Antiques Roadshow

APPRAISER

Now, you said you bought it from a warehouse, right?

GUEST

I was working in a warehouse about five years ago and I saw her about a hundred feet away standing by one of the warehouse doors.

APPRAISER

Okay.

GUEST

And I couldn't believe she was real, you know, wood. So I inquired after, you know, why it was there and how much was it, and was it for sale? And I was told it was for sale.

APPRAISER

Okay, how much was it?

GUEST

$300.

APPRAISER

So you paid them that and hauled it away.

GUEST

I couldn't write the check fast enough.

APPRAISER

And since then, you were offered a bit more for it?

GUEST

I've been offered $12,000 for it.

APPRAISER

By a guy who just came by your place?

GUEST

Yeah, he actually dealt in antiques and he offered that on the spot.

APPRAISER

On the spot-- that's pretty exciting. And you decided to bring it to the Roadshow, right? Well, as you may know, the tobacconist figures or cigar store Indians, they also call them, they were really very popular in America really throughout the 19th century. And Native Americans were depicted because Native Americans were associated with cultivating tobacco, so it was a popular depiction to have these Native Americans in front of the store holding up, as this lady does, her hand. This probably had a real cigar or a cigar coming out of the hand which is now missing from the top; also holding usually a bundle of cigars. And these were wheeled in and out of stores. What we have to find out with this is whether or not it's an old one, and that's one reason you brought it by the show. We have to start at the top and look at the carving and see that there isn't a lot of paint surface on it. We come down to this face-- the face is kind of a 20th-century-looking face, I have to tell you, and that's the first thing that I saw. The carving is rather crudely done. It has a Westernized face. But when you come down here and look at this split in the front, you can realize that this was carved out of green wood. This split was really done rather recently. If you look inside here, you can see that... actually the paint surface, you see that there's just this one coat of paint. Also, the paint is very, very green. It's a really bright, bright green that you don't generally see in the 19th century because this, as an old piece, would be... is in the style of kind of 1850 to 1920. And if we come down and even spin around the back, we see this bright blue, this bright green, this carving which is very sharp and crisp and doesn't have a buildup of paint that a lot of these old Indians had because they were repainted and repainted because they were brought outside and brought back in, and all that really adds up to really this not being old. I don't like telling people bad news, but one of the things that is good about the show is that you learn what a fake looks like. And really, this may have been made in Asia. You paid $300. I'd say it's probably worth about $300. It might be worth a little more. That guy that offered you 12...

GUEST

Well, I'm going to go find him before the show goes on the air.

APPRAISER

I'm sorry to give you that news but it's not as if you paid $12,000, luckily.