Antiques Roadshow

APPRAISER

We found an extraordinary masterpiece that will forever be a major part of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW history. I recall, vividly, that I was standing at the table and I was actually appraising some small pre-Columbian heads when I heard Don Ellis' voice behind me and he was very insistent in the way he was calling out and I said "Don I'm busy, I'm busy." I turned around and I saw that Don was holding a striped blanket and I knew what this was. I excused myself from the pre-Colombian lady and I went back and Don was literally speechless.

GUEST

It was given by Kit Carson, who ever-, I'm sure everybody knows in his history, given to the foster father of my grandmother. As a young boy, uh, six, seven, eight, nine years old. During the years I was living with my grandmother, it was on the bed where I slept and then in the cold winter days it was probably thrown over me.

APPRAISER

Well, Ted did you notice when you showed this to me that I kind of stopped breathing a little bit?

GUEST

Yeah you did (laughs).

APPRAISER

I'm still having a little bit of trouble breathing here, Ted.

GUEST

It took you by surprise because I, you know, didn't think much about it. Probably a chief blanket.

APPRAISER

That's exactly what it is. And it's not just a chief's blanket, it's the first type of chief's blanket made. These were made in about 1840 to 1860 and it's called a Ute, first phase.

GUEST

A Ute?

APPRAISER

A Ute, first phase, wearing blanket.

GUEST

A Ute, first-phase wearing blanket.

APPRAISER

But it's Navajo made, they were made for Ute chiefs. And they were very, very valuable at the time. This is sort of... this is Navajo weaving in its purest form. All of these things that we see later with diamonds and all kinds of different patterns comes much later than this. This is just pure linear design. This is the beginning of Navajo weaving

GUEST

Wow.

APPRAISER

And not only that, the condition of this is unbelievable, unbelievable. We see these... we've got a little bit of damage over there. It's made from hand-woven wool, but it's so finely done it's like silk. It would repel water, and this here is dyed with indigo dyes. It was a very valuable dye at the time, it's an extraordinary piece of art, it's extremely rare, it is the most important thing that's coming to the ROADSHOW that I've seen, um, do you have a sense at all of what we were looking at here in terms of value?

GUEST

I haven't a clue.

APPRAISER

Are you a wealthy man, Ted?

GUEST

No!

APPRAISER

Well, sir, I'm still a little nervous here, I have to tell you. On a really bad day, this textile would be worth $350,000. On a good day, it's about a half a million dollars.

GUEST

Oh, my God.

APPRAISER

You had no idea.

GUEST

I had no idea. It was laying on the back of a chair.

APPRAISER

Well, sir, you have a national treasure.

GUEST

Wow...

APPRAISER

A national treasure.

GUEST

Gee!

APPRAISER

When you walked in with this, I just about died. Congratulations, congratulations.

GUEST

I can't believe this.

APPRAISER

Now, the value of this, that I'm giving, is not using the Kit Carson provenance. Provenance is sometimes very difficult to ascertain. If we could do research on this and we could prove without a reasonable doubt that Kit Carson did actually own this, the value would increase again, maybe 20%.

GUEST

Wow. I can't believe it. My grandmother, you know, were poor farmers. They didn't... She had... her foster father had started some gold mills and discovered gold and everything, but there was no wealth. No wealth in the family at all. Wow. I can't believe it!

APPRAISER

Congratulations.

GUEST

Thank you. Gee. I had no idea that it could be worth anything like that. I thought maybe $5,000 or $6,000... you know at the most it might be worth, which should've been a big something for me at that time. I knew we couldn't afford to keep it and it would be better served to be someplace where it can be preserved properly. I immediately contacted Donald Ellis... to see if he would be interested in, in buying it. He gave us $300,000 with the idea that we would split whatever he was able to sell it for about $300,000.

APPRAISER

That was the summer of 2001 and basically Don, very quickly, had a deal and we had 9/11 and Don's deal suddenly evaporated, so here he had this enormous amount of money invested in the blanket and his deal just disappeared. Now this went on for actually several years and Don finally wound up selling this.

GUEST

It sold I think for around $400,000, $450,000. It was sold to an anonymous buyer who donated it to Detroit Institute of the Arts. It's still there on display.

APPRAISER

The Navajo weaving market is crazy now and so I think that with a collection history that we have on the piece, I could probably support a price on this higher than a $1 million. you