Antiques Roadshow

MARK WALBERG

Here we are in Tucson, Arizona. Take a look at what's coming up in this hour. In the back of my mind I remember hearing something about a pet monkey. But this is not your run-of-the-mill Steiff Teddy bear. He looked at it, he said, "I have just the painting for that fireplace. But evidently this didn't fit in with Aunt Pauline's decor. You are surprising me. Don't go away. It's Antiques Roadshow.

ANNOUNCER

Now, the people who make Antiques Roadshow possible. Welcome to Antiques Roadshow. I'm Mark Walberg, and we present to you another hour of appraisals from Tucson, Arizona. It is hot outside. But our appraisers are keeping cool heads in the Convention Center. And there's so much to see. So let's get started. Well, it belonged to my late husband. It was given to him on his 16th birthday. He played small violins till then. This was his going up the big one. He was a beautiful musician. He died about 25 years ago, and it was left to me. I knew it was old. He thought it was quite old. He insured it for quite a bit. After my husband died, I took it to a violin teacher. And he kind of appraised it a little bit. But he told me it was a Paul Bailey. He found the date inside that said 1883. Well, you're absolutely spot on. The maker is Paul Bailly. And of the 19th-century school of French, and specifically Parisian makers, he's one of the better. Paul Bailly trained in Mirecourt. Leaves Mirecourt, goes to Paris and works with Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume-- without a doubt the most respected maker and shop of the mid-19th century. And here he learns how to make violins in the true Parisian style. Classic workmanship, beautiful varnish on it. And how these Parisian makers shine is the work is very crisp, very clean and wonderfully proportioned. I think Paul Bailly had a bit of the wanderlust in him. He worked in Brussels, he worked in London and even rumored to have come to New York, although I've never seen examples of his work coming from the United States. The label shows how he marketed his instruments. It refers to three medals that he won in different exhibitions-- one in Brussels, one in Sydney and another one in London. Tell me, you said you had it appraised at some point? Well, he told me that if a person was looking for a certain violin and knew what this violin was, it was worth probably between $8,000 and $9,000. And this was about...? 1982, 83, somewhere in there. Okay. You know, I think he was probably close then. Though we've seen a pretty healthy increase in the market. The auction record for a Paul Bailly of this quality is $20,000. Oh, really? Oh, okay. So we've seen a good increase. Oh, my goodness. I would say... you had asked about insurance valuations. I have heard of fabulous examples like this selling in the retail market for upwards of $35,000. Oh, my gosh. Wow, I knew... I was thinking maybe $10,000, maybe somewhere in there, but I had no idea. No, it's a spectacular violin. That's amazing. Thank you very much. Thank you for bringing it. They came from my great-aunt. Um, probably about 20 years ago. I was in my early 20s, and she had received them in her early 20s from her husband's grandmother. And she didn't have children with him so they came to me. All four of these wonderful pieces are by Tiffany and Company of New York. Which we know based on the markings on the underside of each. The marking is here, and the dating is signified by the letter within the mark. So in this case that letter stands for 1875 to 1891. So all of those pieces bear that same date letter. They represent why the Tiffany name is so renowned. You can take away the decoration. Just the handling of the metal-- this hammering just makes beautiful facets. It's all sparkling like a diamond. All of these pieces are what we would call Aesthetic Movement. And the Aesthetic Movement was a style of decoration that looked a lot toward Asia and the East. So all four of these pieces show a lot of Japanese influence. The naturalistic decoration, the use of florals. And in two of these cases, the use of monkeys. So I'm wondering if there was any family connection with monkeys. Uh, you know what, I don't know. In the back of my mind I remember hearing something about a pet monkey. Oh, really? But, you know, I don't know for sure. And it was so long ago that... At the time, I wish I'd asked more questions, but I just loved it because it felt to me contemporary. The idea of a pet monkey is not outrageous. This would have been a custom-made piece. Okay. And the reason I know that is it has an acid-etched monogram. But over the top of the monogram they placed these monkey figures. This was expensive when it was purchased. This piece with the frogs is fantastic quality. This is all top-notch American silversmithing. Beautiful, beautiful quality. This piece has mixed metal, which you can see on the back of this diving frog-- copper inlay. And the back of the frog is gold wash. So there are three colors on one piece. This is fabulous stuff. You're looking at, for auction, and I think that this is a little conservative-- but I would say the spill vase with the tangle of monkeys, I could see that doing $3,000. The bowl with the frogs, probably $6,000. Mm-hmm. The mixed-metal tray... $10,000, and this amazing pitcher with the monkeys, $15,000. Wow. Which brings you to a total of $34,000 worth of amazing American silver. Wow. So it's... it's, it's beautiful what I would call lust-worthy silver. So I certainly thank you for bringing it. I've loved seeing it. Thank you. We inherited this from my mother-in-law. She called it a wine cooler. I tell people that I keep a six-pack of beer in here at all times. Six-pack of beer. We think that it came from England. She paid around $1,500 about 1952. I don't know its history, but it looks like somebody had this in a special place where they were dipping wine... It was a special place....or whatever they... You're right there. Do you have any idea of the age? I'll guess 1800s, but I don't know. What you brought, and it's really, it's got-- I'm pretty excited about it-- is a wonderful Regency cellarette, which is also a wine cooler. So when you said you like to keep... you keep a six-pack in it once in a while, that would be a good thing to put in here, because it was made to hold libations, right? It typifies as a cellarette the Regency period. The term "Regency" comes from the Prince of Wales who ruled as the prince regent during the illness of his father. And he ruled between 1811 and 1820. This is made probably right around somewhere in the 1820s. And it was made in London. And when you open up this top, right on top here, and it actually says "T. Wilson, Queen Street, London." And we found out he was a retailer of furniture in London and he lived from right around 1799 to the 1850s. So we know... we know who retailed this-- it wasn't who made it. This could have been made by one of the great London cabinetmakers. The quality's amazing. When you come down the front, this oval shape, which is unusual. You have these ebonized caps on top. Wonderful reeding on this freestanding, almost, column. You see how you can put your finger around the back here? And then these tapered feet with wonderful brass casters. And so the panels here which they really feature, are these mahogany panels with ebony banding. The ebony was often imported into London. And it's that contrast that makes the piece great-- the contrast between the solid mahogany, the veneers, these wonderful crotch figured mahogany and then the inlay. So all together, it's a beautiful thing. This has a lot of pizzazz. In a shop in, let's say, in New York, you'd price a piece like this... stamped, we even know who retailed it, in the range of about $15,000 to $16,000. So ten times what you thought. You know CPR? (laughing): Do I know CPR? This was my great-grandmother's originally, and it was presented to her in 1953. I just remember it growing up on my grandmother's counter and it was her treasure chest. Then we inherited it when she passed away. Okay, and do you have any sense of where it was made, when it was made? Well, as a kid I thought they said it was French. Um, and that it was a couple hundred years old. Uh-huh. I think that's what they look like in the pictures. So, I really don't know. I'm guessing it's at least 53 or 56 years old. Okay, well, it is porcelain. And it's completely hand-painted. All of the design on the top, these two couples at an evening party in 18th century French-style dress-- is completely hand-painted. Then we have this wonderful hand-applied raised gold surface on the top. It's very intricate, with birds and a crowned fleur-de-lis. There's a lion's head. And then all kinds of grapes and vines and so forth. We've got hand-painted scenes on the front down here below. And then on the sides, if we turn it around there's different hand- painted scenes on the sides. Now, there's a mark on the underside and we can look at that. Let's turn it over like this very carefully. And we see that there's a hand-painted blue mark with an "F" inside of it. And that is the mark traditionally of the Sevres factory in France. However, I've got some bad news for you. It's not actually made by the Sevres factory. What are those marks there? When it was fired, there would have been little bits of porcelain that would have stuck down from the firing, and they would have ground down the little bits of rough porcelain so that it would sit perfectly flat. So that was just part of the manufacturing process. There's also an interesting label here on the underside that has a printed description which may have been from an auction at some point, is my guess. The mark on the underside has a date, and that would indicate that it was made in the mid-18th century, which would be about 250 years old. But actually, it's about 100 years old. It was made by an unknown factory in France and by and unknown artist, but still very high quality. And we see boxes like this, but they're usually much smaller. We see lots of little ring boxes. We see larger ones-- jewelry caskets-- and they all have these Sevres marks. As recently as, perhaps, 30 years ago, almost everyone thought that these were made by the Sevres factory. But, with modern scholarship, we now know that they are more like around 100 years old. Okay. Despite giving you the bad news that it has a fake Sevres mark, and it's really not Sevres, it still has very good value. A retail price would probably fall somewhere between $8,000 and $12,000. It is the largest Sevres-style box that we have ever seen. Wow. So that's a pretty good price for a fake, so to speak, isn't it? Absolutely. It will remain in the house, and it has a new story. We have a autographed basketball from the 1956 Olympics. My father was the trainer, and these are some of the stuff he brought back with him. Your father was the trainer for the '56 Olympics. Yeah. A great team. A gold medal-winning team Oh, yes. led by Bill Russell and K.C. Jones. Here we have an original photograph of the team. Here's Bill Russell, and here's K.C. Jones. Oh, that's K.C.? Yep. And here's your dad right here-- the trainer. And this is pre-Celtic dynasty. Yeah. This is the year before Russell joined the Celtics and created perhaps the greatest dynasty in all of sports. Here we have the original scorebook from Melbourne, Australia, 1956. Here we have it turned to the gold medal-winning game... Yeah. The final game....of the U.S. vs. USSR. Now, this team actually outscored their opponents by at least 30 points in every, single game they played. This is unheard of. They cruised to the gold medal, and this is the actual scorebook from the Olympics. Right. And we very, very rarely ever see scorebooks from the Olympics. How did this come into your dad's possession? Well, there was one of the gentlemen that was involved in the team-- I think he was the assistant coach-- mailed it to him, and sent him a letter, and said, "Add this to your collection. "And thanks for all your help in making a successful Olympics." Sort of a souvenir. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I know we also have your dad's participation medal from the Olympics. Yes. I think that's what this is. And that's also a great piece, but I guess the gem of the whole thing is this basketball. It looks brand-new. Yeah. Well, it's been sitting in a closet in a plastic bag for 50 years. It's amazing because, you know, generally, when you see a basketball this age, it's crackling and, certainly if it's been autographed, the signatures are kind of worn off, but this looks like it was signed yesterday. And, of course, we have Bill Russell's signature here-- Right there at the top. a very rare signature. He didn't like to sign, but, obviously, he... he liked your dad, I guess. and he signed a big, bold signature there. And then we have K.C.'s signature here. And your dad's signature right there. The whole team. What an amazing ensemble. Very, very rare to find basketball memorabilia of this era. You've got Olympic collectors who would just go crazy for it. And, of course, basketball collectors. And then you've got the Celtic guys. As far as a collection, I would sell it as such. In an auction, I would estimate it at least $8,000 to $10,000. Wow. That's a pretty good price, but it's never going there. And you're talking about condition here with the ball, you're talking about rarity with the scorebook. If you were to insure it, I wouldn't insure it for anything less than $15,000. Yeah. It's impossible to replace this. Great stuff. Thank you. It was sent to my grandfather from his brother around 1914, and it's been in our family ever since. This is in absolutely extraordinary condition for a piece of this age. The wood-and-pin pedal car was made by Pioneer. You can see the decal on the back. One of the major makers of pedal cars was Pioneer, which became Gendron, which became American National. They made cars into the '20s. Curiously, everybody thinks something that's really early would be worth more than, say, something from the '20s. Oddly enough, the collectors really decide what they like. And, as early, and as in beautiful condition as this is, they don't like the fact that it doesn't have fenders. I just think it's spectacular. It's a Packard, great condition. Probably worth in the $5,000 to $6,000 range All right. at auction. Now, if you had an American National pedal car from the '20s, with fenders the same size, you'd be more than double that. Oh, wow. So it's not about age. It's really about... What they want....what the collectors want. Around 1938 or '39, my uncle came to my parents' home, and he saw that there was a very large stone fireplace with nothing hanging on it. He looked at it, he said, "I have just the painting for that fireplace." So, a few months later, this arrived in the mail. And this was a Post magazine cover from about 1937, I believe, by Ellen Pyler. And the editor of Post magazine was a good friend of my Uncle Lou's, and my Uncle Lou had mentioned how much he liked the magazine cover. So he said, "I think I can get the original for you if you would like to have it." But, evidently, this didn't fit in with Aunt Pauline's decor, so he was looking for a place to put it and when he saw the mantel over the fireplace he said, "This is it." So that's how they came by it. It looks like it's Pyler, but it's actually Ellen Pyle. Pyle. Oh, all right. And that's an important name in the history of illustration. A man by the name of Howard Pyle ran an art studio in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. He ran a school for illustration arts. And he taught many of the great illustrators-- N.C. Wyeth and others-- and he was teaching a woman by the name of Ellen Thompson, from Philadelphia. Well, Ellen Thompson was in this class in the late 1800s, and she met up with Walter Pyle, Howard Pyle's brother. Well, they got involved. The problem was Walter was married and had a child, so she got banished to Philadelphia, and her parents took her out of the school. But they eventually got married in 1904, and then he worked near Wilmington and had a leather business. But, suddenly, he died in 1918, leaving her with four young children. And so she went back to her old art school training and became an illustrator. Well, she did that for the next 20 years almost. She lived until 1936. At the same time, you had people like Norman Rockwell doing Post covers as well. Now, these are the materials a commercial artist would use. That's oil on a commercial artist's board. A board that would be used for production. And she has a very colorful palette. You see this rainbow here? And also these very bright cheeks of the children. I think they're enhanced because it makes it read better on a magazine cover. The thing about illustration art right now, it's very, very hot, the market is. It's very strong right now. And what also helps is the fact this is a Saturday Evening Post cover. It's one of the most sought after magazines. Other magazines are nice to have, but the Post is what people collect. Ellen Pyle, she did... she did about 40 Post covers, but only one or two have come on the market. I would put a value on it probably about $25,000 to $35,000. Really? Oh, gosh. I had no idea. That's wonderful. Thanks for bringing it in. Well, thank you very much. Sure. They belonged to my great-grandmother. She worked for the Department of War and Department of Labor. And she was a pack rat. I mean, she just... She loved to collect things. How many of them are there? I'm guessing about 50. Do you know anything about them? What they represent? What they're promoting? Just from maybe what I learned in history class. That's about it. Well, I pulled out a couple of very specific and interesting pieces to talk to you about. The ones on either end are a very famous mythological figure in American World War II history. It's Rosie the Riveter. And one of the reasons why I love these posters so much is that she is such a popular character, and her image is so well-known, but you actually very seldomly see the posters. Now, these are advertising the Woman Ordnance Worker program, where women were making shells in factories while the men were away, and, in fact, the one that's closest to you actually says, "The girl he left behind is still behind him." It's a really strong, powerful women's empowering, women's lib kind of image. Very, very popular, and surprisingly really rare in the world of World War II posters. Now, very differently is the poster that's in the middle here. Now, this poster is by a very famous artist whose name is Ben Shahn, and his name appears on the poster, and the story behind this poster is a page right out of your history class. In 1942, the Czechoslovakian Resistance assassinated Heydrich, who was one of the high commandants in the Nazi army in Czechoslovakia. And, in retaliation, the Germans liquidated an entire village in Czechoslovakia. They killed all of the men and deported all of the women and children to concentration camps. The town was called Lidice, and this poster is so somber and so grim of a shackled man with his head in a bag up against a brick wall, and it's meant to look sort of like a radio dispatch saying what happened. It was meant to... truly inspire hatred in the American public. Now, another image is this image up front, and it seems like a very simple poster. It says, "Give it your best!" It was meant to increase production in factories. The poster is not signed, but we know that it's by a very famous artist named Charles Coiner. And this poster, because of its clear and obvious patriotism, is actually also very desirable on the market. So where did they put them, though? They would have hung in factories, the would have hung in schools, they would have hung in post offices, they would have hung in shop windows. Finally, I want to show you something that I've never seen before, and this is a group of posters for something called the O.P.A. And the O.P.A. is the Office of Price Administration which existed during the war specifically to keep black marketeers from profiting on gasoline, on rent, and these are a very creative, very modern series. They don't seem like they're from 1945. They seem much more recent. I've never, never seen them before, and in fact, only just today when I went online to do some research, learned what the O.P.A. was. I'd never heard of the Office of Price Administration. So I think these are very exceptional. Now, you see that all the posters are folded up. This isn't a condition issue. These posters are folded as issued. They were mailed out around the country. And they're always folded like this so they could fit into envelopes. If I had these posters at auction, I would appraise them in the following way. The two posters of Rosie the Riveter, each by Adolph Treidler, by the way, a very famous artist, I would estimate each one separately at $1,500 to $2,000. Okay. The Ben Shahn poster for "This Is Nazi Brutality," I would estimate at $800 to $1,200. The Charles Coiner, "Give It Your Best," the American flag, I would estimate at $700 to a thousand dollars. And all of these posters for the Office of Price Administration, as a group, I would estimate this group alone at $1,500 to $2,000. Oh, cool, okay. So together now, with these posters, we're looking at between $6,000 and $8,200, and that's just for the ones we're looking at, not for the other ones that are in the pile. Okay. How does that sound for a piece of history? That sounds great. I had no idea. I thought they were maybe, I don't know, five bucks a pop. That's it. It's hard to imagine the American Southwest without horses. They belong here, just like the desert and the canyons. Horses have been our companions in work and play for millennia and they've been inspiration to artists for just as long. Beginning with cave drawings 20,000 years ago, the horse has symbolized nobility and freedom no matter what the setting or the medium. (nickers) Horses have also become an important element in contemporary American sculpture, so let's ride over to the Tucson Museum of Art, where Colleene Fesko has picked out some pieces for us to see. The first piece I wanted to show you, Mark, is by George Phippen. and it's called Cowboy in a Storm from 1966. And that's exactly what I looked like on my ride over here. You know, I heard that. (chuckles) George Phippen was born in 1915 and he was a self-taught sculptor and painter. Although he's a contemporary artist, his style is very traditional. And in fact, he was the founder of Cowboy Artists of America, and their whole way of thinking and working was in the traditional Western style of Charles Russell and Frederic Remington. What would you expect to pay for a piece like this? Well, this one is a little hard to value because it's one of his signature pieces. Other pieces of his have appeared on the secondary market and they bring several thousands of dollars. Well, this piece is amazing. Who's the artist? It is a wonderful piece, Mark. It's by Luis Jimenez, and it's End of the Trail With Electric Sunset. And it's from 1971. 1971. The original End of the Trail was by a 19th-century artist James Earl Frasier, and it was a very serious piece. And what Jimenez is saying here is, "Uh, it's not so serious." It's commercialized, it's ubiquitous. Overly romanticized? Yes, exactly. Where would you place the value on a piece like this? Well, it's a very complicated question for several reasons at this point. One is that the pieces of his that come on the market are much smaller pieces, and also his printed works. And those pieces sell for several thousands of dollars. His market, however, is in flux at this point, though, because of his recent and tragic death, in fact, working on one of his commissioned sculptures. It's just terrible. In situations like this, the estate has to be resolved and a new pricing schedule is established.

WALBERG

This is a remarkable piece. It is a wonderful sculpture, Mark. And it's by the artist Deborah Butterfield. Deborah Butterfield was born in 1949 in San Diego on Kentucky Derby day. So it's in her blood. Absolutely. She has always been fascinated by the image of the horse and has been using it exclusively for the last 30 years. When you're up close like this, you are mesmerized by the actual pieces of driftwood and you see the pieces, not the whole, but then when you step back and you see the whole piece, it is just... The emotion coming from the horse is amazing. Well, there's a mystery in that, too, Mark. This piece is actually a cast-bronze piece. And only if you are this close could you tell it's bronze and not actual... just pieces of driftwood. Absolutely. I mean, she's a very abstract artist, but in some ways, this almost has a trompe l'oeil quality of real driftwood. What's interesting about this piece, in comparison to the pieces that we were looking at before, is unlike sort of big war-horses, there's a vulnerability and a gentleness to these pieces. Well, there's no rider. It's sort of a horse in a natural setting. Great masterpiece, I believe. Really have moved me. What would you say would be the value of a piece like this? Oh, well, her work comes up fairly often at auction, and large pieces like this routinely sell for over a hundred thousand dollars. Wow. You know, Mark, we've looked at three different contemporary artists, and they were all three different visions of the horse, but always the horse as a constant American icon. Thanks so much for sharing them with me. Thank you, Mark. I really enjoyed it. Well, it was my grandfather's. He grew up in L.A., was born in 1902. And I don't know whether he was the original person that had it or whether it was even his father's-- just don't know. Well, you probably hear us on the Roadshow talk a lot about Steiff, and Steiff is Margarete Steiff from Germany, and is the preeminent maker of Teddy bears. But this is not your run-of-the-mill Steiff Teddy bear. And it's very important that you said 1902. 1902 was a significant year because Richard Steiff was the original designer of the Steiff bear. And in 1902, he experimented with how to join a bear with stringing, or what we have here is what we call a "rod bear." This is a 1903 Steiff rod bear. And that what means is running in the body from one arm to the other arm and in a "T" fashion to the head is a rod. So if you took an X ray of the bear, you would see metal rods. Now, the same for the legs. There's a rod running from this leg to that leg. Now, later on, they got rid of that rod and just did simple disc joinery. It was made in 1903 and was premiered at the Leipzig Toy Fair. Now, it did not run into production for very long, and there's some significant differences between a rod bear and a standard early Steiff Teddy bear, and the first one we can talk about is this nose. Now, the nose is not a stitched nose like a later Steiff bear. It's made out of gutta-percha. It was soft when it was new. It's molded and it looks more realistic like a real bear's nose. This is the only model that carried a gutta-percha nose. Now, it has the typical shoe-button eyes, and... but what's different about a rod bear is the head is a little bit lower. The ears are lower down. And the way the head sits on the torso is different. It's very distinct. It has the original five stitched claws. It's excelsior stuffed, which is like wood shavings. And it has the original felt pads. Originally, it would have come with an elephant-type button. It is missing the button. And the button would have been right here, which was very early, and it's sad that it's not there. It does have a little mohair loss to the head. But the body's quite nice. And you have the original clothing that your family has made for him which is nice for him and it gives him a lot of character. And, you know, it's interesting. The clothes protected the body. The body, if you look at the body, is in better condition than the head. So this is all custom-made clothes? Yeah, it's homemade clothes. So to have that, too, helps with the appeal of the bear. It's the rarest of Steiff bears. See, the bear market, a fair auction estimate would be $8,000 to $10,000. Now, recently, a bear in slightly better condition, with all the mohair on the head, sold for $17,000. So that shows you how desirable this very early, Richard Steiff-designed rod bear is. That's amazing. I'm kind of blown away, to be honest. It was just something that was up in the, uh, in the hallway closet and not played with or not used, and thank goodness for that. It's just a tremendous sight. I just couldn't believe a rod bear showed up here. Wow. Amazing. This piece has been around maybe 30 years. My mother-in-law had it in her home. My husband said he can always remember it sitting in the dining room and when we got married in the '60s, it was there, and after she passed away, it was passed on to me. It was reported to be maybe a Steuben piece, so we contacted them and, uh, they really couldn't help me with it, so I have really no documentation. Well, I look at this example and without having any thought as to who may have made it, my first inclination is that it's not American-made. It's Italian-made. So Steuben isn't a name that I would immediately associate with the piece. Steuben Glass Works was founded in 1903 in Steuben County up in Corning, New York. And when it comes to Steuben glass, the did do, for a short period of time, glass that was Venetian- or Italian-inspired, but this isn't a piece that resembles anything like that, so I would discount the Steuben Glass Works immediately. So when it comes to who did or who may have made it, I looked the piece over. I didn't see any signature on the piece, but it's a very handsome piece of glass. I think it represents a pure Italian fancy when it comes to glassmaking. They're really the masters at it. It looks like these birds have just sort of set down for a spring delight. The colors are wonderful. It represents many of the Italian glassmaking techniques with the applied sort of stylized mass that you see here on the center of the piece. There's one on each side. It's remained in remarkable condition. I don't see any restoration, any chips or damages. I think it's a piece that's been prized since it was first acquired. I would date it probably to about the 1930s or 1940s. And as an anonymous piece of Italian glass, I would give it an auction estimate of between $3,000 and $5,000. They originally belonged to my great-grandmother who came to Tucson in 1878. And it's been passed down, through each daughter, until it got to me, for four generations. Well, I see you brought a photograph of her in, and right here we can see the pendant that we'll be talking about right on her neck. It's from about 1915. Oh, is it? So, she got it a little later. Oh, I thought it was earlier than that. I think that it was probably made in New York. Oh, really? Yes. He met her, and they were married, in New York. The fine platinum work-- they were doing a lot of this in New York City around the turn of the century. Mm-hmm. There were a lot of people that were doing this fine mill graining, which we see around the diamonds here, the principal stone. Yeah. And this sort of wreath or garland motif was very popular around that time period. And then we have this tiny little drop here-- this pear-shaped drop, which suspends on the bottom as well. And it's quite pretty. I did a diamond breakdown on it. Okay. The largest stone is almost a carat size. And then they sort of graduate down from there. Right. But a total weight of five carats. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. The Belle Epoque style is one of those styles that is becoming more and more sought after, and the platinum work is really unrivaled. This just very delicate knife-edged bars here as well. Right. What is Belle Epoque? It's a style that was done in the early 1900s. This is circa 1915, and it just means a pretty sort of delicate... Okay. Edwardian style was another time period Right. that was very similar to that as well. But it had to have been made in England in order to be Edwardian. I see. So, we call it Belle Epoque if it's American. Okay. And at auction, I would say the estimate would be anywhere between $7,000 and $9,000. Oh, my gosh, really? Yes, definitely. Oh, that's wonderful. Yeah, I'm glad you're happy with that. Oh, I'm actually, I'm very happy with that. I had no idea what it was worth. Yeah, it's definitely worth all of that. Wow. Well, thank you very much. You're welcome. It's my pleasure. I appreciate it. Oh, it's a Meissen clock that my mother bought in Berlin in 1947, and she bought it with a few cartons of cigarettes. A few cartons of cigarettes? On the black market, of course. Really? And do you know much about it at all? Uh, not too much, except that it is Meissen, and we had it appraised in 1982 for $2,500. Well, it is a Meissen clock. Um, it has a wonderful French movement in it, but the beauty of this clock is really the fact that it's a Meissen clock and it's an exceptional case. The figures are so well struck and painted, it's one of the best I've ever seen. It's made circa 1885, and it really doesn't get any better than this in terms of cases. I mean, it's just really as good as it gets. There are no hairline fractures in the dial. The flowers are usually broken. The figures usually have broken wings or fingers. But this is in really fantastic condition. It's a clock that in my showroom would sell for $10,000 to $15,000. $10,000 to $15,000? $10,000 to $15,000. It's come a long way since 1982. I see you have a set of Audubon's Quadrupeds of North America. Yes, yes, I do. Can you tell me how you got this? They actually were a gift to my great-great-grandfather, and they've just been passed down through the family to me. And I see it was given on the 31st of December, 1857. Yes. I don't know whether you know, but Audubon was dead by the time this book was published. That's the only thing that I know about it is that he died, I guess, halfway through the publishing of them. What happened was that his fame, of course, rests on The Birds of America, which was published in England between 1827 and 1838. And a copy of that in complete state is worth in the $5 million to $10 million bracket. Oh, my, wow. What happened afterwards is that he wanted to make an edition of The Birds of America that the general public could afford. Okay. Oh. Following the success of that book, he envisaged a similar project for the Quadrupeds of North America. And he, with the help of his sons, John Woodhouse and Victor, made a similar book with about 155 plates, as opposed to the 500 that were in the Birds.Oh, wow. But really, mostly, it's the work of his son John Woodhouse, who did the illustrations for this. Mm-hmm. Audubon died in 1851, and the large folio version of the Quadrupeds was first published in 1846. Okay. Here, ten years later, we get the edition for the people-- the people's edition of the book. Oh, I see. And... you've got some dramatic plates. And I note that the binding-- it's been carefully preserved. It's been re-backed. The value of these three volumes is considerably less than the large folio, Right. but the value of these three volumes at auction is around $10,000. Oh, really? Wow. That's amazing. It came from my Great-Aunt May's house in Philadelphia. My immediate family have had it since 1972-ish. Okay. And it just came from a house that was just full of antiques The first thing that strikes one about this obviously is the size. Right. It's monumental. And the tradition of making monumental porcelain vases began in China. And most recently, one finds that these were made in the early 18th century, and they were made for European nobility. The European nobles would put them in their palaces, and these came to be called palace vases or soldier vases, because they lined the halls, one after another, like soldiers at attention. Now, by the end of the 18th century, that was out of fashion. But Japan, by the late 19th century, had been in contact with the West, and they were interested in producing goods and products for export to the West. One of the ways that they could do that would be by participating in some of the world's fairs and world's expositions that were held in the West, where they could show examples of the extraordinary workmanship of the items they produced. So they're made of porcelain, very large, going back to the tradition of these made in China, but meant to really capture the public's imagination and to show the skill and the incredible fine-quality workmanship of the Japanese artisans. It's a very large landscape design that is continuous, typical of Japanese art, but the fine quality of the painting is really extraordinary-- all hand done. Now, when you came in, this was not one piece, was it? No, it wasn't. This, actually, is in two pieces. Yes, it is. Right? And it's heavy. On the inside, there are several sections here that have this bright, shiny surface, which is the glaze. Now, the reason this is in two pieces is because to make this on a wheel in one piece is just not possible. It would have collapsed from the weight. Ah. So they had to make it in two pieces. Now, when it was put back together, there was a small amount of glaze there that held it together, put back into the kiln, fired again and that provided just enough of an adhesive so that when someone lifted it, it wouldn't fall off. Now, at some time in the history of this vase, someone decided to lift it, and I'm going to be very careful when I put this back, so we don't break anything. Someone decided to lift it this way, and it popped apart. Does that damage the value? No. This is the fault line that was always there, and it could be made to be attached again. Do you need to do that? No, you don't. It's probably worth around $6,000 to $8,000. So pretty good value for a soldier vase. Susan, this is a very interesting ring. It's a scarab ring and it's surrounded by diamonds. What I found most interesting about the piece was that it opens up, as I think you knew. Yes. And when you open it up, there's this interior screen here. Do you have any idea what this is? All I know is, my mother told me it was a poison ring. Ah. It was very dramatic. History of Lucrezia Borgia. Yes. Unfortunately, there's no Lucrezia Borgia here. What's interesting is that this is actually called a vinaigrette or a scent ring. And what ladies would do in the late 19th century, they would have a piece of, uh, material here soaked in, say, a perfume. And if they were walking down the street and they walked by some garbage or something that smelled ill to them, Oh. they would hold this up to their nose, and it would be a fresh aroma by which to help revive them from the noxious odors of walking in the streets in the 19th century. So it doubled as a piece of jewelry and as a scent flask, so to speak. Oh, my heavens. It's a great little piece here. The Egyptian motif is kind of interesting because when they started unearthing a lot of the Egyptian tombs in the late 19th century, it became all the rage to have Egyptian motifs, hence the beetle. So, a piece like this, value on this would be somewhere, oh, between $800 to $1,200 at auction. It was in the costume jewelry box in my mother's drawer. Well, it's not costume. Wow, well, that's very interesting, and I'm glad to hear it really wasn't a poison ring. Unless you do want to use it for that. That's your business. It came from my grandfather's general merchandise store in Camp Verde, Arizona, which he owned probably from the late 1800s or early 1900s until his death in 1966. Any idea when he acquired this? I'm not positive, but I think around the 1950s. Well, it says "Since 1850," and you might assume it's an anniversary piece. That's what I was thinking. It could have been 100-year advertisement, yeah. How come you kept it? There must have been a lot of things in the store. Why'd you pick this out? Well, my mother gave me this, and we had a, what we called a wine cellar, which was underground. We just hung it up in there for decoration. Levi Strauss were famous because of the rivets they used. That's right. And it was back in the days of the Gold Rush. Denim used to be worn by sailors. But they would wear it loose, sewn together. It was... Levi Strauss had the genius to rivet it together so it would last. But this sign actually represents the second wave of genius of Levi Strauss, the company. Because starting in the early 1950s, they decided to start selling and find a new audience for their jeans aside from just, you know, cowboys and, uh, workmen. And to sell the romance of jeans to the general public, to wear jeans actually out in the street, you know... when you weren't working in the garage or something like that. And of course, they were the primary brand for decades until other people moved into the field. This is a fantastic piece of advertising. The cowboy out in the field. And, of course, they show their famous red tag from that period which helps to date the whole thing. But what's interesting to me is that this is a very large sign, it runs nine and a half feet. It's silk-screened onto the denim. Now, the silkscreen process lends itself to high quality, but very limited numbers. And on denim, you're only going to be able to get a couple of hundred impressions before the screen breaks down. So they probably didn't make many? They only made a very small number. Now, the size is interesting in that it makes it very difficult to sell as a collectible. But there is a market for this. And the market is the large number of stores in this country that now sell vintage denim. They love to decorate with original old Levi advertising, which is not that easy to find from prior to 1960, as this sign is. So taking all those things in consideration, the retail value of this sign would be between $1,800 and $2,000. That's... that's a good value, yeah. It's a good value for a sign that survived by accident. Right, yeah. So thanks for saving it for us. You're welcome. Tell us how your family got it. I think it was an estate sale or an auction. Long Island, New York. Okay, it was your dad? My dad. And so, about what time would that have been? I know it's been around over 50 years. 50 years. So... yeah. Okay, so did your dad tell you anything about the piece? No. All right, this stool is from Ghana. There's two tribes that do these stools-- the Ashanti and the Fanti. This particular stool is from the Fanti. This piece was not made for tribal use. This piece was commissioned, 1910-1930, by a colonial for a Fanti carver to carve this for him. There's a couple of ways that we know that. The colonials were a little bit taller, so the stools are bigger. Now, these stools, in a traditional context, are for prestige and status. Only the wealthy people could have these in their homes. So, ironically, you have a colonial commissioning a piece for exactly the same reason-- as a prestige piece for his home. Now, in African art, we have decorative pieces, we have reproductions, we have fakes, we have folk art. Since this is a piece that is commissioned for sale, it's not a fake. I really look at these now more as folk art. And this is really a terrific example of a Fanti stool. The elephant is a symbol of power. We have inlaid eyes. We have one little problem on the back here. We do have one broken tusk. Now, that's going to detract a little bit from the value. Now, one other thing that I want to show... If we look down here, we can see that we definitely have wear on the seat. In African art, once we know what something is-- whether it's a mask, a stool, a figure-- we want to see a wear pattern that is appropriate for that kind of object. This has been used in your family. Yes. And that's great. So we have a terrific piece here, beautifully carved. In my gallery, this would be $600 to $900. Okay. In the decorative market, that is, if somebody had this in a decorative center or a designer came in and then the designer put it into a home, it could be $1,000 to $1,500. Really? Thanks for bringing it into the Roadshow. Okay. Great. Well, I come from a family of collectors. And these were purchased by my parents in Paris back in the... probably the late '50s, early '60s. They had a favorite art gallery on the Rue du Faubourg by the name of Eris Claire. And she was quite an exotic woman who carried very avant-garde art. Well, these are very exotic and avant-garde as well. They're by the French artist Gaston Chaissac. And he really has all the characteristics of the classic outsider artist. He never really fit into a standard day-to-day mold of artist, or even as employee. The artist Otto Frohlich suggested to him that he begin to paint and study art. He took immediately to the abstraction that you see here and was especially influenced by prehistoric art and the artwork of children. On the other hand, he was also really influenced by Picasso. So much so, that he referred to himself as "Picasso in clogs." How interesting. So on the one hand, you have this self-taught artist using very, very anthropomorphic shapes, prehistoric images, children's art images. And then you have someone who was influenced by Picasso as well. That combination became a little controversial for some of the outsider art experts in France during the time. But in the 20th century, his work became very popular just because of that combination. Here we have an example of his collage. And collage is cut paper applied to another background. This piece is an ink on paper. And the final piece is an oil on canvas. His work is growing in popularity, and these are terrific later examples of his work. The pieces were executed in the '50s and '60s. And he died in 1964. It was in the '60s when he began doing collage. His value keeps going up. I would value the collage at between $20,000 and $40,000. The oil on canvas Oh, my... between $30,000 and $50,000. Oh! And the drawing at between $5,000 and $10,000. You are... you are surprising me. They're wonderful pieces. Very surprised. And what I like about seeing them in Arizona is it's Arizona petroglyphs meet high-style French outsider art. Very good connection. Thanks so much for bringing them in. Thank you. And now, it's time for the Roadshow Feedback Booth. I brought my teapot, brought my granddaughter, and I met the boys. I am having a great time. And I have an original Arizona piece from the Apaches, made 1910, about $300 or $400. But you know what was so much fun was the people. I went to some estate sales, bought me two books with prints on them, found out they're worth more than I paid for them. I'm happy about that. And I bought this little thing for a dollar and it's worth a lot more, a heck of a lot more than I paid for it. I'm really happy about that. Got this appraised for my grandma. Hi, Grandma. Um, and it was worth, like, $40, $45. We found out that our mom's ugly crazy quilt was actually worth $500 to $800, and that my unknown skin, uh, unknown saint skin relic from the 17th century was worth $300 to $500, and I only paid $80 for it. So it was a good day. I could sing the theme song, if you'd like, to Antique Roadshow. (laughing) I got this doll at the Salvation Army many years ago, and it's from Tammy... Tammy Faye Bakker, you know, Jim Bakker, who went to prison. And I thought it was interesting and... It was just a couple of dollars and I found out she's worth about $40. We didn't have anything real valuable. This is about $150. And we had a great time. It's so much fun coming here. And if you want me to, why... (strumming) I can play something here. I think it's out of tune. I'm Mark Walberg. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time on Antiques Roadshow. Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org