- [Announcer] This is a production of P.B.S.

Charlotte.

- P.B.S.

Charlotte's Fourth Annual Carolina Collectibles is about to get underway and we have so many great things in store for you this year.

(cheerful music) Hi, I'm Amy Burkett, welcome to P.B.S.

Charlotte's Fourth Annual Carolina Collectibles.

We're hanging out outside because of COVID things look a little different this year.

We kept everybody safe and socially distanced by waiting in their cars and we texted them just a couple at a time when it was their turn to come inside and find out what their treasures were really worth.

So you're going to see a lot of masks this year, but again it was just so darn good to see our wonderful viewers.

And I hope you'll enjoy this year's edition as well.

(cheerful music) - Hi, welcome in.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- [Abby] We have a beautiful gold bracelet.

So can you tell me a little bit about it?

- This bracelet belonged to my paternal grandmother and I've worn it for years.

And I'm fortunate enough to have my daughter and on a special birthday, I decided to give it to her.

- So a little bit about the piece.

It is 18 karat gold, and it has what looks like two linked bracelets that are connected together with the beads on the outside, as well as the leaf motif on either side, about an inch and a half to two inches wide.

I would date the piece early 1900s, late 1800s, also just with how it is made.

I also believe it to be of European make, most likely either Austrian or Italian.

At auction this would bring between 4000 to $5,000.

- [Lynn] Well, that's a nice surprise.

- Good!

- I had no idea.

- Good, I mean, it's a beautiful piece you have here.

- We cherish it, don't we?

- We do.

- Good.

- Thank you.

- You're welcome.

- This is a doll that belonged to my great aunt who was born in 1910.

So we knew the doll was at least over a hundred years old and we just weren't sure what information there was about it.

It had been passed down from her to my daughter.

We found out that she's a German made doll with a bisque head and her body is made out of layers and layers of papier-mache and she has survived this long.

They said they thought she was about $400.

- We brought in George, a pretty girl, and a babbling brook.

It turns out the babbling Brook was the cheapest one of all, $300 for him and he looks good.

George, I paid $34, he's 400.

She's turned out to be eight to $1200 and I only paid 200 for it.

Not so bad!

- Today you brought this table, which we're gonna talk about a little bit.

In the general sense we call this a a card table or a game table.

Stylistically when we begin to look at a piece of antique furniture we want to try to discern whether something is English or there's something might be continental, European made, or there's something might be American made.

What is interesting and different and exciting about this table is that this is an American table.

This falls into a broad term of what's called American federal furniture and a more of a narrow term of hepplewhite furniture, right?

Which just kind of signifies more of the square forms, the square tapered legs.

What I, and many people in America love about a federal furniture is it kind of represents the period of the new country, right?

So we're thinking of George Washington, we're thinking of the late 18th century into the early 19th century.

And a lot of the furniture represented kind of the pride of America at that time, using inlays.

And as you can see on this card table right here, some of the primary characteristics of it are the light wood inlays on that front medallion, on the legs, and it's just kind of signifying as a country, "Hey, we're proud to be independent."

The second part, when we start looking at something that might be American is how do we know that?

The primary wood here that we're looking at is mahogany and on the top here and the mahogany veneers on the front of it.

The secondary wood, when I looked under it a little bit earlier, is white pine.

White pine's an indigenous wood that's typically used up and down the East coast.

I would say that this table is a New England card table.

So when we say New England, we're thinking above New York, we're thinking Connecticut, Massachusetts.

Time-wise, we see these tables in New England being made in the late 18th century, as we talked about.

So 1790 to 1800 to as late as 1810.

When we talk about game tables or card tables, these were made to be put against the wall.

We can see it has a flat surface to the rear, but then they were made to be brought into a center of a room.

In which case, and I'm just gonna step towards you a little bit, it has what's called a gate leg or swing leg that supports the opening card table so that people can play cards or play games.

When we look at the condition and construction, one of the things that I've always admired about antique American furniture or antique furniture in general, we look for are the the hand tool marks.

In this particular table, all though we see some veneer chippings and some other losses, those things can be tuned up by an expert today.

But overall, the structure of this table is in good shape, meaning that the inside fly rails, the legs have not been broken.

The top is original.

The inlay is original.

Many of these things are what collectors are looking for when they want to buy and collect a piece early American furniture.

I would say, Valerie, it is a lovely table and I'm just delighted to see.

I love early American furniture is one of my passions.

Today's market might bear 1000 to $1,500 for an example like this in this condition.

We're proud to have it here today.

(cheerful music) - I have an Edward Curtis photograph or print.

Edward Curtis was a famous photographer who relied in his profession on filming the north American Indian.

I paid a hundred dollars and they say, it's worth 2000.

So not a bad return.

- We put it in a couple paintings and a lamp.

All together it was less than a thousand dollars for everything.

The painting and the lamp have been in my family house for over 60, almost 70 years.

And my parents passed so when we were cleaning out, there were two items that I held on to.

- This is a bronze about 12 and a half inches, we learned, and from a fellow that created art back in the late 19th century.

- In Paris.

- Is that right?

- In Paris.

- Yes.

- It's a Henry Arnold.

- Henry Arnold.

And learned that it quite a bit of value to it.

We're thrilled!

- 1000 to $3,000.

- This is my grandmother's cocktail purse.

It was given to her by her new husband in 1912.

And it's 18 carat and 14 carat with two small sapphires.

And Abby appraised it at eight to $10,000.

- I brought an 1870-ish satsuma vase and a picture from post-World War II Germany that my mother picked up.

She picked up two of them and they were painted around the 1948 timeframe.

The little picture, if it had been in better shape would have been a lot more, but it was between a 100 and $300.

And the vase between 300 and 600.

- You brought us in an early baseball here.

And so tell me a little bit about the kind of, when it came to you, what you heard about the ball, and what you knew, and kind of what you believe it to be.

- Well, my husband is from England and he first came here, he ended up working on the space program, but he worked for a company called Talon and which made the zippers for the space program later on back when they sat down.

But when he first came, he roomed with a woman that the company got him a room with her.

He wasn't married, you know, he later married me, but she gave him this baseball.

And she wrote here, "This ball is worth a lot of money."

But we didn't really believe that because she was always saying, "I'm giving you this it's worth a lot of money."

But New York Yankees team, she thought it was '33, '34, '35 or '36.

Babe Ruth's team.

And it was a present from the catcher.

She used to go to Florida in the winter and she would be there when they were doing their spring training.

And that was how she ended up getting it.

- Okay.

So the first thing we look for anytime we get a baseball, is again, we love to hear the story, and then what we're trying to do is we're trying to kind of look through, to figure out "does that story add up?

Does it kind of match what we have in our hands?"

And so a lot of times the first thing I'm looking to do is I see there was a baseball box.

Sometimes during spring training they would have signers just kind of on a normal ball, you know, versus an official league ball.

This actually is marked an official league ball.

It does have William Herridge, who was the president at the time.

And so, but Herridge was actually president of the association for a pretty long period of time.

You had a long tenure, and so there were many versions of balls that actually came out.

So what we're trying to do is then track down, based on this ball, what was the period of time that this one came from?

So that is in the stitching, that is in the stamp, and that's where we start to determine.

Now looking at the stitching and the stamp on this ball, we've actually figured out that this ball dates between 1934 and 1939.

So then the next thing we do is we actually start looking to see who signed it and the best way to track down to see if we can get to a particular year, is you'd look up the roster from that year.

And you're trying to see, is there someone here that was only on the roster for a short period of time, or is there a couple of people on the roster that were only on the team together a certain year?

So the one that kind of stood out to me was we have on here a gentleman by the name of Lee Stein.

And Lee Stein signed right there.

Lee Stein was only on the team in 1938, He was on the roster.

So that gets us close to where we see, we believe this is a '38 ball.

And so we start looking at the other signatures and kind of matching that up.

So what we have here is an American League ball signed by members of the team from 1938.

Then what you're looking for is who are the exciting people on the ball.

You also told us that it was signed by Joe DiMaggio.

And so we do have Joe DiMaggio's signature right there.

And what's unique about this is, it's not signed in an area where you'd expect it to be for somebody that's as well-known as Joe DiMaggio.

And why it's signed here was this is actually Joe DiMaggio's rookie year.

It was 1938 on the New York Yankee.

So at the time he didn't get center stage because he was still kind of building that career.

What we do look at when we see the sweet spot is the signature that is there, which would have been kind of the headliner at the time.

And we actually have Lou Gehrig's signature.

So what we have is basically, a 1938 team signed ball with Joe DiMaggio, with Lou Gehrig.

What are the great things about this?

It is in absolutely wonderful condition.

The signatures are clear, they're period signatures.

With a ball like this, the biggest thing that we have to do is we certainly want to send it in for an official authentication.

That just makes everybody very confident in what they're collecting.

So a lot of times you'll see balls of this era, and 1938 balls, sometimes other ones are not that great of condition, or not as strong of signatures.

They might be in the range of a thousand, 1500, maybe two to $3,000.

Honestly, this ball is a great example, and I think authenticated, you could be looking at a ball that's in the eight to 12,000 range, and potentially significantly more.

Maybe even getting 15 to $20,000 range at auction.

- My son will be very pleased.

(cheerful music) - Today I brought in an 1899 print that turns out not to be watercolor and ink, but to be a monochrome.

And the story behind the painting is that my grandfather told my grandmother to go to New York and have fun spending for their brand new house back in 1950.

Modestly appraised, about $300.

- I brought in Shakespeare, second editions.

They're from the 1870s and I got them from my grandparents.

Right around $350.

- We brought a chess set from my father-in-law, he's passed away now, but my husband inherited it.

And we just found out today that it's real ivory.

He believes his father has had it since the '60s but we have to get a documentation to prove that the ivory was that old.

So it was very interesting.

- Hey, Jerry.

- Hi.

- Thank you for bringing these things in today.

Based on the photos that we've sent here, we've got the Mahakali, which is closest to me here.

It is 19th century, it could be earlier back to the 18th century, and the value on that in today's market would be around one to 2000.

The Buddha in the center here, has got the nice blue painted hair which you pointed out.

It's got some of the original guilt detailing which we can see, especially across that band coming there.

You can see some of the bronze exposed underneath.

It's in the two to 3000 range and that's at auction.

The last piece there, the seated Tara is very fine quality.

The casting is very nice and that's in the 18th to 19th century time period.

And also falling in that two to 3000 range for that piece.

So collectively you've got five to $8,000 for the three objects which we really appreciate you bringing in today.

- Hi Douglas, thanks for coming in.

- Thank you for having me.

- We have a couple of pairs of cufflinks.

Can you tell us a little bit about how you acquired them?

- My great uncle was a sports writer for the 'Chicago Tribune."

He loved to write about all types of sports, but initially he was especially interested in horse racing and he was very concerned about corruption.

He didn't think he was getting enough time in the newspaper to tell all his stories.

So he developed and created his own magazine called "Collyer's Eye."

It was called "Collyer's Eye" because he had the eye on sports.

He wanted to know what was going on and he wanted to tell the public about corruption.

So as I said, they initially started with horse racing, but then he got involved with baseball.

And he got involved with baseball because of the rumors that the 1919 World Series had been fixed.

And in fact, it had been.

Initially it was played down but Uncle Bert said, "No, we can't have this."

So he began writing stories in "Collyer's Eye" revealing the amount of corruption that occurred during that World Series with what was called the White Sox, but it's now called the Black Sox.

But it really didn't receive a lot of publicity at the time.

The public didn't want to believe it.

And for years and years, all of his documents, "Collyer's Eye" and other documents about this were lost, completely lost.

Nobody knew anything about it.

Well, it turned out that there was a librarian who was interested in Man of War, the great horse who is so famous.

Man of War was in 10 races and won nine of them.

He lost one.

- Wow.

- So he was interested in researching what Uncle Bert thought was happened during the 10th race.

Sure enough, Uncle Bert said it was fixed and he was later proved right.

However, in that article, was the article about the Black Sox.

So all of a sudden he began reading all the expos by Uncle Bert about the Black Sox.

So people all over the country began wanting more information about this, which was in a library at the University of Illinois in Urbana.

Mysteriously all the volumes on the Black Sox disappeared suddenly.

And for two years they were gone.

Then all of a sudden they reappeared in the library.

- Wow, wow.

- And of course, then the story was retold.

- Yes, absolutely.

- So what you see here are the cufflinks and studs that Uncle Bert loved to wear at fashionable affairs in Chicago.

He was well-known in Chicago.

in fact he was well-known throughout the world.

In fact, every year he would give a thousand dollars to the best jockey in the United States.

So this was a widely sought competition by jockeys, not only the United States, but it was well-known throughout the world.

That's the story.

- Wow.

He's definitely a well to do man based on these cufflinks and the stories you've told us.

But just a couple of little tidbits, this pair of cufflinks and stud set, they are platinum with approximately two carats of diamonds, very high quality diamonds.

They are French cut diamonds and lozenge cut which are very rare stones in the way that they were cut.

They do not cut them that way anymore.

So auction value for these, you're looking at approximately two to 4,000.

This pair of cufflinks, they are actually signed by Cartier, which is a very well known maker.

There are 14 carat, which would be true to this time period.

For an auction value for these you're looking at approximately one to 2000.

And then these, probably the flashiest ones of them all, down at the bottom.

They are platinum, 14 karat, again art deco time period set with sapphires, mother of pearl, and diamonds.

An auction value, you're looking at between two and 4,000 again.

- That's wonderful, that's great news.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

- You're welcome.

(cheerful music) - I brought in an antique clock.

The time period is about 1800s.

I found it about 25 years ago and I've been carrying it around with me.

I decided to bring it in and it's worth 200 to $400.

- I have a doll that I was in my mother's condo and she has recently died and I'm then cleaning it out.

My father died when I was three and my mother remarried at 65.

So I got a stepfather at 45 and this had belonged to his wife.

I know nothing about the history of it.

It's just a pretty doll, it has a very pretty face.

I know that my mother made the clothes because I recognize her sewing.

My stepfather had made furniture as a hobby and this chair he made for the doll.

She said anywhere from a hundred to 300.

The particular about this doll is that it has an open mouth and teeth that are shown, that that's something that collectors look for.

This is my third time here.

And it's always fun to bring something that you have no idea about.

- I brought in a very old English till.

It comes from England.

I lived there in the 80s and I picked this up at that time.

In his store the owner would write cash paid, cash received, cash out, and then open it.

And because I traveled in Europe I just kept dumping change in there.

And it has a 10 pound note at the end.

It appraised for $200.

(cheerful music) - Hi Margret, how are you today?

- Great.

- Do you want to tell us what you brought for us today?

- This is a picture that was painted by Andrew Wyeth of Brenton Mill in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.

And it was painted when he was 81 years old.

And some of his latest paintings are considered to be the best.

He has a dealer in Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, Frank Fowler.

And he wrote Frank and said he thought this was one of the best watercolors he ever did.

And Bob Timberlake bought it from Andrew Wyeth.

And five years ago when Bob was getting rid of a whole lot of his things, a friend of mine had it hanging in his house and he showed it to me.

He knew I collected art and he said, you might be interested in this.

And so I bought it at that time.

- About five years ago?

- About five years ago.

- From Bob Timberlake?

- Yes.

- That's great.

They had a nice relationship together.

Bob Timberlake is an original artist here in North Carolina.

This is a landscape of his hometown, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.

- He was there in the winter but then he was up in Cushing, Maine in the summer.

- And so he probably painted this during the winter in Pennsylvania.

- He did, in Pennsylvania.

- It was painted in 1996 of his hometown in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.

We can see his signature right here.

And we have a lot of provenance in the back.

We have gallery tags.

We have show tags.

You also pulled up some research and you have appraisal paperwork.

That's all great.

It's gonna help keep the peace with the most value.

It's framed very lovely.

It's simple, it's very nice.

Do you have any idea how much you think it might be worth?

- No, in fact that's why I brought it.

- He's a very strong artist.

Something like this I think you told me that you bought it for 150-ish thousand dollars.

Bob Timberlake bought it from Andrew for 150,000.

I bought it from Bob for 175.

- You did good, you did good.

- Today with this late painting and the study and the water color and the actual, his hometown, and all your provenance, along with it.

Something like this in the market will go for anywhere between 250 to $300,000.

- Wow, great!

- I hope you're happy with that.

- I'm very happy.

Thank you very much.

- Do you want to keep it?

- I think so.

- Okay, I think you should too.

It's very pretty, keep it for a little bit longer.

- Thank you!

- Of course.

(cheerful music) - 19th century weather vane.

It's made out of zinc.

It's part of a weather vane.

He valued it about 1,000 to $1,300.

- Today we brought a porcelain dish.

It's Mandarin rose according to the gentleman who helped us.

He said had it been made in the 18th century it would be more collectible and more valuable.

However, it came from the 20th century, which means that it's less valuable.

And the value of this Mandarin rose decorative porcelain bowl is between 50 and $100.

- This is a shinwasri vanity.

It is from my mother-in-law's estate.

Of course my husband was attached to it and so we brought it all the way from Southwest Texas.

We were told probably 19th century.

It is the original mirror and the escutcheons are bone not ivory, but it was kind of one in all piece.

It has a place for sewing apparatus.

It has a place for makeup powders, all the things that a lady might've used then.

The appraised value was between one and $2,000.

- Hi, Susan and Patrick, how are y'all?

- Very well, thanks you.

- What have we brought today?

- I have a set of opals that were handed down from Patrick's grandmother, and they then went to his father, and then he passed them onto me once we got married.

- Based on the history and just looking at the items, we're dating them, all three pieces, from around the same time.

Around the 1920s, 1920 to 1925.

And what we are looking at here, this first piece is an opal bead and crystal bead necklace.

The crystal beads are in between each opal.

What's nice about this piece is that it's long.

Normally you see them a bit shorter, the size of the opals and the quality of the opals are very nice.

The ring as well, the size and the quality.

What you want to see in opals is the play of color, how nice the greens and the blues play off of one another.

And then the earrings as well.

We have diamonds, green chalcedony, as well as opal drops at the bottom.

Now, has anyone ever spoken to you about value or anything with these items?

- We did try and get them valued for insurance purposes, must have been about more than 20 years ago.

I don't recall what it was, but we were told that they're not fashionable.

So there really wasn't, they weren't of any great value.

- Okay, well, good news for you today is that they are back in fashion.

- Oh, good!

- Great!

- Especially the size of the opals and the quality is what really sets this set apart from others, as well as the age.

So for this necklace, you are looking at an auction value between two and $4,000.

For the ring and the earrings, both, between one and $2,000.

- Okay.

- Oh, okay.

- Yeah, very good.

- So it's a nice that you have here.

- Yeah.

- Yes.

- Excellent.

- Thank you.

- I brought in this painting that I bought when I lived in England.

And it is by, at that time, a young French artist named Jean Maxime Relange.

I lived in England 50 years ago.

So I was curious to see what had happened to this young man and his art.

This is a painting of a couple looking into the window of a glass shop.

And I found out that Mr. Relange died in 2018 and this painting now is worth about four to $600.

- I brought in two Disney cells.

Original from "Sleeping Beauty."

There's stickers on the back.

I bought them on main street in Disneyland in 1959, the summer, I think I paid a dollar each.

So they're kind of special.

They set between 500 and $1,500 each.

I think they were cool pictures.

I love Maleficent and the crow, and obviously Briar Rose and Prince Phillip dancing in the trees.

So they were just kind of pretty.

- Hey Ed, welcome in.

- Thank you, Abby.

It's good to be here.

- So I see you've brought some pretty jewelry for us today.

Can you tell us a little bit more about it?

- Yes, these pieces were from my wife and she inherited from her grandmother.

She is Dutch, she is from Holland, commonly called there the Netherlands.

And she asked that I take it by to get it appraised today.

Thank you for your help.

- Well, we're happy to help.

So first, just a little bit about the age of the piece.

These are early Victorian pieces, gold with a silver topped, the sort of the blacked part that you see there, set with diamonds, rose cut diamonds.

So first we have this ring.

It has approximately 1.25 total carats of diamonds.

We're looking at a value between one and $2,000.

- Good, wonderful.

- Then we have this brooch that's approximately four to four and a half total carats of diamonds and an auction value would be between five and 7,000.

- My goodness!

How do you spell vacation?

- And then we have this necklace, which is approximately five total carets and an auction value would be between five and $7,000.

- Gracious!

- And the big guy here, this bangle bracelet, is approximately eight total carets diamonds and we are looking at a value of 10 to $15,000.

- I'm blown away.

Pick me off the floor!

Thank you, Abby.

- You're welcome.

- That's good news.

- Good.

(cheerful music) - Thank you both for coming in today.

My name is Brian, and your name again?

- I'm Bill Barnhart.

- Hi, Bill.

- I'm Harriet.

- Hi, Harriet.

Thanks so much for coming in.

So tell me a little bit about what you brought us.

Where did you come by these?

- You know-- - Most of them came from California from a dealer that we've worked with in California and this one came from-- - Las Vegas.

- Las Vegas.

The silver that came from Japan by way of my uncle.

- Well, let's tell you a little bit about what you have.

Basically, kind of going through, we have three very different examples of jade, and really from different periods.

You know, starting with this one from Las Vegas.

It's actually, it's pretty contemporary.

This is actually kind of a 20th century jade carving.

It's really well done, obviously, a beautiful stand, but you know why jade, probably Russian or Hessian jade, a lot of times what you see these called, and so nice value, but not excessive value.

Then we kind of move on to this piece here, which what it's called, it's a water coup.

I don't know if you guys know that or not, but it's typically scholars would use these basically to dip their brushes in as they were doing artistry and kind of do ink washes and that sort of thing.

This is early 20th century, but what's exceptional about this one is the quality of the carving.

And it's what you call, again, kind of a watery jade, which is when you shine a light up through here you get this translucence in the jade that actually is really desirable.

And I would actually value this one in about the 10 to $15,000 range.

This one, as it's your favorite, it should be.

This is actually a Kanchi period.

So Kanchi, this example is most likely late 17th century.

It's a white jade with these are really called russet tones.

What's amazing about this example is the detail of the carving.

These are actually called archaic carvings, is typically what you see through this.

Obviously with some of the pierce work on the lid, what's most exceptional is the level, the caliber of the carving.

If you look at this foot, the consistency in that is exceptional for that period.

But I think the most exciting thing about this, ultimately is the provenance.

So this actually came from a very notable collection and what's great about it is we also have the stickers of the various dealers that have handled this piece in the past.

And so a lot of times when you're collecting Asian antiquities there's been a lot of interest and a resurgence in interest over the past 20 years.

The market just exploded in the early 21st century.

And some of these objects were just hitting illustrious values.

And the thing that always created the most value is people having the confidence in exactly what it is.

What's the collection it came from?

Who handled it previously?

Because when you're paying those levels of investment, you really want to make sure that it's what you expect it to be.

And this piece is absolutely right.

So if I were to put an auction estimate on this of what you should expect it to bring, it's going to be in probably the 80 to $120,000 range.

- Wow!

- And I truly feel that that's a conservative estimate.

I think this has the potential to really surpass that based on its history, its provenance.

Obviously it's well-documented and I think you guys just have a great eye and you've got a great find.

- Sounds good.

- So yeah, so I really appreciate you bringing it in and showing it to us, and sharing it.

It's an exceptional example.

- Thank you.

(cheerful music) - [Announcer] A production of P.B.S.

Charlotte.

(cheerful music)