Major funding for Arkansas Treasures was provided by the Moving Image Trust Fund.

Additional funding provided by Cherokee Nation businesses.

SC Perce Museum.

And by viewers like you.

This is one of the control rooms at Arkansas PBS.

It's where everything on the main stage starts to come together, and we start to put together a show, and it looks like they're finished with an evaluation and getting set up for another one.

Ooh, what are we about to find?

That's why you want to watch.

I'm Craig O'Neill, and this is Arkansas Treasures.

Oh, I think you got your money's worth.

You created your own treasure.

You understand?

People are going to care when this comes up.

It's my favorite.

Oh, hey.

Oh.

Let's go.

It has been busy here at Arkansas PBS.

Literally hundreds of Arkansans.

And their.

Church items have come through the doors.

Some have left with good news and some.

Well, not so much.

The gentleman said they were worth about $65 each.

We've had.

Thousands of dollars of.

Fun being here today.

Regardless of the outcome, everyone here is having a great time and learning a lot along the way.

After all, this is Arkansas PBS.

This is the best looking collection of Bakelite I've ever seen.

Would it surprise you to hear they're between 1878 and 1880?

I think we've got at play a bit here.

Family lore and mythology.

Now let's see what is.

First up on this episode of Arkansas Treasures.

I want to thank you for coming out to Arkansas Treasures today.

And this is a dynamic piece.

When you came up to my table.

Can you tell me a little bit about what your story behind this flag is?

Well, it's, from what I understand, it's been passed down from the family since the Revolutionary War.

Okay.

I have an ancestor, supposedly that, was the flag bearer for his regiment.

In the, revolution and was killed in battle.

Okay, so they cut the flag off the staff and sent it back to the family, and it's been passed down, through the generations.

I actually, I had a great aunt that, made several moves.

And, when she was unpacking, she looked in a hosiery box and found it folded up and then.

Okay, okay.

Well, probably not started a hosiery box, but, when objects like this come through, they offer a great deal of dynamic, because I think we've got at play a bit here.

Family lore and mythology.

We think that there are parts of your story that are very accurate.

We don't think that this is a 18th century flag.

I think this is a little, a much later early 19th century flag, largely because of the stitching that we see here involved.

18th century.

It would just have had a more pinned on feel to the stitching.

This has a much more machine feel to the stitching that's putting the flier together now.

It would require much greater research from somebody who is a textile, historian to be able to determine when the, the quality of the textile, the quality of the stitching.

When does it really herald from.

But we feel like it's going to be much more into 1805, 1810.

And that that time frame, it is a style of the Betsy Ross flag that has the, the circle of stars, just with a little bit different identification.

There are 27 different styles to the flag during this time.

Well, yeah, it's it is the stitching that's going to come back and I think identify what time frame it's from.

But have you ever had anybody value the piece.

No.

Okay.

I think conservatively, even in the early 1800s flying from a in this style, in this condition with more authentication behind it, I'm going to qualify everything I say by that.

But we're looking at a flag that's going to bring at auction somewhere in the 8 to $10,000 range.

If I'm wrong, and I have been wrong before and it is a 18th century flag, then you're really into moving into almost national treasure status.

And if it were to come up for sale, it's it's with with the authentication behind it.

It would really be undetermined as to where it could end up going.

And some, some flags.

We've seen in recent years significant, you know, tens of thousands of dollars in value.

But I don't think it's going to get back that far.

Age wise.

I do know that there are probably a couple of people, here in Arkansas at the museum who could do textile research for, It's an extraordinary piece.

It's 200 years old.

There's nothing shabby about that.

But is it that extra 250 years old that's really going to take it into the national treasure status?

Either way, it's a beautiful piece.

And I want to thank you for bringing it out today.

Appreciate it.

It's nice to know something about.

In everything.

But today was going to bring hot springs.

Okay.

Hello, and welcome to the show.

Can you tell me a little bit about what you brought for us to take a look at today?

Well, sure.

It's a wooden box that I brought back from India when we were traveling the world in 19.

I think it was around 72.

And, we were going to, this it was a temple or, somewhere where they worshiped and they there were long steps and there was a Yogi beside the wall, and there was this box.

He didn't look up until I approached him, and the box just caught my eye, and I asked if I could hold it.

I held it and I wanted it.

I wanted to take it home.

So I just handed him whatever bill I had.

I was in high school at the time, so I think it might have been a dollar or $5 whatever.

And he pushed it towards me and he took the money and that was it.

And I just walked off with this prize, and I've had it ever since.

Okay, wonderful.

So where have you been keeping this?

Your prized possession at home?

Well, I move it around so I can look at it, but.

And see the light in different places.

But, usually at, on the coffee table or next to the sofa on a table.

Okay.

Well, that is a great story.

This caught my attention when you brought it in today.

I can tell you that I had never seen one of these on the show, and I just thought that it would be wonderful if we could just share this object with the audience.

So thank you for bringing it in.

This is a Nepalese nori box, and it is wood carved.

As you can see, the carvings on it.

And this does have some age on it.

Or turn it around a little bit so the audience can see that this has been handled.

It's been carried.

The people group that this came from, they're indigenous and they have the religious beliefs of Buddhism as well as Hinduism.

And so this is used in religious ceremonies.

And so that gentleman that we purchased it from probably has handed this down, and had it, you know, in his family, as we can see for a while or definitely has handled it for a while, it's ceremonial.

And I'm glad that you're cherishing it.

Do you have any idea what it may be worth in U.S.

dollars today?

I have no clue.

So if I were to put a value on it for, a fair market value on it, I would put a range of 150 to $200 on this piece.

And so we thank you for bringing it in today.

Enjoy it and take care of it.

Oh, I will, thank you.

Welcome to Arkansas Treasures.

I'm so happy to have you here.

Please tell us what you've brought.

Well, this is a piece of what I think is pretty, interesting political memorabilia from, early statehood days.

And by early statehood, it's within a few weeks and months of Arkansas actually becoming a state.

This is a letter from, territorial governor and Arkansas's first senator, William Fulton, to President Andrew Jackson, in September of 1836.

So just a few months after I. Correct?

Correct.

And I'm still not sure whether or not he was still a territorial governor or a senator.

Right.

Because I think the date is right about the time he was appointed, senator.

But I know that had read that he and President Jackson had a relationship.

They were friends, correct?

Yes.

Correct.

Correct.

So this is a recommendation that he had made, to an individual who I don't even know who it was for a military appointment to the president.

The interesting thing about this piece is that, President Jackson actually is forcing it to, I guess the War Department or somewhere.

And it has been authenticated that that is his signature, and he's foregoing it, forwarding it to them for, I guess, what would be the approved approval of the appointment.

So, look, I've been collecting this stuff for about ten years now.

And this is probably the the coolest piece that I think.

This is indeed amazing and has a lot of history with Arkansas, territorial Arkansas, early Arkansas statehood, as you said, we have a cancel for little Rock, a little Rock cancel.

It's a free Frank, indicating that they didn't have to pay for postage and up here, Andrew Jackson has written that Governor Fulton and Severe, who was, a territorial senator, wasn't his.

Secretary.

And then his later a senator.

Correct.

We're recommending this individual to be captain of the dragoons.

And then he initialed at a J. And it has been authenticated PSA authenticated eight out of ten.

Right.

That's hard to get.

Good.

Eight out of ten.

It's hard to get.

Right.

So this is interesting to Arkansas collectors, territorial collectors, presidential collectors, cancel collectors.

So this the cross collectible nature of this makes it much more valuable even then.

You know, Andrew Jackson has his initials on it, right?

We've got the territorial governor of Arkansas and one of Arkansas's first senators.

We've got a lot of firsts here.

Do you have any idea what it's worth?

Most of them.

I assume there's a chance this could be fake.

So I don't I don't pay a whole lot.

That's right.

Now, this.

One, this one I knew because it had been recorded and authenticated.

It was less so, a little bit more for this.

Right?

That I paid the price than I generally do.

But no, I have no idea what the.

Value would be.

Well, I think because of the cross collectability and especially you are in Arkansas and, and it would probably have the most value to someone in Arkansas who is a collector like you are.

I would put, an estimate of 2000 to $2500.

Well, and I'm sure it's one of the crowns of your collection, and you don't want to sell.

Absolutely.

But everybody can just be envious that you have it because it's a wonderful piece.

Thank you so much for bringing this in today.

Thank you.

And we enjoyed having you on the show.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Back at.

Janet, this is the best looking collection of Bakelite I've ever seen.

Tell me about it.

Well, I started collecting it in the mid to late 80s in.

The New Orleans area.

Gulf coast.

Area.

Do you wear?

Sometimes?

Not a lot, but sometimes doesn't go with just everyday wear.

That is correct.

Well, okay, so tell me about the the bracelets.

Where did you get them?

Those are the bangles I got all.

In New.

Orleans.

Okay.

And they were these two were set.

And then I found this one in to get with them.

It looks like it was a long lost member of the family.

Really does a perfect.

They go together perfectly.

And this is really unusual with your little faceted, black, you know, Bakelite gemstones sunk in there.

It's.

That's unusual.

You don't see that every day.

You see solid colors and you see stripes.

But that's, that's special, you know, it's.

Yeah.

No, it's one of the things that makes it so interesting and.

Okay, you've got not only do you have fabulous rings, which, you know, you've got a beautiful this these too.

Okay, I'm going to move this, these two up to the front because they're unbelievable.

You've got the big carved flower and then you've got this which has all of its original rhinestones, which is fabulous.

Right.

Good for you.

Good for you.

So, Bakelite, I don't know if you knew this.

Most people don't.

Bakelite was invented in the early 1900s, and it was super popular up until it became very popular in the 20s and 30s.

And the the components used to make the Bakelite were needed for the war effort.

So in the 1940s, that's why it went away.

It's not that it lost popularity, it's just that the government needed it just like platinum.

It went away and white gold took over because of World War two.

So it's interesting how, you know, jewelry and politics combined.

Right.

So anyway, you have got, an amazing collection of bracelets.

You've got a charm bracelet that's out of this world with Bakelite, but also some plastic mixed in.

But that's normal for a charm bracelet, you know, and it's there always a variety of things.

This is plastic, but here we have Bakelite.

Here we have some more.

We've.

And I don't know if we can see that on TV.

That is just a little very cool little piece.

And here's another rosette so you can wear them together.

Of course.

And you've got a great collection that's not only beautiful but valuable because I think all together, I think you've got a couple thousand dollars worth of Bakelite here.

Oh, so very good.

Well done.

Probably didn't spend $50 all together.

Well, I mean, that's even that makes it even a little bit sweeter, right?

Like this.

Thank you for bringing it.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

This is supposed to be incredibly important.

I didn't have anywhere to carry it, so I just grabbed this.

Turns out the sword is really not worth anything.

And this is worth probably about $500.

I you tell this throws my hammer.

So, Carolyn.

Yeah.

Tell me about these that brought us brought you here today.

These belonged to my grandmother.

My mother's mother, and she lived in Philadelphia.

She was, originally from Maryland, but my her husband, my grandfather was from Philadelphia, and his family was very prominent in Philadelphia.

And as far as I know, they were always at my grandmother's house and hanging on the walls.

So he it makes sense that these would have come through Philadelphia.

Do you have any idea how old they might be?

Well no idea.

I mean none.

All right.

Would it surprise you to hear they're between 1878 and 1880.

Not really but yeah that makes sense.

Yeah.

The Philadelphia Centennial was in 1876.

And it brought manufactories and art exhibitors from all over the world.

The most famous exhibition there was from the Japanese pavilion, which is when most Americans and most American artists became fascinated with Japanese art.

But it's easy to forget that other nations competitive work and extraordinary things, too.

These are from Hungary and the most important ceramic manufactory in that whole part of the world was the zone that was the national manufactory, there.

And I mean major artists, including people we've all heard of design things there.

There's symbolist chargers and iridescent glazes and things that are that are incredible.

These are pretty incredible.

They're playing around with ideas here because, as you can tell, they were designed to be looked at from the front.

Right.

They put handles on them because they look like balls.

But nobody's ever going to use these as balls.

And, you know, your ancestors didn't.

Because if you look at the, I'm gonna carefully pick this up.

So.

That one's secured.

Very well.

And if you look at these, I wanted to remove them because they have a tendency to chip the edges of ceramics.

But when these were installed, probably about 1880, they actually soldered them on to make sure it couldn't slip and fall.

And it probably kept it from sliding around and chipping the edges.

But at some point you want to have someone really competent probably remove these.

Okay.

Without damaging the ceramic, because it's, it's an accident waiting for happen with metal on the ceramic surface.

But it is pretty fun.

I don't think I've seen very many examples where they soldered them to keep it from sliding around like that, and they knew that they had bought art and that they were treasures right off the bat.

They never were confused about what these were at the time.

The subjects, people will call them peasants because they're thinking about compare peasant.

We're in Czechoslovakia and peasant, where they're probably Hungarian nobility.

Okay.

There may in probably is a story, an unidentified subject here.

Okay.

The reference books on zoning because of the value of the more expensive works, are hard to come by, imported from Europe and expensive.

And I don't have any of my library here with me.

It's all at home in Alabama, so, I'm not going to be able to identify the subject, but, I mean, this is all you know, all this gilding is original.

This is gold.

I mean, they didn't waste.

They were not concerned about wasting money at all night.

They use the most expensive materials necessary to make some of the most elegant and valuable things produced in the world at that time.

So that said, they're somewhat conservative in the tradition, as all night they are still bowl forms, even though they had no expectation that anyone ever used them for that.

They have all of this painted blue and white decoration, which notably is painted, individually rather than transfer printed and the subjects are painted as well.

This pink, that's a really lovely shade and glaze for the time period.

There are many companies all over the, you know, Western world that would have coveted their ability to work with these colors and certainly didn't have the resources to use gold and manufacturing.

I only found one comparable sale, and it wasn't in a circumstance that I would consider art market.

So I think we have to consider it potentially a low valuation, but a single example sold on eBay a few years ago, and brought about $2,200 by the time it was shipped.

I think in the right market, you're well north of $5,000 for this pair of charts.

Wow.

Yeah, they're meant to be.

Art hung on a wall on display.

There is a beautiful way to display them on the wall.

Then the metal.

Yes.

I would talk to a conservator about it.

You're going to want a custom built acrylic with fabric felt pads, something that's not cold metal on the surface of the ceramic.

Okay.

And maybe in a shadowbox or maybe in a table where you don't have to do that, where you can look through the table and see it.

There are other ways to view them too.

Okay.

But yeah, I was hoping I could help you by getting the metal mounts off of them, but I'm not going to try that.

Okay, so without.

You know.

Proper equipment and tools because I don't want to damage these.

They're just wonderful.

Oh, great.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

But now they were they were on my grandmother's wall forever.

And I've had them just propped up on a ledge with my cats walking around them.

I want to thank you for coming out to Arkansas Treasures today.

And when you came up to my table and pull this out of your box, I was, you know, it's I thought, this is the stump the appraiser day.

Well, good.

I want you to tell me a little bit about what you brought me.

Well, it's.

We figured it was a pistol that my father in law had found in a house in Missouri.

Just found it in the house?

Yeah.

Just found it in a house.

Okay.

So my husband's had it, and we thought, well, we'll just check it out.

We're in.

Here.

And you're exactly right for what it is.

I was aware of them, but I've actually never seen one in person.

And what we're going to do is we're to look at this is made by the Chicago Firearms Company.

And I want to I want to show the inside, because it is particularly interesting on how all of this fits together and how the, the firing mechanism works.

This actually fired what is called a 32 caliber short.

This is an incredibly difficult piece of ammo to locate, and I'm gonna see if I can get this out here.

Let's see.

It is very interesting how to.

Well, maybe I may have to demonstrate from where it is, because I think that cylinder is not going to let me come out.

But as we see it fit into the hand like this with, either with two of your fingers at the front causing the pressure and then the palm itself creates this mechanism, which is your, your pin strike for your bullet to come back.

And then unfortunately, it's not loaded around with the you.

Unbelievably rare.

I mean, they just don't show up that often.

In fact, it was actually difficu The only comparable I found was about ten years ago.

Have you ever had it appraised?

No.

In today's market, as far as collectible guns are pretty popular.

It's one of the areas of collecting that's really held up well financially.

I think, you know, in a good auction, this would show somewhere in the 2500 to $3000 range.

Yeah.

Ten years ago it was about half that value.

But we've seen a real increase in the value of interesting collectible firearms.

And that definitely is this.

That's great.

Yeah.

Thank you for coming out.

Thank you so much.

Julie Odom, tell me about your amazing bracelet.

My amazing bracelet, belonged to my mother.

My father and I had it designed for her when we lived in Jordan.

My father was with the Foreign Service.

And each one of these sovereigns, I think.

Yes.

You could call the sovereign.

Okay.

This is dated 1919, which was the date of her birth.

And we had it made by a little guy in the bazaar in the souk in Amman, Jordan.

And what?

When?

Approximately what?

You know, probably 1957.

Okay, excellent.

Terrific.

Well, it's a beautiful bracelet, which, you know.

Right.

And let me tell you about the coins.

Each of these coins is a quarter ounce of gold, and that's .999 pure gold.

So it's not 14 carat or 18 carat, you know, is the real thing.

It's and that's what most bullion coins are made of.

And so each one of them, what I love about this bracelet is that, that each one of them matches.

Exactly.

They're all from 1919.

So there's no variation at all.

Right?

I love the way the clasp is made.

It's a coin that's cut in half.

And then it was hinged.

Someone built a hinge that runs the length of the coin.

So it's completely seamless.

It's just flawless.

It's beautifully executed out here.

The chain that's holding it all together is either 14 or 18 karat gold.

We're not sure, but pure gold would be too soft to be the.

There's strong enough to hold the together.

And then your chain of course is probably 14 karat.

It's in beautiful condition after 1770.

Almost 70 years.

Yeah.

And the coins, of course, are even older than that.

They're from 1919, every single one of them.

And they're in perfect condition, too.

And given the incredible price of gold these days, which is at an all time high, yesterday it closed at 30 over $3,200 an ounce.

My goodness.

It makes a bracelet like this worth over $20,000.

Oh, right.

How about that?

That's good.

It's just beautiful.

It is a work of art.

Now I'm nervous.

Yeah, right.

Don't be nervous.

Wear it and enjoy it.

That's what.

That's what jewelry is for.

It's just beautiful.

I love this bracelet.

Thank you very much I appreciate that I. Am happy to have it.

And how about the chicken?

Oh, over $20,000.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wow.

So what should I insure it for?

Well, we need to write up a formal document that gets all the description and all the details, but the value will be around 20,000.

Oh my goodness.

Given.

Thanks.

Assuming gold doesn't change, we never know.

With gold, it goes up and down.

But that's current right now okay.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate that.

Absolutely great okay.

Think about this.

Just imagine you've got this item that's been handed down in your family from generation to generation.

You come to Arkansas PBS and it's there that you discover it's worth something to the tune of $20,000.

Incredible to have that kind of luck at a flea market or, well, here at Arkansas Treasure, you just never know.

And that's why you want to watch our next edition of Arkansas Treasures.

We kind of, I think, created.

A bit of a stir with.

Where the.

Flood stories are.

Critical to our life.

PBS is critical.

I am a huge lover and advocate for storytelling.

It connects us to our community.

It connects us to the state.

It just brings the world in.

To see my wife on the Johnny Cash Daisy base documentary was just personally really wonderful for me to see.

Go back and find it.

Look at.

It's wonderful.

I'm here.

Yes, I like the, Like, compassion in the style of the place.

How, the people that helped us go on the show was really.

Yeah.

I lived in New York for 25 years.

I was a native girl.

And then I came here and I found the Arkansas PBS here.

I love it.

I'd love to see how things are made and produced.

So it was cool.

I feel privileged to be here.

Major funding for Arkansas Treasures was provided by the Moving Image Trust Fund.

Additional funding provided by Cherokee Nation businesses SC Purse Museum, and by viewers like you.