MARK WALBERG: "Antiques Roadshow" is passing through the gateway to the West: St. Louis.
There's a good tip for viewers at home: Don't put your fine art in the garage.
Because this sort of thing happens.
Wow.
♪ Whoa ♪ No way!
♪ ♪ WALBERG: In St. Louis, "Roadshow" visited Forest Park, the site of the 1904 World's Fair that was a centennial celebration of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.
At the Missouri History Museum, objects and ephemera related to the World's Fair are on display again, showcasing impressive turn-of-the-20th-century pieces from all over the world and plenty of souvenirs that still capture the excitement surrounding the celebration.
Back at the Roadshow, what's the World's Fair connection to this whiskered wonder?
Check it out.
This is Miller Wayland, who is my great-great-great- grandfather, who had a booth at the 1904 World's Fair, where he sort of purported to have the longest beard in the world.
So this has been sort of a family heirloom that's been passed down to his daughter, her daughter, and then to my grandma, who has passed it on to me.
What's your earliest memory of looking at it?
Honestly, probably just ten or so years ago.
One day, my dad said, "Hey, check this out."
He pulled it out and unrolled it.
Anybody in the family ever talk about it, or...?
No, my grandma has told stories about Miller, about how he, you know, would fold his beard up and then tuck it in the front pocket of his overalls as he was walking around and doing things, because obviously, it would get in the way, otherwise, so...
But that's really the only story that I've heard outside of the fact that he had a booth at the 1904 World's Fair here.
Got it-- I love it.
It's on this really kind of generic, commercially available canvas you could've got at the hardware store.
Artist signed it down here, 1901 from Greenville, and Alden P. Sawyer, not a name that I recognize-- I did a little search.
Not a known artist.
He probably engaged a local person, maybe a local sign painter or a local talented amateur painter.
So, 1901, which means that he was preparing for the fair, possibly, or maybe even used it in other venues.
Was there ever talk of that?
I had wondered that, once I saw that date of 1901, but, and it's not something that's ever been really discussed in my family, so I can't say that, certainly.
Well, certainly, they would have announced the fair's coming well in advance.
Now, technically, the 1904 fair was supposed to commemorate the 1803 Louisiana Purchase.
Okay.
These World's Fairs were, like, the entertainment of the time.
People came from all over the world, all over the country, I think the St. Louis fair had about 19 million visitors.
Famous people came.
You had, I think, Teddy Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Geronimo was there.
Okay.
John Philip Sousa.
Part of it was educational.
You had, about 50 countries were represented, and they had their own booths and mini-cities, and all kinds of things.
Then you had, at the time, there's, like, 45 states, about.
Almost all of the states had some kind of booth or exhibit.
But there was also a thing called the Pike.
And on the Pike were these oddball things.
Science-related things, entertainment things, booster things for the city.
And that's probably what this is from.
Okay.
And you had to apply and get permission from the commission to get in, so he probably did all that and figured he'd be a little local celeb.
Sure.
It's cool.
You inherited it, so you didn't pay anything for it.
Yeah, of course not.
So valuing this is tricky, but it's got a lot going for it.
It's got a great folk art appeal.
It also has a bit of a, kind of a circus atmosphere to it, very much in the same vein of a circus sideshow poster.
All hand-painted.
So all that wrapped into it, it's got a great presence, and plus, aren't beards in fashion these days?
Yeah, I think they've come back.
All that said, I think, realistically, at auction, we're looking at $2,000 to $3,000 item.
Cool.
It's really cool, and I appreciate you bringing it in.
Cool, yeah, absolutely.
WOMAN: This is a Lalique, signed Lalique vase that was originally with my grandmother, and the story is that my grandmother was decluttering the house, and decided that she didn't want this any longer, so she was going to give it to Goodwill.
And my mother came to her house and said, "What do you have in this box?"
And my grandmother, we called her Granny, said, you know, "These were things I'm just giving away."
And Mom looked and she says, "Um... yeah, could I have that, please?"
And so it went to my mom.
My mom knew that it was a signed Lalique, and knew that there was value, but beyond that, that's all I really know about it.
A lot of times, the names that Lalique gave his vases have nothing to do with what you're looking at.
Oh, okay.
So it turns out, this is called Bouchardon.
Now, as best as I can figure out, Bouchardon is referring to an 18th-century French sculptor.
Edmé, E-D-M-E, Bouchardon, whose works are in the Louvre and many other museums, and he was a sculptor, he was a draftsman, he was a painter.
He favored the Classical figure.
So we think that it's possible that's what Lalique was thinking of when he named this vase.
Okay.
So it makes it impossible to find anything out about something like this when you don't have that reference.
It was designed in 1926, and from that point on, they began to produce it.
You do have two signatures on the bottom.
You have a molded signature, and then there is a script signature, which I can show you.
This came in three different colors.
It came in a clear color, it came in opalescent, and then it came in this smoky topaz, which... Americans call it "smoky topaz" or "smoke."
The French call it "fumé."
Fumé.
For "smoking."
Yes.
(laughing) I'm going with the smoky topaz.
Sounds nicer to me.
Since we are in St. Louis.
Yes.
It's really lovely, the way it was made.
It was cast in the three parts, and so these would have been cast separately and then applied.
Beautiful, articulated design.
And the ladies are very Art Deco, aren't they?
They are.
It's Classical pose, and holding a festoon of flowers is something that you would see in the Art Deco Classical style.
Okay.
In May of 2017, one of these sold at auction, the estimate was $2,500 to $3,500.
Really?
But it sold for $8,125.
Wow... (laughing): Wow.
So I would, because I'm conservative, I would say, I would put a retail value, because sometimes auction and retail can be very similar.
Yes.
So I would say probably between $6,000 and $8,000 in a retail store.
I'm upping my insurance.
(laughs) That's fantastic!
I think they're hand-carved.
They're wood.
And I think they're out of a church.
I bought them online.
MAN: What did you have to pay for them?
Eh, do I have to tell you that?
(laughs) My husband's watching.
APPRAISER: So this is a souvenir that was made in World War II, probably for sailors who were in harbor there to pick up and take home.
And we see this kind of thing all the time.
MAN: Every time I go home, my dad is, like, "Take a look at this, this right here, this is worth money when we die."
So really, I want to either learn that it's worth, like, thousands of dollars or that it's worth, like, seven dollars, and just break all his hopes and dreams.
Okay.
So you have a piece of Roseville pottery from Zanesville, Ohio.
And these days is worth, oh, just about $30 to $50.
Okay.
Thank you so much.
You get to tell him that however you wish.
Yes!
With glee.
Aw, heartless!
(laughs) WOMAN: I brought a tea caddy.
I believe it to be a tea caddy.
I think it's abalone, perhaps?
My husband bought it for me from an online site.
It is a tea caddy.
It's made out of oak, and it's veneered abalone.
And then it's mounted with this silver plate.
Then if you open it up, even the covers-- these were the compartments where the tea were-- they're even veneered with abalone.
Sometimes we see tea caddies that have accents of abalone.
This is, the whole tea caddy is made out of it.
These maker marks stand for Henry Bourne and Daniel O'Neil.
They were silversmiths in Birmingham, England, between 1881 and 1886, and Birmingham was, at that time, was, like, the center of silver-making.
Do you know how much he paid for it at all?
Well, in speaking with him now, he said, like, $600.
Okay-- how long ago?
It was, I believe, in 2009.
This is...
I mean, I think it's, like, a psychedelic tea caddy, it's so cool.
So we think that at auction, it might bring between $3,000 and $5,000.
(gasps) Yeah.
(voice breaking): It's wonderful.
Yeah, it's amazing.
It was a very nice present.
(laughing): It's amazing.
In 1752, my great-great-great- great-great-grandfather made it for his daughter Lucy when she got married.
I inherited from my grandfather.
Where were they from?
They were from Massachusetts.
Looking at the piece overall, it fits right into 1752, what we would expect from a design perspective.
It's beautiful, sort of classic, simple lines.
There's lots of symmetry.
If you look, the veneer on the drawers is book-matched, and it's sort of a mirror image, side to side.
There's not much carved ornament, but this is, sort of, the days of simple beauty.
It's really in good condition, and I guess over all those years you think of the wagons it's been on, and the-- what this piece has seen, the journey it's taken is remarkable.
There is an interesting note here, just to help shore up the family provenance.
Conveniently, somebody wrote very early on a label here that recounts that history that you told me.
The original label is here, which is very hard to read.
But, happily, someone transcribed it here.
The Appleton family, they were in Ipswich, Massachusetts, which is where I think this was made, since the 1600s.
Yeah.
John Appleton-- all of the genealogy that's recounted here matches up with what I could find in a quick look.
So his daughter marries in 1752.
He's listed as a "joiner," which is another word for a cabinetmaker and a craftsman.
So all of that fits together.
This is the first piece I've seen with an attribution to that maker.
He's not a well-known maker, but I have no reason to question that history.
So how long have you had it?
Probably around 1975.
Have you ever had it appraised?
No.
No?
Take a guess.
Depending on condition and things, and it's not a famous maker, I was thinking maybe $10,000.
Okay.
Part of the story of the piece is carried forward generation to generation.
Things come and go out of fashion, and we've seen that swaying in popularity over the years.
I think in the current market, we have more people of your generation starting to deaccession things, and fewer people on the buy side.
And you have all the ingredients here for a home run, because it's in great shape, you have all this family history, the form is good, all of that is right.
But the one ingredient, the most important ingredient in putting a value on is, who wants it?
Yeah.
Demand is the real arbiter of value, above all of those other things.
I think in the current market, I would put an auction estimate of $5,000 to $7,000 on it.
Okay.
I think ten years ago, that probably would have been $15,000 to $20,000.
MAN: This is a piece that made it to me through my family.
It was a gift to my grandma from a wealthy donor who worked where she worked.
There were originally, like, flowers in the canoe or basket-type thing, and I think that was the gift, but they said, "Make sure you keep the vase, too."
And so she was always curious about it, and then when it came down to me, I was very curious about it, as well.
We saw, like, the name on it and thought that it might have a neat history.
And so your grandmother received this as a gift?
What kind of work did she do?
She worked at St. Louis Abbey, which was founded by Benedictine monks.
The woman who donated this piece was just very thankful to her, and so, was just giving this to her as a gift, yeah.
We know the artist.
It's signed over here.
So it's François-Raoul Larche.
Okay.
He was a French sculptor working in Paris, and his dates were 1860 to 1912.
So he sort of bridged the, sort of, Art Nouveau movement.
And very much, the style of this has that look.
So we've got these two young girls with a fisherman's basket.
On the left, it has a "Siot," which is the foundry.
So it's marked by the foundry who did the casting.
And there are some marks, actually, on the bottom.
Yeah.
Can you tell me about those?
Yeah, so again, we've got the foundry marks and then probably, again, like, a model number.
Got this nice gold patina on it.
Larche, he's known more for...
I don't know if you've ever seen, there was a turn-of-the-century Art Nouveau dancer, American dancer, Loie Fuller.
One of his most famous works is a lamp or a large sculpture that has this dancer with this wonderfully flowing, billowing dress around her.
That's kind of his best-known piece, but he also made a lot of other sculptures, both for large public places and also for smaller, more domestic scenes of these really charming tabletop pieces.
It was made out of bronze, cast in Paris in the early part of the 20th century.
Is, like, it in good condition right now, or...?
Pretty good.
So the patina, it's had some wear.
We like to see things that have signs of age.
When you see something that is too, too bright and shiny... (laughs): Suspicious.
Yeah, it is an artist whose works are reproduced.
It's always good to look for indicators that something is what it says it is.
And as far as value goes, I'd say, in today's auction market, between $2,500 and $3,500.
How remarkable.
That's wonderful, wonderful to know!
WOMAN: My husband's father worked for a printing company here in St. Louis, and they were making a calendar for PET Milk, and this painting, supposedly, was commissioned for the calendar.
My father-in-law brought it home, my mother-in-law didn't like it.
It went in the garage.
My husband saw it a few years later, he liked it, he brought it home.
His wife did not like it and they put in the garage.
After my husband's wife passed away and my husband and I got together, I was in the garage one day and saw it kind of stacked up behind some things.
There was an oil pan on it.
I like it, so we just have it sitting on the mantle.
You see the mark here that it came off from.
So there's a good tip for viewers at home: Don't put your fine art in the garage, because this sort of thing happens.
Yes.
Fortunately, that can be fixed fairly easily.
Do you know anything else about it?
Do you know who the artist is?
Well, I know it's a Leith-Ross, and I know he died several years ago.
I think he was up in Pennsylvania, maybe, for a while.
But that's really all I know.
Yeah.
He died back in the '70s, he was associated with Pennsylvania, but originally, he was from the island of Mauritius.
Oh!
Which was a British colony in the Indian Ocean.
And so, really, technically, he was British.
But because he had health issues-- he had allergies and asthma, and the tropical climate didn't help him it all-- so where do you go if you have, you want to get away from anything tropical?
You go to Scotland, which is where his paternal grandparents came from, in Aberdeenshire.
And having lived there for a while, I can testify it's anything but tropical.
On his mother's side, they were Dutch, and he was related to the great Dutch marine artist Hendrik Willem Mesdag, and legend has it that it was a visit to Mesdag's studio that really inspired him to take up oil painting.
But he's best-known for his association with the Pennsylvanian Impressionists.
And that was a group of artists who settled in New Hope, on the Delaware River, and the first artists to settle there were William Lathrop and Edward Redfield, that was about 1898.
Harry Leith-Ross was the third wave, as it were, of Pennsylvania Impressionists.
He really became one of the leading members and settled there permanently in 1935.
It's a little hard to date it, but we think it may be sort of '50s, '60s.
I suspect this is a painting that he did that they just borrowed for the calendar.
I don't know whether he would have been commissioned to have done it or not.
We can only speculate about that.
Yes, that's the story I heard, so... His earlier work's quite distinctive.
It's much more impressionistic, it's much more painterly, there's more impasto on it.
This is a little flatter, so I think it's from the later period.
It's a group of artists who are very popular at auction.
It's become quite a collecting area for people, particularly in the Philadelphia area.
Have you had any thoughts about what the value of this piece might be?
Maybe a few thousand dollars.
I really liked the lighting that he did.
The light's lovely, isn't it?
The way he's picked out the little highlights of white down here, the fellow on the tractor, and the light here.
And, in fact, I checked on the back.
It has got a title, it's called "Connecticut Valley in Fall."
That affects the value, somewhat, because people tend to prefer the Pennsylvania scenes, but at auction, I still think that a painting like this should comfortably make $10,000 to $15,000.
Wow.
And possibly even a little bit more.
Wow.
It's a really nice example.
Given all the years it's spent in a garage, it's in remarkably good shape.
Okay.
WOMAN: I paid, like, ten cents apiece for them.
So I'm sure that they're worth, like, a couple of bucks apiece, maybe, or something.
APPRAISER: Yeah, I mean, I think it's really cool that they're marked by a retailer that is a St. Louis retailer.
Right.
And they sold quality material.
So even if, as silver-plate, they probably weren't cheap when they were purchased at the store originally.
You're probably looking at, maybe, $10 apiece.
Awesome!
The claim that it's camel's hair is incorrect.
It's a sheep's wool.
The stitching on it is known as a Soumak stitching, copied from Soumaks that were woven in the Caucasus, going back, like, 150 years.
APPRAISER: We've probably seen 20 or 30-- especially German-- bibles here today, because there's a lot of German ancestry here.
The binding is probably the best part of it.
The value is probably about $100, $150, but keep the binding in good condition, because that's the main thing.
That's where the money's at.
Exactly.
Okay.
Okay!
My parents bought me it as a gift when I was 13.
I asked for one and asked for one and asked for one, and they finally said, "Okay."
Do you remember what they paid for it?
I believe it was $1,800 back in 1995.
Okay, and what can you tell me about the maker?
What have you learned over the years?
I know it's made by, I believe it's Robert Glier, and he was born in Germany, but then had a violin shop in Cincinnati, which is where it was made.
It was made in 1914, and it says it's a number one.
(laughing): I don't know exactly what that means.
Well, Robert Glier-- I say "Gleer," but I'm not sure if that's right, either-- was one of the first American makers to be really strongly promoted by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company of Cincinnati.
And we know that name, Wurlitzer, because they were a big music shop.
Robert Glier's family dates back to 1632... Oh, my gosh.
...in terms of being violin makers.
Now, the number one that's on the label means that this was his top quality.
Oh, wow.
So this is the select wood, the purest tone.
This was top of the heap for the world of Robert Glier's production.
I think that we're looking at a violin that's $10,000 to $12,000 in the retail world.
Oh, my goodness!
And represents an important part of American history.
Wow, that's amazing.
WOMAN: It's a photograph of Sportsman's Park with two teams from the Negro Baseball League playing, and Satchel Paige is on the Monarch team.
APPRAISER: My understanding is this was sitting in kind of a prominent spot in an old house.
Where was that?
Well, my family home that my dad purchased in, like, 1960, which probably was built around the late 1800s.
In the basement, on the old furnace, there was this photograph sitting there for many, many, many years, apparently.
I didn't notice it for a really long time, till the furnace broke down and I had to have it repaired, so... And I think we see some of that with a lot of the dust and some of the dirt.
As a result of some fortuitous scheduling, Kansas City Monarchs and Satchel Paige came to town-- St. Louis, Sportsman's Park-- to play the Chicago American Giants.
Satchel Paige wiped the floor with them, the Monarchs.
They won 11 to 2 that day, on a beautiful Fourth of July.
Here's what's very interesting about that day in St. Louis history: the Jim Crow laws required that African-Americans sit separately, and the right side bleacher was reserved under the local Jim Crow rules.
On this day, African-Americans could sit wherever their pocketbooks would take them.
Whatever they could afford, they would sit throughout the park.
Just this day.
Wow.
Because Satchel Paige wanted that to be the case.
Satchel Paige, prolific baseball pitcher, athlete, but he was more than that.
He was a Jackie Robinson in many ways in that he had fans of any race and creed.
Which is why we see that the Jim Crow laws were put to bed for his coming into town.
A Hall-of-Famer, he was a guy that really broke a barrier in many ways for fans of the sport.
Sportsman's Park, here in St. Louis, it was prominent in that it housed sporting events.
Baseball was really the mainstay.
Closed in 1966.
We've got the park captured beautifully in a pretty wide, pretty big panorama.
Black and white.
Now, of course, there are some condition issues.
Again, sitting on top of the furnace, that would tend to happen.
With a bit of restoration, not only would it present well, but I think what you see is a really clear, beautiful image.
Have you had it valued?
No.
Okay.
As is, it's worth about $3,000.
Okay.
It would probably cost between $400 to $600 to restore.
But I think the return, what you'd see at auction, is a range of $5,000 to $7,000.
I know you're waiting for this response: You're kidding.
Oh, my gosh.
No, I think it's a beautiful image, again, of a really important day in St. Louis history, and baseball history, and American history.
The Jim Crow laws.
I mean, that was put to bed with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but on this day, it was put to bed for baseball.
Exactly-- oh, my gosh.
So this has a real historical significance.
It's a really neat piece, yeah, absolutely.
Great, wonderful.
Oh, my gosh-- that makes me happy.
Yeah, same here.
Very happy-- thank you, so much.
This is seriously giving me chills right now.
It's a great piece.
Absolutely.
WOMAN: So it was maybe, like, a few years ago.
My parents live out in the country, a couple of hours from St. Louis, and it was at an estate sale.
Just, I thought it was really cool-looking, the colors, and the gold, and it was about $200.
APPRAISER: So what you have here is an 18-karat yellow gold enamel diamond and ruby ring.
It's from the Art Nouveau period, and it probably dates to 1905.
Oh.
So the ring itself is beautiful for what it is, for a period ring.
It has a really nice look to it.
I would say, just the ring alone is worth about $2,000 to $3,000.
Whoa.
But inside is a very clear signature.
"Marcus & Co., 18 karat."
And you can see it right here.
Marcus & Co. was a very prominent New York maker.
They were founded in 1892 and were around until about 1960.
Herman Marcus immigrated to the United States from Germany in the middle of the 19th century and worked for Tiffany & Co.
He then went off on his own and formed Marcus & Co.
This is very characteristically Marcus.
It's Mughal designed, so sort of Indian-inspired, which you can see.
So cool.
The shape looks like a sultan's turban, and the colors and the material, also very Mughal-inspired.
The Art Nouveau period was inspired by nature.
There was a lot of Orientalist interest.
And that's very clear here.
The center stone is a ruby.
It's a cabochon ruby, which means that it's smooth over the top, so not faceted.
And it has a very rich pink hue.
So rubies come in a range of colors from red to pink.
The pinker, saturated rubies, like this, are most often from Burma, so this I would characterize as a Burmese ruby.
Because it was made by Marcus & Co., that makes me that much more certain that it is indeed a Burmese ruby, because they would be using the highest quality of goods available to them at the time.
Ooh, yeah.
Historically, with trade between Burma and the rest of the world, Burmese rubies couldn't be exported, so there was a hold on them.
Therefore, there aren't very many of them on the marketplace today.
The gorgeous green enamel work is also very characteristic of Marcus & Co.
They were enamel masters.
There are beautiful, very bright diamonds, really used as accent stones, also common for Marcus & Co. for the day.
I would say, at auction today, it would be worth between $7,000 and $10,000.
♪ Whoa ♪ No way!
Oh, my gosh.
Wow.
Whoa, I got chills.
I'd say that was a pretty good buy.
It does have a chip.
Because of what it is, the chip doesn't make it worth any less.
Thank you.
Of course!
Day-maker!
(both laughing) Got to insure that, honey.
Yeah, absolutely, and for insurance, often double.
I mean, I would say for an insurance value, closer to $20,000 would be reasonable.
Wow.
WOMAN: We've had this clock hanging in our living room for many years now.
We inherited it from my husband's father and mother.
We really don't know anything about it.
APPRAISER: Never had it appraised?
We've never had it appraised.
We have been careful, though, not to clean it.
If there's one thing we've learned from the "Roadshow," it's not to clean anything, so it comes here today accompanied by a little dust, bits and things like that.
Okay.
The first moment I saw it, I knew it was something special.
Yeah?
The clock is from around 1870.
The French would call it "Napoleon Trois," or Napoleon III-era.
Okay.
"Le Roy et Fils."
Yes?
That's Julien Le Roy and Sons.
Okay.
They're an extremely prestigious clock firm that got their start in 1785, and they are considered some of the most prestigious makers of French clocks in history.
They were associated with kings and queens, they had royal charter.
It's a spectacular clock to begin with, but with that name on it, it adds so much panache.
It's an eight-day clock.
I have every reason to believe that it not only strikes the hour, but it also announces the quarters.
We've got an enormously beautiful 18th-century-style dial, but it's still a mid-19th-century clock.
There's a little bit of damage to the winding holes here, with the enamel.
That's not a biggie, but it's there.
Okay.
We see that it has this calendar.
Yes.
Also a very beautiful enamel dial.
And it's a very special calendar because it's what we call a perpetual calendar.
This perpetual calendar takes into account leap year.
Amazing!
Very cool.
And then, of course, working our way down even farther, here's an aneroid barometer.
So not only would you know the time, you'd know the date, and you would know the barometric pressure.
In addition to that, it has a centigrade thermometer here, which is alcohol-filled.
And this is a Fahrenheit thermometer filled with mercury.
Now, it has some serious condition issues.
Yes.
This carved wood, what we're seeing here is the base wood, but on top of that would have been a layer of plaster, which then had been gilded with gold.
So you can imagine how beautiful it was with all of this gilded.
Oh, I bet.
And you can still see some of the gilding, and over the years, that gets chipped away.
In its present condition, it's easily worth, at a retail level, between $5,000 and $6,000.
Okay.
Restored and pristine, at a retail level, it would probably be worth $9,000 to $10,000.
It's a diamond in the rough, is what it is.
Okay.
Well, now I have a better appreciation for it in my living room.
Very good.
These were my great-aunt's.
And I was told that her husband bought them for her at the 1904 World's Fair.
These are Satsuma, and they were made in massive quantities.
You could actually go through books, order books, at the World's Fair and say, "Hey, I'd like something like this, or something like this in this pattern."
And a year later, or six months later, you'd get it.
APPRAISER: McClelland Barclay is the name of the maker.
They were a fairly high-end costume jewelry company.
It's in good shape.
It doesn't seem to have lost any stones, and the value on this is about $75.
Thank you so much.
You're very welcome.
It's a fun piece.
APPRAISER: It's beautifully done, it has that really nice hand-hammered, handmade look to it.
So I would put the value, probably, in a shop, about $300 to $500.
Okay, great.
Wow.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, appreciate it.
WOMAN: This is a chair that came from my grandparents, and it's a set of six.
APPRAISER: And so you guys still use the chairs?
Yes, we use them every day.
Are they comfortable?
Yes.
Fun to sit in?
They can be, yes.
You can slide out of them.
So this is actually one of the great iconic designs by a company called Laverne International, based in New York.
And it was Erwine and Estelle Laverne, and the designers of the chair were William Katavolos, Ross Littell, and Douglas Kelly.
And the name of the chair is the "T" chair.
You have this iconic "T" design of a three-legged chair.
It was designed in 1952.
And this was one of their most successful models.
You just have one here today, but you said you have six, correct?
Yes.
Provided that all of the chairs are in the same condition, each chair at auction is worth around about $750 to $1,000.
So you're looking at a set of six, between around about $4,500 and $6,000 for the set of six.
Oh, wow.
Really?
You're serious?
Oh, okay.
MAN: I went to an estate sale, and this was back sitting on the dining room table, and there was a family member there.
I made an offer on it, and they called back at the end of the day and said I could purchase it.
The gentleman, who was the grandson of the owner, all he could tell me was that the family was from Germany, they'd been living in St. Louis for a couple of generations, and the grandfather always had this.
He brought it from Germany?
That was the understanding of what the grandson said, that the furnishings in the home, and a lot of things that were in the home, were from Germany.
Very elegant furnishings.
How many years ago?
I've had it for about two years, now.
You said you did some research on it.
Well, the only thing I've discovered is that the Flying Dutchman was a train in England that was the fastest commuter train that could travel across England, in approximately the 1850s or '60s.
The Pullman Car Company, I can't find any record of what the purpose of this-- it just seems like it has such amazing detail, that it has some functional purpose, and I don't quite get it.
Well, every once in a while, something comes to the Roadshow that I just have to fall in love with.
The detail on it is extraordinary.
As far as the Flying Dutchman, I did a little quick research on the Flying Dutchman.
The only toy train I could discover was an English train.
On the other hand, this has all the earmarks of an American parlor car from the 1880s.
The detail here is amazing.
All the paint details, the little scrollwork here and there, the clerestory design-- it just has everything.
What is truly amazing, and I know this must have really had the thing that helped you was the detail inside.
I don't think this was, in any way, a salesman's sample.
A salesman's sample wouldn't quite have this much detail, and there's elements of it that have a hand-crafted look to it, but, as I say, the detail is astounding.
Even the little velvet-lined chairs, swiveling chairs, even outfitted with cuspidors.
The chairs even do still swivel, so they can look out the window.
It's extraordinary.
And of course, you know, Pullman was primarily a maker of sleeping cars, but this, as I say, was their parlor car.
Yes.
There's mirrored panels here.
I've just never seen anything quite so fantastic.
There's a lavatory!
Even-- you see the little bathroom with the commode.
There's a bathroom, yes.
Did you tell me what you paid for it?
I made an offer of $800 for it, and then called back about every hour, waiting for the estate sale show to be over because I was ready to up my offer, and then she said, at the end of the sale, at 4:00, that I could have it for the $800.
Wow, that's pretty good.
And I was absolutely thrilled to have it.
It is very difficult to value something one-of-a-kind.
Based on similar things I've sold, I would say, at auction, $15,000 is a slam-dunk.
As a price.
$15,000?
I think so, yes.
I think it could do more if you found two people really in love with it, as much as I was.
I'm in love with it.
Okay.
Oh, my.
I'm-- I'm truly amazed.
It's-- I had no-- I-- honestly.
Had no idea.
MAN: I went to a small boutique gallery about ten years ago, here in the city of St. Louis.
And I was reviewing some paintings up there and this one really caught my eye.
And I had been following Kathryn Cherry for a number of years, but was never really in a position to buy a Kathryn Cherry, so...
The dealer made me an offer on it, and I wound up purchasing it.
I'm so happy that you brought a Kathryn Cherry, because she is one of my favorite St. Louis artists, and being from St. Louis, I've handled a lot of her work.
It's a beautiful example.
She was one of the most important St. Louis artists at the early part of the 20th century.
In fact, in 1904, she was the only woman to receive a gold medal at the St. Louis World's Fair.
She started off painting floral subject matter on ceramics.
Then she went into formal training where she studied under Richard Miller, who is also a St. Louis notable artist, and then Hugh Breckenridge.
She spent a lot of time, all of her professional life, in St. Louis, exhibiting frequently at the St. Louis Artists' Guild and the St. Louis Art Museum.
Her work has really developed a following.
Kathryn Cherry was born in 1860 and died in 1931.
This painting was most likely executed in the 1920s, and it's an oil on canvas board.
She did a lot of floral subject matter, but then, in the summer, she traveled to Gloucester, and so this is one of her Gloucester Harbor scenes.
It's not signed, but it's clearly a work by Kathryn Cherry.
Every bit of it says Kathryn Cherry.
In fact, you have documentation on the back of the painting that provides authentication for the work.
That's nice that you have that bit of information to add to the painting and its provenance.
It's an impressionistic painting and it's just beautifully executed and in wonderful condition.
She's really noted for having this overall blue and purple palette to most of her works.
What did you pay for the painting?
I believe it was $600 at the time.
It's something that I could see easily selling at auction for $2,000 to $3,000.
Wow, that's excellent.
WOMAN: I brought a picture of my Uncle Bud, who was in World War II.
And he died in World War II.
There's the certificate for his Purple Heart and his Purple Heart, and then a piece of a kamikaze plane that hit the U.S.S.
Franklin while he was on it.
He was a radio operator.
He brought it home whenever the ship went in to be repaired.
And then when the ship went back out, he went back out on it, and he died on the Franklin.
There was an explosion, I don't know if it was a bomb, or a missile, or what.
The story of the Franklin is one of the most unheralded catastrophic Navy losses of World War II.
There were plenty to choose from, but what they went through was pretty horrific.
It's an Essex-class carrier, commissioned in early 1944.
They were supporting operations off of the Philippines in late October 1944, when they were struck by this kamikaze aircraft.
It was a bad hit.
It wasn't a catastrophic hit from the perspective of the vessel itself, but there were 56 gentlemen killed and about 60 wounded.
The Franklin was turned around.
They took it back to Bremerton, Washington, to be refitted.
It came back out, and it wasn't too long after that, and, in fact, we can see right here, it was in March of 1945 when they suffered the catastrophic strike that resulted in so many casualties, including the death of your uncle.
At the time, they were supporting active air operations, so you have aircraft that are fueled and armed on the flight deck, there are aircraft that were fueled and armed in the hangar deck, and that bomber augured in and exploded amongst all that material in there.
That's the problem with an aircraft carrier, is, there's so much flammable material on board, and especially when they are actively engaging in air operations, that's when they're the most vulnerable, and that's when they were struck.
There were a number of them that were blown off by the original explosion, and there were others that sought refuge when they were trapped and simply had no choice but to jump into the ocean.
That's one of the reasons why a lot of these gentlemen that were lost were listed as missing originally.
After he was confirmed as killed in action, what the military would have done, then, is to send to his family an engraved Purple Heart.
If you were killed in action in World War II, you got the Purple Heart a little better than everybody else-- yours was engraved.
We've got his rating, and we've got his name, and we see that he is a radar man.
Right.
He's a radar man, third class.
They worked primarily in the combat information center.
Purple Hearts, especially Navy-named Purple Hearts in World War II, command a premium on the collectors' market because they include so much information that you can then learn to flesh it out.
It is what it represents, where the value comes in.
In this case, this is even better, because we have the accolade, and spectacularly better because there's the chunk of the kamikaze aircraft that he took home as a souvenir from the first go-around with this.
If this wasn't your uncle's, if he had no family left and this was out in the world, looking for somebody to adopt him as family, what you would expect to pay, retail, for this today would be between $3,500 and $4,000.
For this?
For everything.
For everything-- oh, my goodness.
Wow.
What have you brought today?
I've got this lamp here.
I'm hoping it's Bakelite, maybe.
APPRAISER: You could have ordered the tin litho in the brand of your beer, which means, we might find a similar picture with a different brand.
It could be that there isn't a great number of these out there.
APPRAISER: It does need restringing.
These are a little bit floppy.
It's okay to restring her, it will not change her value at all.
Retail on her would be about $100 to $150.
All right, thank you.
MAN: I was an official, an umpire, on the professional tennis circuit for about ten years, and I would travel from one tournament to the next, and when I would see a champion, I would ask them to autograph the sweatshirt.
Did you ever umpire at Wimbledon?
Never.
I have been to Wimbledon, but I've never umpired at, officiated at Wimbledon.
But I see that you umpired at the U.S. Open.
Many times, many times.
So a lot of the signatures you got there?
Yes, and all out of uniform.
And the criteria here, by the way, was...
Pretty much, you had to have a Wimbledon title.
Okay, so for instance, we have Billie Jean King, great Wimbledon champion.
Rod Laver, who won it four times.
Then we got John McEnroe, Venus Williams, five-time Wimbledon champion as of 2017, and the great Martina, who won nine Wimbledon championships.
What were they like when they signed this for you?
What did they think of this?
A number of them looked at it and they were very pleased to be able to sign it.
Venus looked at it and said, "My gosh, how old is this shirt?"
And, "I would love to sign it."
And so, she signed it as boldly as you possibly could.
I would put an auction estimate on it of probably $1,000 to $1,500.
Excellent, excellent.
And I would insure it for $3,000.
$3,000-- all right, excellent.
MAN: It is the complete works of Chaucer.
It was given to me as a gift from a dear friend about ten years ago.
He had bought it about 35 years ago from an antique book dealer in London.
The Chaucer that you brought in was published in 1602.
Yes.
In London.
And the beautiful thing about it that I noticed straight away, is that it is in its contemporary, or first, binding.
Which is a nice calfskin binding with an incredible, subtle detail, if you notice these roll-tool imprints.
Yes.
That was just a very nice, subtle way of decorating books at that time.
It is a folio edition.
That refers to the size of the paper.
So the paper, when it is printed, is only folded once, so you have two sheets.
Right.
It has, when you open it up here, a bookplate from an early owner, Mr. Anderdon Bridgewater, and this is his coat of arms.
When you turn to the title page, you get all the crucial information about the book that you need.
It is called "The Works of Our Ancient "and Learned English Poet, Geoffrey Chaucer, newly printed."
The book is his collected works.
The editor of this book had done an edition in 1598, so it is the second with this particular editor.
Okay.
Once he'd done the first edition, there were people criticizing him for it, so he added a number of things, which are enumerated on the title page, and then it was published in 1602 by Adam Islip.
It also has this incredibly beautiful woodcut border.
And what makes this copy special is that the margins around the border are still very wide-- one of the other indications that this is an early binding.
Okay.
About 100 years later, after the publication of the book, it was in the possession of Henry Compton, Lord Bishop of London.
His bookplate is dated 1701, so there we know, this is an early provenance.
This is not a woodcut.
This is a copper engraving, a portrait of Geoffrey Chaucer, with various decorations around it, and it's just very nicely done, the entire package.
The binding is beautiful.
It has a few slight repairs on the back, but that just helps to preserve the book.
Do you have any idea what this book might be worth?
I really do not.
I believe my friend paid $2,000 for it, approximately 35 years ago.
In today's market, an insurance value for the book would be around $8,000.
Okay, that's great.
Yeah, it's just... Was a real treat to see here at the Roadshow.
Yeah, it's a beautiful book.
WOMAN: I think it's a bodhisattva, it's a figure of the Buddha, and this is a repose position.
It has gilt, but it's worn off.
There's a missing arm.
I thought it was so beautiful, I didn't mind the damage.
I almost didn't have a chance to acquire it, because I was having 15 people for lunch.
There was a local person who was a colorful character in Kirkwood, so I really wanted to get to his garage sale.
I rushed out and the dealers had been there for two days before, so I thought everything good would be gone, but when I saw this, I thought it was so beautiful, I just grabbed it.
APPRAISER: May I inquire what you paid for it?
Probably between $75 and $100, which was a lot for me.
It was about 20 years ago.
Well, it is interesting that it was omitted from consideration by the dealers for two days.
This, in fact, is a gilt bronze figure.
Beautifully seated, Wenshu, bodhisattva of insight.
Beautiful drapery, there's ribbon work.
Very fine, reticulated hands.
Wonderful rope and jewelry work.
The rolled fly whisk is beautifully cast, and there is Rubenesque, or a chubby quality to the face, which is indicative of the age and period.
It's a beautiful face of compassion.
Slightly down-tilted.
Looking at the figure, there are some features of early bodhisattvas.
A truncated, or, for want of a better word, skinny waist.
The jeweled chest.
The very deep and fine drapery of the robe, and seated in Royal Ease.
And Royal Ease is really a characteristic of very early Buddhist art.
The dating would be approximately early 15th century, or early Ming Dynasty.
The consensus is that it did have a base.
The base that is often associated and cast with these objects is a post, and then a similar, conforming lotus base.
So it's raised, it's revered, it's elevated, as a Buddha should be.
The quality of this Buddha is so fine, the age is such a Golden Age of Buddhist art, that we would not be surprised if the original base had a inscription, and that it's possible that that base may have had an imperial inscription.
Oh, really?
It would be very, very difficult to prove that it was for the imperial household or from an imperial workshop, as there's no inscription.
I think those who understand Buddhist works of art from that period would look at this object and say it's beyond a very wealthy patron's quality of bronze.
So it's likely that the quality would indicate that it's an imperial piece.
Do you think it's Chinese?
It is Chinese.
Okay, that's what I, that's what I thought.
It's of no real consequence that the gilding is gone.
We would would be shocked and suspicious if the gilding was there.
Yes, you're missing a hand.
Yes, you're missing an arm.
These are old objects.
These are somewhat fragile objects.
Although bronze is hearty, it is brittle.
Objects get dropped.
They're detached.
Any idea what it may be worth in today's market after what I've said?
To me, it was worth $100 or whatever I paid, so I didn't really care.
A very conservative retail price would be $100,000 to $125,000.
(quietly): Really?
Are you really serious?
(laughing): Oh, my goodness.
I can't believe it.
It's a wonderful object.
Well-- my goodness.
(laughing): I can't believe it.
WALBERG: You're watching "Antiques Roadshow" And now, it's time for the Roadshow Feedback Booth.
We appraised our jewelry spot-on.
We were right almost on the dollar.
It wasn't worth a whole lot, but...
But enough.
But we did find out that Patrice's ring is 100 years old.
Yeah.
And our biggest surprise was that we found out our sculpture is worth $1,000.
Yay!
And I brought a box of Babe Ruth underwear that we found in the house that we now occupy.
Do you wear that underwear?
Don't wear it, but it's worth about $400.
Oh, Bruce, you should wear it!
And I brought my grandmother's turn-of-the-century valentines.
Collection's worth about $700, because Grandma was popular.
I brought this-- whatever this is.
I think I was the only person that scared the appraiser with this, because he said, "That's really ugly, but if you like it, it's worth something."
Self-portrait.
(chuckling) We brought our treasures, found out that they're worth about $800.
We paid zero for them, they were family treasures, and found out the necklace, I can continue to wear it on Halloween, because it's made out of...
Paste.
...plastic!
We brought-- Grandpa brought me his awesome projector and it ended up being worth $350.
BOTH: We love "Antiques Roadshow"!
Our stuff is worth $11,000... ...and $15.
Thanks, "Antiques Roadshow"!
(mumbles): Yeah, thanks.
(laughs) WALBERG: I'm Mark Walberg, thanks for watching.
See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."