Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

Today I brought this book that was written by my great-uncle, his name was Ron Drummond. He was a surfing pioneer and icon in Southern...

APPRAISER

A legend in the surfing world, yeah.

GUEST

Yeah, he was a legend. He was always a waterman, like he was an L.A. lifeguard back in, like, the 1930s.

APPRAISER

Right.

GUEST

I mean he grew up on the beach, he was based in Capistrano.

APPRAISER

And he started off canoeing, as I understand it, right?

GUEST

Canoeing, exactly.

APPRAISER

And this is a picture of him doing some surfing with a canoe. And it's not necessarily about surfboarding, right? I mean as I understand it, it's about body surfing,

GUEST

Body surfing.

APPRAISER

'cause he was really interested in people learning how to get in the water and get out of just lying on the beach.

GUEST

Yeah, I think the impetus for him was to educate people and get them actively interested in the ocean.

APPRAISER

Well, he was a fabulously fascinating individual, as you know. I mean, he also became a wrestler in later life, and we have a picture of him with his stage name. What's his stage name?

GUEST

Whiskers Blake.

APPRAISER

Whiskers Blake, he had a big beard, he fit right in, in Williamsburg, probably, or Venice Beach today, right?

GUEST

Yes.

APPRAISER

And this is a picture of him in his wrestling days I gather, right?

GUEST

Yeah.

APPRAISER

It's an incredible collection. For people in the world of surfing, Ron Drummond is a famous name, and this book is his personal copy. It's a very rare example. We only know of about initially it being privately printed in 1931, about 500 copies were apparently produced. But it's a book that doesn't show up very often in very good condition, and what's so special about this example, of course, is it was your great-uncle's own copy. Because this is his copy, we would conservatively say at auction $4,000 to $6,000. And with the associated photographs, and his signature, and all the archival material from the family, this particular group, I would say, would have an auction value of sort of $6,000 to $8,000 as a group. So it's a phenomenal collection, and an amazing thing to see here in the beach of San Diego.

GUEST

Thank you. Never gonna sell it.

APPRAISER

Okay, good.

GUEST

I'm holding onto it

APPRAISER

Glad to hear, glad to hear.