Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

I just inherited it from an aunt who unfortunately just passed away a year ago. And it was passed down in the family from her grandparents to her parents to her. And I was quite fortunate. My sister and I inherited quite a bit of furniture from her. And this was one of the pieces I acquired.

APPRAISER

What you have is a golden oak expanding dining table made 1890, give or take a few years.

GUEST

Okay.

APPRAISER

It's American. In this particular kind of furniture, the more over-the-top it is, the better. This is the height of what I call a historic revival period, and in the best pieces, there's hand-carving as well as machine-carving. Everybody loves these paw feet with the foliate carving coming back, and all of this carving in here is done by hand. The other thing that's great about it is... It's a big table, you know, it's wider-- some of these are only, like, 42 or 44 inches. I guess this one is probably 48 or 52?

GUEST

62.

APPRAISER

62 without the leaf.

GUEST

62, without the leaf.

APPRAISER

62.

GUEST

62 diameter, mm-hmm.

APPRAISER

All right, that's really good.

GUEST

And I have three leaves.

APPRAISER

Oversized is, is really good for something like this. Now, the other thing that attracts them to it is the fact that it has this beautiful tigering grain.

GUEST

Isn't it?

APPRAISER

That's what some people call it tiger oak. This is actually quarter-sawn, and it's a veneer.

GUEST

It is?

APPRAISER

Yeah, but you know, that's not... That's, that's the way it's supposed to be.

GUEST

I'll be darned, I did not know that.

APPRAISER

That's not a bad thing. Let's spin this around and look at this. We had a big discussion at the furniture table about this. When these were ordered new, they ordered how many ever leaves they wanted to use with it. And you have three one-foot leaves?

GUEST

Correct.

APPRAISER

But I think these are the right leaves. After much discussion-- because, look at the color. Now, these are solid, these are not veneered. These don't have the tiger graining.

GUEST

They don't.

APPRAISER

But the leaves, I bet you, were in stock. And they just ordered how many ever they want. Value-wise, these things are hot as a firecracker. It would bring, at an auction, $3,500, $4,500.

GUEST

My aunt's dream was to have one of her pieces of furniture in ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.