Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

It was a gift for my husband. We happened to wander into a gallery. It was $750. So this was the early '70s.

APPRAISER

Mm-hmm.

GUEST

That was two months of take-home pay for me. Although my husband and I both loved it, we had to pass on it. Yeah. However, driving home that day, I kept thinking, "This would be a wonderful surprise, because I, I just know he would love it as a birthday surprise." So I called the owner of the gallery, and I proposed to him that I would pay it out on a monthly basis if he would allow me to buy it, and it would take me six months. He agreed.

APPRAISER

Mm-hmm.

GUEST

And at the end of the six months, I drove back to the gallery, handed him the check, when he turned to me and gave me a surprise, and said, "I'd like to buy this back from you for $1,100." Well, I was stunned. Did a quick debate in my mind. I decided I would keep it and surprise my husband on his birthday with a good story to go along with it.

APPRAISER

Did you know who the artist was? Or he told you...

GUEST

He told us who the artist was.

Mm-hmm. GUEST

But I never had heard of him before.

APPRAISER

Uh-huh, so, Harry Bertoia was born in Italy. He came here as a young man, and he wound up studying at the Cranbrook Academy. He eventually became the head of the metalworking department. He was invited to California to work for Charles and Ray Eames manufacturing furniture, and then he worked for Florence and Hans Knoll in Pennsylvania, designing furniture for them. The Knolls were the premier makers of furniture in the 1950s and onward. And he designed a wire mesh chair, which is still in production.

GUEST

Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER

And is one of the iconic examples of mid, what we call mid-century modern furniture. He made these starting in the 1960s. It's made out of beryllium copper. These are called sonambient sculptures, and they were made to produce sounds. And he made them in hundreds of different variations. So this is sort of the simplest, with just plain rods, beautifully constructed. I've seen them ten feet high. Many of them have cattails, they have cylinders at the top, different lengths, they can be narrow, they can be wide. He set them up in a barn and he used to hold concerts, and he made recordings, and you can go online.

GUEST

Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER

And you can hear some of these pieces as he sort of performed. It moves, so it's sort of a kinetic sculpture, which was popular at the time.

GUEST

My favorite thing to do is just take one of these... (rods clanging) And it just reverberates. And I love to hear it. It takes a while to stop.

APPRAISER

I never would have done one. APPRAISER &

GUEST

(both laugh) I'm, I'm simple, I'm just a simple person.

APPRAISER

I'm sorry, I would have, I would do this. (laughing) (rods clanging) It has a great sound.

GUEST

It does, I agree.

APPRAISER

And it's beautifully made, it's just so simple, and you can see how, how it's joined at the base, very, very simply done. His son Val Bertoia also made these later on, and they're very, very similar. So sometimes his works get mixed in with Harry's work. And you bought it a long time ago, enough that it would not have been made by the son. His work is very, very desirable now. And of course it all depends on the size and the...

GUEST

Okay.

APPRAISER

And, and all of that. But this work in, in a gallery would be between $20,000 and $30,000.

GUEST

(exhales) Mr. Langman, $1,100.

APPRAISER

Ah.

GUEST

It was a, it was a profit at the time.

APPRAISER

Yeah, yeah.

GUEST

But I'm glad I kept it. I also feel lucky. And thank you, thank you, thank you.