GUEST: Uh, my dad was a
professor at the University of
California, and they had just
finished

updating an old house and
needed to furnish it.

And they went to an auction and
pretty much bought up any pieces
of old oak furniture

they could find.

My mother has told me that if he
paid ten dollars for it, it
probably was a lot.

APPRAISER: So you
remember this as a kid?

GUEST: I do.

I do.

APPRAISER: Wow.

Wow.

GUEST: It had a long journey.

It left Berkeley, it lived in
Jerusalem, Israel, for many,
many years.

APPRAISER: Wow.

GUEST: And when my father passed
away, and my mother left her
house there, um, she divided

up some of her things, and this
was one of the pieces I picked
to bring back to the United

States for me,
because I liked it.

APPRAISER: This is in a style a
lot of people refer to as
Mission.

Uh, Gustav Stickley was not
fond of the term "Mission."

"Mission" refers to Spanish
Colonial Mission furniture.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: This is more Arts and
Crafts in the European
tradition.

Stickley and the Stickley
family is a fascinating story.

Gustav had many brothers.

There were five of them.

There were several iterations
of the Stickley companies.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: This iteration was
with two brothers, Albert and
John George Stickley.

Uh, they came together to form
Stickley Brothers Company in
roughly 1891.

And then they launched this line
called Quaint Furniture in
roughly 1903.

It has the model number,
which I get a kick out of.

GUEST: (laughs)

APPRAISER: 314 and a half.

So what we have here is a piece
that many people refer to as a
taboret.

A taboret can be a stool.

GUEST: (chuckles)

APPRAISER: Uh, I think, however,
this table was intended to be
used as a plant stand or

a lamp stand.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: The whole piece
is made of white oak.

Mm.

And there was another version
of this which was in dark oak.

GUEST: Oh!

APPRAISER: And that was a fumed
finish or an ammonia finish to
get it nice and dark.

This one is closer to natural,
but when you cut it on an angle,
it gives you, like, a

tiger pattern.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And you may have
heard people call, uh, oak tiger
oak.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Well, it's really
quarter-sawn and it has to do
with how the lumber is cut

down to reveal a more
expressive, dancy fluid in the
grain.

We have a very, very thick top,
and then the thickness steps
down to a slightly thinner

leg.

On the top, we see the
legs coming through.

That's a tenon.

And then over here, we have this
connection pulling the whole
form together with these

wedge-shaped pieces.

So there's no screws, there's no
nails, there's no hidden aspect
to the way this is made.

Arts and Crafts collectors are
very keen on originality and
finish.

They do like the darker version
slightly more than the lighter
version.

Um, there are some boo-boos...

GUEST: (chuckling)

APPRAISER:...or blemishes
on this table.

GUEST: Definitely.

APPRAISER: But all told, it's
still very desirable because
they're so easy to use and
they're

so practical.

In this original condition, at
auction, this would bring about
$800.

And the same piece in a dark
finish, with roughly the same,
uh, blemishes, would bring

about $1,200.

In a gallery, no problem--
$2,000 for a piece like this.

GUEST: And if it didn't
have the blemishes?

APPRAISER: If you had something
that was free of any of these
blemishes, to the right
collector,

it's easily $3,000.

GUEST: Whoa!

(laughs) Not what I
would have expected.

APPRAISER: (laughs)