Moose & Elk Antler Chair with Woolies

Appraised on: July 10, 2004

Appraised in: Omaha, Nebraska

Appraised by: John Hays

Category: Furniture

Episode Info: Unique Antiques (#1120)
Omaha, Hour 1 (#904)

Originally Aired: January 24, 2005

IMAGE: 1 of 1  

Appraisal Video: (1:41)

GUEST: It was my great-grandfather's, and it's at my dad's house now. The story is that he shot the animals and then had it made into a chair in Wyoming. He was originally from Virginia and went west and then somehow it got back to Virginia and then out to Nebraska.

APPRAISER: So if you saw this elk coming at you through the woods, would you run the other way?

GUEST: Probably.

APPRAISER: Because, in fact, when you look at the size of this chair and you look at the size of these antlers, it tells us this was one big animal. This was really a trophy, wasn't it?

GUEST: I think so, yeah.

APPRAISER: It really was telling all of his friends, "I was out there and this is the real thing" and the West really was wild and you could go out and find an elk this large. And tell us what you brought with you.

GUEST: Those are my grandfather's chaps from when he was about six, seven years old.

APPRAISER: And we refer to these as "woolies."

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And I'm just going to pick these up and show the viewers that woolies would be worn... And this was made for...

GUEST: A child.

APPRAISER: A child, right, a six-year-old? And you're using them as a pad or a pillow for your chair. And so I'm going to fold these up and put them in the chair just the way you have been keeping them. Chairs like this are so rare and the size of this animal is so big. My colleagues and I have conferred on this and we think this could bring $6,000 to $9,000.

GUEST: Great. Wonderful.

APPRAISER: The woolies are probably worth about $1,000, so together it's $7,000 to $10,000.

GUEST: Great... great.