18th-Century Child's High Chair

Appraised on: June 28, 1997

Appraised in: Atlanta, Georgia

Appraised by: John Hays

Category: Furniture

Episode Info: Atlanta (#1625)

Originally Aired: July 9, 2012

IMAGE: 1 of 3  

Appraisal Video: (1:33)

GUEST: I found this in South Carolina in an old house. He sold antiques.

APPRAISER: He sold antiques.

GUEST: He was an antique dealer and he just had things like this in the house.

APPRAISER: This is, in fact, a child's high chair and it is, in fact, American and it's from the 18th century. And when you look at chairs like this, one thing that really gets us excited in the furniture world is if it has its original surface, and this chair has its original blue paint, and that gives it a little extra value because it retains this wonderful old patina. And child's chairs, of course, were roughly treated. You can imagine. These things take a big beating, but this one has survived in amazing condition. It has another interesting feature. If you look at the bottom, you can see that it has a very early and possibly original hide seat so anything that survives a child's experience in life is really an amazing feat. Anything that's 18th-century in our market today is perceived to have a value, and when it has this surface, this wonderful wear across the turnings... and I'm going to ask you first, how much money did you spend on it?

GUEST: 300.

APPRAISER: $300? Oh, boy. $300? Well, it's worth $3,000 in today's market.

GUEST: That's wonderful.