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Stiegele Schuetzen Rifle, ca. 1900

Value (2017) | $8,000 Retail
Watch  

GUEST:
I brought in a rifle that my grandfather left me about 30 years ago, dropped it off one Christmas morning. And I was named after him, so as a grandson, inherited it from him, I guess. APPRIASER: A pretty Christmas present.

GUEST:
Yes. APPRIASER: Do you know where Granddad got this gun?

GUEST:
I have no idea. APPRIASER: What do you know about the gun?

GUEST:
I don't know a real lot. I know the caliber's a .219 Zipper, and that's really all I know about the gun. APPRIASER: Sometimes there's guns that are works of art instead of just regular weapons. This is one of those guns. This is the kind, when you see it, you say, "Ring-a-ding-ding, baby-- it's on." This one is beautiful. It's a beautiful German-made. They call it a Schuetzen rifle. They're basically real fancy guns for real wealthy people. This one has beautiful relief carving on the stock. It's got beautiful designs. We've got game scenes. And you can imagine hand-carving that to that quality of workmanship without messing up. And it's just a beautiful gun. The metalwork is beautifully chiseled. All that's hand detail work. We've got the cherubs on the frame carrying the game. I mean, it's as good as they get. This gun has a Martini-style action. That's the fellow that held the patent on it. And across the top of the barrel, we've got an interesting mark. Inlaid in gold, it has the mark of Carl Stiegele in Munich, Germany. And he was a premier maker. He produced this kind of work throughout his career. It's gold and silver inlaid. Just a beautiful gun from front to back. It has the double triggers because it's a set system. The first one is to get it ready, and that second one is a hair trigger. That helps in the target shooting. It helps you-- when you pull the trigger, you're not jerking it, and therefore you're able to shoot it more accurately.

GUEST:
Okay-- would it devalue it any to shoot it? APPRIASER: I wouldn't shoot it. Because you always run the risk of damaging it. It's hard to date specifically. Because it was in Munich, most of the records were lost during air raids in World War II. So we can't say specifically. It's going to be made in the late 1800s, possibly even the early 1900s. They were custom-made, and so we don't have regular production records. It's a gun that you have to put in perspective, because they did make quite a few of the high-grade Schuetzen rifles because there were quite a few very wealthy German and European people that wanted them.

GUEST:
Okay. APPRIASER: If your friend had one of these, you would want one, too. A plain Jane gun like this, without the relief carving, without the chase work, without the gold and silver, can sell in the $800 to $1,500 range. This one's a whole different ball game. This one would retail today for about $8,000.

GUEST:
Okay. Nice.

Support provided by: Learn more

Appraisal Details

Appraiser
Rafael Eledge
Arms & Militaria
Shiloh Civil War Relics
Savannah, TN
Appraised value (2017)
$8,000 Retail
Featured In
Green Bay, Hour 3 (#2215)
Event
Green Bay, WI (June 17, 2017)
Category
Arms & Militaria
Period
19th Century , 20th Century
Form
Rifle
Material
Gold , Silver

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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