Antiques Roadshow

Didn't expect to have to come to Honolulu to find a piece from the East Coast you know where this piece is from Greenwich Connecticut that's where my grandfather lived and so that's where we he brought it from so he brought up in Greenwich and how did it come to you my grandfather was living in Kapahulu on Maui he and my grandmother were there and they needed some help so my husband and I moved over there my grandmother died and so I was taking care of him and by this time he had shipped some of his pieces from Greenwich out to his house because he lived there full-time I ended up with this piece I love this because I live and breathe wonderful wood in 18th century furniture okay that's what that's what makes me tick I don't know if you know but it does okay this was made right in Philadelphia about 1745 - 1750 it's called the dressing-table in the trade we call it a lowboy these dressing tables or lowboys were made with a high chest the tall piece they basically were sold together and then they often get separated so somewhere out there there's a made to this this molded top is above this long drawer it has a molded edge and then below here you have three drawers and you have this wonderful sima curve in this very baroque arch here with a little drop and it's all supported by these cabriole legs and you come down to that foot and some people call it a Spanish foot this type of foot was typical of the best made in Philadelphia the top is this wonderful Tiger maple and Tiger maple is something that wasn't just grown you know you had to cut the tree you had to go through a lot of maple to find a piece of wood that had just kind of fiddleback I know this is loose cuz I lifted it up before right so I'm gonna carefully lift this if I just take this board it's a two board top right and just put it like this you'll see that the tiger een the Curley figure on the inside of the case matches that on the top it's clearly from the same wood source also the oxidation the discoloration from being exposed to the little bit of air that was getting in there huh matches so we know that those two pieces of wood the side of this case and this top and then next to each other we feel for about 250 years I mean that's a good thing right okay well watch this we've got to make sure that all the holes on the top match the holes the case right the attachment holes we do that and see that there's a big old hole right there there's no hole there right but I was here with my colleagues and one Sedley slide the top over when you slide the top over about an inch and a half look that hole Natchez that hole right in this hole matches and if I take my finger from these two holes and go like this here's the hole here and there's a shank of a nail right there in the top of that leg this is the original tab they shaved it down it must have gotten damaged down the edge or something with the tap original but reshape the value of this on the East Coast let's say it's probably worth a little more on the East Coast would be about twelve thousand dollars retail okay that's what it's worth now let me tell you what it would be worth if it hadn't been touched because a condition so important of American furniture uncut it would be worth about ten times that about a hundred and twenty thousand oh I mean this happened a hundred and fifty years ago so it's nothing you did if you told me Lee I did that last week I think you'd be a little more bummed out right you