GUEST
I went into an antique shop near my hometown and really looked around, and the lady I know pretty well, and she had this box, but she really didn't want to sell it. And I kept begging her, and finally I just gave up. And a little bit before Christmas, my grandfather went in and just was looking and asking her what I wanted, and she pulled this out, and she sold it to him, so that's what I got for Christmas.
APPRAISER
All right, so what did you offer her for the box?
GUEST
She wouldn't even give me a price or a chance to even really talk about selling it.
APPRAISER
So what'd your grandfather pay for it?
GUEST
Well, he just said he paid $1,000 for it.
APPRAISER
Wow, $1,000. I mean, that was pretty... that was a lot of money, right?
GUEST
Oh, yeah.
APPRAISER
Were you shocked when he told you he'd paid that much for it?
GUEST
Yeah, I about fell out back there.
APPRAISER
Wow, wow. Well, do you have any idea about who made it, or where it's from? I mean, you're from North Carolina?
GUEST
Right, well, it looks Pennsylvania to me, but I don't... and I don't usually buy Pennsylvania. I like local North Carolina pieces, but it really just stuck out to me. I like early pieces, too, and she said it was 1800, so...
APPRAISER
Okay, it is Pennsylvania. And it is by a well-known maker of this style of box.
GUEST
Oh, really?
APPRAISER
Yeah. His name is Jacob Weber.
GUEST
Okay.
APPRAISER
From Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
GUEST
Okay.
APPRAISER
We know he was born in 1802, but we don't yet know when he died. A lot of these early folk artists, very little is known about them. We know that Weber made these sorts of boxes,
and he made them in two different styles
he made them with feet on them, and
he made them like this
little rectangular boxes. It's very simple construction, six pieces of pine, cheap wood, and then painted with this great mustard color. His work always has the same sort of green ground here with a house flanked by trees, and decorated on each end with a tulip. And then finished, of course, on the lid with another tulip.
GUEST
Right.
APPRAISER
This box was probably made sometime between about 1830 and 1845.
GUEST
Okay.
APPRAISER
It's missing its hasp that would've closed it, and the hinges have probably been replaced. Weber was known to have made boxes with what are called snipe hinges, where they're little metal pins here. But he also did them with wire like this. But when you look at this box in the back, you'll see the shadow of where these snipe hinges used to be.
GUEST
Right.
APPRAISER
But then the wire that's on here closing it up has been here for a long time. If you look and see how the wire has worn into the soft pine wood, it's been here a long time.
GUEST
Now, did he sell these or just make them to give away?
APPRAISER
No, he was selling them.
GUEST
Okay.
APPRAISER
He was selling them, it was a commodity, he was making them, and we don't know enough to know how much he sold them for, but there are enough of these boxes around to know that he was obviously selling them. And they come in various sizes ranging up to, you know, maybe a foot in size to this size. But enough of these have sold that they are almost a commodity in Pennsylvania folk art. Really great ones can bring as much as $150,000.
GUEST
Oh, my God.
APPRAISER
This one, I think a good auction estimate for this box would be somewhere between $10,000 and $15,000.
GUEST
Wow. I think he did pretty well, then, and what a gift.
APPRAISER
Yeah, now what are you going to give your grandfather now?
GUEST
I don't know. I have to do something pretty nice, I think.
APPRAISER
What do you think he's going to say?
GUEST
Sell it.
APPRAISER
(laughs) Don't do it, keep it.
GUEST
Oh, yeah, I plan to.
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