Major funding for Arkansas Treasures was provided by the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council and the Susan Howarth Fund at the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay.

Additional funding provided by Annette and Phil Harrington, the Arkansas PBS Local Production Fund and by viewers like you.

- It's time for more Arkansas Treasures.

- There is an incredibly rich heritage of music traditions around Arkansas.

- Four Elvis photos from Fort Taffy.

- You know what a 9.5 sold for?

- I have no idea.

- About $60,000.

- All that and so much more right now on Arkansas Treasures.

- Do you have any idea what the book is worth?

- It's uncommon to see this.

- I think you'll be surprised that it's a little bit higher.

- I said I was not going to say wow, but I did anyway.

I should have said, What?

- Are you ready for another installment of Arkansas Treasures?

We've had so many interesting finds and lots of surprises along the way.

We've had a book purchased for $20 that was evaluated at $25,000.

What a find!

Wonder what could be next.

- I want to thank you for coming in to Arkansas Treasures today.

- Thank you.

- You came up to the table and I knew exactly what you had.

But tell me a little bit about its history with your family.

- Yes.

My mom was a clerk in the sixties in Mountain View.

- Mountain View, Arkansas.

- And of course, dad hung out there most all time, too.

And her cousin was a revenue guy.

- Who was always popular, I know.

- Yes.

(laughter) And evidently one day Dad was down there and his cousin's office and the bootlegger brought this in.

And of course, in little towns, everybody knows everybody.

He wanted $2.50 for it.

- Probably, probably go get a little snort.

- Yeah, I would imagine that.

Anyways, the cousin paid for it and Dad said, You want to double your money?

So they bought it for five bucks, and that's how we... - And this is in what year?

- Probably about '65, 6.

Somewhere in there.

- Well, this is a much earlier version of a homemade, handmade banjo.

This probably goes back maybe even into the thirties.

The South in particular, in Arkansas in particular, because and where you're from, Mountain View, there's a long folk music tradition up there.

But these were not complicated instruments, as we can see.

They were using fairly simple techniques, but they were mimicking the same thing that larger banjos company would do.

The other thing that this shows up in is in what we would call the hobo.

The man who's riding the rails.

There was an end, you know, as a traveler, it was an easy instrument to carry, but also was they were fairly simple things to keep up.

And we've got a very simple metal design to hold them.

This is actually a skin cover on the banjo.

And it's very simple wood.

Probably the most complicated thing in here are the strings.

- That's right.

- You know, and, you know, have you ever had anybody look at it from a value standpoint?

- No.

- I mean, from from family history, it's almost priceless.

- Exactly.

- But, you know, we see these come up with some regularity and they are frequently attributed to a traveler.

So somewhere in the $150 to $300 range is pretty common at auction today.

But what's wonderful is the tie back to Arkansas and the family history that you have.

And it's truly just a beautiful homemade banjo.

I'm going to show the back of it here real quick because we got a much better idea of the skin on the inside.

It's probably hide like a cowhide or something like that.

- Good.

- But you know, we have rough nails.

We have, you know, a few rough screws that are all holding this thing together.

And it is really just a fun folk art piece, part of the music tradition of Arkansas.

- Right.

- It's interesting.

- Thank you for bringing it out today.

- My pleasure.

- Welcome to Arkansas Treasures.

What did you bring in today for us to take a look at?

- Well, I brought you this decorative tray that I picked up at a local auction in Little Rock.

- Okay.

- And so was there anything in particular that drew you to this tray that made you decide to purchase it?

- I think more than anything, it was the back story of where it was originated from.

The first mayor of Little Rock.

And the ties to the first mayor.

So that was interesting to me.

- Okay.

So what you brought in for us today is this silver plated tray with a porcelain plate.

The tray is from the Meriden Silver Company.

And we have this these whimsical cherubs with wings carrying the plates on their backs.

And then we also have these shells and this leafing.

And so that is fun to look at.

And then we also have the insert the porcelain insert from the old Paris company.

And so then, of course, the backdrop to the story makes it very interesting.

We have the first mayor of Little Rock, Dr. Matthew Cunningham, and he came out to Little Rock, born in Pennsylvania, and was not only the first mayor of Little Rock, but was also the first physician in the area at the time.

Let's take a step back and talk about the date on this.

This plate would be from around the 1880s, so that would sync in time with him being mayor of Little Rock at that time.

And so it's just nice to have, of course, being in Arkansas, to have this story, to go with this piece, even though he came from the East Coast to come this way and settle in with his wife.

And later they had a son.

And so we thank you for bringing it in with us today.

So when you purchased this piece, how much did you pay for it at auction?

- It was $40-50, I think 50.

- Okay.

Well, we love the story.

We love the imagery of the piece.

And today, if we were to see it in the marketplace, it would be from $350 to $450.

- Alright.

Nice.

- So please enjoy it and hold on to that piece of Arkansas history.

And thank you for bringing it in today.

- Absolutely.

Thank you.

I do like the back story of how it belonged to the first mayor of Little Rock.

So I would consider donating it possibly to a museum or something like that.

(gentle music) - Welcome.

What have you brought to us today?

- I brought the first edition of the Playboy magazine.

- And where'd you get it?

- My father had bought it.

- So he went down to the local newsstand and picked it up and hid it from everybody?

- Now that I don't know.

- Okay, so where's it been for all these years?

- It's been tucked away.

- Had your mom had it?

- My mom had it until she passed away.

And then I got it.

And I've had it the last 24 years.

- 24 years hiding in the safe I hear?

- Right.

- You know anything about it?

- Not anything other than it's the first edition.

- Okay.

It came out in 1953.

I think it was December, at 50 cent.

Now, they have made reproductions.

We know this is an original due to the fact it has the two staples and it has a square black box up top.

The reproductions have three staples and a rectangular box up top.

All right.

Now, they only made 50,000 of these from what I understand, in production.

So it is a rare piece.

Now, the main concern is condition.

And the only way to get a real good condition report is to have it graded.

And grades are from 0 to 10.

And this is not a ten.

And I think the highest one I've seen is a 9.5.

- Okay.

- And do you think you know what a 9.5 sold for?

- I have no idea.

- About $60,000.

I'm not a grader.

But you do have some creases in here.

Now, the coloration is a high grade coloration.

The pages are a little cream color.

They're not solid white.

The backside is in pretty decent condition.

It still has the creases here and some wear on the top edges.

The spine is good.

You have a pretty nice white backing.

If I had to look at it, this crease hurts it a little bit.

Like anything else.

You know, my grade would be somewhere, it's not official, but I would put it around a four or five.

A grader may make it higher or lower.

But like anything else, the grading condition is a pretty big range.

Like coins or anything like that.

In that grade, I would say it would be about 5,000 to 8,000.

Now, if you had it graded and the grade was a little bit higher and they say it was whiter than I say it is, it could be high.

So I suggest you may want to try to get it graded.

To find out for sure.

Well, because the pages and the creases.

That's what I would say.

I mean, it could go up to $60,000, but I don't think it would make that.

You may make a make it to 20, as what the highest would be.

But my conservative opinion is around the 6 to 8.

Okay?

- Okay.

- It's a nice piece.

- Thank you.

- But you need to probably have looked at it by a professional grader.

Okay?

- Okay.

- Thanks for coming.

- Thank you.

- Thank you so much for coming to Arkansas Treasures today.

Are you all having a good time?

- We're having having a blast.

- I'm so glad.

I can tell.

Two sisters out having a good time.

- Absolutely.

- Please tell us what you brought today.

- We brought four Elvis photos from Fort Chaffee, our grandfather was a plumber at Fort Chaffee, and he was working there when Elvis was processed through Fort Chaffee into the Army, which I believe was March of 1958.

- That's right.

- Our mom was 14 years old at the time.

You can imagine Elvis showing up at your dad's workplace at 14 years old.

So he got these photos when he was there and obviously the famous ones of the haircut.

I guess this is him getting his mess hall food or whatever.

So she's got these four.

The story that we heard was, especially about this one, well he got two of them signed.

We're not sure why two are signed and two are not signed, but this one is signed, too.

And then there's no name.

And supposedly the story was that our grandfather, you know, it was getting him signed.

And Elvis asked out grandfather, Who do you want me to make this out to?

And our grandfather said, I've got three daughters at home if you make it out to any one of them.

The others will be mad.

So just leave it blank.

- Well, that makes sense, because I can see where it says "To" there.

And not on this one.

- And then this one he just signed.

So the other funny part of that story is he actually had four daughters, not three, but one of them was at the convent.

So she didn't count.

- Okay.

I got it.

I had a son at home, too.

But I guess sons don't really count either.

He got four and only two of them were signed.

And I just like that one on it said "To" and then nobody.

- Yes.

- And then the other one was just signed.

And that, we knew that Elvis talked to our grandfather because he had that conversation.

- Right.

- Which is just magical when we were kids.

- That's a great story even now.

- Yeah.

- And you said your mother's an Elvis fan to this day.

- To this day.

- We just celebrated her 80th birthday.

It was all Elvis themed.

We changed the words of Jailhouse Rock to Joan House Rock.

We just had a blast.

- I'm so glad your family is still loving Elvis.

I'll tell you what stands out to me in these photographs.

Well, you've got two of the same.

And the story of multiple daughters at home rings true to why he might have gotten two of these.

Elvis is being processed through for Chafee in Arkansas.

It was a very famous processing because everybody, he was already famous when he went into the Army.

And so here's this very famous guy going into the Army, and all eyes were on him.

He was a regular guy at that point.

So he's coming through and he's in motion.

He's got his army issued dungarees in his left hand, and he's got his dining hall tray with what looks like a hamburger on it in the other hand.

And he's headed to get something to eat.

He's still in his civilian clothes.

so that's what what I see.

It's a photo in motion.

He's just come from getting his army dungarees.

And then, of course, the iconic Fort Chafee Barber shop photos.

There's a, it's a historical site now, isn't it?

- Yes.

There's actually a museum where he got his haircut, and we visited.

It's really fun.

Our mom loved that.

It's really great.

It's fun to see.

- And, you know, I have not seen this particular image of Elvis.

Now, you said you thought they might be press photos.

You weren't sure.

- I just assumed that they were promoing him.

- Right.

- Such a big deal.

He went into the Army and you can see YouTube videos.

There's just press everywhere.

- There was.

But, you know.. - I don't know, maybe the employees at Fort Chaffee had this or something.

I mean, he would have gone back to work the next day, the day after.

- Right.

When we think of photo processing, it takes a long time.

But as you said, they were press photos and there were so much press there, we don't know.

The signatures look good.

These images are fantastic.

And of course, the whip hair and losing the hair right in motion.

These are, you really can't ask for better for the this day for Elvis.

Which is a very famous day in Arkansas.

And for Elvis.

And really, they should stay in Arkansas.

- They'll stay in our family.

- They'll stay in your family.

- Right.

Made some aunts mad that we have all four of them.

Sorry, Mom.

But, yeah, they'll.

They'll manage to stay in the family.

- Well, do you have any idea of what they're worth?

I remember looking up signed Elvis photos years and years ago and seeing a figure of $700.

- Right.

- But it didn't have an Arkansas connection.

And so that was like a generic Elvis photo.

And I was just really curious if the "To" nobody added or took away from the value.

- I think it adds to it because it's your story and it sort of leads credibility to your, you know, to your story.

- Yeah.

- So, you know, on a good day, any signed photo of Elvis is going to bring you $1,000-1,500.

- Wow.

- But these are really hard to value because nobody else has you know, this set and Elvis collectors are pretty nutty.

And you get two Elvis collectors together fighting over Elvis items and the sky's the limit, right?

So I have a hard time putting a definitive number on these.

I think what you have here are four true Arkansas treasures.

And I want to thank you so much for coming in.

- We treasure them.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

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

And, you know, there is an incredibly rich heritage of music traditions around Arkansas.

- Yeah, sure.

- You know, through the last several days, we've seen this exemplified in any number of different forms.

And yet again today, when you brought this up to me, I'm like, I'm just done.

So why don't you tell me what you brought in today and why it's here and how you came to have it.

- It's a Jazzman Fender.

- Fender Jazzman guitar, right.

- And my dad, he bought it back in 1959 from Boyd's Music Company on, I think Main Street or something downtown.

And he's played it.

He's a preacher and he played it in church.

And so basically this is a one owner guitar.

- Yes, sir.

- Well, it explains a wonderful amount about the condition because it's in very, very good condition.

- Thank you.

- And it's got the, Fender did a lot of the sunburst setters on their guitars.

Now it's in beautiful shape.

I mean, just there are a few little nicks here from from somebody obviously playing it.

But this is, we've seen a number of Fenders, a number of Gibsons different styles and and different values.

Has anybody ever valued it for you before?

- We had an appraiser.

He broke it all down and took all of these here screws and stuff out of it and got the serial number off from it.

- Right.

- And everything.

Yeah.

- Well that was, that was more reconditioning.

He appraised it as well?

Did he give you a value idea?

- He gave me a value that, he was going to give me, I think 9,000.

- Okay.

Well, we feel like if this came up at an auction today that it could easily reach into the $14,000 to $16,000 range.

So I'm not sure I'd take the nine for it.

- Yes, sir.

- But it tells you how rich a heritage and particularly when you have one owner owning the guitar all the way through.

And now the second owner and the second generation.

- Yes, sir.

- Do you play?

- No, No.

- Have you thought about taking lessons?

- Well, it changed my mind, on my mind a little bit, but now.

- Well, I mean, it'd be a gem of a guitar to work with.

I mean, and I'm sure your father enjoyed playing it a great deal.

This is a wonderful, wonderful guitar.

And I thank you for bringing it out today.

- Hi, Susan.

- Hi.

- How are you?

- Well, we brought an old clock.

- Awesome.

Tell us about your clock.

- Well, it's been in the family for about three generations from Chicago.

And about 40 years ago, my husband and I were visiting my aunt's apartment, and my husband admired it.

And he said, you have to leave with it.

And so it's lived in a box in a garage in Los Angeles and then in Florida for over the 40 years we've owned it.

When we moved here to Little Rock, we decided that we really wanted to find out about the clock.

And I was lifting it out of the box and it chimed.

So we don't know anything about where it's from, who made it, what the material is.

So we're here today to find out.

- Wonderful.

Well, I'm glad you brought this in.

And we did discover a little bit about this clock together.

This is a Seth Thomas clock, an American clock maker.

The piece is stamped to the working in the back, and that is an East Coast clockmaker.

This piece would have dated to the late 19th century, early 20th century.

It has this beautiful neoclassical architectural style with the the gilt column mounts and the veneer, marble veneer.

And it is just a beautiful mantel clock.

We'll turn this around.

And in here on the working is where that piece is stamped.

And I'm so glad you woke this piece up from its slumber.

- Well, it made this wonderful one note and I said I have to keep it and do something with it.

So it's on a very contemporary person's table all by itself.

Just saying, here I am.

Yeah.

- Good.

If you don't mind, we have to play that note.

- I would hope so.

- Good.

(clock chimes) - That's it.

- Beautiful.

- Thank you.

- You're welcome.

And as far as value goes, especially if this piece was restored into working order, which it can be done, we would see this listed for the mid to high hundreds range anywhere from 500 to 900.

- That's wonderful.

That's wonderful.

We hope to restore it.

- Wonderful.

- We hope to restore it.

Thank you for all the information about it.

It was a very informative and just what we wanted to hear.

- Certainly, so glad you brought it in.

- Thank you.

(upbeat music) So I looked over at the expert table next to me and I saw this blanket folded up on top of the cart.

Now, did you bring this in for us to look at or tell me, tell me about it.

- I brought this in as protection for another item.

- Okay.

So it was really a packing blanket?

- Yes.

- Well, you brought in a pretty neat packing blanket, I must say.

So what this is known as is a Hudson Bay blanket or a Hudson Bay Point blanket.

Now, starting in, I think was 1770, 79, the Hudson Bay Company used these blankets and this style of blanket to trade with the Indians for beaver pelts.

They still make them today.

What's unique about this one is this one's early.

Most of the ones that you see in the marketplace, they're much brighter.

They're also much thicker.

And you can't see the salvage work.

You actually can see the linear pattern through.

The newer ones are thick, furry.

Can't see it.

So immediately I saw the coloration was lighter and I saw the way it was done.

I thought, wow, this is the earliest one that I've seen.

Now, when you see these blankets in the marketplace, nine times out of ten, they're from the 1940s to today.

I think this one is probably from the early 20th century.

I'm basing that on the way it's made.

And also they had a system of putting lines on these blankets.

It's a bit of a misnomer in that people thought that was for beaver pelts.

So I'm going to step back and take a look.

So you have three and a half.

For a long time, people always attributed that to three and a half beaver pelts.

Sounds good.

But unfortunately, it's not the case.

What this represented was the size of the blanket.

So you could have two and a half.

Three and a half.

Four.

So it would have been kind of like a king, queen, single.

So that's what that is.

So I've heard the story about the beaver pelts all the time.

Now, what's neat about this one and makes it earlier is if you look closely, this is actually woven on top of the blanket.

It's not within the weave.

The ones that are made today, they're all within the weave.

So that puts this at the early period.

So I think it's early 20th century.

Now, these are in the marketplace, the later ones, all over the board, from $300 to sometimes 600.

I think this one being earlier, now we've got a little bit of a condition.

We've lost the border along the bottom.

And you asked, Should I replace it?

I say no.

Enjoy the blanket.

Keep using it.

Super warm, right?

- Yes.

- Yeah.

So I think value wise, it's in pretty good condition.

They usually get eaten up by moths if you're not careful, because this is 100% wool.

I'm going to put it conservatively in the $600 - $800 range.

So not a bad packing blanket to bring.

- No.

- Right.

And you were going to bring another blanket, weren't you?

- I was going to use another blanket as packing.

- But decided to use this.

- Yes.

- Well, I'm really happy that you brought it.

- I am too.

- It's a cool Hudson Bay blanket and a really early one.

So thanks for bringing it.

- Well, thank you.

- In the $14,000 to $16,000 range.

- 5,000 to 8,000.

- I think what you have here are four true Arkansas treasures.

- Wow.

This really makes you want to see what you have around your house that could be worth a small fortune.

You'll never know unless you find out.

Maybe you'll be on the next episode of Arkansas Treasures.

See you next time.

- Would we ever part with them?

Absolutely not.

They're going to say our family.

But we do think we got some aunts mad at us because they were supposed to have one of these each, and somehow our mom ended up with all four of them.

So she's in a little bit of trouble.

Sorry, Mom.

- I brought my grandmother's cameo ring.

I knew it was over 100 years old.

It was given to her by a boyfriend.

He was in competition with his brother who was dating her sister.

The brother bought the sister a cameo ring, so my grandmother's boyfriend had to do one better and get one for her too.

And it's worth $350.

- The most eye catching thing that I saw at the show was the large bronze hand.

But the most impactful thing was a child's chair made by an enslaved African-American.

And powerful to be able to speak to that.

- Major funding for Arkansas Treasures was provided by the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council.

And the Susan Howarth Fund at the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay.

Additional funding provided by Annette and Phil Harrington, the Arkansas PBS Local Production Fund.

And by viewers like you.