♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Major funding is provided by... Alex Cooper Auctioneers, appraisers and auctioneers of fine art, jewelry, and collectibles online and in person gallery auctions every month, serving buyers and sellers in Maryland and around the world for over 100 years.

♪ ♪ Second Story Books, celebrating 50 years of dedicated book selling.

ED MORENO: Coming up on “Chesapeake Collectibles.” ALLAN STYPECK: What did you bring us?

GUEST: I brought you a British first edition of the “Lord of the Rings,” hopefully fine in dust jacket.

ROSS KELBAUGH: This is the first World Series baseball ring that I've ever seen.

GUEST: And then I got a golden pocket watch that was purchased in July 26th, 1876.

AMORY LECUYER: Okay.

GUEST: It's golden, it has the key and everything.

And I believe that this is a cherry box.

GUEST: I asked this gentleman, who I had never met in my life, why he collected sheet music, and he said the artistry.

GUEST: I am surprised.

ED: Yeah, it's still, it's a really nice piece.

A lot of hand work, all of this is done by hand.

(theme music playing).

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ALLAN: Welcome to “Chesapeake Collectibles.” What did you bring us?

I brought you a British first edition of the “Lord of the Rings,” hopefully fine in, in dust jacket.

ALLAN: Not bad.

How long have you owned these?

GUEST: I purchased these in 1976.

ALLAN: What were you 12?

GUEST: No, I was a brand-new commissioned Ensign in the US Navy, and I was going from one training center to another, and I stopped off at an antiquarian bookstore in Santa Barbara, California.

And I, I saw these books there and I've been a, a “Lord of the Rings” fan ever since I read the books.

“Lord of the Rings,” anything Tolkien, I loved, and I saw these books, and I fell in love with them.

I looked at the price, I kinda gasped.

ALLAN: So you were recently commissioned Ensign, right?

GUEST: Right.

ALLAN: And you just got your commission pay, right?

GUEST: Right.

ALLAN: So, in all of Southern California, instead of going bar hopping in San Diego, instead of going into any of the ports, right, you decided to spend it on books?

GUEST: Right.

ALLAN: You're the man.

I really appreciate that.

So you walked into the bookstore?

GUEST: Yes.

ALLAN: You saw the books, you loved Tolkien since you were a kid.

GUEST: Right.

ALLAN: And the price was at the time?

GUEST: $2,000.

ALLAN: Which was probably what, two-thirds of your commission pay?

GUEST: It was a significant portion of my pay.

ALLAN: Portion, yeah, yeah, ‘72, they were getting like $2,980.

GUEST: Maybe a little bit more than that, but uh, it was not a lot of money.

ALLAN: Right.

GUEST: And uh, had a heart attack when I saw the price.

ALLAN: Right.

GUEST: “I really don't think I can do this.” And so I looked around a bit and saw some other books I'd like to have, but I walked out and got outta my car and started heading north.

ALLAN: Right.

GUEST: About an hour later, I pulled over to the side of the road, got a payphone, called him back, Will you take payments on this?

ALLAN: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: And I eventually got the books.

ALLAN: Wow, and you've read 'em how many times in those...

GUEST: Countless times.

ALLAN: Countless times.

And you know what the beauty of it is, not only have you read 'em countless times, but you've kept them in very good or better condition.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

ALLAN: So from the evaluation perspective, that's great.

So we have three first editions, volumes one, volume two, and volume three of the trilogy.

Now, one of the three volumes has its price clipped.

GUEST: Yes.

ALLAN: Because of that, you cannot say this is a perfect set.

GUEST: No.

ALLAN: But it's about as close to very good find as you can get.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

ALLAN: So currently the market for Tolkien has stayed constant to aggressive, which doesn't seem to be slowing down because there's a streaming service who is currently reintroducing the trilogy, which is gonna keep the interest alive.

My opinion of value is that this value that I'm going to give you is probably supportable for the foreseeable future in the marketplace because of the current reintroduction to new generations of Tolkien readers to film.

So 1972, you paid $2,000 on time.

We are now in 2025.

I would appraise these for somewhere between 40,000 and $45,000.

GUEST: Wow.

ALLAN: I would've made it 50,000 if that one price clip wasn't there.

So good investment, but considering how many times you read it.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

ALLAN: 10 times in the last 40 years, maybe.

GUEST: Yeah, at least, yeah.

ALLAN: So you've, you've read... you're, your equity basis for every read is 2,000 bucks plus maybe 4,000 bucks.

So good job.

GUEST: Thank you.

ALLAN: Congratulations.

GUEST: Thank you.

ALLAN: And thanks for coming.

GUEST: I appreciate you having me.

(cash register bell).

♪ ♪ AMORY: You know, I want to thank you for coming out this morning to “Chesapeake Collectibles” and when you came up to my table, you know, when people approach my table and they've got a box and I'm always just, this is a treasure box and I know something special's gonna come out.

Tell me a little bit about what you brought me this morning.

GUEST: Yeah, so today I got a Ripley's “Believe It or Not” book from my great -great-grandmother.

This was taken when she was about 18 or 19.

This book is from 1929.

AMORY: Okay.

GUEST: She liked to read books, and she loved them, and she would mark up in the texts and stuff about her time reading the book and all that.

And then I got a golden pocket watch that was purchased in July 26th, 1876.

AMORY: Okay.

GUEST: It's golden, it has a key and everything, and I believe that this is a cherry box.

AMORY: Okay.

GUEST: And then I have an eye wash cup that was from my great-great-great-grandmother.

My great-grandmother lived with her at a time, and she had something in her eye, and she needed help getting it out, and she didn't know what to use.

So my great-great- great-grandmother gave that to her, and it worked.

AMORY: And, and they still do, I mean, I've used them in my lifetime.

GUEST: Yep.

AMORY: You know, individually, any one of these objects is not fabulously valuable.

GUEST: Yeah.

AMORY: But what, what struck me is the, your interest and your enthusiasm for tying together both family and objects that they reflected on in their lifetime.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

AMORY: And I think that's, I think that's goes to some of the heart of collecting.

Alright, do you enjoy collecting and finding out histories and different things?

GUEST: Yeah, I do.

Yep, it's fun.

AMORY: Well, you're, you're off to a good start.

You know, on the whole, these two are very modest in value.

This is probably a 10 or $12 book given his condition GUEST: Yeah.

AMORY: The eyewash cups, I've seen him as high as, as $15, but I've seen 'em as low as 50 cents.

GUEST: Yep.

AMORY: But let's talk for a moment about the, the watch.

The watch is, is by a company called American Waltham.

It is a, a very nice watch.

It is not currently working.

GUEST: Yeah.

AMORY: I did lay a key to it because it is a key wind.

GUEST: Yeah.

AMORY: And that is a, puts it as a much earlier watch.

We're gonna see if we can open the back without too much difficulty here.

And we can see where the key would insert.

You would also have a second key so that you could set the hands.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

AMORY: This is a smaller size.

It was probably a men's watch, but it could have also been used by a lady, given the size.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

AMORY: Wonderful engraving on the front, and its value probably in today's market is about, if it were working, about $350.

GUEST: Wow.

AMORY: In non-working shape, probably 250.

With the box, that just adds value as well.

Now I know these are not things that you're planning to sell 'cause they're family pieces.

GUEST: Yeah.

AMORY: But I would encourage you to continue with your collecting and exploring a family and, and the, the relationships to things in their life.

And thanks for coming out today.

GUEST: Thank you.

(cash register bell).

♪ ♪ LISA JONES: I wanna thank you very much for bringing in what I can say is an extraordinary collection of sheet music.

Now, we met earlier and we were talking and you mentioned that you, you received this collection for free from a gentleman, you felt a particular kinship with him.

Was there anything about this sheet music that made you think, I would love to have this collection?

GUEST: With sheet music, you think you play an instrument.

I don't play an instrument.

LISA: Okay.

GUEST: I appreciate the arts.

I asked this gentleman, who I had never met in my life, why he collected sheet music.

And he said the artistry, the graphics.

I said, “Steve, do you play piano?

Do you play ukulele?

Do you play instrument?” Never plays instrument.

His wife does.

LISA: Okay.

GUEST: So on that level, we both love the vintage song sheets, these composition sheets because of the fact of the beautiful art illustrations and the era of telling the story of our history, and the romance of it all.

LISA: Yes, and that is exactly what I want to point out because when I was going through all of these, now this is a large collection, approximately 1,800 sheets.

GUEST: That's correct.

LISA: I wish I had days to go through all of these, but it really is like a time capsule of American history.

And so I wanted to point out just a few that I thought were particularly interesting...

GUEST: Great.

LISA: ...To American history.

And I wanted to start off with this one.

Now, luckily for us, a lot of these, this gentleman who took great pride in his collection had done a lot of research.

So he's dated a lot of these, which is fantastic.

GUEST: Every one has a date.

LISA: Every one has a date.

But I wanted to start with this one because this is obviously a nod to World War I and America's involvement, even though we entered that war fairly late.

It's sheet music of “Here's To Your Boy And My Boy” with this figure draped in a garment and hat in the American flag.

Really, really terrific.

Other ones include from the same time period, “America, I Love You, My Yankee Land.” Not words that we really hear very frequently anymore, but obviously, the artwork on these is fantastic.

We just don't see this anymore because I'm not even sure if sheet music is made anymore in composition sheets.

This one I thought was particularly fantastic because there's a nod to the suffragette movement here.

So we have a group of ladies here, “Women Forever” is the title, and they each have a crown on that says “Justice,” “Liberty,” “Victory.” And this one, “Women Forever.” So, a really great nod to the suffragette movement.

Going through the collection, I also noticed that you had pieces from the 1850s, which is remarkable because there's such a difference between the artwork.

So this one from the 1850s has this beautiful collection of seashells.

These are a little bit plainer, right?

They don't have all the color.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

LISA: And I wanted to say that even if we didn't know that these were dated in any way, I think judging, just kind of going through the collection, judging from the costume, the hairstyles, we would get a really good indication of what era this is.

And this one in particular from the 1920s is so art deco in its presentation and its graphics and her costume, they're really beautiful and they're very exciting.

Now you have 1800 of these, that's a lot to kind of go through and figure out values on.

But let's say on the low end, you might have one that's $5, but you also have several that are at least $100 each and above.

GUEST: Really?

LISA: Yes, absolutely.

So apologies to my high school math teacher.

GUEST: Wow.

LISA: I said I would not need math ever again, now I need the math.

GUEST: Right.

LISA: So let's say five, $10 each, many hundred dollars, and above.

GUEST: Right.

LISA: That's several thousand dollars that you have...

GUEST: Right.

LISA: ...Wrapped up in this collection.

GUEST: Right.

LISA: But I think the value for you was your relationship with the person that you received these from.

And I think that you see yourself as a caretaker going forward of this collection.

GUEST: I would agree, Lisa.

I think that my feeling is that I accidentally inherited over, nearly 2000 song sheets and books, and my role in Frederick Freecycle.

LISA: Yeah.

GUEST: Where they were given away.

The gentleman needed to give him away, offered them to his children.

I think many people go through this in life.

You get to an age where you're ailing or, or have a, a need to change and offered them to his children.

And they picked through, they took his carpentry tools.

LISA: Yes.

GUEST: But they said they didn't want them, and he needed them out.

And I accidentally am the inheritor.

LISA: You are now the accidental inheritor.

And I love that phrase, and I want to thank you again for bringing them in.

So I think as a whole, let's say on the low end, the collection is $1,800.

That is so low.

If we were to do a dollar each.

GUEST: A dollar each.

LISA: But that's not feasible, right?

I think we're looking at least 3,000.

It could be all the way up to 10,000.

GUEST: Wow.

LISA: That's a big range...

GUEST: Yeah.

LISA: ...I know because there, there's a lot to go through.

GUEST: Yeah.

LISA: But I think that that gives you a pretty good idea of, of the collection that you have.

And again, I want to thank you so much for bringing these in.

These were a real treat.

GUEST: Thank you.

(cash register bell).

♪ ♪ ED: Hi there, thank you for bringing this to “Chesapeake Collectibles.” It's a wonderful, wonderful object.

Can you tell me a little bit about how you got it?

GUEST: Yeah, this was actually given to my husband... ED: Okay.

GUEST: ...By a lawyer friend of his who know that my husband was a collector of many things.

ED: Okay.

GUEST: We collected everything from children to art.

ED: Okay.

GUEST: And we adopted children.

ED: And where now where was this?

GUEST: In Baltimore.

ED: Okay.

GUEST: In Baltimore.

ED: And how long ago was this that you got it?

GUEST: It's close to 50 years.

ED: 50 years, okay.

GUEST: Yeah.

ED: And of course, you know what it is.

GUEST: It's a monstrance, yes.

ED: Okay.

GUEST: I was raised Catholic.

ED: Alright, so monstrances were used to celebrate and venerate the host, the consecrated Eucharist.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

ED: Almost every church, Catholic church in everywhere that I've visited has one.

They actually even make them in traveling sizes for a lot of the congregations that don't have a resident priest, clergy.

GUEST: Yeah.

ED: This particular one is kind of interesting.

GUEST: Any ideas where it was made?

GUEST: Someplace in the States.

ED: Okay.

GUEST: That's all I know.

ED: You're absolutely correct.

It was made by the W.J.

Feeley Company out of Providence, Rhode Island.

They were a company that had made religious wares from goblets to monstrances.

And they were in business in the first quarter of the 20th century.

GUEST: Oh wow.

ED: So we know this, they went out of business as a retailer in '25, so we know it was the first quarter.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

ED: This is sterling, it's a sterling silver piece that was originally gilt, and of course we'll show how, how you actually put the, the, the...

GUEST: The Eucharist.

ED: The Eucharist in the backside.

It also has really interesting features; it has St. Joseph with the Christ child.

GUEST: Right.

ED: Featuring here is totally sterling silver.

And the reason it can't be used again is...

GUEST: Because the cross was removed.

ED: That's right.

GUEST: And once the cross is removed, it's no longer able to be used.

ED: Right, it cannot be reconsecrated.

GUEST: Right.

ED: So, and in fact, there are unfortunately some of these, particularly continental ones, that are being sold on the market today with the cross, which is kind of unfortunate.

GUEST: Yeah.

ED: Amethyst, it's a little tarnished.

You haven't really polished it.

And that's nice because there's still a lot of gilding here in there.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

ED: And so you wanna be careful with the polishing.

You don't wanna do it too aggressively.

With, with the, with the cross, it probably would, would be fetching around $1,800 to $1,900.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

ED: Without the cross, maybe around 1,400 to 1,500, so.

GUEST: I am surprised.

ED: Yeah, it's still, it's a really nice piece.

A lot of hand work, all of this is done by hand.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

ED: And even though there are a few of them on the market, not so many American ones, more continental ones.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

ED: And not quite of this kind of, this was obviously for a very well, well to do Catholic church somewhere.

GUEST: Catholic church somewhere.

ED: Thank you very, very much for bringing it in today.

GUEST: Oh, thank you for letting me know a little bit more about it.

ED: Well, thank you.

GUEST: I do appreciate it.

(cash register bell).

♪ ♪ ROSS: Okay, I'd like to welcome you to “Chesapeake Collectibles” today.

I've seen a lot of sports memorabilia over the years I've been on the show.

But you brought in some things this time relating to our beloved Orioles that I have never seen.

Now, what's your story with your material here?

GUEST: Well, my father was a sports writer with the “Baltimore Sun Papers.” And between the years of 1960 and 1973, he was a sports writer with the Orioles, and he traveled with the team to all their away games and their home games.

And he wrote articles for the “Morning Sun” every day.

And so when they were in the 1970 World Series, he got to be the official scorer.

And so they, the team, voted and decided to give him a ring.

And so he got a World Series ring and has his name on it.

And he was very proud of that ring.

He wore it for 35 years.

So it's a little worn.

ROSS: Uh-huh, uh-huh.

GUEST: But he was very proud of that ring.

And one time, Elrod Hendricks came up to him and said, “Jim, I got you that ring.” And he said, “Elrod, how'd you get me this ring?” And he said, “The vote had to be unanimous.” ROSS: Oh, huh.

GUEST: He was trying to be funny.

ROSS: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: And then he got this watch because it was their first American League Championship Series, I guess they gave all the sports writers watches, and probably teammates too.

And so he wore that till I think it stopped working.

ROSS: Oh wow.

GUEST: And this is a picture of him with Brooks and his editor, Bob Maisel, out on the field.

And then he would keep track of the score of the game, every game in books.

So we have a bunch of these at home, and he used to get these field passes for all the different games they were involved in, post-season games.

And then this was in the newspaper, it's actually “The Evening Sun”" but it shows a bunch of the writers, and he's there on the right.

ROSS: Right there.

And the jacket here, very interesting.

GUEST: Oh, and the jacket, he was given this jacket, I don't know the, all the details, but he was given this jacket from the Orioles, and it's from around 1965, maybe, something like that.

ROSS: Yeah, wonderful condition.

It's very interesting grouping.

I had, a few years ago, I had Tom Matte on with his Super Bowl ring.

And now this is the first World Series baseball ring that I've ever seen.

Very desirable amongst collectors to be able to value these as a sports writer.

The, uh, well we'll start with the watch first, the watch, since it was they were the American League champs are valuable and desirable, they run about $2,000 within an, and his name is also engraved on the back, so you get into the personal connection, 'cause these people that are so important in promoting the team and getting to know the players and to help the fans and everything with that.

The ring, Jenkins is the company that made the World Series rings, are incredibly desirable.

Now, had this been the ring for one of the players, the valuation then of course really skyrockets into that, could be, and certainly well into the five figures.

But for his personal use and having received the ring, I would put a valuation on this of at least $10,000.

GUEST: Oh wow.

ROSS: Yeah, at least $10,000.

GUEST: Wow.

ROSS: And so if, again, if you were to be like after Brooks Robinson or something like that, you could imagine what that would escalate to the values of, but I have seen some pictures, uh, was a $16,000 one that was sold not long, long ago.

So that's, I would say a conservatively at least $10,000 for that, for that piece of ring and that history that you have there.

The jacket itself, I would say, probably a few hundred dollars for that.

But that's really the incredible collection, then to be able to have support, and of course, being family memorabilia.

Do you have any children?

GUEST: I have a daughter.

ROSS: Okay, well, for all of your family, of course, it's priceless.

GUEST: She's a huge Orioles fan.

ROSS: She is.

Well, that's even better because we have so many, that I know a lot of the other appraisers and the people we talk to, you run into these people that bring in these wonderful items, and the children and grandchildren, nobody cares about 'em, which is so too bad.

So it's wonderful that you got an Oriole fan in the family.

So she is going to inherit some incredible treasures, all of that.

GUEST: Thank you very much.

ROSS: So I want to thank you very much.

Thank you very much for, for bringing and sharing this story and for all the 'cause this was the era I was watching, I was an Oriole fan, and being able to read the everything that was written by your dad.

So thank you very much for, for bringing and sharing all these...

GUEST: Thank you.

ROSS: ...wonderful items for us today.

GUEST: You are welcome.

(cash register bell).

ROBERT HARRISON: Next time on “Chesapeake Collectibles.” ROSS: You brought a suitcase in that has stunned me.

KATHLEEN HAMILL: This is Melvin Miller, an iconic Baltimore artist, very well known for his scenes of the city.

GUEST: My grandfather was the manager of a club in Washington, DC called the Crystal Caverns.

PATRICK REDDING: What we found out was what you got is in early 20th-century Indonesian warrior body armor.

GUEST: Oh wow.

AMORY: These are your family's photographs, which were taken with this Kodak.

ROBERT: I was absolutely floored when you brought these in because it looks a lot like a Baltimore sampler, then when you told me the story, it made it all the more interesting to me.

NARRATOR: Major funding was provided by... Alex Cooper Auctioneers, appraisers and auctioneers of fine art, jewelry, and collectibles online and in person gallery auctions every month, serving buyers and sellers in Maryland and around the world for over 100 years.

♪ ♪ Second Story Books, celebrating 50 years of dedicated book selling.

GUEST: It was exciting.

I enjoyed it.

It was a lot of fun.

GUEST: It was really fun.

I will come back next season.

GUEST: Definitely, I'd encourage other people to come with collectibles and to sign up for the collectible experience.

GUEST: I met some really great people standing in line, and in all honesty, they were the, the best part of my day.

GUEST: I would never sell these items.

I'm going to give them to my daughter.

GUEST: Well, I learned they're more valuable than what I thought they were.

GUEST: If you have anything that you think is, has any value at all or interest to other people, you should come.

NARRATOR: Stream anytime, anywhere with the free PBS app.