Antiques Roadshow

CORAL PEA: Hope springs eternal for "Antiques Roadshow" guests at Springs Preserve in Las Vegas.

GUEST: I got it at a yard sale, and it was probably only 50 cents.

You can almost hear the cracking of the helmets in this scene.

Oh, yeah.

PEA: Springs Preserve has been called the birthplace of Las Vegas.

In fact, the name Las Vegas is Spanish for "the meadows."

And although it's located in the basin of the Mojave Desert, this place was a kind of oasis in the early 1900s, when railroad development brought migrants and commerce.

Today, Springs Preserve educates visitors about the importance of water to this desert community and beyond.

"Roadshow" has been flooded with treasures from all over the region.

Let's see what our experts have to say.

I brought what I thought was a dollhouse when I was walking by, and I thought, "That's the ugliest dollhouse I've ever seen."

And when I looked close, I realized, it was a salesman's sample atomic bomb shelter from the s, early '60s.

APPRAISER: So tell me what you brought in today.

GUEST: Well, I brought in today my, uh, battery-operated toy space station.

I've had it for 60 years.

I'm the original owner of it.

My dad gave it to me for Christmas when I was about eight years old in the early '60s.

Did you play with it much?

Uh, you know, I did, although when I was a kid, D cell batteries were kind of hard to come by in our house.

(laughing) Yeah.

So I played with it, but it didn't run a lot.

The reason I ask is, it's a relatively fragile toy, uh, and it looks like it's complete and all the pieces are here, and it's in relatively good shape.

You don't happen to have the box that it came in, do you?

I do not have the box.

I had some interesting toys, but I was never a box keeper.

(laughs) What we have here is a Japanese 1960s space toy.

It's a refueling station, uh, which is quite unusual.

Mm-hmm.

More oftentimes, we'll see rocket ships, satellite dishes.

Space travel was very popular for 1960s.

This one is made by a company called Waco, and they're made out of tinplate with lithography.

So they're colorful and flashy.

Uh, so it is quite rare.

When grading an antique toy like this, there are really two considerations to be had.

Condition and rarity-- you have both here.

Uh, this is a rare toy, and it's in really nice condition.

Could you show me how it works?

Certainly.

(whirring) This is the revolving movement, it, uh...

It's raised up on a little jack foot, turns around a few times, and then it drops down and goes onto wheels and moves around.

That's great.

It was a lot of fun to watch when I was a kid.

(chuckles) Great piece.

Thank you.

Very cool.

Thank you.

With these mid-'60s Japanese toys, uh, there's a lot of value placed for collectors in the box itself.

Right.

Um, some collectors actually consider themselves to be box collectors more than toy collectors.

(chuckles) But given that the toy is as rare as it is, I'm sure it would be a welcome addition to any collection.

The value is probably somewhere between $2,000 and $3,000 as is.

Should it have had the box, we could probably triple that value... Wow.

...and get it somewhere near $10,000.

Wow.

I'm glad to hear that.

I've been proud to own it and, uh, pleased to still have it.

GUEST: Well, my brother passed away in 2014 and he left them to me.

And he wore this all the time in the '70s.

And then he showed me this, and said, back in the '70s, that Charles Revson gave this away as a gift to...

He was advertising his makeup or perfume.

It's the first time I've ever seen one with the original box.

Ah!

Now, in 1969, Aldo Cipullo came up with this idea of making the Love bracelet.

And, and the premise was that it would be worn every day.

It wasn't... All the time.

All the time.

Yeah.

It wasn't something you took off, you put on.

He went to Charles Revson, who was the owner of Revlon cosmetics.

Right.

And that's what this one is, over here on the left.

This is the costume jewelry version of the Love bracelet.

Now, it's a little bit different from the versions you see, like this one and then the ones you see today.

Right.

If we take this off of here, one glaring thing is, it has a hinge over here.

Right.

You can see, inside, it says "Charles Revson."

Mm-hmm.

And then we flip it around.

And it says over here, "1970, Aldo Cipullo, "Gold electroplated.

Right.

Made in England."

So he takes it to Tiffany, and he says, "Hey, I got this great bracelet I'm doing.

Let's do it in gold."

And Tiffany says, "Nah, we'll pass."

He takes it to Cartier, and they decide to go ahead with this bracelet, the Love bracelet.

Of course, they start making it in 18-carat yellow gold.

Right.

Instead of having a hinge, at two ends, there's these tabs.

These tabs slip into there.

Right.

And you put the screw on.

Yeah.

But it's only meant to go on once.

Exactly.

And it came with a screwdriver.

This is the early ones-- this is done right after this.

"Cartier," then it says "love," stamped in there.

Right.

And then with a different font, which I find interesting, "bracelet."

And then over here, you have Aldo Cipullo's name.

Right.

Right?

If you see a new one, his name's not there anymore.

It's wholly Cartier.

It's really so much about, "Make love, not war," that ethos that started to sweep the country when we all were living in the '70s.

You want to know who made it cool?

Richard Burton gave one to Elizabeth Taylor.

Oh, okay.

There you go.

The fact that your brother was wearing this was pretty cool.

Yeah.

He was definitely a trendsetter.

It's harder to find the men's size.

If you go to replace that today, retail-- and you got the box-- you're looking at, I would say, $1,000 to $1,500.

Oh, my gosh!

Yeah, for, for the.. Oh, my... (laughs): For the gift with a purchase, right?

You bought makeup and you got, or perfume, and you got that.

That's... Amazing, right?

That is amazing.

So what are these worth?

Yeah.

A smaller size, lady's...

Right.

Retail, they're around $7,500.

Good night!

Yeah, I'm sure the men's version i, i, is at least $1,000 or so more.

Wow, okay.

So I would say at least $8,000.

Oh, my God!

You know, $8,500.

(softly): Wow.

(aloud): He would be so thrilled.

He would think this is just so cool.

NATHAN HARPER: So this site has always served as a special gathering place for Native American Indigenous people going back in prehistory, but also for early settlers and early people visiting, uh, the Las Vegas Valley.

This was always a place, uh, to take a break and cool off under the cottonwoods next to the flowing creek.

The water district, who owns and operates the Springs Preserve here, decided to protect this place, restore this place, preserve the history of this place for all Las Vegans in the future.

GUEST: I got it at a yard sale, and it was probably only 25 or 50 cents, so...

So this is a work by the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company.

It is a work of enamel on copper.

Now, Louis Comfort Tiffany first went into business in the 1870s, and he's most known for his leaded-glass windows, his stained-glass lamps, works of blown Favrile glass.

But what he's lesser known for are these works of enamel.

So the work is made using powdered glass enamels on copper that are then heated and fused to the surface of the work.

So the copper would have been repouss-decorated to create the shapes of the mushrooms.

And then the enamelists at Tiffany would have selected the colored enamel powders that they felt best accentuated the decoration for the mushrooms.

It took Tiffany a number of years to investigate this technique.

And under the direction of his main chemist, Dr. Parker McIlhenny, and four of Tiffany's best female artisans, they were able to come up with the techniques to develop these copper pieces.

They first exhibited them at the 1900 Paris Universelle Exposition to great acclaim.

And they made them in a variety of sizes.

This is about as small as they got.

And I would call this sort of more or less of a cabinet size for a vase.

Mm-hmm.

And they range upwards of 12 inches or so.

Mm-hmm.

And at the period, they would cost anywhere between ten dollars and $300.

Even though it's not the largest of enamel pieces that Tiffany created... Mm-hmm.

...in its small stature, it packs a huge punch.

And when I saw you bring this out... (both laugh) ...I sort of jumped over my colleague to meet with you, because I recognized... Really?

...instantly the quality of these enamels.

So we see here, on the bottom of the pot, that it is marked "LCT."

Mm-hmm.

For Louis Comfort Tiffany.

So an example came up in 2023, estimated at $10,000 to $15,000 at auction.

Hm... (chuckles) Oh, my.

That piece ended up selling for $34,000.

Ooh.

(chuckles) Oh, dear, hm.

Wow.

(chuckles) I don't know what to say.

I think today, conservatively, this would be expected to bring anywhere between $10,000 and $20,000 at auction.

(laughing): Oh, my goodness.

(laughing) That's just a little more than I, uh, anticipated.

And I just use it to collect feathers in.

(chuckles) This is an original piece of art by Will Eisner.

He created the Spirit, and this piece actually shows the Spirit in the underground in the foreground of the shot.

I think I paid $200 for this-- it's kind of cool, huh?

(laughs) The RCA dog, uh, so I found it online.

Uh, the thing with the RCAs, it's kind of before my time, but my wife, when I met her, she had a real small little Chihuahua dog.

And, uh, my grandfather, he was, like, "Hey, that dog looks like the little, uh, Victrola dog."

So after he told me that, I started collecting RCA stuff just because it looked like the dog.

I got it for $100, yeah.

This dress belonged to my great-grandmother, who immigrated from Sweden back in the late 1880s, uh, to, uh, Minneapolis is where she lived.

She obviously was an activist.

It says, "Down with the trusts.

Free silver, free lunch."

And the William, uh, Jennings Bryan speeches when he was running for president... Mm-hmm.

...in 1896 were mostly on putting free silver into the markets.

Okay.

So there are three things there.

Okay.

We've got trusts.

Mm-hmm.

And the trusts are, they're against illegal, uh, mergers and business practices.

Okay.

"Give us free silver and free lunch."

Uh-huh.

Free silver was the Free Silver Movement.

Right, okay.

And what that means is, in 1873, there was an act of Congress that took silver out of being legal tender-- it was not going to be used anymore.

Oh.

Okay.

Gold was really seen by the silver people as people who were oppressing us-- they were probably robbing us.

They were not for the people.

Mm-hmm.

So the silver was seen as the people's currency.

Okay.

The "free lunch" part is interesting.

There was a political cartoon that talked about the people who were silverists being just sort of scoundrels who hung out at bars... Uh-huh.

...waiting for a free lunch.

That they were just low-level people.

Oh.

And here your ancestor is saying, "We're gonna take back... We are, we do want a free lunch."

Yeah.

(chuckles) They're kind of using the joke on the people who made it.

Oh.

"We are those scoundrels at the bar."

You know?

Got it.

Yeah.

(chuckling) But "We, we're more than that," you know, "But we're the people."

Yeah.

Okay.

One of the things that drew me to this dress... Mm-hmm.

...is the story of your ancestor.

Oh.

So here she is.

A young woman, made this dress, I'm sure, in a sort of country, "I'm from the people"... Maybe this is meant to be wheat.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

And she's supporting her community.

She's supporting the movement that was helping all of her community.

Mm-hmm.

I love the fact that she's jumping in as a new immigrant.

Uh-huh.

And she has a political voice.

I have never seen something like this before.

Oh!

I, it's wonderful.

Yeah.

This is such a small dress.

Mm-hmm.

And this is our smallest mannequin.

But we had to pin it open because we, we just couldn't, uh, get the buttons closed.

(laughs) As a regular late-19th-century cotton dress... Mm-hmm.

...it has a value, without all this trimming, $225, $235, something like that.

Mm-hmm, uh-huh.

With all of this added aspect, this appliqu, the history of your family... Uh-huh.

...and, and where it is in the world of political altercations... Uh-huh.

...I would put a retail value of $3,000 to $4,000 on this.

Oh, wow.

Yes, yeah.

Wow.

(laughing): That is amazing.

So we better take care of it instead of... (laughs) Yeah.

I would put, uh, $5,000 on this for insurance purposes.

Okay, wow-- we'll get that done.

(both laugh) The smaller picture here is a picture of my Aunt Bertha, who owned the painting.

And I inherited it when she passed away.

And she knew the artist-- he was from another town, but he ended up in, in Reno, where my aunt and uncle lived.

And I'm not sure exactly where the picture was taken, but it looks like it was probably a studio.

And do you know what she might have paid for the painting?

I don't have any idea.

She and her husband, Arthur, were close friends of the artist, so he may have given it to them.

The painting is by Benjamin Cunningham.

It is oil on board.

It's signed and dated lower right, 1941.

And looking at the painting stylistically, we know it's gonna be before 1942-'43, 'cause at that point, all the work becomes very abstract.

Uh-huh.

He doesn't really do figural work anymore.

On the back, there's a label that says "1941," as well, and the title, "Musicians Number Three."

And there's a fun label from an exhibition in San Francisco in 1942.

I find it interesting that she met him in Reno.

He's from Colorado, but he did end up in Reno... Mm-hmm.

...where he studied architecture before going on to San Francisco and really pursuing art.

And I have to say, as a native San Franciscan, I know him because of his connection to the WPA work that he did on murals.

Mm-hmm.

And in particular, he's one of the artists who worked in the Coit Tower.

Cunningham is a very well-known artist, and his work is in lots of famous museums.

Mm-hmm.

The Guggenheim, MoMA.

But the values have not really been in alignment, I think, with what you might imagine for someone who is famous.

An insurance replacement value in today's market would be $12,000.

Oh, okay.

All right, well, that's helpful.

(chuckles) I, I don't have it insured yet.

(chuckles): With my house owner's insurance.

They don't usually cover art.

No.

Unless it's itemized.

Yeah.

Uh, over $5,000 is a general rule of thumb.

But you gotta talk to your agent.

(chuckles) Uh-huh.

My grandfather was a huge baseball fan.

He said he was a baseball nut.

I don't know if this is a item that should be passed on to family or if it should be a garage sale item.

(laughing): So...

I had this when I was a child, and it really works.

You, it, you put your thread, your spool here, thread it through here, through the needle, and then go like this, and it would sew.

And I used to make doll clothes with it.

GUEST: In my neighborhood, they were doing, like, "for sale and free."

And so I went and saw this picture, and I bought it because it reminds me of me and my husband.

That's my husband and that's me.

(giggles) The woman that I bought it from told me that her uncle lived in Oklahoma, and he bought it from a Native American artist, but she only wanted $100 for it, and I, I was surprised.

The artist's name's Acee Blue Eagle.

He was born in 1909 and died in 1959.

Pretty short life.

Wow.

Um, but very prolific.

He is Pawnee Creek.

There's a resurgence of Native art in the 1930s and '40s and '50s, and he's really leading this resurgence from traditional and moving it to the contemporary.

He's using very traditional imagery with the deer, but, uh, adding a stylized element which is more contemporary.

Like, you have the thunderstorm with the lightning and the rain clouds.

He was a World War II vet.

He also was a teacher at Bacone College in Oklahoma.

And he started painting in the 1930s, and he just really took off.

And there's a lot going on at this time with flat Native art.

And you'll see in Santa Fe, you have the Dorothy Dunn School, and even in Oklahoma, there's a group of Kiowa called the Kiowa Six doing traditional works.

But he's really leading this renaissance of traditional art into this new contemporary scene, which hadn't been seen before.

So I believe he made this circa 1940s, 1950s.

It was a later piece for him, it wasn't one of his founding 1930s, '20s-'30s pieces that he would have done.

What do you think it's worth?

Well, just the framing alone... (both laugh) ...it's, like, I'm gonna guess $1,000 with the frame.

So I'm taking the frame completely out of this.

The painting on its own, it is tempera on paper.

At auction, conservatively, I would expect it to bring $2,000 to $4,000.

Wow-- I don't think we expected that for... (laughs) This is for our grandkids' nursery!

(both laughing) This is way better than Peppa the Pig, right?

I think it definitely beats Peppa the Pig.

(both laughing) Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

That's awesome.

GUEST: I picked it up about three years ago from a boutique in Santa Monica, where I live.

The bow came in the case.

Didn't pay a lot for it, but I just appreciated its color.

Mm.

I appreciated that it had a nice feel to it.

Do you remember what you paid for it?

Eighty dollars.

$80, okay.

There's three things that I look for...

Okay.

...in determining that an instrument has significance.

And this particular violin has a correct label on the inside, it says "Auguste Falisse."

Mm-hmm.

And he was a Belgian maker.

Mm-hmm.

And this violin is dated 1917.

The label is absolutely original.

So the first thing that I think of when I judge the importance of a particular violin maker is their training.

And this guy's training is impeccable.

He was, uh, from Mirecourt, France, which is a hotbed of violin-making.

He was born in 1883, he died in 1951.

So he trained in Mirecourt, France, with some dynamite makers.

Number two is that he won awards.

So there is mention on the label that he won this award, the Concours de Paris, in 1912.

He entered his violin into this competition, and it was judged to have a better sound than a Stradivari violin.

Really?

Yes.

Oh, my gosh.

Isn't that remarkable?

So that's number two.

Number three is just the quality of the craftsmanship.

The top is made out of spruce, and the back and the ribs and the neck and the pegbox are made out of flamed maple.

I would say 99% of all violins have a spruce belly and a back of maple.

The bow is a French bow made out of Pernambuco wood, which only grows in Brazil.

You can see that the frog is made out of ebony.

Mm-hmm-- oh, yeah.

And it's mounted in sterling silver.

And the bow would have been made around the same time as the violin, right around 1915-1917.

It doesn't have the maker's name on it, but it's an important bow, and it's a beautifully made bow, and for sure, it's a French bow.

So I'm going to put a conservative value on it, as is, in a retail setting, of $4,000.

For the bow?

For the bow.

Wow.

And the violin... (laughing): I was thinking $150.

The violin is a professional-caliber violin.

As you can see, it's not ready to be played right this instant.

And so, as-is value would be $22,000.

Okay.

And I think that it would take about $1,000, maybe $1,500, to get it really in tip-top playing condition.

And if you put the work into it, it could have as much as a $25,000 retail value.

That's very, very good.

It's a lot more than I thought.

A lot more.

Yeah.

I mean, I was, I was thinking six.

Thousand.

S, oh, $6,000?

Yeah.

PEA: Historic well derricks, tall wooden structures once used to pull water from the ground, are now endearing symbols of the past and Springs Preserve's dedication to preservation.

HARPER: The first well on site was drilled about 100 years ago, in 1924.

Back in the 1930s, there was a major drought happening here in Southern Nevada, and they saw the spring mound and thought it was just a big water bubble, that they could go over and just prick the top of it, and water would start shooting out the top.

Well, little did they know, they had to drill down about 500 to 800 feet.

And to do that, they had to erect well derricks and well equipment to be able to drill those boreholes down.

It wasn't until the 1970s that the Las Vegas Valley actually started getting deliveries of water from Lake Mead.

Prior to that, the majority of water that was used here in the Las Vegas Valley came from this site.

GUEST: These heads were sculpted by my mother to be used for the series "Rawhide," and they used them for the titles.

They pay, commissioned her to make them, and then they rented them from her, and there's a rental agreement for $150.

We've got Clint Eastwood... Mm-hmm.

Eric Fleming, and Paul Brinegar.

She did the sculpting on set.

Mm-hmm.

And so she was there a lot.

Word has it that my little sister and I were actually taken there, uh, to meet Clint Eastwood and meet the actors and visit her while she was doing this.

And she just talked about how friendly they are.

Did you have any memories of that at all, or... No-- I was four?

Three?

My mom was a sculptor, so the house was filled with sculpture, art.

As she got older, she'd ask me, "Well, what do you want for your birthday?"

And I'm, like, "Just give me some of your art."

I think Clint I got about 30 years ago?

Mm-hmm.

Uh, as a birthday gift from my mom.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Wishbone, uh, a few years later.

Mm-hmm.

And then when my mother passed away in 2017, we found this other one in, among her, uh, garden shed.

She studied at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts in London.

That's where she was born and raised.

And so she started in the program when she was about 16, uh, she finished at 20, and then was a professor there for a few years before she emigrated to the U.S. And how did she get into Hollywood?

When she first came to the U.S., she lived in the Midwest and didn't love it.

Went to California, and to find work, she worked for the Knickerbocker Toy Company making boxes for toys, designing them, and then also doing movie titles.

And she made these in 1964, according to your documentation here.

These were only used in the last few seasons of "Rawhide."

"Rawhide" was one of the most popular American Western TV series.

And throughout it all, we had Clint Eastwood.

Now, he was second-billed.

We had Eric Fleming playing the trail boss, and the second-in-command was a very young Clint Eastwood.

And before that he'd done a lot of smaller roles in smaller movies here and there, and a few Westerns.

But he wasn't the big iconic star and director that he is now.

When the series started to wind down in its last year, Clint Eastwood finally became the trail boss.

And then they canceled the show.

(chuckles) He went to Spain, started shooting, uh, spaghetti Westerns... Yeah.

...as the Man with No Name.

And then his career just took off in 1967, when those movies got released.

And then you've got Eric Fleming.

After he got let go from the show, uh, he went on to go, try to have a movie career, but it was very short-lived because he drowned in a canoeing accident in South America while filming "High Jungle."

Oh.

You don't see very many props from this era, let alone props as important to the, as these.

Because as you tuned in to CBS, you'd be watching the opening credits, and the sculpture would appear, so they were heavily featured.

With any television or movie props, provenance is very important to the value.

And you've got this receipt here.

It adds and solidifies the story.

So somebody c, can be absolutely confident on what we believe is true is now documented.

And we believe a good, good auction estimate would be $8,000 to $12,000.

Wow.

(laughs) Wow-- thank you.

(laughs): That's awesome, thank you.

My husband, who passed away 20 years ago, was into antiques and art, and he had it for many years, and he got it when he was in the military in Europe.

GUEST: My husband got it at a garage sale in Michigan before 1983, and, uh, he paid, at the most, $50 for it.

It runs, except you have to wind it every day, and it has a bell to it.

It probably runs for seven to eight days.

Probably needs a cleaning.

Oh, okay.

But this clock was retailed by the Star Brass Manufacturing Company in Boston.

Oh.

And they were a company that made steam gauges for a number of years.

Mm-hmm.

They had their name, uh, engraved on the dial, and it served as an advertisement for them.

And they would sell these clocks to their clients, who invested in their steam gauges and pressure gauges, and this sort of looked a lot like them.

They would buy these clocks from companies like the Seth Thomas Clock Company, the E. Howard clock company, and the Chelsea Clock Company, which is a really famous clock for nautical clocks.

Oh.

And this clock was made by the Chelsea Clock Company circa 1900.

It's time only, meaning it does not strike.

And you have this wonderful subsidiary dial here, with the seconds.

And then you have this additional arbor here that is a slow/fast adjustment.

Oh, okay.

It's got an incredible heavy brass case, and you have a push-button latch right here, on the side.

Right.

If you push that in, the bezel swings open on this beautiful hinge on this side.

Just really, extremely well made.

It's a really sexy clock.

It's clean, simple lines, and it's really a clock that's becoming responsible for really drawing in the younger generations of interest.

It fits in a newer home or an older home, and it's just simple.

And any time that you can add information to a clock and place it to where it might have gone... Mm-hmm.

...it's a really nice thing to have, and it drives the price.

This says "Detroit Shipbuilding Company, Ship Engine Builders of Detroit, Michigan."

That's so great that you're from Michigan.

And that's probably what drew the interest of your husband...

Yes, I'm sure.

...to this clock.

Do you have any idea of what the value is today on a clock like this?

None-- $100?

No, it's better than that.

It's a, it's a clock that would retail for about $1,500.

Oh, my God, you're kidding me!

No, I'm not kidding you.

(both laugh) I guess my husband had a good eye.

He had a good eye.

I like things that younger people are gravitating towards... Mm-hmm.

...because they're the ones that are responsible for keeping this market going.

Yes.

Long story short, we have a friend that asked us to help empty out a house.

And she said, "Here, take this, here, take that."

She gave us a bunch of antiques, and so that's why we're here.

Don't know much about it at all.

We picked it up at a yard sale.

PRODUCER: What did you have to pay for it?

Three dollars.

(laughing): Really?

Yep.

I see that your, you've got somebody off to your side.

Yes.

You get in there.

(guest laughing) (laughing) Unless you're not supposed to be together.

Oh, we're together.

(both laughing) All right.

So what do you got?

Her mother picked this up at a yard sale.

Not sure what it is.

Paid three dollars for it.

Okay.

Uh, when she was walking out of the yard sale, some man offered her $80 for it.

Uh, I probably would have taken the $80.

Eighty... (laughs) Yeah, well, we'll let her know.

As long as it's three dollars, we're having fun.

GUEST: About 20 years ago, give or take, uh... APPRAISER: Uh-huh.

...I found it at an auction.

And how much did you pay for it?

Approximately $1,800, as I recall.

Okay, okay.

It just captured my imagination immediately.

And, uh, I just realized, right from the get-go, how important it was, historically significant it was.

Uh, the age really, uh, was stunning to me.

And also the condition.

Well, it's a really interesting book.

Uh, it's an almanac printed in London in 1599 by an author named Thomas Buckminster.

And, uh, he was quite a well-known vicar of Twickenham, which is a part of Southwest London.

Um, but he wrote a lot of the almanacs at the time of the end of the 16th century.

And these were unusual because most books were quite expensive and only owned by wealthy people.

But almanacs were, um, designed for everyday people, to give them some sense of the calendar, the weather that's coming in an agrarian society, and also prognostications around astrology and religious needs.

Inside the book, we can look at a couple of the pages.

For example, here, you'll see short notes for letting of blood... (laughing) ...and purging, uh, for various purposes.

These books would often provide these kind of medicinal, uh, guidance and so forth.

Right.

And so it's quite interesting and s, somewhat amusing, their suggestions there.

At the end of the book, we can see here the publisher's name, but also this acrostic poem, which, the first letter of the phrase, uh, "semper eadem," or "always the same," which was Queen Elizabeth's motto, is used to create a, uh, unique poem, which, frankly, only exists in this edition.

And apparently this is the only surviving copy.

So it's wonderful to have this bit of ephemeral, uh, poetry from the 16th century in Great Britain.

So it's a very interesting piece of history.

You ever had it appraised?

You know, I've never had it appraised.

Um, and I really do not know, uh, what the value is.

With its age, with its history, and the condition that it's in... Mm-hmm.

...it certainly would appeal.

(murmurs) (chuckling): Yes, well, you're quite right.

It's in, it is in very, very good condition.

It's complete, it has the full pages.

Um, and one of the reasons I was excited to see it is, in the annals of printing history, almanacs are one of the k, types of books that are very, very rare to survive.

Yeah.

In fact, Buckminster's editions, there is only one auction record for an example with just three pages in it.

Oh.

And the rest of the book is missing.

And in fact, this particular example, um, there's no record, as far as we can tell at this point, of this particular edition existing anywhere.

Wow.

There's a copy in Harvard's library of just the zodiac and the, and the calendar in a, in a broadside edition, but not this example.

So... Oh, amazing.

...you've got basically a unique survivor, and that's really quite an exciting thing.

And a lot of libraries and collectors would be thrilled to find something like this.

We would recommend an auction estimate, if it was to be sold in a public forum, of $7,000 to $10,000.

Oh, that's fantastic.

If you're not gonna sell it, insure it for around $20,000.

Oh.

It's really a, an incredible thing to see.

That's...

Thank you so much for bringing it in.

It's very exciting.

That's, that's great news.

So appreciate it.

Uh, my mother and father are huge antique dealers and collectors and that.

This is a violin, and we got the paperwork on it, where it came from Collinsville, Illinois.

Well, it said it was played in the Civil War, by a Civil War veteran from Collinsville.

And we're in the area, so it's kind of neat.

Uh, my husband got it at, um, an antique store in Houston, Texas.

I don't really like it, but he does.

That's all that matters.

(laughs) GUEST: So today I brought in what I believe is a 16th-century etching out of Europe, maybe Italy-- I'm not familiar with the artist.

I had a client bring it to me one day, uh, out of the blue.

She came into my shop and said, "Hey, I heard you, uh, like interesting things and strange things."

I said, "Yes, what do you have?"

And she showed me this, and I, I, I had an idea of what it was.

But I was just, like, "You don't want this?"

And she was, like, "No, I feel like you, you, you would take good care of this."

And so she just gave it to me.

It was out in the open.

Uh, and I eventually framed it just to protect it.

The client of mine that ga, brought it to me, she had found it several years prior to moving to where I live.

And when she was doing a home remodel, it was in the wall.

And that was about 25 years ago, when she found it in the wall.

The stuff of legend.

(chuckles): Yeah.

Well, in fact, it is a 16th-century etching.

And it's by Agostin de' Musi.

He's also known under his alias Agostin Venezia because he was from Venice.

Okay.

He was a Renaissance artist.

Not much is known about him.

We believe he trained with Albrecht Drer, but we have no proof.

(whispering): Oh, wow.

And he's very much in the Mannerist style.

Each figure is exaggerated.

That's why we call it Mannerist.

And it's unusually large for the 16th century.

There's a date on the print.

It says 1518.

And I believe it is an early edition.

But it's very hard to tell without examining it out of the frame.

It is in, um, pretty poor condition.

Mm-hmm.

The framer over-matted the print on the edges to hold it down.

And I believe it's been trimmed.

We know this is image loss here.

But what we don't know is what's under the matting that the framer did.

How much loss is by his face, for example.

These are things that could affect the value.

So, yeah, you've got tears, abrasions, surface wear, toning, fading.

Nevertheless, he's a great artist, and it's very hard to get anything done by him.

Mm-hmm.

If you look at the skeletons and the wings and the faces, it's still quite a deep, sharp impression, which is good, because, as you know, it was printed on a copper plate.

And the plate wears out... Mm-hmm.

...the more the prints that were made.

So it's a multiple.

We don't know how many were printed, but we do know that it's very scarce on the market today.

The estimated value for a print in this condition by de' Musi would be anywhere from $800 to $1,200... Oh, wow.

...in a retail setting.

Okay.

We may be able to get more if we can see the full print... Mm-hmm.

...and see what's going on under there.

It's been exciting owning this for the past 12-plus years.

I, it's one of my favorite pieces that I own.

It's a masterpiece.

Oh, thank you.

Everyone loves "Skeletons."

(chuckles) So it, it's a fabulous print, and you're very lucky to have it gifted to you.

Yeah, thank you.

PEA: Las Vegas is known for its popular entertainers.

The Springs Preserve has a local celebrity who has come out of his shell.

KATRINA SMITH: So Mojave Max is a desert tortoise, and he is a mascot for the desert conservation program.

He lives here at the Springs Preserve out in our desert tortoise habitat, which is about a 15-acre area where he gets to just be a tortoise, walk around, do tortoise things.

So desert tortoises are herbivores.

So they are looking to eat plants.

They're not super-picky-- they'll eat flowers, they'll eat cactus pads, grasses.

They're just looking for something green.

They will actually spend up to 95% of their time in a burrow.

So it's pretty rare to see one in the wild or here at the Springs Preserve.

They will live up to about 80 years.

Max is young, at about 20 years old, so he's got a long, long lifespan ahead of him.

GUEST: I actually got this in the San Francisco Bay Area when I was 16 years old.

I was what they called a weekend hippie... (laughs) ...and would go over there on the weekends.

I just started collecting posters and put 'em up in my bedroom, and I still have 'em.

I pa, packed 'em away and just kind of forgot about 'em.

When I first saw this poster, it immediately caught my eye, because it's quite an unusual poster for the period.

It's a Janis Joplin poster.

Mm-hmm.

It was for a concert that she performed in in Sacramento on the 27th of March in 1969.

Okay.

Which is only just a few months before she famously appeared at Woodstock, in August.

She's an iconic star in that she really came to the forefront in the late '60s.

She was in a band called Big Brother and the Holding Company.

Right, yeah.

And then she went out on her own.

And that's when she really became hugely successful.

But what really struck me about this poster is that it's a photographic poster.

The posters from this period, the psychedelic posters that came out of the Bay Area in the late '60s... Mm-hmm.

...are predominantly graphic, illustrated posters, whereas this is quite unusual.

It's a photograph by Thomas Weir.

It's a great photograph of her.

Uh-huh.

And the other thing that really caught my eye is that I hadn't seen one in person ever before.

It's an extremely rare poster.

There was only one that I could find that has ever sold at auction.

So it really is an unusual piece.

Mm-hmm.

And I think it really appeals to collectors to have something with a photograph of her on, because she had a very short life.

She did, yeah.

She, she tragically died at only 27 years old.

Mm-hmm.

So anything of hers, memorabilia of hers, is very sought-after because of that.

Mm-hmm.

Yours, I've noticed, does have a few tears.

It's got some pinholes.

Okay.

Um, there's a few dings.

Mm-hmm.

So that does affect the value a little bit.

But because it's such an unusual poster, it, it doesn't make a huge difference to the value.

And I think collectors are quite forgiving of the condition because it's so rare.

Uh-huh.

Do you remember how much you paid for it at the time?

For this one, I think I paid a top dollar of about $3.25.

(both laughing) That's amazing.

Yeah.

Which is pretty in line with, actually, what you would have paid here.

Because it's so rare, you'd probably be looking around $2,000 to $4,000 at auction.

It's a very nice poster.

Oh!

It's a very nice poster, indeed.

Wow!

Um, I'm so happy that you brought it in, because, as I said...

Thank you.

...I've never seen one before.

Thank you-- I'm, I'm glad I was able to bring it in and have you take a look at it.

It's amazing, huh?

Yeah.

$3.25?

Uh-huh.

I know.

Oh, my goodness.

(both laughing) That's unbelievable.

GUEST: There was a box at the auction that I wanted some items out of, and this pendant was in that box.

And what did you pay for the box?

Around $15.

And when was that?

About two years ago.

It's porcelain.

And I can tell you it came from something else.

It was broken and then shaped and fashioned and put within a silver frame, made into a pendant in the 20th century.

The important part is that this curve here helps us better understand the shape of the object this came from.

That curvature typically one only finds on vases that are of cylindrical shape.

So it would have been part of the cylinder shape of a vase that would have been approximately eight inches in diameter.

And there's a special kind of vase that's called a rouleau vase that was made in China, because this is Chinese.

Oh.

And I knew that from the colors of the enamel decoration and the subject matter.

So the vase is probably about this tall.

And it would have been a cylindrical, slightly swelled shape.

Then at the neck, it would have been pinched a little bit, with another cylindrical short section, and then the lip would have been spread out a little bit to match the lower body.

That's called a rouleau vase.

And that rouleau shape was a shape that was prominent, and you find in porcelain made in the late 17th and early 18th century.

Oh.

So we're going back to somewhere around 1700 to 1720 or so.

She was likely accompanied by other female figures and other figures in this luxuriant, expansive kind of setting that was probably on balconies, with a landscape in the distance, and other beautifully painted figures.

So we can surmise that the quality we see here was extended to the overall object.

And I can also tell, from the quality of the porcelain itself, there are very few imperfections.

So that this came from the very finest of the porcelain kilns... Oh, my goodness.

...in the city of Jingdezhen, which is where this porcelain was made for the emperor of China and members of his court.

Oh, my goodness.

So there are two kinds of qualities.

One would be beautifully painted, but not necessarily with the official mark underneath... Mm-hmm.

...that would indicate this was made for the court.

Hm.

We call that a reign mark, and that would have been written on the bottom.

And then there's those that have the reign mark.

This could have been either one, based on what I can see from this, this part of it.

But what we have is one small piece of something that is now gone.

I'm gonna give you an idea for insurance value.

Okay.

Retail replacement value.

And I would say that somewhere in the neighborhood of about $500 would be appropriate.

Oh, that's... For this little piece.

Oh, my goodness.

(chuckling) (laughing): Oh, my goodness, I had no idea.

That's wonderful.

Had we the entirety of this, if this had a reign mark on the bottom, it would have been over $100,000.

Oh, my goodness.

So you have a treasure.

Well, I'm happy with it.

(laughing) (chuckling) Oh, my goodness-- thank you so much.

Uh, this is my father's guitar that he got in the '50s.

And he actually traded a five-dollar pistol to his brother for it.

He played it his whole life.

Uh, I would accompany him on the piano.

And so I have great memories with him.

But whenever I tried to play it, it didn't work, because I'm left-handed, and I never realized that it had to be restrung.

I bought it because, uh, I was told it was a protector for the head, like an early helmet.

Then I got it in the mail, and I was not really pleased.

I thought, "Well, what is that thing?"

And as it turns out, it's 120 years old, according to the patent date.

Uh, it's to protect a person's head when you're a baseball player back in the day.

And I don't think it was met with a lot of, uh, fanfare, because, obviously, this one's never been out of the box.

This is a Reach Pneumatic Head Protector for batters, which we would think of as being an early helmet.

And yet it's made out of canvas.

Based on the patent date, this was likely made in 1905.

Mm.

I love that you found this advertisement on the internet, which shows that they offered this for five dollars.

Yeah.

But if you look down here, I see it says "Head Protector Left, one dollar."

(laughs) So, obviously...

It's on sale.

Obviously, it's on sale.

Right.

(both laughing) From the way it's explained, you take this tube and you push it in here, and, and you blow on it?

Absolutely.

And then it inflates.

Right.

Right?

To the side, so it protects you.

Yeah.

But it wasn't a very popular item.

When they started wearing it, it was introduced, guys were not into protective equipment.

The Hall of Fame has a picture of one, but there's no information, really, as to what became of 'em.

Let's go back 100, 120 years.

The big danger in baseball was the beanball.

The beanball was the leading cause of death and major injury in baseball.

Wow.

Well, let's go back to 1905.

The most progressive player at that time was catcher Roger Bresnahan.

Yes.

The Hall-of-Famer for the Giants.

Yeah.

This was produced in 1905.

Two years later, he got a beanball, and he decided to wear this, briefly.

Mm-hmm.

But he was so ridiculed by the players, and it didn't seem to, to work properly, that it got put back on the shelf and largely forgotten.

1920, the, probably the most famous incident was Carl Mays throwing a sinker ball at Ray Chapman, the shortstop for the Cleveland Indians.

Mm-hmm.

And unfortunately, Ray Chapman is the only baseball player, Major Leaguer, to ever be killed.

Yeah, I've heard about that, yes, absolutely.

Mm.

And at that time, they thought about instituting some sort of protective layer, but it never got beyond a certain point, because baseball players didn't want to appear weak.

And the other is that they felt that it was gonna be too restrictive, too heavy.

Okay.

They hated them.

Fast-forward to 1971.

Major League Baseball came out with a mandate for all new players.

They had to wear plastic batting helmets.

When did you buy this and what did you pay for it?

Well, it was over 20 years ago.

Bought it through an auction.

I paid $600.

The only example that we could find was in the Hall of Fame.

Yes.

Okay.

And there's no box.

Oh, okay.

So as far as, as we know, this is the only one that exists...

I'll be darned.

...with a box... Wow.

...and all together, and in this condition.

That's amazing-- wow, that is amazing.

We would put an auction estimate today of $8,000 to $12,000 on it.

(laughs): Well, that's amazing.

That is amazing, it really is.

I'd insure it for probably somewhere around $15,000.

Wow, that's pretty cool-- I appreciate that.

This was a birthday present from my mother about 35 years ago.

It's been sitting on a shelf.

Blue is my favorite color.

She knew that, so that's, you know, and had kind of a tumultuous childhood, so that kind of goes with the pattern on the, on the vase, as well.

It says "Allison, 12167."

So I don't know what the number means.

Hopefully there's not 12,000 of these floating around.

(laughs) Ernie Barnes was a former NFL player.

He played for the Jets.

But after football, he found art as being, I guess, part of his livelihood.

And we all are familiar with "Sugar Shack."

And there are some other well-known pieces.

But my father and Ernie made friends, and they were, he was able to purchase this piece.

And this actually sat on top of our, uh, fire mantel in our home in Santa Barbara, California.

Ah, so, about when would you say he got the painting?

I would say this was probably in the early to mid-'80s.

Oh, okay.

Did he ever say how much he paid for it?

I have no idea.

Oh, okay, and you brought in something else, too, it's... Can you tell us what that is?

Yes, this is just a catalogue that has, uh, some of his most famous art is in here.

Excellent.

And I have to point out, though, that it also has a, uh, biographical sketch written by Alex Haley...

Yes.

...author of "Roots."

Yes.

Yeah, so let's focus on the painting.

This is an oil on canvas, and it was created in 1971.

And I know that 'cause it's dated on the back.

The title is "Fourth and One," which in football talk is, "Uh-oh."

It's definitely properly titled.

You can almost hear the cracking of the helmets in this scene.

Oh, yeah, it's pretty... And so... ...action-packed, right?

Yeah.

And earlier, you mentioned "Sugar Shack," and that was one of his most famous pieces.

Yeah.

It was on "Good Times."

And that was also a cover of one of Marvin Gaye's albums.

Yes.

And it famously auctioned not too long ago for about $15 million, which was a record for the artist.

The auction estimate at the time was $150,000.

This piece wouldn't fall into that category just because it wasn't on "Good Times" for so many years, and it wasn't on Marvin Gaye's, uh, album.

But it's still a very valuable piece, I think.

If I were to put a value on it for insurance purposes, I would make this around $650,000.

Wow.

Yeah.

Just an... Amazing.

...awesome piece.

Amazing.

PEA: And now it's time for the "Roadshow" Feedback Booth.

I'm so excited to be at "Antiques Roadshow."

I can't even tell you.

I brought my great-grandmother's locket necklace.

Um, I found out that this is not a diamond, so I was a little disappointed.

But the f, wonderful appraiser told me that this is worth about $500 to $600.

Um, it's gold-filled.

And here's Great-Grandma right here.

Well, these all were inherited from Mark's family, and our, my mother-in-law told us they were very valuable.

And that was a big fat lie, 'cause they're not.

(laughs) But we like 'em anyway.

And then there's my two-dollar comic book.

Now, this is-- oh, thank you!

This is very rare, but it's not in good condition.

$200!

Okay, I have this beautiful vase from the 1800s.

And I did fantastic today.

They appraised this for $30.

(laughs): We're happy-- yay!

It's from the 1950s and, um, m, made in Japan.

My uncle brought it back from Japan when he came back after the war, and...

It might be worth a little more money if he hadn't played with it in the bathtub.

(laughs) We had a terrific time.

I brought a bracelet that a friend had given me.

It came over from Ireland in 1959.

And the appraiser, Nick, said it could be Irish, it could be English.

It may be worth $400.

But to, the precious part to me is the story.

I know who it came from.

I'll wear it, and I'll pass it on.

I've loved the people I've met here at the "Antiques Roadshow," and thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Keep telling stories.

PEA: Thanks for watching.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."