GUEST
We inherited this table from my husband's grandparents. They purchased it in the early 1960s in New York. We think it's a Paul Evans...
APPRAISER
Mm-hmm.
GUEST
...Cityscape line table, but we're not sure.
APPRAISER
It is a Paul Evans table, and it is Cityscape. Paul Evans did a myriad of, of different styles of furniture. He started in the mid-1950s in New Hope, Pennsylvania. And you're a little bit off on the timeframe. This is from the mid-1970s, actually.
GUEST
Oh, really?
APPRAISER
He started about 1957 making furniture, and he ended up in the 1980s, and he actually passed away as a very young man. He died at 55 years old, which at my age seems very young.
GUEST
(laughs)
APPRAISER
This was the last big line of furniture he made. He really started off as a studio craftsman, a very small shed, almost a garage, in New Hope. And he kept building, and people loved his furniture, and they kept buying it. This piece, I really think, demonstrates a lot of the Cityscape qualities quite well. It's very geometric. I love the cantilevered end. And Cityscape was meant to look like buildings, and so it's very shiny and very geometric.
GUEST
(chuckles)
APPRAISER
Almost all Paul Evans furniture is geometric in some way or another. He started off as a jeweler, so everything is very tight, and it's very well organized. As far as the damage on this piece, Cityscape furniture was sort of fragile. It's made with chrome, and some pieces have bronze in them, and it was attached to a plywood frame. And it really is fragile. This piece has a few dings and bangs in it. How'd they get there?
GUEST
Well, some of the dings can be attributed to my husband when he was a toddler.
APPRAISER
Yeah.
GUEST
Um, he stood up to this table, and used his uncle's calculator to bang on the table.
APPRAISER
Nice! (both laughing) The problem with Cityscape, it's extremely difficult to, to restore. Once it's dented, you almost have to replace the pieces.
GUEST
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER
And again, the pieces will be very, very difficult to put together.
GUEST
Okay.
APPRAISER
It's very rare to find a piece of Cityscape that doesn't have some kind of character marks that were put there from years of use.
GUEST
Yeah.
APPRAISER
So do you know what, what your grandparents paid for this piece?
GUEST
My husband's grandmother said she paid about $1,000 for this table, actually.
APPRAISER
Right. Paul Evans furniture was very expensive. At auction today, this table's probably worth $6,000 to $9,000.
GUEST
Get out! Really?
APPRAISER
I... absolutely, absolutely.
GUEST
Wow!
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