"Antiques Roadshow" is visiting Billings, Montana.
What treasures will turn up in this part of the country?
Your item says "historical diamonds."
I was hoping it was filled with diamonds.
The real thing.
The real thing.
Really?
Wow.
People in Powder River County are rich and don't know it.
Wow.
Stick around for more surprises on "Antiques Roadshow."
♪ ♪ (firecrackers exploding) ♪ ♪ Welcome to "Antiques Roadshow."
Hi, I'm Mark Walberg.
Roadshow is making its first stop ever in Montana, Big Sky Country.
How high are the hopes of Roadshow fans here in Billings?
Well, the sky's the limit.
On the Roadshow, we always like things that come in interesting boxes.
Your particular item here, it's embossed on the front cover.
It says "historical diamonds."
So I was hoping it was filled with diamonds.
(chuckling): The real thing.
The real thing.
Inside the box here are examples that are made out of glass of some of the world's most famous historical diamonds that were known up till about the early 1900s.
And so we have the Koh-i-Noor, the Sancy, and the blue one here, this is the Hope Diamond, and this is the one that I was hoping was real.
(chuckling) But these are all glass examples.
Now, you are also fortunate enough to have here a letter which describes all of the stones in detail and their history.
These sets were very popular in the late 19th century, early 20th century, and in reading the documentation, the last reference is about 1905 in terms of the history of the diamonds that they're speaking of.
So I gather that this set was probably made around 1910, 1915.
Oh, okay.
Now, normally when we see these collections, they don't come with the documentation, and normally there's a stone missing, because these were made and retailed mostly for jewelers so that they would show their clients a little bit of an educational side, what some of the important diamonds were.
Also in the 19th century, some of the museums carried these as examples of stones in their collections, too, so if you went to a museum where one of these diamonds may have been, you could also buy the entire set.
Oh, really?
They were sort of novelty items, and a lot of jewelry stores had them in the 19th century.
This particular set came from a dealer out of New York City.
These were probably cut in Germany, in an area called Idar-Oberstein, which is known for gem cutting.
And with these sets, in the last ten years there's been an increase in popularity for collectors.
Can you tell me how you came about this set?
A friend of mine showed it to me 25 years ago, and when I moved back to Montana, he died, unfortunately, but it was willed to me.
It was willed to you.
I was very surprised.
And in that 25 years, I've looked for another one and I've never seen another one.
This set is complete, with documentation.
At auction, a set like this would bring somewhere between $6,000 to $12,000.
Oh, my gosh.
And because your set is in good condition, probably the higher end of that figure.
Oh, my gosh.
Thank you, Peter.
I had no idea.
It's quite a bit of money for glass.
It is.
That's amazing.
Yeah, yeah.
MAN: It's an historical book of the convening of the first territorial legislation in Montana Territory in Virginia City in 1866.
We acquired it through the estate of my wife's uncle, who was a lawyer.
And his father was a district court judge in Forsyth, Montana.
That's as far back as we can trace it.
We don't know the lineage before that.
Here in Montana, there's a legendary book called "The Vigilantes of Montana," by Dimsdale, that was serialized in 1865 and is considered not only one of the most important books ever published in then Montana Territory, but also the first book published in Montana Territory.
Mm-hmm.
And what's interesting about your volume here today, this early territorial law book, it was published and printed in Virginia City, in Montana Territory, in 1866.
That makes it one of the most early and significant books ever published in Montana Territory.
It's not very pretty to look at.
No, it isn't, it's old.
And it's, unfortunately, is falling apart and is disbound.
It still has its rear wrapper, but it's missing its front wrapper.
But other than that, it is original and intact.
It really needs to be put in the hands of a professional conservator.
It ought to have a acid-free custom clamshell box made for it.
Okay.
In spite of the condition it's in, this is a monumental work in early Montana territorial printing, not to mention it's the first laws in governing of Montana Territory, which was a pretty wild and wooly place back in the 1860s.
It was, it was.
Do you have any idea what an item like this might be worth?
None.
It's rare enough that we could find no value whatsoever.
It is an uncommon piece.
Very difficult to put a precise price on it, but I believe at retail, this item would fetch $10,000-plus.
Wow.
And on a good day, it might go for considerably more.
Wow.
Now I know what it's worth, I'm going to put it away.
Yeah, you better take good care of it on your watch.
I will, I will.
I will.
Well, I brought in a clock.
It was my grandmother's, and she passed away several years ago.
I also brought in with the clock a newspaper clipping, which I think is from a Toronto paper, and it says the clock had been ticking for "70 thousand million" times, and this newspaper clipping came from 1936.
And the clock itself, all I know about it is that on the face it says it was made in 1673 by a William Holloway in England somewhere, and that's all we know about it.
Well, what you have is called a lantern clock.
And this particular clock was made in England.
They were very popular in the 1600s, and it's really the first clock that was manufactured for a domestic purpose.
Prior to this type of clock, the lantern clock, if you owned a clock, you were probably British royalty.
Hmm.
So it was really a clock built for, not so much the commoner, but for the person that was doing pretty well in life.
This clock was made by William Holloway in 1673.
William Holloway was born in about 1632.
Very active, was born from a line of clockmakers.
He had children that were clockmakers as well.
The way that this clock originally worked was that it hung from a hook or a nail in the wall, and in the back of it, it actually has a little hook here that would be supported.
And here you'd have two metal spikes that would keep it out from the wall.
Now, when we look at the back of this, we can see that it's fitted for what's called a long pendulum.
What that allowed this clock to do was become a much more accurate timekeeper.
The predecessor to this lost about 15 minutes a day, which wasn't so important, because we weren't worried about train schedules and things of that nature.
Right.
But with the longer pendulum, you could get down the accuracy to about four or five minutes a day, which is really a big deal.
It would be a chain wind, so you... designed to run 30 hours.
This particular lantern clock was made out of brass, like most of them were.
That's the standard material for this time period.
It has suffered some conditional issues.
It's missing its alarm feature.
You can see that some of the finials are bent and missing and the bell is an older replacement.
In its present condition, do you have any idea what this clock is worth?
Well, this newspaper clipping from '36 says it was 1,500 bucks then.
That's probably not realistic.
I can tell you that today, in its present condition, it's probably worth that, $1,500.
But this is the type of thing that a lot of people who are mechanically inclined would take as a labor of love and invest $3,000 or $4,000 into restoring it.
Mmm.
The sad part about it is that it's a clock that probably would be worth that when they were done.
So the value of it today, completely restored, is about $3,500 or $4,000.
But it's truly extraordinary.
That's great.
Thanks so much.
MAN: My great-aunt was a schoolteacher for many, many years, and every summer, she and some of her friends would take a tour someplace in the world and bring back collectibles, whatever they would find.
Okay.
And she had it in her apartment.
When I'd go visit her, I would always admire it, and she asked me one day if I would like to have it, because the rest of the family thought it was junk.
(laughing): Yeah.
So that's why I have it.
Okay.
And I've always admired it.
I have been told it was made in Vienna, Austria.
You're right, it is Austrian.
It was made in Vienna.
It's made of bronze, and here's the giveaway that it was made in Vienna down here on this label that was attached.
This is likely the store that sold the piece, and then the Austrian for "Vienna."
And with a bronze piece like this, one of the things that makes us all tingly when we see it are these marks here.
That is a "B" within a stylized vase.
And so that mark tells us, actually, the individual who made the piece.
Okay.
And that person was Franz Bergman.
Oh.
So what we have is a bronze by one of the best cold-painted bronze makers of his time.
It's basically the Cadillac of Austrian cold-painted bronzes.
Really?
It's enormous... (laughs) ...and it is also a lamp.
We have it plugged in, and you can see the lighting that glows.
And Bergman, his specialty was this sort of exoticism.
And he did smaller scenes, things of sort of rug sellers under a palm tree or little oases.
In this instance, he's just pulled out all the stops and made this enormous mosque form.
It was always conceived to be a lamp.
Sometimes we call them boudoir lamps, because they give that sort of intimate glow.
I have seen another one.
Have you?
Almost identical.
As an auction estimate, I would say $15,000 to $20,000.
(chuckling): Oh... Really?
It's a good thing.
Are you sure that's...?
Yep, it's got everything going for it.
I first saw this when my folks visited friends in Spokane in about 1968.
Mm-hmm.
And I loved it.
And just kidding, I said, "If you ever want to get rid of that, you let me know."
And a couple of years later, they called my folks and said they'd like to sell it.
My folks bought it for me for Christmas.
They paid $250.
Two hundred and fifty dollars.
They didn't tell me that for a long time.
It is Chinese, you're quite right.
This would date 1875 to the turn of the century.
It would have been executed out of Canton.
There's a wonderful figural cartouche at the crest, pierced openwork-- the phoenix, flanked by the profusion of foliate decoration-- and a wonderful silk embroidered panel to the interior.
It's typical of what the Chinese in a port city were executing for the Americans, for the Brits, for the Australians.
Today it's not the Brits or the Australians or the Americans buying works like this at auction.
It's the Chinese.
They're buying back quintessentially Chinese decorative arts.
At auction today, it would have a pre-sale auction estimate of between $3,000 and $5,000.
Whoo!
Fantastic.
Thank you.
Helen, you brought in a lovely copy of "Uncle Tom's Cabin."
It's not the first American edition.
It's the first London edition.
Still highly sought after, being such a classic and an important book in American literature and anti-slavery.
It was published the same year, 1852, in London.
Mm-hmm.
Beautiful copy.
We have quite a collection of books from my grandmother, and we thought maybe this would be a good one and we opened it up and out fell these two documents.
It's a good example of why you should look through a book.
That's right.
Yeah.
Because things get stuck in and stuffed inside for protection and preservation.
Exactly.
And that's what we have here, two very interesting and related materials.
This is a letter by Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of the book, and it's a letter of introduction, which normally would be of interest, might be worth several hundred dollars.
But who she's introducing here is John G. Fee, who was the founder of Berea College in Kentucky.
Right.
And it's significant because he was a slaveholder himself, who then changed his philosophy and became an abolitionist, so much so that he started Berea College, which was the first integrated college of the South.
Right.
And here, which also has a little more history, going back into the 18th century, is a bill of sale, a receipt of a slave sale.
In the context of the book, the note from Stowe, and that, you've got a really nice little antislavery archive.
Right, right.
And overall, you're probably looking at $3,500 to $4,500, if that was an auction estimate, on the group.
Well, I appreciate that very much, yes.
So thank you for bringing it in.
WOMAN: Well, this belonged to my grandfather.
He lived in Salt Lake City and was a history buff.
He particularly was interested in Western history, and this vase was part of his collection of items, and it was on his mantel in his house for years and years.
I know it's a Rookwood Pottery vase, manufactured in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Well, we do have a Rookwood Pottery vase here, made in 1901.
Do you know anything about the figure on the front of it?
I don't know anything about him.
The Native American Indian chief on the front is Big Bow.
He was a Kiowa Indian.
And if you look here, there is the Rookwood mark up at the top, and the mark with a "1" for "1901."
There is "Big Bow, Kiowa."
And then we have the artist's signature inscription there.
And the artist was Grace Young, and she did a number of Native American portrait vases for Rookwood.
Now, we also have this "X" here on the bottom, which means it was a second by the Rookwood Pottery, and it wasn't a piece that they thought was suitable for their main showroom, due to some flaw in the manufacturing of it.
Now, these portraits that Rookwood did-- and they did, not a series of them, but they did a large number of them-- they didn't do it from live sittings.
They did it from photographs.
This one is likely from a group of photos that Rookwood requested that the Smithsonian provide to them.
Now, have you had this appraised before?
My mother took it in to someone in San Francisco years ago, maybe 25, 30 years ago, and I believe it was about $700.
The fact that it is a second will affect the value some, but not significantly.
A conservative auction estimate would be between $6,000 and $9,000.
Oh... my goodness.
$6,000 and $9,000?
Oh, wow.
Conservatively.
Wow, that's amazing.
WOMAN: The artist's name is Ed Green.
He was a man who lived in the hometown where I was raised.
He gave the carving to my dad.
He gave them to the people that he knew and liked.
You mentioned to me that he was born in Germany.
Is that correct?
That's what the Powder River County history book says.
Okay.
It's a great piece of folk art.
It struck me how ornate and well carved and how intricate this picture is.
I immediately associated it with Black Forest carvings or that tradition that we have seen through so many immigrants...
Right.
...who have come to the United States and brought their carving traditions.
You also told me about some of his quirky qualities.
Yeah, they said that he didn't like women and that a woman that I knew, who was a neighbor, would go to visit him, and when she left, she would see him sweeping her tracks away from the front door before she ever really got out of the yard almost.
You sense there is sort of a slightly obsessive quality in the attention to detail.
But one of the greatest things about this work is that what we have here are bison and mule deer that are indigenous to this area.
Right, exactly.
So he's carving what he's seeing.
Something that I read last night in the history book that I have was that he had perhaps the first zoo in Powder River County, that he had built a high fence and he had deer and antelope and that sort of thing.
Now, this work is not signed.
It's not.
I think it stands alone, knowing the artist or not knowing the artist, as a piece of folk sculpture.
And I would estimate its value at auction to be $5,000 to $7,000.
Really?
Wow.
People in Powder River County are rich and don't know it.
(laughing) WOMAN: I know that it's Emigrant Peak in Paradise Valley, and it's obviously a Northern Pacific travel poster, and it, I think, helps advertise the gateway to Yellowstone Park.
And how did you acquire it?
My father gave me this.
It was a gift.
I'm from New York City, so when I see a majestic image of the Montana Rockies like this, it really stirs something in me.
But for you, this is sort of an everyday view, isn't it?
It's my backyard.
It's beautiful, but it's very familiar to me, yes.
It was done for the Northern Pacific Railroad, and it was done early in the 1930s.
We don't actually know the specific date, but around 1930 or 1932.
We also know the artist, whose name was Gustav Krollmann.
He was a very prominent artist who worked for the railroad, but there's very little known about him biographically.
We know that he was of Austrian descent.
Okay.
We know that he ended up living in Minneapolis, and that he taught art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
But other than that, we don't know a lot about him.
But in the course of his work, we know that he created at least five posters for the Northern Pacific Railroad, three of which were Montana-specific.
Mm-hmm.
There was this one, which is as Montana-specific as you could hope to get.
There's another one that says "North Coast Limited," and then there's another one that says "the Mission Range."
Each one of the posters is a painting that he painted, beautifully rendering the landscape in the sort of summery pastel blues and greens and lavenders.
It is beautiful.
And each one of the images that he did for the Montana countryside also very prominently features one of the Northern Pacific Railroad's locomotives.
These were posters meant to sell tickets on the railroad.
They were printed in St. Paul, Minnesota.
They were distributed across the railroad line, so it's possible that somebody in Chicago or New York or anywhere else in the country would have seen this image and said, "Wow!
Montana really is beautiful.
"I could ride the train and I could see this great countryside."
They're very popular posters.
These pieces have been going higher and higher in price of late as American travel posters come into their own.
If this piece were in an auction, I would suggest an estimated value between $2,000 and $3,000.
Really?
Unframed?
As it is?
Unframed, unlined.
Really?
You'll notice this poster hasn't been mounted.
Right.
And you'll also notice there's all these little ripples in the paper.
I did see that.
What is that?
That is just the paper that they use.
It's almost like a wallpaper.
So, condition-wise, this is what we technically refer to as "pretty darn good."
That's excellent.
During the 19th century, Americans went west to seek their fortune, battle Indians over territory, and some, like Joseph Henry Sharp, went to paint.
In pursuit of his art, Sharp painted Native Americans who fought both with and against the United States and earned a living from these paintings in the process.
Roadshow visited the Yellowstone Art Museum to discuss some of Sharp's work with Bruce Shackelford.
Bruce, before we take a look at these paintings, let's talk about a little bit of history with Sharp.
SHACKELFORD: Joseph Henry Sharp was born in the late 19th century in Ohio and studied art in Cincinnati and then in Europe and came back and had a fascination with the history of the American West and the people of the American West and traveled around and painted it, painted what he saw.
WALBERG: And boy, if you've ever been to the Little Bighorn River Valley, you pretty much know exactly where he was standing when he painted this one.
SHACKELFORD: This is called "The Custer Battlefield," and he painted it from life, in winter, and it just has the feel of the remoteness, and you sense that something important happened here.
It's impressionistic in the way it's painted.
There's not a lot of sharp detail, but you've got close foreground, you've got far distant hills, and it really captures the feeling of the place, which is hard to do.
A similar painting on the market that has this great feel to it and this quality would bring probably $40,000 to $50,000 right now at auction.
WALBERG: Let's talk about the second painting.
SHACKELFORD: This painting was painted out here.
It's dated 1905.
It's a documentary painting.
It shows life on the Crow Agency here in Montana as it would have been in that time period.
People were still born in teepees at the Crow Agency at that time.
It's called "The Young Chief," and it's a little boy, probably of prominent status in the tribe, and his mother's in her finest outfit, dressing him in his red wool leggings and his ermine-trimmed hide shirt and working on his braids.
And then a prominent male in his life is watching as they get ready.
Works this scale, this kind of light, they sell in this market for between $125,000 and $135,000 at auction.
Now, there was a time period when his Taos paintings brought the money.
Now, his Taos paintings were mainly done in the studio.
They were set up.
They were almost like Indian still lifes with people in them.
These documentary paintings have become much more popular and now equal the Taos paintings in value.
Well, you have picked two beautiful examples of his work, and thanks for sharing a little bit of the background to get to know him as a man.
Thanks for having me, Mark.
I got this about 1965 at a silent auction.
And it was to raise money for a scholarship.
And I saw the painting and I thought, oh, that is absolutely beautiful.
I would love to have it.
I didn't know what a silent auction was.
Someone explained to me that I should write down a very low number that I would pay for it and others would come along and write higher amounts.
So I thought, okay, I can do that.
And I wrote down 75 cents.
Then I hovered by the table to put down a higher number if somebody else bid on it, which, of course, I expected.
And no one else bid on it.
I got it for 75 cents, and I was so thrilled to just have it.
Absolutely.
I would have gone to $10 or $20.
Do you know who the painting is by?
It is by Selden Gile.
That's right.
And he painted in Northern California in the '30s; I believe earlier, too, maybe '20s and '30s.
The lady who donated this to our little silent auction had bought a house that he lived in in Sausalito.
Mm-hmm.
And the reason she bought it was because many of his paintings were left in the house after he died.
Well, that's a nice provenance to have.
And this one is signed and dated down here, "S." And that's "Connor, Gile, 32."
So this is 1932 it's painted.
Uh-huh.
But you're quite correct.
He was active in those years, in the '20s and '30s.
He'd originally come from Maine, but he moved to California just after the turn of the century.
And he became a major figure in Californian painting and was associated with a group, "The Group of Six."
Uh-huh.
And they really were a group.
They spent a lot of time together, him and his painter chums, and all the artists were influenced by the Panama Pacific Exhibition in 1915, where they would have first become aware of the modern movements, what was happening in Europe.
And of course at that time, the Fauve painters were very influential, and this shows all the elements of Fauve painting-- very strong color, lots of sinuous rhythms, all that sort of thing.
Mm-hmm.
And he was very popular amongst his friends because he was also a bit of a chef and a great host.
Really?
They used to have a place in the Oakland hills called "The Chow House."
And by all accounts, he was rather disappointed in love with a young lady, and he rather gave up on the girls and hung out with his friends and they'd go hiking and sketching.
They threw these great parties, and people like Jack London would come along.
And I think actually it was probably the death of him ultimately.
He did a little bit too much good living.
But in between, he was doing these wonderful paintings.
Mm-hmm.
Now, so you bought it in the '60s.
About mid '60s.
And 75 cents.
75 cents.
And what do you think it might be worth now?
A few hundred?
Maybe up to a thousand?
This is a very attractive little watercolor.
So would you be surprised to hear at auction, probably $5,000 to $8,000?
Oh, my goodness.
And I should put that in context.
I spoke to one of my colleagues who deals with a lot of Californian paintings, Uh-huh.
and he suggested at retail, probably somewhere in the $10,000 to $15,000 range.
Uh-huh.
Okay.
So I hope that's good news.
Well, that's a lot of money.
WOMAN: This desk belonged to my mother-in-law in Ohio.
She passed away about four years ago.
She grew up in Kentucky.
And her parents were from Kentucky and we believe her grandparents were also from Kentucky.
Ah.
And her grandfather was an antiques collector.
I had always admired the desk.
It was in her bedroom.
And when my father-in-law died a year ago, my husband and I inherited many pieces of their furniture.
I see, including this.
Including this desk.
Well, it's a slant front Chippendale desk.
Do you know the date of it?
Only from the...
The label?
The certificate, yeah.
It's actually 1798.
It's unusual that we find something dated, exactly when it was made.
Do you know where it was made?
Rhode Island, it says.
!
Exactly.
Slant front desks in the 18th century like this were really like the early, early computers.
They were organizers.
These are all locked drawers.
They stored things like documents, files, money.
Inside here we have all these little document drawers and this gorgeous fan, beautiful late 18th century carving.
All this is typical Rhode Island.
The blocked center section.
Now, the man who used this, who owned it, was actually left handed.
You know how we know that?
No.
Well, if you pull out these drawers, all the ink stains are on the left.
You see, he was a little bit, a little bit messy.
We don't really see those over here on the right side.
Another reason we know it's Rhode Island is you look inside in this document drawer, and that's chestnut.
And there's chestnut throughout the entire piece.
Chestnut backboards, chestnut drawer sides, and that's a Rhode Island characteristic.
Oh, okay.
What I love about this is the wood.
He's chosen the wood, this cabinet maker, to swirl up the front and draw our eye upward.
And it ends almost like on fire, like a bonfire.
Flame mahogany, the richest, most beautiful mahogany you could buy at the time.
And amazingly the sides are also equally figured.
So they really didn't spare any expense in making this.
It also has the original brasses.
Let's look at the label inside.
And this is so rare to have a labeled piece.
And the size of it is what's amazing.
It's a huge label.
And this is labeled by Thomas Howard.
And he says, "Having removed from Providence"-- he used to work in Providence, Rhode Island-- and now he's in Pawtucket, October 1795.
He's advertising what he sells.
I see the word "chairs"-- we know he made that.
Well, this is actually the only piece of Chippendale furniture that we know that Thomas Howard made.
Only documented piece anywhere-- museums or in the market.
So that makes it pretty rare.
It's a little bit deteriorated, but basically it's incredible to have it there.
How do you know it's original?
Because a lot of people put fake labels on them later.
Here's the animal hide glue.
And you've got a nice shadow there.
So I think that's the original label.
You know what that hole is?
No.
I was wondering what that was.
That was a knot that popped through.
We have to think of condition, of course, of any antique.
And it really affects the value.
And these feet are replaced.
Oh, they are?
They should be another three inches higher.
There should be less of a curve.
They should be classic Rhode Island feet, and they aren't.
And there are also sharp edges.
You almost cut yourself on the edge there.
Where this is all worn from 200 years of use.
And also these little fine moldings on the edge of these drawers, they got broken once and somebody just sanded them all down.
So it's got its condition issues.
And it's been refinished.
This got replaced with a late 19th-century... Oh, it did?
it's a machine-stamped escutcheon.
Now, do you know anything about value?
Was it appraised at any time?
Oh, we found an appraisal list my father-in-law's house.
And it was appraised, I think it was 2008, for $7,500.
Well, because of the fact that this is the only Chippendale earlier piece we know of documented, there would be a lot of museum interest.
I would put an auction estimate on this piece of about $10,000 to $15,000.
Okay.
Good.
Now, if the feet were original and it wasn't refinished, the auction estimate would be $50,000 to $80,000.
WOMAN: She is a Webber Singing Doll from 1882.
She belonged to my grandmother, who was born in 1883.
My grandparents owned a grocery store, and one night someone came in and took the doll, and my grandma and her folks were lucky enough to find her in the alley.
Her hands had been cut off as well as her hair, and my grandmother resewed her shoulders.
What you have here is indeed a Webber Singing Doll.
It has wonderful patent marks on the back of the doll.
Here it says, "The Webber Doll."
There's a U.S. patent, there's a Brussels patent, there's a French patent.
The doll was actually assembled in Germany.
And on the front, it says, "I sing sweet bye and bye."
You demonstrated to me how the doll sings, and I'm wondering if you could do that for us.
Absolutely.
I'd love to.
(doll whistling) The whistling sound is made by a bellows, and to have the doll still working is very rare.
The doll has a composition head and glass inset eyes.
The wig, although you were disappointed it had been trimmed many years ago, it still has its original wig, which is better than having no wig.
It has kid leather gloves, or arms.
They were sewn in, and your grandmother did a wonderful job sewing them back on.
The head is made of a papier mâché or a composition material.
Has original shoes, original underwear.
This was the original dress that was on the doll.
But then some family member made several other pieces that are over here.
What is she stuffed with?
Usually they're stuffed with horsehair.
On today's retail market, the doll would sell between $800 and $1,200.
Now, the interesting thing about that is, it's a very rare doll, very rare, but rarity doesn't always translate into mega dollars, so it's a modest retail for what dolls do sell for on the market today.
Okay, thank you very much.
Thank you for bringing it.
WOMAN: I inherited it from my father, who got it from his mother, my grandmother.
And where did your grandmother live?
She was born in Angels Camp, California.
Her father was the town doctor there, and so she lived there until she went to Stanford University, and the lived in the Bay Area in San Leandro.
Okay, well, the reason why I asked is because the company that made this lamp had offices in New York and Montreal and also in San Francisco.
This lamp was made by a company called Pairpoint.
Pairpoint was based in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
They were in business in the 19th century into the 20th century.
They started to make lamps in about 1904.
The made reverse painted lamps and they also made lamps that we call puffy lamps.
And this is what we would call a puffy lamp.
The company filed for the patent on the puffy lamp on July 7, 1907.
Now, I don't think this is as early as 1907.
I would date this lamp circa 1920.
Okay.
It's what we call a boudoir lamp.
And the shape of the shade, we call it a Stratford shade, puffy lamp with a floral design with a lace pattern.
Now, if you notice, the outside of the shade is frosted.
Right.
The inside of the shade has been painted.
So you see pansies in here.
There are also roses and I think there's a daisy also and some dogwoods.
And then enhancing the design is this lace pattern that you see painted in white.
The shade is made in a mold.
It's mold blown.
Oh, okay.
And you don't usually see any mold lines on the shade because they actually fire polish those out.
Oh.
It's on a base that is marked.
It's very difficult to see.
It's upside down right here.
But that's where it is.
That's where the signature is.
It even has a number and it says "Made in the U.S.A." It's very gentle and delicate and it has a warm glow.
It's just very comforting.
And I still use it today.
Oh, that's great.
I'm glad to hear that.
If this were sold in a retail shop, it would sell for around $1,500.
Now, the base is not that elaborate.
It's also not in very good condition.
It's really been worn off.
It was used a lot.
Exactly.
And so if it were in better condition, it could be worth as much as $2,000 or $2,500.
Mm-hmm.
WOMAN: I got it online.
I paid $40, $65 with shipping.
And when you bought it, what were you told about it?
Not a lot.
Actually, she sold it just as a tapestry and there was no more information.
And I emailed her after I received it because I thought, "This is pretty special."
And she told me that her husband's family was a very old New York family, had come over on the Mayflower.
Of course, everyone says that.
When you first look at this, it looks like a painting, it's so finely woven.
It's a tapestry that's done to look like a Dutch gentleman, probably from the late 16th century, early 17th century.
But it was done in the 19th century.
Ah.
And probably done in France.
Okay.
It's unusually fine.
When you look at the detail of the face, it's very difficult to get that much detail.
The value is basically a decorative arts value because there's just not a lot of demand for something like this.
It's very appealing.
But I would say that if it were to come to auction, it would probably sell for somewhere between $600 and $800.
But if you were going to insure it, you'd probably insure it for around $1,000 to $1,200.
Wonderful.
MAN: I brought a national whiskey lighted tin sign.
I found it at a sale that they had of a local distributor of liquor from years ago.
So this was probably a piece that was with an old-time liquor retailer somewhere?
Exactly, to my knowledge.
It's interesting.
It's in amazing condition.
It's as if they put this thing away many, many decades ago and it just... it didn't meet its fate.
Normal something like this made out of glass is going to be long since broken.
I don't know a great deal about Sunny Brook, the "pure food whiskey."
I don't know what message they were trying to send there, that whiskey's good for you?
Well, I believe that was the intent.
Exactly.
And then they talk about the "inspector is back of every bottle."
So this guy is verifying the fact that this is apparently a "pure food whiskey."
Vintage advertising is something that people love to collect.
Did you get a good buy on it?
Yes, I did, uh huh.
I paid $75 for it 20 years ago.
All right, I'd say that's a good buy.
I talked with a couple of other people.
So we think it's worth somewhere between $800 and $1,200.
So you got yourself a heck of a deal.
Well, thank you, thank you.
All right.
WOMAN: We have neighbors that are bachelor ranchers that live just down the street from us.
And one of the bachelors just passed away and the other one was trying to go through things and he brought this over for us.
These guys have had this in the family for many, many years.
It belonged to their father.
And he was raised in Willmar, Minnesota.
And then they came to Montana probably around the 1920s.
Well, what you have is a very early example of an attempt to make the guitar louder.
The mandolin became very popular in the late 1880s and 1890s.
I see.
And the guitar was used to accompany mandolins, but as you can imagine, especially if you had two or three or more mandolins, a typical gut string guitar would just be drowned out because they have a very soft tone.
And guitars like this, we see them really soon right after the mandolin became popular.
Guitars start to get bigger, they begin to use steel strings.
And, of course, that's an evolution that continued for decades.
The maker obviously had training in violin making.
Like the F holes are very well done, just like they would be in a fine violin.
Guitars usually have binding that goes along the edge.
Yes.
Violins have purfling that's just inside the edge.
And this is decorated with, actually, it's cello purfling that's done around inside the edge and then the spruce is on the outside of that purfling.
Now the name inside is "F.
Gaulke."
And it says "1898."
This was not something that was a one-off.
In other words, this was not somebody tinkering in their workshop saying, "Well, let's just make a guitar with these big, fancy horns on the side."
When you look inside, it's definitely production woodworking.
This guitar does need some work, but it's very standard kind of restoration.
And it wouldn't be too expensive.
So, even in its current condition, for a guitar collector, partly because it would look fantastic on your wall or in your display case, but also because you could actually play it.
You could play folk songs or, you know, anything on it.
My guess is the retail value would probably be in the $2,500 range.
Maybe a little bit above that.
Wow.
That's quite good.
You know, maybe as much as $3,000 as much as a decorative piece.
That's just wonderful information.
They were my grandmother's.
She lived in New York.
And when she passed away, they end up in a suitcase at my sister's house in Ohio.
She didn't really care to have them any longer, so my brother and I, when we were dividing up the family estate after everyone had passed away, they ended up here in Montana.
They're really wonderful garments.
The period of time they come from is the 1920s.
The '20s was the flapper period when people were dancing and singing and having a good time.
Women had got rid of all of that understructure, the corsets.
They had freedom of movement.
There was a lot of money going around in America in the '20s, so there was money to spend.
This gown here is just the perfect '20s gown.
The diamond shapes here are just like the harlequin shapes that were so popular.
Very geometric.
And this is French fleur-de-lis here in the center.
And it's a mixture of those two styles, the French and the Deco period.
The ivory is silk and the lavender color is actually silk chiffon with beadwork all over it.
And right now it's in just pristine, wonderful condition.
In the back of the gown, there's a tiny label that says, "Made in France."
So we know that this gown is a French gown.
Now this coat, the fabric is made of lamé that came from France.
This is actually gold threads woven through the fabric.
Oh, I see.
It's called gold lamé.
It's brocade fabric.
This type of fabric is one of the hottest things on the vintage market right now.
It's so expensive to make that they don't make too much of it right now.
This coat, back in the '20s, I saw once one that had its original price tag on, and it was around $100 back in the '20s.
And in the '20s, you could buy a new car for $600.
So this was quite an investment for a woman to pay for a coat.
Would you help me a minute?
I want to turn the coat.
This is called a cocoon coat because of the shape.
It wraps around the woman.
In the fashion world right now, this is quite desirable.
This garment is just a wonderful, wonderful example.
Very wearable.
The fur that's on it is actually ermine, which was the fur for kings and emperors.
Your great '20s gown, on the current market, if you were to buy it at a vintage show or a good textile shop, you would expect to pay between $1,000 and $1,200 for it.
Wow.
The coat, this is such a hot item right now, that you could expect to pay between $2,000 and $2,500.
Wow.
I'm impressed.
MAN: I brought in this sword that's been in the family for at least four generations now that belonged to, I think, my great-great-grandfather.
He was in the Spanish-American War, and I think he lied about his age.
I think he was 15 and he enlisted, and he was in Cuba.
And so we have a lot of medals and some letters that he wrote and watercolors that he did when he was in Cuba.
This sword's just kind of been with that collection passed down through the family ever since.
So our assumption has just been that it was his sword because there's photos of him on a horse in Cuba, so...
So he was a cavalryman?
I believe so, yeah.
Well, these are the standard markings for this style sword, and it's a model 1832 short artillery.
1832.
And it was made in 1843.
The initials that are beside the 1843 production date are "J.C.B."
And that's for Joseph C. Bragg, who was an inspector for the U.S. government from 1841 to 1849.
And he's the guy that said this is worthy to be used by the U.S. government.
They'd inspect every sword?
They did, and it had to pass muster.
And a lot of time if they didn't, they went to state contracts, smaller contracts, or were sold privately.
That one is for William A. Thornton.
Wow.
And they would inspect the handles and the blades.
Wow.
And it was done at different times.
On the back side of the blade, we have the mark of Nathan P. Ames.
It's marked "N.P.
Ames, Springfield"-- meaning Springfield, Massachusetts.
And they were one of the premier sword makers during the 1800s.
There are several research places where you can go and see the actual production date of this sword because Ames kept meticulous records.
Oh, really?
So they can tell you to within a hundred swords how many they made that year.
Oh, wow, that's great.
Do you know when the Spanish-American War was?
I seem to recall 1882 or maybe '72.
1898 is when it started.
1898, oh, okay.
So this sword was made 55 years before that.
So it probably wasn't worn by him.
Okay.
And another thing that lets us know that, this is an artilleryman's saber.
It's a short artillery saber.
They actually manufactured this style on up until the 1860s.
And then they realized if you're this close, you're too close.
Yeah.
The cool thing about this sword is that you not only have a beautiful sword that still has a nice edge on it, beautiful cast brass handle, you have the scabbard and the belt.
And did you notice that the scabbard is a completely different type leather than the belt ring?
Sure.
This is a black leather that's been tanned.
This is an oil-treated leather.
Okay.
And it's called buff leather.
And you don't see this a lot these days.
And it's because the oil that they would use to treat it was often times whale oil.
And if you mix it with certain solvents, it can spontaneously combust later on.
Sure.
Wow.
So not a lot of people use the buff leather after the Civil War.
You see it occasionally, but not a lot.
And most of the time, when it dries out, it'll break very easily, just like that.
And this one-- spectacular.
Yeah, wow.
It's beautiful.
It's still pliable.
And that's one thing, when we're out west, like here in Billings, the climate is just perfect for it.
What do you think it's worth?
I don't know.
I was thinking, you know, $800 maybe.
That was, like, a high guess just being optimistic.
Well, you just bought the sword.
Now let's talk about the sword with the scabbard and with the belt.
Okay.
On today's market, on a retail market, the sword, the scabbard, and the belt would bring between $3,000 and $3,500.
Wow, that's amazing.
That's great.
MAN: It's a collection of three rings that were passed down from my mother, who died about four years ago.
I know very little about them other than I did see my mother wearing the ruby, and I know that it used to be a man's ring that was worn by my grandfather.
And then when my mother inherited it, she had it sized down so that she could wear it.
The other two rings I never did see her wear.
I suspect that they came from her mother, my grandmother, who married a gentleman who was in the shipping business in San Francisco.
So I'm surmising that's perhaps where they originated.
We have a beautiful jadeite ring right here.
It's even in tone-- it's a beautiful apple green.
It's flanked by these very simple baguettes diamonds on the side.
I would say it's probably made in the 1920s, the ring itself.
It does have some numbers inside that may be tracked through research, but it is not signed, so we don't know who made that.
It was originally a jade button.
And we know that from the underneath of the stone.
It's got a little grove as to where the button went.
Do you have any idea of its value?
I don't.
I would say a conservative auction estimate would be right around $5,000.
Moving along to the ruby ring, the ruby center, it's approximately three-and-a-half carats.
And it's a beautiful color in that's a very bright, intense red stone.
We think at the jewelry table that it possibly is a Burmese stone.
Those are the best stones that are available in corundum, which is ruby.
And it's got a very special quality to it in that it's a very bright red stone.
They sort of glow when you look at them.
It's signed with some five-digit numbers, which possibly could be researched.
But we don't know who made that.
If we got a certificate that stated it was Burmese, I would say you're looking at, conservative estimate, $15,000 on that.
The diamond ring, it's about three-and-a-half carats again, approximately.
The color is very white on the stone.
It's probably a E or F color.
A very clean stone in that it's a VVS stone, meaning very, very slightly included.
Again, we would want a certificate on that to prove that.
The setting looks like it was probably set and made at around the 1920s Art Deco time period.
Also, it's signed in the shank "Shreve & Co." which is a San Francisco retail store, still in business.
Right, right.
This one is so beautiful for a lot of reasons.
It's a perfect square-shaped stone.
It's three-and-a-half carats.
It's a very beautiful size in that it's quite wearable.
So we're thinking $40,000.
Wow.
Collectively, all three rings, probably right around $60,000.
Oh.
Very impressive.
I'll have to get the Brinks car to take them home.
Now you need a sapphire to round it out.
Yeah, I'll work on that one.
Okay.
You're watching "Antiques Roadshow" WALBERG: And now, it's time for the Roadshow Feedback Booth.
We brought in our family's antique side saddle.
We found out it was made in the Colorado territories back when it was becoming a state and found out it was about $3,000.
And I brought in my ring.
This was my grandmother's ring, and it's an Art Deco cocktail ring.
And mine's worth $3,000, so yay!
We tied.
And we brought Grandpa's accordion.
We thought it was worth lots of money, but it was only worth... ALL: ...a song.
(plays accordion) I bought this from a fellow in a bar at about quarter to two in the morning very reasonably.
I need to find the guy I turned down $3,500 for because you guys said it's worth about $700.
You know, honey, they say that the camera adds ten pounds.
Thanks, "Antiques Roadshow."
Everything was going great and then there was a little bit of a mishap.
And even when it was in perfect shape, it was worth $10, and now it's worth a lot less.
But I still had a great time.
These spurs were given to my dad by kind of a seedy old fellow that owed him money.
And my dad gave them to me and we just found out from the appraisers that they're 1920 Kelly Brothers spurs from Texas and they're worth $600!
And I found out that my thrift store pot is the real deal.
From the 1920s, it's Pueblo, it's worth a thousand dollars.
I spent five dollars.
And everything that I brought today wasn't worth nothing, but I had fun.
I'm Mark Walberg, thanks for watching.
We'll see you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."
Can I look at your basket there?
Oh, isn't that nice?
There's three of them, actually.
These are a hundred years old.
And still just tight and perfect.
Yeah.
