San Diego, Hour 2

Welcome to "Antiques Roadshow" from beautiful San Diego, California.

Now I'm really going to owe my mother because she's the one that actually dove in the Dumpster to pull the bags out.

I love it.

That's fabulous.

Isn't that great?

You never...

It's better than fabulous.

It's better than fabulous.

Ooh.

Which of San Diego's treasures are fine and which are flawed?

"Roadshow" has the answers.

Stay tuned.

♪ ♪ (fireworks exploding) ♪ ♪ Welcome to "Antiques Roadshow."

Hi, I'm Mark Walberg in San Diego, California.

San Diego was once home to baseball great Ted Williams, inventive musician Frank Zappa, and iconic American folk hero Wyatt Earp.

What iconic antiques will we see in San Diego?

Let's take a look.

WOMAN: My mother said this was a scarf worn at George Washington's inauguration.

He did not wear it; the men got these and the women got the earrings.

You have some distinguished ancestry, I should put it, right?

I do.

Entirely possible that you would have some family member that went to that ball, right?

Yes.

But you don't know exactly which one, right?

No.

Okay.

We are looking at this, now framed and folded, a silk banner that probably was seven feet long if you extend it.

And it's all folded under itself right here.

It's really long.

I did not realize that.

When this showed up, I was so excited.

Because, first of all, I love American folk art.

Uh-huh.

I also love American history.

Right.

This piece combines a great folk design with great history.

Right.

So, as you know, President Washington was inaugurated on April 30, 1789.

A week later, they held a big ball down near Wall Street in New York for the president.

All the ladies wore their finest.

Just something like this certainly would not be unusual at that.

We have this American eagle, painted eagle on the silk.

And it's a classic stance with the laurel branch in one claw symbolizing the peace, and in the other claw the arrows, symbolizing strength.

And the eagle's banner here says "E pluribus" written out in gold.

There are 13 stars above that in yellow with blue outline.

And up here what looks like an abstract design.

Somebody else actually pointed out-- I can't take credit-- this is "G" and this is a "W".

Oh, my heart.

For George Washington.

That's fabulous.

Isn't that great?

You've never... No, it's better than fabulous.

It's better than fabulous because the G, if you look sideways, and then the W for George Washington.

They're probably silver little bangles with glass beads.

Right.

Each one is carefully sewn over the star Oh, that's... for "GW" and the 13... That is so exciting.

Isn't that neat?

Oh, yeah.

And above it, the French... fleur de lis.

Fleur de lis.

Now, a week after the major ball, Yeah.

Count de Moustier had another ball, the French count.

De Moustier.

De Moustier.

Now, we don't know, we certainly can't prove it, because these relics are so rare, but to my knowledge no other of these banners exist.

But it's very possible that a banner like this would have been at that ball a week later.

And I've checked with several experts here-- the silk, the fine silk, is of the period.

The bangles, it's all right.

I've got good news and bad news.

Which one do you want first?

I think I'll take the good news today.

You want the good news first?

Okay, I think that's a good way to do it.

The value, on a bad day, would be $3,000 to $6,000, and this is the kind of object that, in the right situation...

Right.

could bring $10,000, $15,000 at an auction setting.

Now I'm going to give you the bad news.

These are costume jewelry from around... from after 1900.

So they aren't...

They didn't...

Mother lied to me.

They didn't make clips like this, this ear clip, Okay.

until after 1900.

Okay, oh, that's interesting.

Also, the metal's not gold and it's not even enamel.

So they're nice, decorative ear clips, but so these weren't made for the...

So I can wear them without feeling like I'm... all right.

You can wear them without worrying about losing them as much, you know.

But this you want to really preserve as you've always done.

I'm excited, really.

I just love it.

WOMAN: This painting belonged to my grandmother.

And she had a big, old house that was kind of magical to us kids growing up.

And this painting was on the second floor landing of a spiral staircase that she had in the house.

So when my grandmother passed away in the early '80s, I said, "Could I have this painting to remember her by?"

And so I've had the painting ever since.

Hand written on the back it says who the artist is, the name of the painting, the original cost that she paid, which, it's hard to read, but it looks like it's maybe either $20 or $200.

Jessie Willcox Smith is one of the great American illustrators.

She was born in 1863 and she studied with Howard Pyle, who was one of the master illustrators of the Brandywine School of Philadelphia.

Jessie Willcox Smith was a very popular illustrator at the turn of the century.

She did a lot of work for "Scribner's" magazine.

And she never married, but she used children as her subjects in almost every picture.

This is a wonderful example of her work.

The date is probably about 1890.

She uses several techniques that are very interesting.

One is that you have these dynamic diagonals with all these wonderful kind of pencil-point brushstrokes, which also add energy.

And then you have this, the rhythm of the leaves also creating more energy.

But it's a very tranquil picture.

It is.

She also uses quite a number of different medium.

She uses oil here; she uses charcoal in the boat and all through here.

She outlines in charcoal and then paints on top.

And it's a wonderful way for her to have built the design of the painting without a whole lot of heavy paint layers.

It's really a more modern technique for the time period.

Okay.

Her work is very interesting in several marketplaces.

Not only is it the collector of American art, but also the collector of illustrative art and of the Arts & Crafts movement.

She was closely linked with several other women artists of the time, all illustrators-- Violet Oakley and Elizabeth Shippen Green, Okay.

with whom she lived in the Philadelphia area.

Okay.

They were called the "Red Rose Girls."

Now, as to the value, do you have any idea at all?

I have no idea.

I didn't even know if it was a real painting.

I mean, I didn't even know if it was real.

Right, well, it's real.

Okay.

And in a New York gallery, the retail price would be in the $125,000 range.

(voice quivering): Are you serious?

I'm serious.

Wow.

I had no idea.

Sorry.

(both laughing) Wow.

So, I will also mention that this is called a Whistler style frame.

And it's very much of that Arts & Crafts movement.

Wow, okay.

Oh, my goodness.

I'd better handle it carefully going home.

WOMAN: My mother gave it to me and it was her great-grandfather's.

I know it's a Philadelphia piece.

My great-grandfather lived in Camden and sometimes Philadelphia.

Probably he bought it in the 1870s.

I think the desk was built by Allen Brothers cabinetmaker but I don't know the artist that worked for Allen Brothers.

The desk is clearly from the Philadelphia school of furniture making from that 1850s to turn-of-the-century period.

Allen & Brothers was a very prominent cabinetmaker, which is different than a manufacturer.

A cabinetmaker would be making custom-made furniture.

There are about three of these desks that we know of to date.

We did look up the artist of the central tile and could not find anything else about it outside of the fact that we assume that he's a German based on his name.

These are all ceramic tiles, English or French, and I think what's interesting about Allen & Brother is that they were really producing fashionable furniture of that time period, which sometimes today we refer to as Aesthetic Movement or art furniture.

This piece is attributed to Allen & Brothers and there's two things that make us think that outside of its overall design and stance.

But the primary reason is the locks are marked "Shannon, Philadelphia."

Shannon.

One of the versions also retains its original key, which incorporates an "A" in the escutcheon.

Right.

Which is probably the thing that tips it over the scale in terms of giving a firmer attribution to Allen & Brothers because there were other cabinetmakers working in Philadelphia at the time period.

This probably dates to 1880 to 1885.

In terms of value, you really have to make it an attribution.

We just don't know enough about it.

Yes.

But it would be a very difficult thing to replace, so I think for insurance purposes we would estimate it at $7,000.

Wow, thank you.

You're welcome.

I'm excited.

WOMAN: It's my husband's lamp and it was given to him by his grandmother in the mid-1970s.

And she'd had it previously, but I don't know when she received it or who she got it from.

And when you got it, did it have this hole in the shade in front?

It did, it did.

Well, it's one of the things I want to talk about.

We've talked about Van Erp before on the show; this is the most unusual Van Erp lamp I've seen, and I've seen hundreds of them.

Really?

Stylistically, the work on the shade has more to do with Art Deco than Arts & Crafts, and Van Erp was an Arts & Crafts metalsmith from the San Francisco Bay area.

Right.

He was a man who defined coppersmithing in America during the Arts & Crafts period.

These pieces normally would have had a band around the bottom, a cap on the top and arms that were riveted top and bottom.

This, instead, if I can take this off now, instead this is one solid piece of copper that was hammered and raised and then joined into a cone with a seam running right up there.

Wow.

And then all this work was pierced out.

And what we have is piece after piece of paper-thin, even less than paper-thin mica.

Also, these handles on the base, I can't say I've seen those on a Van Erp lamp, either.

Let's take a look at the mark for a second.

This is the standard Dirk Van Erp mark, which is a die-stamped windmill, and then it says "Dirk Van Erp" underneath it with the open box.

The stamp broke at one point.

The box used to be closed; by about 1911, 1912, the box broke, so it was an open box, which dates it anywhere from about 1913 to about 1930.

But stylistically, it's an Art Deco lamp.

It can't be before 1925 or 1926.

Okay.

When I first saw this, I said, "Well, this doesn't even look like Van Erp.

This is so peculiar, why is it Van Erp?"

Several things.

It doesn't really need a signature, even though it's got one.

Number one, this rim at the bottom, this rolled rim, that's very hard to do.

It's labor intensive and exacting and very few metalsmiths could make a rim this perfectly rounded at the bottom.

Number two, the hammer marks, which are all through the shade, are light and perfectly even.

It takes a very trained hand to be able to bang out a piece of copper to the same depth all the way around.

Furthermore, the patina.

That patination, that brown coating on this is standard Van Erp patina-- rich, silky, deep brown.

So all the elements of this lamp are classic Van Erp, it's just the stylization and the techniques that are different.

That hole that we talked about a moment ago, this is the fourth time I've seen this on a Van Erp lamp.

Really?

And all four lamps were in California.

Huh.

It's possible it was an elbow, but I'm thinking it's an earthquake that knocked the lamp off at one point.

Oh.

Because what happens is they fall off and the arm penetrates the shade.

And this arm, as you can see, doesn't have a tab at the end of it like the other three do.

So that arm went through that and they all have an oval hole where the arm penetrates them.

Interesting.

And they can be fixed; it's demanding and difficult work, but I'm thinking if it was properly repaired, at auction, between $6,000 and $9,000.

Wow.

In mint condition it would have been maybe $8,000 to $12,000.

But you never know, because this is so unusual, if someone was building the quintessential Van Erp collection and wanted all elements of the design where he also maintained the high quality of craftsmanship, this could bring double to triple what I just said.

Wow.

WOMAN: It was a family piece that had been broken and never put on a doll and was given to my mother.

Do you know anything about it other than that?

No, nothing.

Well, what you have is a German doll, and we call it a decorated parian or decorated bisque doll, decorated meaning all of this extra stuff that's on it.

And it's fun coming to the Roadshow for me because I often see things I've never seen before.

I have seen this face and this shoulder with this little black comb, Yes.

but I've never seen these other things added together.

So we've got blue feathers, we've got a rose, we've got pierced ears, we've got glass eyes.

We have all kinds of stuff going on in this one little head.

Right.

And you say it's never been on a body.

No.

Often heads like this were sold as heads only in stores.

Right.

Well, I consulted with my friends at our table over there and we came up with a price between $1,500 and $2,000.

Oh, my.

Yeah.

WOMAN: My father went to school in Scotland and then came back to the States, and that childhood made him very history- and geography-oriented.

He moved to Costa Rica and couldn't take everything with him, so he gave me these.

APPRAISER: This is certainly one of the first and earliest Trans-Mississippi West maps.

It's the earliest printed map to show both North and South America divided by an isthmus.

It was done in Basel, Switzerland.

The geographer was a man named Sebastian Münster.

Oh.

And the wood block was made in 1540.

And these wood blocks were used from 1540 to actually 1588, when new wood blocks were made because of added information.

In the wood block, they cut little rectangular squares into the wood block and set moveable type into that to produce this in an offset way.

The interest is in the Americas.

And going down the coast of North America, it goes all the way up to the maritime provinces.

There's areas here that are just not mapped yet, but one of the things that we know, this piece of information here, this body of water, is called the "False Sea of Verrazano."

When Verrazano came up the east coast of North America, he missed Chesapeake Bay.

He did find New York Bay because now we have the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, but he did look across Pamlico Sound off the Carolina coast and he saw a body of water.

He extrapolated that that body of water went all the way to the Orient because that's what he wanted to believe.

You have two different flags.

This is the flag of Spain; this is the flag of Portugal.

This goes back to the Treaty of Tordesillas, when the pope said, "I'm going to split the New World between Spain and Portugal so that you two won't fight over it."

Well, it was a geographical mistake because the line kind of came down through here, so Brazil ended up being Portugal and all the rest was Spain.

As we look at Brazil, this little wood block illustration shows a native hut.

And, of course, this is sort of the anti-image of America.

You have this fascinating picture of a cannibal hut, and here's a leg.

Did you ever notice this leg hanging off?

No.

No.

Well... (laughs) It's a little scarier now.

You go on down through here, and this is Magellan Straits, Magellanica.

Magellan didn't know this was an island.

He thought that there was a continent down here.

Oh.

Again, he extrapolated.

Going into the Pacific, this is Magellan's ship that's being shown.

We know another source of this map was Marco Polo because as you go up into the middle of the Pacific, you have the island of Zipangi.

Well, Zipangi was Marco Polo's name for Japan.

The text here is in German.

There's German text on the back.

You will find Münster's maps in French, in Italian.

A lot of them are in Latin.

This particular map is a collector's gem.

It's got beautiful old color.

We never know for sure when it was colored.

Some were colored originally; some were colored in subsequent centuries.

Retail price for this would be $4,500.

Wow.

At an auction you might get higher.

You might get lower, but still, that's where I would settle in on this.

I'm so excited.

I'm just so thrilled.

This was brought by my great-grandfather from the Cherokee nation on the Oklahoma border in 1846.

And a Cherokee Indian warrior made it for him because he really did appreciate all that my great-grandfather, who was a lieutenant in the army at that point.

After he left Oklahoma border, he went to Monterrey, Mexico, with his regiment and then he brought it and the letter to San Diego on his horse, which is wonderful.

This is a remarkable object, and it had a long life prior to its trip to Monterrey and San Diego.

Yes, it did.

This bag was made by a woman, a Cherokee woman, for her husband, probably.

And it was meant to be worn around the shoulders.

I wondered.

With the pouch hanging at the side.

Uh-huh.

And inside the pouch it would carry flint, fire-making tools, kindling.

Oh, in this?

In the pouch, yes.

Oh, okay.

And, fortunately, we have one object that remains that was inside the pouch-- the little plug of tobacco right next to you there.

The designs are floral, and those floral designs are herbal in nature.

They would protect the wearer.

They might help him in the hunt, help him in warfare.

You mean all these say something?

All of these floral elements do say something very specific, Ah.

and it's meant to protect the owner.

It's a very important bag.

Uh-huh.

In the late 1830s, however, the Cherokee had a terrible tragedy.

They were removed from their homeland in Alabama and Georgia and forcefully moved west To Oklahoma.

by the administration of President Andrew Jackson.

This is an amazingly beautiful bag.

It suffered a bit in its many journeys; the condition is a little bit rough.

It can be restored very professionally.

The colors in the bag reflect a woman of superior craftsmanship.

She just had an amazing eye for color.

All of the elements are trade elements; none of these are native or indigenous to Indian people-- the red strap cloth, the glass beads, silk thread.

The bag is backed with printed calico, which would have come from England.

Equally important, from a historical perspective, is this document.

The document is dated 1846.

Uh-huh.

It's signed by your great-grandfather, who was in the 1st Dragoon regiment.

Yes.

One of the things that makes this document so very important is it actually mentions the bag.

Yes.

It mentions the owner of the bag and the circumstances of its collection and its history.

It's just a remarkable document.

It is.

It ties everything together.

The bag itself probably dates to the 1820s.

I bet.

It would have left the Southeast-- Alabama, Georgia-- maybe around 1835, 1837, and then finally made its way to your grandfather's hands in 1846.

I think this bag, in its present condition, if it did not have this very important document that tracks its history across the country, Yeah.

would be about $25,000.

Oh, my goodness.

However, the document and the name of the Indian-- Tucquo, a Cherokee-- the bag and the document together, I think would have a value of about $100,000.

Oh, that's a lot of money.

That's a great deal of money.

It would be a little expensive, it might cost about $7,500 to be professionally stabilized.

Uh-huh, oh I see.

Some of the beadwork would have to be replaced.

There's a little hole in the cloth, the blue strap cloth.

I know, a moth.

Exactly, but that could be filled in.

And I think that would increase the value and increase its beauty.

Thank you so much for bringing it.

Well, thank you for telling me about it.

What did you bring me?

The Laff Box.

A Laff Box?

Where'd you get it?

At a storage auction.

The people don't pay their bills and they auction the stuff off to pay the storage fees.

So, did you get a lot of stuff in the locker?

All their used household goods, their washer and dryer, things like that, furniture.

So what made you think this would be worth bringing to Antiques Roadshow?

It was just an interesting thing and I was actually going to throw it away because it just didn't look like it had any value.

But I just thought it's interesting, so then I started doing a little more research of what it is.

You found out that this was the laugh track machine, Yes, uh-huh.

the original one.

The original.

This little machine is a group of tape loops.

Okay.

And Charlie Douglass invented this laugh track machine for early television.

In 1953, he said, "We need a better audio solution for the audience reaction," so he would get really great recordings and then offer those recordings to the television companies to enhance their programming.

Why don't you push one of the buttons?

(laughter) So that would be put onto the finished product of a television program.

And then, to add to that, you brought in his actual journal book of all the shows that he did.

That's right, yes.

And you find almost every important television show from 1953 all the way up to "Cheers."

Yeah, I don't know some of these shows.

They're historical, important shows.

There's some here... this one says "Merv screams."

One of these says "Beatles."

So that adds to the value that he has audience reactions Okay.

to some of the most important shows, too.

But what this box is is an important part of television history.

Okay.

Because television would not be the same without a laugh track.

To me, this is as important as early cameras, as important as many of the computer technologies that exist today.

Okay.

Push another button, let's see what we have.

(laughter) So the big joke right now is on the guy who didn't pay the storage locker rent.

Yeah, that's true.

And that's because this item is probably worth about $10,000.

Okay.

And the reason I think this is the only one that exists is because Charlie Douglass was very secretive about his device, therefore he could go into a studio with his team with his black box and do the work for them.

And then he'd take his black box and not let anybody see what was in it.

How much did you pay for the locker?

$650.

And what did you make on all the other stuff?

About a thousand.

Oh, you're a winner.

Give yourself some applause.

Okay.

(applause) Oh, I'm going to push one, too, because I like it.

(laughter) ♪ ♪ WALBERG: It's not often that "Roadshow" gets to visit a floating museum, let alone one as massive and historically important as the U.S.S.

Midway.

Midway holds the record as being the longest-serving U.S. Navy aircraft carrier of the 20th century.

It was commissioned one week after the end of World War II, decommissioned in 1992, and finally moved to San Diego to become a museum in 2004.

Expert Rafael Eledge joined us to discuss the evolution of a 19th-century sailor's sidearm, the cutlass.

Well, Rafe, the cutlass is a sword most commonly associated with the U.S. Navy, or any navy for that matter, and it's been used by many countries over many centuries.

Why are they so popular?

Well, in the times before these aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, it was actually man-to-man fighting.

And the cutlass was the perfect weapon for that up-close fighting.

We're talking about like in the swashbuckling movies where they'd swing from a rope from one tall ship to the other and then they'd start at it.

That actually happened; it's not just a movie set.

Well, I prefer to watch it in the movies, personally, but we've got some great examples of cutlasses here.

And let's start with this one.

This one is one of my favorites.

It's a Model 1816 cutlass made by the Nathan Starr Company in Middletown, Connecticut.

This is one of the earliest American-made cutlasses.

Before this sword, they were basically copies of European swords from the English and French navies.

It has a wooden handle that's smooth.

Later models would actually put ribs in the wood to make it easier to hold onto.

It has a hand-forged iron guard.

Just a very functional but not pretty sword.

Would this be issued to an enlisted man or to an officer?

Well, these were for the actual fighting men, so they would be the enlisted men.

Not to say an officer couldn't use it if it came down to it, but these were in the hands of the guys that actually boarded those ships.

And what would you say the value would be of this?

This one, in today's market, would retail for about $2,000.

Let's move on to the second example here.

And boy, you sure can see a change in design with this one.

This sword is a Model 1841 naval cutlass.

They're made by the Ames Company in Massachusetts.

What does this sword look like to you?

Well, you know, the blade reminds me of what you see of those Roman gladiators.

And that's basically what it's patterned after.

And if you notice, this sword has a single edge-- the early model has a single edge.

This one has a double edge because it's for slashing.

They used actually a massive brass handle on these swords.

It's cast in two pieces and it's a little bit more contoured to your hand, especially if you're wet from sea spray, you could hold onto the grip better.

They made 6,400 of these from 1841 to 1846.

And the value today?

Today, without a scabbard, would be worth about $1,000.

And if I had the scabbard?

If you had the scabbard, it would more than double the price.

Oh, my goodness.

All right, let's take a look at this third example here.

Who made this?

This one is also made by the Ames Company, but it's the new and improved model over this one.

It's the Model 1860 naval cutlass.

They changed several things about this sword from the previous model.

It's a little bit longer blade.

They have the large brass handguard, and if you notice, it's thinner, but it actually protects the hand better when you hold it.

It has a wooden handle with a leather covering over it.

We actually have the 1861 production date.

On the other side, we have the mark of the Ames Manufacturing Company in Chicopee, Massachusetts.

They used a scroll-top design for the maker's mark.

They do make reproductions of this, but once you hold one of each, there's no doubt.

The original ones are well crafted.

They just feel right in your hand.

So what would you say would be the value of a cutlass like this?

Well, this one has the scabbard.

And again, the scabbard is much more rare than the sword.

Right.

With the scabbard, this one's worth about $1,500 to $2,000.

Well, these are really...

I was going to say "a lovely slice of history," but that pun is probably not the best idea.

Thanks so much, Rafael.

Glad to be here.

MAN: They're part of a collection that my wife and I started many years ago.

We have about 200 different crèches, most of which only get put out at Christmastime.

But this is one of our favorites, and it's on display all the time in our house.

Uh-huh.

We purchased it in Manila, the Philippines, about five years ago, and I don't know very much about it.

We were told that it was probably from the 18th century, but the dealer did not know any more than that, and we just liked it so much that we decided to go ahead and buy it.

Well, you were correct; they are from the 18th century.

They are amazing quality.

The heads and the hands are all carved out of ivory.

The Baby Jesus is fully carved all out of ivory also.

The eyes are inset glass eyes.

The bodies are all carved out of wood, articulated.

And it's really quite amazing that they've all stayed together, you know, that all three of them haven't been split up.

Are they likely made by the same person?

Yes, but putting a name actually on who made them is very difficult.

Right.

They're definitely continental.

I would say Italian or possibly French.

The carving in the beard of the Joseph here is just beautiful.

The Virgin Mary probably would have kneeled with that peg in her leg there.

Originally, they probably would have had some really fine silk clothes on them, which have rotted away by now, and a lot of times had beautiful metallic lace with the silk.

Do you have any idea what the value is on these?

No idea at all.

When we went to buy them, the dealer was asking about $900, and we negotiated for about four hours, and we paid a little less than $400 for them.

On the retail market, I would value these at $10,000 to $12,000.

Oh, my Lord.

Wow.

They are really remarkable, beautiful.

Wow.

Actually the best I've seen.

Really amazing.

Oh, it's... it's hard to believe.

What did you say, $10,000 to $12,000?

Yeah.

Wow.

(both chuckling) WOMAN: I was in London in the '80s, visiting my brother-in-law and my sister-in-law, who were living there at the time, and I went to the street markets in London and found these pieces.

I like things that are unusual and have character, and I thought these three pieces had a lot of character and were very unusual.

This ring has a ship under what I think is rock crystal.

The slide I know used to be worn around the neck with probably a velvet ribbon.

And this ring, I loved it because it's as interesting underneath as it is on top.

Let's start with the ring closest to me.

And this is a Georgian ring.

You thought it was...

I thought it was early 1800s.

It's a little older than that.

It's more like 1750, and I'll show you why.

This is a beautiful family crest ring.

The center of the ring is a carnelian intaglio with a detailed carving of the family crest, and it was their family.

It could probably be researched.

The shoulders of the ring are chased and engraved and have rose-cut diamonds set into them.

And what's remarkable about rings of the Georgian era is if I show the inside of the ring, it's as decorated and engraved as the outside, in a place where only the owner would see it.

A wonderful example, rare and hard to find, in beautiful, almost unworn, condition.

Oh!

Good.

The next piece that you found, it was a slide and they just centered it on their throat.

How old did you think this was?

Early 1800s again?

On this one, you're off by almost 200 years.

This is called a Stuart crystal, and it's from the 17th century, meaning it's about 1650.

(laughing): Really?

Oh, my goodness.

And these came into fashion during the era of the Stuarts in the early 1600s and continued through the century.

It was kind of the tail end of the Renaissance, and the earliest ones are decorated with enamel on the back.

This one is just plain gold.

But the front of this one is extraordinary.

It has faceted rock crystal, and under that are these three-dimensional figures that are enameled with a border of gold around that and a colored background.

And I think there's a cupid in there with a bow and arrow.

But remarkable that a jewel like this from 1650 could survive and still could be worn on a ribbon and be a functional, beautiful piece of jewelry.

It could be.

It could be, right, right.

The last piece that you brought, not decorated on the inside.

This ring is all about the front and the outside.

And you can see that it's a ship.

What's remarkable about this carving is the detail.

Some of these pieces of ivory carved as thin as a strand of hair.

And although some of the rigging has fallen down, this is amazing.

And this ring is quite early.

It dates about 18th century.

So, what do you think you might have spent?

I'm sure I didn't spend any more than $200 on any one of them.

Our Georgian intaglio ring, the crest ring, in today's retail market, this ring would bring approximately $4,500.

Oh, my!

The Stuart crystal slide in the center, highly collectible, quite rare, and this one has a most detailed and unusual subject matter.

This slide would be about $6,500.

(laughing): Oh, really?

Oh!

And the ship's model under glass-- that's not crystal, that one's under glass...

Okay.

I've never quite seen another one.

Ships collectors are fierce, and that one I see at $7,500.

Oh, my goodness.

In retail for a collector.

Oh, my gosh, that's fantastic.

MAN: I've brought in a painting that has been in my family for many years.

It was passed down to me by my parents.

I believe my mother bought it in Chicago in the '40s, but that's all I really know about it.

Mm-hmm.

And so you inherited it and have it here in your home in California?

We've had it in storage.

Oh, really?

It moved from storage at my parents' house to storage at our house.

Oh, I see.

And do you know who the artist is?

I do not.

Okay.

Well, if we look here in the lower right area, you'll see that there is a date and there is a signature.

And it is a bit difficult to read, but it's actually Jonson-- J-O-N-S-O-N. And this painting is by the painter Raymond Jonson, who is most associated with New Mexico.

He was born in 1891 in Iowa, and he grew up mostly in Oregon.

When he was a young man, he went to Chicago, and he went there to study with Nordfeldt, who was a well-known artist at the time, as well as at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Ah.

And while there, he was a theater set painter.

He also saw the Armory show of 1913, which, of course, was a very avant garde show, and that influenced him and his painting.

He began to dislike the chaos and filth of the city of Chicago at the time, and he decided to move to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1924.

And when he started painting, he first started painting abstract landscapes.

And he did that until about the mid-1930s, and in the '30s, he changed direction entirely.

Rather than painting the tangible, even in abstract form, he decided to paint the intangible, or the spiritual.

Mmm.

And so what we get...

This painting, of course, was done in 1937, so around the same time period.

He's very interested in form and the movement of form and the rhythm.

And you see varying colored planes here, and you see the undulating forms which relates all to the rhythm and to the spirituality.

He was known as a Transcendentalist for that reason, and he was head of a group of painters in New Mexico called the Transcendentalists.

Ah.

Now, he taught at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque and did that for many, many years, until he died in 1982.

So he lived quite a long life, almost a hundred years.

Yeah-- wow.

In terms of this particular piece, it is very characteristic of the 1930s.

It's a little bit paler in palette than some of his other works.

In terms of the condition, we see that there are lighter colors here.

These are actually paint losses.

These areas can be restored, but it's really fairly minimal.

Pieces from this period are quite popular in the present marketplace.

If this were being offered in a gallery, I would say that the gallery price would be $50,000.

Wow.

I'm...

I'm astonished.

That is amazing.

MAN: Well, it's a German cuckoo clock.

I had a fellow that come to me that said he had a clock he wanted to sell.

When I went to his house to see this, I was totally amazed that it was this large.

I was overwhelmed.

His father had bought it in 1965.

What did you pay for it?

He wanted between $600 and $700.

We settled on $650.

Six hundred and fifty dollars.

Yes.

Well, this is a very large cuckoo clock.

You're right, it is German, Black Forest.

It's exceptional because of its size.

These are the ones that really do well on the market today.

It does have a little bit of restoration.

These guns have been added.

They probably originally were there, but somebody has redone them.

It's in wonderful condition, probably a clock that I think would retail around $3,500 today.

My colleague thinks maybe at auction it could bring a bit more than that, maybe as much as $5,000.

That's great.

MAN: Well, this is a book that belonged to my uncle.

He gave it to me a few years ago.

He was an artist.

He graduated from the Chicago Art Institute.

It was given to him, I'm thinking, by somebody at the Art Institute.

He told me the book was very valuable, but it didn't really mean much to me.

He wanted me to get it appraised, so I sent pictures of the book and never heard back from them.

Since then I've done a lot of research on the internet, so I know a little bit about the book, and I thought, "Who better to take it to but Antiques Roadshow?"

This is a series of periodicals.

It's Alfred Stieglitz' famous "291" magazine that was named after his photographic studio in New York.

The 12 issues were published between 1915 to '16, and it really represents the birth of modernism and avant garde in America.

It was incredibly farseeing and ahead of its time for its day.

Stieglitz and the others conceived the run as a whole 12-issue run.

That's all they ever meant to publish.

It was issued in an edition of 1,100 copies.

100 copies were printed on vellum, and the other thousand copies were on paper.

This is the paper edition.

We have the book opened here to the machine portraits, but I want to take a minute and turn to a couple of other pages.

This is the cover of the very first issue here.

These have been bound, but there's a complete set of all 12 of the issues of this just legendary magazine.

It was a financial disaster for Stieglitz.

Of the original print runs in the two editions, he sold eight subscriptions in vellum and 100 subscriptions on paper.

The entire rest of the print run he sold to a rag picker in New York City for $5.80.

Wow.

Full sets rarely come on the market.

A full run of these in the condition that these are in would bring at retail approximately $25,000.

Wow.

Wow.

Well, my uncle always said it was something special.

MAN: I was in downtown La Jolla.

There was this antique store with golf clubs in the window.

I asked the price, $600 for these.

I had to have them, so packed them up and took them home.

How long ago was this?

2001.

This is the old school golf.

When I saw Jones on there, I wasn't sure if it was Robert Jones, Bobby Jones, really who he was at the time, but old wood golf clubs look cool on a wall.

The explosion of golf occurred in the early 1900s, thanks to Harry Vardon and then Francis Ouimet, who won the 1913 U.S. Open against Harry Vardon.

People loved to play golf.

Golf courses went everywhere, and manufacturers like Spalding-- the brand on these clubs-- MacGregor and Wilson, they started making hickory-shafted clubs in the millions to satisfy the need for all the golfers.

A lot of people think that because hickory-shafted clubs are old, they're worth a lot of money.

The fact is that 90% are probably under $50.

Mm-hmm.

Now, the wood shaft era started ending in the 1920s, because in 1924, the U.S.G.A.

legalized steel-shafted clubs.

But it took a few years to get up to speed, and it also took a few years for people, particularly traditionalists, to come over to playing steel-shafted clubs.

But once they found out, A, they were more durable, and, B, they could get more distance on the clubs, they came over.

But you have someone who's old school, like Bobby Jones, he won the Grand Slam in 1930-- the British Open, U.S. Open, British Amateur and U.S.

Amateur-- by using hickory-shafted clubs.

He retired after that, and then he made a deal with Spalding to create steel-shafted clubs, which he did starting in the early '30s.

So what you have here is a set of irons that say "Bobby Jones" on them.

The original clubs they made, the steel-shafted ones, they painted to look like hickory, and a lot of people today think that they have hickory and they may have something rare, when they actually don't.

In one year, for one catalog in 1933, they offered hickory-shafted clubs, and they did that for traditionalists.

And you couldn't just get them from the catalog.

You had to actually call up and custom-order them.

So these are very rare.

Good.

They're in nice condition.

You have the two through nine; you're missing the one iron.

Now, the golf club market has changed.

It's not as dynamic as it once was, and there are some prices that have actually dropped, so I'd put an auction estimate of $5,000 to $7,000.

Wow.

That's a pretty good deal for 600 bucks.

Absolutely.

My grandmother had it, and we're not sure where she got it.

We're thinking either a wedding present or perhaps her parents gave it to her.

Don't know the age, don't really know where it came from.

Okay, well, it's a kind of lamp that we don't see all that often.

It's called an Argand lamp.

It's named after its Swiss inventor named Argand.

And the design was developed in the 1780s.

This lamp is a little later than that, but the thing that made the lamp really so special was a circular wick.

So instead of having a straight wick like a typical lamp, the circular wick created about...

I'd probably guess about six times the light that a candle would produce.

So they were all the rage.

They were something that was very popular.

It was sort of the greatest thing since sliced bread as far as home lighting went.

They were popular with sort of these upwardly mobile young homeowners, and they were pushed as being really the thing that you had to have.

They burned whale oil.

And it doesn't seem to have any marks on it as far as the manufacturer, but it's probably English.

There were a number of firms both in Britain and France that made these.

It does have a little label here that says "B. Gardiner," and that's for "Baldwin Gardiner," who was a retailer in New York City, where he would have sold these through his showroom.

It's a great form.

I mean, it's really... it's gutsy, it's sort of over the top, it has decoration everywhere.

And when you think about 19th-century America, you don't think of this much style until you get to the Victorian era.

So it was really sort of a bridge from the, probably, 1830s.

Wow.

Then it has these etched globes.

They are a little different from each other.

I think one's a replacement.

I believe one is.

And then these lusters you can see in front.

And these were there for a decorative purpose.

They were also there to help reflect the light.

You'd get a lot from this.

It would be like having a halogen lamp in your house.

Wow.

I think you mentioned that you have two others at home.

Yes, we have a set of three.

One has a right arm, one has a left arm, and then this one would be the center piece.

People who decorate in a really high American classical style or early 19th-century style love these, because they really are sort of a showstopper.

Mm-hmm.

And if you were to try to find something similar in a shop, you'd expect a retail replacement price to be probably somewhere in the $8,000 to $10,000 range, so they're definitely a prize possession.

The pair that you have of side lamps that are the single arm certainly would make this more compelling because it would be the whole intact three-piece garniture.

The whole set would be twice that.

And then you're probably looking in the $10,000 to $15,000 range.

Mm-hmm.

Thanks again for bringing them in, a treat to see.

Oh, it's been fun.

Thank you.

Thank you.

WOMAN: My husband called me.

He had been out, and he said, "Down the street, "there's a house that they're cleaning out, and there's a couch on the curb and a Dumpster."

We were looking for a sofa for my daughter, who was moving into a condominium.

And so I grabbed my mom and I said, "Let's go look."

So we get to the street, and the sofa is, like, brand new and I felt really guilty about taking it, so I walked up to the door and I knocked on the door and I said, "Is it free?"

And he said, "Yes, take it."

And he goes, "What else does she need?"

And I go, "Well, we need some rugs and some other things."

And he said, "I got a whole Dumpster full of stuff, so you're welcome to go through it."

My mom and I started going through the Dumpster, and he was helping us pull out bags of these rugs, and so we're putting them in the car along with some other stuff, got them home, thought they were pretty ugly and that they weren't going to look good in the condo at all, actually, and so then the more we started looking at them, we thought, "Well, maybe they're, like, something.

Maybe they're, like, a collection of something."

Mm-hmm.

So that's how we got them.

And you brought four in today and we selected this one to look at.

Right.

You've done a little bit of research on your own?

Yes.

If it's real, we did find something very, very similar to this on the internet.

It came from the Tekke Turkoman tribe, or at least these patterns did, and it's something called an "animal tree" pattern.

And I'm not quite sure how to say the word, but it's an amalysk, or something like that, rug.

Well, the internet is an amazing tool.

The trick is to know how much of that information is actually going to apply to your piece or not.

Right.

This is an asmalyk, and it's woven by the Tekke tribe, and the Tekke tribe were one of several tribes that lived in Turkmenistan, and the Tekke were near the Iranian border.

Okay.

And there's a long tradition of these nomads weaving these pieces both for utilitarian purposes and ceremonial purposes.

So an asmalyk would have been made as a dowry piece, but it would have been used in the wedding procession as a ceremonial piece, and it would have hung on the side of the camel during the bride's procession.

And then it would just simply go into the dowry.

And we see a lot of these asmalyks from the 19th century.

Most of the ones we see are from the late 19th century.

This one happens to be earlier.

I believe that this one is circa 1800, or it could possibly even be late 18th century.

Wow.

It's very hard to date these accurately.

If we look at the back, we can see how beautifully woven it is.

Mm-hmm.

Very, very fine knotting.

So that is handwoven.

Yes, it's hand-knotted.

It's hand-knotted, okay.

Yes, so there are a few hundred knots per square inch.

And how long would it have taken to make one of these?

It could have easily taken a year to make.

Wow.

The warp threads are very fine two-ply goat hair.

And the color range is also very nice for a good old Turkoman piece.

The reason it's called an "animal tree" asmalyk is that it has this tree flanked by two animals.

And the earlier ones, the animals have these little plumes, as opposed to the later ones, where the plumes are no longer there.

Oh.

The condition of the piece is pretty good for its age.

There is a patch that's been put in, and that's a patch from another rug.

That's something that could very easily be rewoven by an expert.

Okay.

Now, you found one on the internet that had sold at auction, and that was a related example that sold in 2004.

And you mentioned that it had sold for about $140,000.

Or pounds, I don't know which one.

What is your gut feeling about whether it's right or not?

I can't even believe that it would be near that.

First of all, I thought it was machine made.

My husband really believes that it's real, that it's the real thing.

Okay.

And I'm still skeptical.

Well, I believe that a collector would pay a retail price of between $125,000 and $150,000.

You are serious?!

I'm serious.

Oh, my gosh!

He was right-- I can't b...

Yes, we can pay for college!

Yes!

No.

Great!

Sell it.

No.

There are fewer than ten known, I believe, that have ever come up in this design Oh, my gosh, you're kidding.

that have sold publicly.

Now I'm really going to owe my mother, because she's the one that actually dove in the Dumpster to pull the bags out.

I love it.

You're watching "Antiques Roadshow" WALBERG: And now, it's time for the Roadshow Feedback Booth.

Today, I brought a tacky, ugly jewelry box, really scary.

It turns out this is like some New York boutique thing worth a couple hundred dollars.

I was going to throw it away this afternoon.

Now I don't think I am anymore.

And this is my lamp that my dad's best friend found in a Dumpster.

And it's worth about $8,000.

It's a Tiffany lamp.

(chuckles) This is a late-Victorian rose gold bracelet from England, and I came in to the Roadshow today because I've always watched the show and had this antique and wanted to know if it was worth anything.

They say it's worth about $800, and I'm pleased that it's both beautiful and has some value.

And I brought my rock poster from the Kaleidoscope from 1960.

I'm surprised I can remember that, considering it was the Kaleidoscope of 1960.

Turns out it's worth anywhere from $800 to $1,200.

And this old china cup is worth eight dollars.

(laughs) It's not china, earthenware.

Wh... (both laugh) This little box of nondescript medals is actually from the Revolutionary War.

Revolutionary War.

And it's worth almost, like, $1,500.

My husband insisted I brought it, and yay!

And now... (clearing her throat) And now, Mr. Cliff, who bought this in Estonia and told me it was worth a lot of money is a big fake.

But it's pretty.

I'm Mark Walberg.

Thanks for watching.

We'll see you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."

What an interesting print.

What do you know about it?

Well, I know it's from 1901, and it's the Industrial Revolution in London.

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