Antiques Roadshow

APPRAISER

Let's flashback to Denver in season five. The first time we were in Denver I was at the photography table. So this gentleman walks up said, "oh it's nice to meet you, what do you collect?" He said, "Well I like Abraham Lincoln stuff." I said, "Oh fabulous." So as guests do when you're sitting down, he bent down, set this

beautiful marquetry box on the table. GUEST

What we have is a box, one apparently of three as that was built by Dr. Samuel Mudd, who was one of the indicted

co-conspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. APPRAISER

I said, "Holy X where did you get this?" And he said, "Well one of my church members knew that I like Lincoln and decided that she wanted me to have it." His name will forever be associated with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln because he's the doctor that John Wilkes Booth visited in Northern Virginia and set his leg. Wilkes Booth's broken leg. The feds have found him shortly after they captured John Wilkes Booth and he was then sent to prison in the Dry Tortugas at Fort Jefferson. The outside is this beautiful marquetry but what's really neat of course is when you open it up and you see this marvelous wreath of seaweed with the inscription that was apparently written by W. Butler Bach of the fifth artillery US Army who

Yes. APPRAISER

Saying that it was made by Dr. Samuel Mudd in prison at Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas which of course are about 65 miles from Key West, Florida where Mudd was sent when he was imprisoned. And it was apparently made from driftwood that he picked up on the beach. All of this wood was washing up on the beach and he was getting these exotic tropical woods that he was able to carve up and inlay in a box. It was nothing more than something to pass the time of day. And a whimsy that he was making that he happened to give to the guard who was taking care of him. There's been controversy of whether Mudd actually knew who John Wilkes Booth was, whether he was a southern sympathizer or whether Booth knew where to go to find him. At any rate he was finally pardoned and released. If I were to put this in an auction I would estimate its value it's somewhere between ten to fifteen

thousand or fifteen to twenty thousand dollars. GUEST

Wow, that is impressive. We're not allowed to solicit any business. The appraisers don't do that. We never have and you know if the guest contacts us after the show is over and says, "I'd like you to sell this for me," or, "can you help me sell it," it's perfectly okay. So a few months later I get a letter from him and he's saying, "I'd like for this sell my box." I said, "Fabulous!" So I estimated it I think at ten to fifteen thousand dollars and it subsequently sold for twelve thousand five hundred dollars to a marquetry collector in New York City who have not heard - never had heard of and haven't heard from since. Today if if I had that same box I would think it's somewhere between 25 and 40 thousand dollars. It's a fabulous piece of American history.