GUEST: I bought this at an
auction, a charity auction, in
the late '80s, early '90s, and

this one was also in a charity
auction about five years ago.

APPRAISER: What did
you pay for them?

GUEST: I know I paid $500 for
this. I'm not sure about that,
but I would guess about $1,500.

APPRAISER: What
drew you to these?

GUEST: Well, when I was 11,
my grandmother took me to the
first film showing of "The

King and I," and I fell in love
with the American musical. And
so, I've always been interested

in acquiring part of its
history, and these are
sort of iconic pieces.

APPRAISER: What we have here
next to me is a costume sketch
by Irene Sharaff of Chita

Rivera, who portrayed Anita.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: Both in the 1957
Broadway debut and the West End
debut of the play in London.

On your side, we have,
obviously, Carol Channing,
in probably her most
famous role, from the

1964 original production of
"Hello, Dolly!" And this one's
by Freddy Wittop. These are

pretty great productions to have
pieces from, because obviously
they're both award-winning.

This one was done by Irene
Sharaff, a very famous costume
designer. She was nominated

for best costume design on
this, but didn't win. And that
one, Freddy Wittop, he actually

did win the award for best
costume design for "Hello,
Dolly!" This won two of its six

Tony nominations for scenic
design and choreography,
and "Hello, Dolly!" won
ten of their 11 Tony

nominations, which actually
was a record that held for 37
years. So, this is really one

of the most famous musicals,
I think, also having Academy
Award- winning film made out

of it, and this role
really was Carol Channing.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: She not only did
the original production in
'64, she did a 1995 revival,
which is extraordinary.

All those years later, she
was still able to carry that
show. And sadly, we obviously

lost her in January of 2019.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: The "West Side
Story" piece in front of me,
we see that Chita Rivera has

signed the mat for you. And
she signed below this depiction
of herself in her two primary

costumes from the musical.
The "West Side Story" piece
is a gouache and ink on board.

The Carol Channing is actually
framed so that we can't see the
edges to tell if that's board

or paper. But, it is also
gouache. Each of these are
signed by the costume designer.

Sharaff has signed it
and then also listed the
name of the production,
and listed "America,"

because these are the costumes
that she would have worn
during that most famous number.

And the Carol Channing is also
signed by the costume designer.
And it's actually signed

in paint. When you brought them
up, the first thing I think
about with value is, in the

marketplace, we generally
don't see many Broadway
pieces as compared to
Hollywood pieces, the

film costumes. And they
traditionally don't sell as well
as the film costume sketches

for these very famous roles.
But, when you look at these,
you have to look at who is

portrayed, what's the
production, is it the
original production,
what's the character,

how visually desirable are they.
And both of these tick every
single box you could possibly

hope to tick, because they're
both really important shows.
They're both visually appealing.

I think your, your Carol
Channing is probably
the most visually
impactful here. A lot of

times, when there are charity
auctions, the whole point is
actually to overpay for things.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: You're there to
support a charity. It's a little
bit of a good news, bad news

on this, This one, you probably
paid closer to what it is
worth now. But years ago, when

you, when you bought it back
then, and you probably overpaid
for it just a little bit.

Now, it probably has caught
up to where you're at, and the
auction estimate would probably

be $2,000 to $3,000.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: On the Carol
Channing, I'm very conservative
in this, because I think the

fact that she just passed away,
I anticipate that the market
for her is about to shift,

and I would expect there'll
be more pieces of hers in the
market, and so we'll have more

data to go by. Right now, I
would conservatively estimate
it at $2,000 to $3,000, as well.

But I expect that that would
do better if it came up,
because it's just such a great,

striking piece.

GUEST: That's great.
But I really didn't buy
them as an investment.
I bought them because

I like the work.