Vintage Palm Springs, Hour 2

♪ ♪ We call her Granny Grump because she's kind of sour.

I have to say that I'm bowled over.

I can't believe that.

Oh!

Is that a big surprise?

(laughs) (gasps) (laughing): Oh, my God.

♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: "Roadshow" is back in Palm Springs, California, known originally to the Cahuilla Indians as Boiling Water.

This desert oasis has been part of the Cahuilla people's territory for thousands of years.

And it's been 14 years since "Roadshow" uncovered some rich history of our own.

You can see, in the lower part of the etching, Rembrandt's initials in the plate.

The etching is also dated just 3-0, for 1630.

So he was 24 years old when he made this self-portrait.

PEÑA: Let's see which finds have fizzled out or heated up...

This lamp is the stuff that Tiffany dreams are made of.

PEÑA: ...in "Vintage Palm Springs: Hour Two."

WOMAN: I got that in about...

I would say in the late '70s or early '80s.

And I got it at Robinson's department store in their estate sale department.

Actually, my husband brought it home and surprised me.

It was a gift from your husband.

It was a gift.

How much did he pay for it?

It was, uh, a little over $3,000 with tax.

Uh-huh.

And that was a lot of money to us.

Tell me what you've learned about the piece since then.

Well, I know it's a signed Tiffany piece.

I know it's, uh, handmade.

At the store, they told him it was about the 1920s.

These are beautiful black opals.

The larger opal is slightly crazed.

The smaller opal is in perfect condition.

Both opals are what are known as patchwork opals with lots of play of color, with lots of red, which is a very desirable color.

But not only is it signed Tiffany and Company on the bottom, looking at the workmanship here tells me that the work is by Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Really?

And his work was signed Tiffany and Company after 1907.

I believe it dates to the teens.

It is beautifully handmade and a very desirable piece of jewelry.

The value today is somewhere, average retail, between $70,000 and $90,000.

Oh, my God.

It's a treasure.

You're kidding me.

No, I'm not kidding you.

Say that again.

Between $70,000 and $90,000, average retail.

It's a spectacular piece of jewelry by Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Thank you so much for making my day.

(laughing): Well, thank you for making my day.

(both laugh) That's wonderful.

Thank you.

You're quite welcome.

Oh.

Is that a big surprise?

(laughing) (gasps) (laughing): Oh, my God.

MAN: I've had the picture for about ten years.

We call her Granny Grump, because she's kind of sour.

It belonged to my godfather.

And before that, his mother and his grandmother in a small town in Kentucky called Louisa, at their, uh, farmhouse called the Bird's Nest.

About 25 years ago, a gentleman who worked for a museum in Atlanta saw it, and at that time, because it had hung over the fireplace for so many years, it was so smoke-covered that all you could really see was the face.

Well, he made this concoction and he took cotton balls and he started in little tiny circles, little tiny areas.

And he cleaned the whole area.

We weren't even aware of the fact that she had this either, uh, bow or hat on.

And at first, we could only tell that she had a little bit of this white sort of bib on.

And it just opened up the whole picture.

What you said about Granny Grump is exactly what drew me to the picture in the first place.

I think this is the artist Sheldon Peck.

One of the characteristics of Sheldon Peck is this pinched or scowly expression, and this penetrating gaze in the sitter's eyes.

And I found it fascinating that you said that she was from Kentucky, because Sheldon Peck was an itinerant painter who began his career in Vermont.

And in Vermont, he painted on panel, and when he moved to Illinois, he painted on canvas, and this is oil on canvas.

Canvas?

One thing that I find a bit different about this is, her costume is a little out of character, but maybe some sort of special regional characteristic or a celebration collar.

What you do have, I think it was probably painted in the 1830s, are these big muttonchop sleeves with this great detail.

The plain background is also characteristic of his work.

What you see in her hair is not a hat, but a tortoise comb, which is very fashionable.

A tortoise comb, okay.

Very fashionable for a lady of that time.

So, Granny Grump was also very stylish, as we can tell by her manner of dress.

I also think the frame is probably original to the stretcher.

Given that she's a single portrait with a plain background, the price at auction would probably bring around $30,000.

Wow!

I'm impressed.

It's gonna go right back where it was and it's gonna stay there.

Granny Grump is worth a lot of money.

Thank you, Granny.

(both laugh) WOMAN: They belonged to my grandfather, and he gave them to me.

I'm a biologist... Oh.

...and he knows that I like nature.

Well, this is a wonderful collection of prints.

Benjamin Wilkes is the naturalist, the entomologist, who worked on this.

This is the date of the publication, 1773.

These are, are great for study, and natural history libraries have these.

These plates were engraved on copper.

They were printed in black and white, and then they were colored by hand with watercolors.

If you sold it to a dealer, a fair price to pay, $5,000, $7,000.

Uh, you'd have to go, to kind of go through and see any ones that needed conservation.

MAN: I was traveling in Europe, and it was 1975.

One of the places I went was to Helsinki.

I saw a little antique shop, and I saw this little box, and I said, "Where is it from?"

And she says, "It's Russian."

And I said, "Oh, and how much is it?"

She said, "$75."

I said, "Okay, I'll take it."

It is silver, and it's enameled on both sides.

It is Russian, and the exciting thing is that it's hallmarked by Khlebnikov, which is a very fine maker from St. Petersburg, and it dates from about 1880.

This would bring at auction about $3,000 to $5,000.

You are kidding.

So $75 in 1975.

(laughs) Pretty good return on your investment.

WOMAN: Quite a number of years ago, my father purchased this for my mother.

I believe it was purchased in San Francisco, and she gave it to me about ten years ago.

Okay.

And have you ever had it appraised or had anybody look at this piece before?

Yes, I did.

Um, we brought it to a jeweler in Palm Desert, and he was unable to appraise it because he wasn't quite sure what it was.

I see, okay.

Well, it's a lovely piece of jewelry.

It's set throughout with small rose-cut diamonds, and the bottom here is a carved agate shell.

And what's so beautiful about this particular piece is that not only is it a fluted shell, but they've carved it to coordinate the banding in the agate with the actual lip of the black-lipped oyster.

And in the center here, we have this little dangling pearl.

It's wonderful.

The beauty of this piece was, when I turned it over, on the back, there were some hallmarks.

Mm-hmm.

And the hallmarks were in Russian and in Cyrillic.

And the two initials on here are the initials that represent Fabergé.

We know that name.

So you've heard that name before.

Yes.

So I, I'm happy to confirm with you the piece is by Fabergé.

Wonderful.

It dates from about 1880.

I would say that at auction, you can expect a piece like this to fetch somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000.

Wow, that's great.

Thank you very, very much.

Well, it's my pleasure.

I'm glad we've had a chance to see this and be able to talk about it.

WOMAN: About five years ago, we were getting ready to turn the remains of my family's ranch into a museum.

So my dad and I went down to this barn, and we're up in the hayloft, and we hauled out this small little suitcase that was kind of falling apart, and in it was this doll and all of her accessories.

APPRAISER: So this was a family doll.

Yes.

It is marked on the body "Jumeau."

Now, Jumeau started making Bébés in the mid-1870s.

Before that, they were making fashion dolls, lady dolls.

Their very first series of children dolls we call the portrait Jumeaus, and they look very much like this doll, but it is not a portrait Jumeau.

This is more of a transition to a new period in Jumeau making.

This is their Bébé.

You can't see the entire mark.

But you see right there, you see a one.

Underneath the one is an E and a J.

What the E.J.

stands for is Émile Jumeau.

What the one means is the size number.

And later on, they made another E.J.

that says E, and then the number, and then J.

Now, this is a lot more difficult to find than that E.J.

E1J is about 9.5 inches, where this earlier E.J.

model is 11 inches.

This leather cap here is the original goatskin wig, where all the goat hair has fallen off.

It has hand-cut eye sockets, it has these early threaded enameled glass blue eyes, and it has this great pale complexion.

Later on, Jumeaus get a little bit more skin tone.

It has finely painted brows.

All their Bébés had pierced ears.

I do want to note that these lower arms are repainted.

It does have the original Médaille d'Or stamp on the torso.

They won a medal in the Paris Exposition, and that's why they stamped it Médaille d'Or.

And so that dates this doll pretty accurately: 1879-1880.

Does that rhyme with...

Yes, it does.

Uh, it belonged to my great-aunt, and she was born in 1882.

Now let's talk about the value.

We're evaluating it without the original dress, without the original wig, without the original shoes.

It's just basically bare-bones doll.

So, in this state, it would be an auction estimate of $10,000 to $12,000.

(mouthing) I said I wasn't gonna say, "You're kidding me," and I'm not going... (laughs) I, I'm, I'm just flabbergasted.

I was thinking maybe $1,000.

MAN: I got it at a garage sale.

Found it for a dollar.

Oh, good, for a dollar, really?

For a dollar.

It's a painting of Yosemite.

It's, uh, clearly Bridalveil Falls and the floor of the valley down below.

A very popular spot for painters and artists.

It's by Thomas Hill, you see the, down here, the signature, it says "T. Virgil Hill."

And then below that, it says "1908."

We know his, his dates are 1871 to 1922, is when he lived.

Oh, okay.

Now, Thomas Hill, Jr., is the son of Thomas Hill, who is also a very famous painter of Yosemite.

Now, this painting you said you got at a, a garage sale.

How long've you had it?

About 25 years.

Have you thought about, uh, restoring it at all, have you... No.

This painting is, uh, we'd say in the business, it's filthy dirty.

Yes.

Um, if you look at it in places like this, you see stains.

Looks almost like coffee stains.

But that's probably the varnish, which has discolored.

And this color here, the, the falls should be almost white, and it's very...

Dark.

...grayish-brown there.

So, I think this would liven up a lot.

Thomas Hill, Jr., his paintings sell fairly well, but, but not as much as his father's.

If this were to go to an auction, I'd probably put an estimate of $5,000 to $7,000 on it.

All right, thank you.

Now, if it had been Thomas Hill, his father, this would be about $20,000 or $30,000 painting.

Well, I more or less inherited it when my grandfather passed away in 1964.

It was purchased directly from Tiffany.

Actually, my grandfather purchased four lamps on February 11, 1915.

Which lamp is this lamp?

Uh, the one valued at $90 at the time... And... ...the cost.

$90, and so that was the dining room lamp.

That was the dining room lamp.

I also noticed that you brought a photograph of it hanging in the dining room.

What, what year would you say this was?

That is 1967 and that was Christmas Day.

And that's my mother, my father, and a cousin of mine.

Oh, that's great.

Well, I want to tell you, Tom, that this lamp is the stuff that Tiffany dreams are made of.

It has everything going for it.

Thank you.

It's in fabulous condition.

It's had two owners: your grandfather and then you.

Yes.

And it came directly from Tiffany Studios.

Yep.

It has the original patina.

It has something also very special, which is the original hardware.

Oh.

Many times, when people removed hanging Tiffany shades from homes, they took the shade and they left the hardware behind.

And probably 90% of the hanging shades out there today do not have their original hardware, but you have that, and that actually adds value to the lamp.

Oh.

This is called a turtle back glass lamp.

Okay, I've heard that term.

There are green turtle backs, red turtle backs, and yellow turtle backs.

This is probably one of the nicest green turtle back lamps I've ever seen.

And it is signed, but I'm not even going to show you the signature, mainly because this lamp is a signature in itself.

It's just 100% right.

Do you have any idea what it's worth?

I was told about 25 years ago that, uh, it was somewhere between $12,000 and $15,000 at that time.

Okay.

If this were for sale in a retail shop, I could see it selling easily for $150,000.

(chuckling): You're kidding.

No, I'm not.

(laughs) All's I can do is say thank you.

I appreciate it, thank you.

So, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for bringing it, it's gorgeous.

Wow.

WOMAN: I brought you a picture from the 1760s, 1780.

APPRAISER: It is what's called Chinese export reverse painting on glass.

So, it was painted in China, and then it was exported to the West for sale at the end of the 18th century.

So perhaps 1790-1800.

It's called "Hector Departing Andromache."

Here is Hector, and then you have his wife, Andromache, pleading him not to leave, and his young son Astyanax.

Hector was leading the counterattack against the Greeks.

He was a Trojan warrior.

If I were to see this at auction, I would expect it to be worth about $3,000 to $5,000.

It's a wonderful picture and thanks for bringing it in today.

WOMAN: This is a handwoven tapestry that's been in my family for 60, 70 years.

And the weaver was married to my grandmother.

He did a number of different themes, and one of them was some past presidents, and this is Franklin Roosevelt.

The thing that's incredible about this is that it's as close as you get to photorealism in the weaving art form.

He wove it horizontally, and the fact that he was able to get the proportion of the face and all the features on the face while weaving in this direction is extraordinary.

The shirt and the tie are done in silk and the other areas are done in wool, and then the hair is done again in silk.

I would say, you'd have to say $3,000 to $5,000 for an insurance value.

Wow!

Because where are you going to find anything even remotely like it?

Yeah, you couldn't.

It, it, it's something that will stay in the family, for sure.

WOMAN: I've attained this from a woman, I helped her do a yard sale.

She wanted to pay me half of the money, which was, like, $20 from the yard sale, and I wouldn't take any money, so she gave me, uh, the watch.

She said it was costume jewelry.

(chuckles) APPRAISER: This is, uh, probably about a turn-of-the-century enamel pendant watch, and it's silver on gold with a lot of high-relief enamel.

It comes apart and opens up.

It has a beautiful porcelain dial, and it's beautifully made.

It's French hallmarks.

A very unusual piece.

Very neat.

It snaps together, you can wear it as a pendant.

(murmurs) And it's in great shape.

Do you have any idea about it?

I didn't even know, I didn't even know it opened.

(chuckles) So...

Okay.

A piece of jewelry like this, in the right auction, it could bring $2,000.

Wow!

Excellent, excellent.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

Thank you.

I appreciate the appraisal.

Okay.

That's exciting.

MAN: That's my father, and he was a baseball umpire.

And he still umpires at the age of 90.

APPRAISER: 90-- when did he start?

He started in 1946 when he was, I guess, 31 years old.

He did Major League games when the Big League teams came to Hawaii.

And how many teams came over the years?

Uh, well, the Yankees came, the Dodgers came.

Cardinals.

So the big names.

The big names.

And you would occasionally go to the games.

I would always go to the games.

You would always go to the games.

(laughs) Which leads us to our second photo.

Okay.

Now, this had to be a special day for you.

This is you in the center, right?

Yes.

Jackie Robinson-- by the way, giving you a very weird look here.

I mean, were you giving him a pinch?

I think he's giving Campy a weird look.

Ah.

And then Roy Campanella on the other side.

Right.

What's your memory of this day?

Well, my father said, "Meet me near the dugout before the game," and so I showed up and, and he opened the gate, called me in, and he said, "I want my boy to sit right here."

And it was right next to Jackie Robinson.

Wow!

What were you thinking?

I remember thinking, "God, does he have big biceps!"

(both laughing) What was he like?

Did he talk to you?

He didn't talk to me much, but it must have been a drag for him to have a ten-year-old kid sitting next to him the whole game.

But he did give me his bat.

And that, unfortunately, your parents threw away.

I can't believe it.

Uh...

They made a terrible mistake.

(laughs): They made a terrible...

But they didn't make a mistake here about getting a photo.

You and Campy and Robinson together.

And this was 1956?

It was '56.

Here you have the two trailblazers of integration: Jackie Robinson, who joined the Dodgers in '47.

Campy followed him a year later.

You know, they were among the first two African American ballplayers to make the All-Star team, in '49, with Don Newcombe and Larry Doby.

Campanella went on to win three MVP trophies.

Wow.

Robinson won one, in '49, and of course, the pinnacle of their careers, they defined the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1950s, and they won the World Series in 1955.

Right, beating the Yankees.

Beating the Yankees, of course.

Right, right.

Which leads us really into value.

And it's kind of bittersweet here.

This is the last trip that Jackie Robinson ever took with the Dodgers.

Oh, I didn't know that.

Because when they returned, the Dodgers, after all he did, traded him to the Giants-- the New York Giants!

And Jackie Robinson could not live to, to play for the New York Giants-- he retired.

So you have one of the last photos of Jackie Robinson in a Dodgers uniform.

That I had not realized.

Now, the second thing, it's rare to ever see them sign a photo together, and it has perfect provenance.

We know the day it was taken!

I would place a conservative auction estimate of $6,000 to $8,000 on the photo.

I can't believe that.

(chuckles) And if you're, you know, if you're going to insure it, I'd insure it for at least $10,000.

So even photographs in which I appear have some value.

Well, their signatures were faked so much by their bat boy, Charlie "The Brow" DiGiovanni, that to have something where you can prove that you were there and they signed it for you, it's, it's provenance, it's authenticity.

I don't think Charlie made the trip.

Yeah, I don't think Charlie made the trip, either.

No.

But this is not only a fabulous personal piece, memento to you, but it's a great snapshot of history.

Wow, thank you.

That's really wonderful, really wonderful.

WOMAN: My father and I used to go to the Art Walk on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles, and he collected many pieces of art, and he preferred the prints and these were two that he had given to me.

And when was he buying?

Mid- to late '50s.

They're both Rembrandt etchings, first of all.

The closest to you, the subject is Christ at Emmaus, and it's an etching that Rembrandt made in 1634, and in the lower part of the image, you can see the artist's signature as well as the date.

And next to the date is an ink stamp, which is a collector's stamp.

That's from a collector who owned the print in the late 19th century.

Now, closest to me is a self-portrait of Rembrandt, open-mouthed and staring.

And you can see in the lower part of the etching Rembrandt's initials in the plate.

The etching is also dated just "3-0" for 1630, but it's very, very faint.

And I think if there's any doubt that Rembrandt was a master at his game, it's dispelled by a print like this, a self-portrait he made in 1630.

He was born in 1606, so he was 24 years old when he made this self-portrait.

It's showing him sort of astonished.

It's theatrical.

And this is something that Rembrandt did again and again.

It's not that he was conceited and he wanted to, you know, get his image out there as much as possible.

Right.

He was interested in picturing emotions and moods, and that's exactly what's going on in this self-portrait.

Now, the print closest to you of Christ at Emmaus is an early printing.

It's the first state of three.

It's a particularly fine impression.

All of the lines are there, and you can see in the image that Rembrandt really did not waste a single line.

The print next to me, the self-portrait, there is, you see on the print, some spotting, some damage.

Because of its scarcity, that doesn't affect the value so much.

You've had these for how many years?

Ooh, 20 years?

And have you ever had them appraised, or do you have any idea what their value might be?

At one point, this one was appraised and I believe it was, like, around $1,000.

And the, the self-portrait... Never has been.

No.

Has never been appraised.

If your father was buying these in the, in the '50s, I would guess that he spent in the hundreds, maybe.

The print closest to you, the Christ at Emmaus, at auction, in that condition, superb impression as it is, would conservatively bring $10,000 to $15,000.

Wow.

Now...

I had no idea.

Proving the adage that big things sometimes come in small packages is the one closest to me.

Right.

Self-portraits of Rembrandt are hotly collected.

At auction, in this condition, I would estimate it at $40,000 to $60,000.

No way.

Absolutely.

Absolutely no way.

And, and, and that's conservative.

Really?

I had absolutely no idea.

MAN: I was working on a consulting project in Toronto, Canada, about ten years ago.

My wife was antiquing while I was working, and she found these and invited me to come see them.

I did.

I fell in love with them.

They were very unusual.

They reminded us of springtime, and we had to have them, and, uh, we paid $800 Canadian for them ten years ago.

And about how much was that in terms of American dollars back then?

It was about, it was about $650 in those days.

They had told us that they were German, but I've watched so much of the "Roadshow" that I felt like they could be Japanese, for all I know, because there isn't any really clear markings that I could tell.

For someone to think that they're German is actually a very logical thing to think.

This type of design, with the little bitty tiny white flowers completely covering the surface of the vase is called schneeball, which actually means snowball.

It not only means snowball in the sense of winter snowball, but it's the name of a flower.

It's a big puffy flower that's made up of little tiny white flowers.

So that's really what the name is based upon.

This particular type of decoration was invented basically by Meissen Porcelain in the 18th century.

And then in the 19th century, there was a resurgence in interest in this decoration, and companies all over the world were making similar type of decoration, with these little tiny white flowers.

These are wonderful, with the applied flowers all over the top, the branches, the birds, several kinds of fruit.

Someone might say, "What are these for?

What do they do?"

And my answer is, they don't do anything.

They just sit there and look beautiful.

The lids do come off, and I guess, I suppose they could be used for flowers, but at that point, I think that might be overkill.

Our belief is that these are actually French-made, most likely made in or around Paris.

Now, there's a whole class of porcelains made or decorated in the Paris area that we call Paris Porcelain or Old Paris Porcelain.

And a lot of them are hard to attribute to, because they're not marked well.

Now, these do have some marks on the bottom.

It's kind of a messy blue mark.

Now, we weren't able to attribute these marks to any one company.

But they're very much in the style of things that were made by a company called Jacob Petit, and another company named Helena Wolfsohn made similar objects, but we don't know who made them.

I would date them to around the 1860s or 1870s.

And my guess is that a retail value of this pair of vases would be somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000.

Wow.

(chuckles) Fabulous.

Whew!

MAN: When I first came here in 1972, uh, I bought a house.

Right.

And this lady who I bought the house from owned this, and she gave it to me as a gift.

She said, "I'm going to put it in my will."

I was flabbergasted.

Wow.

Every color in there is a different stone.

Everybody thinks it's a painting, and they're amazed when I tell them it's a mosaic.

Yeah.

There's a history of these sort of family generational-run craftsmen in Florence, which is where this all started out.

All right.

And this family is one of them, the Fiaschi family.

It is pietra dura, and that's hard stones that are stuck together.

At auction today, you could expect an estimate between $20,000 and $30,000.

I wouldn't be surprised if it sold for even more than that.

Well, very good.

Thanks so much.

Well, thank you very much.

(laughs) MAN: This is a document that's been in my family for about 150 years.

My great-great-grandfather, Lewis Ellsworth, was the first I.R.S.

agent for the District of Illinois, Illinois state.

And it's signed by Abraham Lincoln.

I knew immediately it was a document signed by Lincoln.

But when I read the text, I was a little bit surprised to see that it was for a collector for Internal Revenue.

Uh-huh.

I actually, like a lot of people, thought we didn't have an income tax until 1913, when the 16th Amendment was passed.

Mm-hmm.

So I did a little research, and found out that actually, during the Civil War, during Lincoln's administration, he appointed the first commissioner of the Internal Revenue.

Mm-hmm.

And Congress enacted the first income tax in 1862, and it lasted for about ten years until it was repealed.

It was obviously incredibly unpopular.

Mm-hmm.

So your ancestor would have been one of those very first appointees.

It's also signed by Salmon P. Chase as secretary of the Treasury.

I'm very excited, because it seems like a lost bit of history.

Mm-hmm.

We've sort of lost the fact that there was an income tax, then it went away, and then it came back.

Right.

These actually sell for a little bit less... Hm.

...than your average Lincoln document.

Oh.

And I think it's because of all of this horrible connotation that we have for the I.R.S.

(chuckling): Oh.

A traditional Lincoln document, a military commission, let's say, might sell today for $5,000 to $7,000.

Mm-hmm.

These sell for more in the range of $3,500 to $4,500.

Oh, yeah.

Thank you very much, though, for bringing it in.

Sure, thank you.

Thank you.

I inherited them from my father's, uh, family about 20 years ago.

My father was a, a Lincoln from Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, and when the family farm was sold, it, probably in the 1920s, he found this one in the barn.

And...

In the barn on the estate?

On the estate.

Now, what would you like to know?

This wood is an odd...

It's almost like it's a twig, or a branch.

Okay, like, like a branch.

And I'm, I'm interested in the paint.

Oh, okay, the paint.

Well, it... Because I know it was painted, and I, I would be very shocked if my father took the paint off, so...

Okay.

When did they start taking paint off chairs?

Okay, I...

I'm going to tell you, they've been taking paint off from chairs for a long time.

Mm-hmm.

But your dad or grandfather probably did not do this, because it was done, like, 100 years ago, the paint was taken off from this.

But let me tell you what it is exactly, right?

It's called a sack-back Windsor armchair.

Uh-huh.

The, that's the model that they call a sack-back.

It has this wonderful seat, Martha, that's a, that's kind of... Well, it's, like, eye-shaped.

Has this wonderful peak in the front, and these legs tell me-- these turned legs and these really simple stretchers-- that it's something made in either probably southern Vermont... Oh, really!

Ah.

...or southern New Hampshire.

Or, or that part just north of Worcester.

The date of this is 1785 to 1795.

This arch piece is actually hickory, which they bent with steam on a board with pegs.

And this is all hickory.

The seat and the, and the legs are actually maple, and you don't see maple used, a hardwood used, much in New England.

Just in Rhode Island and also this area in southern Vermont.

And that's what helps us know it's from that area, okay?

Love to hear it.

This would be from the same area.

Mm-hmm.

Now, what it has on it is this wonderful inlaid octagonal top.

This is birch, flame birch, so it's, it really figured with inlaid dark wood and light wood.

When you come down, you have this urn shape, which is typical of the Federal period, 1800-1810.

And then this arched spider leg.

This tripod base with these little tiny feet, which are cut.

Yeah.

And so it has a lot of those nice Federal details.

And let me just show you, one thing I love about 18th, 18th- and early 19th-century furniture is the underside of this.

All this is really untouched.

Look at these cleats... Mm-hmm.

...and the original screws right here, and it's just beautifully made.

And this little catch is there to... Mm-hmm.

...of course, to lock this top.

So all the color here, everything's original.

Look at the shadow between light and dark.

It's all just what you want to see.

It... Is this a candlestand?

It is a candlestand-- so, value.

On the Windsor chair, as it is, refinished, in a shop in New York, this would be priced at about $1,500.

Mm-hmm.

Okay?

Wow.

Mm-hmm.

Just like this.

If it had the paint, and it was white paint, probably, because you can see the white on the edge...

It was white?

Oh, really?

Yeah, white paint.

Uh-huh.

It would be $10,000, $12,000, with the paint.

Uh-huh, wow.

Most Windsor chairs were refinished.

Right.

So don't feel bad.

This is a wonderful little table.

Because of the inlay on the top and because of this nice shaft-- even though it has a little old repair here, that's not a big thing-- this table would be worth in the range of $5,000 to $6,000.

Wow.

I mean, that's... That's, yeah, it's very nice, yeah.

Not bad.

My husband's father was a sheriff in Seattle, and a policeman, and he worked at the Trianon as a bouncer.

He met Louis at the shows, and he would invite Louis afterwards, with his group, to his house.

His wife, Alma, would serve them dinner, and they would listen to music in the family room and just hang out and have a good time.

Well, I think everyone knows the icon Louis Armstrong was, a premier jazz musician, born in 1901, although he told everyone he was born the Fourth of July in 1900, and who passed away in 1971.

Now, who is this man here in this picture?

That's my husband's, uh, father, Elmo, and Louis, and my husband and his sister Melody.

And we have a picture of your husband here with Louis Armstrong.

And then Alma, who was your mother-in-law, a dedicated, signed picture of Louis Armstrong.

But what's so interesting about this archive is this incredible collection of, uh, writing.

Now, Louis Armstrong did sign a lot.

A small signature like this can be very meager, at $50.

We have these postcards that he signed on the road.

What I love about these letters is that they're so personal.

This one, for instance, is talking about his record that he just released, "What a Wonderful World."

What I also love about this is that he's such a good writer.

"Man, there are so many ways "I want to start this letter to you, and I want to tell you how elated we are..." In these letters, you know he didn't have an easy life.

He was on the road a lot, he was sick.

He mentions his wife, Lucille, taking care of him and what a, a really great woman she was.

So he loved being on the road, but it had its problems.

Well, the typescript letter here, I found a number of comparables for between $2,500 to $3,000.

The handwritten letters, especially when they have personal references like this, at auction would be more in the $3,000 to $5,000 area.

We have this fabulous 11-page letter, which is front and back of each of the pages, having some dialogue about his most famous songs.

That's $6,000 to $9,000.

So with the postcards and everything else you have here, it is an archive that is worth, at auction, about $20,000.

Oh, my goodness.

So, um... MAN: I got this at auction about five years ago.

And you paid how much for it?

It was about $2,500.

What attracted you to, to buy it?

The workmanship and the fact that it's just a great piece of Americana, really.

So what else do you know about it?

It's an Abbot and Downing coach, which, you know, they built the Concord coaches, which, uh, Wells Fargo bought.

And Abbot and Downing supplied the majority of the stagecoaches that were used out west...

Right.

...as early as the 1840s.

Certainly by the time the Gold Rush began in California, the stagecoach lines started up to help deliver mail to mining camps and that sort of thing.

So, certainly by the 1850s, stagecoach lines were operating here in California, and the Concord coach was the Cadillac coach...

Right.

...for all the western-- and in fact, eastern stage lines, too.

Right.

My guess is that it was made in the early 20th century, based upon the quality of the manufacturing and the style of metal that was used for it.

The craftsmanship of this is unbelievable.

It's got great original paint and surface.

The leather is in terrific shape.

The thing that's puzzles me about this is that there's no doors.

Right.

And every Concord coach had a door.

Now I'm gonna just do one thing, too.

This lifts right off.

And the detailed workmanship on this is fabulous.

The leather springs...

Right.

...that were supporting the coach is still intact.

What's interesting-- and you pointed this out to me-- the name "Diamond Tally-Ho" on the side of the coach has actually been painted over an earlier coach number.

Right.

And it would be interesting to X-ray that to see what the original name of the coach was.

I would say, as an icon of the American West... Mm-hmm.

...that a good auction estimate for this terrific model would be somewhere between $4,000 and $6,000.

Okay.

So a nice return on your investment.

And it might bring more, because stagecoaches are always at the top of the mind of Western collectors.

Appreciate it.

Thanks for bringing it in.

All right, thank you.

MAN: I got them at a yard sale about three or four years ago.

I knew they were andirons.

Then you saw that they were marked?

Yes, when I got them home, I examined them a little closer, and yes, they were marked on the back, "Gustav Stickley."

A friend of mine who knows a lot about antiques happened to be there when I took them out of my van, and, uh, he's seen them and told me that's what they were.

Well, that's exactly what they are.

They're by Gustav Stickley.

And he was the premier maker in the Arts and Crafts Movement, which was active in America from the turn of the century until the First World War.

He worked in upstate New York.

He had a workshop called the Craftsman Workshops.

He had a building in New York City where he sold his furniture and metalwork.

And at that time, he actually lived in New Jersey.

He lived at a place called Craftsman Farms.

He raised fruits and vegetables and animals.

There was actually a restaurant in this building in New York, and he supplied some of the produce and food for the restaurant.

At the time, his work was very, very popular.

It was sold all throughout the country.

It's marked over here, "Gustav Stickley," and it has the joiner's compass.

It's an early mark.

It's probably from about 1905.

You see these are not the original bolts.

No, I have the original bolts at home, but I just didn't find them in time to bring them.

Oh, okay.

They're really fantastic, and they have this wonderful little...

This right here.

...design here, and you have all the great hammering marks on the supports here.

Now, you say you paid ten dollars for them?

Yes.

That's not bad.

A retail price for this would be in the, uh, $10,000 to $15,000 range.

Oh, really?

(laughs) Oh, my God.

That's fantastic.

This is one of the clocks that I got from my grandfather.

He was an avid collector.

It's a beautiful mahogany case.

It's a clock that was made in Boston by D.P.

Davis, Jr., and it's actually signed on the dial and dated.

It's a little peculiar in regards to the signature.

I feel like the clock's a little later.

This is what they call a beveled frame, and standard black and gold glasses, which you would find in a clock of the Civil War period.

One of my favorite things about the clock is the sidearms.

That's, really, when you brought it in, got me excited to see a mass-produced clock with these wonderful carved sidearms.

You just never see them, and they don't often survive in this condition.

It's a great clock.

A value in a retail setting would be about $3,500 to $4,000.

Oh, wow, great.

Um, if it didn't have these sidearms, then I think we're talking about half that.

Oh.

WOMAN: It's always been my favorite piece of my grandparents' things.

APPRAISER: The piece was made in Czechoslovakia.

Hm!

And this piece I would put in the Deco period, maybe 1920s.

Okay.

The thing that attracted me to this piece is the size.

Mm-hmm.

We just don't see these big pieces of Czechoslovakian glass.

I would put a value on this for insurance between $4,000 and $5,000.

Oh, wow.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

MAN: I brought a, a Brooklyn Dodgers uniform from the 1940s.

This was Howie Schultz's pants and this was Ray Hayworth's baseball shirt, number 32.

Okay.

Well, what you have here is actually a jersey from '44.

Mm-hmm.

And they're satin jersey all the way around.

The lettering is satin twill.

The Dodgers were a powerhouse throughout the '40s.

The only bad year was '44.

Don't know why.

Oh, no.

But that's just how it worked out.

So we have the Hayworth top there.

Right.

Then we have Schultz, his teammate.

Usually you see them in blue.

These are home jerseys from that year.

You never see them in white satin.

Oh, okay.

You have, at auction, this would sell for $5,000.

Oh, wow, really?

Yeah.

(laughs): I paid $20 for it.

There you go.

(laughs) A great investment.

Oh, great, thank you.

MAN: It was originally done by my great-great-great-aunt in 1819.

She was about 15 years old.

I have to say that I'm bowled over that we are seeing one of the most extravagant and beautiful pieces of Philadelphia schoolgirl needlework.

This would have been, for your ancestor, the culmination of several years in a school specifically for the education of affluent young women in Philadelphia, probably the Folwell School, that taught generations of young women needlework.

This started life as an enormous sheet of silk.

The schoolmistress, or the Folwells, would set the image.

This would probably have been taken from a print, and your ancestor painstakingly did all of the stitchery.

And it makes use of the most extravagant and beautiful fabric and metal threads.

Look at the way that this throne of King Solomon...

Right.

...is done with gilt and silver threads inset with sequins and glass jewels.

The background is all worked in silk chenille threads, and the background of the sky and the faces of the different characters are painted by a professional artist.

How did they do this?

Were they using little, tiny needles?

Little, tiny needles, little, tiny silk threads, infinitesimal stitches.

It took time, it took patience, it took discipline to do this.

How long do you think it would have taken her to do this particular piece?

I, at least a year.

And this would have come at the end of her schooling.

You took the original frame off?

Yes, the, the original frame was about six to eight inches wider.

Right.

And it was made with doweling and gesso.

Yeah, okay.

Much of the gesso had already broken away.

Had popped off, yeah.

Now, in terms of value, that original frame probably enhances the value of the piece.

You do still have the original liner...

Right.

...that says "King Solomon receiving a visit from the Queen of Sheba."

And Elizabeth must have gotten self-conscious about her age later on in her life, because she painted over the "1819."

Yes.

But this is a remarkable piece in remarkable condition.

My estimate would be, at auction, somewhere around $60,000 to $80,000.

(laughing): Oh, my!

That's quite a bit.

Yeah.

MAN: It's a family heirloom, uh, from my grandparents.

They had a store near, um, Cache in, uh, Oklahoma, near Medicine Park.

And, uh, we believe, according to my granny, that it was, uh, traded for goods at their store, and probably from the 1930s.

It was definitely made after 1900.

Any closer than that, it would take some more research.

The piece is Comanche; it is from around Cache, Oklahoma.

The reason I know that is, if you look at the back, there's sort of a vinyl-looking material on the back... Yeah.

...which is not leather.

It's either the seat cover off a vintage car... (laughs) ...or a shower curtain or something like that.

Oh, uh, interesting.

And there, there was two prominent Comanche bead workers that used that kind of material and made some of these toy cradles.

Oh, interesting.

And, and, and that's what this is.

It's a toy baby cradle.

They had full-sized ones for babies.

I noticed she also... (laughs) ...did a little enhancement to the front of it?

Well, that's Mamaw's work.

Their, our grandmother-- she always had the doll in it.

And I'm not sure when she put the nice yarn on there, I guess to hold it together a little bit.

Well, she actually did it exactly as it would have been done with hide.

The doll is from the same time period.

Oh, really?

It's a composition doll.

It's American-made, $50, that kind of thing.

If this baby cradle came on the market in a retail situation, exactly as it is... Mm-hmm.

...I would say $14,000 to $16,000.

Wow!

That's not too shabby.

Conservatively.

We wouldn't... Because of the con, some condition issues, I had no idea it'd go up that nicely.

Well, it, it needs to be repaired.

The great thing is, is, these boards are completely original and may actually be older than the cradle.

But the cradle needs to be cleaned.

It's very dirty.

(laughing): True.

It needs some beads replaced.

It obviously needs this replaced.

Mm-hmm.

But the thing is, is that you want that done professionally... Yep.

...and you want it documented.

They need to be able to show the process, so if the cradle is sold on the commercial market, there's documentation of that that the buyer can see.

It keeps it clear and keeps it honest, because it's a very honest piece right now.

It would cost at least several thousand dollars to be repaired.

But it could add as much as $10,000 to the value.

Uh, wow, that's... That's impressive.

(chuckles) WOMAN: This belonged to my great-grand-uncle.

He managed a hotel on the West Side of New York, and he had a room that had a skylight, and so he let Thomas Benton use it as his studio and other artists from the Student League, and some of these paintings were gifts for using the room, I believe.

And they bought some of them.

And this Joseph Stella was an early work, and, uh, he had Stellas and Bentons and all kinds of wonderful associations through the years.

And how did it come to you?

After he passed away, it went to my mother, and then it came to me.

And I've lived with it and loved it for years.

We called it the Angel Fish.

And I know it was painted in, somewhere between 1922 and '26.

Has it always been under glass?

Yes, and I'm very thankful it did, because they all smoked.

It would have been destroyed, probably, if it hadn't been under glass.

Joseph Stella, as you probably know, came to the United States when, from Italy when he was about 19 years old and studied at the Art Students League.

And I think this is a wonderful example of his later period.

This was a popular frame that was used by Georgia O'Keeffe and Arthur Dove.

Oh.

They loved this white gold... Mm-hmm.

...and this real simplicity, which is also an added value to the painting.

Oh.

So it's nice that you've been able to keep them together.

Do you have a sense of value?

Well, in 1987, it was appraised for insurance purposes for $7,500.

That's all I know.

Yeah.

You want to take a wild guess at what it might be worth?

Well, I thought maybe it would go down.

I didn't know.

I don't know what the market is for, for Stella... Well, the market for this has been very good.

Oh.

I, I would appraise your painting for both insurance value and for, uh, if it were to sell in an art gallery... Mm-hmm.

...at about $250,000.

I, I feel it's, uh... (laughs) I, I've just been consulting with my colleagues.

I think it's quite a spectacular piece.

(laughing): You amaze me.

You're lucky to have this, lucky to have this inheritance.

Well, thank you so much.

Well, congratulations.

That's amazing.

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

I came to the Antiques Roadshow expecting that my 1963 Fender Stratocaster guitar would be worth between $100 and maybe $2,000.

Well, I had it appraised, and I about fell over and my teeth almost fell out, 'cause it's worth $25,000.

And my pitcher, I paid a dollar for it and it was valued at $400 to $600.

So I'm very happy.

I brought my 98-cent piece of pottery.

It's actually a Chinese calligraphy water dropper.

And it's worth about 98 cents.

98 cents.

And I'm, I'm really happy-- I love it.

And I have a autographed baseball here with, uh, the, the autographs of Jim Thorpe, Ty Cobb, and a lot of other old-time baseball players.

I know it's, uh, it is unique, and I also know it's true, because I got their signatures.

I handed it to them, and it's worth $10,000.

Yeah!

I got this nutcracker in a trip that I made to Germany.

They appraised it for $150.

Look, it opens the mouth.

I brought my wife's purse.

Since it hasn't gone up much since we bought it, I'm gonna let her take it when she goes shopping 'cause it won't hold a checkbook.

See you.

PEÑA: Thanks for watching.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."