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Related | 1919 Howard Chandler Christy "The Spirit of America"

Related | 1919 Howard Chandler Christy "The Spirit of America"

Appraisal Collection | All Our Appraisals from Colonial Williamsburg, Hour 2

Appraisal Collection | All Our Appraisals from Colonial Williamsburg, Hour 2

Related | Playboy "Womb Chair" Spread

Related | Playboy "Womb Chair" Spread

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1941 Willie Sutton Prison-escape Head & Hand

Value (2021) | $10,000 Auction – $12,000 Auction
Watch  

APPRAISER:
You brought in this wonderful, mysterious box.

GUEST:
Yes.

APPRAISER:
And I know everyone's been asking me at the table. All I wanted to say was, "What's in the box?" And if you could hold that for a moment. Now, inside the box, we found this wonderful plaster head with human hair, human eyelashes, and a strangely realistic human hand. What can you tell us about the contents of the box?

GUEST:
I don't know if anyone has heard of Willie Sutton. He was a famous bank robber, well-known bank robber. He was also well-known for breaking out of prisons. This was his that he used in an attempted breakout. He had made this himself, in prison.

APPRAISER:
He reportedly robbed over 100 banks. He had escaped successfully from prison three times, and this is a dummy head and dummy hand that he used in an unsuccessful escape from prison.

GUEST:
Yes.

APPRAISER:
Well, and the prison was run by your grandfather.

GUEST:
Yes. After he was released from the Eastern Penitentiary, they sent it up to the Camp Hill prison, where my grandfather was located. And then he simply kept it upon his retirement, since Willie had been released long since.

APPRAISER:
Now, reportedly, what Sutton had done was, over the course of several months, possibly even years, he made this false head using hair from the barbershop-- and this is actually real human hair. Same with the eyelashes. We have no idea where he got the pigments.

GUEST:
Right, but they're very creative. I'm sure they mixed things and made things up and everything. As far as the plaster, I heard he went to the dentist a lot. (laughing)

APPRAISER:
He fashioned this wonderful head and left it in his bed, left the hand clutching a corner of the, the bedsheet. Do you know what happened that night when he tried to escape?

GUEST:
Unfortunately, unbeknownst to him, two other inmates in another area of the prison also attempted to escape at that point, at about the same time, and that set off all the bells and whistles and alarms. He ran back to his cell.

APPRAISER:
This escape attempt was in August of 1941.

GUEST:
Yes.

APPRAISER:
And it was just a few years later when he managed to finally escape for several years, and in 1950, he was actually the 11th person to be added to the FBI's most wanted list. Willie Sutton was also known for a wonderful, wonderful quote. Reportedly, he was asked once why he robbed banks, and he reported to have said, "Well, 'cause that's where the money is." Well, later in life, he denied ever saying it, but he said it sounded good and he said it sounded like something he would say. And he titled his autobiography Where the Money Was, and talked about how he never, ever said that.

GUEST:
Yes.

APPRAISER:
And this is such a wonderful, wonderful piece. Doing the research on it, there's not a lot of these things that were used by prisoners to help them escape come up for auction, and we've almost never seen anything, frankly, so well done. I mean, this is a masterwork. But without the box, and the provenance of the label on the box, it's just a creepy plaster head. But if you look at pictures of Willie Sutton, it looks just like him.

GUEST:
Yes.

APPRAISER:
It is amazingly well done. And after conferring with my colleagues, we're able to give it a very conservative auction estimate of $2,500 to $3,500.

GUEST:
Wow, that's nice. That's very nice, that's surprising.

APPRAISER:
As far as I know, this is the first head in a box we've had on ROADSHOW.

Support provided by: Learn more

Appraisal Details

Appraiser
James Supp
Collectibles
Coronado Trading Co.
Tucson
Coronado Trading Co.
Coeur d'Alene, ID
Update (2021)
$10,000 Auction – $12,000 Auction
Update (2018)
$8,000 Auction – $10,000 Auction
Appraised value (2017)
$2,500 Auction – $3,500 Auction
Featured In
Harrisburg, Hour 2 (#2202)
Kooky & Spooky (#2227)
Body of Work (#2523)
Event
Harrisburg, PA (June 03, 2017)
Category
Collectibles
Period
1940s
Form
Sculpture
Material
Hair , Papier-mâché

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.

Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.

Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.

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