or possibly somewhere nearby.

And do you know what they paid for them?

I have no idea, sir.

Well, it's a very interesting artwork, and it represents a piece from the very early part of her career.

And she is well-known as a really great African American folk art painter.

She was born about 1887, and she claimed to be 100 years old.

But record-keeping from that time period was a little murky.

She was born on Hidden Hill Plantation in Louisiana.

At about 16, she moved to another plantation called Melrose.

It was there that the owner of the plantation encouraged the arts.

They had artists-in-residence, and she was encouraged to start painting.

We're, and I think our audience is, familiar with her rural folk art scenes from plantation life.

And those are also sought after.

But when these come to market, these are very highly desirable pieces from her early period.

Now, it's an oil on canvas that's mounted to Masonite.

Mm-hmm.

Would you have any idea of the value in today's marketplace?

Uh, I am no appraiser of art, and my wife is far more educated in it than I am.

But my personal appraisal would be somewhere between $2,000 and $5,000.

You know, I think in today's marketplace, because her works are so desirable, and this represents a very rare part of her body of work, I would up that a little bit.

And I would say probably in the $4,000 to $6,000 range for a retail price.

I would feel very comfortable with that.

Outstanding.

PEÑA: Marion McNay favored American Modern artists, but she never bought any works by the mother of American Modernism, Georgia O'Keeffe.

Several of O'Keeffe's paintings are now part of the museum's collection.

"From the Plains I," an oil on canvas created in 1953, shows O'Keeffe's fascination with vast landscapes, this vibrantly colorful work capturing her representation of the plains of West Texas.

APPRAISER: So you brought in this 1950s "Louisiana Hayride" program, but the reason I was really excited when you came to the table was the fact that we have this on the back of it.

And what can you tell me about this and how you got it?

Well, when I was in high school, in the '50s, we loved to go to Shreveport, to the "Louisiana Hayride," on the weekends.

My sister and I and some more girls would go often, and I was about 16 years old then-- a long time ago.

And Elvis was there, and Johnny Cash, and they weren't popular like they are now.

So, anyway, Elvis was standing on the steps there by himself, and so I just had this book, and I went up to him and asked him if he'd mind giving me his autograph.

Wow, and what did you think of Elvis?

(chuckling): Oh.

(laughs) Really handsome.

Yeah?

Really good-looking.

He was young, then, too.

You know, it was before he married.

And I heard he made $18 a performance at that time.

So he was making big money, wasn't he?

Oh, my goodness.

Even with inflation, that's still not a lot of money.

No, it wasn't.

And then you also have, I see, another one over here.

How did you get the other signature?

Johnny Cash, it was at the same time.

He was there, too, and he was just standing in the doorway during intermission, waiting to go back on.

What did you think of him?

And went up to him and got his autograph.

(chuckling): Another handsome one.

We see a lot of autographs here at the Roadshow.

Yeah.

One, you've procured these firsthand.

Right.

And I believe you 100% that you got them.

If you had been someone who purchased this at an auction and brought it to the table, I would have looked at these signatures and said, "They're fake."

Really?

Because they looked really weird.

They're not the Elvis signature we're used to seeing, and it's not the Johnny Cash signature that we're used to seeing.

But we think that this is-- we've tried to nail it down.

With more time, we could probably get very specific about the date, but we believe it's 1955.

And at that time, these guys weren't really that popular yet.

No, no, they weren't.

(chuckling) And I think that really what we have is such early signatures, that they actually hadn't signed enough to develop the signature that we're all used to seeing by now.

Right.

So that is pretty extraordinary, and it really affects the value.

And to have these two together... Yeah.

Because if we set this, the period here, Elvis started doing the "Louisiana Hayride" shows mid-1954.

Yeah.

He'd taped "That's All Right" at Sun Studios, and that was kind of the song that he led with.

Colonel Parker got him a one-year contract.

And so he ended up staying until about 1956.

Yeah.

And that's that famous show where Horace Logan says, "Elvis has left the building."

Right.

That's all happening at the "Louisiana Hayride."

Yeah.

So it's a very historic venue.

But to also have Johnny Cash there.

Yeah, the two of them.

And all of this happens a year before the "Million Dollar Quartet," where you have Johnny Cash, and Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins recording at Sun Studios together.

The "Louisiana Hayride" is such a historic venue because it launched the career of so many country artists.

I mean, the list really goes on for days.

Yeah.

And it was just the place to be seen.

The program itself... Mm-hmm.

They sell for about $50, $75 when they come up.

And the other interesting thing about this program is, again, because it's, it's pre-fame for Elvis and Johnny Cash... Yeah.

They're not even in this program.

No, no, they're not.

They were not famous enough yet to even be listed among the performers at the "Louisiana Hayride."

No.

So, it's, it's fascinating.

Together, having these two guys at that time... Yeah.

At auction for the program, I would put between $5,000 and $7,000.

(gasps): Oh!

Really?

I had no idea.

Really?

That's fantastic.

I'm glad I kept it all these years.

Oh, I was about to run out of my bucket list of getting on the "Antiques Roadshow."

I was hoping I could come some time, so this is wonderful.

And at the time, I was wishing I had a piece of paper that I could have had them autograph, but it's probably better that it's on the "Hayride" book.

That helps.

Way better.

So this is a piece of Willets Belleek.

Belleek, after the Irish Belleek.

But a complete Willets Belleek dresser set, dating to about 1885, excellent condition.

The whole set together on today's market, maybe $250 to $350.

WOMAN: Awesome.

Retail today-- very nice.

My great-grandfather supposedly brought this from Germany on one of his trips 130 years ago.

But we're thinking when he got off the ship, he just went to some local place and bought it.

But we're here to see.

One of my friends, who's an antique dealer, she bought this piece, she said about 20 years ago, from an estate in Connecticut.

And she was getting rid of some things, and she offered it for sale.

And I really loved the face.

And then I thought, "Well, why not?"

It's different from anything I collect.

I thought I might enjoy having it.

And so what did you pay for it?

I paid $100 for it.

Okay, and has anyone looked at it or appraised it?

Nope, I don't know anything about it at all.

So, what do you want to find out today?

I'd like to know where it's from, if it... She said she thought it might be Peruvian.

I wanted to know if that was true.

Okay.

And if it's-- is it old?

Is it new?

What, what might it be?

You know I have a reputation for doing reproductions on this show.

I do, yes.

And you are a college professor.

Yes.

So I'm going to be very gentle.

(chuckles) And I will tell you this piece is real.

Oh!

That's exciting!

Isn't that good?

Yes.

(laughing): That's a big relief.

So let me tell you a little bit about it.

Okay.

This is from Peru.

It's from Northern Peru.

And it's in the area called Chimú, C-H-I-M-U.

And it actually dates A.D. 1000 to 1400.

Wow.

Now, this would have been a vessel that would have been in a tomb, and it would have accompanied the deceased to the afterlife.

Wow.

And it would not have had anything in it.

But it's just a, it's really a neat example.

That's so cool.

Now, there are some really cool things about this.

Okay.

First of all, the face is lovely.

It's a mold-made pot.

You can see the mold line right down there.

Hmm.

Now, that's absolutely normal.

Sometimes you know that they're hand-thrown pots, but this isn't.

Okay.

So what makes this one exceptional?

The mold is really, really lovely.

The face is beautiful.

This spout is very elegant.

And I'm going to turn it one more time here, but I'm going to turn it all the way to the back.

This element of the pot is called a strap handle.

But I want to look here, what we have is a double figure.

One figure is standing up here with the legs down here.

It's so subtle and so elegant, it really is nice.

Now, in my 45-year career, I've seen about a billion of these, okay?

(laughs) Okay, that may be an exaggeration, but I've seen a lot.

Okay.

This one is very elegant, and I'm going to put a value of $800 to $1,200 at a good gallery.

All right!

Now, that's an aggressive price for it, but I think it really is well worth it.

And I think it's a super object.

Well, this was very exciting!

Thank you so much!

I am so relieved.

I thought you were going to tell me that it was fake.

Thank you.

Wow.

You're very welcome.

In 1970, my parents had been dealing with a gallery in Great Neck, New York, called the Eva Lee Gallery.

And they purchased a large oil on canvas by the painter Rolph Scarlett.

The story was told to them that Rolph Scarlett had met Peggy Guggenheim... Mm-hmm.

Who was interested in having a retrospective of his work.

He painted, did prints, sent them to her.

She put them in the Guggenheim, in the basement, waiting to get a retrospective done.

It took too long for him.

He was running out of money.

And the story goes that he went out west to paint sets.

Peggy Guggenheim was angry, and somehow, Eva Lee Gallery got ahold of some of the work.

So no retrospective.

Never.

And even though it was dangled in front of him, so the story goes, it didn't eventually happen.

That's what I was told, yes.

These works ended up at this gallery where you then purchased them, correct?

Yes.

In 1970, my husband and I purchased them for $250 each.

It says on the back that they were circa 1946, oil on paper.

Rolph Scarlett was born in 1889 in Canada, and he passed away in 1984.

So Scarlett, in 1939, was contracted to teach at the Guggenheim, which was then known as the Museum of Nonobjective Painting.

And he taught there from 1939 to 1947.

So he had an eight-year tenure there, and he certainly had a relationship with that institution, which is why I think your background story about his work having been there, and his subsequent disappointment in not getting a retrospective show might be a possibility.

And I found it interesting that on the back, the labels say, "Circa 1946."

And that was just prior to his leaving.

In 1947, he did move out west for a very brief stint to work in other means.

He was a set designer, he was a jewelry designer.

He ended up working in Woodstock, New York, and he spent about 25 years toward the end of his life... Oh, wow.

Teaching and working there.

And much of his body of production that surfaces today is from that period.

These two examples, they're identified on the reverse, probably by the gallery, and they may have been a bit more contrived.

I don't know that these are necessarily landscape subjects.

They're more studies in abstraction.

The larger work actually has a title: "Two Red Stars."

Again, that might have been determined by the gallery.

They may have assumed that that was sort of a working title.

Right, yeah.

And it also says, dated "circa 1946," which is accurate, and it's a bit larger, 18 by 24 inches.

And they're cited as oil on paper, but, really, these should be identified as mixed-media works on paper.

There is some watercolor, there is some gouache, and they're laid down into these frames, probably where they were presented for the gallery that you bought them at.

Yes.

Rolph Scarlett was one of the first American artists to actually exhibit his work and have works acquired by the Guggenheim.

Today, in looking into their permanent collection, his work is some of their earliest acquisitions.

So they're both top-notch examples in this medium.

Today, at auction, the smaller of the two, the vertical example, would be expected to fetch somewhere in the region of $2,000 to $4,000.

And the larger example, which is what he's well-known for, would be expected to fetch somewhere in the region of $3,000 to $5,000.

Well, that's lovely.

I appreciate it, thank you so much.

Yeah.

There's been a lot of scholarship on his work, and a lot of appreciation for his work, especially more recently.

WOMAN: My question was... APPRAISER: Sure.

WOMAN: Some of the other paintings that I had seen by Joe Peacock... APPRAISER: Yeah?

WOMAN: He uses the same horse, with this name, Snake, so I... APPRAISER: He probably liked the... WOMAN: Yeah, the horse.

So I think he used him in all... APPRAISER: Yeah, the colors of the horse, and continued to use him.

Let me see the spurs.

WOMAN: Oh.

APPRAISER: Since you have them.

Okay, follow me, guys.

We're going to show a colleague some of these things, and...

These were made by a blacksmith at Fort McKavett.

Oh, okay.

And, and I-- he's the only spur maker I know that put that little silver... Oh, wow.

Deal on the top.

Okay.

I mean, this guy was on a horse all day, every day.

He was, for his whole life.

MAN: We purchased these from a local estate sale.

Thought they were pretty, ornate, looked old.

Mm-hmm.

We did do some research, and we think maybe they're Sèvres.

What's wonderful about these is the way that they're decorated, not just with these wonderful portraits that surround the body, but also you've got the laurel wreaths that come down from the neck that simulate bronze.

I'm sure they do represent specific people in history.

But without quite a bit of research, it would be hard to know exactly who.

The condition on both of them are really, really great.

Your question was, are they Sèvres?

We can't say 100%, because we can't get underneath them, because that, this solid base on here.

But the quality would totally tell me that they probably are Sèvres.

I'd feel totally comfortable calling them Sèvres.

Mid-19th century would be the approximate date for them.

What did you pay for them?

Actually, $50 for the pair.

$50.

So what do you think they're worth?

Um, a comparable pair we saw was about $4,000 for the pair.

Uh-huh.

The market isn't what it used to be for these.

As you can imagine, it's really not the taste of anybody under the age of 50.

Yeah.

But nonetheless, these are the highest end of the spectrum, and that market is still strong.

There are still many people in their 60s and 70s and even 80s that are still buying this level of porcelain, and that's keeping this level as high as it is.

An auction estimate, in fact, would be in the range of $5,000 to $7,000.

Oh, wow.

And I think they'll bring all of that and... You know, these don't come up every day.

So the probability is, the likelihood you'll create some competition and that they, they could do more than that.

Excellent.

Thank you for bringing them in.

Oh, thank you.

There were other manufacturers that tried to do something similar, but they weren't so very successful.

WOMAN: It was given to me, and it came through a family of our friends, and it had been purchased years ago out west, as they called it.

My friend lived in New York, and she said it belonged to her mother's godmother.

And I've, I've had it now for many years.

I was told it's Navajo and that it's very old.

And that's, that's basically what I know.

I was told that the string was on there because that's how they used to do the... Mm-hmm.

The necklaces, so it would be adjusted to the buyer, whomever was going to be wearing it.

I wear it occasionally, not a lot.

I would place its age at about 1885.

Oh.

And the warmth of your piece, which I adore, is the fact that it was-- these, this was made from smelted coinage.

They would use the coins of the U.S. until that was deemed illegal, to deface coinage.

And they also used Mexican pesos.

The Navajo were settled mostly in New Mexico.

Mm-hmm.

This piece could have been made around the Gallup area.

One of the traders that employed Mexicans to teach the tufa casting to the Navajo was Hubble, and he had the Hubble Trading Post.

Mm-hmm.

Right outside of Gallup.

Mm-hmm.

So it well could be traced to that general area.

It's so beautifully executed.

There were only a handful that were masters at that point.

You say, yeah.

And this has a master's hand.

This piece could have been an owned piece... Yeah.

Or it could have been made to sell at this time period.

Okay.

The crescent itself comes from the Moorish tradition of repelling the evil eye.

You have a... a necklace that really speaks of the infancy of Navajo silver-making.

Wonderful.

And it's stunning.

At auction, you would get between $5,000 and $7,000 for it.

Really?

I'm very pleased to have it, and I will keep it in the family.

And these kind of prints, people brought back from European holidays all the time.

Something that was more expensive than a postcard, which would have been a very cheap souvenir; and something that was far less expensive than an oil painting, which would have been too expensive to bring back.

Uh-huh.

Thank you very much.

You're really welcome.

Appreciate it.

Thanks.

And I brought some hair art, some mourning art.

And I brought a coin!

I, I just...

I, I, I left my, my, my coin at home.

MAN: Oh, that's okay.

WOMAN: But that's okay, you've got your toy.

Are you all excited, boys?

Yes!

Yes.

WOMAN: Say, "Yay, 'Antiques Roadshow.'"

MAN: Yay.

OTHERS: Yay, "Antiques Roadshow."

WOMAN: Well, she's been in the family for years.

I had a Great-Aunt Flora.

And of course, she was the one with all the money, and did a lot of traveling.

And this was in her house when she passed away, and nobody else seemed to want her, so I gave her a home.

I know it's from Germany.

Okay.

I don't know who she is.

I've looked and looked, and this face is so unusual that I can't find her anywhere.

Okay, you're right, the face is unusual, and that's why we're standing here now.

Oh!

It's a doll made by Simon & Halbig in about 1910, 1915.

And it's unusual in this size.

This particular doll was much, usually much smaller, and they were called Little Women.

I've never seen one in this much larger size.

Oh, my goodness.

The body is antique, but it was not her original body.

They were toys, and naturally, they were just switched, if the need be.

Right.

It isn't marked Simon & Halbig.

They usually have an S and H on the back.

This one is just marked "Germany."

It's unusual in that it has a very long face.

It's... has this open-closed mouth.

There are teeth there, but they're, they're just molded and painted.

On the market today, this doll would sell from $1,800 to $2,000.

That's good.

Aunt Flora would be pleased.

(both laugh) PEÑA: Paul Gauguin, "Portrait of the Artist With the Idol," was purchased by Marion McNay, shown here with the painting, in the early days of her pursuit of European Modernist works.

At the time this painting was created, around 1893, Gauguin had been studying ancient Polynesian deities.

Perhaps McNay felt a connection to the piece, as she was a collector of Southwestern religious idols.

This is a watch that belonged to my father, and I inherited it from him when he passed away about 30 years ago.

I believe my mom told me at one point that it was given to him.

He was a, an accountant, and it was given to him in lieu of cash for some work he did for someone.

So I don't know that he actually paid money for it.

I didn't wear it for very long.

I was waiting tables at the time, and I thought having a Rolex on my wrist probably wasn't going to help my, my tips too much.

So I took it off, I put it in a drawer, and it's been sitting there for 30 years.

I was told that it would cost me about $500 to have it opened up and get it running again, and I wanted to see if it was going to be worth investing that much money into the watch.

What you have here is a Rolex Daytona.

The reference is 6263.

Mm-hmm.

The serial number on this watch dates it to 1980.

They're still producing the Rolex Daytona.

It's a different model, but it still looks very similar to this.

And this is what collectors refer to as a "sports watch."

This watch was created in Switzerland.

You have the screw-down crown rather than just a normal pusher.

Right.

It is a chronograph, which, you see the pushers to start, stop, and reset, on the side of the watch.

On the bezel, you have a ring that you could calculate the speed of an object.

Okay.

So that helps with racing.

Today, the modern versions, they're very hard to get, because everybody knows them, everybody loves them.

And this isn't the first Rolex Daytona, but it still is a vintage Daytona.

Mm-hmm.

The vintage ones do demand more money.

Right.

And this one is referred to as the "Big Red."

And that is in regard to the red script on the dial where it says "Daytona."

The Daytona is a watch that's very well-known, very well-coveted.

One of the big names regarding Rolexes you might hear is Paul Newman.

Sure.

Great actor, he also raced.

He had a watch that had a bit of a different dial.

Just as this is the Big Red dial, his watch is referred to as the "Paul Newman" dial.

Okay.

What would you think something like this would be?

I've looked online, and I've seen people selling similar watches from anywhere from $1,000 or $2,000 to tens of thousands.

I have no idea where this would fall.

If you were to have it repaired, anything cosmetic you do not touch on this watch.

Okay.

Something cosmetic, you could lose as much as $10,000 to $20,000.

Wow, wow.

A retail value would be $70,000 to $90,000.

(chuckling): Oh, okay.

Not running?

Not running.

Wow, okay.

As long as everything's there.

Having it running is an easy fix.

Oh, my goodness, wow.

(chuckles) I think a $500 repair is... Yeah.

That's a solid investment.

It's an okay investment.

Yeah.

You could do worse.

I'm not going to put it back on my wrist.

You did a good job taking it off while waiting, you know, maybe got a few more tips.

Yeah, yeah.

APPRAISER: Each block would have been made by different people, pieced together.

So that's why you have different types of embroidery on it.

It's an amazing amount of work, exquisitely embroidered.

APPRAISER: This coat is from the 1920s, and you actually have the picture of the little girl who wore it originally.

Yes.

And this is called a crazy-quilt-style coat.

And what I like to think about it is, It's the coat of many colors, you know?

It certainly is.

Like the song.

WOMAN: Well, I have two pieces of coin silver, a ewer and a goblet.

They came from a resale shop.

Just walked in and I saw this on the end cap, and... "Oh, ooh, that's very nice."

And I picked it up and put it in my cart, and then I went down an aisle and I saw the gorgeous form of this, and I got there very quickly (laughs) And picked it up and put it in my cart.

That's great.

Yeah.

Paid $25 for the ewer, and eight for the goblet.

And they're absolutely gorgeous.

Were they gleaming like this when you found them?

No, they were pretty gray and black.

(laughing) I was-- I, I did clean them, but I figured...

I hope I didn't make a mistake, but silver tarnishes in a few years, anyway.

I think you did a great job.

The detail is what really struck me when I first saw them.

They're incredible.

You have all of the tobacco leaves here, and these were agricultural prizes, so we see in the front here, "Presented by the Kentucky State Agricultural Society and Spratt, Bourne, and Company, May 29, 1861."

And then we have on the goblet... 1859.

We have here on the bottom of the pitcher, the signature.

It was made by William Adams of New York.

And he was a very renowned silversmith.

It was very common for the agricultural society to give out these tobacco awards, so we have seen them.

I just am stunned by the decoration and the detail.

And I would say at auction, conservatively, would be $8,000 to $10,000 for the pitcher.

The collectors of Kentucky silver are very aggressive auction bidders.

Now, this was made in New York.

It is not Kentucky manufacture.

That's what I wondered, mm-hmm.

So that may affect the value.

Mm-hmm.

However, I do think that at an auction, with the right audience... (chuckling): You could see that value go up quite a bit.

And for the goblet, it's unmarked, so we don't know who made it.

It could have been Kentucky manufacture.

However, without the marking, we can't prove where it was made.

But I would say at auction, conservatively, in the $3,000 to $5,000 range.

(laughing): That's... that's a pretty good return.

I would say so.

(laughing): Don't tell anyone where you go thrift shopping.

I will not.

(laughing) It was my grandfather's.

Yeah?

And he-- used to watch him sit in the chair and read it.

And I haven't really looked at it to see if it's a first edition, or what.

Whenever a "Gone With the Wind" comes in, and it comes in fairly often to the Roadshow, one of the first things you look for is the dust jacket, which in most cases is gone, because it's a book people actually read.

But the next thing that you look at is the date line here.

And if you can see, it says, "Published June 1936," re-issued, re-issued, re-issued.

And this is one that many times I can do without even seeing the book.

Yeah?

But I tell people, if it was the first edition, this line would say "May"... May.

"1936," and it would say nothing else.

Nothing else.

Hm.

Any time you get to June, any other date, it is the later edition.

So the answer to your question is, it's the later edition.

Later edition.

The, probably the best value you can get out of it is remembering that your grandfather was sitting there reading it.

You can sit there, if you have grandchildren, have them watch you read it.

They can bring it to the Roadshow 30 or 40 years from now... Yeah?

And ask the same question.

But of course, it's always the memory and the sentiment.

Yes, yes.

Cool, that's great.

WOMAN: In probably around 1980, my mother gave it to me.

APPRAISER: Okay.

And she had been given it to her by her grandfather, my great-grandfather, so... That was in the 1940s.

Had there been talk in the family that somebody in the family had made it?

Yes.

The great-- we always thought the great-grandfather made it.

But doing research, I found out that he was born in 1868, and if this was in 1881, then he could have only been 13.

So we feel like that it was probably his father that made it.

If-- that's, we, we're not sure, we... That's one reason we're here is to find out if it really is handmade.

It is very handmade.

Oh, okay.

It's made out of walnut.

It's got this great scallop backsplash with a shell on the top.

And then all these inlays in bone, they just make it dance in front of your eyes.

We look at the inlay and we think: This has pizzazz.

In 1881, in Iowa, they would have been, what, in farm country?

Yes.

My great-great-grandfather was a farmer.

Okay.

I'm just supposing here.

You'd have to do a DNA test to be positive, but it takes a big, flat piece of bone to make inlays like that, and my guess is they probably used cow bones.

Cow bone.

Because they would have been...

Plentiful.

They would have had a herd.

The brown of the walnut wood doesn't overpower the inlay at all.

The inlay is very powerful.

And it looks to be all original.

The pulls are original.

Those are porcelain Victorian-era pulls that have a metal screw going through them, an iron screw.

They were probably machine-made.

And the date of this, obviously, is 1881.

Mm-hmm.

And the cool thing about it is, it's a child size.

Hm.

You know, some people mistakenly refer to these as miniatures, but a miniature would be, like, this tall.

Okay.

This is a presentation piece made, I would say, for a child, probably for somebody very special in the family.

And you guys have obviously treasured it.

Mm-hmm.

Because of the condition.

You know what amazes me the most?

First of all, the feet aren't broken off.

Second of all, it's never been refinished.

Nope, never has.

It has what I call "honest wear."

It has places where it's got some abrasions.

I mean, if you're almost 140 years old, you're going to have a few dents and scratches.

But to a collector, that's perfect.

We felt like, in a good retail setting, that this would sell for about $6,000.

Oh, I wasn't expecting that, but... (laughs) That's good.

Well, what were you expecting?

Maybe $500?

This is a very powerful folk art object.

It's a great piece of American folk art.

Well, thank you very much.

WOMAN: I brought some drawings of some "Peanuts" characters.

They do have some authentication stamps on them, but they're not signed.

This belonged to my mother-in-law.

It was on her fire-- on her hearth, in her living room, for many years.

And it's a butter churn.

That's all I know about it.

But it-- she had it for many years.

MAN: I purchased it probably 30, 35 years ago at a, an auction sale.

And I waited till the last day, when they had various things that they couldn't sell.

Mm-hmm.

And that's when I purchased it.

Roughly $300 or $400.

$300 or $400.

I'm pretty frugal, so... (laughs) So, why did you purchase it?

Do you play violin?

No, I don't play the violin, but for some reason it just caught my eye, and I said, "I'd like to have it," and... And how long ago was that?

That was probably about 30, 35 years ago.

It's been sitting in... in, in-- either in the garage or in a closet.

On the inside, it does have a label in it, but probably in this instrument, it never had a label.

And sometimes people will put a label in there of approximately the age and whatever they think it is.

It's just common practice.

It's easier to sell a violin that has a name than one that's just kind of an unknown instrument.

But it's a reproduction label.

I believe the label says "1745," or... Somewhere around there, yes.

Somewhere around there.

I think this is closer to the early 1800s.

But it is a German violin.

Most likely, it was made in Mittenwald, Germany.

It's, it has some very typical features of the German violins.

One is that the color of the varnish and the transparency is just very typical of the instruments of that time period.

Do you have any idea today what the value of this instrument might be?

I have absolutely no idea.

I, I...

I, I assume it's worth more than I paid for it.

But I have no idea.

Right.

Yes.

Absolutely none, none whatsoever.

Well, the instrument's in good condition.

It has some little scratches, and that's easily repaired.

Just a nice German instrument from this time period in good condition, today would have a retail value between $12,000 and $15,000.

Wow-- that's, that's a pretty good investment.

That's very surprising-- I had no idea.

Does anybody in the family play violin, or any of the grandchildren?

No, no, they don't.

I have a grandson who plays the piano.

PEÑA: Marion McNay's love of dynamic form and color, as well as for works that showed the artist's process, are evident in Paul Cézanne's "Houses on the Hill," one of the paintings from her personal collection.

Cézanne worked on this Post-Impressionistic unfinished oil on canvas between 1900 and 1906.

One can clearly see the artist's brushstrokes in the painted blocks of color that form the hillside structures.

Today, I brought in two pieces from Käthe Kollwitz, and I inherited them from my godmother, who purchased them in about 1947 in Heidelberg, Germany.

She was stationed in Frankfurt immediately after the war, in 1946, and lived there for five years working in the I.G.

Farben building for the Eisenhower headquarters.

Oh, wow.

Loved the Army.

Spent her career there, 20 years.

Tell me about how she acquired these two works by Käthe Kollwitz.

Stationed in Frankfurt, she became very interested in photography, and on one of her trips down to Heidelberg... Mm-hmm.

She went into an art framing shop... Mm-hmm.

Noticed these in an easel... Mm-hmm.

And I believe paid about five marks apiece for them.

Wow.

Which was probably 50 cents.

Käthe Kollwitz was born in Prussia in 1867.

She's an incredibly interesting figure in the German art historical canon.

Uh-huh.

She was supported by her family to be able to study painting in Berlin and Munich, and eventually, she became more of a graphic artist, specializing in drawings and in prints.

She married a doctor in Berlin, and that particular doctor had a clinic where he treated the working poor during World War I, and it was during that time that she saw incredible sorrow and poverty.

And she became very involved with social justice issues.

Uh-huh.

Very sadly, she lost her first son in the First World War in 1914, and it was at about that time that her work becomes incredibly brooding and introspective, a little bit sad.

By the time the Nazis came into power in the 1930s, she was already associated with the school of German Expressionist artists.

She was a very important artist in Germany at the time.

She was so important, and her social justice work was so threatening to the Nazis, that she was banned, along with the other German Expressionist artists, as degenerate artists.

Once the Nazis banned her work as degenerate, she was no longer able to show or sell her work in Germany.

And then, sadly, she died in 1945, just as the war was ending, and she never had a chance to revive her career.

Today, she's incredibly well-known.

Her work is very well sought after.

Major collections in museums and private collectors seek out her work.

The first one, the etching, is called "An der Kirchenmauer," which is "Under the Church Wall."

It's from 1921.

The second one is a drawing.

It's a pen-and-ink drawing.

It's just-- just most beautiful treatment of the face and the hands.

Mm-hmm.

Do you have any idea who the subject might be of the drawing?

Well, I presumed it was a self-portrait, but... You're, you are correct.

Okay.

It is indeed a self-portrait.

I'm not sure if the print is a self-portrait, but the drawing is definitely a self-portrait.

And I think it's incredibly beautiful and sensitively drawn.

Mm-hmm.

The drawing isn't dated, and I'm not quite sure what the date is, but I would say it's probably executed somewhere in the 1920s or 1930s.

There's a big difference in value between her prints and her drawings.

The auction price for the print might be somewhere around $1,000 to $1,200.

Uh-huh.

Some of Kollwitz's rare prints have brought as much as $150,000 in recent years, but this particular print is not as rare, and has come up for sale multiple times and always brought under $5,000.

Self-portraits by her have brought as much as $250,000.

Oh, my goodness.

But this drawing is a little bit less developed than ones that have brought that much money.

Mm-hmm.

Even so, I'm going to say that if this drawing were to come to auction right now in the current market, and with the current demand for her work, I think it would bring somewhere in the neighborhood of about $50,000.

Oh, come on now.

It's true.

(laughs) You saw it on the "Roadshow."

I brought a bluebonnet painting in which I cannot find a signature on the artist.

I inherited it, and I don't really know that much about it.

And this is a poster from when I chaired an event in Minnesota which welcomed Raisa Gorbachev.

And this is one of the posters that was hung up to direct the press to follow them to their locations.

Back when I was a kid, my father used to take me down to the Yankee fan fair, and this was about in the early '90s, and my mother waited to meet Derek Jeter.

And then my mother flagged down my father and said, "Hey, look, Derek Jeter is only signing for kids right now.

Can Paul go find something for him to sign?"

I didn't have a baseball or anything at that point.

Right.

So I went over to where they had all this minor league, um, memorabilia, and one of the guys told me, he said, "Hey, here's Derek Jeter's minor league jersey that he wore."

I went and I met Derek Jeter, and he signed it, and he said, "Stay in school," and the girls started screaming... (laughs) So that's how I came across it.

So what you've brought us is a Tampa Bay Yankees jersey that Derek Jeter wore in the 1994 season in the minor leagues.

Minor league jersey, which is why we have the "TY" here as opposed to the "NY."

So, very cool.

Everyone knows Jeter is number 2.

That's right.

Right?

But 31 was his number when he played the lone year, in 1994, in Tampa Bay.

So there's been a lot of material for Jeter that's come out on the market, particularly after he retired in 2014.

So value-wise, we're looking at probably an auction estimate on this of about $10,000 to $15,000.

No way!

(laughing): Yeah.

No way!

How, how can you... My question is, is, how do you know that that is game-worn?

Like, is there any-- like, can you run...

I'm a scientist.

Right.

So can you run, like, DNA testing or, like... Well, if you can get a... Could you go back and get a swab from him and, and do that?

(laughs) I don't know, but if he's out there on TV, hey, give me a ring.

You know, maybe we can figure something out.

I am...

If this went to a third-party authenticator, and they said, "Look, in our opinion, this is not game-worn," then we would value it as a Derek Jeter-signed jersey, and then an auction estimate would probably be somewhere in the vicinity of about $400 to $600.

WOMAN: So this was my mother's ring.

This was from her second marriage.

She was married to a man from Beverly Hills, and she met him in San Antonio.

And within a couple of weeks, I think, they eloped.

I think it was just a couple of weeks of knowing each other.

Mm-hmm.

And when she came back, they went on a trip to Beverly Hills, where he had a home there, as well as in San Antonio.

So when did your stepfather buy this for your mother?

I think it was around 1971 or 1972, is what I'm guessing-- probably closer to 1972.

Mm-hmm, and you said that you had a nickname for the diamond.

Yes, it was the-- she was married to a man named Denny.

And she always called it the Denny Diamond.

(laughing): And did the marriage last long?

Um, they were just married, I think a couple of months, maybe.

Mm-hmm.

Maybe six months at the most.

She was either the fourth or the fifth wife.

At least she has a nice wedding... Nice ring to show for it.

She kept the diamond.

Yes.

She was a smart woman.

(laughs) Yes, she never, she never took off this diamond.

It stayed on her finger.

Mm-hmm.

And she just never, never-- she refused to take it off.

She was very sentimental about it.

Right.

Maybe the diamond.

(laughing): Not the marriage.

Not so much the marriage-- not the marriage so much, but... Well, it's one of my favorite cuts of diamond.

It's called an emerald cut, and emerald cuts first became popular in the '20s, because it's a very clean, modern cut.

You have these beautiful step cuts in the front, and then these linear facets beneath.

So it doesn't have the brilliance of the traditional round brilliant cut, but it really shows off the clarity of the stone.

And that was one of the first things I noticed about this stone, was its incredible clarity, And that means its, its lack of inclusions.

All diamonds-- well, most diamonds-- have some kind of inclusion.

It's just a natural process of how they grow in the earth.

But this diamond is very, very clean to the eye.

I had, I had a problem finding anything inside it, which is very rare in a diamond.

I also looked inside the band for a signature, and there wasn't one.

But your mother was very smart, and she kept her paperwork.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Which said that this was sold by Van Cleef & Arpels.

Yes.

It was probably signed at one point.

Sometimes, when rings are sized...

I had it sized, to make it larger.

There you go.

Sometimes the signature's right at the back of the band, and a jeweler will just take that signature off.

So it would be hard to prove that it was from Van Cleef & Arpels, but, again, your mother was really smart, and she kept her paperwork.

So the stone is a little over five carats.

Again, it's a very, very clean stone.

It's a relatively white stone.

It's probably about an I color.

Mm-hmm.

This has a classic setting for an emerald-cut diamond, which is a four-pronged setting, and then at the side are two tapered baguettes.

Mm-hmm, and I know it's platinum.

Set in platinum.

It's platinum.

Oh, it's certainly platinum, yes.

So the last time you had it appraised-- you had it appraised was?

Well, it's... 1973.

1973, and how much was it then?

$20,500.

Okay, well, it's gone up a little bit since then.

Do you have any idea what he paid for it?

No.

Just from the appraisal... Mm-hmm.

...in '73, it could have been close to that amount.

Okay, so close to the $20,000.

Close to the $20,000.

Yes.

I'm just guessing, though.

Mm-hmm-- if this were at auction, we'd probably estimate it $80,000 to $120,000.

Mm-hmm.

And if it-- if you were going to insure it, I'd probably recommend insuring it around $140,000.

Oh!

Great.

Well, that's a... That's a-- that's nice.

Exactly, yeah, the Denny Diamond's doing well.

I'll have to get some insurance on it.

(laughs) Thank you.

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

I brought in my Frank Dadd painting, and I expected to get oohs and aahs, and what I got was "eww" and "uh..." Because my Frank Dadd turned out to be a Frank Dud.

We learned that our lion may be king of the jungle, but he's not king of the jungle in our home.

He's only worth about $300, but he is Italian.

(chuckles) And I brought a Fisher-Price camera, and I was told it was worth five dollars.

(laughing) A whopping five.

(laughs) And we thought this was an optometrist's tool, but it's actually for measuring longitude and latitude, so, learned something.

Yeah.

My father welded this for me about 40 or 50 years ago.

It's not worth a lot monetarily, but it's worth a priceless amount to me.

He made it out of horseshoes and stirrups and pieces of harness.

So it is a real treasure to me.

Our Beatles wallet is worth $200.

BOTH (to tune of "She Loves You"): ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ So we brought a bushbird, which Laurie's grandmother gave to us.

She got it about 30 years ago on a trip to Australia.

And the line we always remember from when she gave it to us is, she said she thinks there's some value there.

And she was insistent about that, so we figured we'd bring it out to "Antiques Roadshow."

We learned that there is some value here, but it's purely decorative value, and it's worth about $50.

But we had a great time.

PEÑA: Thanks for watching.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."