Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

I brought in a sword that was given to me by my dad, and my dad said it was from Great-Grandpa. I guess Great-Grandpa loved to collect a lot of Civil War items.

APPRAISER

Yeah, yeah.

GUEST

So Dad ended up with it. And Dad then gave it to me.

APPRAISER

It's a Confederate cavalry sword made by Louis Froelich from Kenansville, North Carolina. And we can tell that for a few things. This little mark right here, it's called an assembly mark.

GUEST

Ah.

APPRAISER

You see the Roman numerals right on the brass here?

GUEST

Oh, okay.

APPRAISER

And we can also tell by the crudeness of the blade, 'cause the blades were all hand-hammered, so they were custom-fit into each of the brass pieces in the scabbard. So, this piece, this throat right here is not numbered, but we know that it went to this sword because of its fit with the blade. What they normally would do is, they would mark with Roman numerals here and here so that they knew that those two pieces fit together.

GUEST

Ah, that's the way...

APPRAISER

Because of the fact that they were handmade.

GUEST

They were made separate, kind of?

APPRAISER

Yeah, they were handmade. So they fitted them and then marked them. If we look at the pommel over here, it's really crudely cast and filed. It also has signs of being Confederate by the crudeness. The grip would have originally been all leather-wrapped with iron wire wrapped around the outside-- that's missing. And you're missing the bottom part of the scabbard with the brass drag. Obviously, the leather is not going to stand up, and they only did this for a short amount of time. Then they went to a steel scabbard, because it would stand up more to heavy use on horseback.

GUEST

So this is an earlier one?

APPRAISER

This is probably an early one, because it's got the leather scabbard. It's one of the rarer of enlisted swords. Officers' swords are a little more abundant. We would put an auction estimate, even in this condition, at $2,000 to $4,000.

GUEST

Oh, wow.

APPRAISER

It's a pretty good amount. Pretty good amount.

GUEST

Yes, it is.

APPRAISER

You know, normally, you'd look at a sword in this condition and think it's worth about $50, but...

GUEST

Sure.

APPRAISER

Because it's Confederate, it's, uh, it's got a lot more value in the market today.

GUEST

Wow, that's fantastic.

APPRAISER

Yeah.