Antiques Roadshow

Vintage Dallas, Hour 2

Aired: 11/20/23

RUNTIME: 52:25Antiques RoadshowSEASON 27

Discover which delightful Dallas find has an updated value of $50,000 to $100,000.

Transcript

APPRAISER: Stand back and let them fight over it.

GUEST: Wow. Better watch out for my cousins. (both laugh)

GUEST: (laughing): Goodness gracious.

APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: My mother will be shocked. She may be wantin’ to take it back (laughing).

APPRAISER: Well, it's too late for that.

HOST: In 2008, ANTIQUES ROADSHOW visited Dallas, Texas, and heard some sizzling stories.

APPRAISER: "Molly and I were on the beach engaged in nature's folly. The sand was hot upon my back, but the sun was hot to Molly."

GUEST: I was terrified of this chair. I remember insisting that they either removed it from the room or that they covered it up.

HOST: A decade and a half later, are these treasures from Big D still heating up the market? Let's find out, as we take another look at Dallas, Texas.

GUEST: I grew up in Biloxi, Mississippi, and my grandfather worked in the Ohr studio. My grandmother was friends with George Ohr's son Geo. And so, consequently, we had some pottery that was given to them at some point.

APPRAISER: What did your relative do? What was his occupation?

GUEST: He worked for George's son Geo in doing machine type stuff.

APPRAISER: Well, that, that, that would make sense, 'cause Ohr primarily worked alone. He had some help, but what happened is, in 1907, thereabouts, his sons took over the pottery, essentially retired their dad...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...and turned it into a repair shop.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And they were involved with mechanics. So, tell me about these pieces that you have here. You got a couple of vases.

GUEST: Yes. This one has some little breaks here, and we had a cleaning lady who probably put it through the dishwasher. In fact, I'm sure she did.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: And because it was just stuff, you know? It wasn't...

APPRAISER: Important safety tip: no dishwashers for George Ohr pots, sort of...

GUEST: No, I know, and... (laughing) It was just not valuable.

APPRAISER: These haven't had much value for most of their life.

GUEST: I know.

APPRAISER: It's not been since the last 25 years or so that they, they took on some value. So, this little guy here, you like that one a lot, this little jug.

GUEST: I like that one a lot. For my grandparents' wedding present, they were given that jug and then a jug that goes with it that is supposed to have a picture of George Ohr in it, and this one has, I think, Josephine in it, his wife.

APPRAISER: These are quite rare.

GUEST: Hmm.

APPRAISER: Uh, there's only a handful of these known. And some of the ones that, uh, still exist don't have the little cellophane in there. You look through, it's just, it's just hollow.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And this is a photograph of George Ohr's pottery. He called it his pot-Ohr-y.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: Now, these are George Ohr bordello tokens.

GUEST: Yes, my father had them. I'm sure that my grandmother probably gave them to him, because they're inappropriate and...

APPRAISER: Which is why we have them under lock and key here, in this pill bottle.

GUEST: Right, right.

APPRAISER: 'Cause they have rebuses on them that are very suggestive, and...

GUEST: Very.

APPRAISER: We, we put a couple of the tamer ones, uh, "I love you dearly" and "Let's go to bed." The rest are inappropriate for public broadcasting.

GUEST: Right, which is why my father didn't let me see these until I was in my 30s.

APPRAISER: The trend...

GUEST: And he gave them to my, to my husband, not to me.

APPRAISER: Ah-hah. George Ohr was rather bawdy in, in addition to being a great potter.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: He had a very, uh, a very interesting poem he used to inscribe on the sides of some of his pots, and it goes like this: "Molly and I were on the beach engaged in nature's folly. The sand was hot upon my back, but the sun was hot to Molly."

GUEST: That is great.

APPRAISER: When there's a mark, we know when he made them. And so, those two, we'd say 1898 to 1902. The other pieces, probably about the same time, but with less certainty.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Let me give you some values on some of these. These bordello tokens. You have the entire set of six of them. There aren't that many sets out there. An auction estimate on these would be between, say, $5,000 and $7,000 for the six of them, which is a lot...

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: ...but well worth it. This little jug, there's only a handful of them known. As I said, most of them are missing the cellophane. Auction estimate on that one would be $2,500 to $3,500, maybe $3,000 to $4,000.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: This blue vase, which is bigger and in perfect condition, as opposed to the green one. The form's a little stiff. The glaze isn't great. Auction retail estimate between $15,000 and $20,000. And finally, this green one...

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: ...and it's an interesting point. In spite of the damage, Ohr's work is so rare that a little bit of damage, if the pieces are there, does not make a world of difference. I would estimate this one, again, for between $15,000 to $20,000...

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: ...or maybe $17,000 to $22,000, in spite of the repair to the handle.

GUEST: Wow, really?

APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: That surprises me.

GUEST: He belonged to my stepdad, who was raised in Hot Springs, Arkansas. A couple of years ago, my stepdad was 81, and we kind of decided it was time to close up the house up in Hot Springs, 'cause he wasn't traveling up there anymore. And we were going through some closets, and my sister started pushing through the clothes and saw that, and she's, she jumped. She kind of screamed, she, cause she thought it was a, a person, a baby.

APPRAISER: (chuckles)

GUEST: So we took it out and looked at it, and we, were just amazed. It was just, we'd never seen anything like it. We think it was his. We're pretty sure, cause it's a boy doll.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: It could have been his mother's, even.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: But we really don't know anything about it. It’s just really different.

APPRAISER: And does he have a name?

GUEST: I call him Chucky.

APPRAISER: You call him Chucky, okay, well, he doesn't look like Chucky in the movie, but it's what they call an American folk art rag doll.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Probably produced in that area. They're sort of one-of-a-kind dolls. I mean, he's got fabulous charm, incredible, large hands with big, pointy fingers, which are cool. The shoes were probably originally baby shoes.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: The clothing is faded, but it's completely original. He's got a great embossed nose, beautifully painted face. He's a painted oilcloth rag doll. And with this oilcloth all hand-painted, he's faded out a little bit with age. And probably dates from...the middle 1890s, maybe to early 1900. I can't tell you who made it. Maybe a family member made it, or it was given to them, and it's just a beautiful example of American folk art.

GUEST: Great.

APPRAISER: So it sort of falls into that field, as well as the doll collecting field.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And in beautiful condition. In a really good doll shop or a really good doll show, or a folk art antiques show, you'd expect to pay at least $2,000 to $3,000 for him. So he's a really nice find.

GUEST: Interesting, yeah.

APPRAISER: And I'm glad you're going to keep him in the family.

GUEST: Guess I'd better get him insured. (laughs)

GUEST: My mother-in-law was an antique dealer. She purchased the table... I cannot tell you how many years ago, I have no clue-- somewhere in, uh, South Texas or East Texas, and she said she purchased it from an elderly woman whose husband was a sea captain. And the story she told my mother-in-law said that the table dated-- and I don't remember what she told me-- either the American Revolution or the Civil War.

APPRAISER: Uh-huh.

GUEST: And she said the stains on the side are from whiskey, when they used it as a gaming table. We've had it 27 years.

APPRAISER: Uh-huh. I think this is more likely a library table.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: Game tables have a tendency to be square. I would describe this as an Egyptian Revival table, and the reason being is that it has these wonderful pyramid bases, and it has heads of, uh, King Tut on it.

GUEST: Oh, really?

APPRAISER: Uh-- yes.

GUEST: Oh, is that what that-- okay.

APPRAISER: Yes.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: So we see the inlaid head of Tut. The Egyptian Revival, it can be three time periods: It can be early 19th century-- we see a lot of decorative arts with Egyptian motifs on them.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: And then, in the late 19th century, it happens again. And then again, in the 1920s, there's another Egyptian Revival. And that's when King Tut's tomb is opened up...

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: And the whole world becomes mesmerized by these fantastic artifacts that are coming out of the, uh, Boy King's tomb-- King Tutankhamen. I think this table is from the 1920s. The craftsmanship on it is not as fine as I would expect to see on a table from the early 19th century. I think it's an American piece. One of the reasons I would say that is the woods in it-- there's mahogany, there's an oak, and there's also walnut. The person who made this understood construction, but they were not trained as a furniture maker. They were more likely a carpenter. The other aspect, obviously, is this wonderful pyramid effect.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: There's a central pyramid, and then two side pyramids split...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...as the supports...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...and then these great paw feet at the bottom, just like the Sphinx would have had. Let's turn it around and look at the other heads here. And you notice the eyes. They're glass, and they're probably taxidermy eyes. They're quite bright, and they really glow at you. I would say that a table like this, if I saw it in a shop, I would expect to pay around $8,500 for it.

GUEST: Oh, that's great.

APPRAISER: It's a fairly common instrument, but what's very unique about it is the condition-- it's been incredibly well-preserved. You're right, it's an A-Jr., but one feature about it is that it's g, it's a snakehead A. Most Gibson A mandolins primarily have a headstock that is wider at the top, and narrow here. It's reversed, so it's called a snakehead. The snakeheads have always been preferred; they're considered better instruments. This is the bottom-of-the-line instrument from Gibson, it was the A-Jr. It was- It's not fancy.

APPRAISER: Those cards are worth, oh, a couple dollars apiece. Maybe.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: These cards might be worth a little bit more.

GUEST: (chuckles): Okay.

APPRAISER: Did you notice who the photographer was?

GUEST: Wat...

APPRAISER: It says "Watkins Pacific Coast." Watkins Pacific Coast refers to a San Francisco photographer named Carleton Watkins. Carleton Watkins was one of the premier photographers of the American West of the 19th century. And he specialized in taking photographs of Yosemite.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: These are from the 1870s. What makes them really great is that these are all Carleton Watkins himself and his photographic equipment at Yosemite.

GUEST: Oh, wow!

GUEST: We inherited it from Jean Hatton Duffy.

APPRAISER: And this was a friend of yours?

GUEST: Yes. Her and her husband didn't have any children, and she passed away in 2002. 'Cause we took care of her in her later years, she left us her home and belongings, and this was in her stuff. If we hadn't had a friend call and tell us she had it, I don't know if we'd have looked for it. What we were told was that because she worked for a magazine-- I believe it was in New York-- she went to Alexander Calder's studio and interviewed him, and he presented her this pin when she went to the studio. But it's not signed, so that's why we were not sure what it was.

APPRAISER: It is by Alexander Calder.

GUEST: Great.

APPRAISER: Calder did a lot of these pieces...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...sometimes in nickel silver, which this is, and sometimes he did them in aluminum. This, it dates probably from the late '50s-- I would say '57, '58, '59, in that time period.

GUEST: Okay, okay.

APPRAISER: And he would do these as just sort of these little quips and studies and give them to friends. It wasn't about making money. They were just these wonderful little kind of experiments...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...that he did in using form and shape and forging wire, et cetera, and they became gifts. Obviously, what has happened is, Calder became more recognized as a great artist because of his mobiles and the other items that he did and designed.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And so the jewelry pieces become highly, highly collectible. And I would say at auction, conservative estimate, would be between $20,000 and $30,000.

GUEST: (laughing): You're kidding me!

APPRAISER: No, I'm not.

GUEST: Well, it's been in the cabinet for many years, and my mother didn't know a whole lot about it once she passed it on to me. And her mother always told her that it was great-great-grandmother's, all passed down through the, through the years to her, in her family.

APPRAISER: Well, it's not unusual for the family history of something to get lost. If you do know the family history of something, it's good to kind of put that inside it. Write out who owned it and when, you know.

GUEST: True.

APPRAISER: What you've got is a good example of what we call mocha ware. Now, mocha ware is a form of decorating earthenware that dates from about 200 years ago. Uh, they started making it, probably, in the 1790s.

GUEST: Oh!

APPRAISER: And then they made it through until about the time Queen Victoria comes to the throne, in the late 1830s. And it's particularly popular in the United States, and it always was. In the last, I would say, half-century, it's been especially popular, because people who collect American folk art are often drawn to mocha ware, and it's widely reproduced for that reason.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: But you don't see very many early, authentic examples. It's made of a material called creamware. You can see the natural color, even though it's stained.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: It's cream-colored earthenware. But this is colored slip. Now, slip is clay in liquid suspension. If you make a kind of liquid out of clay, and you put it onto the surface and comb it around...

GUEST: Oh, okay!

APPRAISER: ...you can make this kind of effect, which is a marbleizing, you could say. And when it was first done, it was sometimes called surface agateware, 'cause it's kind of meant to look a little like a hard stone, like an agate, with that rich veining in it. This one was probably made about 1800.

GUEST: Oh, okay.

APPRAISER: Uh, so it's got a lot of age to it.

GUEST: Huh.

APPRAISER: This staining and all this color and all that can be nicely restored.

GUEST: Oh, it can? Okay.

APPRAISER: It's, it's mostly dirt...

GUEST: I was wondering about that.

APPRAISER: ...that can be-- it's a bleaching process that a professional can do, so the condition overall is pretty good. And I spoke with a couple of my colleagues who have sold mocha ware more regularly in auctions of Americana. Today, if it came to auction, it's going to bring, we think, at least $4,000.

GUEST: (gasps): Oh, four...? Oh, my goodness!

APPRAISER: And, and maybe as much as $6,000.

GUEST: (laughing): Goodness gracious.

APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: My mother will be shocked. She may be wantin’ to take it back. (laughing)

APPRAISER: Well, it's too late for that.

GUEST: This is a painting that I inherited from my father, who passed away last year. He was a stockbroker and, uh, made many trips to New York City through his career. And he saw this painting in Houston in a gallery one time, and just, it was something that caught his eye, and he knew he had to have it and purchased it, and it always hung in a special place in his home. He even took me to New York one time, and as we were on Wall Street, going to the Stock Exchange, he turned around, and he said, "Look, there's Trinity Church."

APPRAISER: Oh, wow.

GUEST: And, you know, "That's in the painting that we..."

APPRAISER: So, was, was he an avid painting collector?

GUEST: Yes, he had, uh, quite an extensive art collection.

APPRAISER: Terrific.

GUEST: Uh, this was one of, one of his better paintings, mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Well, the artist is Guy Wiggins.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And the painting is clearly signed here in the lower right. And he was amongst three generations of Wiggins, all of whom were painters. He had a son who was a painter, and his father, Carleton Wiggins, was a painter. And Carleton Wiggins is a painter who's known a little bit more for doing pastoral scenes. He eventually settled in Old Lyme, Connecticut. He was part of the Old Lyme, Connecticut, artists' colony. And that's really where Guy Wiggins grew up. Guy Wiggins ultimately enrolled in the National Academy of Design. Years later, he was to become a fully fledged member of the National Academy of Design, but he was really somewhat of a prodigy. And at age 20, he had a painting that was accepted into the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

GUEST: Oh, my goodness.

APPRAISER: Pretty impressive. He is an artist who not only did Connecticut scenes, as his father did, but he also did New York scenes, and in particular, New York winter snow scenes. And you could say this is the kind of thing that he's really best known for.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: He was really captivated by showing winter scenes in Manhattan, and, and, and the people huddling down the street, walking down the street.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: The painting's also interesting 'cause not only is it a really good example of his work, but the back of the painting also tells a little bit of a story. Now, you said that your dad had acquired the painting in Houston.

GUEST: Yes, that's correct.

APPRAISER: And what's so great about this is, we have what looks to be the original label from the gallery in Houston, Texas, the name of the artist, the name, the title of the painting, their inventory number, the size of the painting, and the price. $2,500.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: What's also great about this painting is the fact that we've got the title of the painting: Old Trinity, New York Winter. Signed again, "Guy Wiggins," as it is on the front, and then dated 1930. When would he have acquired this painting?

GUEST: It would have been either in the late '50s or early '60s.

APPRAISER: $2,500 way back when was still a lot of money.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: But the demand for his paintings has really increased a great deal. And there's tremendous interest in 19th- and 20th-century American paintings. And the prices have really gone up accordingly over the years. We'll put this back to the front.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Today, if this painting were offered at auction, we would probably estimate it at $50,000 to $80,000.

GUEST: (softly): Whoa.

APPRAISER: I don't know if that surprises you or not.

GUEST: That-- yes, it surprises me.

GUEST: What I have is an antique, uh, knife box, which has sets of knives, forks, and spoons that are all miniature silver, sterling silver. My mother was an antique collector, in particular of miniature silver, and I believe this came from England.

APPRAISER: I see. The case is made of shark skin...

GUEST: Okay, good.

APPRAISER: ...which is also known as shagreen. We have some wonderful silver mounts on the front here. We also have silver mounts on the side, which are hallmarked. And additionally, you've got the silver mounts on the back, as well. The hinges, which also have hallmarks.

GUEST: The hinges, okay.

APPRAISER: You had initially thought that it was English.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: Okay. It is actually Dutch, we believe.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: There are many hallmarks on it, and unfortunately, a lot of them are partially rubbed out. The hallmarks on the escutcheon plate, with the two stars below a crown, is potentially a Dutch city mark. And with a little bit of research, we should be able to identify it. It's interesting to see so many hallmarks, and those marks can be deceptive. It's that series of four marks which makes you think that it's English, but in fact, it was Dutch. And in some cases, they actually did it intentionally to fool you into thinking that the silver was English, because English silver was regarded very highly at the time. So what we have here is, we have a wonderful, uh, miniature cutlery box. You can see it's fitted on the interior with knives, forks, spoons. Also, miniature sauce ladles. And we have three out as a little sampling here.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: This was probably part of a very fine miniature doll's house service, and so you would have additional pieces with it. But what's very, very nice about it is that it is intact. All of the slots are filled with cutlery, with each individual serving piece, and it's very difficult to find a set which has everything intact.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: The case has some condition issues. We can see a little bit of separation and some splitting, and that's consistent with age. I would put a presale estimate on it of about $2,500 to $3,500.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: So... It's a very nice little set. What's, what gives it the value is that it's complete and its condition.

GUEST: It belonged to my aunt...

APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: ...who lived in Highland Park, Illinois, outside of Chicago, and this was in their study. And they used to have me sleep in that room, and I was terrified of this chair. I remember insisting that they either removed it from the room or that they covered it up.

APPRAISER: How old were you, about?

GUEST: I was about five or six.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: And it just terrified me.

APPRAISER: I understand that.

GUEST: They used to call it the man chair. And the only thing I heard about it, and it's more of a family myth than anything else...

APPRAISER: Yes.

GUEST: ...was that my grandfather-- my mother's father-- won it in a poker game in Chicago, and that it came out of a bordello.

APPRAISER: Okay, okay.

GUEST: So that's the only thing, and whether or not that's true, I don't know.

APPRAISER: Well, this comes under the umbrella, this chair, of fantasy furniture. And fantasy furniture is really when a traditional furniture maker departs from the normal chairs that they're making, or furniture they're making, and, and creates something that's otherworldly, that's purely fantasy. And this man, this mask in the back, has roots centuries ago in history. We call it the Green Man.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And this chair, which is late 19th century, actually is green.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: That's the original green paint. This mask we see in Europe on churches, on medieval castles, you'll see these keystones. What it really represents and symbolizes, this, this Green Man has always symbolized rebirth, life, regeneration, and nature. And we usually see this mask on beds, on sofas, we'll see this mask, but never... I've never seen the whole body of the Green Man.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: This has the knuckles. Look at these little cuffs.

GUEST: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Incredible-- look at these hands. Feel that.

GUEST: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: When you hold it...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: It, it sort of gives you the chills a little bit.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: It's actually very nice.

GUEST: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: But it, but you can actually feel the fingernails, like a real person.

GUEST: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: The great thing about this, if we can turn this over, if you can help me... Look on the, on the bottom, there's this little label here.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And it says "The Harry J. Dean Co., special furniture," and then "Detroit," so we know it was made in America.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: This was made in about 1890. The great thing is, look at that original paint, all the green.

GUEST: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And look at these, these feet.

GUEST: What kind of wood is it?

APPRAISER: That's actually mahogany.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: I'd put a value on this at pr, probably, for fair market value purposes, right in the range of $3,000.

GUEST: Okay.

GUEST: It commemorated the around-the-world trip of the Graf Zeppelin in 1929. Compared to Magellan's voyage, uh, 21 days versus three years.

APPRAISER: Right, so let's, let's turn the watch around and show everybody that. It's what's known in the business as a dollar watch. Literally cost a dollar. Now, here's the best part-- usually these dollar watches we get in...

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: I, I tell people and they always laugh at it, they deal with it. I tell them it's a dollar then, and it's usually about a dollar now.

GUEST: About a dollar now, probably.

APPRAISER: But I've got good news for you-- no dollar here.

GUEST: No dollar?

APPRAISER: No dollar. We're, we're talking $1,200 to $1,500.

GUEST: Wow!

APPRAISER: These people who collect Zeppelin stuff?

GUEST: Yeah?

APPRAISER: They're a crazy bunch.

GUEST: Yeah, I guess so. (laughs)

APPRAISER: You have a perfume bottle that's made by Daum, and that was made in Nancy, France, around the turn of the century-- so, about 1900. It's very indicative of the Art Nouveau movement, and it is a blown-glass piece. And then it is cameo with some enameling on top of it. It's a little bitty tiny piece, which women just love. And it has this beautiful, enameled swan that's on the front of it.

GUEST: My husband's grandfather died in 2003. He was 107. And it was, uh, one of the things that was left.

APPRAISER: It's a lovely 19th-century landscape. It does have a signature here at the lower, uh, left-hand side, "Wilhelm Velten," which is a Russian artist, and it's dated 1867. He was born in 1847, so he did it pretty early on in his career.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And the Russian market has gone through the roof. This artist normally works in a very small format, about eight by ten inches or smaller. And a lot of those paintings have come up for auction, but I only found one record of a painting this large having come up for auction recently, and it brought a lot of money. However, yours has an awful lot of condition issues.

GUEST: Right. (chuckles)

APPRAISER: There's, there's some inpainting right here, there's a lot of craquelure, there's been a tear there. And it's, the canvas has been mounted onto a piece of plywood, so it has a lot of things going against it.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: However, I would give this an estimate of perhaps $15,000 to $25,000 at auction.

GUEST: Wow. Okay, wow

APPRAISER: Now, if it was in a little better condition, you could probably double that.

GUEST: This is a teapot that I believe was originally my grandmother's, and then my mother had it and she gave it to me when I was married. I love the workmanship in it. I have worked in clay because I'm an art teacher, and it's just so beautifully constructed. I love it.

APPRAISER: And your grandmother, when do you think she got it?

GUEST: Perhaps in the '50s. My uncle traveled extensively around the world, and more specifically in the Orient, and he was always bringing home things, and so it could have been an antique piece that he brought to her.

APPRAISER: Here we have a teapot with a fish-form spout...

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: ...fish-form knop, fish on the sides...

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: ...among stylized waves, clouds... There's waves down at the bottom, some of which is painted under the surface.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And it's flat. But others, such as this cresting wave, is in relief, which is really amazing. Now, what a lot of people don't realize is that this basic form, which we associate with the West, is actually an, an Asian creation. The teapot as we know it...

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: ...this ovoid shape with a loop handle, was created in China for the first time, and then that was adopted by the Japanese, and it became something that was extraordinarily popular in China and Japan far earlier than it was here in the West. The dark blue comes from cobalt and the sort of pale pink color comes from copper.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Both of those colors were painted onto the unfired clay surface under the glaze. The particular color of this blue is a type of color that you don't find on Chinese wares.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: In addition to that, the shape, with these naturalistic forms-- the fish leaping among the waves and the fish at the knop and the decoration overall-- is much more characteristic of Japanese design than you would find in China. So I think one can safely say it's Japanese, and to confirm that, I'm going to turn it over. We see this marvelous mark within a rectangle.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And this mark is for a potter who worked in Japan. His name is Makuzu Kozan, who lived from 1842 to 1916.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: He was the potter to the imperial Meiji court.

GUEST: Oh, wow.

APPRAISER: He is acknowledged as the greatest potter of the late Meiji period in Japan.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: He lived in Kyoto and he worked in Yokohama, and he was born into a family of potters, but he is known for his exquisite designs. But more than that, the execution is absolutely flawless. The little gallery here at the top is pierced.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And there are these roiling waves. Not only designed to sort of evoke the sense of water and these fish leaping among the waves, but also, it keeps the top from falling out.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: Probably dating from about 1890. So you'll need to know the value for insurance purposes.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: Let's try about $14,000.

GUEST: Wow! (laughs) Whoo. Wow, that's incredible.

GUEST: The book belonged to my great-great-grandfather, who was an early-day Texas Presbyterian minister. He also founded the City Temple Presbyterian Church in downtown Dallas. And he's buried right outside the convention center here. We don't know how he got the book. He was kind of a Renaissance man, because he also read for the law and did a number of different things in his life. I was, um, given some of his books, and this was one of them. And I've been interested in it ever since, and wondered, "Is this truly an original printing?" Which it seems to be.

APPRAISER: This is a “Book of Mormon," or should I say it is The Book of Mormon. It is a first printing. It's 1830, New York. There was an original printing run of 5,000 of these, which, for 1830, is a lot-- that's a lot of books. Now we know there are about half that many left. It's in the original sheepskin binding, which is very, very, very nice. We're missing a couple of pages here, the free front endpapers. We're not missing any text. And we have water damage to the title page. And when we get further along into your book, it does carry through to the back.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: It affects the value in the collectible world. Collectors like to have their books as close to the original...

GUEST: Pristine.

APPRAISER: Pristine-- however, this is The Book of Mormon. This is the pinnacle book of collecting in Mormon culture. It's not a particularly rare book, but it is a valuable book. I can see it having a retail price of $75,000.

GUEST: (chuckles): Oh, my goodness. Even with water damage?

APPRAISER: Even with the water damage.

GUEST: Oh, my goodness.

GUEST: This is my great-great-grandmother, Nancy Jane Cochran, who came to Dallas from Tennessee. The sampler, she did it when she was 16 years old and lived in Tennessee. And then after she married, she and her husband heard that there was real rich cotton farming in Dallas. And so they moved down to Texas. And there she was, according to the historic markers, the first practicing Methodist in, in Dallas County. And she was widowed right before the Civil War, and, with her six children, had to keep the cotton growing and the cotton gin running in order to support them all.

APPRAISER: The first thing I want to talk about is the sampler. Now, first of all, 16 is a little bit late to be doing a sampler. A lot of girls were married by then.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: Oh, yeah-- most of the samplers that we see are nine, ten, 11, 12 years old. The thing that makes this so great is the fact that it was done in Tennessee. Right here we see her maiden name, Nancy J. Hughes, and underneath that is "M.C. Tennessee." Really hard to see, there's some fading there. And I think this is November 18, and the date is 1833, right underneath there. It's got a nice floral border. It's got a wonderful house. If you could do this as a young lady, that proved you were disciplined enough to become a good wife.

GUEST: Oh, okay.

APPRAISER: It'd go over like a lead balloon today, wouldn't it? (both laughing) And then, the story goes on with the photographs that you have. There's her and her children, and one of her. And I guess the cabinet photograph, the biggest one, closest to you, is later on in her life. As individual things, they're extremely desirable. The Dallas-related material, your photographs, they're going to be $2,000 or $3,000. Southern samplers with a lot of nice decorative elements, in good condition, are really hard to find. In a really well-advertised auction, you could estimate that $6,000 to $8,000.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: Just the sampler. And then stand back and let them fight over it.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: Now, in addition to the photographs, you have all this other paperwork and historical data that sort of documents the family coming to Dallas...

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: ...being in Dallas. And when you put all that together, that makes it a valuable package to people that are here in Texas.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And I talked to several of my colleagues, and we felt like that when you added everything up together, the fair market value of that would probably be around $15,000.

GUEST: Wow. I'd better watch out for my cousins. (both laughing)

GUEST: This is a clock that I grew up with. My father was in the Air Force, and when I was two years old, he got orders to England, stationed at Upper Heyford, near Oxford. And when they got over there, they realized pretty quick that at that point in time in England, the English were ready to get rid of all of the old and buy new, modern stuff, which dawned on them, "Hey, we could furnish our house much cheaper with antiques." And as they did that, Mom and Dad got interested in antiques, and Dad specifically got interested in clocks. One dealer that they were dealing with quite a bit came up with this clock, and Dad bought it. The dealer told Dad that it's a pub clock. The striking mechanism in the clock has been removed, and the story was that clocks that hung in the pubs, the owners removed the striking mechanism, because they didn't want the clock sounding or chiming, reminding the customers what time it was, whether or not it was time to go home.

APPRAISER: What-- right.

GUEST: They wanted them to hang around and have a few more pints.

APPRAISER: Right... Make a few more sales.

GUEST: So, it's hung in our house ever since.

APPRAISER: Right, well, that's an interesting story. Definitely the strike mechanism has been taken out of it, so maybe it is a true story. But when we think of pub clocks, we generally think of just a circular clock without this big, long drop right here. And if you could just picture this dial right here, that's more of a pub type clock that you'd see in England, and they were, they had railroad stations and in pubs, as well. But this one's pretty extraordinary in the sense that it has this real long drop. It has its original dial, and it's signed here "A.J. Tye," which stands for Alfred James Tye, who worked on 67 Summer Row in Birmingham. This gentleman worked, Alfred Tye, from 1868 to 1880 were his working dates.

GUEST: Oh, wow.

APPRAISER: Which is perfect for this clock, it's in the Victorian period. And this is the type of clock that you expect to see behind a, like, a bed-and-breakfast innkeeper's desk.

GUEST: (laughs)

APPRAISER: It's just magnificent. It has this great range of motion with a pendulum, this big box that you can see it ticking away. It's a beautiful oak case, and the clock is all oak-- the, the moldings and the twisted rope columns, even the secondary wood. The condition of it is really excellent. The mechanism that's inside the clock is a fusee. It has a conical-shaped drum inside of it that a cord wraps around and makes it behave more like a weight-driven movement. So it's a very accurate timekeeper as a result. This clock would sell for $3,500 to $4,000 in a retail setting.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: This was retailed by Tiffany and Company. It's marked 14-karat gold on the back. It's not signed by Tiffany because the jobbers in those years didn't always sign Tiffany's name.

GUEST: I see.

APPRAISER: So you would see the stamp of the gold, but it didn't say "Tiffany," but it was Tiffany and Company that made this. It's a lovely aquamarine, as you can see. It dates from about 1910.

APPRAISER: This is pottery. It's unglazed, it has some paint on it. It had, uh, hair. Down there. Actual hairs down there.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: It had a hair tail. The belly is open, hollow. And it was made in pieces and then put together. Do you know whether it's Tang or not?

GUEST: I do not know, and that's... (murmurs)

APPRAISER: Okay, well, our considered opinion is yes, it's genuine.

GUEST: Ah!

APPRAISER: Now, you could have a test which would probably cost you $500.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: Unfortunately, I don't know a lot of history about it. I know that it came from my paternal grandfather's side of the family. We weren't as close to that side of the family. They lived in Mississippi. And I always thought it was this old, ugly vase. (chuckles) Why would you put that out? That is so ugly. And I had, my girlfriend had tickets today to come to the show and invited me, so at the last minute, I thought, "I'm going to take that old, ugly vase."

APPRAISER: Okay, well, let me tell you a little bit about it. Your vase is Japanese and it dates from the first quarter of the 20th century, and it is part of a group of Japanese ceramics that are referred to as hand-painted Nippon. This is a, a rare type of Nippon called coralene, and you can see the flowers are built up as little beads of glass. It's a very intricate technique that takes a lot of time. We'll look at the marks on the bottom, and there is a mark here. It actually says "U.S. Patent Office," yeah.

GUEST: "U.S. Patent," yeah.

APPRAISER: That's so it could be imported into this country.

GUEST: Oh, okay.

APPRAISER: It's a very typical mark for a coralene piece, and it...

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: But the good news about this, value is probably in the $800 to $1,000 range.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And the question is: is this still an ugly old vase?

GUEST: No, it's not. I think it's going to have a prominent place in my home now.

APPRAISER: It's gotten prettier in the last five minutes, huh? Okay.

GUEST: (laughing) It has. I don't think my mother's getting it back.

GUEST: My grandfather brought it back from World War II in Italy.

APPRAISER: You know who the artist is?

GUEST: It's Paolo, and the last name is very hard to read.

APPRAISER: It is a little bit tricky. The artist's last name is Troubetzkoy, and he's actually an interesting character because his father was a Russian prince and his mother was American.

GUEST: Oh!

APPRAISER: So sometimes, we see his name listed as Pavel Troubetzkoy. He studied in Italy, so sometimes he's called Paolo Troubetzkoy, which is how this piece is signed, and he worked in the United States around 1915 till 1920, and he signed his name Paul.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: (chuckles): So we... So we know him different ways. He was born in the 1860s and he studied in Italy at the end of the 19th century. He studied with a number of Italian artists, and he was very successful. He exhibited at the Paris World's Fair of 1900 and he won a grand prize.

GUEST: Oh, wow.

APPRAISER: And what's so interesting about this piece is the way that it's made. Most bronzes have very smooth, shiny surfaces, but this piece has a very Impressionistic look. You can see the way it was modeled, either in clay or in wax, and it's almost like the brushstrokes on an Impressionist painting. That's what gives it a certain amount of excitement, in addition to the whole subject matter itself. This was made in two versions. There's this size and there's one about six or seven inches taller. This is the only broncobuster that he did.

GUEST: Oh, okay.

APPRAISER: He did a lot of portraits of celebrities. When he was in Russia, he did Tolstoy. He's very well-known for a full-length portrait he did of, uh, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a foundry mark. His pieces were cast in France, Italy, and the United States, but that really doesn't make all that much of a difference in terms of valuing it. It has this one problem here-- part of his finger is missing.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: It's really very minor. It could be fixed. So, did you have any idea of the value?

GUEST: I would say $1,000.

APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: Maybe $2,000, I don't know.

APPRAISER: Yeah, well, luckily, you're very far off. This piece is worth between $15,000 and $20,000.

GUEST: Are you serious? (laughs): Oh, my gosh. Oh, how neat.

APPRAISER: And that's an auction value. A larger version last year, which is slightly bigger, brought $27,000.

GUEST: Oh, my god.

GUEST: Yeah. I don't know very much at all other than, uh, we bought an estate. This was part of it. We've had these tapestries about eight years, a little over. That's really about all I know.

APPRAISER: Do, do you display it at home? What do you do with it?

GUEST: Yeah, we, we do. We separate them and have them, one on each side of the doorway going from the living room to the den.

APPRAISER: Yeah?

GUEST: And, uh, we just enjoy looking at them.

APPRAISER: These are really wonderful weavings woven probably between 1600 and 1650, so the early part of the 17th century...

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: ...in Brussels, which really was the sort of Mecca for Renaissance tapestry weaving.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: They had the finest-quality weavers there. These two panels were originally part of a much larger tapestry, and my guess is, the tapestry might have been maybe ten feet tall by about 15 feet wide. And these would have been cut out maybe in the 19th century...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...and then reinserted into this carved walnut frame. The frame itself is not all that significant to the value of the tapestry, but it's pretty nicely done. Perhaps the tapestry got damaged, or parts of it got damaged, uh, and it made sense to cut out the better pieces and then install them in a, in a panel like this.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: What do you think the depiction is?

GUEST: When I first saw them, I thought, "Well, maybe it's Caesar." But I don't...

APPRAISER: It's, it's probably a Roman ruler.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: It's presumably the same person in both panels.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: It is an emperor, he is seated in a chair, and generally when they're seated in a chair like this in an outdoor setting, it would signify that it's the ruler.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And overall, the condition's pretty good. If you look in here in this spot, you can see some of the silk highlights, which are the shinier.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And then the rest of it's wool. And you can see some restoration in it right in here. In their day, tapestries were considered more valuable than paintings. And the designer would have been a pretty significant artist, probably.

GUEST: Hm.

APPRAISER: What did you pay for it?

GUEST: Well, for the entire, uh, tail end of the estate, we paid $650.

APPRAISER: Okay, well, at auction, these two panels, sold together as one unit, would probably bring somewhere between $12,000 and $15,000.

GUEST: Okay, well, good.

GUEST: I found this desk, and it had been abandoned in a barn that my grandparents were buying in East Texas. The people that were selling them the farm said that a relative of theirs had cut down the tree and made this desk, and they weren't taking it with them. They were just leaving it. When I found it, the rats had nested in the drawers. It was covered with thick black paint. It was destined for the burn pile. I was a very young woman. I asked my grandmother if I could have it and she said yes, so I took it and stripped it, and, and here is the desk you have.

APPRAISER: This is not the prettiest girl at the dance.

GUEST: No, it's not, it's very humble.

APPRAISER: But it's fabulous as an example of vernacular furniture. It most definitely appears to be a Texas desk...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...from Southeast Texas. That's the land-- still is-- of, uh, harvesting yellow pine.

GUEST: Oh!

APPRAISER: And that is the principal wood which is used...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...in the construction of this piece. You can see that the maker went to considerable efforts to incorporate the wonderful wild graining.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And that's achieved by doing bias, or diagonal, sawing of the, of the wood to achieve this effect. The style of the piece is really sort of an extension of late classical design in the 19th century. There was a style in the 1840s called pillar and scroll design.

GUEST: Oh!

APPRAISER: And this is a local interpretation of that particular style. It's had a little bit of damage up here on the top.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: That backboard probably had little scrolls...

GUEST: Oh, okay.

APPRAISER: ...originally that have broken off.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: But that's not a major problem. The hardware on the piece-- these wonderful porcelain white knobs...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...there's no indication that there was anything else on the piece, and so those may be original to it.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: These scrolls are very interesting in that they function not only as decoration...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...but turn this into a support for a desk. And, with your help...

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: ...if we can just pull this out. We'll hold that in, extend the legs.

GUEST: There.

APPRAISER: There we go. For a pretty simple piece of furniture...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...that's a pretty elaborate kind of mechanism.

GUEST: It is, mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And if we look inside, we have these two banks of drawers and we have this wonderful wavy grain...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...which is typical of yellow pine. A piece like this you have to put in the context of where it was made...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...and when it was made, and Texas in the 1850s, '60...

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: ...was a pretty rough, wild place, and there were not a lot of imported pieces of furniture.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: They made do. A piece like this has probably more historical...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...value and interest, and I would think that, in terms of value, a group of Texas collectors, or Texiana collectors...

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: ...uh, bidding against each other at an auction might push this up to $2,000 to $2,500.

GUEST: Wow! My humble desk! That's awesome. (laughs)

APPRAISER: And so you're not going to throw it out now.

GUEST: Not going to throw it out. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna put it on the burn pile now. (laughs)

GUEST: My 13th birthday, my great-uncle gave me this birthday present of a baseball signed by Babe Ruth.

APPRAISER: 1961, you got it for your 13th birthday.

GUEST: Right. 1961, and, uh, he gave it to me when he learned that my baseball team was going on a road trip up to, uh, Kansas City...

APPRAISER: Mm.

GUEST: ...to watch the Yankees play the Kansas City Athletics. That inspired him to give it to me, and, uh, I took it along with me. We got there and saw the game on August 27...

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: ...on a Sunday. And Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris did, neither one hit home runs that day that we saw in our game, but Yogi Berra did hit one home run.

APPRAISER: Right.

GUEST: And Elston Howard hit two. Toward the end of the game, my coach of the team, our team, took the ball and, uh, disappeared and came back a little bit later at the end of the game. He had, uh, Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle had signed the ball.

APPRAISER: Wow.

GUEST: (murmurs)

APPRAISER: So, here's the ticket you have to the game.

GUEST: Right, the ticket stub.

APPRAISER: And here, and here's the baseball itself. Well, we've got Ruth, '31, right here. And here's Mantle, and it shows Mickey Mantle, 1961, on there. And then we flip it around and there is Roger Maris. And did you know what was going on that summer?

GUEST: Oh, yes. It was in all the news. Uh, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris in their home run duel to break Babe Ruth's record.

APPRAISER: That's right, and that's what I love about this baseball-- here you have, and we'll flip it back here, Babe Ruth, who, of course, broke his own home run record in 1927, setting at 60 home runs in a single season. Broke his home run record of 1921, when he hit 59 home runs, and you fast-forward to 1961, and you have the M&M boys. In all my years in, in sports-- and I've been a sports fan all my life and I've been looking at baseballs for many, many years-- I've never seen a baseball signed by Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Roger Maris, let alone a ball signed by Ruth in the heyday of his career, 1931, and Mantle and Maris during the summer that they assaulted Ruth's home run record. Maris ended up hitting 61 in 161 games. Mantle, of course, went down with an injury late in the season and I believe only finished with 52 or 54. That's what gives it value. You've got these two eras of Yankee dominance and these two eras of the home run being set by Ruth and then the home run record being broken by Maris in '61. At auction, I'd put it up at about $30,000 to $50,000.

GUEST: That much?

APPRAISER: $30,000 to $50,000, yes.

GUEST: I didn't an, anticipate that.

APPRAISER: And I would put an insurance value on it for at least $50,000. You have two great eras here. You have two great stories here that have collided right in this baseball. Who knew what you were going to get for your 13th birthday?

GUEST: I did, I didn't ever dreamed of this.

HOST: You're enjoying ANTIQUES ROADSHOW, Vintage Dallas. Get more ROADSHOW at pbs.org/antiques, watch on the PBS app, and follow @RoadshowPBS for exclusive content, updates, and special features. Watch more now from the Feedback Booth, right after this.

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

GUEST: The clock expert told me that the movement was made in Waterbury, Connecticut. Who would have thought a Yankee could have made a lamp this Southern charm?

GUEST: Hey, Mom, I told you I was coming to the ANTIQUES ROADSHOW, and I brought Grandma's old flower jar that you gave me. Well, guess what? The jar isn't worth a, anything. But... With the lid, all intact, $1,500. Not bad at all, and guess what, Mom? I'm not giving it back.

GUEST: This is my TV tray that I grew up with, and my husband said it wasn't worth a thing, and come to find out, it's worth $50, and more than his great-great-grandfather's pocket watch and his great-great-grandfather's snuff box, so yay! Thank you, Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo. (both laugh)

GUEST: And I found this painting in a travel trailer, an antique travel trailer, and the painting is worth more than the trailer, it's at $800. (laughs)

GUEST: And this is my Limoges vase that my mother-in-law gave me, and she's not gonna be real happy, 'cause I think she traded some things that were way more valuable than this, and so... Don't tell her about her brother-in-law. (both laugh)

GUEST: (plays ANTIQUES ROADSHOW theme) Thanks, ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.

HOST: Thanks for watching. See you next time on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.

Discover delightful Dallas treasures, including an 1830 first printing of The Book of Mormon, Dallas memorabilia & Tennessee sampler, and a Ruth, Mantle & Maris-signed baseball. Which Dallas discovery’s top value doubled to $100,000?

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