Antiques Roadshow

What?

APPRAISER

Yes, it's fantastic. Oh, my goodness! You're kidding. Oh, wow, that's a lot more than we thought. That's great.

WOMAN

Since everything in the store was 50% off, I got it for $1.50. When I saw this painting coming up, I knew it even before I saw the signature. You're kidding me! My mother told me it's ugly. (laughing)

MARK WALBERG

When Roadshow visited Salt Lake City in 1999, we decided the state song, "Utah, This Is the Place" should also include the phrase "For Great Antiques." We found loads of amazing treasures that day, including this beautiful Federal arm chair. Will the updated value of this heirloom have our guests singing a happy tune? Find out now in this fresh look at Salt Lake City.

BOY

My uncle was going to throw it away in the garbage can. He threw it away.

APPRAISER

Wow. But my aunt reached in and got it, and so we were really lucky that we got it back. You really think this is pretty cool, right? Yeah. What is it for? It's for in case you get, like, a snakebite. And who did it belong to? My great-grandfather. Why do you think he had something like this? Because he was training for the Army and he just got it when he was training. And then he took a ship to New York and then he went to, um... then he got on a ship to go to Europe but he never made it to Europe because the war ended right when he got on the ship. So it must have been World War I, right? Yeah. Well, what you have is this kit made in San Francisco-- nice lithograph tin box, has a little rust damage. And then in here, it says "Snake Bite." And what things do we have? We have, um, this that you wrap around really tight so the blood stops. And then you have all these vials. This is to, like, dig into people's skin to get out stuff. They like to get out the germs. And this is iodine that you put on your wound. That's right. You know, what's good about this kit is that it's really complete. It's even got the original directions on how to use it. Well, these are medical collectibles, and they've become very, very popular, especially with doctors. And this is the kind of thing that will start your collection. Well, will you be surprised if I tell you it's worth about $100? I don't know that. No? Isn't that great? Yeah, that's cool.

MAN

The person designated above here is my great-great-grandfather. I don't know exactly how the document came down, but my grandmother tells me it was found in some attic and then became my grandfather's.

APPRAISER

He was a missionary that went to London and then came back to Salt Lake City? Yes. Now, what we have appears to be almost a thank-you certificate or an award from his church members in England. It's to "the elder Jacob Gates," and he seems to have been well liked by not only one particular group, but by several groups in England. Here we have presidents of the conferences in London, in Kent, in Reading and Essex. He clearly made quite a large impact over there. Here it says he baptized over 1,400 souls, that he had over 4,000 members in his group. He was clearly a highly admired person. It's all done in hand calligraphy on parchment, and it's hand-colored. Graphically, it's very intriguing. It's very unusual. They certainly don't appear much on the East Coast in the marketplace. I think in terms of a fair market value, I would say $10,000 to $15,000. That would surprise me. I wouldn't have thought anything like that.

WOMAN

My parents came here from Holland in 1929, and it's always been in the house, but when my mother broke up the house, I got the plates because I collect them. Well, the fact that they came from Holland is very appropriate because that's exactly where they were made. Oh, they were? They're made by a company called Rozenburg, which was in business from about 1885 to about 1913. They weren't in business very long. And they were located in The Hague. The mark is not easy to read, but it says "Rozenburg," and then there's a picture of a bird, which I believe is a stork, and then underneath it, which is almost impossible to read, it says "Den Haag," Dutch for "The Hague." And there's some other interesting marks and so forth that might tell us something about the artist if we did further research. Rozenburg made absolutely beautiful, wonderful, both porcelains and pottery, and these here are pottery. At that point in Europe, Art Nouveau design was very popular. At the same time, they were inspired by batik printed fabrics from the Dutch East Indies. So you've got a combination of the Art Nouveau and the colors, the wonderful colors that they saw in the batik fabrics. They were very expensive when they were new, relatively to the time, and they're very highly praised by collectors now. These are brilliant examples, and in fact superior examples, of the type of pottery that they do. This one here with the wonderful flowers, these rich, dark colors, and this one over here is really great with the wonderful, exotic peacock and colors. I know! As far as value, I mean, no matter what they're worth, nothing can replace your family history. Oh, no. But they've got a really good retail value as well. This one here would probably be worth somewhere between $800 and $1,200, and this one here with the peacock, which is my favorite, of course, is worth somewhere between $1,200 and $1,800. So collectively, you're talking about $2,000 or $3,000. Oh, thank you. I didn't even realize nothing about them, and this is really wonderful to know. I inherited this from a very dear friend. She was an Army wife of the First World War, and my husband and her husband were dear friends. And after he passed away, she said she would like me to have this. She never was able to have children and I think that's why they bought this, entitled The Young Heir.

APPRAISER

Well, what you have is a painting by an artist called Adrien Emmanuel Marie. Uh-huh. And this is a French artist who lived from 1848 to 1891. And it's painted in a very realistic style of late 19th century. Mm-hmm. And at the same time, other major artists like Manet, Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec were painting washerwomen, jockeys and dancers in very casual settings. And this picture as well as those pictures reflected an interest at that time for artists to depict contemporary life. So here we see a young couple in a very casual pose, not at all like a formal portrait, enjoying time with probably their first child. And it is very much a depiction of everyday life. But unlike the Impressionists, it's painted in a very linear, distinct and literal style of painting. Although this part could almost be lifted from an Impressionist painting, the major part of the work, the figures, is delineated very carefully. This is really the kind of painting that the Impressionists were reacting against. Oh. And you have it in a wonderful original frame. You see this repetitive flower motif here. I think today at auction, it might be something like $7,000 to $10,000 or $8,000 to $12,000. Oh, that's wonderful. We inherited it in 1976. Can you tell us about this photograph you brought here? Yes, the photo is a picture of my husband taken when he was two years old-- it was taken in 1926-- sitting in the lap of his grandmother in the chair. In the same chair. Yes. Well, these are called easy chairs or wing chairs. And this chair form evolved around 1815 or '20, when this chair was made, and they became influenced by Regency furniture from England. Designs by George Smith influenced the Regency cabinetmakers in London, and the Americans also looked towards English furniture for inspiration. So a lot of the motifs we see, first of all the monumental size and the Greek ideas, the Greek styles you see in the barrel-form back-- which you see on Greek Attic vases-- as well as these motifs on the side. This klismos rear leg which curves back is all typical of Regency furniture and also early Greek furniture. This chair was made in New York City. And these motifs you see such as the... First of all, the drum form handhold, these waterleaf carved urns, and the inlaid crotch-figured rectangle as well as the reeded legs are all typical of New York during that period. I see. And chairs like this weren't just for comfort. They had other functions, and one was certainly status. I mean, not everybody in the household would be able to sit in a chair like this. I'm not sure that Jim's grandmother allowed other people to sit in it. Okay, well... She sat in it a lot. First of all, one recommendation I might make is you might want to get this upholstered in the proper fabric. This probably would have had a beautiful silk, possibly striped fabric, and it would have been tighter-- not as bowed out-- so that would actually change the look of the chair dramatically. This is probably worth in the area of about $20,000. Oh, my goodness, that is a surprise. Not every Federal wing chair would bring that much, but this one is the most elaborate. My fianc at the time and I went to a little auction out in McGill, Nevada. It was in somebody's home. And somebody told me it came from a man that had come out and made it rich in the mining company and gave it to his wife, and it was dated 1846, but... I see you've got your receipt, which you paid $1,250 for it. That's not bad for an auction sale. It's made by a company called Marcus & Company in New Yor They're a late 19th-century, early 20th-century firm. This is an unusual piece for several reasons. One, it's in 18-karat gold. It's got green enamel around it. It's called a tiara ring. And it's got quite a few karats of diamonds in it as well. It's really quite a beautiful thing. And it was in the pre-Art Nouveau style. And in today's market, you're talking about in the neighborhood of $6,000. Well, good. Not bad for what I paid for it. It was certainly serendipitous when the both of you, coming up in two sides of the line, appeared at my table this morning with two very similar lamps. America wasn't fully electrified until the 1930s, during the Depression. Up to that time, wealthier people had electric lights. Well, back in 1927, my father-in-law went to New Jersey to stay and he lived with a woman, and it was his landlord, and ever since then, he took care of her until she deceased, at which time he got her estate, and this was one of the objects that she had in her home. Very nice object indeed. This is made by the Handel glass manufacturing company in Meriden, Connecticut, somewhere between 1920 and 1930. Handel made several different types of lamps. They made the leaded glass lamps like you find in Tiffany lamps, then you came down a level to the slag glass lamps, and very much on the same level were the reverse-painted glass lamps. This is a slag glass lamp with a filigree overlay with this wonderful sunset glass behind it. It's just a lovely landscape lamp. Now, if you'll help me take off the shade, it's marked in two places very clearly. It's marked on the rim, "Handel," and also on the base, it has a felt sticker, and it also has the Handel mark right here. Now, before I tell you what the value is, I'm going to go to this gentleman's lamp and we can show the difference. Many people couldn't afford this type of a lamp, so in order to have more and more middle-class people be able to enjoy lamps of this type, several other factories made them at a lesser value. Well, I acquired it from my grandparents after they deceased. It was left to me in the will. Other than that, I don't know anything about it. We don't know the manufacturer of this lamp. There are no markings on it, but it was made around the same time as the Handel lamp-- 1920, 1925, possibly as late as 1930. Slag glass, a less elaborate overlay. Well, as Tiffany lamps are becoming more and more valuable, these lamps are also going up in value. This lamp at auction today would bring around $1,000 to $1,500. And this Handel lamp would bring considerably more. We would do very well with this lamp and probably get somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000. That's very nice. That's great.

WOMAN

I inherited these from a good friend of mine who was a toy collector. This is a Tally-ho and this is a Brake. And I've had them for 14 years.

APPRAISER

Well, he certainly must have been a good friend because he left you some very nice toys. They're cast iron. They're horse-drawn toys. And this is what we call a 3-Seat Brake. This was made by Hubley in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And this one was made by Carpenter, who is one of the really classic toy makers of the 1890s. And they're both very, very nice toys. This Hubley 3-Seat Brake, because it has a couple of problems which I'll tell you about, is worth about $5,000 to $7,000. It's had a little bit of work over the years, and some of these old toy collectors, they would fix these toys and make them nicer than they found them. Both side lamps are replaced. Some of the figures might be recast. But other than that, it's in pretty decent shape. And of course it had that great galloping action. This is the way Hubley had these horses gallop so it really gave nice, realistic motion. Carpenter also had a similar galloping action. Theirs was a totally different mechanism with these revolving wheels that would lend a realistic look to the horses. This is probably one of the most complex and most desirable

of all the cast-iron carriage toys

the Tally-ho. Very complicated with the double horse hitch, and not a lot of them have survived. This toy I would say, in this condition, would be worth in the $8,000 to $10,000 range. Oh.

WOMAN

My grandmother used to clean house for people up at Holladay. And they gave her a guitar and she gave it to my mother, and my mother gave it to me. The piece that you brought in today is exciting for a few reasons. It's an early guitar from about 1865 made in New York by William B. Tilton. Tilton was a bit of an inventor who came up with a lot of different ideas about guitar construction. And here's a great example of that American ingenuity. First, when we look at the top of the instrument-- typical spruce top-- but he's put the grain diagonally across the guitar, not parallel to the body of the instrument. Very odd, very offbeat. As we see inside with his silver plaque-- "Tilton Improved, New York"-- there's a bar that runs from the upper block straight on through the body of the instrument-- again, his invention. Of the Tiltons that I've seen in my time appraising, this is probably the best preserved and one of the highest quality ones. Wonderful peghead machines up here, silver medallion, the engraved silver tailpiece with this inlay pattern all around it. It's high Victorian design in all its aspects. It's a tough one to appraise for the reason that there's not a lot of them out there surviving and there's not a community of people who play them, though there's a small community of collectors. If I had this at auction, I'd probably be estimating it at about the $1,500 to $1,700 range at auction Wonderful. Well, I know it as a chocolate pot. I don't know very much about it. I suspected it was Majolica, but somebody said, "No, it isn't." so I don't know. I'm up in the air about it. Well, actually, it's earlier than Majolica. The ware is known as bargeware, or canal ware. And in England in the 19th century, lots of people lived on barges in the various canals in London and all around the country, and they painted them these bright colors and had pots of beautiful hanging flowers. But one of the problems about living on a barge is lots of breakage occurs. So you have this ware called bargeware which is big, it's heavy, it's got a broad base, and it's designed so that if the boat's rocking, it's not going to fall over. A lot of times, they're made for people. This one has a name on the front, and it's dated 1887. The finial, which is adorable-- the little miniature pot-- happens to be fairly typical of the ware. And the design, it's colorful relief. As you go around, they painted it with various flowers and birds that you'd have in the area of the canals. So these things were lots of fun. And more than anything else, you find these big pots--- whether they were made for coffee or tea-- you don't find much in the way of table wares. Unfortunately, if you look along the gallery and along the cover, there's been a fair amount of damage and restoration. And it's not unusual to find them damaged. People used them. A pot like this normally, I assume you want to know, would sell for in the $1,200 to $1,500 range. But in its present condition, I would say it's worth about $600 to $800. And it's a really charming example. It's very interesting. I first saw it in the office of a friend of mine, and I particularly admired the detail on it. Every time I came back to his office, I liked it more and more and more, and I finally was able to talk him into selling it to me, and that was about 30 years ago. 30 years ago. It's a really wonderful bronze. What's unusual about it is it's by an artist who's primarily known as a painter, not as a sculptor. His name was Jean-Lon Grme, and he was born in the early part of the 19th century, in the 1820s. And he liked very exotic subject matters. He liked subject matters from classical antiquity. He liked Arab subject matters. He traveled to Italy, he traveled to Egypt, to North Africa, and he did wonderful, highly detailed paintings. And the piece that you have is from the year 1900, and it depicts the triumphant entry of Napoleon into Cairo. It's a beautifully made bronze. Grme's father was a goldsmith, and I think part of that background is evident in the details of this piece. It has these wonderful sharp details on the scabbards for the guns, on the horse's dressing here, too. The piece is signed very nicely here in the front, and it also has the foundry mark of Siot on the back, which was one of the leading foundries in France at the time. It might have been painted at one time. Grme often painted the bronzes, and sometimes his sculpture incorporated pieces of ivory, marble and semiprecious stones. So it's certainly possible that this wonderful horse blanket was polychromed. How much did you pay for this 30 years ago? I paid $1,000. Well, that was a good amount. A lot of money. Yeah, then, but it's turned out to be a very nice investment, because a piece like this at auction would probably bring between $15,000 and $20,000 now. That's a lot of money even now, you know? That's right. It was my mother's. Ever since I was a little kid, it's always been in the house.

APPRAISER

Well, the lamp we know was made by the Moe-Bridges Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We know that because of the signature on the bottom of it, which we should take a look at. This lamp made in Milwaukee, in probably the late 19th, early 20th century, is really in the Arts and Crafts style. Now, Moe-Bridges was working off of designs that the Handel Glass Company and the Pairpoint Glass Company made very famous in New England. And this is what I would describe as a notch down in quality from those lamps. Those reverse-painted lamps have beautiful scenic images on them, as this one does, and you can see the landscape decoration on it. It is part of a design movement that I would describe as the Brown Decades. It is mid 19th century to late 19th century, when people were decorating their homes in very somber colors and dark browns and dark greens and wine reds, and this is, finally, we get to the middle class when they're able to appreciate the high style Brown Decades at the turn of the century. Another tip-off on this lamp in terms of its value is the fact that this does not have a bronze base to it. It looks like bronze, but it's not. It's probably an iron base that has been patinated in this brown color. Oh. And you've done a wonderful thing here. You've got 25 watt bulbs in this lamp, which is perfect to really enhance its color. It really does look like a sunset. It's the type of bulb that would have originally been in the lamp. I would appraise it probably in the $2,000 to $3,000 range. Really?

WOMAN

My mother's sister had a big collection of Steiff and also dolls in her apartment. And when my twin sons were born 31 years ago, she gave her Steiff to us as a gift. And so we have been enjoying them ever since.

APPRAISER

Great. And these little guys have been in my classroom at school. I'm an aide. We didn't know what "Steiff" meant, you know, until the Antiques Roadshow came along, and then my husband said, "I think you should bring your Steiff home." Yes, well, I'll tell you a little bit about Steiff. Marguerite Steiff founded the company, and she started doing a number of felt animals. What they're really known for are teddy bears. And what I like about these two items

are two things

the condition and then also because they're not teddy bears. Now, we'll start here with the rabbit and I want to point out a few things to help date the item but also give you some background on the item. You take a look at these wonderful glass eyes, and in the 1930s is when Steiff did use these eyes. And I love that they're oversized like this. And the other thing is on the ear, you can see where the button would have been. A lot of the buttons were taken out because these were played with. These were toys. The head is jointed, and there is a squeaker on the inside. There is, yes. The piece itself is a nice oversize piece. And we're going to take a look at the tortoise as well. This is probably more late 1940s, early 1950s. And-- we'll hold this up-- this is actually a footstool. And you can see underneath how it is jointed together there. And you had shown me that the tail has actually come off. This is what is called "excelsior," and this is the stuffing that most of the Steiff animals from the turn of the century through today... they're still using excelsior in a number of their items. It's the wood chips, the wood shavings, and it gives the piece a great shape. I see. So with all of that, this particular piece, because it's the 1930s, has a higher value. I know people that would pay up to $3,500 to $4,000... What?!...for this item. This is a wonderful item. Yes, it's fantastic. Oh, my goodness! And this particular piece, because it's a footstool, it's a little different, oversized. This can be resewn on. That doesn't affect its value too much. I'll have someone sew it that doesn't use a glue gun to sew. Yes, absolutely. You're probably looking at something in the $1,500 price range. Oh, wonderful. My grandfather owned a cigar store in Boulder, Colorado, and he stood out front of the cigar store. Our best estimate is that he bought it in about 1923, and then when he sold the store in the early 1940s, he gave it to my dad and it's been in our basement ever since for the last 55 years, I guess. You mean since the 1940s, it's been in your all's basement? Yeah. When we were little, we used to be a little scared of it but now that we've grown up, we realize the features are just wonderful on it. I was going to say, he's not too scary now. He could be on the lookout for you somewhere, you know? Yeah, that's what we decided. He is made out of cast zinc. These were actually meant to be put out in front of the stores. And look at his robe. He was meant to look finished from both sides. His paint is in such wonderful condition. Oh, is it? We were... okay. He has honest wear. See the wear on his elbow right here? Imagine how many people stood out in front of your grandfather's store and had a conversation. This is a natural place to want to put your hand and rest it. The actual foundry name-- William Demuth from New York-- is down here on the bottom of this, and that's also very significant. We don't know exactly what my grandpa paid for it.

But he did make two entries in his business ledger

one in 1927, he was offered $500 for it, and then he made another entry in June of 1929 that said it was valued between $800 and $1,000. Was that before or after he lost his hand? We're not sure. We're kind of assuming before because $1,000 during the Depression years was a lot. But we're assuming; we don't know. Well, the only thing that you can say negative about condition is the fact that his hand is missing. There are professional restoration people that could put that hand back on there and it would look like it grew on there. But even as he is, because of the paint, because of the detail, his value would be in today's market between $8,000 and $12,000. You're kidding? Oh, wow, that's a lot more than we thought. That's great. You got to get him out of the basement and get him up in the living room. Okay, we'll do that, I promise.

WOMAN

It's been in our family for three generations. It belonged to my great-great- grandfather, William Jennings. And my grandmother had it after that and my mother and now myself.

APPRAISER

This is the family history, did your...? Is it great-great? Great-great-grandfather. Was he a well-known or prominent individual? Yes, he was purported to be the first millionaire in the state of Utah. What was his business? He was a butcher and he owned the Eagle Emporium, which is now Z.C.M.I.-- the first department store in the United States. He must have traveled and acquired things all over for his business. Yeah, he was from England and he picked up silver and crystal in England. This actually is an English tea set. Mm-hmm. The date marks on it date it from 1844, early Victorian era, and actually one of the markings on the silver is the head of Victoria as she's represented during the era that these silver products were produced. The Victorian design is just wonderful here. The engraving, the scroll work, the whole piece is just fantastic. It has a gold-washed interior and it also has the monogram, I believe, of your great-great-grandfather. Yes, it does. This is made by Edward Barnard, who was a London maker, and he worked with his three sons in that era. I think the four pieces together would bring about $5,000. Oh, thank you very much. Tell me who the first owner of this watch was.

WOMAN

My husband's grandfather. He bought it in 1899. And what reminds you that he bought it in 1899? He also bought this five-dollar gold piece that he put on it. On the chain. This is really what I would call the essential American watch. The movement inside of the watch is really rather unimportant when you're talking about the value of a watch like this. The interest and the value of the watch are entirely in the case and very much strongly influenced by the fact that the case is so crisp and in such wonderful condition. Now, the stag and his antlers and all the foliage are done in several colors of gold. This style of case is known as a multicolored gold case, used almost exclusively in the United States. In addition, they've added a little bit of metal down by the bottom of the watch and also up by the pendant to create this boxy effect, and so the case is also referred to as a box hinge. If we turn the watch over, the other side of the watch is just as pretty and just as nicely decorated. The style of decoration harks back to the 18th century to the court of Louis XV when watch cases were also done in multicolored gold. This was certainly what was fashionable then. Really very much high Victorian, Gilded Age, elegant watch. This watch could easily be worth $3,000 to $3,500. Wow, great. It was a gift to me and my husband from my mother-in-law. She worked for a very prominent family, and they lived in Connecticut. And it was given to her in the '40s. I believe it was made by Tiffany. That's right, by Tiffany Studios, which was founded by Louis Comfort Tiffany at the turn of the century. And he was the son of the famous silversmith Charles Tiffany, who started the big shop in New York. What we have here is part of a desk set. It's a gilt bronze piece. And this would have belonged to a larger set that would have included blotter ends, a little stamp box... I think a full set could have had about 15 different pieces in it. It is a hinged box, which is a little more substantial than several of the pieces that you would find in the desk set. What's most unusual about it is the pattern and the fact that it has the glass stones which are meant to look as if they are cabochon sapphires and emeralds. At auction, it would bring about $1,000 to $1,500. Wow, that's great. Yeah.

MAN

This piece had been in our family handed down through the years. That gentleman in the back there-- General Eliphalet Whittlesey, who was a general in Lincoln's time-- also owned it.

APPRAISER

It's nice to have that with it. Well, what you've brought is a Federal inlaid mahogany sideboard made in Connecticut about 1785 to 1795. And the fascinating thing about Federal sideboards is that in America, until the late 18th century, they did not have specific rooms for something like a formal dining room, but by the late 18th century, in Federal America, when this was made, pieces were made for specific rooms. And this form evolved from England. They called them slab tables in England, and they had a marble slab, or a wooden slab, on four legs. And in America, they made some of those, but it was really the Federal sideboard that really evolved. And this would have been, for your ancestors' dining room, a place to display your treasures. It was something to show wealth on. Now, these brasses are Chippendale style and they're not appropriate for this piece. What I would suggest is to put on a set of oval Federal pulls. It'll make this look a lot better. Here at the top of the leg is an oval pinwheel motif. And the legs have this very whimsical Connecticut-- really Hartford area or central Connecticut-- type of light wood inlay. Then you have these satinwood cuffs. In today's marketplace, sideboards are very popular. This one has lots of nice inlay, very nice details, and its value is in the range of about $20,000 to $25,000. Are you pretty happy? Oh, yes. How did these pieces come to Salt Lake City?

WOMAN

They came via my grandmother, who was from the East Coast. She left them to me when she passed away, and I moved out from the East Coast to Salt Lake City. She told me they were Minton. She told me that she felt that they were very valuable. She also told me that there were very few sets made. I don't know if that's true or not. Well, I believe she was right. There were very few sets made mainly because they were expensive when they were new, and they were new in 1953. In that year, Queen Elizabeth II became Queen of England. An English sculptor by the name of James Woodford made six-foot high models of these beasts that were called at the time "the queen's beasts." And they stood to attention, if you like, at the entrance to Westminster Abbey. So she and all of the coronation party would have filed past them. And Woodford took his idea from beasts that still exist at Hampton Court. Hampton Court was the royal house of England where the royal family lived before they moved to Buckingham Palace. They're based on a long tradition of using beasts to represent various aspects of heraldry. This one in the center, for instance, represents the lion of England with the shield of the arms of Great Britain on it. This one is the unicorn of Scotland with the heraldic image of Scotland, and across from it is the red dragon of Wales. And they were made as limited editions by the Minton Company. Minton Porcelain was founded in the 1790s and still exists, and it's a very good name in English porcelain. And I think what you've got here is something that is quite rare and I think will certainly gain in value over the years. It's what I like to call an "antique of the future." I estimate the value of the set to be between $4,000 and $6,000. Oh, gosh. That's great, thank you. When I was first married, my father-in-law gave it to me, and so I've had it over 50 years. And it was handed down through their generations. It was made in France by the prisoners. And it's a little sewing box. And this is actually grass that it's made out of, I think.

APPRAISER

Well, I think it's a charming little box. It was actually made in my country-- made in England. That's great. And with it is this little note saying, "This little box was a gift to me "from my uncle Daniel Constable on my sixth birthday "and was made by the French prisoners in Dartmoor Prison, Devonshire, England, 1814." Now, I actually used to live very close to the prison. That's great. Thankfully not inside it, just outside the prison, which is in Devon-- Dartmoor, Devon. And the story was that the French prisoners who were captured during the Napoleonic wars, they were rather badly fed with bones, but the bones gave them the materials to make little objects which they could sell in the marketplace to buy tobacco and other food. And at the same time, they could also make straw work caskets such as this, which they would sell, I think, via the prison warders to enterprising traders in Devon. And here you've got a charming casket showing this wonderful straw work with the parquetry decoration. And in front, all the bone, which has a wheelbarrow, some bodkins, a sweet little knife and fork-- and all those would have been carved from the meat bones. Now, you've had it in the family right the way back to 1814. Right. Well, I surmise that when this casket came over to America from England, that perhaps at the same time, this little casket was also given. This was also made in England. It was made in Bilston in the Midlands, and it's an enamel patch box. And inside, there is a mirror, and the lady would keep her beauty spots... Mm-hmm. Place them on her cheek... Oh, I see, okay. And then just turn around just to make sure that the beauty spot was in place. It's in mint condition and it says "A Present from Portsmouth." And I was just romanticizing that perhaps they set sail from Portsmouth with the caskets and it's ended up here in Salt Lake City. If we add up the value of the caskets with the bone pieces, with the two pieces of Bilstonware, I think the entire set could be worth in the region of $2,000 to $3,000. Wow, wonderful, good.

MAN

I found it in my house. I'd lived there seven years and I found it in the attic when I was up rewiring the house.

APPRAISER

What you have is a photograph by Carleton Watkins, one of the most important American photographers of the 19th century. The caption indicates that it's of Golden Gate Harbor, San Francisco Bay. What's exquisite about this photograph is the detail in it. In the rear of the picture, we can see a cemetery. In terms of the size of the photograph, it's very big. It's an albumin print, which is one of the most common photographic prints of the 19th century. And actually, the size of the negative turns out to be the size of the print. What happened before you apparently got it is that someone decided the picture was too big. Possibly they were trying to put it in a picture frame, and so they clipped or trimmed about three inches from the top of it. Not a good thing. These little tears in the picture don't concern me as much because the tears can be repaired in something of a seamless manner. But the disappearance of the top portion of the picture is something of a problem. Watkins' photographs of the Yosemite Valley, of which he made many in the 1860s, are very desirable. His pictures of San Francisco are very scarce. Had this picture not been cut, it would be a $20,000 to $30,000 photograph. The fact that it does have this disappearing top edge makes it difficult to estimate. I would say a conservative estimate at auction would be $4,000 to $6,000. That's great. So thank you very much for bringing it in. What a piece of clock this is. This is one of the earliest time clocks we know of. These clocks are very hard to find in this very good condition. Usually these surfaces here, which are nice and crisp and bright and original now, are damaged. Who was it that restored this? My dad. He received the clock in the early '70s and it was a gift from one of his clients. He always expressed a desire for it. One day it was his day and the man said, "It's yours, but please never sell it." So you're not going to sell it? I'm not going to sell it, and it'll be passed down. And you didn't pay anything for it. That's correct. And now you're going to want to know how much is it worth, right? That's correct. Well, a lot of people might wonder how it works from looking at it. If the employee number is 158, he would come in in the morning and... Punch it. Punch it in. And at the time that was done, the time of day as well as the type of work was typed right onto a reel inside, which rotates. There isn't any tape with it right now. This is one of the first time recorders ever invented. It was invented by a person named Alexander Dey, who was a Scotsman. And his brother John Dey was living in New York at the time, and the two of them got together and started the Dey Time Register, Inc. The Dey Time Company later sold out or amalgamated with the International Time Recording Company of Endicott, New York. That is today's IBM-- International Business Machines. So, in a way, this is a progenitor of the IBM company. It's hard to appraise something like this because it's a very, very unusual piece but it's not artistic, right? It's a little bit of industrial design history. However, I think that a collector who would seek out a piece like this might very well pay $1,500 to $2,000 for this. Well, thank you so much.

WOMAN

I used to live in New Mexico. I went home for Christmas, and my mom loves to go thrift-store hopping with me, and she said, "Well, why don't we go "to the local Salvation Army? I hear they've got 50% off today." Mm-hmm. This painting was just kind of tucked away in the corner. Oh, really? It had a three-dollar price sticker on it, and for that day, since everything in the store was 50% off, I got it for $1.50. Okay. I saw that it was Fremont Ellis, so I looked at the back of the picture and I noticed that it was painted in New Mexico so I thought, "Oh, this is somebody I think I know." I guess a school that he started-- a group of about five painters that called themselves Los Cinco Pintores. Right. That's about it, that's all I know. Well, Fremont Ellis was from New Mexico, and he did go off to study school in New York, study painting at the Art Students' League, but came back and did paint in New Mexico and painted a lot in New Mexico. It was very typical of the Santa Fe and Taos area. And when I saw this painting coming up, you could see immediately it was a Western painting. And you can tell by the great use of light in the sky and the light in the trees, this wonderful autumn foliage. It's very typical of his work. The great water here, all these elements-- this wonderful plein air painting, this sort of Western impressionist style. The other thing is on the back of this, it says exactly where it is. It says, "Red River Canyon, el Rancho del San Sebastian." He's known to paint there often. It's very important in American painting to have the spot, and rarely do you get it, but here you have exactly where it is, so that'll add to the value of the painting. You can see it has some age to it. Ellis was born in 1897, he died in 1985, and his paintings have come up recently. Now, you said you paid $1.50 for this one. Yes. Would you be surprised if I told you that this painting, if it were to go to auction today, we would probably get about $10,000 to $15,000 for it? Oh, my Lord, you're kidding me! Yes, exactly. My mother told me it's ugly. My great-grandfather was managing and in charge of a trading post in the Fort Sills area, 1874 through 1877, about. And then they were given to him as gifts while he was there during that period. And then they've been passed down through the family.

APPRAISER

And in the little letter you have there, it discusses two or three of the Indian tribes that might be there? Well, in the Fort Sills area during that time, the Kiowa, the Comanche and the Apache were some of the tribes that were still around in that area, and they came in. What you do indeed have here is a group of objects from the Kiowa people. Kiowa material is extremely rare, particularly from this period. They're known for their particular sense of color and their color palette. And if we look at the objects at the top here, the object in the middle is called a strike-a-light, and the use of the two different blues and particularly that purple signifies it's Kiowa. If this was a Sioux strike-a-light, it would have a nominal value. These particular objects are extremely desirable. On each side of these, we have awl cases that would have held a woman's awl and would have been held on a belt. The object closest to you is actually a whetstone case that carried a whetstone for sharpening a knife. The moccasins at the bottom are as fine as I've seen for Kiowa moccasins. They have this wonderful, long, trailing fringe with ochre rubbed into them. When these were all worn on a belt, these tin cones that dangle down from the bottom of these-- they're also known as dangles-- when the women moved, it made this fantastically beautiful sound like music. (jangling faintly) If this was a Sioux strike-a-light, it would have a value of about $1,500. The fact that it's Kiowa and it's in the condition it's in and it's from the right period, the 1870s, that strike-a-light is worth between $7,500 and $10,000. The whole belt outfit is worth between $14,000 and $16,000. The moccasins, if they were Sioux or another tribe from the same period, they might be $1,000, $2,000. Those moccasins are worth between $15,000 and $20,000. (laughs) Hmm. It is a remarkable group of Kiowa material. Well, this is for my mom. She passed away recently and she would have been standing here.

WOMAN

Well, this has been in my family forever. It belonged to my great-great-grandmother. And my understanding is that the outside of the bracelet was my great-great- grandfather's hair, and inside was my great-great- grandmother's hair. Woven hair jewelry was sort of a cottage industry. When someone passed on, the hair would be woven into different forms of jewelry. There were catalogues available that you could buy that had the examples of what you could use, like the earrings that we see there, and the brooch. But I'd like to focus on the bracelet first, because it's really very interesting. First, we see your great-great- grandfather's hair. This is from about 1850. And when we open the locket, which is beautifully engraved, we see, inside, Great-Great-Grandma's hair. But there's also two colors of hair in there, which probably indicates that the blonder hair was when she was a little girl, and the darker hair was when she got older. That's interesting. And I'd like to turn this around so that we can see how beautifully woven this is, and what a difficult task this was to weave. Yes. Because it's as old as it is, there is a very little bit of damage right up there. But most of the time, pieces are much more damaged than this one is. Is that right? It's so nice to see this in such wonderful condition. It is from Georgia, and most of this jewelry first came from England, with our English forebearers, and then was picked up as an industry in this country through the end of the 19th century. We have the earrings, as well, and a tiny little brooch. And the brooch is very, very sweet, because it's a love knot. And in the center of the love knot are clutched hands, which is a token of love. And I would venture that the value of this, which is, of course, sentimental, but the monetary value of this is about $900. That's good.