MARK WALBERG: "Antiques Roadshow" is in Newport, Rhode Island.
I was so excited to come to "Antiques Roadshow."
What would I put on my bucket list, and there it is: David Ortiz, the world championship, my daughter hanging with me, and then coming to the Antiques Roadshow.
♪ ♪ WALBERG: Rosecliff, one of several spectacular mansions in Newport, is the elegant setting for our Roadshow event today.
But not far down the road, another incredible monument of the Gilded Age, the Marble House estate, contains a curious structure-- a Chinese teahouse.
An amalgamation of various Chinese and Japanese aesthetics, this teahouse was the place where its high-society owner, Alva Belmont, once held gatherings for women's suffrage.
Back at Rosecliff, there's a treasure from Asia that's covered many miles on its path to our experts.
♪ ♪ MAN: It was in a local ad.
I think, anyways, it's referred to as a Chinese carriage or wagon from the Qing dynasty, if I'm not mistaken.
You're right on target, it is Qing.
Okay.
So that means it dates to somewhere before 1911 in China...
Okay.
...and after the Ming dynasty.
And in my opinion, based on the appearance, the construction, this would date to the 19th century.
Okay.
Which is really quite unusual-- these had hard wear.
And you can see that it's had a hard life.
That's not what it looked like when it was built.
Right.
This was lacquered, and you can still see traces of burgundy lacquer on it.
Yeah.
And also black lacquer.
Okay.
And on the underside of the ceiling in there is a finely woven bamboo mat that is put to the ceiling... Mmm, yeah.
On top of which is this thick lacquer surface to make it waterproof, which we need on a day like today.
Oh, interesting, okay.
All this would have been likely black, burgundy, and gilt lacquer.
Interesting, oh, wow.
This was not meant for your average person to be carted around town.
Oh.
The thick iron bands on the edge of the wheel... Mm.
...was to withstand the wear and tear of going over rough cobblestone, potholed streets at the time, which would have been thick with mud on a day like today.
Mm-hmm.
And on the inside, what we see through here you would not have seen through here.
This would have been lined with beautifully painted paper or silk.
Okay.
Part of it opened with a curtain right there that could be pulled back so the person could take a look.
What'd you pay for this?
I paid $125.
Oh, my gosh, you got a great deal.
There are very few of these that are in good condition.
So I think that for this particular one, a realistic price is going to be in the $1,000 to $2,000 range in an auction sale.
Ah!
Okay.
But it's got to be to an audience of people that recognize the difference between those that are modern reproduction... Mmm.
...those that were made for transport of somebody of elevated stature... Mm-hmm.
...and those that were authentic but made for transporting commercial products.
Mmm.
This is the very best of that type.
It's just unfortunate that the decoration is gone.
Interesting.
Right, right, it's worn.
Interesting, okay.
♪ ♪ (talking in background) MAN: It's a snuff bottle.
A gift from a friend.
She bought it in the 1960s as a possible Fabergé piece.
Okay.
I just think it was beautiful, and it's beautiful to me because it was a gift from her.
Well, it's a stunning piece, I really love it a lot.
It is a Fabergé piece.
That's amazing.
Fabergé was opened in 1842 by Gustav Fabergé.
And then his son, at the age of 18, Carl, toured the world, came back to Russia, and came into the business.
And then Tsar Alexander III had them declared goldsmith by special appointment to the imperial crown, thus beginning the association with the Russian tsars.
Also, Tsar Alexander III commissioned the first Easter egg to be made in 1885.
So what we have here is really a fabulous jadeite snuff bottle.
The snuff bottle dates from the 18th century.
Wow.
So it's from the 1700s.
And then Fabergé put this cap on top of it here, probably around 1890 to 1900, in that era.
Okay.
And the cap is made out of 14-karat gold, which is a Russian standard.
And I looked at these little round cabochon stones.
Do you know what kind of stones those are?
They look a little bit like rubies to me, but...
They are rubies, and they're the best kind, they're Burmese rubies, they're Burma rubies all the way around there.
And it's capped on top with absolutely a fabulous cabochon garnet.
Do you have a wild guess if we had to put a value on it what it could be worth?
I really don't-- Fabergé.
I wasn't even sure it was real, so... Oh.
It is real, and I'm very happy to tell you, retail, this easily would sell between $50,000 and $75,000.
Oh, my gosh.
That's fabulous.
And it is a unique piece, it's not replaceable.
No, no, absolutely not.
It should be insured for $100,000.
It's absolutely a fabulous piece.
That's wonderful.
It's museum-quality.
♪ ♪ WALBERG: Along the Atlantic Ocean coastline behind Rosecliff, the historic Cliff Walk stretches in either direction, allowing passersby the chance to admire the views of the sea, as well as the opulent mansions.
The walk crosses both public and private properties, and is about three-and-a-half miles long.
♪ ♪ APPRAISER: So these are great, these are ladies dress watches, I think 1925, 1935, platinum, diamonds, very dressy.
You know, women still like these today as a dress watch.
They're great.
At auction, a watch like this is $1,000 to $1,500.
♪ ♪ APPRAISER: Where did you acquire this?
WOMAN: From my father-in-law.
He was into antiques, he loved yard sales and stuff like that.
Do you know anything about it?
He said it was a Delft charger, back around the 1760s, and that was about it.
Well, it is Delft, and actually, there's two Delfts.
There's the Delft pottery that came from Holland, and then the Delftware that came from England.
Same type of thing, a tin-glazed earthenware.
Mm-hmm.
So tin-glazed is very brittle, so to have these chips around the edge, all very acceptable.
Oh.
It's not like a piece of fine porcelain where the chips would hurt the value.
This is actually just verifying the age of the piece, and it is 18th-century, possibly a little bit later than you think, closer to 1780 or 1790.
Okay.
The pattern, although we're looking at a floral design, is actually called a peacock design.
Oh.
And once you start to look at that fanning there, you can see that.
Yeah, that's true.
Any idea of the value?
I have no idea at all.
No?
No.
Well, the market's dropped a bit for Delft and for a lot of ceramics in general.
An example like this today should sell for about $400 in a retail setting, perhaps $250 to $350 in an auction.
Oh, okay.
Thanks for bringing it.
Oh, thank you.
"The Adventures of Wesley Jackson."
Interesting.
Making sure it's not a library book, all right, we're good.
(chuckling) No, it's not.
Not anymore, anyways.
We'll send that over to books and maps and posters.
Okay.
You're all set.
Thank you very much.
Yeah.
Thank you.
They're very beautiful, actually.
They're wooden, hand-painted, hand-carved.
Not sure where they're from-- it's very exciting.
I've had the dozen and a half of them.
This is a little interesting box.
It shows the local shoreline.
It was given to me by a fisherman when I was a little kid.
I was about ten years old.
It's absolutely gorgeous.
And it is an excursion view of Narragansett Bay and Block Island.
There are two rolls in there and they are 30 feet long each.
♪ ♪ I bought this in an auction of jazz-related memorabilia in New York City about 12 years ago.
It belonged to the great jazz tenor player Dexter Gordon.
He wore it for the Academy Awards ceremony.
He was nominated for his role in "Round Midnight" as the best male actor.
He didn't win, but I got the suit.
But he looked snazzy going to the awards show.
Oh, yes.
So that's, that's kind of the obvious thing here.
You, years later, found this photograph of him wearing it in French "Vogue" magazine.
So he obviously liked this suit, and one of the most interesting things about this suit-- beyond the fact that it was Dexter Gordon's-- for me is, who designed it for him and the fact that he had a custom suit designed.
And the reason he had a custom suit designed, apart from wanting something fancy, is because... (laughs): ...he's quite tall.
My goodness, yeah.
I think it's difficult to find pants to fit someone who's 6'5".
Yeah.
And his nickname actually was Long Tall Dex, because he was known for his great height, which added to his larger-than-life persona.
But even beyond that, Arthur McGee, the designer of the suit, is a really important figure that's not known as much as he should be, because he was the first African American fashion designer on Seventh Avenue in New York.
So he essentially broke the color barrier of American fashion design, and did pave the way for a lot of other people who came up after him.
He's also very well-known among a lot of African American entertainers.
He designed for Stevie Wonder, Cicely Tyson, Dexter Gordon.
I think that's a really important factor here.
What did you pay for it back when you bought it?
I paid $1,000 for it.
Okay.
Today, if it were to come up for auction, I would expect that it should sell for at least $5,000.
We actually had the great fortune in Anaheim a few years ago to meet his daughter.
She came to the Roadshow and she brought some beautiful signed photographs.
Oh!
He had Billie Holiday and a few other people he was friends with-- Sarah Vaughan.
She couldn't have been lovelier, she was such a wonderful spirit and personality.
I love the patination on this.
It's just, it's so warm and you don't want to polish it.
You do not.
It's tempting.
I know, I know, but what you can do is, it literally, you can polish it with your fingers.
Oh, really?
APPRAISER: These are chromolithographs, which just means color lithograph, but it sounds more official to say chromolithograph.
Realistically, as a pair, you're probably still only looking $50 for the pair.
Their greatest value is as a family piece.
♪ ♪ WOMAN: It's an Egyptian hawk mummy, and I bought it in 1996 at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Middletown, Rhode Island.
There was an auction of the contents of a house from an old professor in Maine.
And I saw in the newspaper the day before that there was an Egyptian mummy in the auction, so I thought, "I, I need to get down there and buy that mummy."
Of course.
(chuckling) Yes, so I did, and that's really about all.
There were some Egyptologists holding on the line to, to bid on it, but I outbid them.
Well, mummified animals and birds are found in many Egyptian tombs, and they're there as offerings.
This one is to the god Horus, the god of light.
He's also the lord of the sky, so he's really, really important.
Horus is a falcon, and he's also considered the savior of Egypt from the scorpions.
So he's really, really important.
These are found really from about 650 BC to about 250 A.D. in Egypt.
Have you any idea what it's worth?
No, none whatsoever.
And what did you pay for it?
I paid-- well, my top bid was going to be $1,000.
Uh-huh.
But I went to $2,500, so... All right.
I think a retail market for this would be between $3,500 and about $5,000.
Wow.
That's amazing-- I would never sell it.
(talking in background) APPRAISER: What can you tell us about it?
WOMAN: It was presented to my father in, I think, October of 1963.
He was commandant of the 14th Naval District in Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii.
And he was in charge of picking up two of the Mercury astronauts.
He was in charge of making sure they got safely onto the Kearsarge and back to Pearl Harbor and safe.
Well, your father, Rear Admiral Buchanan, had a rather storied career.
He was in the Navy during World War II.
Mm-hmm.
Saw action in Iwo Jima and at Okinawa.
Okinawa.
And then after the war, he was commandant at, at Annapolis, and had a few other jobs.
Yeah.
But this was really the crowning achievement, and he retired not long after this.
Right.
What we have here is this seemingly simple plaque with two little aluminum tubes.
Mm-hmm.
Well, these were the recovery antennas from the Mercury capsules, and you can see one right here at the very, very top.
Mm-hmm.
And these are from two separate missions.
Mm-hmm.
Mercury-Atlas 8 and Atlas 9.
What would happen is, for the pieces NASA didn't want back, they didn't want to test, they'd just cut them up, give them out as souvenirs to various V.I.Ps.
And what we have here is this wonderful plaque dedicated to your father for his support of the Mercury mission.
Right here, "Project Mercury, May of 1963."
Right here, we've got a great picture of your father.
My dad.
Standing in back in his, in his whites.
And you recognize this little face back here?
(laughing) John Glenn.
Wonderful!
And then we have Wally Schirra up here.
Wow.
And what was really neat about these two particular Mercury flights, not only were they the last two Mercury flights... Mm-hmm.
...the last time we put an American into space solo, alone, these were also two really impressive missions.
One was a nine-hour test mission with Wally Schirra, and that was one of the longest missions at the time.
The next mission, with Gordon Cooper, was 34 hours in length.
And what happened after that is the capsule would, would come down, it would deploy a parachute, deploy the homing beacon, and that antenna would come up.
This little piece right here would come up, sending a signal that would allow them to triangulate where the capsule was going to land in the Pacific Ocean.
And, well, it'd land in the ocean and they'd use a crane to hoist it on top of, uh, the Kearsarge.
The Kearsarge was used for the recovery of both of the last Mercury missions, and the fact that it comes from the family... Yeah.
...makes it terribly important, because space collectors are very concerned about provenance.
They want to know that they're right.
Because you can get pieces of tube, you can machine these things.
Oh, sure.
But you've got to be very, very careful to make sure that when you're a space collector, you're buying the right, authentic things, especially pieces that have been in outer space.
Yeah.
Anything space-flown raises the value tremendously.
Really?
Especially early Mercury items.
Really?!
As a conservative auction estimate for the entire archive, I would put $60,000 to $90,000.
(laughs) Okay!
Wow.
(laughs) Wow!
I had no idea.
No idea whatsoever.
That's amazing, absolutely amazing.
Well, it'll stay in the family, I can tell you that.
Thank you so much.
You're welcome.
That's absolutely amazing.
♪ ♪ Down here we have the name, the, the date... (speaking Chinese) It's about 1948.
About 1948.
MAN: Fantastic.
WOMAN: These words means, "You hear, you travel, then you know something," right.
MAN: Fantastic.
You hear, you travel, you know, and then you sit down.
(laughs) Wonderful, thank you very much.
Well, thank you for coming in today.
Thank you so much.
♪ ♪ You came in with this, tell me about it.
Well, I was so excited to come to "Antiques Roadshow," and so I made the sign up real quick, and I thought, "Okay, what are my-- what would I put on my bucket list?"
And there it is: David Ortiz, the world championship, my daughter hanging with me, and then coming to the Antiques Roadshow, so...
But not necessarily in any order.
No, they're all priceless.
"Antiques Roadshow's" moving up higher and higher.
Tell me about the items that you brought today.
I don't really know too much about them, which...
They say, "Bring something you want to know about."
Mm-hmm.
But they belonged to my brother-in-law, and he died in 1988 in a boating accident in Buzzards Bay, not far from here.
And then my sister inherited them, and then she died in 2003.
And so I have them, and they hang on a side of a cupboard on antique hooks, and I look at them every day.
And one day I counted the bells, and I thought, "I gotta find something about these," and so here I am.
Okay, we have three different examples here and three different ages, really.
So we start with the one on the top, and that's the four bells here.
Mm-hmm.
And those are going to date from the late 19th century.
Okay.
Of course, these were all to be worn on horses in parades and even in, I mean, sometimes in normal-day events, the holidays, and so forth here.
Okay.
But you have a couple of other great examples here.
On the bottom, these are also late 19th century.
On this strand of bells, has a deeper sound.
(jingling) Again, nice.
Right around turn of the century on these, but by far our favorite is the large strand here.
Right.
140 bells.
Typically, we see maybe 55 to 70 on sleigh bells such as this.
These are going to be from the early 1900s, and they have fabulous sound.
(louder, richer jingling) Oh, okay.
They do.
These are just great.
And what we do these days, like in my family, is, we used to hang them on doors during the holidays.
Yes.
And when people would pass through, you'd get that great sound.
Yes.
So some really nice bells.
We have the top ones here, I'd put a value of about $125 to $150.
On the bottom strand here, about $150 to $200.
But on these with the 140, the double-row 140 bells, $500 to $700.
That's... you know... that's... My brother-in-law Bill, he had a good eye.
WALBERG: Rosecliff was given its name by the man who owned the estate prior to the Oelrichs family, George Bancroft, a secretary of the Navy, historian, and a great lover of roses.
Bancroft's horticultural passion is said to be the reason roses are so abundant throughout Newport today.
These are some memorabilia from World War II that I got from my father.
He joined the Army and joined the Medical Corps 361st station hospital, which went to the Philippines.
After Japan surrendered, they sailed up Hiroshima Bay and stopped in Kure, where there was a naval hospital.
They were just ten miles from Hiroshima, which had just been bombed three weeks earlier.
And when they went up to Hiroshima to provide medical care, they found complete devastation.
Everything was glazed.
And in the rubble, he found these artifacts left over that had not been completely destroyed, but had been blasted with sand that turned to glass from the intense heat of the explosion.
When you opened the box and you brought these out, it was immediately evident to me what they were.
It's a little amazing to think that here were American G.Is.
in and amongst the survivors fairly soon after the fact.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
When you look at an artifact like this, it has a profound impact on you.
You realize this was there.
This was in Hiroshima when that bomb went off.
This was in somebody's house.
I've heard the explanation that it was dust and things in the air that were turned to glass.
I've also come across individuals who support the idea that it was glass that melted that was in the vicinity of the objects.
Every once in a while, an artifact really speaks to you.
Just by looking at that artifact, that tells what you need to know about the atomic explosion at Hiroshima.
And that's, that's why it raised the hair on my arm when you brought it out of the box, and that's one of the reasons why it is profoundly important that these artifacts exist in the world, and it's also a reason why people would be upset that there would be a value associated with them.
Because of the horrendous nature of the event that happened.
Mm-hmm.
Artifacts like this are sought out by collectors and museums in order to tell that story.
From a monetary value perspective today, a retail price for these on the market would be between $2,000 and $3,000.
Mm-hmm.
♪ ♪ WOMAN: Good morning.
WOMAN 2: Hi.
Well, I found it last fall in a local antiques store.
I went to visit it almost every weekend for, for a month, and it was meant to be mine, you know?
I absolutely love the piece.
I mean, this piece of furniture dates from probably 1760, '70.
It's made of mahogany, as you know.
This has the earmarks of a Queen Anne dressing table of good quality.
They went to the trouble of molding the edge of the top.
Mm-hmm.
The top has a little bit of overhang, which gives it more grace.
The drawers are thumb-molded, and that's typical of that period.
And thumb molding is this, is this molded edge.
The central drawer has a well-executed carved fan, and that cost extra money.
So whoever ordered this up said, "I'm willing to spend X-- what can I get for X?"
Well, here's, here's the result.
These legs are well-formed, in pad feet on platforms.
And a pad foot on a platform, again, cost a little bit of extra.
We could, we could just look quickly at drawer construction.
Again, the top edges of the drawer sides are double-beaded.
Mm-hmm.
That's a sign of a good cabinetmaker.
And he didn't have to do it, but it finishes it off nicely.
And there's this, on the bottom of the drawer is this terrific oxidation.
But you can see the center of the drawer, which runs on a central support underneath, you know, the oxidation is considerably worn away.
These are things that we want to see, okay?
Great.
I think the origin of this piece, probably the North Shore of Massachusetts, in the Salem area.
I've seen similar dressing tables and high chests that have very much the same treatment... Mm-hmm.
...of a valance.
Okay.
So at the time that you purchased it, what did it cost?
I ended up paying $8,500 for it.
Okay.
And do you think you got a bargain?
What do you think it's worth?
I feel I got a bargain.
Yeah.
I was told that... Well, that the family might have had it appraised some time in the early '90s, and the appraisal came in rather high.
How high?
$30,000.
$30,000, okay.
Okay, this is what, this is what's happened to the American furniture market.
A) You're buying at a really good time.
Mm-hmm.
Because as wonderful as this piece is, it isn't worth particularly more than you paid for it.
Mm-hmm So you paid around $8,500.
Mm-hmm.
I think that's kind of on the money.
In an auction situation, for example, I would not be surprised if it brought $8,500.
I think, I think...
I think that's realistic.
Yeah?
Okay.
Well, to me it's worth a million, so... And I absolutely love it, and I'll pass it on to my son.
It's money well spent.
Okay.
Smart purchase.
The thing that prevents it perhaps from being a little more valuable is that the brasses are old, but they're not original.
Really?
They've been replaced.
And also the quality of the mahogany, as good as it is, is not spectacular.
Mm-hmm.
These are all very subtle things that ultimately add up to what it's worth on today's market.
Today's market is not supported by a lot of young folks.
The fact that you're interested in this is a really good thing.
But that's what's lacking.
Competition for these pieces today is just not what it used to be 25 years ago.
25 years ago, when the market was up, you know, $35,000-- that's what I would have gotten for this.
♪ ♪ She was thinking it was an original number one.
No, number one... Uh-huh.
...has holes in the bottoms of the feet.
Okay.
And it has eyebrows that are just, just like a volcano.
They're just arched at 45 degrees.
Okay.
In this condition, $600, $700.
Okay.
And these were businesslike things.
I mean, these were headhunters who would go up into the jungles, and these would afford protection.
This was probably made...
This is a tourist replica, yeah.
This was made within the last 40 years, I think, all right?
Okay, sounds good.
And worth about $100 for the pair.
For the pair.
All right?
All right, thank you very much.
You're welcome, thank you.
APPRAISER: Where did you get this?
At one of the secondhand stores.
Mm-hmm.
Yes, and probably paid three, maybe four dollars for it.
You did just fine with it.
I would put flowers in this and be very happy.
You have a piece of handmade pottery.
Yes.
And you know it's handmade.
Primarily you can see the throwing rings.
So when this was raised from a ball of clay...
Yes.
...it was raised up.
Mm-hmm.
And these finger marks were imparted.
And sometimes they smooth them off and sometimes they don't, but this is-- I call this hippie pottery.
(laughs): Okay.
Before World War II, Americans didn't make a whole lot of decorative pottery.
They made utilitarian ware.
Oh, really!
Oh!
But after World War II, people started throwing clay.
Oh!
Okay?
So part of getting back to the Earth movement.
Mm-hmm.
And macramé, and weaving, and throwing pots.
And so this is a rather coarse grain of clay.
Yes.
But an amateur potter sat at a wheel, threw it, raised it.
Mm-hmm.
Decorated it with glazes and fired it, and made a really beautiful decorative piece.
There's a lot of it out there.
Ah, okay.
Hippie pottery, as I call it, proliferates.
Yeah.
And so this is primarily decorative value, maybe ten or twenty dollars.
Oh.
But a really pretty and functional piece, and something I would be happy to use in the house.
Well, that's more than we paid for it, so... ♪ ♪ She belonged to my maternal grandparents, and they purchased her in about 1960.
And I think that she was originally part of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller collection, and they sold her at a sale at B. Altman department store in New York.
And my grandparents, who lived up around the St. Lawrence River, I don't know how they heard about this particular sale, but they went to New York and brought her back.
And the year they bought it would have been... Around 1960, maybe 1962.
When I first looked at her, I thought that she might be by one of the big carvers in New York City, like Samuel Robb or Thomas Brooks.
Mm-hmm.
But after talking to a couple of colleagues, we all decided that she was made in a different shop, probably in the 1880s or the 1890s.
Mm-hmm.
The heyday for trade figures like this would have been in the 1890s.
It would take a lot of more research to figure out who exactly carved her, but that's kind of secondary at this point because it's such a great figure.
Mm-hmm.
She's very attractive, she has a great face.
She's had kind of a rough life.
She fell over somewhere along the way.
Oh, dear.
I noticed that she had L-brackets on her legs.
Uh-huh.
And she also has a stick over there on your side.
Yes.
One of the things most people don't know about with these is that they started out as a single log.
And if you look right here in the top of her head, you can't see it, but you can put your hand up there and you can feel... You feel that plug?
Oh, yes, uh-huh.
When she was first made, she was a big log, and that was where she was attached to the lathe... Oh.
...where they rough-turned her down to get her to a certain size.
But here's where the story gets really interesting.
You see that number over there on the bottom?
Yes, number eight.
Well, in 1956, Sotheby's did an historic sale of cigar store Indian figures.
Okay.
And other American folk art.
It was the Haffenreffer Collection.
Oh, okay.
And this was one of them.
So what must have happened was, Colonial Williamsburger Abby Aldrich might have bought this or more of them, and then decided which one they wanted to keep later.
Uh-huh.
And that makes the story from your grandparents completely believable.
Uh-huh.
As far as her paint goes, she's probably second-generation.
Uh-huh.
You know?
Okay, I was wondering about that, whether she'd been repainted.
Anybody ever talk about what she's worth?
No.
I remember my mother saying something about maybe my grandparents paying about $3,000 for her, but I think that that would have been more than they would have been willing to part with.
I read a "New York Times" article from 1974 about the Sotheby's sale in 1956.
Uh-huh.
And the highest price for one of those in 1956 was $2,050.
Uh-huh.
So if, if Colonial Williamsburg had played at the upper level in 1956, in order for anybody to make money, it probably would have had to have been $4,000.
Uh-huh.
We feel like a good retail figure for this would be $25,000 to $35,000.
Uh-huh.
They were not trying to be historically accurate about the figures.
They were trying to create a figure that would advertise tobacco and the tobacco products.
Uh-huh.
Yeah.
♪ ♪ WALBERG: The only furnishings original to the mansion seen today are the planters in the ballroom.
These pieces were re-acquired for Rosecliff by its final private owner, J. Edgar Monroe.
It's been in the family for many, many years.
My great-great-great-aunt's good friend next door, when he passed away, gave her all of his Civil War items.
So it's got the bird cage on the front.
It's entirely hand-sewn, which is the first thing I saw when you brought it up to the table, which is why I unbuttoned it.
Because inside the sleeve, you see three dots, and "3SA."
So it was a size three from Schuylkill Arsenal in Pennsylvania.
Nice wool plaid lining.
A lot of these were made with leftover textiles from dress manufacturers, and they would buy the scrap to make the linings out of.
Okay.
The collar has been shortened for wear in the field, which is great.
Normally the collar would be a little bit taller, but it would chafe the neck, so they would cut it down a little bit.
Then in the back...
They altered-- these would have been the standard pillows to hold up your, your belt.
Right.
But what they did is, they made little belt loops out of it, little bordered belt loops out of the twill lace, which is kind of neat.
Have you ever had it appraised before?
No, never.
All right, so the market for this type of material has gone down a little bit, but what you have going for this is, it's identified and it's Schuylkill Arsenal.
We see contract coats that were left over from Bannerman's and other surplus stores a lot.
Those bring in the $2,500, $2,500 to $3,000 range.
I would say in today's market for this, with the identification, probably $5,000 to $7,000.
Oh, very good.
A few years ago, it would have been probably double that.
♪ ♪ I found this at Brimfield about a year ago.
So tell me right off the bat, how much did you pay for it?
$75.
Okay.
The man I purchased it from said that that's what he paid for it at auction, and he just wanted rid of it.
Well, let's talk about what it is.
A lot of people would call it a jug or a pitcher, but I would call it a wine ewer.
And at the time it was made, the Italian Renaissance was very much part of the modern taste.
Mm-hmm.
Even for a house like this one we're in right now, the big houses of Newport, they loved the Italian Renaissance style.
And so they bought pieces of the actual Italian Renaissance that you can see in some of the great Newport mansions.
And they also bought things that kind of looked in that style.
Mm-hmm.
So this would have been very popular.
And I'm talking about the late 19th century.
The 1870s was kind of a high point of what we call Renaissance Revivalism.
And a number of potters made things that, that spoke to that style, including the English potter Copeland.
Now, when we talk about English majolica-- and this is a great example of that, majolica referring to the colors, the glazes on it-- there are a number of makers that come to mind, the best-known being Minton, and also Wedgwood made...
These two big firms made great majolica.
But Copeland were a slightly smaller firm, but very respectable.
And they made, in my opinion, some of the best majolica that was made in England.
The quality of the modeling is superb.
I looked it over, and I think it's in perfect condition.
Which is unusual for something of this age and fragility.
So I think you did great.
It's not a hugely valuable thing, but I'm going to say, in a good auction, this is going to bring four or five times what you paid, but let's put it in an antique shop, in a retail setting like you bought it.
I think it's $700.
Okay.
In a good antique shop.
Thank you.
Very nice thing, thank you.
Thank you.
♪ ♪ I am an avid collector of paintings in general.
My great-great-grandfather painted landscapes, and I have several of them, and I'm very happy to have them.
And so when I look at a painting, I just see the detail in it.
And the subject matter of these particular two paintings were just exquisite.
The fact that, you know, one's on one side of the door and one's on the other, listening.
I got them in New York, in Chelsea, at a garage flea market that is no longer there any longer, but... A long time ago or... About three years ago.
What did you pay for them?
$100 for the pair.
Well, they're wonderful examples of Second Empire fancywork, as I like to refer to it.
Okay.
The artist is Glisenti.
Signed here, and this piece is signed here.
It's a diptych, which are two paintings that are talking to each other.
And often we don't see that.
Often, they'll be separated at birth for whatever reasons.
But here, we have this gentleman who's knocking on the door, and on the other painting, the lady who is very coyly listening to it.
What do you think about this narrative?
I love it.
I mean, it's just intrigue, rendezvous going on, right?
Absolutely, and that's why the artist painted it.
At this point in the late 19th, early 20th century, they were very interested in this very sort of coquettish, roguish, high-society look.
And these two paintings are a terrific example of them.
The paintings were painted in the late 19th, early 20th century, probably in Italy, and painted for the European high-style market.
The other aspect of the pictures that was very important is the detail of the work that you see.
And there is incredible detail, especially in the male figure.
The female, I believe, has a little condition issue, and I don't know if that's something that can be cleaned off or restored in some way.
They may have been overcleaned at some point in their life.
They are oil on canvas, so they are quite stable.
I don't see any need for lining or anything like that.
They're wonderful pieces, and as I said, they really do fit right into Rosecliff.
The moldings around the doors are exactly what we see in this wonderful building.
You couldn't have brought better paintings.
For auction, I would estimate them at between $2,000 and $3,000.
Wonderful.
(chuckles) And for insurance, I would suggest an insurance value of $5,000.
How wonderful, that's great.
Do you think she's going to let him in?
I hope so.
I don't know...
I don't know... (both laughing) ♪ ♪ I brought a very old copper pitcher that I'm hoping to find out if it really is very old, and who made it, and why they made it so big, because if you fill it up with water, then it's extremely heavy.
I got it in Tucson 20 years ago, but I'm not sure where it's from, and I haven't been able to find anything about it online.
APPRAISER: They don't have any signatures on them, so they're just pretty snowflake brooches.
MAN: Right, right.
Value's going to be about $25 apiece.
Uh-huh.
♪ ♪ Well, this fireplace dragon was at my mother-in-law's house from the time I can remember.
And we spent many nice cozy nights with him keeping us company.
So where is the house?
The house is in Newport, Rhode Island.
My in-laws bought the house in the 1950s, and the house was built in 1881.
And this dragon, with his-- he has another dragon that goes with him-- were original to the house.
Okay.
So age-wise, it's exactly where I would put these, around 1880, 1881.
The monumental size was something that the Victorians were doing with all of the revival styles.
It's not an andiron, it's not a chenet, it really is an ornament for the front of the fireplace.
Mm-hmm.
And like you said, it would have a pair, a matching pair.
Right.
And this chain would swag across to protect from the fire.
It's bronze.
Along the top here, you can see traces of silver plating.
Mm-hmm.
So I think it was silver-plated at one time, and heat and age have kind of worn it away.
Okay.
It's a classic mixture of different elements that you see in Victorian style all the time.
You have a hippocampus tail, you have harpy claws and wings, you have this crazy serpent-like dragon neck, and then the front, the face to me is the most interesting, because it's not a dragon face at all.
Not at all.
It looks like a Scotty or some other terrier.
And my best guess is, this was a whimsy put together by the original owners, and this, this dog head may have been a pet of theirs that they were sort of commemorating or honoring.
(chuckles): Yeah.
So it's quite wonderful.
Have you ever had it appraised?
No, I have not.
Okay, so... We don't know who the maker is, it's likely a custom piece.
It's unusual and it would be an unusual taste.
Assuming that the mate is in similar condition to this one, I think a fair auction estimate would be $5,000 to $7,000.
Very nice.
It's a very nice example.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
I think we'll keep 'em.
(both laughing) (talking in background) It's a vase that has been in my family at least since my grandfather.
When he passed, it went to my mother.
She had it always in a place of prominence in her house.
She loved it.
So I always remember it growing up as a kid.
It just has a lot of sentimental value to me, and I think it's beautiful.
I know there's a mark at the bottom, but I don't know anything about it.
I think we had it appraised probably in the early '70s.
Okay.
Probably about $1,000, but I don't know...
Okay.
But I don't have anything written about it, so...
Okay, well, we're really thrilled that you brought it to "Roadshow" today.
This is a flower basket made by the Whiting silver company.
Whiting, okay.
And Whiting silver was originally started in Massachusetts around 1840, and then it transplanted to New York City, and continued to make silver all the way through till 1924, when it was absorbed by the Gorham silver company.
Right.
They made many, many wonderful things, including flatware and hollowware, but this just really represents one of the finest examples of what they made.
And the decoration is really beautiful.
We've got these wonderful entwined leaves all the way down.
And then as we get down there, you've got one blossom here, but I want to spin forward here.
You have these fabulous chrysanthemums.
The decoration is really wonderful.
And then as we continue around, it actually moves down the handle all the way down to the leaves here.
Yeah.
Then you have this pierced latticework base, as well, at the bottom.
It's a really beautiful example of Whiting's work.
We know it's made by Whiting because it has their mark on there, and it's got a couple of other stamps we can talk about, as well.
Starting at the top, it says "Spaulding & Co." And actually, Spaulding was a very high-end retailer in Chicago.
So it was actually made by Whiting and retailed by Spaulding in Chicago.
Interesting.
Then below that, we have the Whiting mark, which is this wonderful little figural stamp.
Then it says "sterling," and four numbers, which would have been the model number.
Okay.
And then right below that, there's this very interesting little triad sign.
It's a little trefoil sign, which is actually the date mark for 1910.
Oh.
So we know all about it.
Yeah.
It's a really, really lovely example of their work.
Now we get to value.
Okay.
It's a really wonderful example.
The silver market in some ways is tied to its weight.
This exceeds that head and shoulders.
Okay.
And interestingly, in doing some research, we were able to find some similar examples.
So we can really nail down a value on it.
Oh, good.
If I were to see this to come up today for auction, in 2017, I would recommend an auction estimate of around about $5,000... Oh!
...to $7,000.
Okay.
(chuckles) A little more than I thought it was going to be.
That's... that's exciting, actually.
Wow.
If you chose to insure it, I would recommend an insurance value of somewhere between about $10,000 and $12,000, for replacement.
Okay.
It's not going anywhere, it's staying in my house, right where... Actually, on the same piece of furniture my mother kept it on is where it stays.
♪ ♪ WALBERG: Harry Houdini was Tessie Oelrichs' guest at Rosecliff after he completed one of his signature tricks-- escaping from shackles in a locked box that had been thrown into the sea from a neighboring estate.
WOMAN: This is a toy car that belonged to my father.
And from what I understand, he got it from his mother, who may have got it at a yard sale.
Well, I find it really interesting, because it is an example of a Curved-dash Oldsmobile.
Yes.
Now, the Curved-dash Oldsmobile was the first major production vehicle in America.
And it influenced toy companies, so this was made by Acme Toyworks.
So you see the big "A" on there, and it's a very accurate portrayal of a Curved-dash Oldsmobile.
So Curved-dash Oldsmobile started about 1901.
This was a toy from about 1903.
And the other interesting thing about this particular toy is, it was one of the very first pressed-steel, heavy-gauge automotive toys made in this country, which became much more popular, say, in the '20s.
But back in 1903, this was pretty radical.
And it has a very big mechanism, and rubber tires.
We do have a little tire problem.
We need to have a change there.
But it's in beautiful condition, it's baked-on enamel, it's a beautiful car, and the stenciling is real fine.
I love the red scroll-- it just has a great look.
So value-wise, on the market, retail, it's about $800.
$800, nice.
♪ ♪ My great-grandmother lived in Hawaii at the turn of the last century, and when she came back, she brought the coral necklace, and my mother had it restrung with the other beads.
Well, you've probably heard on the "Roadshow" a lot of times, things aren't meant to be cleaned.
This could be cleaned.
Okay, I wasn't sure.
The enamelwork is nice quality, it's just dirty.
And it dates to about 1900 to 1920.
Okay, I got it in about 2000.
And what'd you pay for it?
$20, I think.
$20?
Well, that's a good deal.
'Cause I think at auction today, this would make about $150 to $250.
Really?
It's terrific, really nice.
Not terrific enough to get on TV, but still terrific.
My brother bought it for my mom as a gift.
He got it from a Goodwill out in Oregon.
So what'd he pay for it?
About five bucks.
Wow!
So what do you think it's worth?
I have not the slightest clue.
I don't really know if it's a rug or a blanket.
Well, it's definitely a rug, and it probably dates around 1920.
It's definitely Navajo.
You have a little bit of border damage here.
And that detracts, but to your five dollars, maybe $200 to $300.
Oh, wow!
That's great!
Isn't that great?
My mom will be psyched.
♪ ♪ MAN: I lived in New York from 1979 to 1985.
I work construction, I'd gone to art school.
One of my friends that I worked with, Chris Sedlmayr, Jean-Michel Basquiat used to work for him as a helper.
Chris and I, and another gentleman, were business partners.
And one Christmas, he gave me this as a Christmas present.
It's quite a nice gift.
Yes.
It's an early piece from, I think, 1979.
You brought with you a letter.
What does the letter tell us?
The letter is from my business partner, who gifted me the drawing for Christmas.
Gives the history of when it was drawn in his loft, when he gave it to me, and then he also had to sell some of the drawings, which, Jean-Michel later returned to his loft and signed them, because he heard he was looking to sell them.
Oh.
Well, as I said at the onset, what an amazing thing to have.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, born 1960, tragically died in 1988.
Here we are in September of 2017, and as for now, at a little over $110 million, the most expensive work by an American artist ever sold at auction is by Basquiat.
This is an oil stick on paper.
We know that he is an artist who was largely self-taught, had artistic predilections as a young man, ran away from home, had parents who were of Puerto Rican and Haitian descent.
He was somebody who by the early 1980s had a career that really took off.
He was in the circles of artists such as Julian Schnabel, Keith Haring, Andy Warhol.
His brief associate with Madonna made him quite famous, as well.
Basquiat's work is fraught with signs and symbols.
And depending upon the works, undertones that speak of class, race, social upheaval.
Often figural, not always, often accompanied by words that can take on many different meanings.
The crown that we see there on the upper right appears in many of his works.
The committee for Basquiat disbanded.
We believe that this is a genuine work by Basquiat.
That the committee that makes the official pronouncements-- or did-- has disbanded makes it somewhat problematic relative to being 100% certain that it's an authentic oil stick drawing on paper.
We think today, in 2017, on the supposition that the work is genuine, I would insure the work for $400,000.
Ooh.
That's good.
But it's not... we won't sell it, we'll keep it.
WALBERG: You're watching "Antiques Roadshow" WALBERG: And now it's time for the Roadshow Feedback Booth.
We had a great time, and this was...
I'm going to cross this off my bucket list.
But the second thing on the bucket list was going home a millionaire, and that's not working.
(laughs) Well, I have a porcelain figurine that is probably from Germany in the 1920s.
It has museum markings on it, and the appraiser said it's worth between $200 and $300.
I brought a painting, and we were hoping we were going to get enough money so we could buy a car, but it looks like we know what his sister's getting for her wedding present.
Yup.
(chuckles) And I brought a diamond stick pin from Dad, and it's real.
Yay-yay!
(chuckles) I brought my, my rifle.
They said it was a nice rifle, there's a lot of pieces missing, from the 79th Regiment, and they said it was, was a good rifle, but not in really good shape.
And I found out that my bracelet is 1910, but I'm going to wear it in the year 2017.
(chuckles) And-- oh, I have a coffin, too.
It's from the 1850s to 1890s, and I'm really glad for a show like "Antiques Roadshow" that people here would appreciate something like this.
#RoadshowNewport.
#RoadshowNewport.
WALBERG: I'm Mark Walberg, thanks for watching.
See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."