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1917 Mayhart Studio "A Living Flag" Photograph

Value (2016) | $1,500 Auction – $2,500 Auction
Watch  

GUEST:
Well, this has been in my wife's family for over 60 years. It's a photograph of over 1,000 military personnel at the Great Lakes training center that made an American flag. It's just amazing that they could get that many people together saluting and making the flag with the flagpole.

APPRAISER:
If we look at the lower right corner, we see that the Mayhart Studio is indicated, its location, in Chicago, dated 1917, which is a key year, because in April of 1917, the United States entered the First World War. So when we think about the idea of a living flag, this was something that was popular around 1917, 1918. So photographers like the Mayhart Studio would engage in a lot of planning. Because look at the perspective of this. The idea that someone was standing on a tower, maybe 60, 70 feet high, with a megaphone. If we look at the individuals in this picture super-close-up, you in fact do see that each of them are standing at attention and saluting. So the idea that President Wilson was considering entering the United States in a war that was very unfavorable, and that these images of the American flag, Woodrow Wilson himself, the Statue of Liberty, military emblems, these were all iconic images done in this living flag genre. Were this item to come to auction, an estimate would be $1,500 to $2,500.

GUEST:
I appreciate that, because it does have sentimental value, even to us about four generations later.

Support provided by: Learn more

Appraisal Details

Appraiser
Daile Kaplan
Photographs
Appraised value (2016)
$1,500 Auction – $2,500 Auction
Featured In
Indianapolis, Hour 2 (#2105)
Event
Indianapolis, IN (July 09, 2016)
Category
Photographs
Period
20th Century , First World War (WWI)
Form
Photograph

Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.

Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."

Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.

Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.

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