Bismarck, Hour 3 (2015)

This week, Antiques Roadshow visits Bismarck, North Dakota.

WOMAN: I got it at a secondhand store with some money I made from a yard sale.

I have been waiting at least ten years for somebody to bring a Hardanger fiddle.

Really?

Well, that's wonderful.

More discoveries from Bismarck coming right up in this exciting hour of Antiques Roadshow.

Welcome to Antiques Roadshow.

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

Because of its booming gas and oil industry, North Dakota has one of the fastest-growing populations in the nation.

A love of antiques is fueling the high-energy buzz of our crowd here today.

Let's take a look.

WOMAN: I was a student and working in New Hampshire.

I was working at a summer stock theater.

I wanted to bring a souvenir home to my mother, and I liked these mugs, and I asked how much they were, and they were ten dollars apiece.

And being a starving college student, I said, "Oh no, I can't buy them."

And he knew I was wanting them for my mother and he says, "Well, for a mom, I'll give them to you for five dollars."

This was in 1964.

Every time I visit her, we always had coffee with these mugs.

They were special.

You actually used them?

We used them, yes.

Way to go.

I watch the Antiques Ro adshow regularly, and one day, they had Newcomb pottery on there, and the design was very similar to this one, and I thought, "Gee, that looks like one of my mugs."

So I came to the Antiques Ro adshow to find out, are these really Newcomb, and do they have any value other than personal value?

Yes and yes.

They are definitely Newcomb.

What's interesting about these is that they're fairly early for Newcomb.

The school actually began an arts program where they trained people how to do pottery around 1895, and early on, you see these gloss figures that have an overglaze.

Later, you see more matte glazed pieces from Newcomb, but these are in the first few years.

A couple are dated 1901.

I think one is a little later than that.

Okay.

But what's nice about them from a collector point of view, they're early.

These are hand-made pieces.

They show some variations.

Two of them actually are pretty much the same shape, but even with that, they are different in size and configuration because they're hand-thrown.

We can show marks very clearly.

You can see the Newcomb College mark right here, "NC."

This would be the artist mark.

This is a date code, and you've deciphered the date codes.

This one I think you said was 1901, and the artist was Beverly Robertson.

So this is my favorite of the group because of the eggplants.

The others are more stylized decoration.

But in terms of value, any thoughts?

For many years, I thought they were worth maybe $25 apiece.

Okay.

Then after watching stuff on the show, I thought maybe $100 apiece.

But I have no idea actually.

In today's market, in an auction setting, they would probably sell for more like $2,000 each.

$2,000 each?!

Really?

Oh, my God.

Now, the question is, are you still gonna drink your coffee?

That was good coffee I had.

Absolutely.

Truthfully, the market for a lot of pottery is off with the economy, so maybe ten years ago, eight years ago, they might have been worth more like $3,000 apiece.

Wow.

So I think you made a pretty good investment.

Absolutely, I think so.

Five dollars to $2,000 apiece?

(laughing): Wow.

I wouldn't drink coffee in them anymore.

No, I haven't for years.

WOMAN: I think it's a cold-painted bronze from Austria.

I call it the bedouin.

I absolutely adore it.

I got it at a secondhand store in Devil's Lake, North Dakota, with some money I made from a yard sale.

And may I ask how much you paid for it?

I gleaned $50 from the yard sale.

The very day I got the money, I went in and found it.

Okay, and what would you like to know about it today?

I'd really like to know if it's a Bergman, the year it was made, and anything else you could tell me about the piece.

Okay.

So it is by Franz Bergman.

Oh, fabulous.

Fabulous.

And while it's not signed, it is... it's his work.

We're entirely confident.

I've showed it to a colleague, I've even been able to do some research and find some almost identical examples at are signed Bergman.

He was a sculptor in a foundry in Vienna, in Austria, and they made all of these lamps.

This lamp dates from about 1900.

There's a lot of really cool things about it, but one of the things I wanted to start with is that the switch is buried behind one of the trunks as part of the whole setup.

And we can actually go ahead... ...and turn it on, and it still works.

It is made of bronze, and it is cold-painted bronze, and what's very interesting is the subject matter.

You call him the bedouin, my colleagues and I said the antique seller, and as you can see here, he's sitting almost cross-legged on a stool on a wonderful carpet.

He has a tiger skin rug here, hanging.

But then what's very interesting is he's actually selling a sphinx.

And then over here, he has a water jug.

And then over here also is this wonderful Egyptian attendant in the corner.

As I said, it isn't signed, but we're still very confident that it is by Franz Bergman.

You paid $50 for it.

Yes.

How much do you think it's worth today?

I think it's worth more than $50.

I thought maybe around $4,000 or $5,000.

Okay, so similar ones do come up at auction quite often, and the market for these has sort of seen its highs and lows.

That being said, I found one which sold in February of 2014, so very recently, and it sold at auction for $7,000.

Oh, fabulous!

Fabulous!

Well, maybe the bedouin, being a nomad, could travel on.

I think an auction estimate would be $6,000 to $8,000.

Good $50 investment.

That's a great $50 investment as far as I'm concerned.

And it still works!

MAN: It's matchbook covers for stick matches that I picked up from a friend of mine, and I believe it's a salesman sampler.

A priest friend of mine had it.

He deals with antiques and stuff and had it in his house.

I asked him if he was interested in selling it and he was.

I paid $50 for it approximately ten years ago.

Yes indeed, this is a collection of salesman sample matchbox labels containing over 1,200 examples.

There's representation of many countries in here, and on the reverse of some of them, we can see that they're actually dated.

This particular cover is dated 1927, also signed, and it was made in Hong Kong.

So we do know that this album was for a company based out of Hong Kong.

They're all dated in the 1920s and the 1930s.

I believe the earliest date we found in there was 1926 and as late as 1938.

Okay.

It's a very nice early salesman sample album of some matchbox labels with excellent graphics.

The condition is outstanding on these.

They were most likely placed right into the album by the manufacturer, and they've been in the album since then.

It was for the company to show the different types of covers that they offered, and of course all different motifs.

There's lions, cats, dogs.

And we found examples in here where they were selling these to companies-- not only China and Japan, but also Sweden and Russia and many other countries.

And here in particular, I've stopped at this page, where we have just one.

This is for a company in Honolulu, a very rare example of the graphics of a Hawaiian company.

And the last one we have is a wonderful page, my favorite, the graphics, incredible graphics of the cats there.

And do you have any idea on the value?

I was offered $400 unseen, but $700, $800 is what I had originally had thought it was valued.

Well, what's great about this album is that it's highly unlikely you could ever assemble a collection like this individually.

It would take you years and years to try to assemble this many, if you could even find them.

We have over 1,200 examples in this book.

The value ranges.

On the Hawaiian one in particular, at auction, we'd expect that one to bring $50 to $75.

On some of the complete pages of the companies in China and Japan, at auction, the page of six we believe would sell for $100 to $200 for just the six on that page.

But as an album and as a collection, at auction, we would expect this to sell for $6,000 to $8,000.

That's very good.

(laughs) That's exciting.

MAN: It comes from my family.

It could go a long way back.

I had a sea captain in the family probably about four generations back or more, I wouldn't be surprised sometime after the 1700s, 1800s.

He was a clipper ship captain, and we think he brought it over, and it got into the hands of my great-uncle.

And how long have you had it?

I remember on my mother and father's floor, they had it on the floor.

It had to be 80 years ago.

We've had it a long time.

Well, it's a very nice old rug.

I would date it to about 1910.

So your parents might have gotten it when they were fairly young.

Yeah, I bet they did.

Maybe even as a wedding gift.

It's an antique Persian rug called a Fereghan Sarouk, and it's a particularly fine rug, very well woven.

It's about four-and-a-half by six-and-a-half.

They actually have a name for this size, which is called Dozar.

And one of the things that's unusual is the signature that it has in the top border.

And I had the signature translated, and it's "Order of Tavashkian," which was a wealthy Iranian family.

So it's always very nice to have a signature like that.

One of the things that's interesting about this rug is the color of the background.

You'll notice that it's a very deep rose or burgundy color.

That's actually not the original color.

When these rugs were made originally, they were a lighter sort of salmony pink color, and the taste for decorating in the early 20th century was for much deeper colors, so they actually went to the trouble of re-dying every area of this rug which was red.

Is that right?

Now, what's unusual is that that was usually done to rugs of a later vintage, like 1920s, 1930s.

It's unusual for us to see that done to a rug from close to 1900.

Have you had it on your floor since you've owned it?

No, it's been rolled up in a dark closet.

That might explain why it's in such good condition.

Usually when we see these rugs, they're quite worn.

Well, it was on my father and mother's floor, and when I got back from the war, I said, "You know, that's too nice a rug to have on the floor."

Well, I would estimate that in today's retail market, it would sell for around $6,000.

I guess that, uh, doesn't surprise me.

I think having something that beautiful should be worth quite a bit of money.

It would have been a more desirable rug had it not been re-dyed, and I would say that the value would be closer to $10,000 had that re-dying process not taken place.

WOMAN: I brought you Penelope Penguin and her baby.

APPRAISER: Penelope Penguin, what do you know about her?

All I know is that she's Fisher-Price.

We haven't been able to find anything on her.

And it was a toy of my husband's.

Penelope Penguin is a Fisher-Price toy dating to about 1935.

What's unusual about this toy is that we rarely ever see a paper on litho wood toy by Fisher-Price with a clockwork motor.

You can see on the bottom here, it has a motor that you wind up, and it enables the legs to move back and forth.

The key is on the back side here.

And she's marked "Penelope Penguin" on her back.

And her baby's named too, right here.

And her baby's name is right there.

Baby Penguin.

Baby Penguin.

Condition overall is actually surprisingly good.

Paper litho would often deteriorate over time, lift from the wood or the cardboard backing, but this appears to be in very good condition and very strong in color.

These come up very infrequently.

I've only seen a couple of them sell in recent years.

At auction, I would not be surprised to see this estimated for $2,000 to $2,500.

You're kidding.

Well, that's amazing.

She's gonna stay in the family.

WOMAN: I have a Bible printed in the Lakota language.

My grandmother got it from a friend and then gave it to my mom, and then it came down to me.

And it's really great because my family, we are Lakota, so it's really special that we can have it.

Uh-huh, your family's Lakota, do you speak any Lakota?

I do, yeah, a little bit.

A lot of it's disappearing.

I think the title's "Wotaninwaste," and I think that means "Good News."

Yeah, there are not too many speakers of the Lakota/ Dakota language.

It is a religious text, it's gospels and psalms, and we do see at the Roadshow a tremendous amount of religious books in various languages.

Most of the religious texts we see go for, like, $10, $15 or less.

But what you brought today is just absolutely fascinating because it is published in New York City by the Bible Society in an American Indian language.

And back between the 1890s, when this was published, and 1912, they published about 80 Bibles in Native American languages.

Wow.

And this one is particularly interesting here in this region because it is in the Dakota language.

It's in pristine condition.

It's published in 1890.

They refer to it as the Dakota psalm.

I noticed that too, yeah.

What do you prefer to call it?

Lakota and Dakota are actually two separate dialects.

Dakota's towards Minnesota way.

Around here, south of Bismarck, would be the Lakota.

We would probably place an insurance value of about $500.

Oh, wow.

Cool!

Well, I do know "thank you."

Pilamaya ye.

(laughing) You're welcome, anytime.

MAN: I have Palmer Murphy statues.

The Hall of Fame selected Palmer Murphy to make these back in the mid-'90s.

APPRAISER: As you said, Palmer Murphy statues.

He's been for a long time a favorite of organizations and people who seek to memorialize famous personages in artistic form.

Sculptor and illustrator both, and he's exceled at both.

Here, we have three of his Hall of Fame-commissioned busts: Musial, Mickey Mantle and of course Babe Ruth.

I think you're familiar with the collection.

Are you familiar with the ones that are missing?

Yes, Jackie Robinson and Lou Gehrig.

He was commissioned to a limited 550 pieces per athlete, per bust.

Makes these spectacularly rare.

We don't see many being sold.

You got Palmer Murphy's name etched, and the copyright date here in 1996, and this was when the Babe Ruth piece was done.

Have you had any idea of the value of these pieces?

No, none whatsoever.

None, okay.

Can I ask you how you came to acquire these pieces?

Sure.

My neighbor originally bought them, and when he was getting on in health, he sold them to me for $100 apiece.

$100 apiece.

Yes.

As a collection, with these three, you're looking at $1,500 to $1,800 at auction.

Now, a premium would be placed on the quintet if you had all five, and then you're looking at $3,500 to $4,000, okay?

Still, you made out pretty well from your purchase several years back.

Oh, yes, I did.

MAN: We brought two pieces of Harrison McIntosh pottery.

Don't know a lot about them.

We got them at an auction sale.

My wife was bidding on some stuff at an auction sale, and there was a piece of carnival glass that she was interested in, and this was included in the box.

Okay, so you got them home and did you do a search on the Internet?

What did you find?

Well, we looked and we didn't find really a lot.

We couldn't find those patterns-- some similar, but not anything exactly like that.

The thing about Harrison McIntosh is he didn't do the same thing twice.

Cool... interesting.

He was a classically trained studio potter.

He was trained by two very influential people: Glen Lukens, who was an outstanding award-winning studio potter, and also trained by Marguerite Wildenhain, who was a Bauhaus art school of Germany educated potter.

Out of those associations came a level of detail that was just remarkable.

The work that Harrison did, you'll never see something out of round-- executed to perfection almost all the time.

Let's take a look under the bottom of these two.

We have two different signatures, and I want to show those.

So let's first go to this piece over here, and we see the McIntosh script signature.

Yes.

McIntosh started his studio in about 1954.

And from '54 till about the early '60s, we saw him use this script signature.

Now I'm going to jump over to this one over here, and we're going to see a different set of marks.

We see a little impressed "HM," we see a paper label.

We bieve he switched to this impression sometime in the early '60s.

Okay.

Now, how much did you pay for that box lot?

I believe it was, like, $20 for the box, and there was this and several other things in there, including the carnival glass.

So what would you say if today, I told you at auction, it would be reasonable to expect them to be estimated between $1,000 and $1,500 each?

Each, really?

Well, that's wonderful.

MAN: I've got a powder horn that was carved by my great-grandfather when he was a prisoner of war during the Civil War in 1864, and he was at Camp Ford, Tyler, Texas.

And who did he serve with?

He was with the Chicago Mercantile Battery out of Chicago, Illinois.

They were some tough guys.

They were actually business owners from Chicago, so they call them the Mercantile Battery.

During the battles, even in Vicksburg, there were Medal of Honor winners out of the Mercantile Battery.

When did he carve this horn?

He carved it in 1864 while he was a prisoner for 13 months in Tyler, Texas.

Where did he get captured?

Mansfield, Louisiana, April 8, 1864.

What's cool is that this is towards the end of the era of the powder horn.

The classic style of the powder horn was from about 1700 to 1800.

This one is very light compared to most of them, but it makes up for it because it's beautiful.

On the bottom, we have the Union eagle with the cannon, and it's just beautifully done.

What did he carve it with?

He had a pen knife, I was told, and he colored it basically with the dirt from his fingers.

He would carve it and then run the dirt in with his fingers.

Really?

And we have his name and "Mansfield, Louisiana," which is where he was captured.

This horn is exceptional.

A Texas cow devoted his horn probably to this.

Yes, I'm sure of that, but he was marched from Mansfield, Louisiana, to Tyler, Texas, in a group of I think 21 prisoners, and it's very possible he might have found this along the way.

Because after the Battle of Mansfield, where they were there with General Banks, when they lost, they took almost two dozen of the guys from his regiment to the prison camp.

Correct.

And what do we have here?

This is an article from the Peoria Star newspaper in 1866.

When he was released from prison, a short time thereafter, he went in and showed it to the paper.

They simply wrote this article, which is the original article from 1866.

When he got home, it was a well-known horn even then.

Yes.

What I love about that is the bottom line.

It says, "Thomas would not part with it for any amount of money."

I feel exactly the same.

I would never sell it.

I will continue to pass it on down through the generations to my family.

And that's wonderful, I love to see that happen.

So what we would be looking for is an insurance value for the piece.

Yes, sir.

In today's world, horns are a little bit down from what they were at one time.

Today's value would be approximately $3,000.

All right, great.

The State Historical Society of North Dakota has a considerable collection of works by a Hunkpapa leader, Joseph No Two Horns.

The collection includes dozens of colorful drawings called pictographs that illustrate events from the artist's life.

Roadshow expert Ted Trotta was excited to see so many wonderful examples of No Two Horns' work.

Joseph No Two Horns' muse, if you will, was his days as a youthful warrior, and this is what he recollected over and over again with accuracy.

We believe that Joseph No Two Horns was born around 1852.

He lived a long life; he passed away in 1942.

He was 14 years old on his first war party.

By the time of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, he was a mature warrior, and Joseph No Two Horns went on to become a working artist recollecting that great moment in their tribal history.

WALBERG: There's a pictograph here, one of his pictographs you've chosen for us to look at.

Tell me about this piece.

TROTTA: This is the epic moment in Joseph No Two Horns' life.

He's at the battle, his horse is wounded, his favorite horse, a grey roan.

The horse falls, he falls with it.

He's carrying a horse quirt with a saw-tooth design.

This signifies that he's a member of the Kit Fox society, a warrior society, a great honor.

Also a tremendous responsibility.

If he falls or his comrade falls in battle, he takes his lance and pounds it into the ground and there's no retreat.

He fights to the death to protect himself or his comrade.

WALBERG: In this case, we see what appears to be the shield depicted in the pictograph, but this is actually a replica of the one he probably brought into battle, but created by him.

TROTTA: Created by him.

This was a shield conceived in a vision.

In this case, it depicts a thunderbird, the highest power of the avian world.

A ferocious predator would both enable and protect him as a warrior.

And then if you look closer, I see a drawing of a flower, but that has nothing to do with No Two Horns, does it?

TROTTA: It's a very pretty flower, but it has absolutely nothing to do with No Two Horns.

In the early days, in the 1860s, 1870s, a cavalry officer might have provided No Two Horns or another Plains artist with a ledger book, a lined ledger book.

In this case, maybe 20, 30 years after that moment, scraps of paper were being utilized.

WALBERG: So in the world of ledger art and pictographs like the ones we're showing today, what would be a comparable value?

They're extremely desirable, and there are a few factors that would play into this.

A good ledger drawing, aesthetically pleasing, that perhaps depicts some accoutrements, in good condition would be worth an average of, say, $2,500, $3,500.

An exceptional example could be worth quite a bit more.

In the case of Joseph No Two Horns' work, if we were to find something like this in a retail setting, I believe these would sell for $15,000 to $20,000.

This has a great deal to do with the artist, the fact that we know who depicted this great work.

It's always amazing to hear the story and the history of the pieces that we're talking about, but to be standing next to the actual pieces.

Thank you so much for sharing them with us.

Mark, thank you very much for having me.

I have a feeling you might be Norwegian.

Yes, I am, 100% and proud of it.

This instrument that you brought in is from Norway, isn't it?

Yes, it is.

What can you tell me about it?

Well, it belonged to my great-grandfather, who was born in Norway in 1840.

He emigrated to this country in 1905 when he was 65 years old.

And I believe this is called a Hardanger fiddle.

That's right.

That's about all I know about it.

I cannot tell you how thrilled I was to see this instrument when you took it out of the blanket that you brought it in in.

And I have been waiting at least ten years for somebody to bring a Hardanger fiddle.

The Hardanger fiddles were prized by the Norwegian people, and they were one of the few possessions that they brought with them.

And they're a very particular kind of instrument that's just gorgeous to look at.

So they have all the rosing around the edges, which is very typical of a certain pattern of decoration from the region of Telemark in Norway.

And Telemark is to the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle as Cremona is to the violin world.

Now, in the violin world, Cremona is where Stradivarius was from.

Oh, my.

So in the Hardanger fiddle world, Telemark, especially Bo, Telemark, which is where this instrument was made, is extremely important in the history of Hardanger fiddles.

So notice on top, we've got the lion's head, and the lion's head is really important because it was the national symbol of Norway.

Your instrument is missing some of its teeth and it's missing its tongue.

The other thing that you can notice is that there's a hole at the top of the fingerboard.

Oh, I see that.

And that's so that the under strings can go down and through the bridge.

What makes Hardanger fiddles unique in another way is that there should be four strings that go over the fingerboard, and that there are four strings then that go under the fingerboard and through the bridge.

Those strings you never play; they just ring sympathetically.

Oh.

Now, have you ever heard this instrument played?

No, I have not.

It sounds magnificent.

You really only need one of these because of the sympathetic strings.

They have a huge, huge sound.

Now, the fingerboard is inlaid with mother-of-pearl and with decorated bone.

This pattern along the edges is also inlaid mother-of-pearl.

The traditional material that was used in the instrument is bone.

There is no ivory and there's no history of ivory being used in Hardanger fiddles from this period.

Okay.

Your Hardanger fiddle is made from native Norway woods.

The top is of spruce, the back is of black alder.

The ribs are of maple.

The pegs are almost always made of apple or pear, and that's the case here as well.

Do you have a sense of when this instrument was made?

Well, I saw the label, it says 1830, and I'm wondering if that's when it was made.

If so, it was made ten years before my great-grandfather was born, so either he inherited it or bought it as a used fiddle.

Well, I looked at that label too, and I interpreted that date as being 1890, which makes a lot more sense to me.

Oh, it would.

So this is typical of the period of 1890 in Bo, Telemark.

There is a market for these instruments.

They're highly sought after.

There are Hardanger fiddle societies that exist.

You can go to college in Minnesota and learn how to play the Hardanger fiddle.

It needs a bit of work.

Yes.

You've probably noticed there is some damage to it, and there's a crack on the back as well.

As is, it has a retail value of $8,000 to $9,000.

Oh, my goodness, wow.

Well, my cousin gave it to me.

She'll probably want it back now.

(laughs) MAN: I purchased it at a charity art auction in Washington, D.C., in 1991.

I do know that it was originally donated by Coca-Cola Company to this charity in 1984.

All I know about the painting is that it's an original work by Haddon Sundblom, who painted all of the Coca-Cola Santa Claus paintings from around 1931 through 1965.

This painting supposedly was done around 1965.

Haddon Sundblom, as you point out, very well-known illustrator.

Born in 1899, died in 1976.

Family was Swedish.

They moved to Michigan, where he was born, and at a very early age ended up setting up a firm in Chicago, where he delved into the world of illustration art.

From 1931 on, he worked for Coca-Cola, and he created over 40 original paintings, including yours.

Yes.

It's interesting because we think of Santa Claus, of old St. Nick, and we think of essentially the guy we've got here.

But Sundblom took what was an earlier image of Santa Claus, one done by Thomas Nast, who was a great illustrator for Harper's Weekly, which was really depicting Santa almost like an elf, and cheered him up a little bit, gave him a little bit of weight, made his cheeks rosy, gave him a kind of a plump, grandfatherly, trustworthy look.

Your painting is an oil on canvas.

It's cut out.

Yes.

So that the outer edges of the canvas are cut all the way around, and they're laid down to this backing board, which is painted green with a white border.

The arm here has been redone.

Yes.

So that from the mid-arm upwards, it was redone.

Now, why did Coca-Cola say that was done?

Well, they indicated that because it had been used in different poses and different purposes that they had modified it.

Can I ask what did you pay for this painting?

I paid $3,100 for it in 1991.

In doing some checking, the last Sundblom painting of Santa, very similar to this, was offered at auction... and here we are in 2014, we're going back to 2004, a full decade ago.

That painting, while a little larger than yours, very similar, sold for about $50,000, a little more.

Whoa.

Yours is a little smaller, it does have a little bit of the condition issues we had talked about earlier.

We've got the repainted arm.

Nonetheless, we think today, we're talking about an auction estimate of $30,000 to $50,000.

Great.

This, by the way, cute advertisement.

Did you pick this up at the same time?

No, I picked that up many years later in an antiques shop, actually.

Very similar image.

In today's market, this cut-out advertisement is worth $150 to $200.

Very good.

WOMAN: I don't know much about them.

My brother always called them snuff boxes, but I think they're too pretty for a snuff box.

APPRAISER: They're very pretty.

And that's about all I know.

I inherited them from him.

And do you have any idea where he may have acquired these from?

I believe he bought those from somebody who needed money.

I see.

The interesting part to me was that these are enamel, and so enamel is basically glass that has been powdered and then fused to a base metal.

And these here, the two in the front, these have a type of enamel called guilloché.

When you move them, it almost looks like silk, the way light will go across silk, and that was the effect that they were trying to give with this enameling.

What it is is they engrave the surface of the piece, and then they enamel it, and because there's different levels of enamel, it creates darkness and lightness in this enameling.

Both these boxes are related.

They are snuff boxes.

I'm going to open them up here.

And both of them have the same hallmarks inside.

So there are these marks in the base of the box here, and so these indicate to me that these are Austrian.

And based on the style and the motif, I would date these snuff boxes around 1800, 1820.

They are gold.

There's also another series of marks on this particular box, which are right here, which tell me that they were imported into France at one point in time, so they also have French import marks.

And so they're both lovely, lovely examples of enameling from that time period, and they're highly collectible; people love to collect these types of items.

The other box that you have here, although this is not a snuff box, it's actually a little jewel box, and it has an enamel portrait of Napoleon.

This is a more modern piece.

Okay.

So in today's market at auction, if these were going to come up for auction, I would imagine that these would have a presale estimate of between $2,500 and $3,500 apiece.

Okay.

This piece, not quite so much.

Probably somewhere around $100 to $150, because it truly is more decorative.

WOMAN: My husband's great-grandfather was secretary to the ambassador to China.

It was in 1900.

He was there with his wife during the Boxer Rebellion under siege.

The Boxers were really brutal to the Chinese Christians in the beginning, and they actually took several in and protected them.

So as a gesture of their gratitude, they presented them with this gift of a vase.

Well, in China, they have a long history, so there's references to the past that you find in all types of things, and you find a lot of that here in this vase.

The very shape of the vase is a reference back to a second century form called a Hu, which is a bronze form.

And we can see that because these handles on the side with these fixed rings in porcelain actually on the original bronze would have been loose.

Then you also have these wonderful wisps of clouds that are rising up.

You've got this carp rising from the waves.

Yeah.

A good luck symbol.

And on the reverse, you've got dragons, and here's the flaming pearl right there.

Mmm.

And on the underside of this, we find a six-character mark, and the six-character mark says, "Da Ming Wan Li Nian Zhi," which means, "This was made in the Wanli period," which was 1572 to 1620.

So that's really unusual, so we have to judge whether or not that's true.

Mm-hmm.

And I can look at this and say that in fact, it's not true.

So that is reinforcing this look back to antiquity, which was meant to be indicative of the importance of this as a terrific gift.

So it's a very fine object, it's idiosyncratic-- that's the only time I've found a Wanli mark on a vase dating from this period, which is the Guangxu period, late 19th century, right around 1900.

It would have been a new object at the time and a really fine quality object at the time.

This is the kind of thing someone would give to somebody who saved his life.

This was valuable then.

Do you have an idea of the value?

I have no idea.

I just...

I think it's very pretty and the story is so interesting.

Well, it's worth about $5,000 to $8,000 at auction.

Wow.

Whoa, holy cow!

I love it, I love it.

The only problem, right there, you see this crack.

Oh, no, I never noticed.

That is a crack that was the result of somebody bumped it against a corner, and it goes all the way through.

It's called a star crack.

Otherwise, this would be worth in the $10,000 to $20,000 range.

MAN: My freshman year of college, 9/11 happens.

I kind of collect Time magazines, pick this up, never really thought I'd do anything with it.

When I was in college later at NDSU in Fargo, it turned out George W. Bush was traveling to Fargo immediately after the State of the Union address in 2005.

So at the time, I was taking a photography course, and I thought, "I'm gonna go to this, maybe I could get lucky and get this signed."

So I kind of faked my way up to the front.

I got past the Secret Service, I got past a lot of other people, got right up to the front of the barrier, and President Bush came around, and sure enough, he signed this for me.

It's a very emotional cover.

It's a very poignant cover right after 9/11.

George W. Bush had approximately 34 Time covers that he appeared on, but this is probably the one that is the most poignant in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Generally, signed George W. Bush covers can be anywhere between $200 and $300.

However, I've only seen one of these signed covers since 2001, and it sold in 2003 for $825.

Now fast-forward to today, I would put an insurance value of $1,500.

Wow.

MAN: About six, eight years ago, I was attending either a moving auction or a state auction at a town community center.

This was sitting on the floor leaning against the church table, and it caught my eye right away, and nobody else was paying any attention to it, so I was excited to be able to buy it.

How much did you pay for the painting?

I don't remember exactly, but I think it was around $75.

And where was that?

That was in a small town in northwest Iowa.

Well, you found a jewel of a painting.

The work is by Holger Jerichau.

Holger Jerichau was a Danish artist who lived a very, very short life.

He died at the age of 39 in 1900, and he did quite a number of pictures of the coast of Capri.

And here, you see not only the coast with some fisher folk, a little boy waving to a boat, but you also see Mt.

Vesuvius smoking in the distance.

I didn't know if that was a cloud or a volcano.

That's Mt.

Vesuvius.

Okay.

The work is an oil on canvas.

It's signed in the lower right and inscribed with title.

The painting was probably painted around 1895.

He was working in Capri late in his life.

He, considering his young age, was really quite prolific.

Numerous Capri pictures have come up on the market and have sold in the $3,000 to $7,000 range.

Really?

That's at auction.

In the private market, I would expect that if you had to replace this picture, you may have to spend $7,000, $8,000, even $9,000.

Oh, really?

That's great.

WOMAN: I brought a glass vase.

There was a nun's convent at St. Joseph's Academy.

It was closing in Winnipeg about ten years ago, and they had given the local antique dealers first dibs on the contents, and then they opened up to the public to come and purchase remaining items, so I didn't hold out much hope of finding anything, but I did pick up this glass vase because the academy had been sort of... Family members had gone to and relatives had attended, I took piano lessons there, so it was a sentimental purchase, you know, just getting a souvenir from the academy.

So I grabbed that.

I know the sticker price was $85, but I paid less than that.

Kind of a blood red color, which was odd, and so I don't know if that turned other people away from it because it's not, like, the bright blues and greens that you see in typical glass pieces.

Well, what I like about this piece is I immediately thought I knew what it was when you brought it today, and I was just like, "I know what this is.

This is gonna be easy, no big deal."

And then I started looking at it and I was like, "No, I think this is something a little bit better."

Okay.

This is a Rindskopf piece.

It's a wonderful Bohemian piece circa 1910.

And I'm very happy that you mentioned the color, because it was the color that tipped us off that it was the Rindskopf.

So you paid less than $85?

Yeah, maybe $50 or $60 Canadian.

Any idea how much it would probably be worth today?

No idea.

I would have... a couple hundred dollars maybe.

Well, at auction, I would estimate this to sell between $600 and $800.

Oh, wow, wow, nice.

WOMAN: This is a painting of my maternal grandfather.

He was born in Lithuania in 1872.

At some point in his life, he was in the Russian military, and he was stationed actually in one of the czar's palaces, and his job was to guard the bedroom door of the czarina.

First of all, this is an inscription here which does in fact confirm what you're saying.

This is "The Lifeguards of the first Artillery Brigade."

(speaking Russian) That's like a battalion.

(speaking Russian) So "bombardiers."

So the Lifeguard Brigade was a group of soldiers who were tasked with protecting the lives of the royals, so that is true, what you have learned.

Now, do you know what this says or any of this says down here?

We know what none of it says.

What was your grandfather's name?

George Kodis.

That's what this says up here, "Yuri Kodis."

And the Cyrillic is a little old here, but it's still readable.

And then it says the name of the horse, so Kohn, the horse, and... (speaking Russian) which is an area also famous for Cossack peoples.

It's possible that it's just the horse's name, but it could be also that he was part of the Cossack lifeguard regiment, because many of those lifeguard regiments were run by Cossacks.

They were seen as very loyal to the imperial family.

And also some of the things about the way he's dressed, including the hat style, also gives me that idea.

Some things to notice here: this is the imperial cipher of Nikolai II, so this would be when Nikolai II was the emperor, which was between 1896 and 1917.

I would say a conservative auction estimate on it would be about $1,000 to $2,000.

Awesome.

But it could go higher than that simply because it's really a wonderful piece, and I hope it stays in your family for a long, long time.

It will.

My son's already fascinated with it, so it's a brand new generation that will take care of it and treasure it.

WOMAN: I don't know a whole lot about it.

It was given to my grandmother from a friend of my grandmother's.

It went from my grandmother to my dad and from my dad to me.

I've had it probably 25 years.

APPRAISER: Do you know what country it's from, what period it might be?

Have you ever had it appraised?

No, nothing.

I don't know anything about it, I'm ashamed to say.

I've been dragging it around for 25 years, and I just love it.

As an appraiser, the first thing I do is I look at the overall form, and then I look at the wood.

So you have a deep, rich mahogany wood here, which is beautiful on top, so that's a good sign of age.

I'm looking for signs of age as we go along.

So the next thing I do is I look at the interior, because usually the interior on a piece tells you a lot more about it than the exterior.

So we'll pull it out.

We want to know where it's from, what it is, right?

So we know it's a mahogany desk, and look what you have in here.

I know, yeah.

Little pieces have been coming off.

You have little pieces...

But I've kept them.

Well done for keeping them.

You can see obviously, they've fallen off the front, but it's great that you have them.

It's dovetail construction, which is an 18th century means of construction.

You've got a scoring line here.

This is how the cabinet maker lines up the side drawer to the front.

It's oak secondary wood, which tells you it's probably made in England.

So it's an English desk.

Oh!

Inside the drawer, we have these cracks, and this is shrinkage over time-- again, a good sign of age.

And then what's really fun about it is the cabinet maker has actually written "left" on the back, so now you know it's your left drawer and how to put it back in.

I had no idea that was there!

Wow.

Let's get that back in.

We'll put the feet back in because you don't want to lose those.

Not now, no.

All right, so then we look to see what kind of things make it special and a little bit more value, and in this desk, what's neat about it is the door is in the shape of a tombstone, an actual tombstone that you would see.

It has the arch at the top.

Normally, they're just ctangular and kind of boring.

So you've got some good storage space in there, and you've got these wonderful butterfly hinges, and if they were polished up, they'd really pop in the room.

As you're sitting there, you could see them.

It's a little bit of a nicer piece than just your plain Jane desk.

The pulls are brass, and they are original to the piece.

There are no additional holes there, which shows me that this was the original set that was there.

The country that it's from is England.

It's a George III chest of drawers.

It's probably made about 1775, 1780.

Really?

The positive thing is it is 18th century.

The not as good thing is the market is quite depressed right now, so it's a soft market.

In today's market, given the condition-- it needs a little restoration work, which I think is worth doing because it is 18th century-- the value of this piece, at auction, would be $1,000 to $1,500.

Good, okay.

And that's a great gift.

It is.

Should I choose to insure it, is there another price for that?

You would probably insure it for $2,500.

Okay.

It belonged to my mother, who got it from her sister, and we don't know where her sister got it.

I know it's from a Norwegian artist, Heyerdahl.

I grew up in Norway, so when I was back visiting once, my mother said I was to have it if I wanted it, so I drug it here and had it reframed because the frame was old and really falling apart.

And you brought it here...?

Oh, maybe 15, 20 years ago.

And have you ever done any research on Heyerdahl?

No, I've neglected that.

Well, I can tell you a little bit about Heyerdahl.

Actually, it's Hans Olaf Heyerdahl, and he was Swedish, not Norwegian.

Oh!

He was born in 1857 in Sweden, and he died in 1913.

He went to Paris in 1878 to study with Bonnat.

At a certain period in his career, he painted landscapes in the French landscape style and certain things that were a little bit more academic.

But when he was in Paris, he really did catch on to the French impressionist palette, and French impressionism in the 1870s was already very well-established.

If we look here, we see that it is signed "Heyerdahl, 1908," and it is an oil on canvas.

That's later in his career.

So by this time, he'd sort of moved even further away from impressionism and becomes more involved in a more modern expressionist style.

And I really love this painting because of the palette and the beautiful way that he treated the figure of this beautiful girl.

It looks to be in incredibly beautiful condition; it doesn't look like it's had any restoration.

For a painting that's over 100 years old, to be in such nice condition is lovely.

I can tell you that in the auction market, another painting very similar to this, a little bit more academic, but also of a nude in profile, sold in Sweden in 2010 for almost $62Oh!0.

So based on that, I would suggest an insurance figure of about $75,000.

Oh my goodness!

Are you surprised?

Yes!

It's hanging in my dining room.

It might be time to have it insured.

Yes.

Now we'll just have to decide which of my children wants to inherit this.

Well, that's something...

I'm not getting involved there.

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

I brought this belly dancer's belt that I bought for $12 at an auction.

You can shake.

(jingling) Found out it's worth $75 to $100, but priceless that our appraiser put it on and shook it for all his colleagues to see.

(jingling) We came to the Antiques Roadshow with Grandma's silver bowl and found out it's nickel and it's worth 400 nickels.

Thanks, Antiques Roadshow!

Came with all these postcards of Marilyn Monroe, found out they're worth about $440.

And came with this picture of JFK.

Turns out he's only worth $75.

We've been doing a lot of monkeying around here, and great price on it, $125 to $150, so I'm happy.

We got $100 to $200 on this German painting, and we love the Antiques Roadshow!

In fact, we give it four thumbs up!

Mary broke her foot this morning, and we got a speeding ticket on our way here, but we found out our stuff isn't worth anything.

Quack, quack.

(laughs) I'm Mark Walberg.

Thanks for watching.

See you next time on Antiques Roadshow.

Look at that!

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