Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

This is an item that my grandfather got when Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig did a barnstorming tour after they won the World Series. They came out to California, where my grandfather picked it up.

APPRAISER

So in 1927, after the Yankees won the World Series, Christy Walsh, Babe Ruth's business manager, put together this barnstorming tour in which Gehrig and Ruth toured all around the country, doing these exhibition games, as you said. Right here we have this bleed through.

GUEST

Right.

APPRAISER

And that was important because when we look at the back of the photo... we have the rubber stampings here where it reads, "Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig." And it says, "the Home Run Tour." Now, it's interesting because it's always referred to as the Barnstorming Tour.

GUEST

Oh.

APPRAISER

That's how it's known. It's an iconic image. That's how it's known. And here they call it the Home Run Tour. They toured all around the country, to crowds of thousands. We see this particular... this is an iconic image. The Larrupin' Lous versus the Bustin' Babes. We see that on their Jerseys there. I love the names they picked out. Of course, they couldn't use any of the references to the Yankees, to Major League Baseball. We see probably five to ten photographs of this image every season, but not originals. Highly reproduced. This is an original first edition of this photograph. And what else can you tell me about this photograph?

GUEST

My father told me that it had been kind of shoved into a drawer and just kind of forgotten about. Actually, it was at this an ANTIQUES ROADSHOW, I'd say, I guess, maybe 15 to 20 years ago in Sacramento. My mother and father dug it out of a drawer someplace, and so they took it to that ANTIQUES ROADSHOW and had them take a look at it there.

APPRAISER

Right. Did they put a value on it at that time?

GUEST

My recollection is that they said that it was worth $800 to $1,000.

APPRAISER

Okay, this is only the eighth example of an actual 1927 dual signed Barnstorming photograph that we have on record. So the signatures we have as we see, the top one's here. These are facsimile signatures. These are part of the photograph.

GUEST

Right.

APPRAISER

Both for the Ruth and for the Gehrig. Then we have the pen signatures here in blue. Now, this is where we started the debate.

GUEST

Okay.

APPRAISER

So four experts loved the Babe Ruth. No question about the Babe Ruth. The Lou Gehrig we're divided on.

GUEST

All right.

APPRAISER

We have two sets of eyes that like it, two sets of eyes that are a little bit suspect of it. So now this is when we talk about authenticity. We really need to go take it to an outside authenticator and have that looked at. We put the value at auction at $10,000 to $15,000.

GUEST

Wow.

APPRAISER

However, if the Lou Gehrig is certified authentic-which, again, we have two yesses and two nos-you're looking at $30,000 to $40,000.

GUEST

Wow, yeah.

APPRAISER

And I am one of the opinions that the Gehrig is authentic.

GUEST

That's pretty good news, I think, I think that's great.

APPRAISER

It is encouraging. You have a great provenance, but it's still so hard to establish authenticity on something that was signed so long ago, and you weren't there and I wasn't there.

GUEST

Yeah.

APPRAISER

Now, if both signatures turned out to not be authentic, you'd have a value of about $300 to $600 for this photograph.

GUEST

Oh!