Tulsa, OK, Hour 3

Antiques Roadshow is visiting Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Let me just say straight from the top, that if you ask any of my friends or colleagues here on the Roadshow, they're going to tell you that I'm full of baloney.

Hey, that's something.

I never realized that.

This is catnip in the trade.

Wow, my husband's going to freak out.

Is he?

Good!

See Tulsa's treasures revealed, right now.

Welcome to Antiques Roadshow.

Hi, I'm Mark Walberg, this week in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In 1950, the first "Yield" traffic sign was tested in Tulsa.

But which Roadshow fans got the green light to be taped for this episode?

Let's find out and see what treasures made our experts stop for a closer look.

MAN: This is a print from my mother's side of the family.

My great uncle was a butcher, and he and his wife owned a deli in Madison, Wisconsin.

And so this hung in their butcher shop or deli for years upon years.

I don't know much about it, other than it's a lithoprint from the '30s.

It's certainly appropriate for a butcher shop.

Let me just say straight from the top, that if you ask any of my friends or colleagues here on the Roadshow, they're going to tell you that I'm full of baloney.

So this poster does have a specific resonance for me.

So I'm very happy to see it.

In fact, it's not really a poster though, is it?

No, I don't think it is.

It's what we call a die cut.

You can't see it because you have it so nicely framed, but the piece is on cardboard that has been cut out in the shape of the image, and it would have been standing up as a point of purchase in the store.

And it really is a fascinating piece of American cultural and culinary history.

Oscar Meyer as a company is one of those firms that really is part of the American collective consciousness.

I think the company is most famous for three things, you know what those are?

I'll let you share with me what those are.

I think it's the Wienermobile, I think it's the song, "I Wish I Were an Oscar Meyer Wiener"... Of course.

And I think it's a song, "My Baloney Has a First Name" Mm-hmm.

"It's O-S-C-A-R." Yes.

You know that song.

Exactly.

It is a lithograph, and it's done in this really extraordinary art deco stylization.

At least the typography and the background is very art deco, and the image itself is as succulent and tasty as one could possibly want.

This is from 1931.

Mm-hmm.

That pre-dates the Wienermobile, which was unleashed on the roads of America in 1936.

Okay.

The company itself goes back to around 1900-- actually a little bit earlier than 1900.

Most of these things were done anonymously by advertising agencies.

Even without knowing the artist, it's still a very, very desirable piece.

I consulted with some of my colleagues, both at the collectibles table and people who are very familiar with this kind of advertising, and I asked them what they thought it was worth.

The people at the collectibles table thought a die cut advertisement like this at auction might fetch between $400 and $600.

Okay.

And I thought, "Wow, that's very interesting," because I see an image like this and it really is a wonderful food image.

Okay.

I think at a well-publicized auction, this could fetch between $2,000 and $3,000, and I think it's just a very interesting way to look at how the antique market is sort of very segmented and certain people in one field might not pay as much as somebody just looking to decorate either a new butcher shop or their dining room.

Mm-hmm.

MAN: It's called a pipe tomahawk.

Bought it at an estate sale at Colgate, Oklahoma.

Did you throw down a lot of money for it?

No, paid $33 for it.

I see.

And what did they tell you about it?

They didn't know anything either.

Well... (laughs) What this is, it's a pipe tomahawk And it's kind of a dual symbol.

The tomahawk's a sign of war, and the pipe is a sign of peace.

And it works as a pipe.

I think as a tomahawk, the handle is a little weak to use as a tomahawk, but the Plains Indians and tribes all throughout the southern U.S. carried these as signs of authority.

The stem on it or the haft, is ash, and it's been decorated with brass tacks, and these are old tacks.

If you look right here, you see that the shank on the tack is brass also.

It's not steel, so it's an early tack.

Beautiful piece.

It dates around 1870, 1875, and they go for between $8,000 and $12,000 in an auction situation.

So pretty good 33 bucks, I guess.

Wasn't a bad investment.

No.

(laughs) WOMAN: I got it at a local auction out of Wagner.

What did you pay for it?

I paid $50.

What attracted you to buy this thing?

Well, I was wanting to start doing my kitchen in primitives, and it looked like a good piece to sit in the corner, and when I took it home and cleaned it up, it looked a little more impressive.

And once you got it home and cleaned it up, what did you discover then?

That it had some writing on it and had been signed.

It just really attracted me.

It says, "Made by J.B. Skinner, Sterrett, Alabama."

Have you done any research at all about this particular potter?

I tried when I first got it, but couldn't find really anything about it at all.

Well, it is a great example of a piece of regional stoneware from, in this case, Alabama.

Stoneware collectors are a really interesting bunch of people.

This piece of stoneware to somebody from my state, from Ohio, wouldn't mean a thing.

They wouldn't care what was written on here by and large because it's not a piece of Ohio stoneware.

The Southern stoneware collectors are very rabid about their own stoneware.

This is an example of a piece of stoneware that would get an Alabama collector really going pretty strong.

Sterrett is a little town in what's the tail end of the Appalachian Mountains east of present day Birmingham, Alabama.

And it was known for producing stoneware.

There was no one that I can find yet by the name of J.B. Skinner.

It's very unusual to see this incised decoration.

This kind of decoration is called sgraffito incising in the trade.

How old do you think it is?

This particular shape is not a particularly early shape.

It's probably from the third quarter to maybe last quarter of the 19th century.

So, 1870, 1885, something like that would be my best guess.

I would think that your $50 investment would pay off to you, in an auction, where there were other examples of Southern stoneware, I would think that this might bring at least $2,500 to $3,500.

Awesome.

Maybe more if two Sterrett stoneware collectors really tied up into it.

It's a really great piece of stoneware because it's signed.

If it wasn't signed, it would be worth a few hundred dollars.

Yeah.

Okay, that's neat.

Yeah.

I'm real happy.

MAN: Well, it's a cane.

It's got a telescope and a pistol in it, so it's got three basic parts to it.

Now, how did you acquire it?

My father got it.

In 1943, he was stationed in Bishop's Stortford, England, and they had set up a hospital there, just a tent hospital, and he was working in the hospital and they had fenced off a large area and the area had mushrooms growing in there that the locals had gathered for some years.

And he was asked by a local girl to gather some mushrooms for him.

She threw a basket over the fence and he gathered mushrooms, and as I understand it, this happened several times and pretty soon he got invited to go to dinner one night.

Her father became fond of my father and gave him this cane.

Wow.

Wanted him to have it.

So it was basically a gift.

It was a gift.

It is a pretty unique cane.

The top end here has a single shot flintlock gun, basically.

And it's got this quick release mechanism so that if you were in a bind, you could pull it off very quickly and fire.

The mechanism is such that it has a folding trigger which folds down when you cock it.

It also has its maker signed on the barrel, and it says, "Inventor", which is very interesting, because clearly this was meant to project the fact that this was a unique object, a unique invention, it was taking a step forward.

The tip comes off, and that would hold patches and flints and extra material for the gun.

The center section comes apart and we have a nice two-draw, one two-draw spyglass.

These kinds of walking sticks or canes are affectionately referred to as gadget canes, because it's a gadget.

I mean, it's a compendium of devices; it's not just one device.

What's interesting about this too is the wrap on the outside is a material called baleen.

We can date it because this cane was given as a gift from a William van der Kleft to a Samuel Platt.

Yes, sir.

And it's dated 1826, so that puts it in context.

It was most likely new when it was given as a gift.

The maker certainly of the gun is the Mr. Kleft, whether or not he was involved in the overall production of the cane is unclear.

What's also interesting is the lower section comes apart, and we have here another bit that looks like it's missing something, and it's unclear at this stage exactly what that did, but clearly because it came apart, it had another function.

So we have a gadget cane that had not one, not two, but actually three different functions together with a storage compartment on the top.

As far as gadget canes go, it's got all the pieces that you want to see.

There are some condition issues, Yes, sir.

But they're not so bad.

There are some issues with the baleen, some minor insect damage, that's really minor.

Actually people like to see that because it gives more assurance of the age.

Some wear to the leather, and some of the fittings need to be tightened up a bit.

I would say at auction, we're probably talking, you know, $3,000 to $5,000, with I would say good potential because the market for this is quite strong, and once the collectors kind of get involved, they might really go fighting over it.

It's a great piece and I'm excited to see it.

Great.

WOMAN: Well, my great-grandfather was a surgeon in Kansas City, and this was his lamp.

Well, it is a Tiffany Studios lamp.

Moorish pattern, probably dates from about 1910 or so, I'm not exactly sure.

You brought us a photograph showing the lamp in the original interior of the house.

Yes.

Which is really great to see.

Good.

What's nice about this particular example is that it has all its parts.

I've never seen a lamp where all the prisms are there.

They're reinforced in such a way that they don't fall off.

Whereas the other prisms I've seen are usually hooked very flimsily on a little S-hook, and that explains why they're all gone.

But that makes this pretty valuable.

This particular lamp in the market today in a retail venue, could sell anywhere from $25,000 to $35,000.

Great.

That's wonderful.

WOMAN: This painting was my great-grandfather's.

And this is actually his ship.

He's Marcus L. Urann, it's on the flag.

And he passed it down through the family, and actually, Marcus L. Urann is the founder of Ocean Spray Cranberries.

I know he was a lawyer, and kind of a prominent man, so I do know that it moved cargo sometimes.

It was en route from Naples to the Northeast and it hit a storm and it was destroyed.

I did find that 1917 New York Times article.

The ship was a cargo ship, a schooner, and it was carrying lumber actually, from, I guess, Naples, Florida, to New York, and it hit a series of storms and most of the crew was lost at sea.

The New York Times article said three people survived and gave a detailed account.

It's a fascinating ship and it's a fascinating artist.

The artist is Solon Badger.

He was born and raised in Massachusetts.

He was born in 1873, died in 1919.

And most of his paintings were ship portraits.

And this painting is inscribed on the reverse, "Charlestown, Mass", which is where he had his studio.

And what's really fascinating about this painting and sets this painting apart from many of the paintings that Badger painted is that it is a five-master, each with flags.

The minute you have an American flag in a painting, whether it's a ship or a city scene, they become more desirable.

The painting is oil on canvas and the rigging is generally done in pencil.

What's interesting about this painting is the condition.

Untouched, obviously it has some small dings, but I'd rather see it in original condition like this than restored.

Oh, really?

Because the pigments that the artist used in the sails and in the rigging are so soft, that if it were cleaned, all of that could have been cleaned right off.

Wow.

This is catnip in the trade.

Oh.

It creates an energy when you have a painting that is in untouched condition like this, and has a perfect provenance.

The market for Badger's work has been a little erratic in the past couple of years in this recessionary period.

In 2008, there was auction sale where another five-master came up for sale and made about $25,000.

That's the auction market.

I would insure this for closer to $35,000.

$35,000?

Yes.

Oh, my goodness!

Yeah.

I don't think I realized how special it was until now.

MAN: When I was living in Connecticut I was teaching ice skating, and one of my student's dad... we became real good friends and found out he was a treasure hunter and he'd gotten a map from the archives of England.

And it's a... from what I understand, it's a map that's for shipping lanes, and he wanted to see where he could find some buried treasure.

The history doesn't really have anything to do with buried treasure, but it's a fascinating history.

This map was issued, and as it says down here, in 1775.

And, of course, crucial date for the American Revolution, the beginning of the American Revolution.

But for the history of this, you have to go back further, because this map had its roots in the French and Indian War.

Oh, wow.

Because in 1763, at the end of the French-Indian War, the British essentially took over almost all of North America, at least east of the Mississippi.

Right.

So the British wanted to find out exactly what they had, and they did a whole series of surveys that were done in the middle of the 18th century.

I'll be darned.

These surveys were sent to England where a man named Thomas Jefferys, who is the geographer to the British king, decided he would put together an atlas with all these maps.

Ah.

It came out in 1775, one of the great, great American atlases that included wonderful maps like this one, from all the way up in Canada, up to St. Lawrence and on down to the tip of Florida, which is what we have down here.

Okay.

And each of these maps was based on the latest and greatest surveys.

Oh wow.

Now, Florida at that time, of course, there was really no settlement inland, but Florida was very important for the sea lanes.

And as you can see, if you go along the coast, you not only have compass bearings, but you have all the depths and things like that.

And you have things like shoals up here to avoid.

And this was crucial information for traders who would go down to the Bahamas, which are shown down here, and further down to the West Indies to the south.

So this is one of the maps in that great atlas.

They're quite rare because 1775 is a long time ago, they're very important for American history, and, of course, it came out right at the beginning of the war.

So these are really the maps that the British forces and the American forces used during the war when they were trying to plot where they would sail or where they would march their armies.

They used the maps from this atlas.

There was actually another sheet that showed West Florida, which would be the Gulf Coast, but this is a little bit more the desirable maps.

Now, what would you think a map like this might be worth?

Well, I was thinking maybe about a hundred.

(laughs) It's worth more than that.

Now, it's not in great shape.

You can see in here you have some foxing, some stains, and things like that.

Uh-huh.

And that's a real problem, but it can be fixed up.

This map, in this condition, in a shop, would probably sell for around $2,200 to $2,300.

Really?

Wow.

Yeah, so a fair bit.

Now, if you fixed it up, it would probably cost you about $500, $600.

You could add that value on, so really you have a map in perfect shape that has a retail value about $2,800.

Wow, isn't that something?

So it is not a treasure map, but it is a treasure from American history.

Ain't that something, I never realized that.

Thank you very much.

All this time I thought it was for sunken treasure.

(laughs) WOMAN: It's a 1936 Olympic torch.

It was carried from Athens to Berlin, and this is the torch that was carried through Hungary.

My late husband got it from the family of the person who carried it.

He got it in probably Budapest.

It was in a kitchen cupboard.

That's a beautiful thing.

It really has that art deco look, and, of course, from one of the most infamous Olympic Games...

Yes.

the Nazi games of 1936 in Berlin.

Adolf Hitler wanted to show the superiority of the Aryan race.

Yes.

And Jesse Owens had something to say about that.

He won four gold medals, of course-- the 100 meter, the 200 meter, the 4x100-meter relay and the long jump, and just became an American hero instantly.

So it's a very legendary Olympic Games.

This is a wonderful piece.

It's polished stainless steel.

This is the holder.

Oh, okay.

The actual torch, which is really cool, is in here too.

And this is what's left.

Generally, when you do see these, you don't see this piece with it.

And the incendiary device would have been right up here.

Okay.

And it was attached to this wooden block here.

Over 3,000 people actually carried torches during this relay.

Oh, really?

And it's the first time that they did this relay from Olympia, Greece, to Berlin.

It was the first time that they carried it in the modern-day Olympic games.

Oh.

So that's pretty cool.

Now, it was made by Krupp.

And Krupp basically armed Nazi Germany.

Oh, really?

They were an armament company and they still do exist, and these were stainless steel that they created for this event.

And they're just beautiful things, and very collectable.

Everybody who carried a torch got one.

Oh, really?

So, yeah, it was a wonderful souvenir, but remember, this is before the war.

And in war-torn countries, these things would be melted down.

Stainless steel, steel was needed, so they're quite scarce today.

And not too many turn up.

In the last ten years, I know of maybe a dozen that have turned up.

Oh, my.

And this one is in beautiful condition.

I would estimate it somewhere in the $3,000 to $5,000 range.

Really?

Absolutely.

And it's just one of those classic pieces of sports memorabilia from one of the most interesting times.

Wow.

It's wonderful.

I know, it's a pretty piece, but it's just been sitting on my dresser.

I have a hat sitting on it.

You have a hat sitting... (laughs) It makes a nice hat stand.

When is an electric iron more than just a heat-producing appliance?

When its design makes it hot enough to be on display at the Philbrook Museum of Art.

This is a 1946 Silver Streak iron made of Pyrex glass and chrome-cast iron by Corning Glass and Saunders Machine and Tool Corporation.

It came in colors such as red, blue, and this gorgeous green.

At auction in 2011, one like this brought almost $1,000.

Not bad for something meant to tackle such a tedious chore as ironing.

More everyday household objects that were transformed into functional art by 20th-century industrial designers are out of storage and in the spotlight.

So, Eric, let's start with this fascinating piece, I think it's a punch bowl, tell me more.

It is a punch bowl, and it was designed by Russell Wright in 1935.

It kind of looks like the sun and the planets revolving around it.

Right, and it also looks like Saturn with its ring, and it turns it into a very functional thing because these punch cups are on this ring, and you can actually pick this up and serve it.

And the use of the aluminum with a more traditional kind of walnut makes it a particularly exciting piece.

Were a lot of these made?

I think a number of them were made, but the problem is that since it was a functional item and it was used, many of them got damaged and discarded, so the number that have survived can be limited.

One recently in not very good condition, at auction, brought $2,000, but they have brought as much as $40,000.

Let's move to the next piece here, this radio.

Tell me about this.

This is a radio designed by Norman Bel Geddes, who was a leading American designer of the '30s, and it was made out of plastic, a plastic called Catalin, which is a successor to Bakelite, and these came in a range of colors.

They could come in solid colors and in these wonderful multi-colors.

There is a range.

They can be $600 or $800.

Some at auction have brought as much as $5,000 and $6,000.

Is color what drives that?

Is that a big factor?

Basically color and condition, again.

So what we're looking for, the multi-color radios, are probably more valuable than the solid?

Exactly, exactly.

And finally we'll move over to this teapot, I'm guessing.

Mm-hmm.

And tell me about this.

It's a wonderful teapot.

It was designed by Paul Schreckengost, and it's made out of porcelain.

And this is a particularly nice one because it has these chrome details.

I would imagine if you had a teapot similar to this without the chrome, it wouldn't be as valuable.

Exactly, exactly.

It's always interesting to see the clash and marriage of different materials.

Right, I mean, porcelain is a traditional material, it was done in the 17th, 18th century, and here is the 20th-century incarnation of the use of porcelain.

And this is a teapot, and yet the way it's designed it looked like if it needed to be at Mach one, it would be okay aerodynamically.

Exactly, it has that streamlined design that's just wonderful, it has a simplified form that makes it particularly attractive.

And the value?

It depends on which model it is.

One with the chrome has brought as much as $40,000, and one at auction without the chrome brought $14,000 a couple of years ago.

Well, these are fascinating works of art and what I'm really excited about is these are just starting to emerge as the new antique, I guess, and we can still find them.

That's right, it's a great collecting field and it's attracted a new generation of young collectors.

I may be one of them, I don't know if I'm so young, but I'm young as far as how long I've been collecting.

Thank you, Eric.

You're welcome.

WOMAN: I brought in a letter that I wrote to J.D.

Salinger that he initialed.

He wrote a little bit on the bottom, a little note saying that he doesn't respond to letters or give autographs, and he kind of did both on mine.

I wrote this in '93, and beginning in '92, I started collecting autographs.

My parents had a friend who was an autograph dealer, and he kind of told me who to write to.

I wrote to several thousand people, I have about a thousand signatures now, and I entered them in a county fair as part of a 4H project.

Did you win?

I got a big purple ribbon, yes.

Oh wow, congratulations.

Thank you.

You've got a nice collection and this is really a star in your collection.

I was just so intrigued that an 11-year-old girl would write J.D.

Salinger.

Had you read Catcher in the Rye at that point?

I hadn't, I had no idea who he was and my mom actually wrote underneath it in pencil "J.D.

Salinger," so when I was older I could know what the "JDS" initials were.

So you wrote to him, you didn't know who he was, you didn't expect to get a response, is that correct?

Right.

I was told that he was the hardest to get out of any celebrities, and so it was kind of a joke that I wrote to him and was expecting absolutely nothing in return.

Well, I love this letter, you tell him that you are collecting autographs for your 4H project, you're 11 years old, I think you must've sent a photograph with it.

What was the photograph of?

It was just me with my pet llama, his name was Lance.

You're really tugging at the heart strings, trying to get this guy to write you back.

He certainly was notoriously reclusive.

He did not correspond with very many people at all, and consequently his letters and his autograph are rare.

But you did it, you sent a letter, you defied the odds.

And so Salinger's response here at the bottom is, "I don't sign autographs, Amber, "and, if I can help it, I don't answer mail.

Lance, I imagine, feels much the same way about it."

So he writes you this sort of funny, snarky response.

And then because he says he doesn't sign autographs, he, of course, wrote himself into a box and couldn't sign his full name, but he did actually initial, "JDS", and then your mother added this little note so that you would know.

In today's market-- again, as I say, he is very rare, he is very collectable-- and even though this is a very short note, with initials only, it's still quite a collectable piece.

At auction, I would put a value of $1,500 to $2,000 on this piece.

So not bad.

There's a second ribbon for you for your 4H project.

Wow, my husband's going to freak out.

Is he?

Good!

I thought maybe 50 bucks.

I understand and appreciate it more now than I did when I was 11.

WOMAN: Well, I don't know a lot about them, but I bought them about 25 years ago at a estate tag sale, and the lady told me they were Sequoyah Orphan's Trading Center.

That's where they were made in 1938 to 1943.

The children made them, I guess to train them, and each child signed the one that they fixed.

That's about all I know about them.

Do you recall what you paid for them when you bought them?

Well, I think they were about $65 and $75 a piece and I think we got all three for about $150.

Let's take a look at this kneeling figure here and let's look at the bottom, and it's exactly what you said.

They're signed... this particular one is signed "Clodka", would have been the student that did it, signed 1940, in Sequoyah, which is the Sequoyah school.

Cherokee Indians, about an hour and twenty minutes east of here, in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, correct?

Yes, uh-huh.

I'm going to go on to the next piece, similar scenario here.

We see again on the bottom, this one says, "Olivia," or "Oliviere," it's hard to quite make out, there's "Sequoyah, 1940 No.

8" and signed.

We also see a "$2" on it.

Would not surprise us if that was the price they charged originally.

Oh.

Okay, I'm going to go on to this third piece, this one is signed "Ada", this one's "1939, Sequoyah, No.

41".

Now the forms are somewhat interesting.

This is very utilitarian, it was obviously made for what it was, to be a vase.

This piece has prehistoric elements to it, a lot of the trade coming...

I like that one.

I think this is a fabulous piece, personally.

That's my favorite.

And this seated figure, just fascinating when you see the figural elements, and typically in pottery we'll see an increased value in figural elements.

So, there's been much discussion.

Other appraisers and I have talked on set about what these are, and they've been turning up at auction around the country anywhere over the last ten years for $5, $10, $50, and for the most part it's been undiscovered.

It's a relatively new market, and we're seeing things pick up.

Now, by 1990, you paid $65 and $75 a piece, and maybe you got a deal on them, but you way overpaid at that point in time, okay?

But things don't always stay that way.

If these were listed at auction today, now what would happen is we would expect to see a lower estimate and then let the market really carry them.

But I'll start with the one closest to me here, and my guess is it would probably sell between $300 and $500.

Now the middle one is a little larger, but a little bit more simplistic.

Yeah.

So we would say that that's about $300 to $500 as well.

It's nice and large, but it doesn't have the elements and the interest that the folded rim piece has.

The seated figure on the far side, we think, realistically it would be between a $600 and $800 piece.

Oh.

So, your $150 is certainly a good buy for what they'd see today.

And it's a market that, my guess is, will continue to get strong and continue to grow, because you just don't see much of this.

It was produced for five years; there's not going to be a lot of it out there.

So thank you for bringing them in.

Well, thank you.

Found this painting at a garage sale.

The gentleman was asking $100 for it and I ended up talking him down to about $50 for it.

Fifty bucks.

Yeah, he was a college student and needed some money.

It's an original oil painting, it's on a linen canvas, and it's unstretched.

That is to say, not only does it have no frame, of course, but it is loose without a wood stretcher, which would be serving as a support for the painting.

Uh-huh.

So when you bought it, did it look like this?

When I bought it, it was folded up.

Folded up?

In about four different sections.

Were there wrinkles in the painting that you saw?

Were there... Just creases.

There was creases in it, we rolled it up and you can still see a little bit of the creases in it, some lines.

The signature is in the bottom right.

Yes.

And my colleagues and I believe that it is the work of a Western painter called Buck McCain.

Okay.

And Buck McCain now lives in Arizona by way of New Mexico.

He was a fifth-generation cattle rancher from Southern California.

He's an artist who is well-known in contemporary Western art circles.

This is slightly enigmatic as an image.

First of all, it is really visually overpowering.

It is.

The eye really doesn't know what to look at first.

Correct.

What do you think is going on here in this painting?

It's the crucifixion of Christ, and you see the three crosses, as well as possibly Mary, located right up there, looking at Christ, and they're gambling for his garments.

McCain was largely a self-taught painter.

I mean, his background, his family background, is in cattle ranching.

Okay.

He studied briefly in Switzerland for about a year, came back to the West, and focused largely on painting Western themes-- cowboys, Indians-- and you could say as part of a larger tradition, in that sense, of artists who are working in the 20th century... in the late 20th century and into the 21st century now, doing mostly Western themes.

Uh-huh.

Now this is slightly different.

It's not Western.

It's not Western.

(laughs) Because the artist is alive, it would be interesting to find out a little bit more about the painting.

Okay.

Is it something that was used as an illustration, specifically for a book, for a story?

McCain has successfully completed many, many commissions.

Now while this was early on in his career, he would have been in his 30s.

He's still very active in the 1970s and we think that's probably dated "McCain '75."

It's atypical of the subject, which makes it a little bit difficult for we as appraisers to value.

Okay.

Now at auction today, there's a robust market for good, contemporary Western illustration art.

Okay.

This is an excellent painting, it has wonderful technique.

That it was folded in four, and hasn't retained more damage or crease wear or loss of paint is miraculous.

Right.

It's probably something that could be lightly cleaned and then put on a proper wood stretcher.

I'd recommend doing that.

Okay.

I think at auction today, we would probably value your painting by Buck McCain at $2,500 to $4,000.

Wow, that's great.

It's a really interesting painting.

At his best, at auction, McCain has sold for a little over $30,000 for similar sized canvas, but of the subject that's more typical of what he's known for, that is to say a Western subject.

Correct.

I inherited this from my aunt who had an antique shop in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

But she purchased this from a Mrs. Rosenbaum in Fort Worth, who was... apparently she purchased a lot of her furniture from there and the lady acquired it from all over.

She put it in the shop for a little while and then she decided to take it home.

And I inherited it as a result when she passed away ten years ago.

So, how long do you think it was in your family?

Oh, I think she'd probably had it about 15 years.

Did she tell you what it is before you inherited it?

She just told me it was a very, very old piece of furniture.

(laughs) I think she told me I couldn't afford it.

Well, good thing you inherited it.

(laughs) Stylistically, this would have been fashionable in England in the beginning of the 18th century.

So 1720 to 1740.

The style would be known as Queen Anne, and this is a crossbanded burl walnut cabinet.

The piece is typical of English furniture with this beautifully- shaped pediment, the mirrored doors, the choice of woods and the candle slides, which are indicative of the period.

That's what it's trying to be.

It actually is not made in the 18th century, and it's probably not made in the 19th century.

This is made to deceive.

And it was probably made in beginning of the 20th century.

So in other words, this is a fake.

It's not as old as it portends.

Uh-huh.

And the way that I know that is by looking at the physical evidence of this piece of furniture.

If it were 300 years old, you would have much more distress, and age, cracks and replaced veneers than this has.

Uh-huh.

You would also have times when somebody was trying to move it without assistance across the floor and the feet would break.

There are no repairs to the feet.

Uh-huh.

You would have indications of shrinkage in the moldings, and there's none of that.

When I looked at the back of this piece, the color varies from top to bottom, which is an indication of staining, which is a faker's trick to make something look old.

Back in the 18th century, as is true today, the old expression about time is money, that was as applicable then as it is now, and in order to expedite the production of a piece of furniture, the same materials would have been used on the upper section as they would have been used in the lower section.

So when I compare them like this, they have different thicknesses to the drawer fronts, the sides are different thicknesses, the dovetails are different, and the color is different.

What they did do, in keeping with the English tradition, was to use oak secondary.

Let's go and look at some other indications.

These are called bat wing brasses.

Lots of times bat wing brasses are from the early 18th century.

These are not original, and I can tell that because there are some extra holes here that are indicative of something else being there.

Okay.

And so, when I look at the overall appearance, it tells me this is not of the period.

So this is actually a piece that was probably made in England, in the English tradition, but it's not from the period.

If this were to come to an auction, it would be estimated at maybe $4,000 to $6,000.

Retail would be higher.

Well, it's disappointing, but I'm glad to know it.

Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but it is important that you know the true story behind it.

If this piece were actually an 18th century original, I think you'd probably be looking at something in the range of $40,000 to $60,000 for the auction estimate.

Uh-huh.

I'll take it home and enjoy it now and won't worry about damaging it.

Taking it home is the perfect thing to do with it.

This young kid had it way back in the '60s, and I don't know if he needed the money or why he wanted to sell it or just didn't play the guitar.

And at that time I thought, "Well, my dad had a violin, I'll buy a guitar and play and record with him," and that's what he wanted to do.

So you've had it since then?

Yes.

You bought it in about 1960?

Yeah, about '65, probably.

I think we paid about $85 for it.

Okay, okay.

Well, when you bought the guitar it was probably about five years old, because it's a 1960.

It's a Les Paul Junior.

This was a fairly inexpensive model at the time, but an extremely well-built model and has become really popular with players.

It's as good to play today as it was the day it was made.

And where has the guitar been all this time?

Well, I've had it in my house and then my grandson wanted to have the guitar to play in a little band.

And then I thought, well, it's a Les Paul Junior, and on Antiques Roadshow, I've seen that they're not for free, you know.

So I said, "Nicholas, "you're going to put that underneath the bed and go buy a different guitar."

So it's been at my daughter's house and I haven't... this is the first I've seen it for many years, really.

It's very well-kept.

I'd say you made a pretty good investment from... you said $85?

Yep.

$85.

Even in this market, they've gone down a bit, but I can conservatively say in a retail environment, this guitar is worth about $5,500 to $6,000.

Oh, that sounds very nice.

That's a good investment.

MAN: I acquired this rug from my mother's estate.

She died four years ago, and we purchased the rug from her estate.

It had been hanging in her house for years.

And you also mentioned that this actually belonged to your grandmother as well?

I just know that my grandfather collected rugs all his life, and my mother had about a dozen in her house.

It's a Persian Tabriz silk carpet.

It was woven in northwest Persia around 1890.

It is in generally excellent condition.

There are certain characteristics that this rug has that most silks do.

First and foremost, it has a very fine weave, and the silks from Tabriz tend to come in the copper tones with dark blue highlights.

Certain things in this rug that lead us to believe it's in excellent condition is it still has the original tassels on the fringes.

And one thing we always like to do when we're evaluating silk rugs, to get an idea of how good the condition is, is we want to check to see that the foundation of this is pliable and strong.

So the way that you would normally do that is just to put some small folds into it and see if there's a good action.

And this carpet is in excellent condition.

The foundation is very strong.

Another item that makes this carpet exceptional is the design.

Many Tabriz silk carpets come in prayer designs or center medallion designs, and currently, all-over patterns such as this one only enhance the value of this carpet.

The only problems that I really see are very minor.

The edges have been resalvaged at some point in time.

Yes, we sent it to Dallas and they cleaned it and then they put on these edges so that they wouldn't fray anymore... And that was actually a very smart move on their part, because the ends and the sides are the first things on the rugs that tend to deteriorate, and they're more prone to wear.

I had done a knot count of this, and the knot count came out to 360 knots per square inch.

It's one of the ways you value them as well.

They all tend to be finer than, say, 150 or 200 knots per square inch, but 360 is a good quality for an antique Tabriz.

So do you have any idea what value this rug would have?

No.

The estate had it appraised for estate purposes, and so we bought it from the estate for $2,000.

Okay, well there's good demand for carpets like this.

I believe this carpet right now in the market, in auction, would bring between $10,000 and $15,000.

Holy smokes.

That's a lot of money.

It certainly is.

MAN: I got them actually from my in-laws many years ago in the '70s, and I just always thought they were beautiful, and that's all I really know about them.

And were your in-laws collectors?

Predominantly book collectors.

Right.

Closest to you, you have an engraving by Lucas van Leyden.

The subject is Christ and Mary Magdalene.

And nearest to me is an etching by Rembrandt, "Christ and the Woman of Samaria by the Well."

They're separated by about 100 years.

The Lucas van Leyden, as you can see, is dated up here "1519."

You have the artist's "L" monogrammed.

The Rembrandt dates from 1658.

His signature and date are in the plate right there, just below Christ.

Now, the first thing I saw that was of interest to me when you brought these in was that you have two old master prints by very well-known artists, and the subjects are sort of similar.

You have Christ with what were considered fallen women in the Bible.

And I thought that was interesting that maybe these were purchased at the same time as some sort of pair, which is not so uncommon for collectors at that time.

They were.

They do differ in value, and I'll get to that, but let me talk a little bit about the van Leyden first.

He was a printmaker who worked in the early 1500s.

He was a contemporary of the better-known Albrecht Durer, who was a southern German printmaker.

And van Leyden's plates are somewhat more scarce.

A lot of his work comes to us from later impressions, and they're very worn, and the term is silvery-looking, silvery being that the images are just sort of grayed out and they're difficult to read.

What you have here in this engraving is a really sort of fresh impression, I would say very close to a lifetime printing for van Leyden, which is really unusual to find.

There's a lot of good contrast between the blacks in the inks and the paper, and very little wear, as I can see.

This has held up great since 1519.

Really?

The Rembrandt now, a little bit of toning going on in here, but it's also a real crisp, nice printing.

And one of the reasons how I can tell that it's an earlier printing is in the hair of the woman of Samaria here, you have what's known as burr, or where the artist would have scratched directly into the plate with a drypoint needle, and that sort of burr wears down after 50 or so printings.

So this is an earlier printing that very likely would have been made by the artist or very soon after his life by somebody else who had the plate, but not one of the much later printings that we normally see.

So you've got what I consider two nice early impressions, and that's all good in terms of the value on these.

Have you had them appraised?

Do you have any idea what you've got here?

You know, I've looked on the internet to some degree and I've ascertained that there are varying levels.

Right.

No idea.

So on the van Leyden, a replacement value would be somewhere in the neighborhood of about $4,000 to $5,000.

Okay.

And a replacement value on the Rembrandt would be in the neighborhood of about $8,000 to $10,000.

Wow.

So not bad for the pair.

No, not bad at all.

APPRAISER: What have you brought with you?

A Lalique vase.

Where did you get it?

We got it from a friend.

It was a friend who passed away, unfortunately, in 1980 or so, and she went to New York City to model and missed her family, so she came back to Minneapolis to be with her family.

And they were friends of the Kelloggs, and that was a gift to her from the Kelloggs.

The Kellogg family, okay.

Uh-huh, in Minneapolis.

Well, this is a Lalique vase.

If we tip this up here, we have a signature, "R.

Lalique."

And then we have some factory numbers here.

And this vase is known as Espalion.

It was first produced in 1927, or executed in 1927.

The blue color is very nice.

This frosting is original to the piece.

Ren\ Lalique, of course, born in 1860.

By 1900, he was one of the most celebrated jewelry makers in the world, and by the '20s, he was one of the most celebrated glass makers in the world.

Okay.

So we have a very pretty vase, a fern pattern in a nice color.

Now, my colleagues and I have looked at this, and there is some question as to whether or not the rim here has been buffed at all, cleaned down to maybe get rid of some chips or something like that That is a question.

Obviously I do not have any knowledge of that.

Yeah, okay.

This vase in blue has sold, at auction, as much as $5,000.

Really?

Okay.

However, if in fact the rim has been buffed a little bit, that would diminish the value.

In order to ascertain whether it had been buffed, I'd want to check it against the catalog raisonn\ of Lalique's work to see how heavy that lip was and... or if it's diminished.

If it has been diminished, that would diminish the value by at least half.

Uh-huh.

MAN: My dad got it in India.

He was in World War II in India, on the India-Chinese border, and he brought it back with him after the war, so it's always been at our house.

Matter of fact, it sat there by the fireplace.

We had a dairy farm, and Dad would come in and hang his hat on it after work.

(laughs) Do you know anything more about how it was discovered?

It's unusual to find something like this on the Indian border.

Of course, you hear stories, but I don't know exactly.

But he said it was sitting on a big turtle.

And his buddy in the army, he had the turtle, but he died and we lost track of where the turtle was.

I did take it to a museum in Kansas City once-- there's supposed to be a Chinese expert up there-- and he said he didn't really know what it is, but he checked around and he said he thought it might be from the 12th century and it might be a feudal lord's urn, because under this... right here under this arm, you'll feel this little hole, there.

It had ashes in it, human ashes.

Hmm...

Very interesting story.

But that's, you know, that's what he said.

I don't know.

It's very difficult to say that it actually contained human ashes.

It may have once contained scrolls or prayers.

Yeah.

The museum specialist was perhaps a couple of centuries before, at least, what I think it is.

I think it's 16th, 17th century Chinese.

And it's very interesting that you've said that it was found with a tortoise.

Yeah.

The tortoise, probably the vehicle, sat right here under his foot, and it's actually the Chinese protectorate god of the north, which was seated on a black tortoise.

There are four deities of the four Chinese directions-- north, south, east, and west-- and this is actually the protectorate deity of the north.

This is Ming military garb, the same kind of garments that a Buddhist guardian figure would wear.

There are also traces of gilding along the breastplate area, and so the statue was once gilded.

Do you have any idea of value?

No, I have no idea.

Even without the tortoise vehicle, you're looking at a piece that could bring as much as $70,000 to $100,000 at auction.

Oh, man.

My two brothers will be really tickled.

(laughs) It's a classic example of Ming bronze sculpture.

If it was complete, it would be somewhere in the vicinity of $200,000 to $300,000.

Well maybe whoever's got the turtle will call me.

(laughs) You're watching Antiques Roadshow from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Don't forget, you can watch Roadshow anytime online at pbs.org.

In a minute, we'll check in at the Feedback Booth.

Right after this.

WALBERG: And now, it's time for the Roadshow Feedback Booth.

And I brought my valuable vase, which turned out to be worth exactly what I paid for, which is $20.

But I love it.

It makes me smile.

And my Marushka print, I have a 400% return on it.

It is worth one hot dollar today, so how wonderful.

And I brought a fork, and my mother said I was stupid for bringing a fork, but actually it's from the Civil War, so take that, Mother.

♪ Thank you Roadshow, we had a real good time♪ ♪ Thank you Roadshow, our stuff ain't worth a dime♪ I bought this at a flea market.

I was told that it was old, but as it turned out, I've got shirts a lot older.

These are silver spoons my mom got in Japan in 1956 when I was a year old.

And they said they were worth about $80 to $100 if we melt them down.

They're going to my son.

And I had this picture in a closet, I took it out.

When I put it away, the glass was whole.

When I took it out, the glass was broken.

In the hotel last night, I was the only room in the hotel filled with smoke.

They don't know why.

So she's magical.

She's also worth some money, so I'm keeping her.

I had a great time.

It's just been a fabulous show.

Thank you.

I'm Mark Walberg.

Thanks for watching.

See you next time on Antiques Roadshow.

Hello sir, how are you?

Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico, and Indian Territories.

1856.