GUEST: I brought a box that my
father's cousin gave me. They
went to Asia to live in 1915

and stayed there until '36.
In '54, when I got married,
I lived in Harrington. Anne,

as I say, she was a cousin to
my father. She would call me
to do her handyman work. And

I never charged her anything.
And she gave me this in 1960.
And she died the next year,

so I know nothing about it.
And she said, "It's not cheap.
It's, it's valuable." That's

all I know about it.

APPRAISER: Okay. So they had
come back to the United States.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: And where
were they living?

GUEST: Harrington, Delaware.

APPRAISER: What do
you think it is?

GUEST: I thought it
was a ivory box, it...

APPRAISER: The easy leap
of faith is to say it might
have been made in Asia.

GUEST: That's my thoughts.

APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: It was full of shells.
She told me she walked the
coastline and picked up the

shells and put them in there.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: So wherever
they was living, they
were close to water.

APPRAISER: Okay, well, what we
have, what you're looking at,
is a scrimshawed, whalebone

New England sailor's ditty
box-- they call them ditty boxes

GUEST: Ditty box.

APPRAISER: Yeah, because the
sailors put personal, small
personal items in there.

GUEST: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And this is really
a beautiful one. It's fully
developed. I'm going to show

the backside.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: You can see these
wonderful floral arrangements.

GUEST: Oh, yeah, yeah.

APPRAISER: There's
a small scene there.

GUEST: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: A memorial
scene. See this wonderful
construction with the fingers?

GUEST: Oh, yes. Yeah.

APPRAISER: And how they're put
together with these beautiful
little nails? And it's fully

decorated.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: So, this would have
been made by a sailor, probably
off a whaling ship, somewhere

around 1830, 1840.

GUEST: Oh, yeah?

APPRAISER: Things
move around the world.

GUEST: Oh, yeah.

APPRAISER: Whalers
moved around the world.

GUEST: Oh, yes.

APPRAISER: So, we were whaling
all over the world, and I can't
rule it out, but for cataloguing

it, it's not logical to say
that this was made and left
in Asia, and your relatives

picked it up.

GUEST: Right, I have
no idea. Yeah, I would
think they purchased it
either before or after

they returned.

APPRAISER: It has a beautiful
lid, and they're trying to show
this wonderful exotic wood,

which is mahogany.

GUEST: Uh-huh, I thought it was.

APPRAISER: And then you turn
it over, and you see the
thin layer of whale bone.

GUEST: Of whale bone.

APPRAISER: Now, this was not
easy to make. This came from
the jawbone of a sperm whale.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And it's called the
pan bone, P-A-N. And they had
tools for actually cutting the

pan bone into thin strips.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: They would
then steam the strips, and
they became more pliable.

GUEST: Yup.

APPRAISER: And they were able to
bend them around a form and then
nail them very fastidiously...

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: ...and form these
boxes. These are very highly
sought after, and this is

a very, very good one. There
are parts of it that could be
better. But in terms of this

particular box, in today's
market, which has been a little
challenged, I would feel very

comfortable putting a retail
valuation of $6,000 to $8,000.

GUEST: Oh, wow. I had no idea.
That's why I brought it. I,
as I say, I got it in '60,

and I knew nothing about it.
So I, that's why I come to the
ROADSHOW. I wanted to learn

something.