HOST: ANTIQUES ROADSHOW has high expectations for Palm Springs, California.

APPRAISER: Did he let you take the painting on deposit and then pay him later?

GUEST: Yes. He knew where we lived. (laughter)

APPRAISER: It does soften the blow, doesn't it?

GUEST: It does, every time.

HOST: Taking the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway up Mount San Jacinto, one gets a breathtaking glimpse of the cliffs of Chino Canyon, and the desert valley below. Down at the ROADSHOW, appraiser Laura Woolley holds this treasure from another California tourist attraction in high esteem. Take a look.

GUEST: I moved into a house in Orange back in 1970. And the lady who sold me the house had these up in the attic. And her husband had worked for Disneyland during the construction of Disneyland, and these were drawings that he was given to use for the actual construction. He's one of the carpenters that worked on the buildings. They were just in a box in the attic. I dug them out, and I said, "Is this something you want?" She goes, "No, no, no, you can have them. It's fine."

APPRAISER: So they came with the house?

GUEST: They came with the house, yeah.

APPRAISER: So how many do you have?

GUEST: I think about 15 all together.

APPRAISER: Wow, so you brought two.

GUEST: We brought two, we have different sizes-- small ones. And some of them had the plastic, you know, sheets where there were two layers put over it.

APPRAISER: And are they all kind of building elevations or...

GUEST: Well, they're booths, and then the buildings, and then Mr. Toad's Wild Ride was a little more different... they're different shapes and sizes, but same concept.

APPRAISER: I got really excited when I saw these because they're so bright and colorful and cheery. Yeah. And they had a really talented staff of people at Disney who knew how to make things look appealing. So that's... there's a reason that they're so visually engaging. What's really interesting is these are from Fantasyland. So they're early. We can date these to the early '50s because they were in construction at that time with the park opening in 1955.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: So I would guess that this being Fantasyland, it's probably '53, '54. And these are not original drawings. I mean they're architectural elevations, so it was done in a reproductive process. However, they are painted.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: And so, these are obviously showing the carpenters what colors go where to direct them in the construction. Which is really fantastic, and vintage Disneyland material is extraordinarily hot right now.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: And this is even better because it's specific to the construction, and we know it was used on site because this is my favorite part. I mean at the time, I'm sure whoever did this maybe was yelled at for sticking their paint can on it, but that's fantastic for a collector because we know that he used this on site, and there went the paint can. There's a lot of hand notations on it. I think they're pretty fantastic, they're striking. Some things like this do come up-- elevation drawings for different aspects of Disneyland. And for these specifically-- the Peter Pan ride and the Mickey Mouse Theater-- at auction, I would expect these to sell between $3,000 and $5,000 apiece.

GUEST: Whoa. (laughs) That surprises me, I didn't have any idea.

APPRAISER: Being so early, and Fantasyland being so colorful like a carnival, they have a lot of wall power.

GUEST: Hon-Chew was a friend of my father's. And they met in Hawaii. And he studied at the California School of Fine Arts. Then he went to France and studied with Léger. And then he went back to Hawaii. And I knew him as Uncle Hon-Chew. Probably his most famous student was Jacqueline Kennedy. He taught her watercolor in Hawaii. He came to our wedding, and we visited his studio about this time, I don't remember the date exactly, because we went every summer to Hawaii with our kids. I saw this painting, and I just fell in love with it. And we bought it from him. We've hung it in our home since then.

APPRAISER: Do you remember what you paid for the painting?

GUEST: We paid $1,000.

APPRAISER: I saw the inscription on the back of the stretcher bar.

GUEST (laughing): Yes.

APPRAISER: I saw that you made a $200 deposit.

GUEST: Yes, we did. (laughs)

APPRAISER: Did he let you take the painting on deposit and then pay him later?

GUEST: Yes, yes. He knew where we lived. (laughter)

APPRAISER: Well, I think he's a fascinating character, like a truly international person.

GUEST: Yes, he was.

APPRAISER: You know, born in Hawaii, then living in China.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: Taking that sort of school of thought and training with Chinese brush painting. Then as you say, off to San Francisco, at 14 apparently, at the San Francisco Art Institute.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: And I think that that in and of itself is an interesting education, but then there's the time that he spent in New York training there, and then also obviously in Paris. And as you say, I think the influence by Léger is very apparent in his work.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: This particular painting is oil on canvas and dated 1981. His market has done nothing but go up for years now.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: And interestingly, it's a market that is localized in Hong Kong.

GUEST: Really, wow.

APPRAISER: I think somewhat a reflection again of his sort of international character. He has an audience that is more of a global audience than a localized audience.

GUEST: I didn't know that.

APPRAISER: I think at auction right now, in Hong Kong, a very conservative auction estimate would be $40,000 to $60,000.

GUEST: Whoa. (laughing) Oh, thank you Uncle Hon-Chew. That's great. Thank you very much. Oh, my goodness.

APPRAISER: We had to bite our tongue when you pulled it out of the box. (laughter) We didn't want to let the cat out of the bag.

GUEST: That's my sister and my brother.

APPRAISER: Taken... taken by you with this camera when you were 12 years old. It's in as great a condition as you are, so.

GUEST: (laughing): Wow, thank you.

GUEST: And Louis B. Mayer found her in Sweden, brought her over for the movies, but she needed an interpreter because she didn't speak a word of English.

APPRAISER: You paid between $100 and $200 for it? If you were buying this in a shop today, probably have to pay somewhere between $300 and $500 for it. So you did a good job.

GUEST: For a kid!

APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: I struck gold!

APPRAISER: Absolutely.

GUEST: Well, they were used as Christmas ornaments, and they were my mother's. And I'm not sure where she got them, but I've since inherited them.

APPRAISER: Well, collectors nowadays aren't buying large things, they're buying small things. In my opinion, these were all made in Germany, probably around 1900, 1910. They're just absolutely wonderful and very difficult to find. I would believe in a retail setting, the whole group of them would be close to $5,000.

GUEST: Wow. That's interesting.

GUEST: This piece here was given to me by my best friend and his brother. When their parents passed away, they knew I always had liked it, and so they asked me if I would like it. They said it belonged in my house. I think they paid $1,500 for it. And it was on a... onyx pedestal that was beautiful also. I just couldn't carry both pieces in today. I just love her; I love the detail on her. I think she's just gorgeous. I didn't know anything about it. They didn't know anything about it. So in my attempt to find out, I took a paper with a charcoal carbon, so I could make out the signature and the name at the bottom, and then found out it was done by Del Panta in the 1800s. I just love her. The little doll dressed in the same outfit she is, the wrinkles in her stocking and that... It's a beautiful piece.

APPRIASER: You know, it really is a beautiful piece. And one of the things that really got our attention right away was where the artist signed it. So right at the little girl's feet it almost looks like there's a calling card that has fallen to the ground. It also says "Firenze," which is Florence.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: And it's dated. Most likely made of Carrara marble, which was sort of the finest quality marble. And during this timeframe, in Florence and in Rome, you had artists' studios who were working on these wonderful marble figures. And it's interesting, some artists at the end of the 19th century considered it inferior to actually touch the work.

GUEST: Oh wow.

APPRAISER: So in some cases, the artist's hands never touched the sculpture, and it was a workshop of highly skilled artisans and craftsmen who were making these. She is wearing this beautiful feathered hat, and so is the little baby girl as well. The title is Colazione, which is Italian for "breakfast."

GUEST: Oh, okay.

APPRIASER: So she's here, she's having breakfast, she's got her favorite doll dressed in the same outfit. It really is absolutely beautiful.

GUEST: Thank you.

APPRAISER: The detail of the craftsmanship is really wonderful. The hands, also the hands of the doll. Moving down the feet, as well as her feet, the whole thing. The buttons and the ruffles in her dress. And even at the base with the scrolling and the foliate scrolls. It's just really wonderful. One thing that I wanted to point out to you is I'm sure you can see there's almost this sort of what we call a sugary or a crystalline surface to it. That's indicative of having it cleaned and maybe just a little bit overcleaned.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: You want a much smoother, warmer surface to it. But still, that's a minor issue. I'll give it a quick spin so we can just see the quality goes all the way around. Even on the back her dress, it's just wonderful. And the way that her hair falls.

GUEST: And the... the lace of the petticoat, I mean it looks like real lace.

APPRIASER: Oh, it's absolutely beautiful.

GUEST: It's amazing, yeah.

APPRAISER: What's interesting is the artist is sort of secondary to the quality of the piece. We know it was made in Florence in a wonderful workshop, but it's really the quality of the subject matter, and the carving, and the size, she's wonderful. If I were to see this come up for auction today, I believe it would sell for between $12,000 and $18,000.

GUEST: Oh really, okay. Wow, that's great. She's a pretty girl. Very happy, very well pleased.

APPRAISER: For insurance purposes, you're probably looking closer to $25,000.

GUEST: Okay. All right. Wow. (laughs)

GUEST: It was a personal item from Ginger Rogers, whom I worked for for 18 years. I got it from the estate after she passed away.

APPRAISER: And you have some documentation that goes with it?

GUEST: I do. She was building a new home in Beverly Hills in 1937, and I found the invoice receipt from the furniture maker with this chair listed on there. So that was pretty cool.

APPRAISER: And how much was it in 1937, do you remember?

GUEST: $95.

APPRAISER: What did you pay for it?

GUEST: Truthfully, I don't remember. It was with a group of other pieces of furniture, but I imagine it was around $100.

APPRAISER: How was it working for Miss Rogers?

GUEST: Well, it was an experience that I'll never forget. I got to travel with her all over the world, and meet all sorts of famous and interesting people. I got to go to the White House several times, the Academy Awards. So it was quite an experience. And besides that, she was a very, very nice person.

APPRAISER: As you know, it's a reproduction.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: It's not an antique piece. It's a reproduction of a style that was very popular in London in the early 1800s. It was first published by the firm of Morgan and Sanders in 1811. It would appear to be a Regency armchair, but it isn't, it's a metamorphic library chair. It has a secret.

GUEST: Yes, it does.

APPRAISER: It was designed to be used in the library of a fine home where you could sit and read in the chair. Or if you needed to reach the books on the higher shelves, it becomes steps.

GUEST: A ladder, woohoo!

APPRAISER: A ladder. (chuckling) How cool is that?

GUEST: It is very cool.

APPRAISER: If we take a quick look at it here, we can see it's got a modern piano hinge. It was made by Albert Wein in California in 1937.

GUEST: Yes, he made all of the furniture for her brand new house, so he made about 50 different pieces of furniture all with this... I guess it's honey curly maple?

APPRAISER: The wood is maple, yes.

GUEST: Oh, okay good.

APPRAISER: As a reproduction chair, without the provenance, it's not worth very much. It's a very cool as a piece of metamorphic furniture, collectors love it. But it's maybe $400 as a reproduction.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: The value here is in the story. So I would say in a retail situation, this chair would sell for in the $1,500 price range.

GUEST: Wow, I'm sure she'd be very pleased. (laughs)

APPRAISER: Now if you could find a photograph of Miss Rogers sitting in this chair.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER That would boost the value even more, to maybe $2,000 or more. If you could find an old video of Miss Rogers coming down the chair backwards in high heels, that would boost the value more.

GUEST: That would be terrific.

APPRAISER: So you have your doll baby.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: Was she your doll when you were young?

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: Oh, that's cool.

GUEST: I have no idea what it is, but I would love to know more about it.

APPRAISER: I do.

GUEST: Good. (chuckles)

APPRAISER: It's made to look old, but it's not old.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: This is what we call a wag-on-the-wall because it's without a case. When they're in a case they're highly decorated with paint. They have this waist that comes down like this, and it bows out, and it has a glass so you can see this pendulum swing back and forth inside of it. And it's such a big pendulum that it needs a side belly.

GUEST: This was in my uncle's house for many, many years. And the artist actually lived about three houses down from my uncle, and this is my uncle.

APPRAISER: Really?

GUEST: Uh-huh. And he was the head of the humanities department at Oklahoma State.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: And Doel Reed was the head of an art and painting and drawing at the same place. This hung in my uncle's home for many, many, many years, and I inherited it. And then Doel was really more known for a printer type artist, and this is one of his aquatints. And this was a wedding present.

APPRAISER: Oh, okay. This is an interesting comparison for a number of reasons. Doel Reed's paintings are best known for his Taos landscapes.

GUEST: Right, right.

APPRAISER: It's not a typical subject for him.

GUEST: No.

APPRAISER: It's clearly not Taos.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: But it's a great picture. And what makes it interesting is his paintings don't come up much.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: This is an aquatint, as you rightly said. This is the work he's known for. He's known as a printmaker, most of the awards he received over the decades were for his printmaking.

GUEST: Correct.

APPRAISER: Having said that, the values are very different. For the oil painting, if you were to sell this at auction today, you'd be looking about $4,000 to $6,000.

GUEST: Oh good, okay.

APPRAISER: It's a wonderful, one-of-a-kind object.

GUEST: Correct.

APPRAISER: The print, even though this is the work he's known for, it's a multiple. So many of these were done. So the value is going to be less. So if you were to sell this at auction, you'd probably be looking about $500 to $700.

GUEST: Okay.

GUEST: Well, I received this vase about 30 years ago from a real estate client in Miami Beach. It was actually a gift from the father of the first sale I ever made-- the daughter. I sold her a condo.

APPRAISER: Well that's pretty exciting. How much was the condo?

GUEST: $48,000.

APPRAISER: And this was the gift.

GUEST: This was the gift.

APPRAISER: And when you got the gift, what'd they tell you they gave you?

GUEST: It was art glass.

APPRAISER: Yes.

GUEST: He's collected art glass, and he had too many pieces, and he just wanted to give me one of them.

APPRAISER: Well, that was very nice.

GUEST: It was a difficult sale, so...

APPRAISER: It was a diff... (laughs) You know, that would be great if people gave you a hard time and then they give you a present afterwards.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: It does soften the blow, doesn't it?

GUEST: It does, every time.

APPRAISER: Do you know where this was made?

GUEST: Not really, I kind of guessed maybe Italy.

APPRAISER: All right, well you are right.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: It is an Italian vase. And it was designed by Fulvio Bianconi, and it was made by a master glassworker at the Venini workshops in Murano.

GUEST: Oh wow.

APPRAISER: And probably made in the early 1950s. It's interesting because the shape is very elegant, very Italian. The type of decoration is also very Italian. What's interesting about this is it's tall, it's elegant, and it's actually probably meant to mimic the female form.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: Ordinarily when I see a vase in this shape, I'd say, "Oh, it's a double gourd." But Bianconi was known for designing vases that were made that were in the shape of the female form. What I want to show everyone, which is so lovely, is that now we're looking at it from this aspect, and then when you turn it this way, now it's wider and this is narrower. And it's... it's a very clever idea, and you get the... you feel it's sort of the sensuality of the female form. And looks like she has a little waistline.

GUEST: Yes, it does.

APPRAISER: Now the type of glass-- and you mentioned that-- the technique that was used to make this was called zanfirico. And zanfirico was typified by fusing together of glass canes. And they're long glass canes, and that's why you see these long lines in here. This particular one is probably one of the rette-- R-E-T-T-E-- configurations, and it's a diagonal one. Beautifully done, beautifully rendered. And it's interesting because you've seen this form, and we've seen it in the marketplace. But we've never seen it paired with the zanfirico technique. And it was very difficult to figure out what would something like this be worth because it's something we can't find anywhere.

GUEST: Oh wow.

APPRAISER: I spoke with one of my colleagues, who is very well versed in this, and he concluded in the end that in a retail venue, something like this could sell for $65,000.

GUEST: $65,000?

APPRAISER: Yes, yes, yes.

GUEST: Wow. (laughs)

APPRAISER: It's very special. And the reason is that this market...

GUEST: (exhales) (laughs) Sorry. (laughs)

APPRAISER: I didn't mean to cut you off.

GUEST: Okay. (exhales)

APPRAISER: This market has been seeing enormous jumps in it. Like just crazy. And we think the reason is that the people who are collecting contemporary art are now looking at the glass. The pieces have been getting these amazing pushes. Things that were selling for low thousands are now bringing tens of thousands of dollars. And there's even an instance where something has brought a quarter of a million dollars.

GUEST: (laughing) Thank you, Arlie.

APPRAISER: You're so welcome. It's really fun to give good news.

GUEST: It's great news.

APPRAISER: It's kind of fun that it's worth more than the condo that you sold.

GUEST: Yeah.

GUEST: My aunt passed away several years ago, and my cousin, who lives in Europe, has her jewelry. And one day when I was visiting he said, "Would you be interested having a couple of my mother's rings?" And I said, "Yes, I would love it." She was my favorite aunt.

APPRAISER: Oh, well, that's a very nice keepsake to have. And where did your aunt live?

GUEST: She lived in Holland, the Netherlands.

APPRAISER: She lived in Holland, the Netherlands.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: I believe the ring must have been her husband's. But I'm not sure of that.

APPRAISER: Well, they're two really lovely examples. And the reason why we're showing both of these is because they are similarly related in terms of time period. So the first ring here is a snake ring. And this is in gold. And the snake many times was used as a betrothal ring. It's a symbol of eternity, especially when the snake is biting its tail.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: So eternal love, and the cycle of life. Beginning and end. So many times you see this symbol used. It's an ancient symbol, but you will see this even in 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.

GUEST: I love it, oh how nice.

APPRAISER: So it's a lovely example here. This piece dates from about 1740 to 1760. So it's quite old. And they're quite rare. The next ring you brought here, this is a gentleman's ring.

GUESR: That's what I thought. I wasn't sure.

APPRAISER: And this has a garnet in the center, it's a table-cut garnet.

GUEST: It's a garnet.

APPRAISER: And this would also date from the mid-1700 to late 1700s. So it's quite rare to find a ring in this good condition.

GUEST: It could have been his father's, but I don't know.

APPRAISER: And it was typically worn on the index finger.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: So you can see there's a little bit of enameling work here. It's worn off over time, but it was engraved and enameled. But one of the really beautiful parts of this ring that I loved that got me...

GUEST: Me too, me too.

APPRAISER: ...excited, was the background.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: So when you look behind the ring, you can see there's this engraved line that's been enameled on the inside.

GUEST: Yes, yes.

APPRAISER: And that's very indicative of rings of this particular period. And also it's a technique you do see with a lot of Dutch pieces. Now there are no hallmarks here, but that's not unusual.

GUEST: Wow. I thought it was an initial, and then it's almost like a tattoo, you know, on the ring.

APPRAISER: Yeah, it's a very delicate design.

GUEST: Yeah, I love it. It's quite lovely.

APPRAISER: Exactly. So I would say the items most likely are from Holland, they're Dutch in origin, or they could be from the continent, from Europe. So now in terms of value, if you had to go to a dealer in antique and estate jewelry who dealt in very fine pieces such as this, the snake ring I would estimate somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500.

GUEST: Really?!

APPRAISER: Just because of rarity.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: You know, as I say, we never see these because they don't... typically don't survive. Survive, yeah. And this ring here-- with the garnet, the enamel, gorgeous piece-- I would estimate this at auction somewhere between $5,000 and $7,000.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: They're extremely fine examples.

GUEST: Yeah. Thank you.

GUEST: I knew I had a great-grandmother, her name was Bessica Raiche, but I didn't know the details behind it until probably ten years ago when my mom brought her to my attention. She said that we had all these artifacts of hers.

APPRAISER: Who was Bessica, what did she do?

GUEST: She was the first woman aviator.

APPRAISER: In the United States.

GUEST: In the United States, yes. She built, designed her own planes, and flew them. Her and her husband did. When their first plane was built they actually built it in her house. And they come to find out that they couldn't get it out, so they had to tear the front of the house off to get it out.

APPRAISER: That's just amazing. When did she take her first flight?

GUEST: 1910.

APPRAISER: In a plane that she built and designed herself.

GUEST: Actually, her first flight I think was in 1908, and that was with... in a biplane, and I think she got the flying bug and built her own plane. Her first solo flight was in 1910.

APPRAISER: I understand she was also a medical doctor.

GUEST: Yeah, she was a doctor before she became an aviator, and then due to health reasons, she had to quit the aviation business, and she went back into her medical practice.

APPRAISER: Until today, I'd never heard of your illustrious great-grandmother either.

GUEST: And many people haven't. (chuckles)

APPRAISER: How can this be that America's first female aviator is virtually unknown, outside of a tiny circle of aviation aficionados?

GUEST: I have no idea.

APPRAISER: Well, here you brought with us today this early medal that designates that she is America's first woman aviator. On the back of the medal it's dated 1910.

GUEST: Correct.

APPRAISER: You brought a picture of Bessica Raiche.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: There she is in her plane.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And over here, in the air.

GUEST: Exactly. And the most amazing thing about it is nobody knows who she is.

APPRAISER: Well, I'm hoping that through our conversation maybe we can change that just a little bit.

GUEST: It would be nice.

APPRAISER: One of the items you brought is this letter from another rather famous gentleman, Harry Houdini.

GUEST: Yes, yes, and he was also an accomplished pilot. And if you notice on the bottom of the letter here, it says the "first successful aviator in Australia."

APPRAISER: (laughing) I had no idea Harry Houdini was a pilot. He's better known for other things.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: But you have a treasure trove of all kinds of artifacts, and images and other related material to her early aviation pioneer career.

GUEST: Yes, we do. We have quite a bit of it. Unfortunately, her husband, when they divorced, he ended up burning a lot of the stuff-- plane drawings, the designs. He sat in front of the fireplace and said that, "We don't need this anymore," and threw them... you know, threw them in the fire and burned them.

APPRAISER: Oh, my goodness, that... that's... maybe that helps explain why she's not as famous as she deserves to be.

GUEST: Could very well be.

APPRAISER: Interestingly, the letter is not addressed to your great-grandmother. The value of a Harry Houdini letter is in the $2,000 to $3,000 range at retail. For the collection we have before us, I think a valuation at retail would be $5,000.

GUEST: Okay. Very good.

APPRAISER: When you think of Winchester you think of arms and military, yeah, you think of guns and swords and all that stuff. You don't necessarily think of carving sets. One sold at auction in 2013 for ten dollars.

GUEST: It was two of the three pieces. My grandparents, my grandmother got this from my great-grandfather, I believe, as a wedding gift.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: And that's the little note that I found in the bottom of it.

APPRAISER: Very important to keep little notes in there.

GUEST: Yeah.

GUEST: This is... my dad got it in the navy back in the '40s, in World War II. And that's about all I know about it. It's a telescope or from a ship.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: My wife and I bought it at an auction probably a couple years ago. We got a pair of them, and we think they might be possibly Herter.

APPRAISER: I'm happy to report to you that your assumption of them being Herter Brothers is absolutely correct.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: So Herter Brothers was the pre-eminent cabinetmakers, decorators of the 19th century, and they furnished the wealthiest Americans of the gilded age. With the painted plaque, the acanthus leaf that comes down off the crest, this arch back here, and then one thing that's very typical of Herter Brothers, the way these arms pop out. Very typical, you don't see that. It's complicated. We come down, you see this... where this almost explosion, it's almost a cornucopia with this face looking up into the sky. Fabulous condition. But there's even one thing that's even better.

GUEST: Yeah?

APPRAISER: And if we turn it upside down... ...you can see a number stamped right here.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: So there is a new body of work that's being developed by a collector of 19th century furniture. He is funding this project on his own, documenting these numbers because they tell a story about what time frame furniture was made, but also who it was made for. I happened to call that person today after we met. The number 1206 is four digits off of the bedroom set made for the Darius Ogden Mills house in San Mateo, California. And it's interesting, at Palm Springs, the last time we were here, there was a table by Herter Brothers that came out of the Mills house that surfaced here. So that's just a mystery to me how these pieces got to Palm Springs. But the condition, the fact that it's here in California, and the fact that we can connect that to the Darius Ogden Mills house makes it a very important chair.

GUEST: Wow. That's incredible.

APPRAISER: So what did you pay for them?

GUEST: I believe we paid about $1,200 for the pair at the auction.

APPRAISER: Okay. Well, I'm happy to report to you that I believe they will sell relatively easily at auction for $8,000 to $12,000.

GUEST: (chuckles) That's incredible.

GUEST: I acquired this from a client of mine, I'm a hairdresser. And I was working with Brooke Shields in New York on the Broadway production of Grease. At the end of her run of that show, she surprised me by coming in the dressing room, and she pulled this gown out and told me that if I could fit into it and wear it before she left the show, I could have it. So she knew that I did a lot of benefits for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, and that I could use it to encourage more donations for the fund. Her last night of the show at curtain call, I got dressed up, and much to her surprise, gave her a beautiful bouquet of white flowers, all dressed up in her dress. And she was kind enough to autograph it for me, and few weeks later, I met Bob Mackie at another benefit, and he autographed the dress for me as well after noticing that I had altered the belt that he had with it and turned it into an evening gloves for the gown, which he kind of liked, I think, at the moment. And he also offered to send me a copy of the sketch that he had done for the gown originally. This is a picture of myself and Brooke the night that I gave her the flowers and said goodbye to her on Broadway.

APPRAISER: It's amazing. What was it like working with Brooke Shields?

GUEST: She is absolutely one of the most charming, professional, giving people I have ever worked with. She... she's very down to earth, but also, at the same time, every day was trying to make one bit of phrasing on her music better, making a line reading better. She was always working to improve and make herself better in the role.

APPRAISER: Well, we all know who Bob Mackie is. He's kind of a legend in the business, isn't he? He did the Carol Burnett Show.

GUEST: For years.

APPRAISER: Cher was one of his biggest customers. All of the amazing sexy dresses that he created for Cher.

GUEST: And Mitzi Gaynor.

APPRAISER: Mitzi Gaynor.

GUEST: More recently RuPaul.

APPRAISER: Yes. And Dolly Parton said Bob Mackie made her look beautiful and feel like a lady because he was so incredible. What was it that they called him, the glitter...

GUEST: The Sultan of Sequins.

APPRAISER: That's right, the Sultan of Sequins. When you see the beadwork up close, you notice that he has used the bugle beads in many different ways. They're actually in almost like a diamond shape, and they're also done right across the body. So you get many different qualities to the depth of the gown because of the way he fashioned the beadwork.

GUEST: Which is interesting in the sketch, too, just by the way the lines are drawn in the sketch you can see the play and the way the beads are sewn.

APPRAISER: I love this sketch, and the long... look how long he makes Brooke Shields look. And, of course, Brooke Shields is tall in herself.

GUEST: And she was only I think 16 or 17 when this gown was made for her, she was very young.

APPRAISER: This dress actually was made for Brooke Shields in the 1980s. You have this amazing dress that has not only Bob Mackie's label in it, but also his signature. You also got Brooke's signature.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: And it's in a more daring place, it's actually...

GUEST: Well, she did it right after this picture was taken, and yeah, with an ink pen that she had, and it's right in the bosom.

APPRAISER: Right here, right in the bosom, that's right. "Brooke Shields." It's a little faded from...

GUEST: The ink pen, unfortunately, hasn't held up as good as the Sharpie did.

APPRAISER: Well, just being a Bob Mackie gown, a gown like this sells on the secondary market for $1,000 to $1,500.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: But there's a big difference in this because you have a signature from Brooke, you have the signature of Bob Mackie, and you have this wonderful illustration all put together that creates a wonderful part of fashion history. And so at auction, I would believe that this would probably bring $7,500.

GUEST: (laughs) That's pretty amazing, thank you.

APPRAISER: So isn't that a great gift?

GUEST: That's the best gift ever-- thanks, Brooke. (laughter)

GUEST: It came from a family bible. I think it was my great-aunt. Before my mom died, she told my husband, "Go through my things very carefully." He pulled out an old bible, and he found this. It was folded up very small, it was like an... like an onion skin type paper. We thought it was pretty, so we had it framed. My husband really likes old maps anyway, so...

APPRAISER: Well, I have to tell you, that beginning the seasons, appraisers often think, "What would I like to walk in this year?" And this is actually one of the things I hoped would walk in. It is the United States in 1833. You can see down here is the date.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: But with the image of an eagle put over it. And it's by a man who was named Joseph Churchman. And he did a book for students, basically, and it says down here that it was for the "rudiments of national knowledge." And the title went on to say, "presented to the youth of the United States, and inquiring foreigners." And so it was a book basically to present geographic and political information about the United States. What's interesting is that he said that he was looking at a map of the United States, and because of the shadows and things, he thought he saw a bird. And he thought, "Oh, that's silly to put in," but he thought, you know what, it actually might help people learn about the United States' shape if they have an interesting image on it. And so he drew this image of a bird over the United States. I mean the geographic information is in there. And you can see each state is outlined. But over this he put the wings, and you can see the feathers down here. Down for Florida he has the claw. One thing he did say is just so you notice, he couldn't fit in Maine. And in the book he said he hoped that the citizens of Maine wouldn't be offended. But they could maybe think of themselves as a liberty cap on the top of the head of the eagle. Now it's unique partly because... well, he's the one who came up with the idea. But also very soon after the shape of the United States changed. One of the prominent things is in 1845, this whole area of Texas was sort of the United States. And you didn't have the same shape anymore. It is rare, it is spectacular, and meaningful in its appearance, which makes it very desirable. And there is nothing else quite like it. So now you had some sense of what you thought it might be worth, and what do you think?

GUEST: I mean... Well, we looked a little bit online, and we thought maybe around $1,500, I don't know.

APPRAISER: It's actually worth quite a bit more than that. It just doesn't come up. When it comes on the market, everybody wants it. They look at it and say, "I got to have that." So a retail value now-- fairly aggressive but fair-- would be about $25,000.

GUEST: Wow. (chuckles) That's pretty... that's surprising, for sure. I had no idea really.

APPRAISER: If there was one map of the United States I'd like to own, this would be it. It's just such a cool image.

GUEST: I grew up in Switzerland, and my parents started collecting Chinese art in the 1950s. My father went to China in 1964. And I don't know if he purchased this in China or if he purchased it through a dealer in London that my parents bought a lot of items from.

APPRAISER: This is a jade point set into a bronze shaft. And it's hard to imagine now that this was a richly embellished object. And underneath the encrustation, there very likely are inlays of gold...

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: ...and silver. Certainly turquoise. And a very complex interwoven pattern likely incorporating dragons, fantastic animals weaving in and out in this kind of lacy design. Now this was not meant to be actually used as a spear point because it would have been attached to a wooden shaft. But this was meant...

GUEST: That's why the holes.

APPRAISER: That's why the holes there, exactly.

GUEST: I see.

APPRAISER: This was meant for ritual purposes, and it was actually included in a tomb. So the two great periods for the creation of ancient bronzes in China for ritual purposes were the Shang dynasty, followed by the Zhou dynasty-- spelled Z-H-O-U. Now the Zhou dynasty begins in 1046 and goes to 770 B.C.

GUEST: Oh my goodness. (laughs)

APPRAISER: We're talking about a very ancient object here.

Guest: Yes.

APPRAISER: So it's not surprise that we have this kind of reaction to the surface. For years and years and years, these tombs lay undisturbed throughout the Chinese countryside, but in the late 19th century, they started to build a railway system and a road system through the countryside. And in the process, they were unearthing early works of art that were in tombs that were in the way of the construction. Many of those objects formed the core of what we see in the great Western museums throughout the world. Almost none of these retained that jade spear point. You find them not only in spears, but knives. Most often this part doesn't survive. The fact that these two have survived intact is pretty unusual.

GUEST: That's great.

APPRAISER: What do you think this is worth?

GUEST: $20,000?

APPRAISER: You are great. It's worth about $20,000 to $30,000 at auction.

GUEST: Wow. That's wonderful.

GUEST: I picked them up back in about 1970.

APPRAISER: Uh-huh.

GUEST: And at an antique show, and I paid probably about $15 for them.

APPRAISER: I would think in a shop, $150, $200 for the pair.

GUEST: Good deal, then.

APPRAISER: Well, I would say it's English.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: And it's papier maché.

GUEST: Oh, it's papier maché, okay.

APPRAISER: And I would say it's probably about 1880, something like that.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: Hold your wine.

GUEST: I'll hold the wine. Here.

GUEST: I got it at an estate sale in the '80s. We don't really know exactly how much we paid for it. Probably between $800 and $1,200, but we got a lot of other stuff as well. I was actually there for the tea cups.

APPRAISER: The tea cups.

GUEST: The tea cups.

APPRAISER: You still have the tea cups?

GUEST: I still have the tea cups.

APPRAISER: Oh gosh, oh gosh. So do you know anything about the ring?

GUEST: I know nothing about the ring, I thought it was a fake.

APPRAISER: Right. So... Let's break the ice right off the bat. It's not fake.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: It's real.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: The color's nice, got this deep-- what we call even distribution, this nice saturation. Now, if you notice, the stone is smooth on top. That's what we call cabochon. The reason a lot of these stones are cut cabochon is because emeralds can have a lot of inclusions in them. And what we do is backlight it like that, and you can see it's what we call a garden. There's a lot of things going on inside. But that type of material lends itself better to being cut as a cabochon than if it was faceted. In this case it works wonderfully. Now you have a platinum ring around it, not white gold. But what drew me to the ring design-wise, strong Deco influences. If you notice the two rows coming off of the center, they're square diamonds. But they're square from a very certain period, they're called modified French cuts. We always see them in really in period jewelry. They're hard to find today, they don't cut them anymore. It's not marked, so you wonder, hey, where was this ring made? Usually the European stuff is hallmarked, and quite heavily. So I would say this ring was probably made in the United States. Any thoughts on what your $800 fake ring is worth today?

GUEST: No. No thoughts at all.

APPRAISER: All right, so I think today if you put it into an auction, it would be worth $4,000 to $6,000.

GUEST: Wow. Not bad. Not bad.

GUEST: Well I brought in my four-time great-grandmother's christening certificate. That's pretty much all I know about it other than they lived in Pennsylvania, so I'm assuming it's a Pennsylvania Dutch piece.

APPRAISER: Well we see the writing to begin with, and it's clearly all in German. And if you were living in Berks County, Pennsylvania in the late 18th century, you were speaking and writing German.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: So when did they come to America?

GUEST: I believe it was mid-1700s, rather. Mid-1700s.

APPRAISER: Okay, well, we actually can identify an artist here. Oh, my goodness. He's called the CM artist. It refers to his initials. His name was Christian Mertel, and he was born in Germany in the 1730s, came to America in 1773.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: So we know quite a lot about him. After he came to America, he became a teacher and a maker of fraktur, and that's what this is. And it was very, very popular in the German communities in Pennsylvania in the late 17th, early 18th century.

GUEST: Oh, my goodness.

APPRAISER: The first thing we see, there's the unicorn.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And the unicorn was a symbol of good luck.

GUEST: Okay. We also see a lion wearing a crown.

APPRAISER: So that's a reference to old world, and his German roots.

GUEST: Oh, okay.

APPRAISER: Up here: beautiful birds. So this is a joyful event. And you see that it's very early, she was born when?

GUEST: 1784.

APPRAISER: 1784. Date is right here. And I find it very interesting that they note in here her exact hour of her birth.

GUEST: I know, I noticed that.

APPRAISER: We see that she was finally baptized in 1793.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: So she was nine years old, she had her religious training, and she's now being baptized.

GUEST: So she had to make a profession of faith in order to have the christening or being baptized.

APPRAISER: Yes, that's a good way of saying it. And Mertel has a large body of work, and he has price points. With fraktur, it's about condition, condition, condition.

GUEST: This is not good condition.

APPRAISER: This is not good condition. It's in a poor state of preservation.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: We see there's a tear going down the middle where it was folded. And we see that there's a lot of staining, and that staining is coming from the back not the front.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: It was probably on a piece of wood or cardboard that leached into the paper.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: I would highly recommend that you have this piece conserved. And I think for purposes of longevity and passing it along in your family, I think you would want to do that.

GUEST: I agree.

APPRAISER: So we're going to put an insurance value on it today of $4,000 to $6,000.

GUEST: You've got to be kidding me! Oh, my word!

APPRAISER: And pieces of his work have sold as high as $20,000.

GUEST: Oh, my gosh.

APPRAISER: In a much better state of preservation.

GUEST: Oh my goodness, I'm just amazed. I never had that thought. Wow.

GUEST: I got it from my father's estate.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: And my father had inherited it from his father. And the family story is is that this was purchased by my grandfather in about 1930 from the antiques department at Marshall Field's in Chicago. My grandmother was born and raised in Prince Edward Island. And she and my father would go and have summers back there. And my grandfather, being the good husband that he was, cleaned out the entire apartment and got rid of all the furniture, all the rugs, everything else, and loaded up on the antiques, and brought them into the apartment so that when my grandmother came back, there wasn't one thing that she had recognized at all. It was all the new.

APPRAISER: Great story.

GUEST: And the punchline, of course, is that she was not at all happy with my grandfather. And this lamp was one of the pieces that he had purchased.

APPRAISER: All right, now do you know anything about it, have you ever had it appraised or anything like that?

GUEST: No. We bought it from the estate about 15 years ago. This lamp and another one, and two rugs, and...

APPRAISER: (laughing): So a whole house load.

GUEST: and a table. So we paid $350 for all of this.

APPRAISER: For everything.

GUEST: For everything.

APPRAISER: Basically it's a very attractive lamp, and it's made by Duffner & Kimberly. This lamp is made by two people that saw Tiffany as their competitors. Duffner & Kimberly was in New York in the very early years of the 20th century. This was probably made 1905, 1906, right around there. And they were only in business really because of sort of financial consideration for a short period of time. But they always made great, very high quality lamps like this. It's unusual, I don't think we've ever done a D&K or Duffner & Kimberly floor lamp. This is a beautiful example. It's a telescoping, which is sort of like I've telescoped it up a little bit here. You had it down lower.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: And it's sort of a little... it looks like it hasn't telescoped in a long time.

GUEST: Yeah, that's right.

APPRAISER: And it's this beautiful scalloped or fish scale design. I think these are sort of simulated bellflowers. Overall, nice big shade. You have a few little condition areas where some of the panels are cracked, and there's a few little pieces of glass missing. The base is patinated bronze.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Overall, it looks to me like a million bucks. But realistically, this is something that you could get fixed up, and it would be a better lamp in the future.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: I think even now, in its sort of somewhat compromised position with a couple pieces of glass missing, you're looking at $15,000.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: One-five thousand dollars for retail.

GUEST: Oh, very good.

APPRAISER: And if it were conserved and made whole again.

GUEST: Yes. You'd be up from there.

APPRAISER: Oh great, well thank you very much. Thanks for coming in. I really appreciate it.

GUEST: This has been in my husband's family for many years. It was in the possession of my mother-in-law. It was hanging in the house where my husband grew up.

APPRAISER: Oh, how neat.

GUEST: I don't know when she acquired it, but the linkage is that her grandmother was the relationship to the wife of Schreyvogel.

APPRAISER: Oh, I see.

GUEST: Because it's a horse, my mother-in-law would refer to it as "the work horse." (chuckles)

APPRAISER: Well, of course, Charles Schreyvogel was a very important Western artist. He was known for painting frontier, and particularly the cavalry. He was born in New York of German immigrant parents in 1861. And he was very artistic from an early age. And in this youth, he actually was a pipe carver, a goldsmith, and a lithographer. And at some point, a group of patrons saw his talent and decided to pay for his way to go to Munich to study in art school. And so he did that for about three years. And when he came back to the United States, he was very infatuated with the West. And he couldn't afford to go out West at that time, so he would go to Buffalo Bill's Wild West shows, and he would model his works on those. But, finally, in the 1890s, he raised enough money to be able to go out West, and he went to Colorado and Arizona, primarily. And that was around the time I think he married his wife. He was not able to sell many of the paintings that he did out West initially, and so he did portrait miniatures to make money in order to support himself and his family. It wasn't until about 1901 when he won acclaim with one of his sculptures at the National Academy of Design in New York. And it was at that point his work was recognized, which was really quite a coup for him. Now he was both a painter and a sculptor. He really painted very few oils. He painted actually, I think, under a hundred in number. He was Remington's chief rival. He had quite a renown from that, and after Remington died in 1909, Schreyvogel became the premier Western painter until he died in 1912. It's difficult to say exactly what year this was painted, but I would say probably right around the turn of the century. Now in terms of the appraisal that you mentioned, how long ago was it?

GUEST: That was done some time between 2010 and 2016.

APPRAISER: Okay. How was it valued?

GUEST: They told me-- I wasn't with them-- that it was... $20,000.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Well, I think they were a bit low in their assessment. The artist is very rare in terms of the amount of work that he did, particularly in painting. His work is highly desirable among Western collectors. And a painting like this, if it were in a gallery, would most likely sell in the range of $75,000.

GUEST: Wow. (chuckles) No, really?

APPRAISER: Well, his work is... his work is just so special. And this is so beautiful, plus you have the wonderful provenance. I mean it's been in the same family ever since it was painted, and that makes it very enticing for collectors.

GUEST: This is wonderful. I can't tell you how overwhelmed I am with this. Oh... It's really wonderful.

HOST: You're watching ANTIQUES ROADSHOW from Palm Springs, California. Check out ROADSHOW online at pbs.org/antiques. There you'll find appraisal updates, podcasts, and web exclusive videos. Don't go away, the Feedback Booth is coming up, right after this.

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

GUEST: I brought in a lithograph, and it is by Pollock. Unfortunately, it's not Jackson Pollock, it's Jim Pollock, but I found out it's worth $100 and it was just awesome being here at the ANTIQUES ROADSHOW. Thank you! Oops, I shouldn't have said thank you.

GUEST: The good news is my six purses are all worth about $75 each, and they date from the '30s to the '60s. The bad news is that none of my stuff that I carry now would fit in any of these purses.

GUEST: And I found this painting amongst a pile of junk on the street, and it turned out to be a painting by a Guatemalan artist, and it's worth $1,000 to $1,500.

GUEST: Found out that my beautiful black vase is worthless. But my antique Revolutionary War wallet is worth about $2,000.

GUEST: And I brought my family heirloom Chinese vase, which is only worth about $50. And my Bob Hope cufflinks, which are worth more like $200 to $300. I had a great time at ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.

GUEST 1 : And we brought our swords from the Central Coast... ...of California. And we're ready to do battle. But we love the ANTIQUE ROAD...

GUEST 2: En garde!

GUEST 1...ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.

GUEST 2: In Palm Springs, California.

GUEST 1: Appraisers were great, we loved it here.

GUEST2: We loved it all, great time.

GUEST1: And my grandmother's jewelry, too.

GUET2: Yes.

GUEST1: So, we're good.

GUEST1&2: Thank you.

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

GUEST: I found it in a dumpster about 35 years ago. I got it home and a friend of mine just lost his shorts and said, "Oh, my God, oh, my God, I think this is real."

APPRAISER: It is real, and it's a poster advertising a magazine called L'art Décoratif, like Art Deco.

GUEST: Okay, okay.

APPRAISER: Which was an art movement that really got its name in the 1920s. But curiously, this magazine is 20-some-odd years earlier than that. This was an Art Nouveau magazine.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: And I'm dating this piece to around 1902. The artist, Hans Christiansen, a very famous German illustrator, designed this piece. People often ask me does the frame make this more valuable? And the most common, shortest answer is no. The frame is very pretty, but frames almost never increase the value of the print that's inside, unless it was a handmade frame by the artist, which this one isn't. At auction, I'd estimate it between $1,000 and $1,500.

GUEST: Sweet.

GUEST: I picked it up a couple years ago at an antique mall. I paid $400.

APPRAISER: I guarantee you, everybody that saw this thing said this is a Mexican copy of an Acoma pot. These are all classic Acoma designs, but the clay doesn't look Acoma. I believe this to be a Pueblo pot. If I'm correct, your $400 investment is worth between $3,000 and $5,000.

GUEST: I think I did just fine.

GUEST: This bag originally belonged to my great-grandmother. She bought it in 1931.

APPRAISER: This part of the bag is 18 karat gold with the jade plaques. And it's very unusual to find such a lovely beaded panel. We've got winged griffins on the front and back. It's a beautiful bag, and I would place a retail value on the bag between $4,000 and $5,000.

GUEST: Thank you!

APPRAISER: It's a beautiful piece.

GUEST: Thank you so very much!

APPRAISER: You're welcome, it's my pleasure.