Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

Well, this is my uncle from Astoria, Oregon. He went into the Army in 1917 and he was there through 1919. He served on the American Expeditionary Forces in France. And he was in the Lafayette Escadrille.

APPRAISER

Okay. Well, when you walked in this morning and I saw you in your uniform, I knew you were serious about what you brought with you. The thing that makes it so special is this is the 103rd, the Lafayette Escadrille. The thing that makes this so unique to me is that you've got the actual uniform on that your uncle's wearing in the photo. In the photo, you could even see the Indian head insignia on his pocket of the 103rd Pursuit Squadron. You're wearing the uniform on the upper sleeve that has the cockade, which indicates it's air service. On your hat, you've got the air service badge. It just... it's incredible. You've got the photo album showing photos of airplanes. If I turn the page here... One of his friends from home sent him those. He drew those and sent them to him. And then one other little thing here that I thought was exceptional... was these little charm bracelets. You said he sent these to his sister?

GUEST

That's correct.

APPRAISER

Okay, this has the French Croix de Guerre, which is a medal. Unit insignias, and then this one has flags of all the Allied nations in World War I. So really quite a nice little group of souvenirs. The other thing that really dazzled me the most was the insignia of the Lafayette Escadrille, the Indian head. He's also got a German cross off of a downed German airplane. And you said he mentions that in his diary?

GUEST

He does mention that in his diary, that is correct.

APPRAISER

His dog tags, his business card, 103rd Aero Squadron, service medals. Just a wonderful array of items. Let me show one last thing here. Let's unroll this-- this is a picture of him and fellow pilots in front of the airplanes. That's him on the far left, right under your thumb there. Right here he's pictured with a little X under him. I think conservatively, if this was auctioned, a group like this might fetch as much as $8,000 to $10,000.

GUEST

Wow, all right.

APPRAISER

Simply because you're dealing with a very flashy unit, collectors love this unit, and it doesn't come up for sale too often in the market.