Bismarck, Hour 2 (2015)

Antiques Roadshow is on the hunt for treasures in Bismarck, North Dakota.

APPRAISER: We do have condition issues, but hey, if we make it that long, we're going to have some problems.

It's been the family joke for 20 years.

They're going to have to find something else to kid you about now.

Whoa.

Pretty unbelievable.

Surprises, revelations, disappointments, see it all, right now, on Antiques Roadshow.

Welcome to Antiques Roadshow.

Hi, I'm Mark Walberg in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Bismarck was named in 1873 in honor of Germany's Iron Chancellor Prince Baron Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck Schönhausen.

Why?

Because the Northern Pacific Railroad was looking for financing.

The gesture didn't really work, but the name stuck, and with the railroad's help, the city became a center of trade and transportation for the region.

What treasures with local history have turned up today?

Let's check it out.

MAN: My wife and I were out rummage-saling and we walked into this garage and I saw this horse leaned up against the back of the garage, and I was pretty excited so I ran over there, picked him up and looked at the price.

The price was a whole dollar, so I was really happy about that.

And she looked at me like, "Are you sure?"

Even a dollar seemed like a little too much, but I said, "We need to have it."

So how many years ago did you get this?

It's been about 15 years ago that we bought it at the rummage sale.

I know for one thing for sure, we're going to go up from a dollar.

Oh, that's good, that's good.

When you first brought it over, the first thing that hit me was the size.

I love the size.

And these sheet metal weathervanes are really highly faked and reproduced.

As a matter of fact, that's probably the easiest one to fake and reproduce.

Do you have any idea of where it was used, the farm it came from?

Not exactly.

The family said it came off their grandfather's farm, and that was about all that they said about it.

Here in North Dakota.

Well, right off the bat that makes perfect sense because we know this is found materials.

This is probably some kind of roofing, galvanized material.

You can see the galvanizing on the tail there in front of you.

Sure.

He made a horse like what was on the farm.

He didn't do some prancy little Kentucky Derby horse.

This is a work horse.

Right.

The construction is pieced, and it's reinforced with iron in several places.

And the surface is undisturbed.

I would say, just looking at it, it might have been painted white to begin with.

But nobody's ever done anything to it.

That's just a natural weathered surface.

A lot of them will have an artificial rusty surface on them and you feel along the edges of the metal, and it has sharp places on it, and this has none of those characteristics.

Got a few bullet holes.

I talked to everybody over at the folk art table.

We all agree that this is an honest piece, made in the first quarter of the 20th century probably, maybe Depression era, but probably before that.

And if something like this were to go through an auction, the pre-sale estimate on it would be $3,000 to $5,000.

Oh, that's what I like to hear.

It's been the family joke for 20 years, so.

They're going to have to find something else to kid you about now.

WOMAN: I got this when I was between ten and 12.

My uncle and his wife were stationed in Seoul.

He was a career Army officer.

APPRAISER: Okay.

WOMAN: And he was evacuated because they were having to get out of Seoul because of the war, the Korean War.

And they came back to the United States, and they came and gave this to me.

Okay, can you tell me what year that was?

It was...

I'll be telling you my age.

Okay, don't tell then.

(chuckles) It was probably about 1952.

Okay.

The China set is actually older than 1952.

The amazing thing about it is the quality, and it's a miniature set.

It's Japanese, and it's a place setting for 12.

It's amazing in terms of its bone china.

Also it's very translucent.

They probably painted some of the floral design with one-hair brushes.

Oh my.

But have you ever had anyone take a look at it?

I took it to a miniature shop in Minneapolis one time just out of curiosity.

And they looked at it and said it was too big to be dollhouse.

They could maybe give me $75 for it.

A doll collector would absolutely go crazy over something like this, especially because it's the finest quality and the presentation is very good.

If this was in a doll auction, I wouldn't be surprised if it went between $1,250 and $1,500.

Oh, my goodness.

(chuckling): Oh, that's very good.

It's absolutely superb, yeah.

Well, thank you.

So I understand you've done a little bit of research on both the artist and this painting, and I'd like you to tell me what you know about this painting.

H.J.

Ward, an artist that did magazine covers in the '30s, mostly.

This one is from Western Romantics, in the September issue, 1938.

And my understanding is that he used his wife for his model on all of his covers or most of them.

So it's hardly anything but romantic.

(laughing): I know.

Tell me how you came by it.

I bought it at an auction.

This one, I don't know, it just kind of spoke to me.

Well, I wanted to know what was it that appealed to you about it?

You know, I don't know, I think the first thing that caught my eye was actually the background.

I mean because it makes it really pop out.

(laughing): You know, I don't know after that.

I have to ask.

I have a little bit of a hard time with a man punching a woman, of course.

I was going to say, how about the subject matter?

Yes, she does have a gun, and so I reasoned that.

Although it's been a little bit harder to explain as the years have gone by.

I think it's drawn a few comments today.

It certainly has.

I mean anything from politically incorrect to luridly misogynistic, I think, really.

But this is rather what he specialized in.

It is, it is.

He was known for doing pulp magazines.

Pulp magazines, yes.

For Trojan Publications, I think.

Originally from Philadelphia, he actually worked as a cartoonist at the Philadelphia Inquirer, and then graduated to doing his own freelance work and working up in New York with the magazine business when pulp magazines were extremely popular during the Depression, back in the '30s.

And he was, I think, possibly the most sensationalist of all the pulp magazine illustrators.

And this is like a classic case of that.

It has troubling subject matter, I have to say, but very much in keeping with what he was doing.

Exactly.

This one was called... was it Western Romantic or Romantic Western?

The Romantic Westerns.

Right.

Because a lot of the magazines he did seemed to have the title "spicy."

Exactly, yeah.

So Spicy Western, Spicy Detective.

And so you paid...?

I don't exactly remember the exact amount, but it was under $100.

Have you been following the market for illustration art at all?

I just every once in a while, I go online.

I've only seen one auction a few years ago, and he had an unsigned item that was $6,000, and then he had one piece that went over $100,000.

Prints I've seen for around $300.

Right, right.

This of course is an original artwork, an oil on canvas by him.

And as you say, there was one that sold for over $100,000 for the really classic ones.

He depicted the Lone Ranger, he depicted Superman, the Green Hornet, so a lot of those classic characters.

And on the other hand he was doing all the spicy stuff, including this kind of thing.

(chuckling): Yes.

The illustration market is really red hot at the moment, great demand.

And the kitschier and more over the top these pulp covers are, the more they tend to make.

This one I think is, you know, sort of in the middle there.

But I would expect this at auction should comfortably make between $10,000 and $15,000.

Nice, nice.

WOMAN: I brought four volumes of The History of Woman Suffrage by Susan B. Anthony.

I bought them at a silent auction at one of my professional organizations.

It was a fundraiser.

The letter was in one of the books.

One of the things that of course is very interesting about the books is there's an inscription.

Now, when you bought the books, what... did you notice that they were inscribed or signed?

You know, I'm not sure if I did.

I just thought when I saw them, I thought it would be an interesting thing to own.

Did the organization have anything to do with women's history?

No, it was the Missouri Nurses' Association, and I think somebody had donated them.

And they just sold them at the silent auction.

And what did you pay for them?

I paid $200.

It's the History of Woman Suffrage is by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Matilda Gage and Susan B. Anthony.

So they were co-editors.

Now, one of the things that I noticed, too, is the bindings on them don't look to be the original, and so how did that happen?

They were in very poor condition when I bought them.

Very frayed and so I had them rebound.

I thought initially that maybe the binder reused the spines, but I'm not sure.

Was that expensive?

I think it was less than $100.

And how long ago was that?

I purchased them in the late 1980s.

So you paid about $300 total, 20, 30 years ago.

Well, first of fall, it's one of the classic sets on women's suffrage, women's rights.

And when I first looked at the signatures, I said, "Wow, it's signed by Susan B. Anthony and there was a nice inscription."

But as I looked at these signatures more closely, the handwriting was slightly different.

I see.

So this one is inscribed to a Meriwether.

Now, Meriwether was a minor author in the South who they obviously knew, but it says, "The Authors."

And it was a little tricky.

Whose handwriting is that?

Then I looked at this inscription, and I saw at the bottom saying Susan B. Anthony.

That doesn't look quite right either.

Well, what it is, is that I think this is Matilda Gage signed saying "from the authors," then you also have Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and she writes a wonderful quote in there.

She writes, "The darkest page in history is the injustice of man to women."

And that's in her handwriting, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and then Susan B. Anthony signed it.

So you have all three.

Three signatures.

The letter you found in the book is to the Meriwether family, and it's talking about Susan B. Anthony sending them a final copy, because the books came out over a period of time.

Right.

The first volume here, the one with the inscriptions, was done in 1881.

But the fourth volume was printed in 1902.

The value of this four-volume set as it is, inscribed, and quite honestly, the letter sort of goes with it because it's the same family, would be in the $2,500 to $4,500 range.

Oh, my.

And that's in the retail value.

Now, these books being rebound... and I know you said they were in terrible shape, so rebinding them wasn't a tragedy.

If, though, they had been in the original leather binding, probably they would have been more in the $8,000 to $10,000 range.

I see.

But it's still a great item, a great thing in the history.

I'm very pleased about all of this.

WOMAN: This ring came from my Great-Aunt Henrietta, and she traveled some, and she was an artsy kind of person.

She lived in Paris, France, for a while, and you know, you want to make kind of a story about the ring that maybe it came from Paris, but I don't know that for sure.

What we have here is a French Art Nouveau ring done probably around 1910 because it's made with platinum.

I know it's French because of the form.

It does seem to have a replaced shank to it.

The hoop would have been marked with the French platinum marks.

It's got a natural pearl in the middle and diamonds.

You were given an appraisal on the ring.

I had the ring appraised at a jeweler's one time, and then he thought that it might be worth about $1,500 or so.

The jeweler said that the pearl probably should be replaced because it's a little dull, that you can get a more lustrous looking pearl, but I didn't do that.

I wanted to get another opinion.

Okay.

My opinion is don't change it.

This is a natural button pearl, approximately five millimeters.

It could be replaced with a Japanese cultured pearl of about the same size.

It would be worth about $6.50.

Oh, my.

This pearl is worth about $350.

Oh, my.

Right, yeah.

Whoa.

In general, if you're going to get anything replaced on a piece of jewelry, go about it really cautiously.

And you've got to get those replaced pieces back.

We don't see too many Art Nouveau rings because they're fragile.

It's a delicate piece of work.

We would give it an auction estimate today of $2,500 to $3,500.

Oh, my, wow.

MAN: I remember my grandmother having it on a counter when I was a child.

And my assumption is that it had belonged to my grandmother's parents.

I'm not sure what it is.

Someone had mentioned to me one time they thought it might have been used to store dental instruments or medical instruments.

Okay, and brought from where?

My great-grandfather came from Croatia.

And you thought maybe he brought it with him?

He may have, but I don't know.

Okay, so we may have a Croatian dental cabinet that sat in your grandmother's house on the counter.

Yes.

Okay.

The only part of that is partly accurate is that it's a cabinet and it sat on your grandmother's cabinet... counter.

It's actually a remarkable survivor of a piece of American furniture.

Really?

And it was probably from New York or Connecticut and made around 1825, perhaps to 1850.

Somewhere in that range.

I would call it a diminutive chest of drawers because it's not quite small enough to be referred to as miniature.

There are some losses like this corner here.

The molding is missing.

And there's a piece of veneer that has come off down here and another in the back.

But nobody made an attempt to fix those or replace those veneers.

These glass knobs are most likely made in New England, perhaps in Massachusetts.

And because there are no other holes on the inside of the drawer front, it's entirely plausible that this is the original set of hardware.

And that helps to make the piece all the more interesting.

It's tulip poplar, which helps me put it into the mid-Atlantic seaboard, not Southern.

I see.

It also has never been refinished.

And that is what's really remarkable.

Unlike other collecting categories, in the world of American antiques, the ones that maintain an old or original surface like this are really truly special.

The fact that this is still in the rough or in the dirty rough is spectacular.

So you have a late federal figured maple tiger on the top, bird's eye on the front, diminutive chest of drawers.

The market for American furniture is tough these days, but because it's petite and it's untouched, if this were to go to auction, I would say it's $1,500 to $2,500.

Fantastic.

(chuckling): Now I need someone to want it.

And if it had been cleaned and skinned or heavily cleaned, which is what we refer to as a skinned surface it would be worth about $300.

I'll be darned.

MAN: My father, he was kind of a hoarder, and he had a little trunk.

He never let us kids into it.

And when he passed away, my brother and I went looking and there was odds and ends in there.

And this was in there.

I have no idea where he got it because to my knowledge, he never left North Dakota except in the '30s when he was in California in the CCC camps.

I'm not a gun man.

I don't know much about guns.

Your brother didn't want it?

No, no.

He got what he wanted out of the trunk, and I got this.

Well, it's known as a Colt Third Model Dragoon revolver.

They were manufactured from 1851 to 1861.

This gun is in the 14,000 serial range, so I would estimate that it was somewhere around the 1850s.

1850?

Somewhere in the mid-1850s.

Okay.

Say 1855.

This is one of Colt's early Hartford models.

Colt originally founded his business in Patterson, New Jersey, in 1836.

He made about 2,500 revolvers there before going out of business.

And then he moved to Hartford, where he reestablished himself with the Walker revolver.

When he went to Hartford, he partnered with Eli Whitney, Jr., the son of Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin.

When Colt first started manufacturing his firearms, his initial contracts for the revolvers were military.

But by the time the Third Model Dragoon was in production, there would be production for military and for civilian purposes.

It's a six-shot revolver.

It's black powder.

And it's a percussion revolver.

It has certain condition issues.

Like you have the crack in the grip here, and you have a screw missing.

But what I really love is there's like a piece of wood.

I noticed that, too.

That's jammed in here.

So that's called the wedge, and the wedge holds the barrel to the cylinder pin, which keeps the cylinder on.

Oh, all right.

So what's interesting about wood though is that wood will decay over a period of time.

So we're quite lucky that this piece of wood has stood the test of time and kept this revolver together.

Oh, wow.

I don't know whether or not that it adds or detracts to the value.

You could probably find a replacement wedge, but I wouldn't advise it.

I would say it's in good condition, although it has a deep brown, sort of rust patina to it.

If I had it at auction, I think I would put somewhere around $2,500 to $3,500 on it.

Wow, good.

That's good to know.

MAN: I brought a Orrefors Swedish glass vase.

I've owned it for about four years.

I purchased it at a thrift shop auction.

And I liked it so much, I bid and I won the auction.

What'd you pay for this?

I paid $100 for it.

What's the first thing you noticed about this?

Well, the interesting graphics is that there's chameleons on the side, and the colors were very attractive as well.

Well, I want you to know that this is probably the heaviest vase I have ever appraised.

Yes, yes, it is very, very thick.

First of all, it is Orrefors.

It is actually signed on the bottom, which I know that you saw.

It's signed, it's also signed by the artist down here, Edvin Öhrström.

Yes.

And then there's a little number 143E, which signifies the date when this was produced.

Oh, I didn't know what that number meant.

The design is unusual.

You don't see too many Orrefors vases with the chameleon design.

And the coloration is unusual.

It also even has some aventurine in it.

Aventurine are those little sparkles that you see, those little green sparkles, that's unusual, too.

Now, the type of vase, it's called Ariel, A-R-I-E-L. And it was developed by Öhrström and Vicke Lindstrand, who were two people who were working at Orrefors at the time, along with the master glassblower, whose name was Gustav Bergqvist.

Öhrström came there in 1936.

He's a sculptor by trade.

And they developed this in the late 1930s.

I would probably date this somewhere between 1939 and 1950.

Now, the reason why did they choose the name Ariel?

It's actually named after the air spirit in Shakespeare's The Tempest.

But it has something to do with air.

The way this was made is that there was a hot molten blob of glass, what we call a parison.

And when it was hot it would be carved and decorated, sometimes even sandblasted.

And then this clear glass layer would be put over the parison.

And air would get trapped.

Oh, hence the bubbles and the design and stuff.

Exactly, exactly.

And hence the 15-pound vase.

Yes.

I love these things.

I was very excited about it.

It was unusual to see this foot.

The other examples that I've seen, which are not...

I've only seen in books, by the way.

Sometimes they have higher collars and necks, but this one was always formed like this.

This is the original shape.

Nothing's been done to it.

I did go over it with a fine-toothed comb to make sure.

Your $100 investment, you did really well.

Ah.

You want to know how well?

How well?

I think in a retail shop, that this could sell for $35,000 to $45,000.

Thousand?

$45,000?

Yes.

(exhales) Examples like this from this time period, in this shape, in the form... (chuckles) Um... okay.

This is a very special piece.

I like it even more now.

(chuckles) I'm not shocked.

(chuckling): No.

WALBERG: There's something magical about the sound of a finely crafted guitar.

The folks at Vintage Guitar magazine, headquartered in Bismarck, introduced us to a local man with a terrific collection of Larson brothers guitars.

I collect Larson brothers guitars mainly because they got a unique tone like no other.

There's just something about this guitar that it's just got it.

WALBERG: Appraiser Richard Johnston and I were lucky to get a look at a few of these timeless beauties.

When we talk about vintage and classic guitars, we hear Gibson, we hear Martin all the time, but we rarely hear the name Larson.

Tell me about the Larson brothers.

Carl and August Larson were Swedish immigrants who started a business in Chicago in the late 1800s.

They're kind of the unsung pioneers of the American guitar because they were the first builders-- at least on any scale-- to adapt the old traditional gut string flat top guitar and beef it up and make it withstand the tension of steel strings.

The Larsons made guitars under a number of different trade names, Stahl, Maurer, Prairie State, Euphonon, Stetson, but as far as we know, they never made anything under their own name.

This is a harp guitar with six sub-bass strings.

It was made by the Larsons, but it was marketed by W.J.

Dyer and Brother out of Saint Paul, Minnesota.

The big, hollow arm and the sub-bass strings produce a very sonorous, mellow kind of tone that was perfect to offset the very treble-oriented tone of most mandolin ensembles.

Can we hear some of it?

Sure.

(playing low notes) It sure would round out the sound of all those mandolins, wouldn't it?

(chuckling): It would help.

What year do you think this was made?

This was made around 1914.

Tell me what the value of a harp guitar like this would be.

Well, the value of these has come down a little bit in recent years because there's now new harp guitars very much like this that are easier to tune and are pretty good.

But still, one like this is going to be about $5,500 retail.

We have another beautiful Larson guitar, and it's more of a traditional steel string guitar, except I don't know if I've ever seen one quite this big.

Tell me about this.

Well, the reason you haven't seen one this big is because there aren't very many this big.

It's almost 19 inches across.

It was made in the late '30s around 1940, which is close to the end of the Larson brothers' career.

It was marketed under the Prairie State trade name.

Today we call this a super jumbo.

We don't know how the Larsons described it at the time.

But it is one of the largest flat top guitars known.

Next to it is a guitar from about ten years earlier, and that's a standard size guitar of the era.

The Larsons took out a number of patents on their improvements to strengthen guitars, and this guitar has two of them, one of which you can see, which is the steel bar, which would help keep the body stable under all that string tension.

The other you can't see, which is the braces that support the top were laminated.

There was a hardwood layer sandwiched between two outer layers of spruce that made the top bracing a lot stiffer so that it would withstand all that tension.

And this one's going to cost you $22,000, $25,000 retail.

Really great to hear the story behind the Larson brothers and the unsung heroes of these steel string guitars.

Thanks so much for sharing.

You're welcome.

WOMAN: I brought in a Civil War piece that my husband got when he inherited a trunk from his great-aunt.

I believe it's a medallion of some sort, or I think it's called a tintype, I'm not sure.

I've done a little research on it, but not a lot.

What do you think the case is made of?

I have no idea.

It's a thermoplastic case, and on the front, we have the image of the Washington Monument in Richmond, Virginia.

Oh!

And when we open it up, we have the great seal of the Confederacy.

It has George Washington again, who was a Southerner from Virginia, and around the edge, it says, "Confederate States of America."

When do you think this was made?

Well, I know there's a date on it that says 1862, so I'm assuming Civil War era.

I don't know exactly when.

Well, the original of this was made in 1864, made by Joseph Wyon, who was in England.

He was contracted to make this.

The original of this, and there's only one made of silver.

Really?

It's in the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia.

Really?

In April of 1865, the Union Army came into Richmond.

Right.

That original one only survived because a clerk in the CS state department's wife thought enough to put it away and get it out of the city.

Really?

That's the only reason it survives.

Wow.

In 1872, there was a New Yorker named Samuel Black.

He made about 1,000 of these from best we can tell.

Really?

And he did them in bronze, he did them in silver, and he did them in gold.

This is the silver one.

It's an electrotype.

It's silver applied to a heavy bronze base.

Oh, okay.

And they were sold by a man named John Pickett, no relation to the general, but they were sold to raise money for the Confederate widows and orphans during the 1870s and '80s.

Okay.

And this is a very nice one.

We do have condition issues.

We have some chips, bumps and bruises, but hey, if we make it that long, we're going to have some problems.

But the case is still present because it's the silver, which is better than the bronze one.

Not as good as the gold, but it's still better.

It's probably worth, on the retail market, about $2,500.

Really?

Wow.

That's more than I thought.

Without the case, the medallion itself would be worth less than $1,000.

Oh, okay.

So the case and the presentation of it... Really.

...makes a lot of difference.

It belonged to my mother, and she purchased it probably when she was 16 or 17 years old.

And she was born June of 1917, so it's about 80 years old.

What did your mother do?

What kind of life did she have?

She lived on a ranch.

She loved to sing and play the guitar.

She got married when she was 19.

Was she a professional, like, rodeo or...?

No.

A lot of the things we see like this are actually from rodeos and from professional rodeo people, and it's nice to see a piece that's real ranchwear.

Most likely, it was made by a company but then custom fit for your mother.

She was kind of fashion-forward for her time period, because in the early '30s, women were still riding side saddle.

And if you look, this is actually a split skirt so she could ride astride.

It's cut out of leather, a very soft suede.

Cow or sheep or...?

It's most likely cow.

More likely cowhide, okay.

It has hand-cut fringe, it's in wonderful condition for the period of time, and I love that you have the gloves and you have the hat, although this hat is not the hat from the photograph.

No, it isn't.

It's a little bit later.

This outfit is early '30s, the hat is early '40s.

So what part of the country did she come from?

The northeastern part of Montana, and she lived on a cattle ranch with her parents.

So she was a real ranch girl.

Yeah, definitely a real cowgirl.

Did she love to ride?

Yes.

Well, this is a great outfit from that time, a part of our history that you don't see often.

It's considered, as well as ranchwear, sportswear, and in today's market, if you were in a fine vintage store or someone who specialized in this, you would expect to pay between $800 and $1,200 for this ensemble.

Ooh, that sounds good.

MAN: I purchased it at an auction sale, farm auction.

APPRAISER: Okay.

About ten years ago.

That's about all I can tell you.

And how much did you pay for it at the auction?

I'm thinking about $30, no more than $40.

I'm pretty cheap.

What attracted you to it?

Why did you buy it?

I just kind of liked the lines.

I'm more of an Arts and Crafts furniture kind of guy, but it just kind of had a certain appeal to me.

It's a mahogany center table, and it was used in the center of a room just for a decorative piece of furniture.

It's an Edwardian table made in the George III style.

It's an early 20th century reproduction of a late 18th century style, and it has all the neoclassical elements in it.

It is inlaid, inlaid pottery in the center.

These neoclassical swags with the bellflowers.

Then you have more of the ribbons and the swags, and then it comes out to this wonderful cross banding right here.

And then you go down to the skirt, and even the skirt is cross banded with satinwood.

And then you have string inlay in ebony up here.

Then you go down to the legs and you've got this very delicate fine string inlay, and this is very difficult to do, and it's also all the way around, it's not just the front.

And also, it has its full height.

These feet haven't lost any height.

It's got very delicate legs.

It's just a very delicate little table.

So what year would it have been made?

Probably between 1900 and 1915.

Would it have been made by a well-known manufacturer?

I don't know the manufacturer, but it is very high style and high quality, so it was made in England by a very good furniture manufacturer.

Oh, it was made in England then?

Yes, it's definitely English.

Okay.

And it's in pretty good condition.

So what do you think it's worth?

Well, since I'm on the program, I'm thinking at least over $100.

(laughing): At least over $100.

Anything more than $30, what I paid for it, would be a blessing.

At auction, it would probably be in the $800 to $1,200 range for an estimate.

That's nice to hear!

This is a piece that was given to me from my father, who received it from my grandfather.

And he received it from a lady that he repaired shoes for back in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

How long ago did your grandfather get this gift from this lady?

He opened the shoe shop that he had in 1918, and so I'm guessing it has to be somewhere, like, near the '30s, maybe.

It's such a good example of its type.

The concept of what we call a jardinière on pedestal, basically a plant stand designed to stand in the corner of a room in a bay window and have a fern in it or a big tropical plant or something, is not an unusual idea.

It starts in the Victorian age and goes through certainly until World War II.

They were still very popular.

So many of them were made, and most of the ones we see, by the way, at Antiques Roadshow have very little value.

But this is such a nice one.

First of all, it's French, probably southern French, I would think, and in a way, the best ones are French.

They made great ones, too, in England, but the French have a style about them, particularly with this organic type of design, these natural flora, that cannot be beaten, I think.

It was probably made about 1890.

It's made in a palette of glazes that we call majolica, and majolica is a brand, if you like, of ceramic art that began in England in about 1850, but by this time was made in France and elsewhere.

It's got all the right colors to make it really pop.

This rich colored ground, what we call cobalt blue ground, is what people look for.

It's very strong, it's very powerful, it's very appealing.

If this had a different palette of colors, if it didn't have the cobalt blue as the main color, let's say it was white or yellow or something pale, it would be worth a lot less.

The condition is terrific.

Your grandfather clearly looked after it.

I think if it was in the right place in the right antique shop, it could certainly carry a retail price of $3,500.

Oh, wow.

WOMAN: I believe it's an Escher print.

I found it in the alley in my backyard last summer.

I have a '50s bar in my basement, and I thought it was worth keeping even if it wasn't real.

Well, these are real.

These are wonderful examples of M.C.

Escher, or Maurits Cornelis Escher.

They are great examples of his color woodcuts.

People know Escher for these interlocking shapes, and he's really an artist that did most of his work in printmaking.

They're New Year's cards.

He created them over a period of four years for this family, Eugene and Willy Strens.

They were patrons of his.

He did many bookplates and other prints for them.

They have good color, good condition, and they represent each of the four traditional elements.

You have earth, represented by the ants, the birds, air, fire by the interlocking devilish figures, and water by the fish.

They're very scarce to get the set together, so as a group, this set of four woodcuts at auction, the price would be $3,000 to $5,000.

Oh wow, that's fantastic.

WOMAN: I bought it years ago at an antique auction, and it's a Joseff of Hollywood, and that's about all I know about it.

It's a company that is still in existence in Burbank, California.

This is called a parure.

A parure is a bracelet, necklace and earring set.

And Joseff of Hollywood, he was born in Chicago.

Oh, really?

And he lived there, he was an artist, he worked in advertising, but before the Depression or during the Depression in the late '20s, he moved out to California, and he started working in jewelry design.

And he met a fellow named Walter Plunkett, who was a costume designer for the major motion pictures.

And he was complaining to Walter Plunkett that the jewelry they were using was not proper to the era that they were portraying in the movies.

They were historically inaccurate.

And so Walter Plunkett said, "If you can do better, do it."

So Eugene Joseff designed a line of jewelry, and he was a smart man.

He didn't sell it to the movie studios, he rented it to the movie studios.

Really?

Yes.

And he did a special type of matte finish on his jewelry, so just like we have these bright lights here, it doesn't reflect the Klieg lights and the lights they used to light the sets in the movies.

That makes sense.

He also used a lot of wonderful stones.

Now, these are not real gemstones.

These are glass.

They're the color purple, which would be the color for amethyst, and they're signed "Joseff of Hollywood."

He made movie jewelry for Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, and Casablanca.

Oh, yeah?

Yes.

Now, the interesting thing was a lot of the movie stars that wore his jewelry on the sets loved it so much that they would wear it out in public.

And he went, "Huh, I have an idea," and so he made a line that sold in department stores.

And this is what you have.

This piece was probably made between 1935 and 1945, and unfortunately, in September of 1948, he was killed in a plane crash.

Oh!

But his legacy lives with us.

Now, this is an exquisite parure.

This is original, authentic, vintage Joseff of Hollywood.

This is not the pieces that they're reconstructing today.

Do you remember what you paid at auction?

No, I do not.

Well, for these three pieces here, on a retail level, I would say they would be valued at $1,500 to $2,000 for the whole set.

Oh!

Well, I'm pleased about that.

That's very nice.

WOMAN: This is a chair that I purchased in the early '70s.

I was out antiquing with a friend of mine in the White Bear Lake area of Minnesota, and we came upon a consignment antique store.

And there were two of these chairs, and they drew our attention right away.

My friend bought one and I bought one.

At the time we purchased them, we said, "You're never to sell that chair unless you talk to each other first."

This chair's been very special to me throughout the years.

It's very comfortable, I've enjoyed it, my children have enjoyed it, and I'm curious about it.

I'd like to know more about it.

I'll bet you we can help you out with that.

This chair is by Charles Eames, probably one of the most iconic American furniture designers of all times.

Especially he's iconic if you look at World War II and afterwards.

During World War II, Charles Eames worked for the military.

He made all kinds of things.

He made leg splints, he did all kinds of things with wood, bending it, moving it, kind of getting wood to do things it naturally doesn't want to do.

And when you look at this chair, you can see that influence.

He designed this chair in 1946.

This is a really early Charles Eames design.

Wow!

This is called an LCW: a lounge chair wood.

He made a DCW, which means a dining chair wood, a DCM, which is a dining chair with metal legs.

He made an LCM, a lounge chair with metal legs.

But you have the best of all of them.

So not only do you have an LCW, which is generally the most valuable, the most interesting, but you have the rarest of all of them, by far you do.

Oh!

And what's great about this chair is that you have the slunk skin finish on it, which is really rare.

A slunk is basically an unborn cow-- I don't want to get too gory-- so this is the skin of an unborn calf, and he applied them to your chair.

Now, there are a couple instances where Charles Eames furniture can be difficult.

One is replacing this sort of thing.

My advice, slunk skin is easy enough to get, but it can be very difficult to put on, and once you apply slunk skin to the chair frame, you've devalued this chair.

Okay.

Which is sort of unusual for modern, because modern tends to be very forgiving as far as fixing things or replacing things.

You have a wonderful label underneath.

Yes.

Right there is a "Herman Miller/ Charles Eames" label in silver and red.

This piece I believe was probably made in the mid-'50s, would be my guess by the label.

It's definitely a little bit later label.

This chair also helped to kind of move Charles Eames into his relationship with Herman Miller, which was a big deal, and he worked for Herman Miller for most of his career-- made thousands of great pieces of furniture-- and really changed the way America looks today.

This chair was a real pioneer in American modernism.

What did you pay for it?

Either $25 or $50.

So you paid $25 or $50 for this chair.

Today at auction, this chair is probably worth $2,500 to $3,500.

Wow!

And if the slunk skin was in better condition, it'd probably be worth $6,000, $7,000, $8,000.

Wow!

MAN: The items were passed on from my great-great-grandfather to my father to me.

They came from a ranch located in rural South Dakota, and it was where my great-great-grandfather was.

And from the Sioux land certificate, it was from, I believe, 1901.

During those times, he used to trade articles of food for clothing or ammunition for clothing.

And this is the certificate that he acquired the land with.

It is dated, "1901."

The native people in the area were the Brule Sioux.

It was not uncommon for the early settlers to be working with them and to have a relationship with them, and this is what your collection exhibits.

The first one here is what we refer to as a strike-a-light pouch, and this is the kind of object that would have been worn by a woman on her belt, and it would have contained the flint for making fires.

The second object is this pair of moccasins, fully beaded, also from the early 1900s.

But the real winner is this magnificent dress.

It is made of woolen trade cloth, and then it's covered on the top with a cape that has dentalium shells sewn onto the cape in rows that go completely around the surface of the cape.

Dentalium shells were originally trade items that were found off of the West Coast, near Vancouver Island, and they became very popular amongst Plains Indians in the late 1800s, early 1900s as sort of a substitute for beads.

And you can see how well they used them.

There's also a rhinestone brooch there, silk ribbons, here you have the woolen cloth, and then down at the bottom, additional trade items such as the red ribbon, metal sequins, little metal bells, and then the wonderful selvage edge on the bottom of the cloth.

The strike-a-light pouch would have a retail value of about $500.

The moccasins, in the range of $700 to $900.

And this dress would have a retail value of about $5,000 to $7,000.

Wow.

I'm kind of in shock.

I know my dad's smiling down right now, because he just loved to look at this stuff.

My aunt was a missionary in China for 40 years, from 1908 to 1948, and she acquired this over there somehow.

I don't know how, whether it was given to her or whether she bought it or what, I don't know.

She passed away in 1959, and we were looking through some old trunks in a storage building, and here we had stuff left.

So that's been there since 1948.

And when did you open the box?

About a month ago.

We were going to tear this whole building down, so I thought we'd better get these out of there.

The box said, "Chinese suit of armor," which I looked at it and it looks more like a ceremonial garb of some sort, but that's just my guess.

Good guess, because it is a ceremonial suit of armor.

But it's not just any ceremonial suit of armor.

When your great-aunt was in China in 1908, right around that period of time, there was a lot of change going on in China.

You had the Emperor Guangxu passed away, and a new emperor was installed who took the title of Xuantong.

We know of him as Puyi, as the last emperor, so there's a transition going on from one emperor to another.

But then shortly afterwards, there was the end of the Qing dynasty.

Oh.

And the Qing dynasty was ruled by the Manchu, the Manchu people, and that was what's called a minority tribe within China.

So we know that this was made at a time when the Qing dynasty was still in existence.

Now, the next question is, who was this made for?

Somebody of importance.

This is not your ordinary person.

So you've got a number of different emblems and symbols here that indicate, such as the dragon... Not just one dragon, you have dragons emblazoned all over these gilt metal supports on the shoulders, woven into the designs, and this body of the fabric itself is gold-wrapped silk thread.

Oh.

With these brass studs.

So this was for someone of a high rank.

And we also know a little bit more about this person because when we turn this around, we find that it came with a bow holder, so we know that this person was an archer.

And we're going to turn it around all the way, and you can again see the gilt metal mounts on the side, and right here, this is where the arrows went.

Oh, okay.

So we know that this was made as an imperial ceremonial dress.

Okay.

For very formal, important state occasions.

The fur, the feathers, which are painted with dragons, emblazoned with dragons, and this faceted crystal, which is actually glass, but is a ruby color, indicates this was an officer of the first rank.

And guess what happened after the Qing dynasty fell?

There wasn't a lot of call for having these kept, so very few of these survived.

So you have something that is in impeccable, fantastic condition that's been kept basically in a box since 19... '48.

'48.

And when we took this out of the box, we did our very best to put it together, but some of this might not be exactly right.

What do you think this is worth?

You're making me think higher, but I don't know, $500 or $1,000, maybe.

$500 or $1,000?

What if I was to say, at auction, $100,000 to $150,000?

Whoa.

Pretty unbelievable.

And I have to say, my colleagues and I, we're not even sure.

It may even be more than that.

Really?

Whoa.

I'm floored.

(chuckling) Yeah.

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

I came today to find out about my water fountain, and my husband won't let me use it because he thinks it's a urinal, and we found out it's a fountain.

I drove 18 hours with my two collotypes, which I've had for about the last 25 to 30 years.

Guess what?

The $300 worth of gas that I spent is $300 worth of gas.

They're worth absolutely nothing.

(laughing) But I had a great time.

This is my grandparents' butter bowl, and it's worth quite a bit, and so, siblings, if you want it, you gotta come and get it.

This is the whale tooth that we found out is worth a buck.

We're hoping to put it under our pillow tonight and see if the tooth fairy will give us two.

I brought this wonderful pot that is 82 years old.

It was built when I was two years old.

My mother did it at the University of North Dakota.

Way to go, Grandma.

I love it.

I brought my grandmother's watch, which wasn't worth a lot.

And I brought my family's lamp, which wasn't worth anything either.

BOTH: But... We wore this bright clothing in hopes of showing up in the background on TV.

Whoo!

Thanks, Antiques Roadshow!

I'm Mark Walberg.

Thanks for watching.

See you next time on Antiques Roadshow.

How we doing, folks?

Textiles?

Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org