Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

I found these in an old mining town in Colorado, actually town's Leadville. I buy old houses and fix them up, and I did that for many years. This was the only one I ever found a stash of cans that were left there by the workers who built the house. Part of the house was made out of log, and the workers actually hewed the logs out right on the job site. And this was done in 1882. That the wood chips and parts under the house were like six inches thick. And when they would eat their lunches, they just threw the cans under instead of taking them somewhere else. If they landed on the wood chips, they were preserved. If they landed in the dirt, they were a little pile of rust.

APPRAISER

That's amazing.

GUEST

But I found actually 66 cans under this house. But the mice had eaten the labels off of about 25 of them.

APPRAISER

So these are... these are your best examples.

GUEST

Those are the best ones. I do have some duplicates of a few. But most of them are one of a kind. And there's three that have dates on them.

APPRAISER

Right. This is one of them actually that has the date.

GUEST

Yes, that has the oldest date, registered 1876.

APPRAISER

Actually you found some other documentation. This is interesting. There's a photograph here from a history book that shows miners tossing cans. And this particular can right here, this bean can is exactly the same as this Boston baked bean can, is that correct?

GUEST

Yes, it is. I just found that a few months ago. I was... it's the first time I've ever even seen any of these cans.

APPRAISER

The tin can label applied to cans in this manner was first done in 1876. Is that correct?

GUEST

That's right.

APPRAISER

According to your research.

GUEST

From other people that I've talked to, they say about the earliest they've ever seen is around 1890. So it's kind of exciting to have one that's 14 years older than that.

APPRAISER

For a paper label, right.

GUEST

I've taken it to museums, I've shown them to different people. They just shake their heads and say, "We've never seen anything like this."

APPRAISER

Yeah. No, and I haven't either. Well, first of all, the graphics are just fantastic.

GUEST

They are.

APPPRAISER

And the colors have been preserved beautifully. Chromolithography is the process that allowed this vivid color. But usually most of the chromolithography we see has survived in books where the pages have been closed and no light has gotten to them. Some of these cans would sell in the range of $400 to $800 apiece.

GUEST

That's... sounds nice.

APPRAISER

If you average out the collection, I was doing some quick calculating. You have to be looking at a collection that should sell in the range for $10,000 to $14,000.

GUEST

Pretty good for discarded food cans.

APPRAISER

Yeah. Thanks for bringing them down.

GUEST

Thank you.