♪ ♪ GUEST: I found this pig about 25 years ago I had to have it.

To a non-folk art person, this is probably ugly as a mud fence.

(laughing): I just can't believe it!

Believe it!

(laughing) ♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: All bets are off as we return to the boardwalk to see treasures from all around the Jersey Shore.

Because I'm trying not to do house sales anymore.

I've been trying to get (chuckling): my addiction under control!

I have goosebumps, they're going up my legs, oh my gosh!

If you don't mind, I'm gonna cry!

How do you use the chair?

PEÑA: 15 years later, is it win, lose or draw for these guests and their prized possessions?

Let's find out in this look back at Atlantic City.

MAN: I found this pig about 25 years ago.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

And I found it in an antique junk shop and collectibles.

And, uh, I had to have it.

Just couldn't resist.

And what did you pay for it?

It was around $200.

$200.

Which was a lot of money for me 25 years ago.

But I thought to myself, it's really a unique object.

I had never seen anything like it.

Well, nothing is unique in our business, but... (chuckling) Unusual.

...sometimes you see something you've never seen before.

Right.

And I must say, I've never seen this before.

It's generically a-a pull toy.

Right.

Cast-iron wheels, and probably made in Germany.

Okay.

Probably made around 1895 to 1910.

Most pull toys you see from Germany are, like, horses.

Right.

They're about this big, little wooden platforms.

Right.

Sometimes a lamb; lambs are very popular.

Right.

Goats are very, very popular.

You seldom see pigs, and you seldom see platform toys this big.

Right.

So, I mean, this is really exciting.

Plus, you seldom find them so cute and so animated.

Right.

So, push him over here.

(oinks) And listen to him, and you see his mouth go.

I mean, this guy is really a little charmer.

Glass eyes, painted papier-mâché snout and teeth.

It's got this incredible action and just absolute charm.

My hunch is at auction this could easily bring $2,000 to $2,500.

Perfect.

(laughs) So...

I mean, I think he's just a winner.

Thanks for bringing him in.

Oh, thank you.

I really appreciate it.

GUEST: They are a pair of silhouettes that I bought.

I call them my girls, or my sisters, and they hang in my bedroom.

I purchased them at an antique shop in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

They're something that make me smile, and I love looking at them every day.

(chuckles) What struck me right away was their-their incredible beauty.

They probably date to around 1825 and 1830.

Okay.

And the way that we date these is by fashion.

Their hairstyle, the style of their jewelry and the style of their dress-- that's one clue.

Another clue is looking at the medium, pastel on paper, and what's interesting to me is that they're large cutwork and then laid down on another piece of paper.

If you look at this picture, it's this sort of very plain background.

And then we looked at the other picture now, which has shifted slightly in its frame to reveal some blue behind it.

And what we discovered under the backboards of the picture was that it was a complete blue sheet of paper.

Okay.

Which, all of a sudden, then a light bulb went off for me, and I said, "Wow, blue background, "cutwork, with these foil sort of embellishments on these beautiful girls"-- Ruth Henshaw Bascom, we believe, is the artist.

And she worked in this style.

She worked in New England, and these fall right within the height of the period in which she worked, in the 1820s, '30s and '40s.

Okay.

So how much did you pay for them?

I paid $150.

When I first looked at them and I thought they were American school... Mm-hmm.

...19th century, circa 1820 to 1830, and valued as such.

Mm-hmm.

If I were estimating them for auction today... Mm-hmm.

...I would say $10,000 to $15,000.

(chuckling): All right... Really?

However, with all the forensic clues that we've amassed...

Right, right.

...if we were to price them as by this artist Ruth Henshaw Bascom...

Okay.

...they would be worth double that.

(gasps) (chuckles): For $20...

I have goosebumps!

$20,000 to $30,000.

No way.

Oh, my God, ugh, I've got...

I have goosebumps, they're going up my legs.

Oh, my gosh.

(sighs) They're beautiful.

They're amazing.

I-I adore them.

GUEST: My mother-in-law was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

And she had a lot of interesting books.

My husband and I were looking through her things, and we found it in a, the kind of bag you get when you buy a card.

And she had just put it in there, I guess forgotten about it.

And I know enough about books to know that, gee, if it's old it might be rare.

And I knew enough about Walt Whitman to know that he self-published his own work.

He had some problems with copyright law.

He lived in Camden, which is where my mother-in-law's family had lived, and it's inscribed to her, I guess it's 1875, so it would be many greats-uncles.

It is Walt Whitman's memoranda of the war.

Mm-hmm.

And when you open it to the title page, you see that it is published in Camden, 1875-'76.

And he was sort of a revolutionary poet in the way of the type of poetry he was writing, But, of course, why we're really looking at the book is not the title page.

Mm-hmm.

It's this first page here.

Right.

And it's a very, very nice inscription-- "For the firemen at the house "corner of Fifth and Arch St., Camden, with best respects, W W," which, of course, is Walt Whitman.

Walt Whitman, yeah.

So, tell me about the firemen.

The firemen would have been her... I-I don't know my great-greats, but several-great-uncles.

My husband and his brother, because they were men, never really took the D.A.R.

membership or any of the antiques seriously.

And my husband's family lore was this Walt Whitman book.

And we were always told, "Well, if you ever need any money, there's always the Walt Whitman book."

(chuckles) When you get into these books, one of the things you look for is, is the gold still bright?

Can you still read it?

Are the edges worn?

There's a little tiny bit of wear, but it's in very, very fine condition.

The other thing about this book, though, is there was a remembrance edition of this.

Now, in the remembrance edition, which was the first edition, here you would have a portrait of Walt Whitman, and you would also have a little slip saying it's that edition.

So this actually is a slightly later edition of the book.

But you have the great inscription.

Now, what have you done on price?

Have you looked it up?

Well, the family lore is that it could be worth anything from $100 to $10,000.

And I did look online, and I saw another Walt Whitman memorandum of the war that was going for $8,000.

But it was a first edition, and since you now tell me it's not a first edition, I know that that makes a big difference.

The fact that it's not a first edition is a little bit of a detraction.

The fact, though, that it has a fabulous inscription... Mm-hmm.

...just adds to it.

Retail, it would be more a $10,000 to $12,000 book.

Really?

And that's even being a little bit on the conservative side.

If you don't mind, I'm going to cry.

My-my mother-in-law's been dead for a while, and I just feel like I've justified her, and I want all the men to listen, in my family to listen to this.

My mother-in-law was right.

Well, she was right.

I'm going to cry.

It's wonderful, and the inscription is what makes it.

It's a great inscription.

Mm-hmm.

And, uh, thank you for bringing it.

Oh, thank you.

If this wasn't inscribed, it might be $800, $700, $500.

Right.

Tell me, where did you get this large carpet?

A demolition sale.

This was in the attic.

So, what you have is a very, uh, colorful and decorative, uh, millefleurs carpet from the village of Kerman, which is in northern Iran.

Okay.

Okay.

This, you'll see, has a directional arch on the top.

Yes.

And that would indicate it's a prayer rug.

What did you pay for it?

$20.

(chuckles) (stammering): $20?

$20.

Would you be surprised if I told you it's worth about $3,000 today?

I... yes!

(laughs) It is.

GUEST: Well, it all started when I was eight years old.

I went to try out for the Little League, and they had a Yankee bat boy contest.

Well, girls couldn't participate, so I made up a name.

I put "Jimmy Lotsie."

So when they called my house, my mother answered the phone.

They said, "Oh, your son Jimmy just won the Yankee bat boy contest."

And my mother started to laugh.

She said, "Well, I don't have a son, Jimmy, but it's my daughter, Nancy."

So when they found out, they were like, "Wow, we've got to do this, you know, make her the honorary bat girl."

So they said to me, "Who's your favorite Yankee?"

And I said, "Oh, Mickey Mantle."

And it just so happened that Mickey Mantle came to speak to me.

APPRAISER: And obviously you, uh, two became friends.

Oh, yes, yes.

Here you are giving him a peck on the cheek.

And I had asked him, "Oh, Mickey, can you hit a run... a home run for me?"

He said, "Well, I can't promise you anything."

I said, "That's okay."

And he hit a home run, and he came over to me, he said, "Here, Nancy, here's my bat."

And then, a few weeks later, I get this autographed picture in the mail-- "To Nancy, the cutest bat boy we have ever had, Your pal, Mickey Mantle."

It's incredible.

I was so excited to see this.

This is such a wonderful story.

Yes.

This happened in 1963.

Yes.

You really can't get a better bat than this-- a home run bat, this kind of documentation.

Mm-hmm.

Here you are with the Mick, here you are in "Life" magazine.

Yes.

I think with all this backup documentation, this fantastic photo, at auction, I would expect a bat like this to go for about $35,000.

It's truly a fantastic piece.

Thank you.

One of the best pieces I've seen on this show.

Thank you!

Thank you.

Yes, I mean, my memories are awesome.

GUEST: I got it out of a storage building where I worked.

Bought this and a lawnmower.

I think it comes from Bordentown area, New Jersey.

Thought it was a really neat table.

I brought it here to see what it's worth.

When we first saw it, we thought the same thing you did, which is this is a very exotic and wonderful table.

We look at the top and you see this wonderful mother-of-pearl inlay depicting butterflies and fish and birds and flowers.

And we're accustomed to seeing things, designs like that in the Colonial Revival period at the end of the 19th century.

It's called "Aesthetic Movement," and you see how beautiful it is.

But there's a few surprises with this table.

Tell us a little bit more about your discovery.

It's a tilt-top table.

When you open it up, there's a nickel inlaid in the back.

Let's open it up and have a look at that.

There's a man's picture in there.

I have no idea who he is.

And we see a wonderful design here, and there's a, an early 1911 nickel inlaid into the, uh, center of the table.

Did you do any research on that coin or on the gentleman that's, uh, depicted?

I know if it was a 1913 nickel, it would have been worth a lot of money.

That's right.

(laughing) I...

But it isn't, it's a 1911 nickel.

Yeah.

And its value is a little less as a nickel.

But this tells us a story.

We believe this gentleman here probably was the maker.

A friend of mine told me that for anybody that had did that back when the day the nickel was made had to be a master craftsman to build this table.

We think so, too.

This is a tour de force of work.

He inlaid the edge with stone.

He inlaid the piece with a coin, probably the year he made it, 1911.

So, what this really is is a piece of folk art.

Its value is less as a piece of early-American furniture and more as an object that somebody threw their heart and soul into making.

He probably was German by origin and emigrated to America.

A lot of this construction that you see, this attention to detail, the diamond border here, the use of rosewood here in the center of the table, very rare, very elaborate.

It was meant to be seen open.

Okay.

And what did you pay for the lawnmower and for the table together?

$500.

$500.

It's probably worth, at auction, $5,000 to $8,000 today as a piece of folk art.

Okay, that's wonderful.

GUEST: I was actually on vacation in the Philippines, and I got it at an antique store in Manila.

And this is the receipt?

From this Maynila Antiques in Manila?

Mm-hmm.

And they say, "One piece, bronze water vessel with patina.

Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644.

19,000 pesos."

Pesos, right.

Philippine pesos.

Which...

Right, which is... that's about $400.

400 U.S. dollars, okay.

Yeah.

And you bought this when?

Actually in January of this year.

January.

Okay.

They said Ming Dynasty.

Right, right.

And you came up with another idea for possible dating.

Well, by looking at some photographs of others, I thought that it might be much older.

This form, and everything about it, would have nothing to do with the Ming Dynasty, okay.

Okay, good.

What it does have something to do with is the Shang Dynasty.

Wonderful.

Oh, good.

2000 B.C.

to 1600 B.C.

Wow.

And this is very faithful to Shang pieces in many ways.

Unfortunately, it was made in the early 20th century.

Okay.

It's a fake.

Yeah, I thought it might be.

Having a mark underneath the piece does not mean it's genuine.

Sure, sure.

Because they fake the mark.

Sure.

The form is called a you, Y-O-U.

Sure.

When I look at it, I see things I like.

It has tao tieh masks.

Okay.

They copied it in every detail.

It's right.

Huh.

That's exactly what they look like.

Huh.

These confronting birds are pretty much like what they looked like.

Mm-hmm.

But there are problems with much of this.

It has this knob, the little handle on the top.

That is absolutely not Shang.

They never would have produced a piece like that.

Okay, sure.

Then you have these flanges, which are too heavy, too crude.

Oh, okay.

These handles on the lid Mm-hmm.

are too heavy.

Okay.

They're exaggerated.

Okay.

The tao tieh masks, there's one on the front and one on the back.

Mm-hmm.

They stick out too far.

They stand way out from the body.

Now, the Chinese, when they did this, these were for imperial use.

Yeah.

They were made at such enormous expense that it would have been easier to make things out of gold.

These were made with molds, and the molds were carefully, painstakingly done.

But not the mold for this.

It's also too heavy.

Really?

Okay.

The real ones are not that heavy.

They made these copies, and they were not great copies, until about the turn of the 20th century, when they found originals that they started copying from.

Oh, okay.

And today, they're sending copies out of China that I can't tell are fakes.

Wow.

They have to be tested.

When you look at them, they're absolutely true to the originals.

Okay.

At auction today, this is worth about $200 to $250.

Is it?

Okay.

A real Shang bronze... Would be a lot more.

$40,000 to $60,000.

Wow, wow.

GUEST: I got it at a house sale in the western suburbs of Philadelphia.

It seems like it's Arts and Crafts, but I don't know from what side of the ocean, so, I know nothing about it.

This tile was made by the Grueby Pottery from Boston, Massachusetts.

Well, I've seen their vases.

They were well known for their vases early on, Oh.

and then they started making tiles.

Well, why is it so thick?

Because this doesn't look like it was meant to be in a wall, and the sides are finished.

It is thick.

A lot of Arts & Crafts tiles were thick.

Okay.

This is pressed from wet clay, and so they were done particularly thick.

This is probably just about half-an-inch Right.

to three-quarters of an inch thick.

The reason it is glazed all around is because it was probably used as a trivet.

Uh-huh.

Originally, it was probably sold with some kind of green felt on the bottom, Looking at the surface of this tile, it doesn't look like it would have been used like that much at all, because it's in beautiful condition.

That is considered beautiful condition?

Yes, ma'am.

It's a little dirty, but there's no wear, really, to the top.

This particular tile is one of a series of at least four.

Ah...

It probably dates to about 1915 to 1920.

The marking on the back, those are the initials of the artist that would have colored in the tile.

Okay.

And it is a cuenca tile, that is your technique.

That's what keeps your, your beautiful flat colors separated.

As I said, it's a little dirty.

Yes, what is that?

Schmutz.

(laughing) I have more of that at home.

Yeah, we all do.

This, this will come off easily.

It does have at the top here a little bit of wear, a little hairline, and that is not good.

You bought this at a house sale?

Yes.

You paid... One dollar.

At auction, I would put this tile at $700 to $1,000.

Is that right?

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh!

So, this is very bad, because I'm trying not to do house sales anymore.

(laughing): I've been trying to get my addiction under control.

No, that was great.

That, that's absolutely wonderful.

GUEST: My father presented my mother with a diamond bracelet, that was yay-wide.

And she thanked him very much but told him she would never wear it.

And so he took it back and he had another one made for her that was narrower, and she said, "I will keep it in the safe deposit box.

I'm not going to wear it."

She was really particular.

Well, she didn't want to flaunt things.

He then had this bracelet made for her, and he said to her when he gave it to her, "This one you cannot return.

I have had it made just for you."

And of course she loved it, and why not?

It's beautiful.

Do you know the manufacturer that made this?

No.

He had a jeweler that he used to deal with in New York.

There's not a mark on it.

It's engraved on the inside with your mother's name, "from Morris, 1939."

So, this puts it in the late Deco period.

The bracelet is gold, and with the fluting down the side is a typical Deco-style bracelet.

And this one is decorated with platinum, diamond, and multicolored charms.

This is a basket, and then we have a man walking with a dog with a star ruby, which is a very rare stone.

Then we have a clown with another star ruby.

And then we have a lady with a baby carriage with moveable wheels, a Viking ship with multicolored stones, and a lighthouse with a gorgeous carved ruby and diamond tower.

All your diamonds, all your sapphires, all your rubies are top-quality stones.

Star rubies, they don't come that red.

When they're that red, they're magnificent.

You have carved emeralds and carved sapphires in this.

Your dad was going to add more to it?

He... when he gave it to her, he told her that every year for their anniversary, he would take one charm off and replace it with another one.

And unfortunately, he died in 1940.

Oh.

So, the bracelet is exactly the way he gave it to her.

The price on this bracelet in today's market is very strong because it's very collectible.

A piece like this would sell retail somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000.

Wow.

(laughs) This is the widest one I've ever seen.

Most of them are roughly about a half-inch to three-quarters of an inch.

This is an inch and three-quarters wide.

Wow.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

GUEST: This is a rock crystal vase or urn or, I don't know what it is.

APPRAISER: Well, you're right, it is rock crystal.

And one of my pet peeves is when people bring in glassware and they say they've got "crystal."

And, because when I think of crystal, I think of rock crystal, which is mined out of a cave.

Okay.

As opposed to glass stemware which is poured into a mold.

This is the real thing.

And it's made in Vienna, circa 1900.

Something like this on the auction market would probably bring about $5,000.

Oh, really?

Wow.

GUEST: It was my in-laws'.

It was in their home for many years, and when they moved to Florida, they gave it to my husband and myself, APPRAISER: Bierstadt is one of the most popular Western artists.

It's really superb.

It's beautifully rendered, it's very finely detailed.

It's probably earlier for his work, and generally speaking, you'd like something before 1880, so I kind of think this is probably from 1870.

The other thing that's great about it is it's in perfect condition.

I would expect a gallery to sell it in the neighborhood of $150,000.

What?!

150?

Ooh.

I didn't think it would be worth that much.

GUEST: Well, it came from South Jersey, and believe it or not, it was in the home that was purchased in the eave of the garage.

For several years, we never even realized that it was there.

APPRAISER: So what did you think when you first saw it?

Were you afraid to pick it up?

I think I started to dance around, and my niece describes it as the happy dance.

(laughs) Because it was something so peculiar that I knew it was special.

A piece of folk art has to have a lot of things going for it to be great.

It has to draw you in.

Yes.

And that's exactly what this does.

Back around 1890 or 1900, somewhere in that time period, somebody decided that they wanted to make something out of roots and once they got started, they couldn't stop.

Right.

It has a great old finish on it.

And it's kind of like those spooky trees...

Yes.

...in the old tales.

It fascinates me.

It drives me crazy and it kind of scares me, too.

And that's exactly what something like this should do for you.

There's a little bit of wear up here.

But I tell you something, to a non-folk-art person, this is probably ugly as a mud fence.

But to the people that collect folk art...

Right.

...it's a thing of great beauty.

So much detail, several different snakes.

Birds.

Birds.

A cat.

Cat, my favorite.

Another cat... and a horse head over there.

And as far as value is concerned, we really agonized over that part of it.

Okay.

I would say a good auction estimate would be $30,000 to $50,000.

That's incredible.

(laughs) That's, um, really welcome news.

That's unbelievable.

Wow.

I know that my grandfather purchased it probably in the 1920s from an estate in Canandaigua, New York.

APPRAISER: It's a pretty stunning bronze by a French artist, Albert Ernest Carrier-Belleuse.

And it's actually marked down here on the base.

We did have a look, and I know you did too, to see whether there were any foundry marks that give you a little more information.

And I didn't find anything on this.

It's really a pretty tremendous, um, figure, both in size and in the fluidity of the movement to it.

It's really wonderful.

It is titled, it's "Dancer Napolitan."

And what's really kind of fascinating and what appeals to me, not only, the figure itself and its, its large scale, but we see so many bronzes that are signed, but we really know very little about the artist.

And this is a case where it's someone who was very popular in his own time.

French, he was born in 1824 and lived and worked throughout the mid-19th century and was really a very prolific artist.

He did similar subjects, these fanciful figures from 19th century to classical figures to mythological figures, to under the reign of Napoleon III in the 1850s through the 1870s, some public works projects.

So he really pretty much did everything.

He was sort of a Renaissance man of his time.

When I was looking for comparables, I found over a thousand records, so it's, again, rare that you find an artist of the 19th century that there's that much of a body of work for.

It certainly does have a little bit of condition issues, and the surface isn't quite as pristine patina, but for insurance purposes I would think of a value in the, up in the $20,000 range.

Quite a... yeah, quite a valuable piece.

And even though it's, um, gold, it's still a bronze?

Yes, it's the patina that's on it.

My gosh.

Yeah.

Thank you very much!

Well, thanks for bringing it in today.

GUEST: It was left to me through my mother-in-law.

She used to bring these little treasures over to us.

And, uh, we looked at it, we put it in the attic with some of the other things.

And it laid there for many, many years.

APPRAISER: It's an 18th century button mold.

You can see when you open it up.

Here there's a large button.

Then it would have cast three smaller buttons.

They'd be cast in pewter.

You can actually see those are the eyes of the button.

Yes.

They were the types of buttons that had a hoop on the back that the thread would go through.

But I tell you, they're actually really as rare as hen's teeth.

Is it?

And what makes this one to me even more exciting, it has the original owner-- "Josiah Miller 1722."

Even has his initials, and the date again on the bottom.

Just to make sure you know whose it was.

Wasn't he proud?

And he should have been.

He was, but, but things that are signed and dated, it makes a rare object all that more special.

Did you have an idea what it's worth?

Haven't a clue.

No, I really don't.

Did you want me to tell you?

Oh, absolutely.

Well, I think conservatively at auction, $600 to $800 would be an estimate on it.

Oh, wow.

GUEST: When I came back from my honeymoon, we wanted to decorate our first apartment.

and we needed some art for the walls, and one weekend in Greenwich Village, they had an art show where you could buy a painting for five or ten dollars.

And so that's where we were headed, until I got a phone call from my mother, who wanted to see us because she hadn't seen us since we got back from our honeymoon.

And when I told her, "We can't do that because, uh, we're going to New York City," she said, "Well, if you want some art, I have a friend who has a lot of art."

So she said, "You come visit me and I'll introduce, uh, you to my friend."

This woman had paintings from the ceiling to the floor and on every wall.

And right over her bed was this painting.

She said that it was given to her when she got married and she wanted us to have it.

Just $35.

We took it home and we put it over our bed, and it's been there ever since.

Well, she's just lovely.

It's by an artist whose name is Stiepevich.

Now, there is a plaque here.

It's also signed in the upper right corner.

Oh, I didn't know that.

Very faint, but it is signed up there.

Mr. Stiepevich, for an artist who painted such lovely paintings, has very scant biographical information.

We know he was born in Russia, probably around 1840, and that he died in New York City, probably around 1910.

Clearly, he was very well-trained.

And there is record of quite a few works by him.

Are you familiar with the term "Orientalism"?

No.

The Orientalists were popular for most of the second half of the 19th century.

There was a great interest in the Middle East.

People traveled to the Middle East and told tales about how exotic it was.

And many artists became fascinated by this, traveled to the Middle East and began to paint these subjects.

And there was a big market for them when they brought them home, because the public was kind of fascinated by this, too.

And as you can see, she's probably a Western woman, but she's in this environment that's very exotic and romantic and just beautifully painted.

And the frame you put on is very appropriate.

It looks great.

Yeah, the frame cost five, five dollars.

So you've got $40 invested in this.

$40 invested.

(chuckles) I think today a very fair auction estimate on this painting would be between $15,000 and $20,000.

Wow.

Boy, oh, boy!

15 to 20?

15 to 20.

Okay, well, thank you very much.

Okay?

GUEST: I do a lot of collecting and this was on the internet.

I got this picture probably around two to three years ago.

I liked the subject matter and I won the bid.

APPRAISER: This is a silver gelatin print.

You can see at the bottom edge of the photograph, it's a little silvered.

What's the difference between the silver gelatin and, like, an albumin?

A silver gelatin print is going to have a grayish-black tonality with white highlights.

An albumin print is a sepia-toned or brown-toned photograph on a very, very thin paper.

Mm-hmm.

Albumin prints were kind of phased out by the 1890s; the silver gelatin technology is introduced in the late 19th century, and then, of course, carries through into the 20th century.

It is signed by James H. Hare.

Do you know a little bit about Hare's background?

I know he was one of early photojournalists.

He covered the Spanish-American War and a lot of Wright Brothers' activities.

So, the notion that photographers could cover topical events, especially events in which there was movement, indicates that the technology of the camera had really progressed and improved.

And Hare was one of the first photojournalists to work with a small-format camera.

Mm-hmm.

But what's interesting about this photograph is that it's really presented as a fine art photograph.

And in this case, we see a very formal composition.

Aviation was in its infancy-- I mean, the Wright Brothers' first flight was in 1903; this is copyrighted 1910.

So, the, the plane rises just above the trees, so the elevation isn't too high, but high enough so that we know it made it into the sky.

Mm-hmm.

Tell me about the price you paid for this picture.

As I recall, it was between $35 and $50.

Do you have any idea of what it might be worth today?

I thought it was, uh, maybe $500.

Okay.

Well, James Hare's pictures in a smaller format appear infrequently at auction.

A photograph in this large format would be especially desirable.

We're not sure if it's a Wright Brothers plane; in fact, one would need to do more research about that.

But as a fine art photograph, signed and dated by James Hare, an auction value today would be in the $3,000 to $4,500 range.

Oh, that's very nice.

GUEST: My paternal grandfather evidently worked for a banjo company.

And when my grandfather passed away, I found the letter.

And I thought it would be a nice thing to keep along with the banjo.

To my knowledge, he went to work for the banjo factory at the age of 14.

Okay, well, he worked for the S.S. Stewart Company in Philadelphia, and Stewart was the foremost producer of banjos, not just in Philadelphia but in the United States at that time.

Oh, okay.

He started making banjos in the late 1870s, and he went on until he died in 1898.

The name continued a little after that because his sons continued the company, they had a few contracts to fulfill.

Stewart was responsible not just for producing wonderful banjos but also for elevating the banjo to a... it's... what he considered its proper place in society Mm-hmm.

alongside the violin and the cello.

And you started seeing all kinds of gorgeously inlaid instruments and quite expensive, at the time, too.

In this case, this might have been $100 or $150, when the... an average student banjo at the time might have been $15 or $20.

Right.

It has the typical cherry neck with ebony fingerboard you found on all Stewart banjos-- very high-end materials.

Oh.

The cherry neck is beautifully carved.

Mm-hmm.

Also, it has this wonderful trademark branded into the dowel stick and the serial number right here.

Hmm.

This was made about 1896, '97.

Mm.

And that's his standard peghead design, but this peghead is a different design altogether.

This is his presentation-grade peghead design...

Okay.

Which you only see on the highest-end banjos.

Hmm.

But normally, the presentation-grade has an equally fancy heel.

This is the... the average heel.

Hmm.

The presentation-grade heel carving goes up to here, so it's a bit of a mish-mosh in a funny way.

Mm-hmm.

But I understand that this might have been made by your grandfather.

I think he did make it for himself.

And it's possible that Stewart had employees make some banjos for themselves, and that may be why it's a little bit of this, a little bit of that.

Right.

Or it might have been custom for a client.

Mm-hmm.

That's possible.

It has a rim made out of what they call German silver, which is essentially nickel silver.

Mm-hmm.

You see the brass wearing through the nickel plating on the tension hoop and on the brackets.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

It has the original flower on the tailpiece, which usually falls out.

It's very complete.

It could use a couple of things done to it, but it's a beautifully preserved Stewart banjo.

Mm.

I think, for insurance and a retail value, as well, about $6,000, $6,500.

Really?

Wow.

I'm amazed.

I was at a house sale about ten years ago, I just liked the way they looked.

And what did you pay for them?

About $25.

Okay.

These are from Nigeria.

Okay.

And they're called ibeji.

And the tribe is Yoruba, and in Yoruba, ibeji means "twin."

And when a twin dies, they carve these because these become a repository for the soul of the twin.

And I would say these are late 19th, early 20th century.

In today's market, $800 to $1,200.

Very nice.

How'd you... For $25, that's not a bad investment.

I'll take it.

I brought in a vase that we keep on our buffet.

It was, um, my husband's grandmother's.

and it's just a vase that I always liked, and I don't know anything about it.

Well, this is Steuben.

Oh.

It's a classic Steuben form, a beautiful vase, a great, uh, color.

This is green jade with alabaster handles.

And we have here a polished pontil that's very typical of Steuben's work.

Steuben, of course, was only the highest quality glass.

Okay.

And to me, that is just an extraordinary vase.

One little problem here-- Yeah.

we have a crack in the handle.

I know.

This could have happened in the cooling process.

Okay.

But also, people tend to pick things up by handles.

Right.

Glass of this sort, with these delicate handles, I never do that.

very bad idea.

If it were perfect, retail value would probably be around $1,500.

Yeah.

That crack, unfortunately, is going to hurt the value quite a bit.

This would probably be around $300.

Okay, well, thank you.

Yeah.

But still a beautiful vase.

Yeah, we love it.

GUEST: It's been in my family for many generations.

I got it from my mother, she gave it to me about 20 years ago.

Okay.

And it's always been called the Evans chair.

It came down through the Evans family.

Okay.

And another, another little insider family joke that we have is that the Evans' all have wide bottoms, so...

Okay, so... because it's a wide-bottom chair, it'll fit.

Okay.

(chuckles) So, besides that, I don't know anything.

Yeah.

How do you use the chair?

We have it sitting in the corner in our bedroom, and I usually drape a quilt over top of it.

Where do you think the chair was made?

Uh, probably in the southern New Jersey, Delaware Valley area, most likely.

Okay.

That's where our family is from.

Okay, well, this is actually-- and the reason I'm so excited about this is it... it is...

I'm glad you're excited.

It's a really very rare, Yeah.

original, circa 1750... Whoa.

paint-decorated and turned, ladderback armchair.

Uh-huh.

Yes.

And what I love about this chair and what makes it Delaware River Valley, 1750, are all the elements-- the turnings in the form...

But this is particularly elegant and vertical.

The turner's art was an incredible art in the 18th century Uh-huh.

and they had these big lathes, they'd turn out these spindles.

Uh-huh.

And in the stiles on the side and the front stretcher.

Mm-hmm.

This is a bold, incredible Baroque stretcher That really is very gutsy.

Yes.

It's beautiful.

Now, this foot is a sort of blunt-arrow foot, very rare.

Okay, mm-hmm.

And all the verticality is capped by these little pointed cones that you see, these pointed balls.

Yeah.

This has its original rush seat.

Well, it's like wood splint, isn't it?

Exactly, it's woven splint, totally original.

Look at that color.

And because this is all different woods, it was meant to be painted.

Mm-hmm.

So they covered it all in red paint.

Okay.

Now, this has had several coats of paint.

If you look here on the stile, it has There's some green.

green, there's a bright orange, red.

But under there is the original paint.

And then this serpentine ladderback, which we see here, shapes to the back of the person sitting in it.

Do you know about the one condition issue on this that...?

Well, I'm wondering, was this broken?

Exactly, exactly.

Yeah, okay.

It would have had another arch here, which is gone.

I thought so.

But it's an old break.

Exactly.

Right, yeah.

Also, this would have had a cushion in it originally.

Have you ever had it appraised?

There was an antique dealer that offered my mother $500 for it back in the early '70s.

Okay.

$500, okay.

Well, because of all the things we talked about, I would put an auction estimate on this Delaware Valley chair at about $8,000 to $12,000.

Wow.

(laughs) It's a pretty amazing chair.

I inherited it from my grandmother in 1976.

I know that my grandfather collected Native American items, and he died in 1937.

My guess is that he probably did most of his collecting between 1900 and 1920.

And I don't know much more about that.

I've been told it's Navajo.

I don't know.

Mm-hmm.

Well, it is Navajo.

but made from Germantown yarns.

It's called a Germantown weaving.

Mm-hmm.

Germantown was the name of a town in Philadelphia, where they started commercially producing very uniform yarns with lots of colors.

Mm-hmm.

Now, the Navajo had a long tradition of, of weaving, and they made classic blankets from the early 19th century into the time of their incarceration in the 1860s.

And then when the 1880s came along and some of these Germantown yarns started becoming available to the Navajo, they started doing much more elaborate weavings like this one.

Uh-huh.

Looking at this one for a while, I realized it's very influenced by a Saltillo weaving, which was coming out of northern Mexico.

They had a long tradition of very beautiful, intricate weavings.

Uh-huh.

First of all, it has an early use of a border, and there's almost a rainbow effect.

They have so many colors available, Mm-hmm.

that they started doing shading of the colors from dark to light.

Yes.

The Saltillos usually had a central diamond with a serrate edge like this.

Mm-hmm.

Now, the Navajo, in this case, she's expanded on that idea and made concentric diamonds that vibrate.

Right.

This particular weaving also has wonderful crosses and it has bow and arrows at both ends, Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

and then it has arrowheads coming down from the top.

Right.

Different sizes, right.

So it's got a beautiful early pictorialness to it, too.

Some of these Germantowns, when they were first introduced, the traders didn't like them.

They thought they were a little vibrant.

In retrospect now, we look at them and they're, they're tour de forces, really.

This one needs a cleaning.

Yes.

And when you get it cleaned, it will just jump off the canvas, so to speak.

Really?

And they call these eye dazzlers, and they're very popular with collectors.

Have you ever had it appraised?

Do you have any idea?

No, I haven't.

It's been in a box probably since the 1970s and just put away so it didn't get any sun damage.

The fold lines need to be taken out of it.

Mm-hmm.

It's been folded a long time, and that can be taken out.

Too long.

Germantowns generally are still a little soft.

This is an exception.

I think your Germantown blanket at auction would bring between $20,000 to $30,000.

Wow.

Wow.

GUEST: I got these about 25 years ago.

I was helping an older gentleman in New York move, and he was downsizing his house.

And he was so grateful after several days of helping him that he just gave these to me.

I knew nothing when I got them, but since getting them I've found out that there were bill posters who put these up ahead of a circus or a, or a show as advertising.

And that's about as much as I know about them.

All of these posters were printed by Strobridge, one of the greatest American lithographic companies operating around the turn of the century, known for their high-quality, beautiful works.

They did a lot of advertising for circuses.

If we start with the poster at the bottom, closest to you, the date on that poster is 1906.

They're advertising Pawnee Bill's Wild West, one of the imitator shows that sprung up on the success of Buffalo Bill's show.

Okay.

And now chronologically we go from 1906, we go to 1907.

Here we have just Buffalo Bill, a portrait piece of him on his horse.

It would have been used, again, to advertise the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show.

The third poster, which is on top, is dated 1909.

Now, what happened in 1908, the one year we don't have here, due to some business problems, Buffalo Bill had to find a new backer for his show Okay.

and he turned to Pawnee Bill.

So, in 1908, the two shows combined, and you have the Pawnee Bill's Great Far East act combined with Buffalo Bill's Wild West.

Okay.

Now, do you have any idea of the value of these pieces?

A few years ago, I was looking in the market, and at the time maybe $1,000, $2,000.

But I really haven't followed it at all lately, so I have no, no clue what they might be worth today.

Art is a commodity, and as the general market suffers, so does the market for art.

However, I think by and large these images for, for Buffalo Bill and the Wild West shows occupy a kind of micro niche within the collecting community, something that hasn't been affected too badly.

Starting with the Pawnee Bill, I would estimate that at auction between $1,500 and $2,000.

Okay.

Then I think when we get to the combined act of Pawnee Bill and Buffalo Bill, the price is a little higher, because Buffalo Bill's name carries quite a premium within the collecting world.

And I would estimate that poster at $2,000 to $3,000.

Okay, that's good.

So if Buffalo Bill's name can add value to a Pawnee Bill poster, what do you think his image and his name could add to the value of another poster?

I'm hoping a lot.

(laughs) Well, it certainly is a fair bit more.

It's such a proud and wonderful image of Buffalo Bill, I think at auction, for this piece alone, $4,000 to $6,000.

Wow.

One thing that would have added significant value to the two horizontal posters would be if they had any suggestion of a Western theme.

Okay.

Given that they're both advertising Western shows, neither one of them shows a Western theme, and that alone, like Buffalo Bill's name, would have added a premium to their value.

GUEST: It's been in my husband's family for a very long time.

It was passed down to his parents.

and then after his parents passed away, it was passed on to us.

And we've just had it hanging up in the house.

APPRAISER: Cornelius Krieghoff was a very interesting 19th-century Canadian artist.

And what he's really known for are these wonderfully vibrant genre scenes that almost read like novels.

You have the images in the piece of the sled, and of the mother and child, and just a great deal of activity.

He was born in Holland, and there's a tradition of really finely painted genre scenes in Europe.

And he took that training and style and transposed it to sort of rough-and-ready Canada, Mm-hmm.

mid-19th century.

He was very popular during his lifetime because the scenes are really wonderful snapshots of Canada, Quebec City area.

Because of that, there are a number of fakes of Krieghoff's work.

And we really looked at it, and the quality of the piece, the style of the piece and the provenance of the piece led us to come to the conclusion that there's a very, very strong chance that the piece is right.

That's fabulous.

I would certainly consider more research for the painting, but everything falls into place.

The original frame, which has been painted with radiator paint, I suspect.

And we believe it to be a lovely example of Krieghoff's work.

That's wonderful.

Given that, I would estimate the piece at auction between $200,000 and $300,000.

Oh... my... God!

(both laughing) Oh, my God!

It's a wonderful example of his work.

Uh... (laughing) For insurance, and retail purposes, in excess of $350,000.

I can't believe it, Colleene.

I just can't believe it.

Believe it, and insure it right away.

I will.

(laughing) I can't believe it.

I just can't believe it.

PEÑA: And now it's time for the "Roadshow" Feedback Booth.

We brought a box of prints we got at the Berlin auction for five dollars.

I found out they're worth, framed, $18 to $20 a print.

I have about 200, I'm very happy.

My brother's just here to drag all my stuff around.

Say hi!

Hello.

(laughs) And we have this beautiful violin we thought was worth a fortune.

Unfortunately, we didn't hit the jackpot.

We're gonna hit the casinos now.

(laughs) My Skookum doll is worth $125 if I scrape the mold off of her face.

(laughs) And we had a contest to replace the word "wow."

And we came up with 105 words, and should I make it on television, I get to select the one best word that replaces the word "wow."

And the word I'm using is, "champion!"

I got this at a garage sale for one dollar, and I didn't know what the heck it was, had no idea.

So I found out it's a Hungarian lamp, without the centerpiece, and it's worth $150.

We brought a lamp from our grandmother.

It wasn't very valuable, I thought it was marble, but it's glass, worth $150.

But I had a great time at the "Antiques Roadshow."

PEÑA: Thanks for watching!

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."