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.

Ms.

Jones, you want to tell us a little bit of what's going on here?

Well, yes, in this particular photo, and it is a photo, Muhammad Ali has just knocked out Sonny Liston.

And of course, he's, you know, Muhammad Ali was very boisterous and a real strong talker and everything.

And so that was a big thing.

And so this is like within the first, at the very beginning of the first round.

Okay, and so this was a great picture of him, of his first knockout and everything.

- And then he fought him again and knocked him out again, but even quicker.

- But even quicker, yes he did.

So it's a beautiful picture, my husband loves it.

It hanged in the hallways of our condo in Alaska, and now it's hanging in the hallway of my house in Mississippi.

And your husband?

My husband passed on in 2007.

Okay, but he was a big sports fan.

Oh, he was a sports fanatic.

Why were you living in Alaska?

I was recruited, I was in education, I'm still in education.

Okay.

And so I worked in Alaska for, what, 20, at least 20 years, 21 years.

Your husband was the sports fanatic, as you describe him.

Yeah, he played baseball.

But do you, do you like sports?

I like it if I have a buy-in like I like it when I have a player that I'm rooting for, or if it's the Kansas City Chiefs that I'm rooting for.

Oh, okay.

You have a team.

If I, you know, something like that.

If I have a team or if my husband was alive, then I'd be rooting for the Raiders.

Okay.

Because he was a die-hard Raiders fan.

Sports memorabilia right now is crazy.

It's doing a lot of crazy numbers at auction.

This, I believe, is right up there at the top with it.

It's signed by him.

And I believe this is $4,000 to $4,500.

Get out of here.

Today, in today's market.

Oh, really?

I ran back across some that's recently sold, and this is right at the top of all those.

So what did you pay for?

What did he pay for, do you think?

Well, it was, I want to say between seven and eight hundred dollars.

But that's the crazy thing about sports memorabilia now.

Of course, he's gone.

Yes.

And so, And all those greats.

Now everybody likes those rookie cards and those first knockouts and all that.

This is a great photograph.

And this one I hang on to because it's going to increase in value as well.

Oh, okay.

And we do thank you for bringing it by and sharing it with us today.

All right.

I'm with Ray from Madison, Mississippi, here today.

And Ray has brought us this oil painting, which is kind of wild.

Ray, tell us what you brought us.

Well, my great aunt had this painting at her house and she gave it to my mother.

and I try to establish some time on it, but I know it's over 100 years old, but from there I have no idea past her if it was in the family before that.

Okay, well great.

Now I noticed some things about it, some maybe damage, some stuff here.

Tell me what you know about the condition.

Well, when my mother got it, I was 15 years old, and it had been damaged and it had some hash marks in it and streaks, and in looking at the painting very closely, you can see where all the damage had occurred.

My mother asked me if I would be able to restore this.

I was somewhat artistic and had been in school as well.

So she said, "What I found out is we need to glue a canvas to the back of it the same size."

So I was big into model airplanes at the time and I had some model airplane glue and I don't know whether I used model airplane glue or Elmer's glue, But I glued it to the back of it and then painted and filled in all the white area of the new canvas that was on the back of it, painted it all back in.

And then the other thing she was told, I needed to put a coat of linseed oil on it.

Okay.

So after drying and drying, Kovu and Lindsay do it.

Right.

Do you know about the artist or anything?

I know nothing at all about the artist.

I've looked all over the painting to try to find a artist script or, you know, handwriting and right autograph or whatever.

And nothing.

I can't find anything.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, so this is a copy of a more famous piece.

Now there's been conflicting information about what I could find and it's who the original artist was of this very specific one.

Now, it's in the manner of a couple other artists, but it is definitely out there.

So what we know is that this exact image has shown up at auction.

We can find it in a couple of museums.

We can find similar works to this in museums.

We can find similar work showing up at auction.

So this is not a one-off original piece.

Do you have an idea of value?

I have no idea of value.

It's probably not worth a whole lot.

It's just something that has been in the family.

And I did do the work on it, from the painting to the restoration.

So it's kind of like it's a-- to me, it's a family heirloom.

Right, well, it's a great story.

The story you fix in this thing is hanging in the house and being in the family is fantastic.

Now these copies that have shown up that are almost identical, very similar, that show up at auction, they're in the $300 to $500 range.

Now in today's market, if this were perfect as a very good old copy, at our auction house we would say we're in the $400 to $600 range.

in the condition it's in, we're gonna be lower than that.

So we're gonna be in the couple hundred dollar range.

- The frame is probably worth more than the painting.

- The frame and the painting together are probably worth in the $200-ish range.

But it's more about the story and it's your handiwork.

I mean, you almost painted it.

You did so much work to it that you've gotta be 50% of the artist.

- Oh, wow.

And I was 15.

- And you were 15.

- When I did all that, so.

I love to see it.

I love the history.

The story was fantastic.

Thank you so much for bringing it down.

Oh, you're welcome.

It's really a very pretty picture too.

Oh yeah, it's attractive.

That's why you see this image showing up all over.

But again, thanks so much for bringing it down.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Germaine, who do you have with you now?

Germaine Flood with Mississippi Public Broadcasting.

We are here in beautiful downtown Leland.

Of course, it's the birthplace of Kermit the Frog, but it's also the birthplace of a beautiful downtown revitalization with a shop that sits right in the heart of Landyack Gifts right here in downtown Leland, Mississippi.

And I am in with the owners of Landyack Gifts.

It's Sherry Smythe and her daughter, Sarah Smythe.

Sherry and Sarah, thank you so much for letting us come in and just having a piece of this whole like downtown revitalization and this beautiful lanyard gifts.

I've got to know too, especially with y'all being from Leland, Mississippi, what has this revitalization looked like and meant to you?

It's been wonderful.

And it's meant the world.

It's the most thing satisfying thing I've ever done.

I'm getting pretty old, so I'm really excited about it.

When we started, there weren't many cars in downtown Leland.

It was like a lot of our towns are in the Delta-Prom Lane.

And since we started the revitalization, I mean, the parking spaces are all full, and people are coming from out of town, and it's just been a great day.

Tell me about the birth of Landyat.

When it comes down to you and your daughter Sarah getting together and literally birthing this in downtown Leland during the revitalization, what made you want to choose this spot?

Well, we wanted to choose this spot because it was in really, really bad shape.

And so we felt like this would be a good start on this block.

And it was a family, it was a whole family decision.

We just talked about it and said, you know, this is something we can make a difference in our town.

Established in 2024, right?

I've got the year right?

In this building, we opened in 2024, and this space has been around for 35 years, but the building itself was from 1914.

So we have saved her.

I know it, and I love that.

With so many people literally leaving small towns, what is going to keep you all here?

What do you want people to know about Little Mississippi and why you all stay here?

It's a beautiful town.

The community is wonderful.

The people are so welcoming.

All the stores are so excited for the revival.

Well, Sherry and Sarah, I've had a great time here with you all at Lanyard Gifts here in Leland, Mississippi.

Germaine Flood with Mississippi Public Broadcasting at Lanyard Gifts, none other than downtown Leland, Mississippi.

Thank you, Germaine.

Now let's get back to the showcase.

Well, thanks for being here at the Antiques Showcase in the Mississippi Delta.

Tell us a little bit about what you brought in.

Well, my mother told me this, that her mother was a bookkeeper at a floral shop in Greenville.

And around 1920, the family that owned the shop gave this to my grandmother, which she has handed down to my mother.

Well, great.

Do you all use these in your family?

I just saw them Easter for the first time ever.

She keeps them hidden.

She doesn't let anyone play with the good stuff, right?

Well, really what you have here is Ridgeway Blue Transware Table Articles, and these are English.

And I think you're going to see even more probably just general collector value because of the turkeys, because they're associated with holiday traditions.

But you would see these are probably late 19th century, so 1880 to 1890 is probably pretty accurate.

I want to flip one of the plates over because it's easier than the actual platter and the plate.

And so that the audience can see, there's actually a Ridgeways insignia and England platter with a number mark for production.

And so obviously that's a good clue about what these are and the manufacturing origins.

But anyway, you do have a set of one platter and one plate.

I think what we like to look at these two as far as value is the condition.

Whether we have, there's crazing throughout in which we do have.

You can see at some places there are, we have some staining, what we call iron spotting as well.

And you just have overall in these types of everyday wear.

I still think these are good on a set of English transfer wear.

I don't think the turkey pattern is rare to push this up, the type of pattern.

But I do think you're going to get a little more value just because it is, like I said, associated with holiday.

So the question always is value.

What do you have in mind?

I have no idea.

Well, I really think the plates, I know you said there may be 12 of them.

I think a good value is $15 to $30 per plate.

So I haven't pulled up the math yet, but the platter itself probably would carry more based on the large, I'd say $100, $150.

The plate may be a more conservative estimate, but I think if you put the whole set together with 10, 12 plates, maybe you're looking at somewhere in the $600, $800 range.

But because I'm in the auction business and that's how a lot of people acquire their things, I think that's a pretty fair assessment.

But I think this is a pretty pattern.

I think this is a great example of transfer ware.

I think she'll be happy with it.

I think so too.

Well, thank you very much for bringing them in.

Thank you.

♪♪ Well, hey, we're here with Janice Bush.

Yes.

And we're going to be looking at a ring.

So Janice Bush, where are you from?

I'm from Shaw, Mississippi.

It's about 30 miles from down the road.

30 miles down the road.

That's what I'm talking about.

Sixty one highway.

That's how we know we're from Mississippi.

Well, so Janice has brought this ring.

She brought this ring that you found in your... In my Mama Jerry.

It's my mama's jewelry.

You know, after my mom passed, she left me her jewelry box.

And I saw this ring and it was kind of unusual.

So I wanted to get it appraised and look at it.

Well, we did some looking at it earlier and we kind of found out some information on it.

It is, we know it's 14 karat gold.

Right.

We know that.

We know that whoever had it had it in grade in 1993.

So we don't know if that was a engagement or what it was.

That's correct.

But we know it has the date 1993.

But there's, so when you look at gold values and you look at different values on that, then we, it's 14 karat gold.

We found that it's worth around two or three hundred dollars in gold value.

But what we did, we found out some more information.

And as we started looking on the ring, it has some, if you look really close, in the little circles with a circle with a line, we found out that to be a certain brand and a certain name, and so which increases the value a little bit.

And so instead of it being just the gold value that we thought, that's what we're looking at, we're looking at a value of this ring as being a Cartier because of the symbols on it.

We're assuming that's Cartier by the symbols.

Right.

And with the symbols on there, that ring is worth around $1,200 instead of $300 just in gold prices.

So it's got a little more value because it being the Cartier with the symbols on it.

So we're going to assume that being the symbols for Cartier that it would be Cartier.

Wow.

So we're looking to be around $1,200 in that value of Cartier.

And I'm glad to know that.

That's good, isn't it?

But worst case, you know you got gold value.

We're excited.

We're excited it's got a little value.

We're so glad you're on the show.

And so glad we were able to appraise this piece from you.

Ok.

Thank you.

You're very welcome.

We're here with Lincoln from Greenville, MS., in Stoneville, MS.

In the Delta.

where we're just seeing great items all day today.

What did you bring us, Lincoln?

Well, it's a 270 that my father bought, and Al Beeson made a lot of custom guns.

So we see a lot of rifles, but this rifle, this 270, was custom made by Al Beeson, right?

Al Beeson, for those that don't know out there, Al Beeson is one of the most well-renowned gun makers, rifle makers out there for custom work, right?

They began making weapons and guns specifically in the 1940s and then in about the 1970s his son Roger joined the firm and Roger started making guns.

Now it's going to a third generation and so a young lady has taken over the firm and they're still producing firearms.

And so as you mentioned, who is this made for?

This was made for John Jobson, right?

And John Jobson, as according to this plaque right here, was the editor of Field and Stream in 1978, right?

And so it would tell us that 1978 it could have been Roger making the gun, It could have also been Al, but it was the same workshop, the same manufacturer coming out.

And we really see the quality here, the workmanship in the wood, top of the line, in such a Belgian-made barrel, and then everything else on it, we assume, would be made directly in the Beeson workshop.

Show us a little bit about the detail on the underside, if you would.

Can you just... Well, you know, it's got his name, a little plaque here, John Jobson right there.

Yeah, there you go.

And then let's flip it to the other side.

And I'm just going to do it like this so that we can see the other side of the gun.

And I'm just going to hold it for a second.

So we've got the serial numbers here, the scope.

How long have you had this?

Well, dad bought it in '78.

I don't know what year it is, but we've had it since then.

Since '78.

And then you have any thoughts of value?

Have you ever had it appraised before?

No, sir.

I don't have any idea.

No idea?

No idea.

On the market right now, because of the maker, because of the provenance, you know, we talk about provenance all the time being very important.

And the provenance for this is spot on.

It's got the plaque, it's got his name on it and everything.

And the current market, I think we're looking at an auction estimate of four to $6,000.

So who would have thought, would you still hunt with it at four to $6,000?

Oh, I definitely will.

Yeah, it's a remarkable story.

It is a fantastic weapon.

And again, the provenance is kind of all of it.

And the fact that it was on the hunts and who John Jobson was just make it a superb example.

And it's still in excellent condition.

It's got some scratches, but otherwise, great shape.

- Well, I sure appreciate it.

- Thank you for bringing it down.

We love to see stuff like this and the things that are turning up when we're in the Delta are just amazing, you know, and this is one of the treasures that we've found.

So thanks again.

Thanks again.

Germaine, who do you have with you now?

Still here in beautiful downtown Leland.

I am on a tour now though, and this is a beautiful tour.

I'm still here with Sarah Smythe.

She is one of the owners of Landyat Gifts, and we've just walked down the block a little bit, and what we've seen as we've walked down the block is definitely, I would call it a look at the past and a look towards the future.

- Well, you're exactly right.

A lot of the buildings that we purchased were in the state like this one behind us.

They were truly in disrepair.

Everybody said they should be bulldozed and just torn down.

And what I saw was a beautiful facade and potential.

So we took our building down to dirt and up to the sky.

And in many instances, we did the same with other buildings.

It just takes a lot of love and attention to detail to bring them back to their former glory.

So many of the buildings that we found had tons of damage, you know, no roof, no floor, broken windows, and a lot of care and attention had to go into that to save them.

The process looks like it is extensive when you're taking a building like this.

And I mean, I certainly commend you because you all did it with land yacht gifts.

But when I walked in here, you definitely do see ceilings falling and you see things like that.

And when I looked across the street, I mean, to start from the process from the ground up, sometimes you have to blow this whole wall out.

Did it ever feel daunting to you or was that that goal always on the horizon keeping you I could always see the end and know what we would get to in the process.

And it was a family affair and an undertaking.

My brother was my contractor.

We were all very involved.

And, you know, I think that's what made it fun as well.

And to save these buildings and put something back that was meaningful and had something to show as opposed to just bulldozing them down and coming back with a metal building as so many people do.

Let me know exactly where we're standing in front of.

We're right in front of the next chapter.

It is exactly that.

It is Leland's first bookstore and they're the next chapter of our town.

Another business that we have developed and they plan to be here for the long haul and we're so lucky to have them.

And then if we continue down the street, you'll find a Pilates studio, a yoga studio.

- So when we were developing this block, I wanted things that I wanted to have in my life.

We wanted reason for our children, grandchildren to come back here and enjoy this community.

And Leland's also a pretty small town and it's a manageable problem.

So it's not a huge population and our town has been so supportive of that.

So we feel like we've made a huge impact in a short amount of time and we're really excited to continue that moving forward.

I mean it's such a great town and I just thank you so much Sarah for showing me around.

Oh thank you for coming and exploring with us today.

Yes.

Thank you Germaine.

Now let's get back to the showcase.

We're in Stoneville, Mississippi at the heart of the Delta right now and we're with Sami who has brought us something amazing and it's so amazing Sami that I brought Dwight Stevens with me to help me check this out.

Perfect, yeah this is actually a friend of mine's that they just couldn't make it today so I just wanted to bring it and show off how amazing it actually is.

Dwight, what do we have here?

Every piece of it is signed Tiffany.

It comes in a fitted Tiffany box, service for 12.

Every serving piece you could ever dream you'd need.

There's 348 pieces.

It takes two men to walk with it and to handle, so I don't know exactly the weight of it.

And we're looking at the Winthrop pattern, right?

That's the Winthrop pattern.

And it's a fitted box.

Every piece of it was bought at Tiffany's and it's incredible.

I don't know how you could get any better than this.

Through the years, I've sold some big sets and they've wound up in some wonderful homes.

And but this is probably one of the most complete sets ever.

It's fitted and all kinds of beautiful things in it.

What would be your guess?

For pricing?

Yeah.

Man, well that's, you know, it's a tough one.

I know of one similar set in New Orleans and you're talking about the fitted case made for every single piece so it's a custom fitted case it's Tiffany and Company which is you know the one of the top makers of sterling the price of sterling these days it's going up and up and up and so this might be worth more tomorrow than it was today but that's set what do you think a good auction estimate would be on this way?

I think it'd have to be at least 50 to 65,000.

50 to 65,000, I agree.

I think we're right on.

We've got gold washed here, so that's the process of putting gold over the silver.

You know, the Tiffany & Company maker right there.

This is fantastic.

Is that what you thought of for pricing?

I didn't know what to expect but that is probably more than what she was expecting.

Well that's fantastic and we rarely get to see things like this.

That's right, this is, when I saw it over there I said we've got to get this on the show because you won't see a better set than this and there weren't many of them made like this.

No and a lot of them because of the price of silver even the smaller sets, they're being melted.

They're being melted down.

They're going away, but you hate to say it, but people are melting Tiffany and company stuff.

You know, it breaks your heart.

Yeah, we had a coin auction last weekend and most of those coins, gold and all, were going to be melted down.

So thanks so much for bringing it in.

This is awesome.

Thanks for your help on this.

This was a humdinger.

Oh, this is the best item I think we've had all day.

And it's one that I'm glad they got it here where we could could show it.

Yeah, there's always a highlight every time we have these shows.

And I think by far this is it.

For the silver collectors, this is the Creme de la Creme.

Perfect.

Again, thank you.

And thank you, friend, for bringing it in.

Yeah, no problem.

Thanks for having us.

Join us next time on Mississippi Antique Showcase and find out if you've got a Hidden treasure tucked away in your closet.

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