♪ ♪
CORAL PEÑA:
"Antiques Roadshow Recut"
is highlighting
"Roadshow's" first-ever outdoor
event in Newport, Rhode Island.
(laughs):
Awesome!
Crazy.
Absolutely crazy.
PEÑA:
Stay tuned for part one
of "Antiques Roadshow Recut:
Rosecliff."
♪ ♪
PEÑA:
Rosecliff Mansion,
the so-called summer cottage
of heiress
Theresa "Tessie" Oelrichs,
was the perfect location
for our "Roadshow" event
back in 2017.
Less than perfect?
The weather conditions brought
to Newport by Hurricane Jose.
But the storm couldn't dampen
the spirits
of our guests and appraisers.
So imagine, you are invited
to a party here.
You're coming off
the back porch,
you're walking down
to see the water.
In a gown.
In a gown.
And you're wearing this.
Tell us
what you brought in.
The pin belonged
to my grandmother,
who lived in Chicago.
I don't know
where she bought it.
I don't know
what it's worth.
And never had it
appraised, did you?
Never had it appraised.
We love people like you
when you come in here
with that.
Lack of information.
Lack of information,
solid lack.
Right.
(laughs)
You see, I'm just standing here,
and it's moving.
In the wind.
Is that fantastic?
It is lovely.
Imagine if
you were dancing
in this house,
you know, in 1940,
because that's about when
I think this pin was made.
Okay.
I think the pin was added.
I think
it was always made
to have some type of a chain
running through it,
and it hung
as a necklace.
Not that it doesn't
work as a pin.
Okay.
It reminds me
of a waterfall.
I mean, the diamonds
are truly dripping off of this.
There's a little over
two ounces of platinum
in the whole piece.
Then there's about four carats
in baguettes.
The marquise-shaped stones,
they're all different sizes.
One of them is
as large as a carat.
You add them all up,
there's nine carats
in the marquise diamonds.
So all together,
we got 13 carats of goods.
Any thoughts on the piece?
Beautiful.
Beautiful,
I like that.
So you really don't need
to know what it's worth.
I would like to know.
(laughs)
Thought
I'd get out of here.
So I would say at auction,
$15,000 to $20,000
Great.
It's not bad, right?
Not bad.
Yeah.
For a bunch of rocks.
(laughing)
That's great,
I love it.
Good backdrop,
huh?
Yeah.
This, I believe, is a foghorn
from the 18th century
that my dad found in the bay
when he was scuba diving
in about 1960.
MAN:
So it might be useful today.
It might be very useful today,
since it's rainy
and foggy, yeah.
(blowing, no sound coming out)
No.
He could do it, though,
so you just need more wind.
♪ ♪
(water flowing, birds chirping)
PEÑA:
Rosecliff Mansion was made to
have a ball-- literally.
This 3,200-square-foot ballroom
is the largest
of all the surviving
Newport mansions.
I think it's a tiara.
Oh, will you put it on?
Can I see it on you?
Yeah, well, I...
You don't
have enough hair.
Oh, you have
to have a bun?
(laughing)
WOMAN:
I collected things, always,
from when I was very young,
because my mother was,
collected things.
And then I started
to get older,
and I fell in love with
Modernism.
I don't think
Claire Falkenstein
is that well-known
to a large jewelry audience
because she really was known
for sculpture.
The most famous sculpture
she made was for Guggenheim,
"The New Gates of Paradise"
in Venice.
Yes, yeah.
And did not use
expensive materials,
and that was really because
she didn't,
couldn't in the beginning,
but then she continued to use
wood and glass
and iron and silver
and very rarely used gold.
And what you brought
are two quite rare pieces.
I have actually never seen
a pair of her earrings.
I mean, it was not
a big body of work.
But this piece,
this is very unusual.
I imagine it was worn
as a head ornament,
probably in a bun,
and then you'd put these
in the back
and they would dangle.
There's brass, there's iron,
there's silver and gold,
and also, it's signed.
Her full name,
Claire Falkenstein.
Where did you get this?
The hair ornament
I bought online.
It came from Paris.
It was about 20 years ago.
It was at an auction thing,
and it didn't sell,
and in those days,
you could contact the owner.
And buy it.
Which I did, and she said,
"Nobody bid on it.
If you want,
you can have it for $50."
The earrings I bought
when we were living in Milwaukee
at a church thrift shop.
I paid probably
like two, three dollars.
I'm thinking this was made
in the '60s.
That could be in the '60s...
But that's, that's
what I'm thinking.
And the earrings
were probably late '40s.
Yeah.
I am hard-pressed
to put a value.
It's not for everyone,
it's not that wearable,
but if you want to be
avant-garde and cool,
hey, that says it all.
On this head ornament,
I would put a value,
at auction,
$4,000 to $6,000.
And I would say
as an insurance value,
probably in the $15,000 range,
at least.
And the earrings
I would also put up there,
maybe $4,000 to $5,000
as an auction price,
and a replacement,
I'd have to say
$10,000, $12,000.
I think people
will all of a sudden say,
"Claire Falkenstein--
who was she?"
WOMAN:
I brought
a Royal typewriter
that was presented
to my grandfather,
and he worked at Royal
for many years.
For his ten-year anniversary
as vice president of sales,
he was presented
this typewriter
by his staff,
and all the top salespeople
were able to sign it,
and then get it--
and so it was engraved
at Cartier.
And it's gold.
(chuckles)
And my dad also worked
at Royal,
and so it went from my
grandfather to my father to me.
And they do refer to this
as the Gold Royal.
Right.
So Royal Typewriter Company
was founded in 1904,
but it wasn't
until the 1930s,
when your grandfather
was in charge of national sales,
that they really started
to take off.
Right, right.
Which, as a result, led him
to be the top salesman,
and then eventually
the president of the company.
Right, and he actually only
had an eighth-grade education
and became president
of a Fortune 500 company.
Right.
There's 1,064 names inscribed
in this.
Oh, wow.
And they're inscribed
by a fellow
named Warner MacDonald
by hand, individually.
The typewriter itself
has 2,257 different parts.
What Royal did is,
they then took
a completed typewriter,
took it to Cartier...
Yes, okay.
And every exposed piece,
large and small,
was plated in 24-karat gold.
That was in 1939
at a cost of $5,000.
When I asked some of the
appraisers
at the jewelry table...
Uh-huh.
"What would you think
it would cost
to have something like this
commissioned today?",
they couldn't even put
a number on it, barely.
Because of, the cost of labor
was less back then.
Right.
And the cost of gold
was less back then.
$150,000, $200,000,
perhaps, they speculated.
It was exhibited
in the 1939
New York World's Fair.
Okay.
Then it went on tour
all around the U.S.
at the offices
of Royal sales agents.
And it was presented in 1940
to your grandfather.
Half a dozen appraisers
were all involved in this
with me...
Uh-huh.
As we tried to talk about
the different components to it.
We would put a value,
at auction,
of $30,000
to $40,000.
Oh, my God.
(laughs)
Awesome!
That's amazing, wow--
I had no idea.
It's been in my closet.
(chuckles)
♪ ♪
You have
a Japanese form here...
Right.
That some clever
Western person said,
"What a nice idea,
"I can turn this
into an oil lamp...
Right.
and we'll add
this little bit."
And they actually made
all of this in the U.S.
Okay.
Here we go.
This was
the height of fashion
in 1900.
Right.
And now not so much.
And now it's, like,
not fashionable anywhere.
(laughs)
This is an object that came
from my great-grandmother's
dining room table.
We're not quite sure what it is.
Might be a U.F.O.
(laughing)
This violin is labeled
"Matthias Averill,"
but just when
you opened the case,
I could see
that it reminded me
of a, what's called
a Schweitzer commercial violin.
From around 1900 to 1910,
I would guess this one is.
PEÑA:
Architect Stanford White based
the elegant Rosecliff Mansion
on King Louis XIV's palace,
the Grand Trianon of Versailles.
The intention to create
an opulent home
fit for so-called American
royalty like the Oelrichs family
was abundantly clear.
This is a letter
from Jackie Kennedy
that was sent to the Men's
Democratic League of Newport,
because she was in Newport,
and had, unfortunately,
a stillborn child
at Newport Hospital,
and the Men's
Democratic League
sent her a bouquet
of flowers.
And this is
the thank-you note
that she sent to them.
And my grandfather,
at the time,
was the president of
the Men's Democratic League,
and this was 1956.
So he kept the letter,
gave it to my mother,
and said,
"Keep this letter,
"because he's going
to be president,
and she'll be
first lady."
Wow.
And it came true.
Wow,
very prescient.
Yeah.
You know, it's interesting,
because there are
a lot of ties
from Newport
and the Kennedys.
They were married here,
1953.
Mm-hmm.
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy,
actually,
Hammersmith Farm,
so there's a very strong
Newport connection.
Yeah.
It's just
a lovely little note,
basically,
"Thank you for the roses."
On the back here,
it is nicely signed.
It said, "It meant
a great deal to me," so...
Elegant note
from a very elegant lady.
At auction, I would expect
this to bring
around $1,500.
Wow.
Very good.
WOMAN:
They came down
from my mother-in-law.
We think they may be
Benjamin Greenleaf,
but I'm not sure of that.
My mother-in-law
was given to hyperbole.
Ah.
And these came down
from the family,
and each woman
brought it down.
Since you've had them,
have you done anything to them?
The only thing we did
was frame them.
And so these
are newer frames, then?
Yes.
And what did
the original frame look like?
Well, the frames
that my mother-in-law had, um,
were really the kind
that you would put on a diploma,
those little black ones?
Uh-huh, okay.
And they were falling apart.
Let's start with dispelling
any family hyperbole,
any apocryphal story.
These paintings are definitely
by Benjamin Greenleaf.
Greenleaf,
as you may know,
was born in Hull,
Massachusetts, in 1769,
and he really
started painting
when he was
in his early 30s.
Before that,
we don't know what he did.
He's one of those artists
that we don't know much about.
But we do know
when he was born
and when he was active.
And he was active for
about a 15-year period
between 1803 and 1818.
He was
an itinerant painter,
going from town to town,
staying there until...
he had either
worn his welcome out
or he's painted enough
commissions that he was done.
These two portraits--
this painting is very typical
of Greenleaf's work,
because it's painted
on glass.
In other words,
it's a reverse painting.
Greenleaf took
a piece of glass
and painted the portrait
on the back of the glass,
and they're
very fragile.
The gentleman,
who's almost certainly by--
also by Greenleaf,
but it's on a panel.
It's on a piece
of wood.
One of the things
that Greenleaf was known for
was painting
these profile portraits
and virtually
filling the painting
with the portrait.
And, in fact,
this one,
I wonder when it was reframed,
if, there, her bonnet
really goes underneath
the rabbet of the frame.
Oh, yeah--
oh, interesting.
Here's the potential bad news.
Greenleafs,
every one that I've seen,
they're in those
little crummy black frames,
so you might have thrown away
the original frames.
That hurts the package,
because it's not
the original frame.
In spite of the fact
that the portraits are great,
if they'd been
in their original frame,
they'd be even greater.
Greenleaf's work
is really pretty rare.
There are less than 60
of these portraits
known to have been
done by him,
probably because
a lot of them broke.
In this condition,
in these new frames,
a good pre-sale
auction estimate
would be $5,000
to $7,000.
Wow, very good.
Now, if they were
in their original frames,
you might add
a few more thousand,
and it might have been worth
$8,000 to $10,000.
I should also point out
that Greenleaf
did various sizes of these,
so the bigger that they are,
the more expensive they are,
because they're more fragile.
PEÑA:
Rosecliff has seen many notable
gatherings over the years.
A circus tent was erected
on the grounds in 1901
for the tenth birthday
of Tessie Oelrichs' son.
For her Bal Blanc,
or white party, in 1904,
Tessie had full-size silhouettes
of sailing ships
anchored in the water
off the back lawn
to give the illusion
of a grand white fleet.
WOMAN:
Years ago,
my husband and I
went to the Museum of Fine Arts
in Boston for an exhibition,
and on the way home,
we passed
this little antique shop,
and I wanted to stop.
He didn't,
but we stopped-- I won.
(chuckling)
Nothing of the, in the shop
was of value,
but this was hanging
on the railing outside.
And I said to my husband,
"I absolutely love that rug.
I've got to find out
how much it is."
So I went in
to see the gentleman,
and he said,
"The rug's $100."
And I said,
"Are you sure?"
He said,
"Yes, it's a good rug."
I wanted the rug.
Early 20th century,
there was a trend
of collecting Oriental rugs
in the United States.
People collected paintings,
tapestries, furniture,
also collected great rugs.
And as a result,
other people thought,
"Hmm, we have this tradition
of American hooked rugs.
We could use those designs
and create..."
Basically,
not really reproductions,
but our own variations on what
Eastern rugs looked like.
Mm-hmm.
They were really
originally sold as kits.
Circa 1920, you'd buy
the burlap backing
and it would have
a pattern stenciled on it,
but then
you'd get your own wools
and you'd get
your own fabrics,
and do the hooking
yourself.
And so whoever did this
went out
and very specifically
bought the proper yarns.
I think,
just because the color's
so consistent throughout,
it's obviously
not scrap material
that's been used.
Yeah.
But you can see a few a spots
where they have filled in.
There's a deeper red
through here.
I can see it,
yeah.
There's a purple,
and I originally thought,
"Hmm, some restoration."
But when you look
at the back of the rug
and really look
at the consistency
of the yarn itself...
They ran out of this red, so
they transitioned to the other?
Absolutely,
absolutely.
Uh-huh.
And that's a really nice
aspect of things,
because hooked rugs
really come out
of a Folk Art tradition,
so it's nice to have
those kind of homey touches
that are coming
into the rug itself.
This example's in extremely
good condition,
with very, very good
color retention.
I think it would have
a retail price of $8,000.
$8,000?
$8,000.
Oh, my goodness.
That...
that is remarkable,
and certainly far beyond
what I've ever expected.
I have loved this
for the years that I've had it,
and, actually, I tried to give
it to one of my girls,
and she said no,
and I bet she regrets it
right now!
(laughing)
MAN:
Well, I got it
from my ex-mother-in-law,
who grew up
in Cooperstown, New York.
APPRAISER:
Right.
And they happened to go
to this event,
which was
the only exhibition event
held by Major League Baseball
at the time,
called
"Cavalcade of Baseball."
Right.
And it was held
at Doubleday Field.
These tickets
are really rare,
and they sell anywhere
between $500 and $800.
This is like
a little pencil box
or a dresser box.
Uh-huh.
And it's probably German.
German!
European.
We made things like this
in America.
Yeah.
But the way it's painted
and the decoration
and the wood...
Yes.
That tells you that
it's probably European.
You're looking
at about $350.
I like to yard-sale,
but I get a lot of grief
from my sons all the time,
so I've been trying
to, like, not do it as often,
but I saw a sign,
and I stopped,
and I saw these,
and I liked them.
Okay.
And the price was right.
Can I ask
what you paid for them?
For all of them,
$25.
How long ago?
Just a few months ago.
Really?
When you came in,
you had these
all in a folder.
That I bought
last night.
That you bought last night.
Probably
for almost the same amount.
Yeah, yeah, it was $20
for the folder, yeah.
And the top one
was this one up here.
Yes.
I really liked it,
and I'm familiar
with the artist,
but I wasn't sure
if it was real or not.
And it's signed
"Edward Hopper" underneath.
Yes.
So then,
I flipped the page
in the book,
and this piece showed up.
This is
by Kenneth Hayes Miller,
who is, was,
in his day,
a very important artist
and instructor,
but isn't somebody who's really
withstood the test of time.
But what's interesting about
seeing these two together
is, the Hopper was
in a portfolio
called "Six American Etchings:
The 'New Republic' Portfolio."
That was published
in 1924.
This was also
in that same portfolio.
Oh.
So just by having
found the two together,
that strengthens
the provenance even more.
Oh, okay.
To tell me,
"This looks very good."
Also in that same portfolio
of six prints
was a John Marin print,
an Ernest Haskell print...
Ah!
And a Peggy Bacon print.
And I left one behind.
And that was by John Sloan?
I don't know.
Because I didn't have
enough money--
I only had, like, $25,
so I left one behind.
Oh, no!
(laughing)
And I just took the one
that I didn't-- yeah.
So that was probably a print
by John Sloan
called "The Bandits Cave."
Okay.
So the fact that you have
all these together
is wonderful proof
that this is indeed
what it purports to be.
The Hayes Miller,
also pencil-signed,
also an etching,
lovely print,
not in terrific condition.
Realistically, were you
to sell this at auction,
you might expect it
to bring
about $80 to $120.
Okay.
Not a tremendous amount.
Yeah.
The Ernest Haskell,
also signed,
called
"Sentinels of North Creek,"
another lovely etching,
but again, not very important.
$200, $300.
Peggy Bacon,
a fairly unusual
female artist.
This is
a more important print.
It's called
"Promenade Deck."
At auction currently,
you're probably looking
about $500 to $700 for it.
Okay.
The John Marin is interesting.
When the portfolio
first came out,
it included
this John Marin print,
which is called
"Brooklyn Bridge Six Swaying."
Okay.
After just a few
of the edition was published,
he changed out that print
for another print called
"Downtown, The El."
This is the more rare
and desirable print.
Oh.
So this is
a fantastic etching,
and it's in
lovely condition.
So at auction,
for the John Marin,
you're looking about
$15,000 to $25,000.
Oh, my God.
Oh, my God!
I'm glad I didn't
leave that one behind.
(laughs)
The Hopper is possibly
one of his best-known prints.
And at auction,
you're looking
$30,000 to $50,000.
Crazy.
Absolutely crazy.
Are your kids going
to give you grief after this?
No, they better not.
(both laugh)
They better not.
No, not at all,
they better not.
The one you left behind,
the John Sloan,
$500 to $700
at auction.
PEÑA:
This is part one
PEÑA:
And now it's time
for the "Roadshow"
Feedback Booth.
And these are two German
wooden figurines.
They're pretty crudely carved,
so they were only worth
five or ten bucks.
So, play toys!
(laughs)
My wife won me tickets
to the Antiques Roadshow
for my birthday,
and there's no one
luckier than me.
Everyone who brought something
worth money's luckier than me,
but, oh, well.
Next time, we're going to have
more fun and more money.
And I brought a carriage clock
that, actually,
the case is worth more
than the clock itself.
I brought the family
heirloom medals.
I found a lot about them,
and the appraiser,
I made his day,
and my grouping
was worth about $1,000,
so I am very pleased.
And I found out
that my photographs
of Elvis Presley
doing karate
were worth about $225,
so, not bad.
My family has told me
for years and years
that it was a print
and it wasn't worth very much,
but today,
I came to the Antiques Roadshow,
and I found out
that it was a print
and it wasn't worth very much.
$100.
I've got this
antique chicken boot scraper
that my wife bought
at a yard sale for $25
and appraised it for $15,
so I think we are rich.
$1,500.
$1,500, yeah.
PEÑA:
Thanks for watching.
Tune in again for another
great episode
of "Antiques Roadshow Recut."