(music) ♪♪ -- Welcome to Mississippi Antique Showcase.

We're in Columbus, Mississippi, with our expert appraisers to look at your rare finds, family heirlooms, and quirky collections.

We'll see what we can learn about these unique treasures and of course, see what they might be worth.

-- Tell me about this work.

-- It is a 1979, oil on canvas by Glennray Tutor.

It was done as a book illustration.

It was abandoned in a rental house in Oxford, and it was in like a Wal-Mart poster frame.

And I took it out of the poster frame and realized it is signed and dated on the back.

And I took it out of the frame and realized what it was and took it.

I found this frame in a antiques shop.

And so I took the frame and the painting to a local frame shop and had them frame it.

And when he looked at it, he was like, "You know, I really think that we ought "to get Glennray in and let him take a look at this," which Glennray lived two blocks from the frame shop.

-- Oh, wow.

-- So he came in and looked at it and told us what it was.

And it was an oil painting for a book, the cover of a book.

He said that he gave it to Ron Shapiro, who owned the Hoka which was kind of like a famous hang out, late night hang out in Oxford.

He gave it to Ron Shapiro, who was the owner of the Hoka, in exchange for a lifetime pass to go into the Hoke of a free.

And when the Hoka closed, a lot of college kids and stuff just kind of went in and took stuff, so I don't have no idea how it ended up.

- What a barter.

But I did talk to Ron Shapiro about it before he passed away.

And Ron was super excited that it had found a home.

-- Glennray Tutor is known for his photo realism.

His work is in many established museums, corporate collections.

His work sells, his oils on canvas, they sell anywhere from $55,000 to $45,000.

His works on paper sell for $30,000 to $35,000.

For your work at this size, if you take that, he's selling for about $75 a square inch, I would put $33,000 on this work.

-- Wow..... That's amazing.

It's amazing.

Well, I did think it probably would have gone in a dumpster.

-- Hi, my name is Luke Edward, and I'm here to help you with your appraisal.

What's your name?

-- Emilio Lindo.

-- Emilio Lindo, it's nice to meet you.

So tell me about what you have here.

-- Well, it's a brass stool, and I got it from an auction last year, and I don't know anything about it.

-- Okay, do you use it for something now, or?...

-- I use it to put some decoration in the corner of the house, that's it.

-- Okay, well I have some information for you.

It's actually called a trivet.

And they were used on a hearth in the home when you cooked in the chimney, in the fireplace.

So this would be something that you would put a pot on after you brought it off of the swing arm to rest so you could serve out of it, or whatever.

It's probably English in origin.

It's from England, solid brass, and they were quite utilitarian.

Now, of course, this one has some frills and that kind of stuff or whatever, but it was sort of a symbol of a status when you had these in the house, because otherwise you put it on a flat rock or something like that.

But in the better homes, they had these things that were very utilitarian and very, very, snazzy, for lack of a better term.

This one has never been polished, it looks like.

I kind of like it like that.

You can polish them to a high shine but I would leave this just like this is.

Value?...

It's probably worth about $800 to $1100 dollars.

-- Wow!

-- It's got quite a bit of value, and it's a large one.

-- Yeah.

I got it for $25.

-- Oh, awesome.

You did really good.

-- Yeah.

Thank you.

Wow.

Yeah.

-- All right.

-- That's great.

-- Ms. Evelyn, good to see you today.

-- Good to be here.

-- It's a pretty lamp you've brought us.

-- Thank you.

I really love it.

This lamp, how did you come by this lamp?

-- It was my mother's since as long as I can remember.

Maybe the late fifties.

She always kept it in her bedroom.

We were not allowed to touch it.

And when she passed away, I really wanted it.

And my two sisters did not want it, so I got it.

-- I'm telling you, your mother did a good job at taking care of the lamp.

If it had been knocked off a time or two, this pretty fiberglass swirl shade wouldn't be on here today.

And you've really-- Your mother took care of it, and it shows.

Do you have any idea of what your lamp might be-- Have you ever had it appraised?

-- When my mother passed away, I took it in to an antique shop and the man there said, $250.

That was in 2007.

-- 2007?

It's looking pretty good.

I think this lamp in today's market would probably bring some somewhere and the $400 to $600 range at a good auction, a well-advertised auction.

Mid-century modern is about one of the hottest things out today.

And if you've got a great mid-century table sitting beside your bed, you've got to have this lamp.

Okay?

(laughing) Well, thank you for bringing it in.

-- And thank you very much.

My mother would be very proud.

-- Yeah, she said, I knew we need to take care of that lamp.

-- Yeah.

-- Mr. Wilson, we're glad to have you more than you know.

And I want to give you the opportunity to let us know a few things about your banjo.

-- Well, we got it in Rosine, Kentucky.

Out at Bill Monroe's, they used to have a festival every year.

Rosine is Bill Monroe's homeplace.

And there's a guy the fiddle was his specialty.

But he took this on trade and we got it from him.

Of course, I didn't know anything about it.

-- It looks like it could make a fine tune now.

(strums the strings) Sounds like it, too.

You know, it's a banjo by Waverly.

And Waverly was a company out of New York City.

As you probably know, they made great musical instruments, banjos, one of their specialties, and they also did tuners and picks and all kinds of things.

The cabinetry work on your piece, the wood is absolutely stunning.

Nice ivory, mother-of-pearl inlay, including here.

It's an absolutely gorgeous piece.

I think we ought to show the folks the reverse.

The wood used on the reverse was just absolutely as nice as this.

You know, this is an item that is worth, if I were to say, $800 to $1,500 dollars.

But for some reason, these days and times, they're not bringing it.

They're bringing lower.

Now they're bringing, end up $250, $350, $400 price range, certainly under $500.

It's a mystery.

But I think as an appraiser, I'd have to tell you that probably I'd strike the medium between $500 and $1,000, maybe say $750.

But I'm afraid these days and times, we're not seeing the sale amounts that we feel like that they deserve.

-- We collect nothing because of the value, but because it is rare and I'd never seen one before.

And we have a big collection of odd stuff.

-- It's a passion.

In other words, you collect from the heart and that's what counts.

That's much more important.

So I want to commend you for continuing to follow your passion and collect the things that appeal to you.

-- We're here with Mayor Keith Gaskin, mayor of Columbus.

And this is our first time for Mississippi Antique Showcase to be in Columbus.

So thanks for your hospitality, Mayor.

-- Well, listen, we thank you for being here.

We think Columbus is the perfect location for an event like this, and we can't thank y'all enough for joining us here in the city.

-- Well great.

The Trotter Convention Center is, I think you and I were talking about earlier, is a perfect venue.

-- It is a perfect venue.

And I think when, you know, I was talking to a lot of the folks that are here on the way in and they were very excited.

And some people said they hadn't been to Columbus since the seventies.

You know, this was bringing a lot of people back that hadn't been here in a while and they were enjoying what they were seeing and being a part of this great event.

-- Good.

Well, you know, we chatted last night about Columbus.

The fact that you've got so much to offer with the antebellum homes, which I was told Columbus is second only to, I believe, Natchez with the number of antebellum homes?

-- Yes, that's true with the number of antebellum homes that have survived.

But Columbus is also unique in that we're a river town and we have a very eclectic type of architecture here, not only from antebellum, the turn of the century, a lot of those structures have been saved over time.

And we have a new group in town, the Preservation Society, that is working really hard to tell the entire story of Columbus history of all of our citizens.

So we're very proud of the unique heritage that we have here.

-- And you also have a pilgrimage, is that right?

-- We do.

We have a pilgrimage that's been going on for over 80 years.

This is part of it this week while y'all are here.

I was just visiting with a bus of 50 Antiquarians from Birmingham, Alabama, and had a visit, welcomed in to City Hall when they arrived.

And so, yeah, many of them are coming here for the first time.

-- And I just thought of this one of my favorite writers, Tennessee... -- Tennessee Williams, America's greatest playwright was born here in Columbus.

His home, his birthplace, is a welcome center now here in Columbus, and people can visit it on a daily basis.

We're very proud of being able to say that this is his birthplace.

-- Well thank you so much for your hospitality again.

-- Absolutely.

Thank you for being here.

-- Thank you, Mayor.

-- Well, what do we have today?

-- Well, I have a bowl that I found in Shiyan, China.

I was there in 2007.

We were living in Germany.

I taught with the University of Maryland in Europe.

And a colleague invited me to come with him to Xi'an to work with Chinese students in developing their English conversation skills.

And very often we would ride into the city.

One day we did, there was a "junk shop" and I wandered in and I saw a display case stuck in the back and when I went over to this display case, I saw this and it contained, um, Chinese coins that had the center out.

And I pointed to it and the guy said, "Do you want the coins?"

I said, "No, I don't want the coins, I want the bowl."

- I know that it's at least 200 years old.

-- Okay.

-- And it's a shame that... You could repair the porcelain on the inside if it were just white.

-- Right.

But being right, broken here in the blue, you know.

It's just a shelf piece.

-- Exactly.

-- A conversation piece.

And I'm sure you're not planning on selling it.

-- No, even if it was great value, no.

It just means so much to me, so.

-- Well, you know, as it is, price would be $200 to $400.

Oh, yeah.

-- Okay.

Okay.

-- How much did you pay for it?

I probably paid...

I used Chinese dollars at the time, so probably would have been like maybe $10 U.S. -- Okay.

Okay.

Well, you're okay then.

-- Oh, yeah, I'm okay from that perspective.

-- Well, thank you very much for bringing it.

-- Thank you.

-- Tell me what you brought us today.

-- I brought a coffee set that's been in my family for, I want to say, 200 years maybe.

It was handed down to me and the family lore is that it came from Frederick the Great from Prussia.

But I am not certain on the history of it.

I've been trying to determine where it's from.

But that's what I was told.

My, I guess, it's great-great- great grandfather was the band conductor for the military marching band and he would supposedly have got that as part of a retirement gift.

-- It's a nice porcelain tea set.

And when you're looking at tea sets, you always look to see how many pieces you have of the entire set.

So you have two cups, the creamer, the sugar and the tea pot.

Then you look to see the condition of things.

You're missing the finial right here.

And I saw, did I see a chip on the?...

-- On the bottom of this.

-- Looking at the painting of the flowers and the style.

I would say this is a Victorian era, porcelain tea set.

And that's because in the Victorian era they painted the flowers like this and they used the gold.

So say this is circa 1880, around that time period.

So now the next thing we can do to look to value is we will look to see if there are any marks.

Okay, we have the numbers here, but that's not giving the maker.

So now let's look on the other pieces to see if we can find who made this lovely Victorian era porcelain tea set.

On the bottom here, we have a nice mark: "VL" which appears to be a Czechoslovakian porcelain company.

So you have a nice Czechoslovakian, Eastern European porcelain tea set.

The condition is a little bit affected because the cracks and the chips, but I would put $150 on the entire tea set.

-- $150?

Thank you!

-- What do we have today?

-- Well, these were some Chinese dolls that I purchased at an antiques store in Atlanta, and I purchased them because I thought they were unique and different and they would look really great in my bookcase.

-- Yeah, they are, and they're old.

These are, you know, they're quite old.

They do have some damage, you know, around the heads.

All of them have damage.

How much did you pay for them when you bought them?

-- Well, I turned one upside down and it said $160.

And I don't know.

Probably similarly priced for the other two, which don't have a price tag.

-- I would say that in the condition they're in, I would say these are worth $800 to $1200.

-- As a trio?

-- As a trio, as the three of them.

-- We're here with Greg Ward.

Greg, I understand you brought something that qualifies for that old saying good things come in small packages.

Tell us about this item here.

-- Oh, absolutely.

So this is a family heirloom that I inherited.

This was my grandfather's gold pass that's a service pass.

He was a conductor for the Illinois Central Railroad for 50 years.

And if you worked for them- he started when he was 15 years of age, he was born in 1888.

So in 1903, he went to work for the railroad.

And after 50 years of service, they would give you one of these, which is a solid gold pass to go anywhere in the United States on the railroad.

Of course, this was before Amtrak.

So at that point you could do that.

So in my childhood, mostly I remember the Illinois Central Railroad had their own hospital in Chicago, their own corporate hospital.

So we would take my grandfather to Chicago and we could ride the railroad from Jackson, Tennessee, to Chicago with this for nothing.

-- For nothing.

-- So that was the significance of it, of course, the value of gold is a lot different than it was in the fifties.

-- So what did you learn from the appraiser?

-- I learned... Mark told me, you know it's extremely rare.

He felt it would be worth anywhere between $5,000 and $8,000.

-- I'm guessing that's probably an item that's sentimental to you that you would-- -- Very sentimental.

It will definitely stay in the family and, you know, pass along to my boys as well.

-- Good, good.

Well did you enjoy the showcase?

-- Absolutely, we had a great time.

-- Well, what do we have here today?

-- Well, this is a 165 year old Baltimore album quilt.

And when I say album, Baltimore album, it's made- He was the choir director.

-- Right.

-- And the choir- he was leaving this church, and the choir ladies got together and pieced this block, blocks.

And it's signed, each one is signed by the one who made it.

And that was made in 1858, which is 165 years.

-- Yes, it's very beautiful.

Most of the quilts you find, they just don't have this much work.

In every square on this, there's a lot of work that's gone into it.

You know, I think it's been taken very good care of through the years.

In a market situation, it's one of the best ones and I've sold a lot of them but it's one of the best ones I've seen.

I would say this quilt on the market today would bring $1,500 to $2,200 and simply because of the work.

-- What did you bring today?

-- I brought two paintings by my great-grandmother.

She lived here in Columbus and was brought up and lived all her life here.

I'm from Pascagoula, Mississippi, so I just brought them up to see if you could tell me something about them.

-- Did she have some formal training?

-- Oh, she did.

She even taught art school in Atlanta.

-- Wow.

-- So I really don't have too much information on her.

But I do know that she was born in 1868 and she passed away in 1956.

-- She was very skilled.

Look at the brush strokes.

I wish she signed the paintings.

-- Yeah, and we couldn't find any kind of signature on any of her paintings.

-- Most female artists from the South really didn't have a market place to sell their works.

They never got to auction.

They never had a gallery representing them.

So it's sad because a lot of these female Southern artists had no place to go with their works except sell them to family members.

But if she could, in the 21st century, sell her works as an accomplished Southern female artist, I think they would sell for quite a large amount.

-- Oh, really?

Okay, great.

-- Even though she was unknown, the quality of this painting, I would put $2,500 on it.

-- Okay.

Great.

-- Now, would you like a look at this painting?

-- Yeah, sure.

-- Okay, to me, this is typical, like a Louisiana swamp scene.

-- Yeah.

-- I love the ambiance because it just takes you into the swamp; the lighting.

-- Right.

Right.

-- Well, tell me more about it.

-- I don't know much about this one, but you mentioned Louisiana.

I think she lived there for a short period of time.

And maybe that's where this idea came from.

-- It's got great lighting and the shadowing and the detail.

-- I would put $350 on this for this landscape.

-- Okay.

All right.

Good.

Thank you!

-- How are you today, ma'am?

-- I'm fine.

-- Can you tell me a little bit about how you acquired this piece?

-- Well, a long time ago, I was 11 or 12.

I used to visit this lady who she had arthritis really bad and she couldn't walk.

So I would just go visit her and we'd have tea and talk and just enjoy each other's company.

And one day she just gave it to me.

She didn't tell me anything about it.

And so I wondered all these years what it was, and somebody could tell me about it.

So that's why I'm here.

-- You've not shown it to a jeweler or anybody before?

-- No.

No.

-- A neo-classic piece, probably from 1910 or thereabouts.

-- Well, I had no idea.

-- But that's probably a 30-carat sized amethyst.

They're not worth huge sums of money as far as the stones are concerned, but it's a nice square cushion cut neo-classic piece.

Not a lot of weight in the gold.

It's so thin... you know, thin setting.

But I would think, you know, an insurance value on the piece would probably be at least $300 or $400.

-- Oh, my heavens.

Really?

-- But to get more detail, you would have to take it to a jeweler.

-- Right.

-- I hope that helps you.

-- Oh yeah!

Thank you so much, because I have wondered all these years what it was or if it was real or... -- Yes, ma'am, the stone definitely seems to be amethyst.

That's my wife's birthstone.

So I've seen a lot of amethyst.

-- Yes, you would know that.

-- Yes, ma'am.

-- Thank you so much.

I do appreciate it.

-- Yes ma'am.

-- All right.

-- Thank you so much for bringing this item in today.

Would you tell us what you know about it?

-- Well, not a whole lot.

I just know it was found in my grandmother's attic in Booneville well, in Blackland Mississippi, out from Booneville.

It's a journal of his account during the Civil War.

It talks about him being a prisoner of war, talks about him going across battlefields and what all he saw.

A liberation of some kind, but it's been a while since I read it because it's so hard to read.

Once you start reading it, you can kind of get into it.

-- They are spoke and wrote a bit differently than we do today.

So it's hard to get in that vernacular for sure.

-- Exactly.

Well, I'm going to tell you a little bit after my observation.

It is a journal book that would have been traditionally carried by soldiers and officers to document their progress through the Civil War.

Collectors really love Civil War artifacts and items, particularly ones that document this type of specific day to day history, like a journal.

This specific book has lovely marbling on the front and back, which in America, right around 1840s, 1830s, they started using marbling.

You often saw it on the inside of the books and on the outside.

This one does on the outside.

So it's just, esthetically, it's a good book.

But you can see here on the very top it says, "John Lockett, in lieu of" and what I believe to be "J.

A. Kennedy" and I believe this would have been a soldier Kennedy in the war.

It doesn't look like, after I've read over some that he was an officer, but it certainly details his accounts in Baldwin, Mississippi, which is right outside, as you noted earlier to me, outside of Booneville.

And so it's a Mississippi artifact which makes it very special to here in Mississippi.

Even more so, it's documenting an important part of the South and our history, that being the Civil War.

So you think you know what it may be worth?

-- I have no idea.

I just, of course, was curious to know of anything.

-- The way these prices go with Civil War artifacts like this, we have actual names, so lineage is possible to look up, maybe even get a CV according to Vista or some form of daguerreotype we could probably find on this history that's written down since he documented so well.

But I think at auction, given this history and account of certain battles, you could probably look at about $3,000 to $5,000 to the right collector and maybe more depending on what you could find and what you could document in this book.

It's truly a special piece of journal documenting the Civil War, and we really appreciate you bringing it in today.

-- Thank you!

-- Join us next time on Mississippi Antique Showcase and see if you have a hidden treasure in your closet.