Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

My family lived in Germany in the late '50s and early '60s. And my father was kind of famous in our family for going around and finding things, and, uh, one day he came home with this.

APPRAISER

This is, uh, the equivalent of a 1890s jukebox.

GUEST

Yes, sir.

APPRAISER

Originally, the, the works were cylinder players, but when they came up with a disc player, then it became a much bigger sound. And the neat thing about this one, too, is that it was coin-operated. According to this, I guess it was the German equivalent of a nickel. This is made of walnut, very popular wood in the late 19th century. I love that gilt brass or bronze symbol on the front of there. And it looks like it has the old cloth. When you open it up......it has an original ad.

GUEST

Yes, sir.

APPRAISER

For Polyphon-- that was in there when, when your family got it?

GUEST

Yes, sir.

APPRAISER

This is the golden age of lithography. And they would have sent this to the retailer to hang up in the store to advertise. That alone is probably worth $1,000.

GUEST

Wow.

APPRAISER

They made these in a lot of different styles, bigger cases, smaller cases. And the death knell of these came from this magical phrase, "Mary had a little lamb."

GUEST

Oh, Thomas Edison?

APPRAISER

Thomas Edison.

GUEST

(laughs)

APPRAISER

The first recorded words. And they kept up with Edison for a while. They came up with the technology to do automatic changing on the disc.

GUEST

Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER

And actually, Regina came up with the Reginaphone, which would play phonograph records. So what do you think it's worth?

GUEST

I've looked online at different shops. I've, I've seen similar. I've never seen one exactly like it. I would guess somewhere in the neighborhood of $8,000 to $12,000.

APPRAISER

You're probably high there.

GUEST

Okay.

APPRAISER

There maybe will be some people, retail, that might ask that much. But at auction, my feeling would be that its value's around $6,000.

GUEST

Oh, all right.

APPRAISER

Of course, you add $6,000 for that, $1,000 for the advertising poster...

Right. APPRAISER

We're pretty close to eight.

GUEST

Yeah. (chuckles)

APPRAISER

I think we need to crank it up and see what it sounds like, don't you?

GUEST

Great.

APPRAISER

"Santa Lucia." ("Santa Lucia" playing)