Antiques Roadshow

Harrisburg, Hour 3

Aired: 04/30/24Premiered: 01/22/18

RUNTIME: 52:31Antiques RoadshowSEASON 22

Learn more about vintage and antique items in Harrisburg!

Transcript

HOST: ANTIQUES ROADSHOW is on track to see thousands of treasures in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

GUEST: My family was not super keen on him. They felt that his leer was a little off-putting.

APPRAISER: I don't care what I have to pay, I got to own it.

HOST: ROADSHOW found the Pennsylvania National Fire Museum to be a hot spot for firefighting memorabilia. (alarm sounding) From big, beauties like these well-preserved, 20th-century firetrucks, to these incredible painted firemen's parade hats from the 1800s. Across town, ROADSHOW discovered another painted treasure from Pennsylvania-- take a look!

GUEST: Decorated box, found in my grandparents' home. It's in the style which I believe is called a Bucher box. It's common to eastern Pennsylvania. There are numerous other boxes that have similar kinds of paintings of flowers on them, sometimes with a family name in the center, sometimes with buildings or paintings of people on them. I believe the box was either made for or given to my fifth-great-grandfather, probably back shortly before the year 1800. The name was the family name, the spelling's a little bit different, but it's kind of printed on phonetically. The immigrant in that family was named Philip, but that's all I know.

GUEST: So, you're right in terms of your attribution to Heinrich Bucher...

GUEST: Heinrich Bucher.

APPRAISER: Who was well-known in the areas of Berks County, Lancaster County, Lebanon County, around 1800. And who is thought to have produced these boxes, document boxes in various forms and shapes. This is a document box with its original hasp and then a cotter-pin hinge holding the lid in place. And you raise an interesting point, which is that for decades, and probably hundreds of years, these have been known as Bucher boxes.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: But there is some current scholarship that indicates that Mr. Bucher was like Philip Dresir. He was the owner of the box and not the maker of the box. But it's... that terminology has been handed down for such a long period of time, that in the absence of a known maker, they're referred to as Bucher boxes. What's really interesting about this box is the condition of the box, and if I can just flip it around to the back, you see how brilliant those colors are. I mean it's tremendously fresh, and it's obviously been treated with respect for the length of time that it's existed, which is probably since 1800. So when we are looking at value, I would place an auction estimate at somewhere in the vicinity of $10,000 to $15,000, which is really pretty conservative. They have sold for a lot more money than that. So the insurance on this is normally computed at twice the auction estimate.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: So somewhere in the range of $20,000 to $30,000.

GUEST: I must talk to my insurance man.

APPRAISER: You must. It's a treasure, and it's a pleasure to have seen it here today.

GUEST: Thank you, Nancy.

APPRAISER: Robin, you brought in this wonderful sculpture by Richmond Barthé. How did you come to own this?

GUEST: My grandmother actually came upon his studio completely by accident while she was vacationing in Jamaica in the late '60s, found the beginning of this when it was in its infancy, and paid a deposit to have it completed. And she kept in touch with him via letters over the next couple of years. And when she finally got it, it was her pride and joy. She kept it in a place of honor everywhere she lived, and when she passed away, it came to me. My family, to be honest, was not super keen on him. They felt that his leer was a little off-putting. And I was the family member that absolutely loved it. The joke was when Nana passed away, wasn't who gets Pan, it was who's going to have to take care of him. And I volunteered because I... I think he's beautiful.

APPRAISER: Richmond Barthé was one of the leading African American artists of his day. He was born in St. Louis in 1901, and showed artistic talent early on. And he was encouraged by the priests in the local Roman Catholic Church, and he remained fairly devout throughout his entire life. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Pennsylvania Academy. He was enormously successful in his day. He had exhibitions, he received commissions for portraits and other public works, he won a Guggenheim Fellowship, and he was a member of a group called the Harlem Renaissance, which took place in Harlem in the 1920s and the early 1930s. It was a focal point for artists, for painters, for sculptors. It was really an incredibly exciting period for culture in New York City and is part of African American cultural history. An interesting thing about Barthé is he moved to Jamaica, and after he left Jamaica he went to Pasadena, California.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And his career was really not doing that well. And he was partially supported by the actor James Garner.

GUEST: Oh, that's very interesting.

APPRAISER: Yeah. And Garner helped support him and also arranged for various of his works to be given to museums.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: It's very clearly signed here, on the back. And I think this depiction of Pan, with these little horns, is really beautifully done. The modeling is great, the casting is great, and the patina is wonderful. We do know what your grandmother paid for it.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: It's right here in the letter. $500 and this was in...

GUEST: 1969.

APPRAISER: 1969. The market for African American art has skyrocketed in the last five years. And Barthé was one of the leading African American sculptors of his time. In today's market, in a retail setting, I would put a price of between $15,000 and $25,000.

GUEST: (chuckling) Wow. My kids have been putting Christmas cracker hats on his head. I should maybe put him a little higher up so they can't reach him.

APPRAISER: This is going to collectibles.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: They might reroute you after that. But I think because it's a liquor piece it should go to collectibles at this point.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Is that still full of liquor?

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: My guess on this would be that it's not Pennsylvania. My guess would be that it's somewhere else. Amateur, kind of side-of-the-road pottery somewhere.

APPRAISER: Usually these are brass, or they're silver-plated.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: Not the most valuable double bell, $1,000 to $1,500.

GUEST: I got them from various autograph dealers in the early '80s. I loved the Universal Monsters from the '30s and '40s.

APPRAISER: How much did you pay for them?

GUEST: Probably the cumulative, maybe $2, $2.25.

APPRAISER: We have here Lon Chaney, the Man of a Thousand Faces. who was one of the most famous silent film stars, and by far the most famous silent film monster. Lon Chaney is an extremely rare autograph. He died young in 1930 at the age of 47. Unfortunately, the photo is not autographed, it's just the piece of paper. So just this at auction, you're looking at $500 to $700. If the image were signed, you're probably looking at $1,000 to $1,500. Bela Lugosi, also very rare to find his signature, and made more valuable by the fact that he signed it as Dracula. That's about $1,500 at auction.

GUEST: Wow. Okay.

APPRAISER: Yeah. Elsa Lanchester, Bride of Frankenstein, this is a later image, and she's not in costume as the Bride of Frankenstein. So here you're looking at about $300 to $500.

GUEST: Oh, okay.

APPRAISER: And here we have a later 8x10. It's signed by numerous people who where in the movie "House of Dracula." And here you're looking at about $200 to $400.

GUEST: Okay. Wow.

APPRAISER: So, yes.

APPRAISER: I fell in love with these when you unpacked them.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: Tell me, where did they come from?

GUEST: An antique store in New Jersey, within the last eight to ten years. And I like them because they're weird.

APPRAISER: Do you know anything about them at all?

GUEST: I know they're sterling or silver with onyx, and that they're by a Mexican artist, but that's about the extent of it. Whether that's right or not, I don't know.

APPRAISER: Well, they're made by a company called Tane, out of Mexico City. Tane was probably-- and still is-- probably one of the largest manufacturers of silver in Mexico City. And these would have been made in the 1950s.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: Wonderfully designed, as you can see from the bowl, the decoration goes all the way around and is quite consistent and quite interesting. What did you call it, actually, that you thought these were made out of?

GUEST: Onyx.

APPRAISER: Onyx?

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: They're not.

GUEST: What are they?

APPRAISER: They're made out of obsidian.

GUESS: Which is?

APPRAISER: Which is a good question. (chuckles) Obsidian is a volcanic glass.

GUEST: They're glass?

APPRAISER: They are made out of glass. It's a volcanic glass. Sometimes it almost looks a little bit like cat's eye.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Some of the pieces you may get a little bit of iridescence out of it. Tremendously interesting... I was only ever to see an auction sale of one bowl.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And not the candlesticks at all. So it's really nice that you have the suite of those.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Now, these were made by Tane, but they were retailed by Lunt, in the United States. On the bottom, which you know that they are marked there, and there's a variety of marks there, it says "Mexico," it says "Tane," and it says "sterling," and as well as that it also says "Lunt." These were probably commissioned as much as anything for Lunt to sell. But just an amazingly interesting design and great condition. Do you recall what you paid for them back then?

GUEST: I think $1,200. That's my recollection. And I tend to go for the unusual or the bizarre when I collect, and this fits that definition.

APPRAISER: As unusual…

GUEST: And bizarre.

APPRAISER: …and bizarre. Well, it also very much fits into the design of mid-century modern.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: On the whole, you're looking at an auction estimate of between $8,000 and $12,000 for the suite.

GUEST: You're kidding.

APPRAISER: I wouldn't kid you.

GUEST: I can't believe I'm saying, "You're kidding." And these are in the mid-century modern world?

GUEST: Yes, absolutely.

GUEST: I'm stunned.

APPRAISER: They would have been made in the 1950s.

GUEST: I own something mid-century modern! (laughing) I'm stunned!

APPRAISER: Well, I think they're fabulous.

GUEST: Oh my goodness, I'm ecstatic. Thank you.

APPRAISER: Excellent. Thank you so much for coming today.

GUEST: My parents bought it at a sale. It was in an old outbuilding, it was all wazzled up in the corner. It got rained on. And my father, who's a Civil War nut, went bananas and had to buy it. The upper corner had been torn, and there was water damage, so my mom and I went to a fine arts restorer and we had it restored.

APPRAISER: Okay, and your parents were downsizing, so...?

GUEST: They were downsizing and they asked me if I wanted anything, and I said, "I want the map."

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: "Name your price, I'll pay it." And all they wanted was what they paid for it at the sale, which was $180, and then the cost of restoration, $2,100, so...

APPRAISER: You paid the combination of the two of those, all-righty.

GUEST: I paid the combination of the two, and here it is. I love these inserts, I love the pictures: the Washington Monument, the Capitol, and a Mount Vernon. I just... I think it's beautiful, everything about it. I just keep seeing things that I haven't seen before on it.

APPRAISER: I love wall maps in general. This is a particularly wonderful wall map, and there are lots of things about it that I like. As part of the Union message, the patriotic message, the insets actually were of national monuments, or national sites, including, for instance, the Washington Monument, which at the time was being built. It wasn't completed, but they wanted to show it completed.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And of course...

GUEST: His picture.

APPRAISER: The man himself, right in the title. A wall map like this is a snapshot of a period of history. And with all this information, this is a particularly good snapshot of the United States in 1861. What happened in 1861?

GUEST: The start of the Civil War.

APPRAISER: The start of the Civil War. And one of the interesting things on this map is right down here, it lists the slave states.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: And right underneath that, it has text that says the ones with an asterisk "claim to have seceded from the United States." Because of course this is a map made in... for the Union, they didn't recognize that secession.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Now, because of that secession, this map catches another important part of the United States, the development of the American West. The United States, moving to the West in the '50s and early '60s, there was a lot of people out there who moved into places that were in the far parts of territories. They wanted their own local governments. So they kept petitioning Washington saying, "We want a new territory, we want a new state." Congress couldn't do it because the Southerners said, "You can't do that because it'll be a free state. We don't want any more free states." They left in 1861, the Southern Congressmen. All of a sudden the Northerners controlled Congress. 1861, three new territories were made right away. And they appear on this.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: One is Dakota, which you can see is huge at that stage.

GUEST: Huge, yeah.

APPRAISER: Okay, Nevada, on the other side of Utah, and then, finally, Colorado. 1860, those three territories didn't exist. Southerners left, three new territories, bam bam bam. Now, you paid a total of about...?

GUEST: $2,500.

APPRAISER: You did very well on that.

GUEST: Yep.

APPRAISER: In a retail environment, in a shop, this would sell for about $4,500 to $5,000.

GUEST: Oh, okay.

APPRAISER: So you did very well.

GUEST: Yeah, that's good.

GUEST: It had been in a collection for about 20 years and the woman had passed away. And when they got them it was almost all black.

APPRAISER: Yeah, that's real, it's not a fake. This is from around 1900.

APPRAISER: If it was Abe Lincoln's death mask that'd be one thing.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: Jeff Davis. One of the really, really big names. That chip on the nose…

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: …That hurts.

GUEST: Right. Yeah.

APPRAISER: Right, the dark blue is popular, but it... frankly, they made millions of pieces, and it's fallen in popularity. And tea sets are fairly common, they made so many of these, they sold so many. In perfect condition these days, the set might sell for between $50 and $100.

GUEST: I got the watch from an antique store in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. I picked up the box because it looked like it would make a good decoration. I paid $40 for it.

APPRAISER: It was made in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It's called a deck clock or a deck watch. It's 70 millimeters, so it's very big. It was made in 1916. It's made out of sterling silver. Most of these were made out of like a steel, a base metal. This was made under a government contract for the United States Shipping Board. So this would have sat in the bridge, or on one of the decks in the ship. And this would have been timed daily by the chronometer of the ship. When you look at the movement of the watch, the movement is 21 jewels, five positions. The case is sterling. It has a power reserve on the front, which gives you 56 hours of power. In the market today, at the retail level, it would easily be a $2,000 to $2,500 piece. It's a great example and the condition is near mint.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: Good hunting. (chuckling)

GUEST: This was bought by my great-aunt, who was an art collector, who bought a lot of stuff for Isabella Stewart Gardner, for the Boston museum. I don't know where she bought it, but she gave it to my grandmother, who was her cousin, possibly as a wedding present, but we don't know. So all my dad knows is that it was always in the house from the time he was little, and then it passed onto me. We were always so interested in who Schumacher was. I have another painting by him, but it's very different from this. My great aunt had some affinity with Gertrude Stein in Paris. I don't know if that was where the connection was made. I know that at one point Schumacher was painting in Woodstock, New York.

APPRAISER: Well, the artist is William Schumacher, William Emile Schumacher. He was actually Belgian-born, and then he grew up in Boston…

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: …and was raised there.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: But then went back to school in Dresden, in the academy there, and then transferred to Paris, the Académie Julian, where many American artists went as well...

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: And then came back to the States. He was also kind of a sponge. He sort of learned a number of different techniques. He was influenced by the deep colors of Fauvism, the bright colors there, the pointillism of Seurat, the Impressionists as well. So he had all these influences. What you have is a beautiful garden here. Sort of an island of a flower bed, with these large flowers-- probably poppies and roses-- that are coming up through here. One of the things, I said he had a variety of styles, but this one is very interesting because it seems to almost embody the sort of abstract geometricism and decorative qualities of the Vienna Secession.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: And you see in here, much of the work almost of Klimt, with a sort of...

GUEST: Oh, right.

APPRAISER: ...pattern of these little dots here, these sort of rectangular works, these little spots, and all of this going through here, in this very... brocade of flowers.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: And you even get into the trees up here, they're all angular through there.

GUEST: Right, right.

APPRAISER: This is a nice size oil on canvas. This was probably painted right after the Armory Show of 1913, around 1913, 1914. Because it had a profound influence…

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: …on many American artists at that time.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: He also, at that time, was at the height of his interest in New York. He had three shows from 1913 to 1915.

GUEST: Oh, really?

APPRAISER: I wouldn't be surprised if this was a leading piece in there. Another thing about it is it's a good painting because it's in a great frame, too.

GUEST: I love the frame.

APPRAISER: Although it looks all beat up. It's lost... has loss, and that can be fixed... It's a Cassetta frame, and then-- and the inside, these up here, it actually does some subtle things. If you can see this, the carving is sort of variegated so it's not just flat. And if you look in the back here, these darts that are part of the construction, which are very typical of a Newcomb-Macklin frame, which is one of the great frame makers of the first part of the 20th century.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: So it's a really good frame.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: So it's also a very important painting. The thing about this painting, though, is when it walked in…

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: …we were just stunned.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: My colleague said, "Star power." The highest he's ever made at auction was $20,000.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: We would most likely estimate this at $40,000 to $60,000.

GUEST: Oh, jeez.

APPRAISER: And expect it to go even beyond that...

GUEST: Oh my gosh.

APPRAISER: ...because this has such a power, such a presence...

GUEST: Yeah. It does.

APPRAISER: ...such a beautiful, strong painting.

GUEST: It does. I mean, I love this painting. So I mean I can't imagine ever selling it.

APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: It's just... I'm so attached to it.

GUEST: I came to own this. It was among a number of items kept in a safe deposit box…

APPRAISER: Uh-huh.

GUEST: …that was locked for 50 years. My father and his brother inherited a number of items from their parents and their grandparents.

APPRAISER: Right. Wow.

GUEST: And we were allowed to make a choice from the box.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: And when my turn came, this was something that I chose. I'm fairly certain that great-grandparents traveled to Asia, I'm not certain where, sometime prior to the first World War. And I suspect that this was acquired at that time. But I don't know that.

APPRAISER: So where is this from, do you think?

GUEST: I was guessing China, but I don't know.

APPRAISER: Yes, you are right.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: It's from China. That's good, with timing, it's about 1910, I would say.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: From 1900 to 1920s.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: So that's perfect, right? Yes.

GUEST: Okay, that's good.

APPRAISER: And we see a bird here, right? And some oranges, and if you see the back... peaches, peaches, peaches.

GUEST: Oh okay, so fruit and birds.

APPRAISER: Fruit and birds, and the flowers.

GUEST: Love it, I love it.

APPRAISER: Yes, and the peaches symbolize prosperity.

GUEST: Oh!

APPRAISER: Yes. And Chinese people love them.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Yes, it's very auspicious.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And the oranges, too.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And the songbirds, I think it's in here, means marital harmony. So it's very good.

GUEST: Yes, this is good!

APPRAISER: Right, right. And what's good about this is it has a very good color. It's jadeite.

GUEST: Jadeite, okay.

APPRAISER: So jadeite, yes. Almost, maybe I should say imperial, you can get a test, like gemology test...

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: …and they'll come up with grades.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: And I'm sure you'll get a really good grade, because it's really good green. And this pink stone is tourmaline.

GUEST: Tourmaline.

APPRAISER: Yes, it has a good contrast with the jadeite green.

GUEST: Oh, it's a great combination. I didn't know if this was real or a costume piece. And the clasp is pretty but kind of ordinary, so...

APPRAISER: Right, you know I think it's a nice piece.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: It's silver filigree.

GUEST: Okay, yeah. And consistent with the age of the piece?

APPRAISER: Yeah, I was going to say... yeah, so it's good. Everything is perfect.

GUEST: Good!

APRPAISER: I'll give you auction price. These days, Chinese items are going up, especially jades. So that's good.

GUEST: Oh, good.

APPRAISER: So conservative prices, but at the auction it should do $10,000 to $15,000.

GUEST: Oh, my word.

APPRAISER: Yes! So you should be careful.

GUEST: Yes! (laughing) Maybe I shouldn't wear it anymore.

APPRAISER: No, you should enjoy it.

GUEST: Well, I have, but goodness. Oh, it's so pretty.

GUEST: My dad was a commander of a flotilla of minesweepers during the Second World War. He was assigned to sweep before the American landings in Normandy, and he was rewarded with the United States Legion of Merit, which specifically cites that action.

APPRAISER: And his Distinguished Service Cross was also for the action in Normandy.

GUEST: Correct, yes.

APPRAISER: It is a little unusual to find a Legion of Merit awarded to an Allied serviceman. There were a number of them awarded to Soviet officers, and every once in a while you find one to a British or Commonwealth serviceman. And what we have is the medal, which you have so very nicely framed here, and his citation. And then from his own government, the Distinguished Service Cross. But before we find him at Normandy, before they are entering the European continent from the north, there was also a rather dramatic exit from the continent a few years earlier that he was involved with. Can you tell us about that?

GUEST: When Dunkirk occurred, the Navy identified him as somebody who had knowledge of the local waters. They assigned him to take the Gorleston lifeboat over to Dunkirk to take part in the evacuation. The briefing took place in caves in the chalk cliffs under Dover Castle. And if you go there today, you can see a copy of this map sitting on the blackboard there for visitors to see. My father took these notes down from his briefing, and this is essentially instructions of how to get to Dunkirk and how to get back. This piece here is written orders from his commander.

GUEST: That's an interesting enough piece, I'd like to read it. "You are to ferry troops across from the one-and-a-half mile stretch of the beach immediately east of Dunkirk to other vessels lying off. Great care must be taken to avoid running ashore in such a way that when loaded, the boat will not be able to shove off." This was a monumentally significant event in the history of World War II and the history of the British Isles. If not for the dramatic evacuation of the B.E.F. from the Continent back to the island, it's very likely that the Germans could have won the war right then and there. And it is interesting that there were so many small craft involved in this. It wasn't just simply military vessels. It was pretty much anything that could float and carry someone. Well, it's an amazing story, and a wonderful archive. The fact that the Legion of Merit has the citation, which traces it to your father, and the Distinguished Service Cross is in the grouping, where we know who earned it and what they did, really drives the value. In this case, the value for the entire grouping at retail today would be somewhere between $5,000 and $6,000.

GUEST: Great. I'm not going to sell it. (chuckles) It's going to stay in the family, but thank you.

APPRAISER: Historical value and monetary value really walk two separate paths. The bulk of that figure that I gave you is wrapped up in these medals, because that's where the collectors' market is. Where the historical value is, where the humanitarian value is in this, is the material related to Dunkirk.

APPRAISER: It's a great-looking piece of furniture that's very serviceable, you can use it, not worry about damaging it…

GUEST: Oh, yes.

APPRAISER: …because it's not so valuable that it matters that much. Not terribly valuable but...

GUEST: Don't tell him that, he's not going to lug it out of here for me.

APPRAISER 1: I can't find anything out about these people, that's certainly not a Webb mark.

APPRAISER 2: No.

APPRAISER 1: Not a Webb mark.

APPRAISER 3: No.

APPRAISER 1: When I first saw it, without turning it over, I thought it was the greatest piece of Webb cameo glass I'd ever seen in my life. And then, it turns out, this was made in Venice, possibly in the 1960s. If this were Webb, this would be like a $100,000 piece. But it's not. (chuckles) But I'm about to learn something.

GUEST: The artist, George Cope, was a fishing buddy of my great-grandfather's. And the family story is that he gave my grandfather three paintings. We're not sure whether it was for a payment of a bill, because my great-grandfather owned a local grocery store.

APPRAISER: This is a wonderful oil on canvas by George Cope. He was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, went out west, but then came back home again and had a wonderful career doing some landscape paintings and still-life paintings.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISERS: And for a long time he was the darling of collectors in Philadelphia.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: But then his work sort of fell out of favor beginning around the turn of the century when things were becoming more modern. So he actually... he ended up having to teach as a painter, he was a paintings restorer, and he even patented a device for stretching canvases to sort of help make ends meet. So by the end, he was pretty hard up for money. So it's very possible that he would have traded a work of art, or two or three, for a grocery bill. Now what does your family think about this one?

GUEST: Whenever my husband and I watch the ROADSHOW, and there's a painting that comes up that's worth a lot of money, he'll turn to me and say, "And we have a fish."

APPRAISER: (laughing) Well, I love your fish. Today, these are not as popular as they once were. They're facing the same problem that George's art faced at the beginning of the 20th century.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: Everybody is looking for more modern, more contemporary. But in the current market, at auction, you could realistically expect this to fetch between $4,000 and $6,000.

GUEST: Okay. Grandfather made a good catch, huh?

APPRAISER: He made a very good catch, absolutely.

GUEST: We call it a fox chest, but my understanding is it's a wine cooler, cellarette, and I've also heard sarcophagus used.

APPRAISER: Yeah, that refers to the form, I think. How did you acquire it?

GUEST: The story is that my mother went to an auction in Jamestown, New York. Everyone was bidding, and then all of a sudden a piece of this kind of came out, and everybody stopped bidding. And so she ended up getting it. And that was in the '60s.

APPRAISER: So did she ever like tell you why she bought it?

GUEST: She loves horses. And so this just fit in the theme of the hunt and the horses.

APPRAISER: You bet. There are a lot of cellarettes around. This is not the most common form in furniture, and cellarettes were often owned by families with wealth. Basically, it kept spirits-- wine, spirits-- cold.

APPRAISER: Yes.

GUEST: So this is a real luxury item. In this particular instance, the cabinetmaker-- who we're quite sure was from England-- produced this in the early 19th century, for probably a family who lived in a pretty fantastic country house, with a lot of land, and I imagine they may well have been involved in the hunt. And fox hunting, throughout the 19th century, was something that rich people did.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: Well, look at "Downton Abbey," right?

GUEST: Yeah, I know.

APPRAISER: So I imagine that this piece was ordered up by someone, and they wanted some specific details-

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: …namely, the foxes. Because the cabinetmaker was very confident with what he did, these decorative devices... you almost get the impression he could do it in his sleep. They're very authoritative, and so beautiful, and so perfect. And you could start at the top here, this is a gilt-bronze handle, and there are vestiges of the gilding, it's still on there. But these motifs, the use of this beautiful crotch mahogany, matched veneer. This was an expensive item. When you travel down the case, you can see this sort of beaded detail. These are all things that you will see pretty frequently on furniture of this early 19th century period. The thing that differentiates this piece from others is the fact that it's flanked by these two fox.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: And they have almost kind of a whimsical, sort of folksy quality about them. I could see them coming into the cabinetmaker and saying, "This is what I want, but I want these." And it almost seems as if the cabinetmaker wasn't perhaps quite as used to carving, let's say, animals as he was these devices, but he did it very successfully. Let's take the top off. Now the top was originally hinged to the back, and the hinges are gone. And as we can see, the interior of the piece is lined with zinc or lead, and that's so water-- in other words, melting ice-- wouldn't damage the cabinetwork. So this piece dates from, I think the mid-1820s. And the things that point to that are... well, stylistically, it's from that period.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: These classical elements were very much in vogue then. The locking plate on here is marked as such that you can date it in the mid-1820s. Now did you say what she paid for it?

GUEST: I'm not quite sure what she paid for it, and unfortunately she is kind of forgetful at this point in her life. But I know that her dad would not talk to her for six months after she bought this. So I assumed it was much more than she could afford. There are cellarettes, and then there are cellarettes that are quite special.

APPRAISER: So, in my opinion, this is one of the ones that's in the quite special category. So I think for, certainly in an auction situation, I'd estimate its value between $8,000 and $12,000. And there are some opinions, they said, if this was sold at a really top end show, in London or New York, fixed up a little bit, it obviously would be priced for considerably more money. Because I can see a wealthy couple who have an English country home looking at this...

GUEST: Oh, yeah?

APPRAISER: ...and saying, "I don't care what I have to pay, I've got to own it."

GUEST: Well, I got it from my mother when I was between ten and 12 years old. She bought it for me. This lady sold dolls in Baltimore, and we would stop in to see if she had any that we were interested in.

APPRAISERS: And did you love dolls when you were ten years old?

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: And what about your mother?

GUEST: She loved them, too. I don't think she had many dolls as a child. I think she wanted to make sure that I got my fair share of them.

APPRAISER: And do you remember what you paid for the doll?

GUEST: I'm guessing about maybe $90 or $100. I really don't recall. But I do recall that would have been a very high price at that point...

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: ...for us to buy a doll.

APPRAISERS: And that was probably in the 1930s or '40s?

GUEST: Yeah, it would have been the '40s.

APPRAISER: And do you know anything about her?

GUEST: I was told that she was French. And she was old, I could tell that she was an older doll. It wasn't the type that you could go out and buy at that point in time.

APPRAISER: You do have a lovely French doll. She is made by the French firm Rabery and Delphieu, and doll people like to call them an RD. If we look at the back of her head, and I'm just going to very gently turn her here, we'll see that she's very clearly marked, "R.3.D." Her marks are pristine. So that lets me know that she was one of the first few that came out of that mold.

GUEST: That's interesting.

APPRAISER: The three refers to the size of the doll, and in this case it means that she's 25 to 26 inches tall. She has a beautiful face. These dolls do not always appear beautiful to the beholder.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: This one is stunning. She has large, paperweight eyes, and if you see they are bulging out. They're very realistic. And at the top of her eyes, you can see a little rose-colored eye shadow. Very nicely defined lips on a closed mouth. French doll-lovers from this period love the dolls that have the paler complexions. She also has pierced ears and a fabulous, mostly likely original mohair wig, which is still nice and full. And then she has her nice composition and wood French body. Very typical of the time and of the French. She was made in the early 1880s.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And she was made for a more luxury market. She has an antique dress on. I will not call it original, but it's definitely of the period, with a lot of intricate lace and then the matching bonnet with the fabulous silk rosette flower. My colleague and myself both kind of gasped when we saw her.

GUEST: Thank you.

APPRAISER: Does need a little cleaning of the face, and it's perfectly okay to clean her face with a little bit of water and a Q-tip. This doll, at retail, would sell between $4,500 and $5,500.

GUEST: That's excellent.

APPRAISER: It's close, but it's not the real deal. So you found it on the side of the road.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: So anything, you're in the plus column.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: Something like $50 to $100. It's a nice... nice chair.

GUEST: This was in my grandfather's attic.

APPRAISER: Yeah, I mean it's the epitome of French bronzes of the mid-19th century. Great quality, the modeling, great casting, great detail, great finishing, great patina. It's probably $10,000 or $15,000. It could be more, because it's so rare.

GUEST: So I was driving down this country lane, and it was trash day. And there was this painting leaning against all this stuff. And it was all yellow from cooking grease...

APPRAISER: Oh, my gosh.

GUEST: ...and cigarette smoke. There's a lot going on on this… on this painting.

GUEST: Well, we had just moved, and we were looking for some filing cabinets. So we went to a sale of office equipment. And I liked the picture, and decided that we would buy it. It wasn't very expensive. And we bought the filing cabinets. Then it went upstairs to the loft, because some people didn't like it in my house. It goes up and down from the loft according to who has the more persuasive argument to bring it down.

APPRAISER: (chuckles) It's a great buy for $25. So you did some looking already about Antonio Martino. What can you tell me about him?

GUEST: Not very much. Just he was a local guy. I think he died in the '80s.

APPRAISER: Yeah, he was born in 1902 and he died in 1988. And as a painter, he had a long, successful career. He started having fairly good commercial success in 1925, and that continued through the '60s. This particular work is going to be from the '40s or later, more in his mature style. His early paintings look more like the Pennsylvania Impressionists that are quite famous, Redfield and Schofield, and those are the most successful works in the auction market.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: These later works you can see a bit of the cubist influence. The forms get a little more simplified, although the colors are still bright. This particular painting is titled on the back, "Gloucester, Mass.," so it tells us exactly where he is. I think at auction right now, for an oil painting like this, you're looking at about $5,000 to $7,000.

GUEST: Wow. Are you sure about that? Maybe it should go on the wall. (laughs) Oh wow, that's... That's fantastic.

GUEST: The album belonged to my aunt, Pearl Tucker. She's a colonel in the Air Force, she retired. Unfortunately, she passed away last week.

APPRAISER: Oh, I'm sorry.

GUEST: And so... at age 92. She was very involved in the aerospace program and started the aerospace nursing program to train nurses to take care of the astronauts, because she saw a need for that.

APPRAISER: Right, and that would be 1963, when she was assigned to do this.

GUEST: Right, mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: It looks like she made great associations with the astronauts. There's lots of personalized cards in the album.

GUEST: She would come in and train nurses. She usually had two nurses at a time that she'd train over a two-year period. And they learned everything: how to wear the uniform-- the pressure suits...

APPRAISER: So they actually would have to take pressure training?

GUEST: Yes, and altitude and anti-gravity, they had to do all of that.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: And they wore the suits, especially to know how to get the astronaut out of the suit upon recovery if something happened, if there was an accident.

APPRAISER: What is your aunt doing in this photo here? She's at sea.

GUEST: They had these amphibious vehicles that would go out and recover the astronauts...

APPRAISER: Oh.

GUEST: Say if the helicopter couldn't get to them fast enough. And so they usually had two very strong swimmers on those boats, of which Pearl did not swim. (chuckles)

APPRAISER: So now we have another task, she's doing sea rescue.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: Tell me about the menu you have here.

GUEST: Two days before their flight, they came in for training. Pearl decided that they needed a good breakfast. She took her china from home and brought it in, and she put together a nice breakfast and drew them this menu. She loved ducks, and she always illustrated things with ducks.

APPRAISER: It shows a real personal connection with them.

GUEST: Right. It was for Gemini IV, and the commander on Gemini IV would have been James McDivitt.

APPRAISER: Uh-huh.

GUEST: And Edward White…

APPRAISER: And Edward.

GUEST: …was the one that did the very first space walk. And McDivitt had to coax him back in because he apparently was having a good time.

APPRAISER: (laughs)

GUEST: Borman and Lovell were the backup crew.

APPRAISER: Later on, she's been with the mission for a while, and you see these astronauts here. You have Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, who were with the Apollo I disaster. Being close friends with them and that disaster, it was her job to help get them out of their flight suits after the disaster.

GUEST: Right, she did. And helped with the autopsies.

APPRAISER: Yeah, and so you can imagine what emotional trauma that would be, to take them out of their flight suits. How long have you had this?

GUEST: I've had it for probably five years now.

APPRAISER: Five years, okay. So she died, you say, in May. She's only been gone for about a week.

GUEST: Yes, yes, she's going to be interred in Arlington, with honors.

APPRAISER: In some sense, it's almost invaluable to our nation's history. But, you know, in reviewing all the material, I saw probably the most valuable pieces being personalized, signed things from the astronauts. I would say a value on this entire collection, with the album which you had brought in earlier, at auction, would be $20,000 to $30,000.

GUEST: Wow. (chuckling) Gee.

APPRAISER: If we're looking at a value of these objects here on the table, the collective of the original pieces would be this, this, and these photos here and the book, the value of that grouping would be $5,000 to $8,000.

GUEST: (chuckling) Wow. She'd be really happy.

GUEST: Well, it came to me by way of my mother by way of a Miss Betty Hazen. Betty was my mother's instructor at nursing school in Chester Hospital, and they became fast friends. Betty joined the army in the Second World War, joined the Army Nurse Corps, went to England, served at Eisenhower's headquarters, picked this thing up, and its sister, prior to returning home. That's the story I got. And I was never smart enough to ask exactly what is this. And it's been the subject of all manner of guesses. And one of my better friends told me it was an egg warmer. And so, henceforth it's been an egg warmer.

APPRAISER: Let's take it apart a bit. This is the top. And it just sits in here. It's not an egg warmer.

GUEST: All right.

APPRAISER: It's what we call a bough pot. B-O-U-G-H. It's made of what we call pearl-glazed earthenware. A bough pot is a device for growing and displaying bulb plants.

GUEST: Oh, okay.

APPRAISER: Think tulips or hyacinths. I would date this to about 1810 or so. We see bough pots occasionally, but almost always they're damaged. It's a rather fragile thing.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: It's very unusual to see one this appealing to the eye. It's just got everything you want as a piece of decorative ceramics. Most of it is transfer printing, but it also includes this painting. The oak leaf and acorn border here is painted on by hand, and all of these little Bacchanalian masks are picked out by hand in paint. Fabulous thing. Could only have been made in England, probably in the county of Staffordshire, by one of the manufacturers. We can't identify which one, but beautiful object. You mention that there was a sister.

GUEST: Yeah, there's a sister, it's slightly larger, probably a half-inch taller, half-inch wider.

APPRAISER: But everything else is the same?

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: This is very good news.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Because of the manufacturing techniques of ceramics this period, it could be a slight variation in size. They were designed to be in pairs. The backs are flat, it's designed to be one each side of a mantelpiece. Because of the fabulous condition, the decorative nature, and the early period, as a single item, I believe that in a good auction it could bring at least $1,000…

GUEST: Ok.

APPRAISER: …and maybe $1,500. If the other one proves to be a pair of originality, we would value the pair at more than twice that, perhaps between $2,500 and $3,500 for the pair.

GUEST: Good.

APPRAISER: You brought us in this great group of items from your dad, Randy Gumpert, who was a pitcher in his career. A 1930s Philadelphia A's jersey, a 1947 New York Yankees World Series ring, and 1958 New York Yankees cufflinks. Now your dad was a local boy from Birdsboro, but, obviously, he got around.

GUEST: Yes, he did. Well, his career started when he was 16 years old and went to pitch batting practice for the Athletics. Connie Mack hired him at 16, and he pitched batting practice for them for two seasons. And after he graduated from high school, Connie Mack hired him to pitch in the majors. Following his career with the Athletics, went to the minors, the war came. After the service, then he called the Yankees and said that he had kept in shape during the war and he was hoping that he would be able to play for them. And so he played for the Yankees in '46, '47, and '48, then went to play for the Red Sox, and for the White Sox, and then finally for the Washington Senators. And that's where he ended his career.

GUEST: Wow. He got his start with the Philadelphia A's team that was led by Connie Mack. They had just finished their second dynasty with Jimmie Foxx and Al Simmons, who were now long gone by the time he got on. And the Yankees, and then he ended up with the Senators, which was probably about as low as you could go.

APPRAISER: Yes, well daddy always said that that was the death-knell for a Major League ballplayer, if you wound up with the Senators, so yes.

GUEST: So what happened after that? He worked for the Yankees as a manager. He would go down to spring training as an instructor.

APPRAISER: Your dad started in 1936, and he went on to become a scout and a coach. When did his big league career end?

GUEST: Well, he was in baseball for 56 years. He was 76 when he retired.

APPRAISER: So, first of all, we have this great jersey, which is the A's from the 1930s. Now it's very unusual for a 16-year-old to get called up to pitch batting practice for any big league team, let alone the A's. This was his uniform, we believe…

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: …from pitching batting practice, because there's no number on the back. So this is his very first professional uniform at 16 years old. That's just amazing. So he goes from the A's, he goes to the Yankees, who were known, of course, as world champions, the great Yankees led by Joe DiMaggio, post-World War II, just coming back, and what happens? He gets a World Series ring in 1947. And, actually, that was the best part of his career, too.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: He had numerous wins for them until he hurt his arm. And that's when his career started going downhill, he started trying to throw a slider, right?

GUEST: Mh-hmm.

APPRAISER: He leaves his career as a player, but the Yankees love him, so he stays on-- correct?-- as a coach and a scout.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: The Yankees continue their dynasty, they win, win, win, win, win, win, win. 1958, they win, and he gets these great cufflinks.

GUEST: Mh-hmm.

APPRAISER: So you've got this plethora of great memories. So this is his career as a ballplayer. You know, he's 50-51 lifetime, as a player. So they would consider him a journeyman pitcher. And he even had other infamy in giving up Mickey Mantle's first home run in 1951 after he left the Yankees. So let's start with the uniform. This is going to actually be 1934, '35, at 16. It's very hard to find a Philadelphia A's uniform from that period of time. So, for insurance, it's $15,000, easily.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: Because find another one, it's nearly impossible. The cufflinks from 1958, they're great. People love to collect cufflinks, and they love Yankee cufflinks. These would be insured for about $10,000, okay?

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Now the ring is the most special of all, because it really in many ways is the pinnacle of his career, the pinnacle of anyone winning a World Championship, let alone for the Yankees in 1947, with Joe DiMaggio and company. This I would put an insurance value on of $50,000.

GUEST: Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. Thank you.

APPRAISER: So the total here would be $75,000.

GUEST: These uniforms, we have the two Yankee uniforms at home, we wore them for Halloween costumes.

APPRAISER: (laughs)

GUEST: We did.

HOST: You're watching ANTIQUES ROADSHOW from Harrisburg. What's your take on the show? Find us on Facebook and Twitter and join the conversation. Coming up, folks recap their ROADSHOW experience in the Feedback Booth, right after this.

HOST: And now, it's time for the ROADSHOW Feedback Booth.

GUEST 1: I picked this up at a souvenir shop, and it actually was for a dollar. I found out it's another dollar, so...

GUEST 2: She doubled her price.

GUEST 1: I doubled my profit!

GUEST: We got surprise tickets last night, when we met one of the appraisers. And even though our item-- this beautiful Rolling Stones record we found for free in the attic-- isn't worth anything, we're still super excited to be here.

GUEST 1: And I brought a bangle and some earrings.

GUEST 2: And I brought a bangle and some earrings.

GUEST 1: Mine are from India.

GUEST 2: Mine are from China.

GUEST 1: And we found out that they are worth more than we expected.

GUEST 2: So now we're going to take much better care of them.

GUEST 1: (chuckling) Yeah.

GUEST: I told my wife we're going to the ANTIQUES ROADSHOW and she went nuts.

GUEST: And I found out my costume jewelry was worth $400. Maya, you can wear it to the prom if you like.

GUEST: And I brought in a doorstop that was my grandmother's. And I found out that it's a doorstop. (chuckles)

GUEST: And I brought my family's heirloom Tiffany lamp to the ROADSHOW today. However, it is not a Tiffany lamp. It's a Duffner and Kimberly, about 100 years old, still worth $4,000 to $6,000. So I'm pretty happy. However, I also brought a little gold bracelet that came down in the family to me. It is vintage Tiffany, citrine, and it's worth about $1,000. I'm a happy camper. Thank you, ROADSHOW!

HOST: I'm Mark Walberg, thanks for watching. See you next time on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.

GUEST: I found this in the mud at night, and it was raining. I was running, and I stepped over it, and just happened to see a little piece of it sticking out. And something told me, "Just grab it," put it in my pocket, and I didn't even realize what I had till the next morning.

APPRAISER: It is inscribed, "To Rudy, from Rudolph Valentino, 1925." And it is quite common for people at the time in Hollywood to have gifts made to give people. I actually reached out to a couple people to see if we could figure out who the Rudy was, and no one knows. My guess is that this was a gift that he had made for cast and crew members. We did go over to the jewelry table and check it. It is sterling, it is not solid. And he said that's exactly what they would do if you wanted to order something that had a certain price point, which again makes sense if this was a gift that he ordered bulk to give to people. So all of that said, he didn't personally wear it, but it's still a gift from Rudolph Valentino. At auction, we'd put an estimate of between $2,000 to $3,000 on it.

GUEST: Okay. Well that's great. That's good news.

GUEST: It's a quilt that my mother- and father-in-law designed and quilted. They wanted to make an entry in the Chicago World's Fair in 1933. The theme was the Century of Progress.

APPRAISER: In each one of the squares they wanted to show an old and a new. They have a central piece in the middle of a gorgeous 1930s woman. And then four notable men: we have Edison, Abraham Lincoln, FDR, and Lindbergh. Around the outside are names of inventors, scientists, people who moved and shaped industry and scientific discovery in that 100 years. This is just wonderfully thought out and very sophisticated and thoughtful design. I know it didn't win, and I know it didn't even make the contest deadline.

GUEST: No.

APPRAISER: But for replacement value, I would place $12,000 replacement value on this.

GUEST: Right, that's great.

GUEST: My parents had it in their home for as long as I can remember.

APPRAISER: Many times when people inherit rugs, they equate size with value. This piece is a tribal weaving called a balisht, and it was originally a bag, probably a grain bag.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: Beautiful, natural dyes that show that it's from the turn of the century. I would say a collector would pay between $2,000 and $2,500 retail for a piece like this.

GUEST: Wonderful.

APPRAISER: It's got all the spirit that you want to find in a small tribal piece.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

Learn more about vintage and antique items in Harrisburg such as the 1963 - 1968 NASA archive of Pearl Tucker, a painted "Bucher" box made around 1800, and a Randy Gumpert Baseball archive. One of these is appraised for $75,000!

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