Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

It's got a little bit of a personal history. I actually got it through my divorce 18 years ago. My ex-husband used to be a collector of antique toys.

APPRAISER

Lucky you.

GUEST

(laughs)

APPRAISER

What we have here is an ocean liner, the ocean liner Britannia. I would date this right around 1900. We have the original mark right there, and that has "GBN," and what that means is, "Gebrder Bing Nuremberg." And "gebrder" means "brother," Bing, the name of the company, and it was located in Nuremberg.

GUEST

Oh, cool.

APPRAISER

So, this is one very outstanding ocean liner. It's got this really decorative bow up here.

GUEST

Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER

That indicates to me that it's a nice, early boat. And it's just a beautiful hull design, and it's a clockwork model, so you would wind it up, pull the key out, and you could actually put it in water. Back here, we have this big box.

GUEST

Right.

APPRAISER

And it's the original box for this boat. I have never seen a box for a Bing boat like this, this early boat. It has the original stand on the bottom with wheels, so the child could play with it on the floor.

GUEST

Wow.

APPRAISER

So this was the type of toy that was a luxury good. This was a very high-end, of-the-period piece. It's in outstanding condition, but I believe that this mast and this mast are replacements. Now, I don't feel that that is a major problem, and I also feel that the anchors are probably replacements. Other than that, I've gone all over the boat, and I think that we're looking at a really pristine example. The way this boat is, in today's market, I think a fair auction estimate would be $8,000 to $10,000.

GUEST

Okay, wow. That's cool.

APPRAISER

It's just an awesome ocean liner.