Antiques Roadshow

CORAL PEA: Come along as "Antiques Roadshow" visits Chattanooga, Tennessee.

So, Gary, why did you start collecting art pottery?

My doctor told me to get a hobby.

APPRAISER: It does have a problem.

And the problem happened... (chuckles) ...on the way here.

Yes.

PEA: In 2008, "Antiques Roadshow" visited Chattanooga, Tennessee, in search of Southern delicacies.

APPRAISER: What is critical to this piece is that it is southern.

There are very few Southern needle works that survive, for a number of reasons.

Right.

PEA: And years later, we're looking back at our trip to Tennessee...

GUEST: It's been a while.

Time goes so fast.

PEA: ...to see if the values of the treasures we appraised in the scenic city have changed.

So sit back, grab yourself a sip of sweet tea, and enjoy this fresh look at vintage Chattanooga.

WOMAN: I chose to bid on this at an auction for the purpose of raising money for our local museum.

Ah!

And I was fortunate enough to gain possession of this drawing.

Tell me why you liked it.

I love water.

There's something about living and moving on the river.

We have the riverboat here and boathouse here and it very much looks like the Mississippi or the Missouri, perhaps.

Thomas Hart Benton was from the Kansas City area and he spent a lot of time around the river in that area.

Benton is considered one of the leaders for the Regionalist school.

That is, realist painters that were painting roughly in the early-to-mid 20th century and they were painting th-the landscape, farming scenes, in the Midwest, primarily, although Benton also painted in Martha's Vineyard.

He had a house in that area.

He also was a muralist.

Now, what you brought to us today is a watercolor and drawing.

You can see that the artist probably started out with a little bit of pencil here and then he uses pen and ink and then, uh, sort of a sepia ink wash, uh, painted with a brush to highlight various elements.

Although I don't believe this to be the original mat and frame, you'll see that the mat is quite old.

It has an acid content, and that could cause staining or damage at some point, But what's interesting about this piece is that it actually has the photograph, and if you turn it around, it's inscribed by the wife of another Regionalist painter, John Steuart Curry.

Curry is one of the other well-known members of the group, and he and Benton were friends.

And his wife is writing that Benton and Curry exchanged works of art, which artists often did, and that Curry had this in his collection and that the exchange was done around 1940, so most likely this was done around that time.

Now, how long ago did you buy this?

It's been awhile.

Time goes so fast.

I would be embarrassed to tell you.

Okay!

How much did you pay for it?

Do you... $500.

Well, of course, the market for American art has risen significantly in the last ten years, and certainly even in the last two or three years.

And Benton is extremely popular as a Regionalist artist.

If this were in a gallery, I believe that the asking price in the gallery would be $30,000.

Mmm, thank you for this information.

His oils can be well over a million dollars.

(laughing): I'm just sorry I didn't buy more.

(laughing) WOMAN: I found it in a little junk shop in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1967.

And I knew enough about instruments.

I was attracted to the rotary valves because I knew they were unusual.

And then I realized it didn't look like any instrument I'd ever seen before, and so, I got it.

I was in college, took it back to school, took it to the trumpet player, and, uh, he played it and said it's really nice, and I've seen pictures of similar horns with Civil War regimental bands, and, uh, that's about all I know.

How much did you pay for it at the junk shop?

No more than five dollars; I was a college student that couldn't have afforded more than five dollars.

(chuckling): Okay, well, it's an over-the-shoulder, E-flat soprano saxhorn.

It has three string-actuated rotary valves.

We call these top action rotary valves, and when you press down, the string turns the valve.

Period-wise, about 1865, could be 1870.

But we generally think of these as Civil War-period horns.

Over-the-shoulder horns are played, as you know, in front of the army.

Yeah.

And you'd have every different size of, of, uh, over-the-shoulder horn, from the little E-flat soprano up to the big bass horn, which would stand about this tall.

Wow.

The material is German silver.

Okay.

They were made in both brass and German silver-- German silver is a nickel silver and it would have been the higher grade... Oh.

...horn at the time.

And this has the extra garland around the bell, which was a reinforcement, and that's part, probably why the bell is undented.

Okay.

Usually, these are a mess... Yeah.

...but this one is incredibly intact.

This bell garland is also German silver-- sometimes, you'd see them in a different material.

Okay.

It says "Peters & Bro."

Yeah.

And that's all it says, nothing else, and that probably is original to the horn.

But I tried to figure out who Peters was-- I've never heard of Peters.

My guess is that Peters are music merchants rather than manufacturers.

And... the form of the horn and these interesting little braces-- that curlicue brace-- Yeah.

and you've got another one right here-- I see a lot in the Boston manufacturers, especially a guy named E.G.

Wright, who was a very, very famous Boston maker, and some of the New York makers are doing it, too, like Stratton.

And I'm not really sure which one it is-- it could be a Boston, it could be a New York.

Sold through a merchant.

This is a beautifully crafted horn-- it was not made by guys who made a few horns.

This is a major manufacturer, beautifully done.

Yeah.

It has just a few little dents.

And it's the rarest of all of the over-the-shoulder horns.

Oh, wow.

I think that, if you were to see this in a musical instrument shop for sale, it would probably sell in the range of $4,000.

Oh, wow.

Perhaps even $5,000.

Wow.

And I should really hold it up the way they'd hold it, which is just like this.

Yeah.

Like that, over the shoulder.

Unfortunately, missing the mouthpiece, but you can find a mouthpiece for it.

(chuckling): It's... it's such a beautiful little thing.

Well, thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

It's good to know.

Well, you have a nice family history on these pieces.

Thank you, thank you.

This passed on from aunt to grandmother right on down.

They're Bohemian.

Oh, okay.

Circa 1900.

All right.

You notice these lizards?

Uh-huh.

Or salamanders.

Right.

I don't know the difference, do you?

No.

Yellow feet...

I don't either, but anyway.

We'll call them salamanders.

Okay.

And we have a value of about $7,000 for the pair.

Wow.

If they were in blue... Uh-huh.

...or in another color... Huh.

...you could triple that value.

Wow.

WOMAN: It's been in our family for four generations.

It was my mother's grandmother's.

I can tell you a little bit about the history of it.

The motif on it-- scarab beetles, set with little ruby eyes and emerald heads, and a, a pretty, French-cut sapphire body-- tells us when it was made.

French-cut sapphires and French-cut stones were cut in the 1920s.

A value on this at auction would be anywhere between $5,000 to $7,000.

Wow!

Yeah.

Oh, golly.

Yeah.

I was scared to wear it; I'm still scared to wear it.

(laughs) APPRAISER: Here we have a picture of Lookout Mountain.

This came out of your husband's grandmother's family, is that right?

And she... they're...

Yes, yes, they're from Lookout Mountain.

And it is a Currier & Ives, it says on it.

And your question was, is it real, right?

Is it real, right.

Right.

Well, good news, it is real.

Oh, good, okay.

It is an original large folio Currier & Ives print...

Okay.

...and it's one of the better regional ones that they did.

Really?

Okay.

Yeah.

It's partly cause it's a great image of Lookout Mountain.

Right.

And certainly if your family came from there, that's of interest, but it's a great American landscape.

But also, it's got a train in it, and train prints are very desirable.

The color on it is excellent.

All those things are very good for the value.

Okay.

And it's worth quite a bit of money.

Oh.

Okay.

In this kind of condition, it's worth about $5,000 to $5,500.

Oh, okay, great.

(chuckling): Yeah.

Now, that's in this condition.

It needs some work.

Those spots can be cleaned up.

Well worth doing, okay?

Okay.

It would probably cost you maybe $400 or $500 to fix that up, but well worth it.

Add about $1,000, so then it would be worth about $6,000 to $6,500.

Okay.

It would also help preserve it.

Okay, great, thank you.

It's a great thing.

MAN: This is a banner from the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.

My dad was 18 years old and lived in Roanoke, Virginia, and wanted to go to the Olympics, and, uh, his parents said no, so he took the Model A Ford and he and a buddy drove from Roanoke to L.A. in 1932.

Imagine what that kind of trip was.

And, uh, his mom-- when she found out he'd left, she feigned a heart attack to get the police involved, and they never could find him.

So he went to the Olympics, got this banner off of the L.A.

Coliseum, and came back to Roanoke, and we've kept it ever since.

I've had it, uh, since about 1955.

This in fact hung at the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1932.

The country was in the shadow of the Depression at the time.

In fact, the world was-- no other country bid to hold the Olympics that year.

Los Angeles was the only city that put in a bid... Oh, okay.

...to host the Olympics.

So, what you've got here is one that actually hung in L.A., proclaiming proudly, It says, "Altius, citius, fortius."

Yup.

Okay, which in Latin means?

Higher, swifter, stronger.

Right, so you have a cloth banner.

All of the characters and graphics have been appliqud, or ironed on; colors are still vibrant.

You can still see the red, white, and blue.

There's a little fading and there's a little, a little fraying along the bottom edge, and there's some toning by the "S" in Los Angeles.

It really does not detract at all from the visual quality, certainly, and from the value of the piece.

It's a really unique piece, and at auction, this type of items sells for $500 to $1,000.

Wow, that's interesting.

WOMAN: Well, I like to go visit a little shop up in Edwardsville, Virginia, that's a second-hand shop.

And this was outside.

And so I liked the pattern on it, and I snatched it up immediately.

So you don't know anything about it.

Not a thing.

It comes from western New Mexico, from somewhere in the area of Acoma Pueblo, which is west of Albuquerque.

Mm-hmm.

It may have come from Acomita or one of the surrounding areas, but that's the area in general it came from.

Mm-hmm.

They were water jars, they're storage jars.

It probably was made between 1890 and 1910.

It's pretty dirty, needs to be cleaned up.

It's got a lot of black on it.

Mm-hmm.

It has some little paint splatters.

I guess if it was outdoors, I'm glad it's here, period but... (chuckles) Yeah, I've only had it since last summer.

Well, it's a beautiful pot and real elegant and the designs are real sophisticated.

I'm sure they have meanings to the potter and they may have had meanings in the pueblo where it was produced, but I don't know what those are.

It does have a problem.

(laughing): Yes, it does.

(chuckling): And, uh... And, uh... A-And the problem happened when?

On the way here.

(laughing) Yes.

The first part of the problem is, is in this bag, and-and I guess the best way to-to tell the story would be to, uh... the bottom fell out.

(laughing): Yes, it did.

And it is a great thing, but that causes problems.

Yes.

(laughs) But what did you pay for it?

$4.50.

Okay, if this came up at auction with the bottom out-- and you even... still have it-- but I mean with the bottom gone... Gone.

...$800 to $1,200.

Wow!

(laughs) Not bad for a... Not bad.

...for a snag, huh?

Now, if you decided to fix the pot and you took it in and you had the bottom repaired and had it cleaned up, you're talking probably $1,400 to $1,600 at an auction pretty easy.

Wow.

If it was a beautiful pot, clean, no damage to the bottom at all, and it came up at auction, it would easily bring $4,000 to $6,000.

(laughs) Well, thank you.

Well, thanks for coming.

My mother said that it had been in my father's family many, many, many years.

And where was your, uh, father's family from?

My father's family was from Connecticut.

I don't know how old it is, but we think my great-great-great-great- great-great-grandfather was Roger Sherman, who was one of the framers of the Declaration of Independence.

So, I don't know if it's that old.

That's what I'm hoping you will tell me.

From Connecticut?

Yes, yes.

And, uh, is anybody in your family from Pennsylvania or from Philadelphia?

Well, my mother's family is all from the Philadelphia area...

Okay.

...but she said that this had been in my father's family, but my son-in-law, Tommy, said that it was a Pennsylvania... uh, a Chester County chest, maybe, is what he said.

Okay.

Well, you should always listen to your son-in-law.

I'll tell you a little bit about the piece.

Uh, it is, in fact, a piece of furniture that we call a Chippendale tall chest of drawers.

And it has all the characteristics of an 18th century Pennsylvania-made piece.

It has these five drawers at the top, and then these graduated four drawers.

They have these lemon-shaped pins that go through the divider.

It has the tulip inlay on this drawer here.

It's made in black walnut, which was the wood of choice in Pennsylvania.

And it's made so vigorously and strong that the Pennsylvania Germans that made these pieces, they had emigrated into America, and they made tall chests like this to last.

And what I think is so interesting, I'm just going to pull this out, and I'll show you there's a little secret Quaker lock here, which I think you probably know about.

I do know about that.

And out comes that drawer.

And the secondary wood is made of poplar.

And look at these big, thick drawer sides.

This was made to last.

And...

I know it's very heavy.

(chuckling) I have... And it's a... it's a monumental piece.

And it's just such a, a pleasure to see it.

You have your crossbanded whitewood here.

And then, if you look at the feet, these gorgeous, great big feet with the dovetailed construction on the corners.

That is the way the Pennsylvania Germans made their furniture.

Condition matters when you look at furniture, and in this case, the hardware is replaced.

They are Colonial Revival, is what we call them.

They were probably put on, uh, about a hundred years ago.

Do you have any idea what it might be worth?

Well, I do know that... an antique dealer here offered Mother I think it was $27,000 back in 19... like, late '50s, early '60s, somewhere in there.

Well, that's a lot of money, $27,000.

Today, it's probably worth at least $30,000 to $50,000 at auction.

Is it really?

(chuckles) Well, what she said was, "Keep it in the family."

WOMAN: My neighbor gave it to me as a gift, and I knew nothing about it and she didn't either, really; it came from a family member of hers down in Florida.

She got it about 40 years ago and passed it along to me.

APPRAISER: Well, it's beautifully enamel-decorated, and as, as we look through the piece, you have sort of a little bit of the flamb colors rubbed in with the various enamel colors.

But what makes it really important is who made it and who decorated it.

It's marked with a Royal Doulton mark.

The Royal Doulton Manufacturer in England.

I've heard the name, yes.

(chuckles) Long history of, of line of potters, and they did some amazingly good works.

Wow.

Now, this is also signed in two other places.

It's signed right here "Sung."

Sung is a ware that was made in China surely, a much earlier period than this, but that's where the influence came from.

Okay.

And they call this particular style Sung ware.

Sung ware.

And it was done from a period of about 1920 to 1940.

Oh, okay.

Also signed "N-O-K-E." "Noke."

And the gentleman's name was Charles Noke, and he was the chief designer for Doulton and had started working in Doulton from about 1899 and worked at Doulton till he passed away in 1941, and he established a number of the, the premier wares that were produced in Doulton from 1900 to about 1940.

You see that wonderful, unusual glaze on the back side as well.

That's what I like, right here-- lots of greens and blues.

And that's a technique that he pretty well perfected, and even in the base here, you'll see that flamb-- just that red color that shows through here.

So the combination of these marks would definitely place this properly between 1920 and 1940.

Now, the condition of it is just fabulous.

And really, really is a wonderful example.

This type of Doulton is very collectible today.

And at auction, I would expect it to sell in the range of $3,000 to $5,000.

Oh, my.

(chuckling): Oh, gosh.

Oh, well, I'll have to tell my friend.

She may want it back.

(laughs) I bought this when I was a student at Clemson University, which is in South Carolina; there's a dealer that came up from Florida and advertised and had a little show there, so.

Yeah.

But I know it's a Russian bronze is really all I know about it.

Yup, it's, it's Russian.

It's signed, um, down in the corner here in Cyrillic.

But what I'm not seeing is a foundry mark.

Mm-hmm.

Um, which, uh, leaves me to be a bit suspicious of this.

Yeah, that's, that's...

It is quite nicely cast, but in the fine details it's just a little bit lacking.

Uh-huh.

I think it came, probably, from a source that was dubious... Yeah.

...and not as old as it could be.

Well, that, that'll teach me-- you shouldn't buy your antiques from the Holiday Inn.

(laughs) We lived in the Dominican Republic, and we'd visit the shop where a person was preparing the pieces, and we'd buy those.

We'd frequent there probably at least once a week.

The real interest of your pieces, is the fact that they've got bugs in them.

Yes, yes, right.

And all of these have bugs in them.

And, unfortunately, you didn't pay enough money for them.

(laughs) I see some of the prices for $3.50, $1.50.

Yes sir.

We got a... And the one's with the bugs today would retail for about $500 each.

Oh, gracious.

(chuckles) That's an awful lot, I didn't think it'd be that much!

APPRAISER: So, what did you bring in?

WOMAN: A flintlock rifle.

I picked it up in the early '80s.

I noticed it had a name, a city, and a date.

We have "P. & E.W.

Blake."

Do you know who that is?

No.

Nobody else did either.

Those are the nephews of Eli Whitney.

It's Philos and Eli Whitney Blake.

In 1825, Eli Whitney dies.

He has a contract with the government to make some guns.

The nephews take over and they put their name on 'em.

Nobody knew who the Blakes were.

Everybody knew who Eli Whitney was...

Right.

...because it's the same man that's credited with inventing the cotton gin.

They made 15,000 of these guns from 1826 to 1830.

First year production on this one; we have the 1826 date.

Yes.

They realized nobody knew who they were, so in 1830, they switched back to the Whitney name.

because it was a name people remembered.

Right.

But it has matching dates on the lock plate and on the barrel.

It's just a nice gun.

It's in the original flintlock configuration.

It's .69-caliber and just a fantastic old gun.

This gun would probably bring about $2,500 on the retail market.

My brother will definitely take more of an interest in it.

(laughs) MAN: I found it at an estate sale in Birmingham.

And it just looked old.

Was it expensive?

No.

$200.

Did you notice at the bottom here how it looks like it's been patched?

I noticed that today.

(chuckles) Okay.

It's someone who is really reaching to do something dramatic and have a large-scale picture, but they didn't have quite enough of it, so at the bottom they had to patch in some other little pieces, which they stitched in to extend that ground far enough.

It's on silk ground and it has silk needlework on it, as well as a good bit of watercolor, and part of the reason for doing that is it's quick, and it's a lot easier to paint that watercolor on there.

Just the silk and material alone was very expensive.

A lot of these were worked by schoolgirls who were going to academies.

So we've got the work here of a well-to-do young girl, or perhaps a young woman.

I would date this probably to the 1830s.

Okay.

That's a period when you have a lot of morning scenes, uh, being painted.

Right.

What is critical to this piece is that it is Southern.

There are very few Southern needle works that survive for a number of reasons.

Right.

First of all, the humidity and the bugs are very tough on silk like this.

Right.

The light, all of that degrades this sort of thing very badly.

The Civil War, a lot of things had been destroyed.

So we have a very small group of Southern needle works of this period to look to, as both comparables on the marketplace, and in museums to help us pin down exactly where this was made.

Right.

I think that the great thing about this is it stands alone on its visual appeal, it's in outstanding condition, there's more research to be done...

Okay.

...and I think what you learn is gonna add to the value.

Can we attribute this to a particular academy?

Uh, can we trace back through the family and put those pieces together?

I would think, at auction, this would likely, uh, fetch $6,000 to $9,000.

If you can attribute it to a specific academy, and figure out some of the other pieces of the puzzle here, you might, you might double that.

You double it, okay.

It's a rare, great object.

Good.

MAN: This is the eight ball that was presented to President Truman in 1948 by the Los Angeles Press Club.

Its significance is that the press club had meetings, and when you went to the meeting, they had a giant eight ball that they would put on the table in front of you, and when you spoke behind the eight ball, technically your comments were off the record.

So President Truman, being notorious for being outspoken, enjoyed that, and because of that, I think, he was given acknowledgement by the press club.

And how did you acquire it?

A relative of mine-- a great-uncle of mine-- worked in the White House as an aide to President Truman-- actually, to four presidents, starting with President Roosevelt-- and when Mr. Truman left office, uh, gave it to him as a memento.

And you know the significance of the term "behind the eight ball" generally means when you're in a precarious situation where you can't escape from it, you're just...

Exactly.

You're behind the eight ball.

And in 1948, Truman was behind the eight ball.

If you remember the history about that election, he was never supposed to win that.

If you remember the famous photo of "Dewey Defeats Truman!

", he didn't have a prayer and he wound up winning.

Absolutely.

When Truman was given this as a gift from the press club, he made a comment that said, "The president seems to be behind the eight ball "a lot these days, but I managed to get out of it."

The provenance is terrific, coming through the family.

Doing some research, I found that just a pinback button alone showing Truman behind the eight ball went for a substantial amount of money.

It seems to be a very, very popular kind of theme throughout his presidency, and also, as, as we know, President Truman accumulated a lot of stuff.

His desk was cluttered with items, so an item like this would certainly be welcome to sit on his desk and probably get mixed in with all the other material.

His desk probably contained a hundred to 150 different items on it.

It was a maze that a president could keep that many things on his desk.

So you couldn't really pluck it out of the pictures exactly?

Well, the pictures were very dark, and of course they weren't taken very close up.

Right.

And there was also a bookshelf that sat off to the side of his desk, and I have a feeling that that may be where it actually sat ultimately.

It's very possible.

The best provenance and the best proof of him owning this piece was the photograph of him holding it up after it was given to him at the Los Angeles Press Club.

Certainly.

If I placed an item like this at auction, I'd be a little bit on the conservative side, only because you never know how it's going to be received as far as, you know, interest goes, but presidential memorabilia is usually over the top, and when you have a provenance attached to this, I would conservatively estimate this piece at $12,000 to $18,000.

Wow.

(chuckles) And I wouldn't be surprised to see it go even higher if you get the right people bidding on it.

And if you can insure it, I would insure it for $20,000 at least.

The pinback button of Truman with an eight ball superimposed over him recently was sold for $6,000.

For a pinback button.

WOMAN: Walter Anderson was born in New Orleans, but lived most of his life in Mississippi.

He did not become famous, though, until after his death.

He was a very interesting person, but, as many artists, had his own way of doing things, and would leave his family for, for much time and go off and paint.

His family also has pottery.

There now is a museum down in Mississippi with his work.

That would be Shearwater Pottery, yes.

Part of it.

Mm-hmm, yes.

When he died of lung cancer, the family needed money, so what they did was collect a lot of his work, because they found a lot of it in his cottage so they could get some money for... continue their business in the pottery and they came to Memphis, Tennessee, in about '69, I believe it was.

And is that where you acquired this one?

And that's when... when we got these.

Do you remember what you paid for it back then?

Um, I think it was around $75, $80.

Many of his works aren't signed.

This one isn't signed, in fact.

No.

And occasionally the... you'll see a monogram by him, where he'll sign with initials.

And I don't think I've ever heard of any being dated.

I think he's a fascinating individual.

He's... he really epitomizes the visionary, driven artist.

And it was very important for him to be both in and of nature, which is why he spent so much time in isolation on Horn Island.

Right.

Leading a very frugal existence and really just creating art.

And here was a man who really believed in the transformative power of art.

It, it was really a, a mission for him.

He wanted to create work that was... had mass appeal, but was well-produced, that a lot of thought had gone into, and that was affordable to many people, too, which is why he would produce pottery, through Shearwater, and why he produced linocuts as well, which was a good mass medium to, to get his work out there.

You can see this work embodies an... energy that you see in, in his watercolors.

And in this one you get a glimpse of his working method.

It looks as though he perhaps uses a little bit of pencil line here.

You can see traces of the graphite here and around here, and even here, where there is some pencil drawing which he hasn't, in fact, filled in.

So he would lay out the bare bones of the composition, and then go at it with his, with his brush.

And this one has terrific color, great rhythm to it.

I think this one, at auction, Mm-hmm.

would reach probably $10,000 to $15,000 or so.

Hmm... very nice.

It's got a wonderful energy to it that I, I really enjoy very much.

WOMAN: This is, uh, Persian.

My first husband was from Iran, and he gave it to me.

What I can tell you about it is that it is Rescht embroidery...

Okay.

Which is a type of Persian embroidery that was done on wool.

It's from the Qajar period; that dynasty ruled from the late 18th century to about 1920, '25.

I'm not exactly sure who this is, but somebody from that, that particular dynasty.

And this at auction would sell for about $3,500.

Wonderful.

(chuckles) That's great.

Thanks for bringing it in.

And I appreciate your information.

Well, I know it was painted by Dame Laura Knight.

She was a member of the Newlyn School in England, and... as was her husband.

I do know that she was the first woman who was elected to the Royal Academy.

I-I knew from my mother that she was wanted by them.

Very prestigious for her to have that honor.

Mm-hmm.

I would see it being valued around $20,000 to $25,000.

Mm-hmm.

I went to an estate sale, and there was a storage shed.

Okay.

And I saw this water-soaked box with just the corner of one of these sticking out.

I actually thought maybe they were Pennsylvania Dutch.

Well, they're not Pennsylvania Dutch, and, and, and they're not junk, either, I would say.

Mm-hmm.

And what I like about them is that they were made by Maw & Company, in, in a small factory, in a town just a few miles from where I grew up.

Is that right?

Yeah.

And when I was young, I worked in the Maw & Company tile works, which was a disused tile works by then.

Mm-hmm.

But as a historian, I worked on tiles just like this, restoring them... Oh my.

...and researching them.

They're beautifully made, and look at all the colors on them.

These have never been laid, they've never been put in mortars.

So, I think today, in an antique shop, nicely presented like this, certainly would be priced at about... perhaps $1,000.

Mm-hmm.

MAN: This is a train set that was my dad's.

APPRAISER: Uh-huh.

It was given to him on his first Christmas in December 1930.

Obviously, he didn't get to play with it that year, but, uh, it's still used.

As a family tradition growing up, my dad had a platform on which we had the tree, and then the train sets went around it.

It was in the picture window of our front window and it was so popular, that we even had some of the neighborhood kids would come look at the window Mm-hmm.

even before they came in to see the train going.

So, it's, uh, the engine, we have still have the cars and the original boxes.

The condition of the box obviously has deteriorated a little bit, held together with some duct tape.

And when did you get it?

My dad gave it to me a couple of years ago.

Well, it's a wonderful train, which confirms the fact that most of these trains especially from the Standard Gauge Era, were not bought for children.

They were bought by the father to play with.

The fathers bought them, ran them for the children, and put 'em in the boxes, put 'em up in the attic, and they came out every year.

And that's why a lot of them survive in great condition.

Obviously this has been something that has been loved and taken care of.

And it's a real treat to see.

These trains are not only made out of heavy tinplate, but also cast white metal.

And that's also quite unusual, that there's no fatigue.

It's in really good shape-- both the castings and the stamped metal.

This engine, which is known as the 385E, is one of their more deluxe engines, one of their more valuable ones.

Very expensive in their day.

Great color, great... all the bits and pieces.

A little... couple flags missing here, but that's to be expected.

And the tender is equally good condition.

And you have a wonderful freight set here.

These are not rare cars, but this is a great engine.

And the whole set together would easily bring $2,500 to $3,000 at auction.

Wow.

So, Gary, why did you start collecting art pottery?

My doctor told me to get a hobby.

How long you been collecting pottery?

Uh... about ten years.

And, and you told me you came across these in unusual fashion.

Yeah, I'm in the roofing business.

A gentleman had a bed-and-breakfast near where I live, so I... told him I'd do his roof for $12,000, and he didn't have that much money, so he said he'd give me $6,000 cash and some art pottery for it.

Now, you know that these are Rookwood pieces made in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The reason I wanted to talk about these is I'm going to do a little "good, better, best" here, because you've got three distinctly different categories of Rookwood pottery.

The first one, the largest piece, is a good piece of Rookwood.

It's a production piece.

It has these rings around the outside that make it look like it's hand-thrown, but it's really a molded pot.

If we look on the bottom, we'll see the regular Rookwood mark and no artist's signature.

It's a regular production piece with some embossed decoration from the mold on the side, but a very pretty one.

A little farther down the road is this early standard lace piece.

This piece is artist-signed; we can see the artist's signature on the bottom by Edith Felten.

Dates to about 1899, and it's called Rookwood standard brown glaze with underglaze slip decoration of clover blossoms and leaves.

That's right.

Very well-painted, very crisp and very clear.

This is what people often think of when they think about Rookwood.

But best... the best piece is, is this one, dating to 1901, about the same time as that brown-glazed piece.

And this one is by Amelia B. Sprague.

But this is a rare line called Painted Matte, which is a technique that a lot of Arts and Crafts potteries, influenced by Rookwood, were using about the same time, where... this piece, for example, was fired three times-- it was bisque fired, the decoration was put on; it was fired a second time, the overglaze was put on; it was fired a third time.

This one is fired initially, but then it's painted with overglaze, so they only fired it one more time.

And what happens is, when it works, you get these very rich, soft, languid lines of decoration on the piece.

This is a very sweet example, with berries and mistletoe leaves on it.

So, we have a "good, better, best" example and, consequently, the prices similarly are reflecting that "good, better, best."

This production vase, which is taller than most, if you were to find it at auction or estimate it for auction, it'd be about $200 to $300.

The standard glaze piece-- top auction estimate would be about $350 to $450, maybe someone would say $500, but that's about as far as anybody would estimate that.

But this sweet pot here, which is smaller than that one and, in some ways, not as showy, a reasonable auction estimate would be $2,500 to $3,500, and maybe as much as $3,000 to $4,000.

It's that lovely.

Great, yeah.

I'm not sure if it's great.

You said you took it for $6,000 in trade for this roofing work.

Well, I've traded about ten pieces all together of different art... Oh, oh, so this isn't all that you got for the $6,000.

No.

Oh, okay, so you're probably safe then.

Yeah.

WOMAN: They were my grandfather's.

He traveled around the Caribbean in about, uh, the '50s, I think it was.

And he did a lot of personal favors for some families, and as a result of the favors, someone gave him this as a gift.

Mm-hmm.

And that's really all we know.

We don't know very much about it.

What do you think pistols like this would've been used for?

Uh, we think they're dueling pistols.

Where do you think they're from?

Uh, we think they were made in England, Mm-hmm.

but we're not sure of that, either, so...

Okay.

Well, this is actually a... a typical English casing Uh-huh.

for a pair of dueling pistols Mm-hmm.

from around the early 19th century.

The case has a label in it that says "William Dooley, from Liverpool," and the case set here has what appears to be their original accessories.

Yes.

And would've originally held a pair of, probably... of Flint dueling pistols.

Okay.

Unfortunately, the pistols themselves are actually German.

Yeah?

The pistols have a mark right here, in gold... Mm-hmm.

That says "Kraus in Hertzberg," and they date to about the mid-19th century.

Okay.

So they're a little bit later.

Okay.

So at some point or other, the box and the pistols were married together.

Okay.

That said, too, is that they're actually not dueling pistols.

Oh.

They're typical target pistols.

Oh, okay.

And one thing that you can tell about a target pistol is, is that they have rifling right in here.

Mm-hmm.

And that would help the ball move straighter.

Now, in your traditional English pistols, Mm-hmm.

dueling pistols, they were smoothbore.

Okay.

And one of the reasons was, is that when they were in a duel, they didn't want, necessarily, the bullet to go straight.

(chuckling): Okay.

They wanted the bullet to sort of wobble in the air, because it was considered ungentlemanly... Mm-hmm.

...to take that much accuracy in this contest between two gentlemen over a matter of honor.

So you would almost never see rifling in that type of pistol.

Okay.

The other thing about it, which is very typical of this type of target pistol, is right here you'll see, behind the sight... Mm-hmm.

...there's a little nut there for adjusting the actually level of the sight...

Okay.

...depending on the range that you were looking for.

Mm-hmm.

So, again, those are very typical target features.

The pistols themselves are probably, I would imagine, worth, at auction, about $5,000 to $7,000.

Oh, okay.

With the case, you may be able to add another $1,000.

Oh, okay.

Well, thank you.

You're welcome.

MAN: Well, it belonged to an uncle.

He died in '87.

As far as I know, it has not been worn since '87.

We were told that it was probably fake.

Um, and I just brought it today to find out what it's worth.

Well, it's a great, great Swiss Rolex watch.

This was a watch which is now called the Red Sub.

The word "Submariner" is written in red on the dial.

It was introduced in 1966.

It was the first Submariner that had the cyclops crystal, which is right here... Mm-hmm.

...to magnify the date.

Mm-hmm.

This watch dates to around 1970.

It was the first model that had the triplock crown, which meant that the back gasket was waterproof, the crown was waterproof, and the crystal was waterproof.

It's a very collectible watch in today's market because men like big Submariners and it's the icon of the Rolex brand.

Your uncle probably paid around $325 for it.

And today, the collector value is probably, in this condition, somewhere in the $6,000 to $8,000 range.

Oh, really?

This is the real deal.

That's great, that's great.

This is one of the more collectible Rolexes that are out in the marketplace today.

Mm-hmm.

Ah.

Well, Phil, we're always talking about the Yankees, we're always talking about New York baseball, but today, we get to talk about Tennessee baseball...

Right.

And the Lookouts, and your dad.

My dad played for the Lookouts in the late '40s, uh, for Joe Engel, when he was 17 years old, and then, uh, played for the Lookouts for a few years before going into the military.

Everybody knew him by Lefty, because he was a left-handed pitcher.

It meant a lot to him.

Kept the uniform, kept the glove.

Yes.

That glove is probably mid-'40s, I would say, and the glove actually also went to the Korean War with him.

He played with it with the Green Waves.

Well, do you know much about Joe Engel?

Uh, just from what my dad told me about, you know, what a great entrepreneur he was, and, and promotion-- I know one time, my dad told me he gave away a house...

Yes, he did.

...uh, at, at one of the games, and they actually had so many people that they actually had people standing in the outfield, behind the outfield.

Well, Joe Engel was known as the Barnum of baseball...

Right.

...in his era; the Baron of Baloney.

Right.

He was one of the world's greatest promoters.

He not only gave away the house, where he had about 25,000 people...

Right.

...at the height of the Depression in 1936.

He was also known to trade a shortstop, Johnny Jones, to Charlotte for a turkey.

Right.

And then he said he got the worst of the deal...

Right.

...because the turkey was tough.

(laughs) So you came to the ball park, and Joe Engel entertained you.

Now, your dad didn't make it into the hall of fame... No, he didn't.

And minor league baseball's g... generally not hugely collected, but I would think that someone from Chattanooga who appreciates the history of the Lookouts and Engel would pay probably somewhere between $1,500 and $2,000 for this.

Wow.

Wow.

But...

But I...

They can't have it.

MAN: I was having a little gun trade with a friend of mine and I saw this setting in his garage, and he said, "I bought that about eight or nine years ago in New Orleans," and it set there in that little wicker basket he had it in ever since.

Uh-huh.

He didn't want it, so I ended up trading him out of it, and... And how much did you pay for it?

I've got about $500 in it.

Well, it's a French table clock.

We can see on the dial here it says "Courtois," the maker's name, "Paris."

The case is, is a wonderful mid-18th-century style.

It has bronze castings.

All of these mounts, all the applied pieces are referred to as ormolu.

You can see on the side here, it's got a ram's head.

If we turn it around to the, uh, to the back, the movement is actually not the type that you would expect to see on a mid-18th-century clock.

It's more like a 19th-century movement.

Yes.

That would date from post-1850.

It has lion's head pulls... And a, a terrific dial with the porcelain numbers.

This is a clock that originally would have had garnitures-- candelabra that, that went with it.

Oh, yes.

And because it's a later copy-- it's a 19th-century example of an 18th-century clock-- it would be worth less than the original uh, version.

Sure.

So this is a clock, because it's such high quality and the size is wonderful, in a retail store, you'd expect to pay $7,000 to $10,000 for it.

Oh, wow.

Now, it's a clock that, in a fancy gallery, if they regilded it and made it all bright and shiny, I've seen clocks like this priced at $20,000 or more.

Oh, wow.

But it would cost several thousand dollars to have it regilded, so I, I wouldn't touch it.

The patina is wonderful.

It's a terrific clock.

Oh, yes.

So thank you for bringing it in.

Thank you for telling me what it is, finally.

(chuckles) WOMAN: Well, these boxes were purchased by my father back, probably, in the early '40s, because he had a plan to build a dolls' house.

Okay, and he was going to build it for you.

Yes, he was.

Okay.

And he bought all of the furniture so that he could build the dolls' house.

Okay.

He was a busy young lawyer.

He did not get the dolls' house built.

He did let me play with...

Some of the furniture.

With the furniture in my dolls' houses, as long as I was very careful and didn't lose anything.

Well, the result of th... him not building it, really, is that it was kept in such fine condition and we have all the original boxes.

We have basically the full contents of a house.

We have the living room, the kitchen, the dining room, bedrooms, everything.

And Tootsietoy was a company in Chicago.

Dowst was the, the company, and Tootsietoy was their trade name.

And Tootsietoy specialized in small, little playthings like toy cars, planes, little trains, things like that.

But they also made a line for girls.

And they would make these dollhouse furnishings for their own houses as well as what your father planned to do with them.

They really started making their vehicles in the teens and '20s.

Uh-huh.

This set comes around in the 1930s, and the style of the furniture and of all the furnishings are very 1930s.

And what's interesting about Dowst and Tootsietoy was they were able to find an economic way to mass-produce furniture.

We have an original price tag.

That entire set was $1.25.

Now, maybe the smaller sets were a little bit cheaper.

And they were made out of cast metal.

It's die-cast, very easy to cast, and you could get a lot of detail.

If you look at the upholstered furniture, they used like a flocked surface.

Mm-hmm.

so it looks soft, but it's really still a die-cast piece of furniture.

And then, when you go into the kitchen, it's just so detailed.

They have a Monitor Top refrigerator.

They have the type of stove they would have used in the day, a Hoosier-type-looking cupboard.

Just everything that would be in that period of house.

We always talk about boxes and condition.

And you obviously have both here.

Each set is conservatively valued at about, I'd say, $200 to $300.

But when you really put it all together, that starts to add up.

There's eight sets here.

I would say that an auction estimate would be $2,500 to $3,000 for everything, because you have all eight of these.

Oh, my.

(laughs) I'm thrilled.

I don't think my father would be able to believe it.

WOMAN: It was my grandmother's.

Her family is from Atlanta.

This was late 1800s.

And she married my grandfather, they moved to New Jersey, and I know that my father inherited it from her and then when he married my mother, it was hers, and then when she passed away in 1988, I inherited it.

All we know is it's probably late 1800s, so... And you've owned it since 1988.

Right.

And you had it appraised.

Right, and at that time, for $10,000, was what they told us when I inherited it.

And since then, when did you wear it?

I've worn it for my wedding, and other than that, it lives in the safe deposit box.

(chuckles) You've only worn it once?

(laughing): Yes, unfortunately.

My sister's worn it, too.

Your sister wore it?

Yeah.

For her wedding.

Yeah.

You know, with $10,000, I'm sure you assume, and correctly so, these are diamonds.

Right, yes.

We do.

And the pearls are small, natural Oriental pearls.

The metal is platinum.

Oh, really?

Okay.

The inside of the box has embossing in the center of it, and the company name is Phelps & Perry of Maiden Lane in New York.

Maiden Lane still exists, and it's in the Wall Street stock market area.

And this is an area that's always been populated with jewelers servicing the stock market industry, where men made and lost fortunes.

Yes.

So that's where he went to buy this, and maybe he was doing some stock market trading, because even at the time this was purchased, it was a fairly substantial purchase.

Right.

This is what we would call Edwardian...

Okay.

...around 1905, certainly before the first war.

The very earliest days of platinum.

In a piece like this, we have two main stones, the large diamonds.

And that determines a lot of the value.

The center diamond here surrounded by platinum, filigree, and smaller diamonds, and the secondary diamond at the center of the top section that splits off with another very large stone.

We did calibrations and estimates of the size of the stones.

The pendant bottom diamond center is five carats or more.

Oh, wow-- okay.

And the top diamond is close to two carats.

So there's seven carats of diamonds.

But this five-carat diamond is what a lot of the value revolves around.

Okay.

It's authentic, and in its original condition and in its original box.

Right.

And that's also something that we look for and it's very rare to see.

There aren't a lot of diamonds in old pieces like this that haven't been popped out and recut and made into an engagement ring for someone in the family.

Right, right.

The value is quite impressive because of what's happened to the diamond market just in this past year.

Ah.

And I've consulted with my colleagues.

We feel that the value of the piece in its entirety, because of the white color of the large center stone and the quality of it, at retail, this piece should bring $250,000... (laughing): Wow.

Wow.

...in the marketplace.

Okay, wow.

And that's a conservative estimate...

Okay.

because of the volatility of the diamond market.

Of the... Oh, boy.

(chuckles) Thank you very much.

(laughs) Yes.

That's amazing.

It is amazing.

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

My mandolin, which I call a Portuguese half-round, was-- it was called a "tater bug mandolin" by the wonderful, wonderful, wonderful people at Musical Instruments.

They could not have been better.

But I'm not going to call it that.

We brought some glass rabbits for candy.

Sorry, Mom, I think I broke it while I was here.

It was worth $100, now it's $15.

(both laughing) Brought my great-grandfather's moustache cup.

It's over 125 years old.

The disappointment was, it's only worth about $75.

but he had a moustache that grew out both sides and I may grow mine that way.

I bought this at an antique shop and found out it wasn't an antique.

It's only about ten, 15 years old.

And we have fireplace grate holders that are Americana folk art, and they're from the 1870s, and they're worth about $1,200.

And I brought this teddy bear with me, and it's worth $125.

Pardon me, boys Is this the Chattanooga Roadshow?

We stood in line And her stuff was worth more than mine.

(vocalizes) PEA: Thanks for watching.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."