Antiques Roadshow

What amazing antiques did "Roadshow" discover in Des Moines?

My husband's grandfather, when he was about two years old, actually climbed the windmill and sat on the rooster.

Holy moly!

(laughs) Thank you for saying "Holy moly."

Wow.

(laughs) That's wonderful.

My mom would be thrilled.

Don't go away, it's "Antiques Roadshow."

(fireworks exploding) Welcome to "Antiques Roadshow."

Hi, I'm Mark Walberg, this week in Iowa's capital city, Des Moines.

Des Moines is called the city of skywalks, as there are currently almost three miles of overhead walkways connecting 28 city blocks.

What "Roadshow" revelations will make our guests feel as though they're walking on air?

Let's take a look.

It's from our homestead.

We live on the homestead of my husband's farm.

And it is the counterweight of the windmill that was on the farm.

My husband's grandfather, when he was about two years old, actually climbed the windmill and climbed out to the end and sat on the rooster.

Wow, he was a brave little boy at two and a half.

This was actually made by the Elgin Manufacturing Company in Elgin, Illinois.

And it was made in the late 19th century.

And this is a counterbalance type of mill weight.

It's made of cast iron.

And you can see that this is the seam that joins the two hollow parts.

This weighs about 40 or 50 pounds as it is.

If it were solid, it would be unbelievably heavy.

But what's amazing about this particular one is it's one of the largest mill weights we've ever seen.

You know from catalogs that this size existed, but none of us had ever seen the size in real life.

And the surface is absolutely incredible on it.

It's in wonderful condition.

This was added; usually there's a great big weight that sits on here, and that's how they attach it to the end of the pole at the top of the tower.

Right.

So this wood is just an addition, and probably makes it useful for you to display.

(laughs) It's been in our garage, sitting in a corner, collecting dust.

Oh, wow.

Well, it's a wonderful, wonderful object.

Because of its size and its condition, we estimate it, at retail, probably $4,000 to $6,000.

Really?

Yes.

Wow, I would have never guessed.

So nice to sit in your garage, right?

I would have never guessed.

APPRAISER: You said you got this from your mom?

I did.

My mother attended a night class from the Des Moines public schools in the '70s on collecting and learned about Van Briggle and some of the other art potteries and was interested in them.

And she went to a church rummage sale and picked this up.

It had a little piece of that very stick old white fabric medical tape for the longest time.

I just took it off a few years ago and it had "five cents" written on it with a pencil.

It's a sweet piece of Van Briggle.

We've done Van Briggle on the show before, and I think a lot of our viewers will remember the story about how he had tuberculosis and had to leave Ohio to go to Colorado Springs because its salubrious climate.

The high altitude was the best they could offer at that time for someone suffering from TB.

And he worked there from around 1900 until his death in 1904.

Then his wife Anna continued until around 1912 or 1913, when she sold the company to some investors and it's still in business today.

But each phase of Van Briggle's work has a different price structure attached to it, not the least of which is the earliest work while he and his wife were working together, deeply in love.

Before he died of TB, they were making his most creative and beautiful pots.

And this is a piece-- and we'll show the date on this one here.

There, of course, the double A mark for "Artus" and "Anne" and the date, "1903," under the Van Briggle mark.

About as clear a way of dating a pot as you're going to get.

They were very thorough about dating their pieces.

This is a squat, bulbous tapering vessel with four enclosed handles at the rim.

Okay.

The earlier pieces-- different sizes, different shapes, different designs-- but the better of them have embossed floral or animal or figural work on them.

Okay.

And this is a piece totally decorated in the round with embossed floral designs.

But I think more important, he actually painted these in matte glazes.

And most of them are painted in one color of matte.

This one is not only just blue, but it's also with a white background, which sets the flowers off, and a third color is added to the stems.

Out of all the Van Briggle you find, maybe one in a thousand is dated during his lifetime.

Oh, wow.

And of that one in a thousand, maybe on in a hundred of those is three colors.

So this is a really rare example.

Wow.

Oh, great.

It's not a large piece, but it's a sweet example and in beautiful condition.

In terms of value, at auction today, conservatively, I would estimate it for between $2,500 and $3,500.

Wow.

And probably more like $3,000 to $4,000.

Awesome, that's wonderful.

My mom would be thrilled.

So you think he actually touched this?

What are the odds?

Let's take another look at the bottom again.

You see the way the two "g"s are a little squiggly and identical to each other?

Uh-huh, uh-huh.

That's his handwriting.

Oh.

He probably designed it and finished it himself because he was operating the studio where it was Anne, himself, one helper and a dog.

Wow.

Awesome.

They think that only 500 pieces were made while he was alive.

Oh, wow.

MAN: This is Ralph Waldo Emerson, a great American philosopher.

He was probably one of America's greatest philosophers of the 19th century.

Worked up in Massachusetts, Boston area.

And this is by a rather prominent American sculptor, who is... Daniel Chester French.

What do you know about Mr. French?

Well, I know that he also did the Lincoln statue in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Right, that's probably his most famous work.

And the piece that really got his career going was the sculpture of the Minuteman in Concord, Massachusetts, which was done for the centennial of the first battle of the American Revolution.

It's signed here on the side, "Daniel Chester French."

And it's dated "1879."

So that was the date when the piece was actually modeled.

This was probably cast around the turn of the century.

In those days, they just cast them as people wanted them.

And then it's also signed here on the underside with the name of the foundry, Jules Bercham.

It was a foundry from Chicago.

And they were active roughly the same period that French was working.

They cast a number of sculptures by prominent artists of the period.

Most of his career was spent doing monumental sculpture.

So, as a result, there are very few actual home-size, apartment-size sculptures.

They turn up from time to time.

Sometimes you see small versions of the Lincoln Memorial or a few other pieces.

But for an artist that's this prominent, we see relatively few of these pieces come up on the market.

Where did you get him?

I found it in an antiques store down in central Wisconsin.

They had it mismarked.

They didn't know really who it was and who it was by, so... And they never heard of French?

No.

And had you heard of French, or...?

I had heard of him, but I did a little more research, then I went back and I purchased it.

And what did you pay for him?

I paid $500 for him.

This piece is well cast, beautifully modeled.

I mean, it really captures, I think, his personality, his look.

The finish and the patination is quite good.

It has some very minor condition issues.

I think it's been rubbed a little bit, but I don't think that would affect the value all that much.

A piece like this, at auction, I think, conservatively, would bring in the $15,000 to $25,000 range.

Wow, that was... that was a little bit more than I expected.

And a little bit more than $500.

A little bit more than $500, too, yeah.

WOMAN: I brought in a clock that belonged to my husband's family.

His mother was given the clock in the 1930s by a neighbor, and it spent decades in the dining room of my husband's home.

And about 15 years ago, we went back to see my father-in-law and he asked my husband if he would like to have the clock.

And he did, so it's been in our home since that time.

Do you use the clock?

Yes, we used it up until quite recently.

However, the key that winds the mechanism is worn and no longer will wind it.

So, since that time, it's just been a decorative object in our home.

And we do have my mother's picture beside it because she was the one who was given the clock.

Well, this clock is called a beehive clock, and it gets its name from the shape of the case.

The case is veneered in mahogany.

It became a very, very popular design.

This particular example is one of the most special examples that you'll find because it represents the transformation from weight-driven clocks to clocks that are powered by springs.

And these particular springs in this clock were the first ones that were produced successfully, commercially, in America.

And that all happened around 1834 or 1838.

The person that made this clock, his name was E.C.

Brewster and he worked in Bristol, Connecticut.

And prior to this, if you wanted a spring-driven clock, an American clockmaker had to buy springs from overseas.

And they were very, very expensive.

So, the solution for that was American clockmaker companies decided we would make weight-driven clocks.

The reason why tall case clocks, or grandfather clocks, are tall is because they need that amount of drop in order to get eight days of run out of the clock before the weights hit the floor or the bottom of the case and the clock stops.

So here we have a clock, one of the first clocks ever produced with what are called coil springs made in America and then sold successfully.

I think you can safely say there's less than 50 of these known today.

And this particular clock is in outstanding condition.

Today, in our economy, the standard beehive clock would sell anywhere from about $400 to $600.

This clock, in an auction setting, would easily sell in the $3,000 to $3,500 price category.

Very nice.

Very nice, thank you.

MAN: When I first started dating my fiance, I started speaking to her mom, and her mom was a great historian.

She knew I was interested in history.

They had this collection of postcards in an attic and she dropped them in my lap.

And I've been going through them for the last three years trying to make some sense out of them.

These are from the House of David, Right.

which was a commune established in Benton Harbor, Michigan, in 1907.

They were an unusual group.

They were banned from shaving, cutting their hair, having sex, or eating meat.

Really?

But they also had a hell of a baseball team.

They would barnstorm all around the Midwest in the '20s and '30s, playing and beating most of the local teams.

There are very avid collectors of House of David objects, especially those showing the team.

In a retail setting, I think you're probably looking at $100 each for these photographs.

Really?

Yeah.

They're amazing.

Yeah, baby.

My mother-in-law was the true collector.

And when she passed on, we inherited it.

And she went out to Vermont, maybe 40 years ago, but when she came back, this came along with her with a couple other pieces.

This is a furniture form which is a little bit unusual.

We refer to it as a chair table.

That's because, as you well know, it transforms from a table by lifting the top into a chair.

It may look a little beat up, but this is wonderful sign of use.

It's the story of the piece.

This is an incredible, wide piece of pine that you can't find any more.

Right.

This probably was at the focal point of the social activities of the typical 18th century American household.

Space was at a premium; furniture that could be multi-used, served as a work table-- obviously burn stains, markings.

Probably chopped on it, did everything.

Chopped on, scrubbed.

And probably, with all of that use over the years, the table got so worn down that these wonderful nails, which hold on the batten ends, now show through.

Let's tilt it up.

What is remarkable about this is that, with one exception, every piece seems to be original.

The one replacement is this.

Really?

The turning mechanism.

And that's because it was used so much it wore out.

The tradition that this comes out of is from northern Europe and England.

It was brought here to the... particularly New England, New York colonies by both Dutch and English craftsmen.

So here we have it in its chair form.

Here we have all the evidence of what the original coloration of the entire piece was.

Do you think the entire piece was this old red?

The entire piece because this is pine, this is pine, this is maple, maple.

And so to make that all uniform, they would have put a stain just like this.

And when I talk about its multi-functional uses, do you know what all of these little circles are?

No, I noticed that and I thought, well, someone had trouble with their hammer.

They run all the way around the table.

What women in the 18th century used to do was for sewing they used something called a sewing bird.

I have two at home.

You have two at home.

I have two at home.

That's what that is.

They would have clipped it on here.

The beak had a spring and it held the thread.

I'll be darned.

And so this table saw a lot of sewing.

The turnings here-- these sort of honey dipper-shaped things-- that's what we tend to see up the Connecticut River Valley.

Really?

And so Vermont, as an origin for it, is highly probable.

Or northern Massachusetts.

And I have to tell you that the person who made this piece, he was a pretty skilled turner.

He was not so good as a cabinetmaker because these parts are pretty much cobbled together.

I think that this is probably at the very end date of this form, probably about 1800.

Okay.

Any idea of what your mother paid?

I have no idea whatsoever.

Well, this is a wonderful example.

It tells a wonderful story.

It's almost completely intact.

And, at auction, I would expect it would bring $2,000 to $3,000, possibly $2,000 to $4,000.

Really?

Wow.

And my guess is if she bought it 30 years ago, she probably paid about $750.

A nice piece, and thank you so much.

A good investment, thank you.

This quilt was given to me back by my grandmother, who brought it to me one day in 1962 and said, "Put this on a closet shelf and look at it in about 40 or 50 years."

So, unfortunately, I kind of did that and I didn't really find out as much history as I would ask her today if she were here.

It was made by my grandmother.

When she was growing up, she was the eldest of 18.

And because of a disease that was in the family and the community, they sent her to live with her grandmother, so she grew up with a lady who was a member of the Woman's Relief Corps, an auxiliary to the G.A.R.

So she went to all these different conventions for the Woman's Relief Corps, which was the group that supported the veterans of the Union army from the Civil War.

Yes.

Most of them are dated and they are primarily from Iowa, but she went to other states as well.

I think it's very interesting that she collected so many different ribbons.

Do you know when it was put together?

Do you have any idea about that?

Not exactly.

It must have been made sometime between, I would say, probably 1911 and 1930.

Well, most of the ribbons are actually from the 1890s.

This one is from 1901.

The style of this is done like a crazy quilt, which was very popular in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

It really looks like this was put together slightly earlier than that.

This ribbon, which is dated 1909, actually appears to be sort of an afterthought.

It looks like she'd already put the whole quilt together, then went to this conference and put it on.

So I think it's possibly put together a little earlier than you do.

Most of these ribbons from the W.R.C.

don't sell for a great deal of money.

They're actually sort of difficult to sell.

They sell between $10 and $15 and the ones that you have on here that have damage-- say like that one-- would sell for a little less.

But what your grandmother did was put them together and made it into a piece of artwork.

Exactly.

And it's really very interesting and very appealing.

She's put about a hundred of the ribbons on here.

So, if you were to insure it, it would probably insure for somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500.

Thank you so much, Beth.

MAN: My parents bought it at an auction 40-some years ago around La Crosse, Wisconsin.

But other than that, I know very little about it.

Well, let's take a look and see what we can find out.

You have a cover here.

Any thoughts as to whose army, what war?

I don't know, maybe Prussian?

You're absolutely right.

What you have here is a Prussian spiked helmet with a camouflage field cover.

A spiked helmet can be a fairly fancy thing, and this particular one has a field cover on it so that it doesn't attract too much attention when they're actually wearing them in the trenches in the First World War.

If we take the cover off, however, on the front of the cover you see that there were numbers at one point that tell us what unit this individual was in if that cover came with this helmet.

Okay.

It looks, at first glance, like an officer's helmet, but it's not.

It's an officer-quality enlisted private purchase helmet, purchased by a non-commissioned officer, somebody who wanted to spend a little extra money to get a nice, quality piece.

He has a Prussian front plate, and then the rest of the information about the helmet is on the sides.

The cockades on the side here, this one indicates that he's from Prussia.

It has the Prussian colors, which are black and white.

And then if we turn him back the other way... we see that he has a national cockade on the other side, which they always did.

They had the state cockade on the left and the national cockade on the right.

If you look on the inside, you see that it has an officer-style lining with a leather sweatband and then a silk interior.

Have you looked to see if there's a maker's name or a date or anything inside?

None whatsoever.

Do you mind if we take a look?

No, go ahead.

Take a look and see... Well, I'm not seeing that immediately, but I am seeing something that's a little more interesting.

There's another one hiding down in there.

Oh.

(laughs) These are death notices.

All right.

And it looks like there are several in the helmet.

They would print these in the local newspaper and announce that a certain individual from the town has been killed in the conflict.

And the fact that he's carrying several of these around in the lining of his helmet would indicate possibly that these are friends, family.

Had you seen those in there before?

No, no, I hadn't.

You said your parents bought this at an auction 40 years ago.

What did they paid for it?

I don't think it was very much.

The entire thing that you have here, a collector today would expect to pay a retail price in the neighborhood of $1,650.

Okay.

The First World War was a very casualty-heavy conflict, and a lot of folks from Germany and France and Belgium and England, they essentially lost an entire generation, so seeing the death notices inside the helmet kind of brings home the fact that while you have a very attractive, beautiful piece of militaria, there's also a stiff price to be paid.

And whoever had this helmet suffered some losses, very clearly.

We sure appreciate you bringing it in.

Okay.

WALBERG: One of the best things about summer, I think, is the bounty of seasonal fruits and vegetables.

Farmers work long hours to grow their produce.

But what you might not realize is that some of their success is due to the efforts of millions of tiny, six-legged workers: bees.

We decided to take a look at some bee-utiful antiques at a nearby apiary.

Stuart, bees have been an important symbol in many cultures throughout many centuries, and we have some fine examples of bee-themed antiques today.

Well, it's been so popular for so long.

Even with the Egyptians, it meant death and rebirth.

I mean, the Masons even incorporated it as a symbol of industry.

And probably one of the most famous people that incorporated bees is Napoleon.

Napoleon actually put the symbol of a bee in his coat of arms.

He put it in his coat of arms, you find it on porcelain.

I mean, even here we have a two-volume set basically describing France in 1815.

And actually it was written by Edmund Boyce in 1816.

The important part about this is that on the spine you see the bee.

That's how important it was even then.

This two-volume set's probably worth around $300.

Let's move over to this beautiful bee here.

Tell me about this.

It's Wedgwood, which might surprise you because Wedgwood is known much more for jasperware, but they actually did make majolica as well.

And this is a match striker.

Beautiful.

And what year is it from?

That's probably made in the 1880s.

And the value?

Around $500.

And now we move to this piece here.

And I'm not sure exactly what to call this.

It is actually... it's a crocus pot in the form of a skep.

And "skep" is an old English word going back to basket, but, ironically, this is Wedgwood as well.

More Wedgwood majolica, and it is a very nice crocus pot, made probably around the 1880s or so.

And the value?

Around $800.

Well, Stuart, we cannot finish a discussion about bee collectibles without talking about honey.

Sure.

The best part of the beehive, worth the sting.

And you have two honey pots here, but they're so different.

Tell me about these.

Well, one of them is actually ruby glass and silver plate.

And the wings actually lift up.

May I?

And you have your receptacle for honey right there.

Isn't that something.

What year is this from?

Probably from the 1950s.

And the value?

Around $300 at auction.

And now we have a little bit more of a traditional honey pot here, but it is just beautiful.

The detail is remarkable.

Tell me about this.

Well, that's your high-end honey pot right there.

And it is sort of an Egyptian revival piece.

And the porcelain was actually made by Lenox and the silver is made by Tiffany.

Probably from the 1930s.

There's a Tiffany mark that lets us know that?

Exactly.

Very good-- and the value at auction for this?

Around $1,000.

That is a little high end for honey.

Absolutely.

Well, Stuart, I thank you for giving us the buzz on bee collectibles.

Thank you very much.

WOMAN: I got the squash from a co-worker and friend whose parents had recently passed.

And after the family had taken the items they wanted, she told us we could look and see if there was anything we were interested in, so I purchased... purchased the squash from her.

And how much did you pay for it?

I can't remember exactly.

It was around $75.

But it was for sure under a hundred dollars.

And how long ago was that?

Approximately two years.

Okay.

Now, tell me, what makes you buy a squash?

(laughs) I like to have unique things in my house, so I thought, "Who wouldn't want a silver squash with butterflies and grasshoppers on it?"

We'll start off by looking at the mark on the bottom, which gives us a lot of information right away.

The mark simply says the word "silver."

Now this is, in fact, Chinese.

And back in the latter part of the 19th century, most of the China trade that was in Hong Kong was probably not made so much for export.

What's really unusual about it is all this wonderful enamel decoration that's put on it and these wonderful bugs between the lovely butterflies that we have here and this great grasshopper that's sitting on the top.

We have these fruits.

And on the back side here, which I'd love to show, this could be a carrot or a radish.

Let's swing it back around here again.

And the condition is excellent.

Just a little ding or a dent at this end of it.

It's made as a box, but really, I think, more for decorative appeal than anything else.

I don't really think it was manufactured to serve a specific function.

And I wouldn't have been surprised at the time if they made different shapes and sizes with this.

Now, Chinese silver has a very different content than what we would call sterling silver.

They didn't mine their own silver.

Basically what they did is use the coinage from other countries and melted it down.

The problem with that is the coinage had all different qualities and purities of silver.

The market for Chinese silver is very strong.

At auction today, I would not be surprised at all with an estimate between $3,000 and $5,000.

Holy moly.

(laughs) Thank you for saying "Holy moly."

Wow.

(laughs) Wow, wow.

I never would've... never would've guessed.

It belongs to my husband, his prize possession.

He purchased it from a friend probably 20, 25 years ago.

The friend, I believe, inherited from a family member and was going to sell it.

He needed some money.

My husband's a guitar person and he asked him how much he wanted for it, and I don't remember for sure, but I'm thinking maybe $150 that he paid him.

After my husband got it home and did a little bit of research on it, he found it was more valuable than that.

He felt a little guilty, so he went back and paid the friend probably a couple hundred dollars more.

And he's loved it ever since.

Does he play it?

He does.

He plays '60s music.

This is a Martin D-18.

In the world of fiddle music, bluegrass music, country music this is kind of the Holy Grail.

Do you know what year the guitar is?

Well, I thought it was a '39, but I've been told it's a '37.

Well, that's what I thought at first, too.

And then once I turned it around, without even looking on the inside, I made a different decision.

The guitars from 1935 to 1938 were pretty much identical, but up on the top of the peghead here, it's stamped "C.F.

Martin."

They only did that on this model of guitar in 1935.

This is a Martin guitar made in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

The neck of the guitar is mahogany.

The back and sides are mahogany.

It does look like he had the tuners replaced at one time.

He had one of them replaced lately.

Oh, lately, recently.

In Des Moines, yes.

Okay.

I'm going to turn the guitar back around so we can see the front of it.

All the wear is natural from playing, from being used.

It's seen a lot of miles and it's done a lot of work, but it's preserved really well.

It's considered in great condition.

It has the original bridge, which is really very nice.

Usually the bridge has been replaced by this point.

This is ebony, this is ebony.

The top is Adirondack spruce.

Another thing I really like is it does have the original case.

Have you had it appraised?

He has sent pictures to, I believe, Dallas, Texas, to the guitar store there.

Mm-hmm.

And I don't really remember what he told me.

I know it was, like, at least $17,000 or $19,000.

I can't remember for sure.

Well, in this current market, even with things being slower, in a retail environment, this guitar would be valued at $30,000 to $35,000.

Great.

Made me a believer.

He always told me it was really worth a lot, but...

So he's not in trouble for buying it.

(laughing): No, not at this point.

Well, I picked it up at an auction, and as you can see, it's not the best condition book, but it was more what was inside that intrigued me than the outside.

Well, I'm just going to sort of gingerly open the cover, and indeed, the inside is a standard text by this man Thodore Duret on impressionism, the painting movement.

And this edition is in German, where there was a lot of scholarship done in the early part of the 20th century on the history of painting.

And this is Berlin, 1909.

And here on an earlier page, we see that it is a limited edition.

1,000 copies were made, and then there was a special edition of one of 30.

Okay.

And what we have here is number 514 of the thousand edition.

And it looks like a sort of art reference book with inset text pictures.

But...

Inside there is some original artwork.

Here we have an etching by Camille Pissarro, for example.

And as I turn over again, an original etching by Monet.

And then further in, we have an original Renoir.

And another more familiar, perhaps, Renoir image.

Now, you said you picked it up at a local auction.

Yes.

Was it on its own in the lot?

I can't quite remember, but I think this was one of three, three art books.

How much did you pay?

Uh, for the three books...

I'm thinking $100, $200.

Just because I liked the pictures and I thought, "Hmm, different type of paper."

Yes.

It had the guard piece of paper in front of it.

I don't read German, never intend to read German, but I just thought the pictures were kind of unique.

Indeed.

The paper stock is a giveaway from the more glossy art paper that was used for the text, the main text of the book.

This book routinely sells in named auctions for around $7,000 to $8,000.

Wow!

$7,000 to $8,000?!

Yes, so well done you.

Even with the bad binding?

Um... Or is that going to knock that down?

It's going to knock the value down a bit, that's true.

But the value is in the etchings within the book.

Would it pay to get it rebound?

It's not going to help you commercially to rebind it, but if you wanted to keep it and treasure it, you could have a hand-made leather spine put on that, and it would be worth spending $500 on it.

Okay.

That's great.

Good.

Thank you very much indeed.

Thank you.

When I think of amusement, I think of those rides where you have to be this tall to get on.

But looking at this shirt, it looks like you had to be this wide to play for this team.

Where did this come from?

This was my grandfather's shirt that he wore when he was 16 years old, when he played for the Fat Men's Amusement Company out of northeastern Iowa.

My grandfather was always a very large man.

He weighed over 350 pounds most of his life.

Mm-hmm.

But this is just amazing-- great family history.

This is your grandfather right here.

Correct.

He was the lightweight of the team?

Uh, yes.

And this gentleman right here, Baby Bliss?

He weighed, according to the information we have, 640 pounds.

He was the largest on the team.

Wow.

My grandfather used to tell the story that it took three chairs for Baby Bliss to sit on when he ate in a restaurant.

I can imagine.

And you would not want to get behind them in the buffet line.

(laughing) No.

So I see in this other photo as well, we have Oliver Kimball?

He was the umpire?

Right, and he was only 48 inches tall.

48 inches tall.

Yes.

So how could he even see behind these guys?

I don't think he could.

And where did they go?

Where did they travel to?

They were a regional team around Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois.

Mm-hmm.

And they went and they played teams that were from the towns they were in.

And I'm guessing that they hit a lot of home runs.

I would hope so.

Now, you found these postcards.

And he sent these from different places where he traveled?

Yes, he did, sometimes saying what position he was going to play tomorrow or when he'd be home, those types of things.

Well, I have to tell you, normally, this is the part where I spew a lot of statistics and sound like ESPN Classic, and tell you a lot of things.

(laughing) We really don't know much about this team beyond what you've told us.

This is what I can tell you.

Based on the fact that we have this very large and very wool outfit... Yeah.

And you can prove that it's from 1910 and we have the provenance behind all this-- the great poster, the jersey, the postcards, the photo-- it does have a value to it that I think goes beyond sentimental or historical.

I would place about a $2,000 value on it for insurance.

Great.

Now, of course it means a lot more to you for the history of what your grandfather and what he meant.

And I hope you're not disappointed, Pat.

I know we've had a lot higher appraisals on this show, but I have to tell you, this by far I think is the biggest appraisal (laughing) Thank you.

we've ever had on the show.

Thank you.

Well, my mother bought it for me in 1962 at the Shearwater Pottery in Biloxi, Mississippi.

She was on a vacation there.

And I've had it ever since.

You've got the original brochure that came with it when it was bought in 1962, and I love things like that.

The brochure in itself is not worth a lot, but it just enhances the value historically and maybe slightly monetarily.

I kept turning it and looking at it, trying to figure out what it was, what the design was, and I asked you and you said that it's a...

It's a cat.

And I said, "I don't see a cat."

And so we turned it around and you showed me, here's the cat's eyes, here's the cat's ears, and then it comes down-- the body, the tail comes up here.

But it was so abstract that it was a little hard to see.

So that kind of made it much more fun and interesting for us.

There's a Shearwater curving mark, which is the traditional mark that they always used.

And there were a number of different people that worked there.

The most significant and important person was Walter Anderson.

Oh, yes.

And you had asked me, "Did Walter Anderson do this plate, or did he not?"

Well, I was curious.

And it's not signed with the initials of who did it.

I see.

And so the answer is, we don't know.

But it's very much in his style, and we suspect that he did do it.

Oh, okay.

And so that's part of the appeal of it.

If he didn't do it, it might hurt the value a little bit, but not really all that much.

Our guess is that this would probably sell at auction for between $2,000 and $3,000.

Ooh, very nice.

If we could prove that he did it, it might be more on the upper end of that range.

Oh, good.

Well, thank you very much.

My mother would be really pleased.

My husband bought a car in the late '60s at an impound lot.

He paid $400 for the car.

And he brought the car home and we opened up the trunk and there were several articles in the trunk and this was one of the articles.

I don't know anything about the box.

I always kind of used it as just like a jewelry box.

We're looking at a scene of a mountain peak rising through clouds with a forest at the base.

And these are in enamel colors over a metal, and this metal is copper.

And we're going to turn this around, because often we find a lot of information on the back of items.

And if you look right there, you'll see a mark, and you can clearly see it's copper on the back and it has a patinated surface, made sort of mute the bright, kind of coppery color.

Well, this mark is of a company in Japan called the Ando Company-- A-n-d-o.

And Ando Company was established in Nagoya, Japan, in 1881.

Oh, my.

And they made enamel wares.

Now, what's interesting about this, in addition to the scene, which is a scene showing Mount Fuji, is the shape.

This type of shape you usually find is most often made of lacquer, and they were used as writing boxes in Japan.

And so I was quite surprised when we opened this up and in the interior there's nothing-- it's just an open space.

Right.

In the Meiji period, there was a lot of interchange between the West and Japan over different types of technical innovations, and among those were creation of enamels and working in metals and so on.

And the use of mixed metals was very popular.

But that was in the 1880s.

This actually dates from a little later, around 1900, maybe even a little after 1900.

So for a lot of the lacquer work and the mixed metals in the late 19th century, Japan influenced American makers.

But toward the end of the 19th century and early 20th century, you have some instances, and this is one, where American makers were influencing what was going on in Japan.

Oh, my.

I think it would have been something that would have had a multitude of functions and was intended for sale in the West.

Now, I want to know more about this car.

It was probably like a 1958, '59 Mercury.

How long did you drive it?

Oh, not too long, probably six months.

I'm not real sure what happened to it.

You want to guess how much this is?

I don't have an idea.

How about $2,000 to $3,000 at auction?

No... no.

He bought a great box and a pretty lousy car is what it sounds like.

That's... yeah, oh, wow, wonderful.

My mother had the pillow that she got from my great-grandfather, and this I found in her basement while taking care of her stuff after she passed away.

When were you doing all... cleaning all this out?

Three years ago.

Three years ago?

Yep.

What do you know about these things?

The pillow, I guess my grandfather brought it back from Nezperce, Idaho, as far as I understand.

And this I know nothing about.

Could he have taken a detour through Niagara Falls?

Maybe.

I don't know.

This piece is from Niagara Falls.

Okay.

Or from that area.

It was probably made by Seneca or Iroquois or Mohawk.

It's dated 1906.

These things were made as tourist items.

The beading on this is called cluster beading or clump beading.

And you can see how it's kind of built up.

And it's a way that gives it dimension and makes it more 3-D.

This one needs to be cleaned up a little bit, but other than that, it's in fairly good shape.

But it's not Nez Perce at all.

Okay.

Whole 'nother world of Indian tribes.

The other piece is Cheyenne, and it's called a "possible bag," because it could be used to hold possibly anything.

The nice thing about the one you have is it's beaded on both sides, and it's not beaded the same on both sides.

The back side is almost a negative design of the first side, and it makes for a very beautiful pattern.

The beading is called a lazy stitch, and each one of these little groups of beads is on a piece of thread, and it's tacked down at each end.

And that's why it covers the whole bag.

And it was a quick way to do it.

Don't see them beaded on both sides a lot.

Very simple, box-and-bar design, it's called.

Very classic to the period of the 1870s and 1880s.

Okay.

The sewing is done in a combination of animal sinews and threads.

Just a very nice piece.

This was most likely gotten by your grandfather in Montana or Wyoming, in that area.

Okay.

Value.

Well, your Nez Perce piece, which is really Seneca or Iroquois, if you cleaned it up a little bit, it would probably be worth, in an auction, $150 to $200.

Okay.

Today's market's kind of off, and things are a little slow.

But even with that said, if this bag here came up for auction... and that needs to be cleaned also.

It's fairly dirty from dust.

But it would probably sell for $3,000 to $5,000.

Okay.

So it's a nice find for the basement.

Yeah, very nice one.

Surprised.

WOMAN: I bought it about 37 years ago at an estate sale... Uh-huh.

And I understand it is not an authentic bend of the river, nor does Iowa have white deer.

The capital has been sketched in.

It looks to have been added later.

In 1856, the capital wasn't here yet.

Uh-huh.

But it had been commissioned to be moved from Iowa City to Des Moines.

Six of them were found in the attic of the old Callanan house.

And the Callanans were very early Des Moines settlers.

I was told this artist has been authenticated, and they did find other lithographs that were true to the Des Moines scene.

I see.

Well, W.R. Wheeler is the artist.

And, as you said, he is known as a local artist.

And this might be inaccurate, but he did do more accurate pictures.

And this particular lithograph is listed in a major reference book called Views and Viewmakers of America Oh, my goodness.

by a professor at Cornell University.

His name is John Reps. And his book lists hundreds of American bird's-eye views.

And according to Reps's book, this is the first bird's-eye view of Des Moines.

And as you say, the Callanans came from Albany.

And on this side, it talks about the publishing company, which was probably also the lithographers.

And they were in Albany.

I looked to see what else they did.

They didn't do anything else on the West.

They did a number of lithographs of Albany.

That's an interesting fact, because you would have thought that a bird's-eye view of this size and scope probably would have been done in those years in either Philadelphia, New York or Boston.

I've only found one record of one being sold, and that was about 15 years ago.

So it is a very scarce print.

Have you ever thought about the value of this?

I've often wondered if I gave too much for it.

My memory says I gave $400.

I see, yeah.

But memory is sometimes not right.

Right-- 37 years ago, that was probably a fair price.

This kind of thing is very much in demand today.

Be it ever so fictitious, it's a beautiful print.

It is.

It's ideal.

I would say that even with the flaws-- the little tear, the spots and so on-- a fair retail price would be $4,000 to $5,000.

Oh!

Oh, lovely.

There are people that would certainly pay that, yeah.

Wonderful.

MAN: This ring was once owned by my grandmother's first husband.

His name was Harry Rich.

And he was a magician and aerialist back in the teens and '20s.

He actually died during the performance of one of his acts in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

This was passed down through my grandmother and was worn by her second husband, actually, who had a son, who's my father.

What kind of act was it, specifically?

He had a magic act-- the typical sawing-the- woman-in-half type of act, which my grandmother, who's actually right here in this photograph...

Right.

She was a part of the act.

But he was best known as an aerialist.

He would set up these high-wire, trapeze type of things and hang by his teeth.

He had a custom-fit mouthpiece that he would hang and also then slide down this wire.

"The Slide of Death," I think they called it.

These are some of the posters and billboards that they would have to advertise his show as it was coming to town.

Let's get to the ring.

Let's talk about when it was first bought from the estate.

My grandmother purchased it from the estate for $1,000 in 1926.

Now, subsequently you had an appraisal done on it in what year?

1975.

What did that appraisal say?

Do you remember?

$12,500.

I looked at the appraisal with you, and the way they described it is a little bit differently than we do it today.

But they called it a cape stone, which means it's a little bit off color.

Mm-hmm.

And they said that it was very clean.

Other than that, they didn't go into it much.

Now, the ring was manufactured in the early 1920s.

Okay.

The setting is made out of platinum, which was really just starting to be used in the early part of the 20th century.

It also is mounted in eight prongs.

A lot of times, these rings are mounted in four prongs or six prongs.

I would imagine it's eight prongs not just from an aesthetic view, but the ring was built for a man to wear.

It's rather large and heavy.

With an appraisal done in 1975 of around $12,000, if we appraised this stone today, according to that appraisal, this stone would appraise for somewhere around, say, $20,000 to $25,000.

But, uh...

I got news for you.

The appraisal was wrong.

They called it a cape stone, which was a common term for an off-color, slightly yellow stone.

In my opinion, this stone is a light fancy yellow.

That means the color saturation is enough that it's not off-color or cape anymore.

Now it's light fancy yellow.

And that greatly changes the price of the diamond.

Now, we didn't tell everybody how big it is.

Do you remember how big it is?

I think a bit over seven carats.

Right.

I measured it, and I came up with the same thing-- a little bit over seven carats.

It's what we call the round, European-cut diamond.

If it gets graded as a light fancy yellow-- and when I say graded, I mean by a well-known lab-- I would put it somewhere between, at auction, $60,000 to $80,000.

Wow.

Yeah, yeah.

Now, there is a slight chance that I may be wrong.

What if the lab gave it a grade better than light fancy yellow, and they gave it fancy yellow?

That could increase the stone even more, to maybe $75,000 to $100,000.

But right now, I feel very comfortable telling you $60,000 to $80,000 for this diamond.

Boy, that's wonderful, that's great.

You're watching "Antiques Roadshow" from Des Moines, Iowa.

WALBERG: And now, it's time for the "Roadshow" Feedback Booth.

And this is my Little Audrey paper doll for me, Little Audrey.

I brought this big pen in, and they told me it is worth $400 to $500.

Hi, we had a great time at the "Roadshow."

We can't believe we made it.

Now we're all smiles.

Worth nothing, worth nothing, worth something.

Nick Lowry?

(purrs loudly) And I brought my rare antique vase.

I paid five... about ten dollars for it 20 years ago, and I found that it's worth five dollars.

I should have had them appraise the basket I brought it in instead.

And I bought this for a dollar about 30 years ago.

I found out it's worth about $1,800.

And sorry, honey, your antique shotgun is not worth as much as you thought it was.

But I can still do an Annie Oakley imitation.

What do you think?

Hi!

Drove in from Rock Island, Illinois, brought a little bit of jewelry, thought we'd leave with not too much.

Ended up bracelet, $1,400... and this little bitty old pin, $4,800.

Thank you, "Roadshow."

We brought some stuff, but the most expensive thing that we have is the speeding ticket that we got on the way here.

And, um, we found out that this quilt that my great-great-grandmother and great-grandmother made together in the '30s is worth about $500, which is pretty good.

Yippee!

I'm Mark Walberg.

Thanks for watching.

We'll see you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."

Sure!

How are you?

Good.

You having a good time?

Yes!

This doesn't make this any more valuable, I just want to let you know.

(laughing)