WEBVTT

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

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

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

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

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for 40 years in the garage.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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need to show us how this works.

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

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APPRAISER: I love that.

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GUEST: He'll start cranking.

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

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

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have paid more
than five dollars.

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APPRAISER: Well...

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GUEST: Back then.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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GUEST: Yes, it was.

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

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

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

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to $3,000.

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

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

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APPRAISER: Well,
he's still working.

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GUEST: Yup, works good, yup.