Welcome to the Mississippi Antique Showcase, where our expert appraisers take a closer look at your rare finds, family heirlooms and quirky collectibles.

We'll uncover the stories behind these unique treasures, and of course, find out what they might be worth.

Alright.

I'm here in Oxford, Mississippi with Bonnie from Bay St.

Louis.

Yes.

Bonnie, what'd you bring us?

This is a book, quite an old one.

It was printed in 1651.

It's written by a very famous man, Thomas Hobbes.

The name of the book is also quite famous.

It is Leviathan.

It's one of the very first books ever written on political history.

And it is a first edition, as you can see, not only by the date, but by the fact that on the following page, this icon, which is called the Head, is only found on the first edition.

It came from my husband's mother and we have no idea where it was before that.

Okay.

How long have you owned it?

20 years.

20 years.

This is, you're right on the money about all this stuff.

This one has additional writing in the margins here.

Yes.

Um, and is in fairly good shape.

So we see these of all conditions.

The bindings on the back look pretty good.

The pages are pretty good.

There is some pages that are taped, correct.

Mm-hmm.

Um, but otherwise it's in great shape.

Do you have any thoughts on the value?

I have had it appraised one time.

Uh, the appraiser said that the notes in the margins actually diminished the value a bit.

Mm-hmm.

And, uh, she gave it a value of 11,000.

Okay.

And how long ago was that?

About 20 years ago.

20 years ago.

Okay.

Well, the value's gone up a little bit.

So that's the good news.

Um, today at auction, you're looking anywhere in the $15 to $25,000 range.

Oh, nice.

So that's what we'd expect to bring at auction.

And the original appraisal you got was, she was correct.

You know, it does diminish the value a little bit.

Mm-hmm.

But still, the condition is everything with these, and the condition of this one is excellent.

Thank you so much for bringing it in.

We love to see stuff like that.

The history is fantastic.

And, you know, 1651, man, is this an old book.

375 years.

That's it.

Old.

Thanks again.

Well, Margaret, what did you bring us today?

I brought this purse that was my great aunt's from probably the twenties era, I would say.

Yeah.

She had several things in their home when she died that came from that era, uh, including, you know, a flapper hat and other accessories.

But I always thought this was so pretty.

And the bottom All beaded.

All beaded.

Mm-hmm.

And the Top and the top is decorated and has a mirror.

Uhhuh has a mirror.

Inside.

Yeah.

This is typical of that flapper period.

Mm-hmm.

And you were telling me earlier that, that she was never married.

She never married.

Her and her brother ended up staying in the old family home.

But she loved to dress up the flapper Stuff.

Ah, pretty much think so.

And had the cigarette with a long filter On it.

Yes.

Yeah.

I could see her now and probably had a little glass of bourbon in the afternoon.

Bourbon or Yeah.

Wine or something.

Yeah.

But that was just, But apparently when she, in her younger days, I didn't know her until, you know, she was elderly.

Uh, but she had quite a bit of nice, you know, merchandise from that area.

But, you know, when I do an auction, uh, occasionally I get a purse collection.

Someone has collected all their life and I, I get the whole collection and I, I just first think, what am I gonna do with that?

And then we put it out there worldwide.

And it's amazing how many people collect those things.

I mean, they, they, they love them.

They, they, they still buy 'em and collect them.

When one collector sells out, other people come and get 'em and put 'em in their collection.

Yeah.

I have this hanging on a knob on my wardrobe, just 'cause I, I love to see it.

Well, that's great.

And that's a, it's, it's a good one.

And I don't see anything, uh, at all wrong with it.

It all works like it's supposed to.

Mm-hmm.

I can see her going out to parties with it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I, I, after you're telling me all you've told me about her, I, I can see her too.

Yeah.

Uh, but like these, when we sell 'em at auction, this one would probably be running $600 to $800.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Okay.

'cause it's, it's actually functional and, uh, everything snaps up.

Right.

And, and you could, uh, if you wanted to, you could polish it up a little bit on the brass part and it Yeah.

I was kind of scared too.

I've heard, you know, sometimes when you start cleaning antique that it can diminish the value.

Yeah.

Well, I don't, if you were going to use it, uh, take it out or party or something with it around your wrist, maybe if you had it today at the Kentucky Derby, you'd Oh, that'd be in style.

That's, yeah.

But thank you so much.

Thank you.

Well today we are really excited to feature this charming 1850s needlework tapestry.

And it's attributed to Draper, a French itinerant, uh, artist known really for his detailed, historically rich textile works.

He's known for antique needlework designs, and really he's admired for his interest craftsmanship and really historical depth.

Um, he originated in the 19th century, his works often displayed really ornate, uh, floral or geometric patterns.

It, it kind of showcases the artistic styles of, of that time.

Um, while drape Draper may not be very, uh, household name, if you would say Now his signed needlework pieces are still, they really do reflect the care, the scale of the craft of the, of the middle of 19th century.

Yeah.

So I had some time to actually examine, because anytime we tried to value a piece or appraise a piece, we want to see condition.

And so, um, we look at condition for age, we look for it and see if it's the original frame.

Our fortunate has that had an opportunity, as you brought it up here to look at the backing, it does appear to have at at least the near time period, or at least slightly thereafter.

The frame itself was probably once a little lighter guilt than this.

As you can see, it's almost got a copper quality towards the Victorian era of the period.

Uh, the, the later 19th century, they started to go darker in gold.

So the frames in fairly good condition.

We do have some cracks, and I think you had a story Exactly.

It actually fell from one of the chains that you had, uh, got acquired from.

So we've got a condition here with the glass, and you can see here at the very bottom where the Draper signature is.

And 1850, that's always good because you don't see a lot of signed needle work pair.

So that's what makes and helps this value, obviously.

But you also see deterioration of this needle point in most of the corners.

And likely you would see it along the top.

But overall in that, the frame is early and it is either to that middle point, what we call civil war era, 1860s to the 1900 frame.

So how exactly did you come across and acquire it?

This, my great uncle Louis Nash, whom I was named after, he had it in his home in the countryside of Kentucky, outside of Lexington, uh, between Lexington and Paducah.

He doesn't know how he or his family acquired it, of course, being named after him.

He, he gave it to me and it's been hanging on my bedroom wall ever since it worth to me, uh, his name is spelled L -O-U-I-S and so is mine.

And, and people go, what are you going to do if it's worth a lot?

And I go, I'm gonna hang it back on the bedroom wall.

I, you know, There's a deeper connection than just monetary value to me.

Oh, yeah.

So that makes sense.

It's, it's, uh, uncle Louis Nash.

He and I were good buddies, you know, they good pictures of me and him together, and yeah, he, he was just a good, good man.

And well, That, that's great.

I will say, based on the, the market value for signed 19th century European needle work or French needle work, we have kind of come up with an estimated value of somewhere between $400 and $500.

So it's not like it's, it's crazy amount, but I think it's a, it's still a decent amount Yeah.

For a really historically interesting, uh, piece.

And I think the market for the decorative needle work tends to be, you know, specialized.

And so it's more modestly priced than probably other things of the mid 19th century.

So I think, you know, we focus on a piece like this on more of the craftsmanship and the story, rather than, oh, we brought in a windfall that I didn't know.

But still, it is really a great piece.

We appreciate you for bringing and Thank you so much.

I hope, thanks for the information.

We are here this afternoon with an interesting couple from Booneville, Mississippi.

Ed and Wanda McCoy.

So good to have y'all with us.

I appreciate your being here, and you certainly have contributed what most unusual piece to this year's appraisal, please.

Mm-hmm.

So anyway, we're so glad to have you.

And first of all, I'd like to say Wanda, how, what do you know about this?

Tell us something about it.

Well, I was thinking it was from a tribal descent, but I'm not for certain what a tribal it is.

It's, I thought it was from Africa, maybe.

Mm-hmm.

But I would like to know more about it Uhhuh, And tell me where you got it.

Um, my husband and I were in New Albany, uh, thrift store.

Antique store.

Yeah.

And he, I saw it and I loved it.

And he bought it for $50.

$50.

Wow.

I think you probably got a great deal.

Okay.

It's very whimsical in a lot of ways.

I think it is a child's chair.

Although at the same time, this could actually be a low table the way that it is, it's made.

Um, I, I see some, I definitely think it's primitive.

Of course.

I think it is a, a piece of folk art wherever it did come from.

I agree with you 100%.

I think it is as from Africa.

And I think it is a tribal, tribal piece.

And I think it's intentionally unfinished to, because it is a primitive piece.

If you look at this from a different angle, you will see that it's hand plain and it's not all smooth and underneath.

I looked at it underneath too.

And it's the same thing.

So it is very primitively created.

Mm-hmm.

You know, I think the value of it would be much more enhanced if we knew if it, if it were signed and we really knew exactly where it's from.

But, you know, it's kind of fun to make up your own story.

That's right.

And so, uh, I think you got a heck of a deal on it for sure.

I know that it is early, um, because of how it's put together.

And you can see the different places right here where it has been put together.

Um, I, I would say it's probably in the, uh, late 1800s.

Probably mid to late 1800s.

I love the fact that you have these carved out, um, arrows on the crest right here.

This is the crest.

And then where you have it at the, at the feet of it as well.

And I like the way they continued that, that motif on both pieces of it, you know?

Um, and, and I think that could be religious pointing, you know, to the heavens for whatever that meant to these people.

You know.

Um, I also see something that interests me too is these circles right here.

And I, I think back over Lion King, the circle of life, the song.

And, um, I think this says a lot more than what we necessarily just see by sight.

What I would, I would say, um, since we don't know its origin Totally.

And we, it isn't signed and everything, uh, I would, I would say that it's, I would appraise this at $500.

So you kind of did real well with your, with your purchase.

And we appreciate y'all coming and, um, just sharing all of this with us.

'cause this certainly is a, a highlight piece.

It, it's most unusual.

Well, thank you so much.

Congratulations on a good piece.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Yes, yes, sir.

Hey, Marlena, glad to have you with us today.

Thank You.

Yeah.

You brought, uh, brought some books with you today.

Yeah.

Where did you find these?

At?

A antique shop on a bookshelf.

Yeah.

Do you pay a lot of money for 'em?

No, I paid, I believe $15 for that one and $10 for this one.

Have you had 'em very long?

Um, probably going on about 15 years.

I, I noticed you have some, some like posting notes in here.

Yes.

I've done a lot of research and looking at these books, Um, that he was a lawyer and that he kinda started the town, or was one of the first ones of that town.

Started the town.

And was that here in Mississippi?

No, that was in Ohio.

In Ohio.

Bloomfield is, I believe that's correct.

And that he was trying to get the postmaster and everything else.

Right.

When I googled him, it did say that he was worked in the state or higher up.

Oh, okay.

And it also said something about medicine.

Okay.

Like where he, and it does talk about him talking to doctors in there.

Oh, okay.

So he may have been, had some kind of an ailment or he might have worked in medicine.

Some, yeah, I could have.

Um, oh, captain Bob from what I could see, and that's this book.

He was a, uh, a corps of engineer boat, I guess a captain probably.

And the boat he worked on was a quarter boat, which is about a quarter of the size, maybe of a regular steamboat.

Okay.

And they use those boats, uh, to dredge and clear and work on rivers like the Yazoo, uh, here in Mississippi.

This, uh, ledger was from, I think it started in 1902.

Yes.

And the page we're open to is 1904 in December.

And he kept a record of what his crew and his boat did on a daily basis.

Uh, they were pulling logs from the Yazoo River, and that day they were moving goods from Greenwood down to, uh, Vicksburg on the Yazoo.

And they had to keep it open as well as passengers.

You know, I would say that book right there is, I never saw anything like it.

And it really tells you a lot about the history of that river in that time period and the, uh, the work that the US Corps of Engineers was doing.

Mm-hmm.

To try to, uh, maintain a good, uh, channel where boats could travel north and south on the river.

Um, I think it'd be fun to read the whole thing, but Yeah.

You know, it's, it's hard to put a price on something like that.

Um, I think if it, you know, if it sold on the internet in New York, I think it would end up back in Mississippi Uhhuh, because somebody probably in Yazoo or Greenwood or Vicksburg would want to bring this book, you know, back home.

And yeah, it'd probably end up at a museum, uh, somewhere here.

But I think that book would bring somewhere between probably $300 and $500.

Okay.

And, and it could go higher.

It just, it's hard to know who would be bidden.

Right.

Um, uh, this other book is similar to this one, uh, I think as far as, um, price goes, because it tells about the early formation of that town and all the work they had to do to, to try to get their little town going.

You know, I think it's like that when it's probably in that $300 to $500 range.

We really appreciate you bringing them in today.

Thank you.

And, uh, they're two, uh, great books that you never see.

Thank you so much.

Well, thank you.

Thank you for coming.

This is, I think is an interesting question too.

Um, what would be your holy grail item that if you could just have it in something that you appraise, what would yours be?

That's a tough one.

It is, um, for me, I'll tell you, and I, I think it, because I'm so conscious of William Faulkner right now because we are here in, in Oxford, but William Faulkner, the very first thing that he ever wrote was a book of poems.

And it was The Marble Faun, not to be confused with Nathaniel Hawthorne's, The Marble Faun.

And, um, Phil Stone, who lived here, was his agent, so to speak, and really good friend.

They only printed 600 copies of the book.

Okay.

And, um, Phil Stone put the rest of them up in his attic because they were just so horrible.

The home burned and all of those burned up.

And there's very, very few copies of it.

There's a copy at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Yay.

And then there's also a copy in Aberdeen's Public Library.

Then that's the only ones I know, except that my godparents had a copy of it, and it was stolen during the pilgrimage back in the 1960s.

Um, but the thing is, that book is worth thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars.

So that would be my holy grail is to, to find one of those.

And the beautiful items just keep on coming.

These are from Belmont Trap who lives in Taylor, Mississippi.

That's right.

They are beautiful.

So tell us about 'em Belmont.

These are Japanese porcelain enamel bases from the late 1800s.

I learned today.

I thought they were Chinese, but they're Japanese and very detailed gold plated, which was evidently very popular back in the day in the eight 1880s in Japan from the Maji Empire.

Evidently they produced a lot of this according to the appraiser.

So they were pretty common in that era, and so they made a lot of 'em.

So they're not quite as valuable as I would've wanted them.

But, um, they still, they say brought between $600 and $800.

Now you got 'em from your, did you say great aunt?

I guess My great aunt who received them from Kate Freeman Clark, who is a famous plain heir painter from the 1920s.

And her uncle married my great aunt, so they were first cousins.

And so that's how I got 'em.

And she was from Holly Springs, which is not very far from here.

And as a young girl, she went to a Chicago World's Fair, which is maybe where she got these Really.

Now would that have been the World's Fair, like around the turn of the century?

Is that the one?

It was In 1893, Right?

Yeah.

That's the, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Well, hello Shane, thank you so much for coming to the Mississippi antique showcase.

Glad to have you.

I think today we have something really special here, and I, I think you would agree, it's a, a, a letter, essentially a, a signed photograph sent in a letter from the legendary comedic duo, Laurel and Hardy, or Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

It was sent on March 31st, 1952.

Uh, it was addressed directly to someone by name.

So it's to a specific person, Zeno, and we'll talk about her in a little bit.

Um, this isn't just a fan souvenir or, you know, those generic postcards that they kind of sent out or printed postcard.

Um, this is a real thing.

It's authentic.

It signed, it's a piece of Hollywood history from probably two of the most beloved names in film comedy.

So we are super pumped that you brought it in.

I think for the audience, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, I think they may be familiar depending on their age.

Mm-hmm.

But they were international stars by the 1920s and thirties.

Really.

They were entertaining audiences worldwide, uh, with their slapstick routines and character impersonations.

Um, and, and much adored characters really, even by 1952 when this postcard was sent, they were still drawing huge audiences all over, especially in Europe, uh, where they were on tour when they sent this, uh, letter and or photograph.

Uh, what jumps out to me immediately is that it isn't just, like I said, more postcard.

It is personally signed an address.

And that kind of puts this in a different category, uh, from mass produced mail.

And so when I see names, dates, signatures, a little history that, that this person attended one of their shows, it tells me right away that there's something more rare, um, and more valuable here, uh, to us.

So Cory, why don't you take it over and talk about some?

Sure.

So when we have, uh, pieces of what we call non-traditional fan mail, which is obviously what this was, we have, um, look at condition issues 'cause that's gonna really impact the value.

So we look things like scratches, tears, any foxing.

And those really, um, when you're trying to appraise a piece like this, those matter for things.

One thing I do see is we have the original envelope, which is always nice, is Jayce noted.

We can see some of the things like the stamp, the postmark, the date, exactly who it was sent to, and they even had a customized envelope for them and had their own caricatures on that.

So that's really pleasant to see because you don't see that a lot anymore.

And then the condition of the actual card is interesting too, because they've written on both the front, they're both of their names on the bottom.

So actually, since we've kind of seen that they're in pretty good condition, except for a rip right here on the envelope, it still is a pretty good condition pair considering how old it is now.

Mm-hmm.

So actually, let's tell a little bit about if you, if you don't mind our audience, about exactly how you got this.

Um, my mother passed away a few years ago, and I, this was found among items that were packed away that had evidently belonged to my stepfather.

Um, he was in the service and was stationed in England, and that's where he met Zena, who was his first wife.

He married my mother.

Oh wow.

Many, many years later, um, after Zena had passed away and my stepfather had moved back to the United States and going through papers and, and things.

This was found.

I had never seen it before.

I think one of the great things about it is the handwritten note that he wrote on the back.

And I would really love it for you to read that for our audience and see what that says.

Well, it's dated the 31st of, um, March, 1952.

Thank you Zena, for your sweet letter and the cute picture of yourself.

It was nice of you to send it.

We hope you enjoyed the show last night and think we saw you at the finish.

Bye-Bye dear.

Love Laurel and Hardy.

I think that's a great thing because it's clear by that message that she actually sent a picture of herself.

I know, I know.

Hey, you remember me from the show.

Right?

Right.

And then they of course, uh, cutely wrote back that they thought they saw.

So I think that was a great bit of fan interaction there.

So Jace, what do we think about the value for this?

Well, Let's talk a little numbers, um, a signed personalized Laurel and Hardy postcard, like this typically carries a market value.

I would say a range of $2,500 to $5,000.

And then that's when it kind of gets into the nitty gritty condition, things that we talk to and, or, um, it's even more sometimes then this, this estimate I'm giving you, if it's tied to a special event and or is an excellent condition.

There are some, the postcard seems to be pretty well intact.

The actual photograph, the envelope, which also increases its value, does have those condition issues that Corey mentioned, but it's far more, this $2,500 to $5,000 is far more than this mass produced prices.

'cause this one carries that direct touch from these cultural legends in Hollywood legends.

And so for interest purpose, you'd want to probably, you know, value it at least $5,000.

Okay.

Wow.

Is that what you were expecting?

That's amazing.

No, I had, I mean, I really had no idea.

But you know, the fact to me, the envelope with an air mail stamp and just everything about it, I, I, I just think is amazing.

I think this is the most unique thing we've seen today.

So thank you so much for bringing in.

Oh, You're, you're welcome.

Thank you.

Join us next time on Mississippi Antique Showcase.

Find out if you've got a hidden treasure tucked away in your closet.