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Vanuatu Headdress, ca. 1925

Value (2016) | $3,500 Auction – $4,500 Retail
Watch  

GUEST:
I acquired this piece as one piece of a large collection. What I learned is that this piece started in a museum in Africa, made its way to the United States in the collection of Eddie Albert, of Green Acres fame, then went to a museum in Pasadena, California. Following, it was auctioned, and it came to me subsequent to that.

APPRAISER:
And so do you know what you paid for it?

GUEST:
Probably $500 or $750 range as a part of the collection.

APPRAISER:
Okay, you told me you did have a personal relationship with this piece, and in fact it now has a name in your family, doesn't it?

GUEST:
This is Doug, because on Green Acres, Eddie Albert's character was Mr. Douglas. So this is Doug.

APPRAISER:
So where in Africa do you think it's from?

GUEST:
I have no idea. I know Green Acres was not in Africa, so I don't know... I don't know where it came from.

APPRAISER:
But you think somewhere in Africa.

GUEST:
That's what I was told. It came out of an African museum.

APPRAISER:
Okay. What they told you is not correct.

GUEST:
Ah.

APPRAISER:
This comes from a location east of Australia, what we used to call New Hebrides, which is now called Vanuatu. And this came from the second-largest island in that group of islands, called Malekula.

GUEST:
Okay.

APPRAISER:
And this is a dance costume from that area.

GUEST:
Okay.

APPRAISER:
That's a shocker, isn't it?

GUEST:
Yeah, I was told it was from Africa, so I have no idea.

APPRAISER:
This conical element here is probably missing the feathers at the top. We have this outer coating. It appears to be a natural fiber. There are some people that consider this to be a spider web from that area. That's something that needs a little bit more research. What we see down here are the boars' tusks, and this element here is clay, and it's painted. And look at the difference in the blue here and the blue there. It's not uncommon that these masks would be continually renovated. This is a real piece, this is a dance costume that was made to be danced by those people, and not made for sale. Now, these dance masks from Malekula are actually still being danced. So this piece definitely would have been made in the 20th century, although I think this would be pre-1950, but I do believe it is in the 20th century.

GUEST:
Okay.

APPRAISER:
You did pretty well for your $500. This is a $3,500 to $4,500 piece at a good auction or gallery.

GUEST:
Oh, wow, okay.

Support provided by: Learn more

Appraisal Details

Appraiser
John Buxton
Tribal Arts
None
Dallas, TX
Appraised value (2016)
$3,500 Auction – $4,500 Retail
Featured In
Indianapolis, Hour 1 (#2104)
Event
Indianapolis, IN (July 09, 2016)
Category
Tribal Arts
Period
1920s , 20th Century
Form
Headdress , Mask
Material
Clay , Paint

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.

Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.

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