GUEST: I bought it at an
estate sale in Minneapolis,
approximately 40 years
ago. I brought it home,

and we ran it for about...
I'd say one summer,
and then took it down.

APPRAISER: You were afraid
it was going to get damaged?

GUEST: Yeah, it... it looked
sort of fragile, so we, uh, we
just put it away, and it sat

for 40 years in the garage.

APPRAISER: This started out
with somebody making something
for pure entertainment, just

to put it out in the yard and
let the wind hit it. And the
reason things like this are

somewhat rare is because they
fall apart if you leave them
out in the weather too long.

It's a nice, articulated, very
compact form. But the thing I
like the most is this figure.

His coat is nicely sculpted.
You can see his face. You know,
he looks a little bit like

Abraham Lincoln, but as far as
I know, Abraham Lincoln never
wore a, a derby hat. (laughs)

Well, no conversation about a
whirligig is complete without
some action. From here, you

need to show us how this works.

GUEST: Well, if the
wind's blowing, and it
will get going, it'll...

APPRAISER: I love that.

GUEST: He'll start cranking.

APPRAISER: What'd you pay
for it when you got it?

GUEST: Not very much. At the
absolute most, it would have
been five dollars. I wouldn't

have paid more
than five dollars.

APPRAISER: Well...

GUEST: Back then.

APPRAISER: It's got all the
things that you look for in
something like this, and some

people might think, "Well,
the figure is very well
done. The rest of this
is very simplistic."

But I actually think
the juxtaposition of
those two things makes
it more interesting.

And the other thing is, when
you start taking things like
this and putting them in your

house, you have to think about
how much room they take up. And
this is a very compact form.

GUEST: The age you said
was about 100 years old?

APPRAISER: Yeah... I would say
first quarter, um, of the 20th
century-- about 1900, 1925.

Those nails that are in there,
they probably wouldn't have
existed before 1890 or 1900.

Just in fabulous condition.
And I wish that we could say
for sure who made it. My guess

is it was made wherever
that estate was. Was that
estate in Minneapolis?

GUEST: Yes, it was.

APPRAISER: It takes a village
to build a consensus sometimes
on where you think values would

be on something like this. But
the fact that it is so simple,
and the fact that the figure

is done so well, we feel like,
in a really good retail setting,
that this would be $2,000

to $3,000.

GUEST: (chuckling): I find...
I find that hard to believe,
but... that's great. Earlier

today in the parking
lot, we really had him
going with the breeze.

APPRAISER: Well,
he's still working.

GUEST: Yup, works good, yup.