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.

KATHLEEN HAMILL: Coming up on "Chesapeake Collectibles..." LISA JONES: I turned it over, and I see a Royal Doulton impressed mark there.

GUEST: This is the fire pot that held the fuel that lit JFK's eternal flame at Arlington National Cemetery.

ROSS KELBAUGH: I decided to bring in one of my collections that I acquired at an antique show for $35.

A World War I grouping belonging to a Marylander.

GUEST: And I had an opportunity to collect a few of these works because they were going to discard them and throw them away.

AMORY LECUYER: What do you feel like makes these distinctive spurs besides them being your grandfather's?

GUEST: It's the legs.

AMORY: That's right.

(theme music playing).

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ AMORY: I want to thank you for coming out to "Chesapeake Collectibles" today.

And you know, I don't see these come across my table very often, but tell me a little bit about what you brought.

GUEST: I brought my grandfather's spurs.

AMORY: Okay.

GUEST: Um, he was a eastern cowboy in Elmira, New York during the 1920s.

AMORY: Wait a minute, wait, say that again, in Elmira, New York?

GUEST: Elmira, New York, that's where he grew up.

AMORY: Okay.

GUEST: And as a teenager, he was a cowboy.

AMORY: Okay.

GUEST: And then he met my grandmother and they fell in love and he wanted to get married, but my great-grandfather said that he wouldn't approve the marriage until he had a certain amount of money.

AMORY: Ah.

GUEST: So, he sold his horse... AMORY: Sold the horse.

GUEST: And then he didn't need it.

AMORY: Kept the spurs.

GUEST: Kept the spurs, kept the boots, kept the leather cuffs.

AMORY: We can say he hung up his spurs.

GUEST: We can say he hung up his spurs.

AMORY: Well, you know, what, what do you feel like makes these distinctive spurs besides them being your grandfather's?

GUEST: Um, it's the legs.

AMORY: That's right.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

AMORY: We see, I have seen over the years when I've been in and done shows out west and different things, I've seen spurs, I've seen a lot of spurs, but there is a style of spur called the "lady leg," and it was made by different blacksmiths and artisans of, of the day.

But these, this is a stunning pair.

I mean, there's actually quite a lot going on, on the spur itself, if we can look at this, we've got clearly a very elegant lady's leg.

But then coming up, we also have embellishments of hearts and, uh, other icons, and this wonderful on, on the, on the leather cuff of the spur, we've got this wonderful embellishment of the horse's head, and that's repeated on both pieces.

They become little works of folk art in and of themselves.

And, and, and for what was a very utilitarian thing, being a set of spurs, we've just raised that to almost an artistic level.

Have you ever had 'em, uh, looked at or appraised?

GUEST: No.

AMORY: The spurs themselves are not terribly valuable, but the lady le, the lady leg spur is actually kind of a collected piece, and this has a lot of material going on on it.

If these came up at, at a good auction that had other maybe, um, equestrian cowboy, uh, western, uh, styles, even though he was an eastern cowboy, easy to see 900 to $1,200 on a, on a pair.

GUEST: Really?

AMORY: And, and they're just charming and wonderful, and you just don't see 'em very often.

Thank you for bringing them out today.

GUEST: Well, thank you.

(cash register bell).

♪ ♪ LISA JONES: Thank you so much for coming in today to "Chesapeake Collectibles" and bringing this lovely vase.

How did you acquire this and why?

GUEST: Well, it's kind of interesting.

I wasn't really looking for a vase.

I am a Scottish Deerhound owner, and this is decorated with Scottish Deerhounds.

And so that's how I found it on an online auction.

LISA: Because you're just doing the internet, internet search for Scottish...

BOTH: Deerhounds.

LISA: Which I think is really interesting because I'm a poodle lover, so I get it.

I do a lot of searching for a poodle things, but I didn't realize that there was like a devotion to Scottish Deerhounds on such a level that when you saw this, you were like, that's the vase for me.

And, but you saw it on an auction site, is that correct?

GUEST: That is correct, yes.

LISA: And so, you decided to participate?

GUEST: I did, yes.

LISA: And when you received it, was there anything about it that you thought, "Okay, well, I like the Scottish Deerhound, but there might be something more here?"

Did anything strike your fancy?

GUEST: Yeah, actually I, when I started looking at it more closely, the, the intricacy of the decoration, uh, besides the Deerhounds, I thought was really interesting.

And, uh, then I started looking for other things decorated similarly and came across, uh, this book here.

LISA: Okay.

GUEST: And I thought that perhaps that was the artist that had created this.

LISA: Hannah Barlow.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

LISA: And you were unsure, like you just bought it because you were, you liked the Scottish Deerhound.

GUEST: Correct.

LISA: No clue about Hannah Barlow...

GUEST: No.

LISA: ...or what her story was, what her relationship could have been to this vase.

GUEST: Correct.

LISA: And so, you brought it in.

We met, and I'm gonna give you the answer because the first thing that I did was I turned it over, and I see a Royal Doulton impressed mark there.

And the curiosity was more about this incised mark because it was sort of odd, and could it have been Hannah Barlow?

It is by Hannah Barlow.

GUEST: Yay!

LISA: So, you did very well, like you're, you're sort of blind purchase in a sense, you did really well.

Hannah Barlow was an artist that painted for Royal Doulton.

She started working there in 1871.

GUEST: Wow.

LISA: So, she had a nice history with them and a nice relationship, uh, even when she painted this, because as well as the incised Royal Doulton mark, as well as what we learned and confirmed was her incised signature...

GUEST: Right.

LISA: ...of the H and the B, we also have this mark of 1886.

So, she had been with them for a number of years by the time she did this.

Her specialty and what she was really known for at Royal Doulton was horses and other animals.

Amongst them, the Scottish Deerhound.

So, and she would incise the decoration on this body.

So, she used a blade to incise these Scottish Deerhounds very finely.

That's difficult work, but we have like a nice assortment of these Scottish Deerhounds around the body.

Okay, the big question: what did you pay?

GUEST: I paid 100, I believe it was $150.

LISA: Okay.

I think you're gonna be very happy with your investment.

Did a little bit of sleuthing around some auction records to establish a fair market value.

I think at auction you could anticipate about $1,200.

GUEST: Wow, no kidding.

LISA: It's really fantastic and I think, I mean, clearly you bought it because of the Scottish Deerhounds.

GUEST: Right.

LISA: Somewhere out there is another collector who would also want it for Scottish Deerhounds, but it's really charming.

It's so emblematic of her work with the lovely incised decoration.

The colors are rich.

The blue, it's so Royal Doulton, uh, 1886.

GUEST: Wow.

LISA: I think a minimum of 1200, I think it could go up from there.

I've seen...

GUEST: Oh, wonderful.

LISA: I've seen some of her pieces go as high as 2,000.

So don't pass out on me.

GUEST: No.

LISA: I think it's a, a tremendous...

GUEST: Actually, you've made my husband very happy.

LISA: ...tremendous investment.

Oh, is that... (laughing).

GUEST: Yes.

LISA: So, thank you again so much for bringing this in.

GUEST: Thank you.

LISA: Really appreciate it, it was a special treat.

GUEST: Thank you, I appreciate it.

LISA: You're welcome.

(cash register bell).

♪ ♪ ED MORENO: Good morning.

Thank you for bringing this wonderful object to "Chesapeake Collectibles."

Tell me a little bit about it.

GUEST: Thank you, Ed.

Um, well, this is the, uh, fire pot that held the fuel, uh, that lit, uh, JFK's eternal flame at Arlington National Cemetery.

ED: Now, how did you get ahold of this?

GUEST: Well, my father, uh, worked at the engineering department at Fort Meyer, which is adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery... ED: Uh-huh.

GUEST: ...and when Jackie decided she wanted an eternal flame, it was all hands-on deck at that point and, uh, my dad was involved with setting everything up with propane tanks, etcetera, in about 48 hours or less.

He, um... ED: Now this had never been done before.

GUEST: Not in the U.S. ED: Yeah, yeah.

GUEST: There, there was a, a memorial in France, I think... ED: Right.

GUEST: ...for the unknown soldier that... ED: ...correct.

GUEST: ...Jackie had seen, and I think she got the idea... ED: Right.

GUEST: ...to, to, uh, do this for her husband, our president.

So, as he was working with the, the Corps of Engineers and getting all this done, they were getting ready to pull it all together and get the flame lit before the ceremony... ED: And they couldn't...

GUEST: ...and they had a tin can, a coffee can covered with aluminum foil that held the fuel and some sort of torch.

ED: And that wouldn't do.

GUEST: And Daddy said that wouldn't do.

So, he ran home, and we had this sitting on our fireplace... ED: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: Which we had never used it and, um, he brought this in to use and that's what held the fuel, that held the, uh, accolade or candlestick that was handed to Jackie to...

BOTH: Light the eternal flame.

ED: And so, this was a piece that was in your house?

GUEST: Yes.

ED: It's a, obviously a reproduction, uh, probably a late 19th century, early 20th century, uh, reproduction bean pot.

And you have, you brought a book here, and I think you can see the actual bean pot here being used...

GUEST: Yes.

ED: ...later on as, as a light.

Um, and we also have an affidavit you brought in, a wonderful affidavit, uh, that also states that this is actually the real McCoy.

GUEST: Right.

ED: So...

GUEST: Right.

ED: You probably have had never had this appraised before.

GUEST: No.

ED: Okay.

Now, this is a thing of, of this is a story, this is a, an important piece of, of, of a larger story.

But the reason I brought you up here on camera is to let people know that these kind of things of sentimental value, really important, but perhaps don't have the kind of monetary value that they perhaps should deserve.

Uh, in this particular case, any idea how much it might be worth?

GUEST: I have no idea.

ED: Yeah.

I, I think, you know, 700, $800 would be that kind of ballpark.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

ED: Um, it just really should go to a museum.

GUEST: Yes.

ED: And perhaps we'll talk about that a little later on.

GUEST: Yes, I would like it to go somewhere.

ED: Yeah, well, thank you very, very much for bringing it.

It's such a wonderful object and something that I've never seen before, and perhaps none of our viewers have ever seen it before as well.

GUEST: Great.

ED: So, thank you.

GUEST: Thank you.

(cash register bell).

♪ ♪ ROSS: Hello, I'm Ross Kelbaugh.

I've been one of the appraisers on "Chesapeake Collectibles" now for quite some time.

And as a collector, which ended up getting me here, I decided to bring in one of my collections that I acquired back in 1970 at an antique show for $35, a World War I grouping, belonging to a Marylander.

Uh, during World War I, over a million Americans went overseas to serve, from Maryland, over 62,000 went to serve.

Amongst those who did serve was this man, Harry Augustus Young.

Now I know all of this belonged to Harry because he put his name on everything, and when he came back after the War, he put it all in a box, put it away, and that I was able to acquire it then in 1970, we can learn about a lot from Harry by looking at what, uh, he brought back.

Now, Harry was born in Frederick in, uh, 1896, and, uh, he joined the National Guard in 1917.

He was assigned to the 115th Regiment, Company A, which was organized out in Frederick.

His uniform was issued to him right at the end of the War, typical of the style that was worn at that time, this is a kind of uniform that would've been worn in combat.

If we take a look at it carefully, at that time, they would have these discs up on the collar, and his disc on one side is for U.S. National Guard, and the disc on the other side is for his company and regiment, 115th Regiment, Company A, cross rifles for, he was in an infantry.

Also, he has here his dog tags; this was the first time that Americans were going into war with dog tags being assigned to them.

They contained his, his, uh, name, had his rank, and his serial number.

Starting in his sleeve over here, we see this interesting logo, blue and gray, yin and yang.

There was a General who came up with, General Ulio, who came up with the idea that a regimental insignia should be made for the 29th Division, of which his regiment became part of.

The 29th Division was made up of soldiers from Virginia, from Maryland, D.C., Delaware, and New Jersey.

And he recognized that these were places that were both north and south of the Mason-Dixon line, so he had the idea that why not have this to signify the unity now, after the Civil War between the North and the South, the blue and the gray.

Now, as we go down his arm, we see this red stripe, now, this isn't this, this is not a rank, this actually indicates that if he was honorably discharged at the end of the War in June of 1919.

Down here, we have two stripes, two gold stripes, very significant because each one of those stripes is for a six-month tour in a combat zone, which helps to point out what we have here.

The ribbon is, is for the victory medal, the World War I Victory Medal, which he would receive and the star is for, he is, a battle star.

He was in the Battle of the Meuse-Argonne.

The Meuse-Argonne was a bitterly fought battle right towards the end of World War I, in which over 26,000 American troops lost their lives, the bloodiest battle in American history.

Another interesting thing to point out are the buttons here, the French were very much interested, uh, to these large buttons that American soldiers wore in their uniforms, and they reminded them of cookies, so the French began to call our soldiers "Doughboys."

And we noticed over here on this sleeve, then here we have his rank here being a corporal.

He was promoted to corporal right at the end of the War in November of 1918.

So again, this was the uniform that he would've worn when he came home.

And the 29th division marched in a parade through Baltimore to celebrate, uh, the victory of the War.

Here are his pants that he wore, and these pants are a little bit different than what you might expect, they're real full in the thigh, then they get real tight down below the knee and below the knee then they wore these wool wraps to from below the knee down to their ankle to be able to protect their shins.

Now, one of the very important pieces of the equipment that he had was this, that he put his 29th Division logo in, this is his gas mask.

The Germans had began introducing gas, poisonous gas, in the combat in the beginning of the War.

So, all soldiers had at all times who were in the front lines had to carry a gas mask with them.

He also had, first time, soldiers in our army were issued a metal helmet.

Harry painted on the side of that, his divisional logo as well.

And again, he put his name in all these things.

One of the things that when you weren't wearing a helmet, they would have what they called an overseas cap, which, uh, they would be wear in their, uh, when they were off duty in combat, in, in more of a casual situation, there were a few things that were amongst the grouping that were for winter issue.

One of 'em were these shooting gloves where your thumb would come out, your fingers would come out here, protect your hand, but then you could still be able to fire your weapon.

We see that he had his prayer, prayer beads and he had his rosary.

He also had his comb with a sheath, to be able to put his comb in; his comb still has some of his DNA on it.

Here was his toothbrush.

This was a container for dental... dental friss in order to be able to brush his teeth and a brush that he had in there for being able to do his nails.

He also, we see his pipe very well-used corn cob pipe and his tobacco.

One of the items amongst this group that really surprised me was this: soldiers referred to as their "housewife."

And I had seen these date back to the Civil War.

What it is is a sewing kit, and you can see that he kept some extra stripes he had in there, extra divisional logo, his needle, and his thread.

And it all rolled up and would've gone into his Diddy bag.

Now, one of the incredible things about putting this collection together was this little grouping right here.

Again, I obtained all of these in 1970.

In 2019, I was at a military show in Louisville, Kentucky, where there were over 2,000 tables of things that were put out for sale.

Walking down one of the rows, I happened to spot this box out of all the stuff that was there.

Amazingly, looking at it carefully in here was an ID bracelet with Harry's name and his service number on the metal plate attached to the leather wristband, and a, uh, prayer book, and most importantly, his diary.

Imagine finding his diary all those years later.

Now, Harry, after the War, he was discharged in, in June of 1919.

Uh, he went on to work for the Army Corps of Engineers in Fort Meade and moved to Baltimore, where he lived out his life.

Uh, Harry ended up dying in 1969, so it was really not too long after that that I, these material must have all come out of his estate.

He's buried in the Baltimore National Cemetery, uh, in his grave, and which, uh, recounts a lot of his experience while he was in the military.

This is the photograph of Company A of the 115th taken of all the men in that company before they went overseas.

Problem is, none of 'em are identified.

I have no photograph of Harry A.

Young, so what I would like to do is reach out to the viewing community and ask, is there anybody out there that knew Harry or happened to be able to find a photograph of Harry that I would be able to add to this incredible collection of his legacy, to be able, which would be a fitting end for a man who had volunteered to endanger his life, join the military, go fight overseas, and, and protect democracy.

(cash register bell).

♪ ♪ KATHLEEN: Hi there, welcome to "Chesapeake Collectibles."

GUEST: Thank you.

KATHLEEN: So, this is fantastic, what can you tell me about this?

GUEST: Well, this, this is an oil and wood painting by Karl Mann and Associates outta New York.

Well, Karl Mann and Associates was commissioned by a fellow by the name of Will Marriott.

KATHLEEN: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: Who had his start in the Washington, D.C. area... KATHLEEN: Of course, of course.

GUEST: ...with a root beer stand, then with Hot Shoppes, cafeterias, cafes.

And then he did the, this kind of a new concept restaurant called a cafeteria, a 350-seat place right at Lafayette Park.

And in those days, in the early '50s when this was done, the mall area where you'd see, uh, people playing polo on the mall, and at the Potomac River, you'd see people depicted in this scene.

KATHLEEN: Right.

GUEST: A rowing contest, the universities like Georgetown and others around the area would have rowing teams... KATHLEEN: Races, mm-hmm.

GUEST: ...and so they'd be competing.

KATHLEEN: Uh-huh.

GUEST: And so, they did this and several other pictures that depicted the scenes around Washington, D.C. KATHLEEN: I assume you went into the cafeteria?

GUEST: Yeah the, they shut the cafeteria down in the early '80s, and I had an opportunity to collect a few of these works because they were going to discard them and throw them away.

KATHLEEN: So, let's talk about this, um, this nail that's poking out.

What, what's happening here?

This three-dimensional feature?

GUEST: This, this is a, this is what you call a concrete nail.

KATHLEEN: Uh.

GUEST: And, and because it's wood, the way they mounted these to the walls of the cafeteria were through concrete nails.

And you can see there are a number of other nail spots around here.

Here's one here.

KATHLEEN: And one right, right here.

GUEST: And one right there.

So, they had three nails at least to mount this to the wall.

Although they have a wire hanger in the back... KATHLEEN: They didn't use it.

GUEST: ...the nails were guaranteed that it stayed up on the wall, it's so heavy.

KATHLEEN: And it's kind of amazing that when they took these off the wall to sell them, they didn't crack.

GUEST: Yeah.

KATHLEEN: This is just such a lovely, what we would call, Folk Art, Americana.

It's such a charming scene.

Like you can see this today actually, the, um...

GUEST: That's right.

KATHLEEN: ...the regattas happening up and down the Potomac.

GUEST: That's true.

KATHLEEN: Um, and his work is just so whimsical and like everything we think of when we think about American primitives.

Um, you can see that it's had some love, some wear over the years, which is to be expected because it's old, now.

GUEST: Right.

KATHLEEN: Um, have you ever had it appraised before?

GUEST: No, we haven't.

KATHLEEN: So, I think, um, at auction now, I would expect this to have a value of like 1,000 to $3,000.

GUEST: Whoa, that's great.

GUEST: Whoa.

KATHLEEN: Is that more than you paid?

GUEST: Yeah, much more.

We got this for; this was given to us.

KATHLEEN: Oh, that's fantastic.

GUEST: Yes.

KATHLEEN: So that's 100% profit.

GUEST: Yeah.

GUEST: Absolutely.

KATHLEEN: Um, but I imagine you won't be letting this out of the family, it's...

GUEST: This hangs in our dining room, where it will be returned as soon as we leave today.

KATHLEEN: Oh, I love it.

Thank you so much for bringing it in.

GUEST: Well, thanks for having us.

GUEST: Thank you.

KATHLEEN: Thank you.

(cash register bell).

PATRICK REDDING: Next time on "Chesapeake Collectibles."

ROBERT HARRISON: This is a magnificent piece, representative of a period and a time lost.

PATRICK: When I first saw the sword this morning, I was blown away.

ALLAN STYPECK: It was probably not Teddy Roosevelt's finest hour.

GUEST: No.

ALLAN: And it was a stain on his record.

GENICE LEE: What was the connection between them using these ink blotters with African Americans on them and advertising their ice cream?

LEX REEVES: And it's such a well-known book.

It's a well-known play.

You know, you've got the sheet music.

It's, it's a, it's a, it's a wonderful package.

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: I absolutely loved my appraiser that I was on camera with; she was wonderful.

GUEST: I'm a huge "Collectibles" geek myself, so to be here to see how it all works and experience it was awesome.

GUEST: I think what impressed me the most is the volume of people, but the organization has been really good.

GUEST: I think it's a worthy experience.

And really, there was some really cool stuff here that people would like to see, I think.

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