Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

My mother and daddy must have give it to me for Christmas when I was a little girl.

APPRAISER

So you're the original owner.

GUEST

I'm the original owner.

APPRAISER

And that's you there, right?

GUEST

That's me.

APPRAISER

From the looks of that picture, it looks like you had some time behind the steering wheel of this.

GUEST

Played with it a lot.

APPRAISER

It was given to you... Do you remember what year?

GUEST

No, not really.

APPRAISER

Well, you've certainly taken good care of it. Now, who's the other girl in the picture there?

GUEST

That's my sister.

APPRAISER

You got the plane and she got the car.

GUEST

Right.

APPRAISER

Well, you're the lucky one.

GUEST

Uh-huh, I thought so.

APPRAISER

This is a wonderful airplane. It was made by Steelcraft. You can see the decal in the seat.

GUEST

Uh-huh.

APPRAISER

And it looks like it had some use, but it's an amazing survivor. I think this is a marvelous plane. I want to show a little detail here. The realism of it is wonderful. This is a radial seven-cylinder engine, just like the ones of that era. I think it's kind of neat, too, that they... They call it the Spirit of America.

GUEST

Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER

Which, of course, related to Lindbergh flying across the ocean in 1927. After he flew his plane, they called anything "the Spirit."

GUEST

Right.

APPRAISER

And so that was just a sales gimmick to sort of cash in on the Lindbergh phenomenon. Now, you did some research on this, didn't you?

GUEST

Just saw it in an antique book is all, and then I...

APPRAISER

Uh-huh, and what did they say it was worth?

GUEST

Uh, about $2,700 in 1991.

APPRAISER

$2,700 in '91. Probably... about right. So I think at auction on today's market, this would easily bring $7,000 to $8,000.

GUEST

Ah ha.

APPRAISER

Your sister's car, which she still has? Probably only worth about $4,000.

GUEST

Really?