Antiques Roadshow

WALBERG: Antiques Roadshow takes a swing at finding the treasures of Palm Springs.

My wife sent me to go get some eggs, and I happened to be driving by a yard sale, and the painting caught my eye.

It sets my tartan all atwitter to see these.

(laughing) WALBERG: Palm Springs, famous for its abundance of great golf courses, is also known as Hollywood's desert playground.

A little over two hours away by car, it's attracted many of Tinseltown's top stars for decades, like Elvis and Priscilla Presley, who honeymooned in this classic midcentury modern house back in 1967.

Nearby at Antiques Roadshow, this jacket, worn by a star of the small screen, has found its way back in front of some television cameras.

Take a look.

WOMAN: I went to an estate sale in Malibu, California, and the lady in line told me that it was the home of Carroll O'Connor.

Wow.

Of Archie Bunker fame.

And I went in the house, I went upstairs, and the master bedroom closet was filled with men's clothes.

It was actually his daughter-in-law that was having the sale.

And I said, "These couldn't possibly be your father-in-law's clothes."

And she said, "Yeah, my mom never threw anything away."

Even though he had passed 15 years ago.

I bought it because I was just going to give it to my dad.

He was a big Archie Bunker fan, and I thought they were the same size.

Mm-hmm.

What did you pay for it when you bought it?

I think about $40.

So this was quite a while after Carroll O'Connor had passed.

Is that right?

15 years.

His wife just passed away about a year ago, and so they had the estate sale about three months after she passed away.

It just, to me, takes me back to a time when my whole family was together laughing and having a good time.

All in the Family, man, that show it just kind of redefined America.

It took all of America's, like, hang-ups and values, it put them in a jar and it shook them, and it broke down racial stereotypes, it broke down sexual stereotypes.

It helped social justice in our country because we're all sitting there on the couch, and we're watching this guy in this jacket just changing America by being a bigot, and everybody could see the humor in that.

He was actually based off of Norman Lear's father.

What do you do with it now?

Do you have it displayed?

Oh, no.

I keep it in my living room closet, and in the morning when I walk my dog I just throw it on, because it's kind of warm.

And I just use it to walk my dog.

It's not a costume made piece.

It's actually a purchased piece, so perhaps there may have been one or two others as a backup.

But this was Archie Bunker's, and Carroll O'Connor took it home.

And whenever you find provenance like this.

You got it from Carroll O'Connor's daughter-in-law.

And then here's photos of him wearing it.

Here he is with Edith on the show, Jean Stapleton.

Right.

And there's the coat.

You look at it up here, and what's cool is it even has his little flag lapel right there.

That was a big social commentary unto itself on the show.

The condition is fabulous on it.

It hasn't been beat up.

I love this shot here with Sammy Davis Jr., and there's the coat hanging behind it.

In that episode, when Sammy kissed Archie at the end of the show, that broke the laugh record on that TV program.

It's an icon.

I feel that at auction this is worth $10,000 to $15,000.

No!

No!

You are kidding me!

No, I'm not.

I love it myself.

I'd wear it walking the dog, too.

You are kidding me!

(laughing) Probably on this, I would put $20,000 insurance appraisal on it.

$20,000 for insurance?

So I brought a portion of my John Wesley Hardin collection, a cattle brand ledger from before he went on his long stint in Huntsville Prison.

After he got out of prison, he became an attorney and moved to El Paso.

So I brought his El Paso business card, his autobiography that was published after his death, a playing card that he would shoot.

I don't know if it was to get money or just to publicize himself, and then the death card that was taken after he was shot and killed in El Paso.

John Wesley Hardin.

Yes.

A man so mean he once shot a man for snoring.

Allegedly, yes, yes.

Why him?

Having been in law enforcement, I think the Old West law enforcement, and outlaw faction kind of interested me, and something... he's intriguing.

Something drew me to him.

I just think this stuff is just fascinating.

And how long did it take you to put this collection together?

Years, years.

Years, yeah.

And this is just a portion of my collection, and I thought it was some of the neatest stuff that really represented him.

John Wesley Hardin is one of the most notorious outlaws of the Old West.

Right.

He was a famous cattle rustler and card player, card cheat.

Right.

Also worked a little bit as an attorney, spent some time in prison.

Exactly.

And then met an untimely death.

Yes.

Not surprisingly.

Right, yeah.

He was murdered in 1895.

Right.

So we think of him as a cattle rustler, I think, maybe first and foremost.

Yes.

So you brought this brand sheet.

Right.

Which records the individual cattle brand, and then the owner that's associated with each brand, and John Wesley Hardin has signed twice here-- here, and then again at the bottom.

This small piece that you mentioned is his business card.

Right.

Attorney at law.

Maybe the least famous part of his career.

Yeah, right, very short lived.

And then maybe most famously as a gambler And a bit of a showman and a bit of a self-promoter.

The playing card is signed, dated, and has three shots in it.

Really terrific piece.

And, of course, the death card, too, no gunslinger reputation is complete without the morbid death card.

Obviously, not signed.

Right.

Right.

That's a facsimile signature with it.

Yes.

But you have the death card and the autobiography, which is really very much the source of his reputation.

Exactly.

Much of this self-generated publicity, which is the way to do it, right.

Absolutely.

Can you tell me what you paid for the autobiography?

I have five or six of them, all in different conditions.

I think for this one I probably paid maybe $200, $225.

How about the photograph?

That I don't recall.

I bought that so many years ago.

I found it online and I just don't recall what I paid for it.

The business card, I think I paid $444 for it.

How about the branding sheet?

I really, I don't remember that.

I remember the card.

How much did you pay for the card?

The card I paid a little over $2,000.

Gunslingers are a popular collecting area.

Texas is a...

Yes.

There are certain regions in America that appeal to collectors beyond their borders.

So just the mythology of the area speaks to more than just the people who live there.

And there are a lot of good recent auction records for him so he's very hot.

Yes.

And even though a lot of stuff has come on the market recently, the market is strong and supporting.

The autobiography is fairly rare.

Supposedly it was pulled from distribution.

Exactly, yeah.

But it's not a particularly expensive book but you have a very nice copy.

At auction we would say $500 to $700.

Oh, wow, okay.

The death card, also on the rare side.

Yours, it's a bright image, but it's got some condition problems.

It's been shellacked and the margins have been trimmed.

So I would probably put this in the $700 to $900 range.

Oh, okay.

The business card, several examples of this have sold recently.

They're in the $2,000 to $3,000 market.

Between the two of these, which do you think is most expensive?

I think the card.

I think they're very rare and really hard to come by.

But then again, this is signed twice, so it's hard to say.

But you're right, the card is sexier, right, it's sexier, more fun.

So the value of the signed brand sheet would be between $4,000 and $6,000 at auction.

Wow, okay.

But, yes, this is your star piece.

It's so compelling and magnetic.

If you average out the last three auction records it's probably $15,000 to $20,000.

Wow, okay, a lot more than I thought.

Yeah.

That makes me happy.

It's very... like you said, very intimate.

He shot that card, he touched that card, he signed that card.

Exactly.

I'm very happy.

That's...

I just love this stuff.

WOMAN: What did you bring today?

My mother was given it by a friend in 1955.

It's been in our family ever since.

The French model actually became the basis of the U.S. model, 1833.

And that's because after the War of 1812, we didn't want to use the British as our models for our weaponry.

Well, this one is French from the teens or the early '20s.

It's what they call a cut steel bead.

That's what gives it the shine.

If you get it wet, it will rust, because it is steel.

Very pretty design.

APPRAISER: So, John, you brought in this fabulous trophy, 1955 Kentucky Derby, Willie Shoemaker, the jockey, won by the horse Swaps.

How did you get it and how did you know Willie Shoemaker?

He was my father.

Wow!

Yeah, yeah.

And you're how tall?

I'm six foot tall.

Okay.

But I'm adopted.

My sister and I were adopted.

What do you remember about your dad's career?

What stands out to you?

Well, you know, he was my father, so that part didn't really mean much to me.

I mean, I remember other things about my dad, playing basketball with John Wayne, you know, stuff like that.

Those are the kinds of things I remember.

I don't really remember much about his career.

Sounds like a great guy.

I liked him.

And he was a fantastic jockey.

When he was born, he was premature.

Yes.

And the story goes that his grandmother actually made... fashioned an incubator out of a shoe box and put him in it on the stove, basically.

Opened the oven and put him on the oven door.

And basically saved his life.

Yeah, sure.

He grew up, 4' 11"?

4' 11".

100 pounds?

When he was heavy he was like 95 to 105.

He rode for 50 years.

Just an amazing career from your dad.

And to have this trophy is absolutely fantastic.

Now, if I was going to put a value on it-- now, I do notice that the horse has left the barn here.

Yes, yes, he has.

He's left the top of this.

That's easy enough, I think, that you can put that back on.

But when we value the trophy, we look at the horse, which was Swaps, who was 1956 Horse of the Year.

And we also look at the fact it was your dad's first Kentucky Derby win out of four.

I would insure it for at least $25,000.

Cool, very cool.

WOMAN: I got these posters at an antique/junk store in the small town where I live.

This was the only one that was hanging up.

It was in the window when I drove by.

I thought it would be perfect in my kitchen, because my kitchen is like a retro 1950s red kitchen.

So I went in to see if I could buy it, and it turned out there were actually the other two, so I purchased all three of them.

With the idea of hanging them in your kitchen.

Yes.

I was going to cut them up, have them framed, hadn't gotten around to it yet, so I thought I would bring them in here and see if there was any value before I chopped them up.

You were going to cut them up.

I was, yes.

Well, I think a rat... it had torn here, and there was some rat damage.

So I figured I could probably cut it up.

And what did you pay for them?

$15.

How long ago did you buy these?

I bought them about six months ago.

The man who I bought them from, he cleans up estate sales, the stuff that's left over.

And I guess they were from a man who used to own an appliance store, I don't know how many years ago, at least 50 plus.

These are obviously posters for a brand of refrigerator.

And it's the Fairbanks-Morse company.

I have to say, I am not a refrigerator specialist.

My specialty is posters, and I'm likely to say something now about the history of refrigerators that will offend somebody who knows an awful lot about refrigerators, and I apologize in advance.

It's not my area of expertise.

Okay.

But I have done a little bit of research.

There's no date on them, and we can only date them by the image and by the product.

And to the best of my research, these are from the late 1930s, which is when the Fairbanks-Morse company introduced the Conservador.

And I hear "Conservador," and I'm like, oh, it sounds like "conserve."

But the Conservador was in fact an inner door to the refrigerator, where you would put the most used items.

So you could open the door, grab eggs, grab milk, and not let all of the cold air out of the main refrigerator, where you kept the more perishable materials.

It even says, "Saves more money.

Gives greater convenience."

So they're explaining this new, exciting development in refrigerators.

But the posters are this fabulous retro appeal, sort of June Cleaver, the mistress of the kitchen.

The advertising psychology that they use and the words that they use seem a little bit out of place in contemporary times, a little bit sexist, perhaps.

In the middle poster it says, "There are 15 points every woman should know before buying a refrigerator."

The kitchen was the woman's domain.

That's where the woman should be, in sort of classic, midcentury America.

The other thing about these that is great from my point of view is that there's no record of them online.

Like, you can't look these up and find a price.

I did a fair amount of research and I found no record, not only of these posters, but really of any other Fairbanks-Morse refrigerator poster.

Now, normally, people can come into the Roadshow and they can look up what they have online, but when there's no record of it on the internet, this is where appraisers come in.

Where the internet ends, that's where we begin, and that's what I really like.

It sets my tartan all atwitter to see these.

At auction, I would estimate these, conservatively, each one, between $600 and $900 for a total of $1,800 to $2,700.

Oh, my goodness.

For all of them.

So I shouldn't cut them up and repurpose them.

(laughing) No, you shouldn't.

WOMAN: This piece I actually picked up at an estate sale in Phoenix.

I just loved the geometric pattern it had.

I loved the midcentury modern kind of feel it has, and so I bought it.

So how long ago did you purchase the work?

I actually bought it about three years ago.

Okay, well, the artist's name is Auguste Herbin.

He's French.

It's also dated 1950.

He was born near the Belgian border in 1882.

He studied art, and then he moved to Paris, as most artists seemed to do.

And his studio was right next to that of Picasso, Georges Braque and Juan Gris.

So by 1913, he was so influenced by them that he was painting cubist works.

Then he got drafted for World War I, and he was actually too short to serve in the military, so they utilized his talents in other ways.

He was asked to decorate a military chapel and also to design camouflage for the Air Force.

Oh, wow.

So after the war, he continued to experiment with different styles of painting, including abstract and representational styles.

And around 1938, he became very interested in the Italian Trecento, and his forms became geometric and very simplified.

And then around 1942, he designed something called a plastic alphabet.

And he used different geometric symbols to stand for letters of the alphabet, and sometimes it would be the same shape but in different colors that would have different meanings.

So some of his works of art, you can actually decode them, and it will spell out a word or it will have something that you can sing.

(chuckling) So I made a slight attempt but I didn't come up with much.

So I don't know if that is what's going on here.

Okay.

The medium here is gouache, which is a water-based paint.

Unlike watercolor, it's opaque.

And you said you paid how much for this?

$200.

$200.

So I think if this were to be sold in a retail gallery, it might sell for something like $30,000 or $35,000.

Oh, that's wonderful.

Wow!

That's so cool.

What did you bring us?

A sampler.

Made by my great-grandma.

It was made in 1856?

1857.

This is what we would call a railroad watch.

A what?

A railroad watch, which were made, very high quality watches that were made inexpensive by putting them into plain cases.

Very decorative, and it's in great shape.

No chips, because usually that's... that's what happens on these edges.

It's definitely 20th century.

I would guess '60s, something like that.

WOMAN: I brought a carved wooden shoe that I have had in my family since I was a child.

My dad brought it home from World War II.

He was stationed in France at the time.

And my dad was always very frugal with his dollars, and there was another soldier that wasn't all that frugal, and he needed cash.

Dad had cash.

The other soldier had this wooden shoe, so they simply exchanged.

It survived a lot and it's in good shape.

It came home on the Queen Mary.

It is in good shape.

The detail is exquisite.

I mean, you can even see the stitches on the shoes.

It's a shoe full of walnuts, and it's carved out of walnut.

Dates from the late 18th, early 19th century, and was carved in the Black Forest region of Europe.

So it's an ink well.

You open it up, and you have the actual ink well that's most likely made of pewter.

And then this recessed area here probably held extra pen nibs.

At auction, we would probably estimate it in the $700 to $900 range.

Excellent.

Because it's in such great condition and a lot of people collect ink wells.

Okay, thank you.

MAN: It's my grandparents'.

They bought it as a wedding present, I believe, or a wedding anniversary gift, in Chicago, at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933.

APPRAISER; And you've had it prominently displayed in your home?

Unfortunately, no.

It's been in a vacuum cleaner box for a little bit, way too long, I think.

(chuckling) So what you have is, we call, a Vienna bronze.

It's a Vienna bronze table lamp.

You have the largest one I've ever seen, and I think it's the giant economy size.

Wow.

So it's really nice.

I mean, most of them are about this high.

Okay.

And they were made in the early part of the 20th century by the Franz Bergman foundry.

It's very clearly marked on the back here.

A two-handled vase with the "B" for Bergman in there.

I see.

You also have this wonderful thing here.

Yeah.

I hope you haven't tried to plug it in at all.

No, I'm not that... no.

I'm not that brave yet, you know.

You can have this rewired.

This has no effect on the value.

Oh, is that true?

It was like a night light.

And it's made out of bronze.

And then we call it cold-painted.

So most bronzes have a patina that's chemically applied, but this is actually painted with oil paints.

Really.

And the Bergman foundry was known for the amazing detail of the casting itself, the casting and the finishing, and then the way it's painted.

And you have these lovely details here like the shoes, this little vase that's knocked over.

It's really a wonderful subject, and it's a very intimate kind of scene of this fellow praying.

And these Arab subject matters are also very, very desirable.

So Bergman was the foundry.

We used to think that Franz Bergman was actually the sculptor, but he wasn't.

He owned the foundry, and he had artists and craftsmen working for him.

Really, okay.

And we really don't know the names of them.

There is one artist that we do know named Carl Kauba.

But when Kauba did the things, he was a well-known sculptor in his own right, so he would sign them.

Okay.

They went out of business and then in the last, I think, ten or 15 years, somebody else bought the foundry and they started making them again.

A lot of people ask us, "So how's the art market?"

And basically when you're at the top of a particular market, the market's very strong.

So when you have a piece like this that is such a massive scale and has such a great presence, it's going to bring top dollar still, even though a lot of the other Vienna bronzes have decreased in value.

Okay.

A retail price on this would probably be in the $10,000 range.

Really?

$10,000-- that's phenomenal.

I'm going to get... take it out of the box that I had it in, I'll tell you that, you know.

Wow.

MAN: I got these from a Russian dealer.

My grandfather used to give my grandmother a lot of jewelry, and then all the jewelry went to her youngest daughter.

She sold it, so she could buy an airplane for her husband, who do nothing.

So I'm starting to start a collection to revive what my grandfather have started with my grandmother.

The original purchase of the item.

Yeah.

Was by you or by your mom?

By my mom.

By your mom.

Yeah, so I really don't know how much she paid for it.

If you look at the design, it's Edwardian, that period between 1901 and 1914.

Okay.

Now, you know a little bit about it.

You know that the stone is what?

I believe it is pink topaz, and I was told it was 14, 15 carat.

I'm not so sure.

All right, so I know you had a GIA certificate done and it said it was pink topaz.

Yes.

Now I did some measurements on it, and it also came up that it's around 14 carats.

Okay.

That's an exceptional size for a piece of pink topaz like this.

Now, this type of topaz sometimes is referred to as cyclamen topaz.

You can see that deep, rich pink.

Okay.

And when you're talking about topazes, those are the colors you're looking for, that bright golden yellow, this fabulous pink.

Okay.

I mean, this is really a beautiful gemstone.

Thank you.

Then it's surrounded by all these old mine diamonds.

And then as we travel up the necklace, you can see here it's set with all these pearls.

And this is kind of a case where less is more.

It's not about how much metal is there, how much diamonds is there.

If you count all the diamonds in this piece, there's maybe ten karats total weight.

And it's mixed diamonds.

You got old miners and then you have rose cuts.

I see.

But you have all these beautiful clustered stations and you can see how the pearls are all wired together?

Mm-hmm.

Now, the pearls are natural pearls.

You asked me about some initials that are on it.

Yeah, there are some initials they said BBB and company.

Okay.

But I don't know what that means.

So if we flip it over, and we look right here.

Oh!

It says "BB and B."

What does that stand for?

Bailey, Banks & Biddle.

Oh!

One of the oldest jewelry companies to be established in early America, established in Philadelphia on Chestnut Street in 1832.

Wow.

They were kind of like the Tiffany of Philadelphia.

I see.

All right.

Great eye for making fabulous pieces of jewelry.

So it's a fantastic piece.

Have you ever really thought, you know, we've always got to get to what's it worth?

What would it go for at auction today?

I have no idea.

You had a previous appraisal.

Appraised at $10,000.

$10,000.

But they don't tell that it is BB, or whatever.

They just say, "pink topaz, about $10,000."

So I would say to you that at auction today, a piece like this would be $30,000 to $50,000.

I see.

Fantastic.

MAN: 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.

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.

Right.

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.

Oh.

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?

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.

Right.

Did they put a value on it at that time?

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

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.

Right.

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.

Okay.

So four experts loved the Babe Ruth.

No question about the Babe Ruth.

The Lou Gehrig we're divided on.

All right.

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.

Wow.

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.

Wow, yeah.

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

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

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.

Yeah.

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

Oh!

This type of decoration is called sprigged on ware.

Sprigged on.

They sprigged it on.

They applied it to the surface.

So these designs would have been molded separately, and then applied to the surface by the artist.

When I was in high school, I got this.

And I've been hanging on to it ever since, trying to get to the Roadshow, and I finally got to the Roadshow, and I'm like, "it's in California.

Let's go."

(laughing) With any doll, actually, always start with the head down, so the eyes don't fall back in the head.

Okay.

It's been stored the wrong way a long time.

This coat belonged to my mother.

I happened to inherit it.

She used to work in fashion advertising design back in Chicago, and she was a big fan of Disney.

And this coat was the centerpiece in her wardrobe and her collection for years and years and years.

My guess is probably the '70s, late '70s, early '80s.

Just because I remember it growing up as a child.

Well, she didn't buy it in the '70s.

Ah.

Because it wasn't made until the early '80s.

Oh, okay.

And actually, one of the big signs that tell us is this great, big sleeve with the padded shoulder.

That didn't come in until the '80s, and it was a hot commodity in the '80s.

The look, actually, the padded shoulder, came from the military look of the '40s, where the women had the large padded shoulders, like Joan Crawford and all of that.

And so this coat is high fashion for the '80s, with a real Disney swing and I love it.

Oh, yeah.

I love the fabric.

I love the pink.

And it is not real fur.

This is a faux fur.

Okay.

It's French fabric.

It's from Walt Disney Productions.

It's a great design.

It's really soft, isn't it?

Yes, it's very soft.

Have you ever worn it yourself?

I have, yes, a couple of times.

Oh, I can see you in it.

Well, I've never seen another version in pink, and when you pulled it out of the bag, I was just blown away by it because it's just so insanely wonderful.

I just thought it was a great thing to show today.

Currently, in the vintage market, they're selling anywhere from $500 to $800.

Oh, wow.

Wow, that's great.

This doll I found about ten years ago at a local thrift store.

She was in a plastic bag with this note attached with it.

And I thought that she was really beautiful.

I don't collect Native American art, but I could tell that she was old and just had that feeling, you know.

So I picked her up.

You transcribed the note that was with her.

Right.

Can you read me what that note says?

Sure.

It says, "Indian doll.

"It was made by the Indian chief squaw "on the Brul Indian reservation "at Iroquois, South Dakota, "for Mrs. Rose Huey, wife of Dr. Isaac Huey, "who took care of the Indians on the reservation "about the year 1885.

"Mrs. Huey was sitting in a swing "with her arms outstretched, and that is why the doll is made that way."

Well, it's a charming note.

It is, yeah.

It's wonderful.

Not all accurate.

Okay.

But for the most part, it is.

This is a Brul Sioux, Sioux doll.

And the Brul Sioux were a branch of the Sioux tribe that kind of went back and forth from Nebraska and into the Dakotas.

They had traits of the Southern Plains and the more Northern tribes.

This doll appears to be a high status woman.

The soles of her moccasins are beaded, and with a cross in the center.

That's unusual.

Oh.

The head's somewhat unusual.

Usually, they have lots of hair on them.

This doesn't.

It's a good thing.

There's no bugs.

The thing is completely clean.

It looks fresh.

The beadwork on the yoke across the top is typical Brul designs and beautifully done.

She's got an underskirt made out of period cloth that's like new.

Oh.

So someone put this thing away and just left it and didn't touch it.

It's in magnificent condition.

It was made in the 1880s.

Okay.

Probably the earlier 1880s, as opposed to 1885.

It's probably slightly earlier than that.

The part about the arms being straight out, it's the charming part of the letter.

It's not true.

All of these dolls have their arms like that.

Do they, okay.

Because the yoke is stiff, and it holds the arms out straight.

The whole doll is sewn with sinews on deer skin.

And you paid what for this?

I paid $15 for her.

I think you're okay.

If this doll came up at an auction today, dolls are highly collectible, especially good Indian dolls, and especially with the letter.

The note is great information that really nails it down.

I think you're talking $3,500 to $4,500 if the doll came up at auction.

Really?

It's a great thing, yes.

See that.

Wow.

I was thinking maybe a couple of hundred.

No.

That's amazing.

(laughing): Honestly, that's amazing.

You came in from Los Angeles.

What, you brought about four or five boxes of toy trains, right?

Yes.

They were kind of rough condition.

Yeah, they've been played with a lot.

But then in the box I saw some of these pieces.

Yeah.

And you managed to put it together.

Well, it's a great little toy.

And tell me how you came about getting it.

Well, the trains were my grandfather's and handed down through the generations.

I got them when I was in my childhood, and... Did you ever put this together when you were a kid?

Actually, I don't think at the time I figured out how to put it together so it just sort of sat in the box.

So it was just in the box.

And we found the pieces.

It was kind of exciting to see.

It's a really... it's a neat toy.

Some people, if they saw this, they might think it was a salesman sample just because it has the name on it.

No question it's a toy, made by the Kenton Toy Company, in Kenton, Ohio.

They started business 1890s, and they've been in business up through a little bit after World War II.

And this is a wonderful toy.

It's the Morgan Crane.

Morgan is still in business today.

They started in 1860.

And this toy was probably made in the late '20s, early '30s.

It was a very complex toy.

It's interesting when they have a toy that's branded by the company they're representing.

It's exceedingly rare.

And the wonderful thing about a toy like this, it is fully operational to demonstrate exactly how it works.

It comes over this way.

Yeah, if you...

It travels that way.

And then this moves the equipment, the bucket.

And then this can open up to drop the load.

It is a rare toy.

One of the reasons it's rare is because it's very hard to put together, just like you discovered.

I figured that out.

You often lose pieces and once you lose pieces, you don't have a toy.

Yeah.

All that added to the fact that they probably made very, very few.

Now, it does have those two issues.

This little break right over here, this little support here.

And then the other thing, there was a lever here, which allowed this to be lifted up.

But both of those things are repairable, and it does show some play wear.

And I think even with those condition issues, I think on today's market, at auction, it would bring around $10,000 to $12,000.

Wow!

That's amazing.

It is amazing, isn't it?

Mm-hmm.

MAN: I brought a painting by Domingo Ulloa.

He's a local artist from El Centro.

The little information I have about him is the California State Assembly passed a resolution declaring him the father of Chicano art.

One Saturday morning my wife sent me to go get some eggs and I happened to be driving by a yard sale, and the painting caught my eye and I asked the gentleman if it was for sale.

He said it was.

I said, "I'll be right back when I get back from the market."

I purchased it...

So you went and bought the eggs first.

(laughing) Okay, but it was still there.

Eggs came first.

How much did you buy it for?

I bought it for $15.

How long ago did you purchase the painting?

I purchased this in 2010.

And then you took it home and put it up on the wall?

No, my wife, she said it was too ugly to go on the wall.

Well, I like it.

To me, it tells me what the migrant farm worker would do on a weekend after probably a hard week of work.

And this is how they would relax and entertain themselves on the weekend, a little dancing, food, a little drinking, and, of course, you can never forget the music.

Domingo Ulloa, he was named the father of Chicano art, and this painting actually has a lot of themes in it which deal with the Chicano movement, and as well as the Chicano art movement.

The medium looks like it's oil on Masonite.

He was very much influenced by certain social movements, as well as certain art movements.

Now, the social movements were the United Farm Workers, run by Cesar Chavez, so he was influenced by the progressive politics of that particular movement and that particular individual.

Also, as an artist, he was influenced by Los Muralistas.

Now, when I talk about them, I'm talking about three main guys, although there were others.

I'm talking about Diego Rivera... Wow.

...David Siqueiros, and Orozco, Jose Orozco.

They were famous for their mural paintings, especially, but they were all social-minded paintings in terms of themes.

A lot of them had even socialist or communist, sometimes, themes and subjects going on, things having to do with labor.

So you can actually tell here, we're talking about the same kind of subject matter.

This is labor that was very often oppressed, the farm workers.

That's why that whole movement came into being.

Ulloa, as an artist, his work was very political.

Now, this is not necessarily a picture of oppression.

This is more like a happy painting.

It's more a happy scene.

Right.

Now, he studied at the Antigua Academia de San Carlos in Mexico City.

Oh, wow.

Even though he was born in Pomona.

Pomona.

So he went there to study.

And he was also very influenced by the Taller de Grfica Popular, which was also an artist movement that had a lot of socialists and revolutionary kind of ideas.

So, again, we're talking about an artist whose other work was very, very revolutionary and inspired.

In 2012, there was an exhibition of Mexican-American artists.

Yes, there sure was.

It was at the Gene Autry Museum.

It was called "Art Beyond the Hyphen."

And a lot of his work was there.

One that really stood close to me was one that was called "Los Braceros," where basically they had all these farm workers kind of caged up.

Right.

I think the fact that they had an exhibition in 2012, it shows that there is an increasing interest in Mexican-American art and Chicano art, in particular.

Now, what is interesting to think about is that this painting is from 1976.

Correct.

Now, to a certain extent, these artists were forgotten.

I think there's a reason that you found it driving on your way to get some eggs.

He went to a very good school in Mexico City.

He was a trained artist.

But his theme in the 1960s and '70s had more to do with that kind of revolutionary communist theme, rather than abstract expressionism and modern art, which was popular in America in the '60s and '70s.

But now, things are changing.

There's more of an interest in Chicano art and Chicano culture.

And I think what's going to happen is that's going to become something that happens more and more, that there will be more and more interest.

If I was going to put it at auction, I'd put an auction estimate on it of $3,000 to $5,000.

Very nice.

So that says this was made between 1736 and 1795, but that's not true.

It's not!

No!

It's not.

So this is what's called an honorific mark.

I think they're Burmese.

Okay?

And good heavens!

What a shipment this must have been to get these over here.

Probably circa 1930?

What you don't often find is a label on the underside.

"Stomps-Burkhardt Company, Dayton, Ohio.

Chairs of quality."

WOMAN: I brought this pocket watch that I bought at a garage sale several months ago.

I asked the guy if he had any jewelry, and he told me he has a gold watch and he'll sell it to me if the price will be right.

I didn't know anything about pocket watch, none whatsoever.

So I was, like, maybe, like, $300, $350.

And he said, like, he thought that was too little.

So he said he will sell it to me for $400.

So I decided, okay, where else can I buy a gold watch for $400, so I bought this.

Your watch was made by the Waltham Watch Company.

It's made of 18-karat solid gold.

Oh, wow, wow.

And the outside of the case is multicolor gold, and you have platinum appliqu on the case.

Oh, wow.

The watch was made in 1880.

Wow.

It's in incredible condition.

I love the engraved bird on the watch there.

Okay.

And all the flowers.

It's a very heavy case, and what's very interesting about this watch, this is an American case, but was made for the English market.

So it has English import marks on the inside of the case cover.

What do you think the watch is worth today?

Well, I do hope, like, it's worth, like, $600.

Okay, yeah.

Well, this is an exceptional, fine watch in a very rare case, and I'm happy to tell you in today's market at auction this watch would bring between $1,600 and $2,000.

Oh, wow.

Oh, that's wonderful.

(laughing): That's wonderful.

MAN: Well, I got it when was 13 years old.

We did a family trip down to Texas like we do every year.

And we went down to visit my great-uncle.

And I had a guitar, cheap guitar.

I was playing it, and he said, "I think I've got a guitar up in the attic."

He says, "Climb up there and see if it's there."

And he pulled it down and I opened it up and I couldn't believe what I saw.

It smelled like Houston.

It had been a long time since it had been opened.

I think he said that his wife paid $200 for it in 1928.

Which was a sizable amount then.

Yeah.

He said if I promised that I'd play it, I could have it.

And I was just elated.

Nice.

And so you played it for...

It was my main guitar for seven, eight years.

Did you play professionally and play... A little bit, a little bit.

What kind of music did you play with this?

Mostly folk.

Mostly folk music, at that time.

This guitar is made by the Gibson Company.

It's a Gibson Style O.

This guitar has a label, if you notice, in the sound hole, and a serial number in the 70,000 range, which dates it to 1922.

And it's an unusual looking guitar with this large curled upper bass bout, and also the treble bout is an unusual shape.

The entire guitar, actually, is very wide and broad, bottom and top.

Starting in the late teens, Gibson made this model, the Style O.

It has a carved spruce arch top.

It's quite a guitar.

It was the top of the line.

Up until 1922, it did not have a truss rod, meaning there was no metal in the neck to keep it straight.

In order to compensate for that and not have the guitar collapse on itself, it had a very thick baseball-bat-type neck that was almost unplayable.

It was very difficult to play.

The addition of the truss rod enabled them to slim down the neck and make it much more comfortable to play.

The other interesting thing about this guitar is prior to this year, the tailpiece had a large celluloid piece up in the top and celluloid pins through it that didn't weather well.

They fell apart.

So this tailpiece was made in what they call the Lloyd Loar era of Gibson guitar making.

It's a significant upgrade to the tailpiece that preceded it.

So this is the first year that this guitar really became playable in a modern sense, and they made this up until the late 1920s.

This is worth about $7,000 at retail.

(laughing): Oh, really?

Really?

Mm-hmm.

Nice!

Less than half of these guitars that I've ever seen have their original case.

At retail, if this guitar did not have its original case, it would only be worth maybe $4,000 to $4,500.

So having the original case is really nice.

So it's $7,000, including the case.

Yes.

Wow.

This thing would bring $7,000 at retail today.

Nice, nice.

It's called "66 Signs of Neon."

The artist is Noah Purifoy.

He was an African American who passed away a few years ago in a house fire in the high desert.

But in 1965, there were the Watts riots in Los Angeles.

It was a terrible, terrible time.

And Noah lived and worked in Watts.

Well, he was so distressed, he went and he gathered up the debris, and this debris consists of blood, metal, neon, and glass.

And it's all fused together.

And he made these sculptures, whatever you want to call them.

He gave this one to my late husband, who at that time was the assistant director of the California Arts Commission.

We got it in 1966.

So I've had it now 50 years.

Well, you mentioned the artist's name, and it is Noah Purifoy.

He was an African-American artist who was actually born in 1917 in Alabama.

And he got a bachelor's degree from the Alabama State Teacher's College before going on to get a graduate degree from Atlanta University.

But then what's more interesting, I believe, about his education is that he was the first African-American full-time student at the Chouinard Institute, which is now called CalArts, here in California.

Oh, for heaven's sakes, yes.

But his artistic career is really begun during those 1965 Watts riots.

Right.

And the first large body of sculpture that Purifoy produced came from this found debris that he gathered, and his quote was, "while it was still smoldering."

Purifoy had been on the Watts Towers Arts Council and was really involved in art in Watts.

And so this really shook him and affected him deeply.

And he took this debris and expressed his frustrations dealing with the bias and the violence.

And I think what we have here is an incredibly powerful depiction of the strife and the angst and the violence that came about during the Watts riots.

And it's from the burning of buildings that we've got the melted metal that melted together with glass.

And I believe his saying that "and blood" is perhaps metaphorical, but there was a lot of violence and quite a few deaths in the riots.

Yes.

And if we turn this and look at it in the full round, this really is a sculpture to be viewed from every angle.

Yes.

Because at every single angle, you see the different charred places where the fire was more intense.

And it's been said that his pieces of sculpture in the group show "66 Signs of Neon," which I don't know that that would necessarily be the title of this work, because that was a group show that Purifoy was in.

It was said that you could still smell the burnt wood and metal smell on his sculpture.

And I will just point out that on the bottom of the sculpture, this is partly how we know that this isn't just a base.

See the uneven cut?

Oh, yes.

I mean, to me, this is still a found object.

Right.

I think he found this piece of wood and put this together with this charred remains from the riots.

And this looks like it might be a little charring here.

Exactly.

So he moved out here to the Mojave Desert, to the Joshua Tree area, in the late '80s, and started what would be another very interesting period in his artistic career.

And I don't know if you've been, but it's a ten-acre site where he brought in found objects.

And it is a giant outdoor sculpture installation that's a very important part of California's artistic makeup now.

To put Purifoy in the context of importance in African-American art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art dedicated a solo show to him last summer in 2015, and it was so popular it got extended.

My goodness.

The attendance was massive.

Very little of his work has ever appeared on the open market.

Right.

I would advise insuring this for $125,000.

Ah!

Ah!

Ah!

You're kidding me!

Really?

Really?!

Oh, my goodness.

Oh, my goodness.

It's that important.

I don't have a stick of... of fine art insurance on this.

Not one dollar.

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

This brooch that belonged to my grandmother, it's only worth about $35.

But I didn't care.

I just wanted to meet all the wonderful appraisers, and I'm just so excited to be at the Antiques Roadshow.

We're at the Antiques Roadshow It really was a hit We thought we brought some treasures But we found out it was... Not quite what we thought it would be.

But we had a great time.

Thanks, Antiques Roadshow.

I had a wonderful time, thank you.

Bye.

My aunt used this for potpourri.

I'm going to give it to my daughter, and she can use it for a cocktail shaker, and then when I die, maybe she'll put my ashes in it.

Maybe.

Maybe.

And I brought 466 football cards that I collected when I was younger.

And the value was probably enough to cover the cost of the dental work from chewing all that gum.

They told me that this was an antique Victorian fly fan.

I had originally been told it was for a funeral parlor for keeping the flies off the dead bodies.

But one of the folks here at the Antiques Roadshow said that it was for a cheese counter to keep the flies off the cheeses.

So I like that answer much better.

We came here with some Wedgwood pottery that my mom found in the garbage in her apartment in Queens.

And we found out it was worth $300.

But the experience was priceless, because I am the biggest Antiques Roadshow fan in the universe.

And we just had so much fun.

I've been trying to get on for five years now, and it's just been such a treat.

So thanks, Antiques Roadshow.

Thank you.

WALBERG: I'm Mark Walberg.

Thanks for watching.

See you next time on Antiques Roadshow.