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Watch | Colonial Williamsburg, Hour 3

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Close Up | Poet Rainer Maria Rilke's Quote

Close Up | Poet Rainer Maria Rilke's Quote

Owner Interview | Korean Yayoi Stone Dagger, ca. 750 BC

Owner Interview | Korean Yayoi Stone Dagger, ca. 750 BC

Appraisal Collection | All Our Appraisals from Colonial Williamsburg, Hour 3

Appraisal Collection | All Our Appraisals from Colonial Williamsburg, Hour 3

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Joan Crawford Archive, ca. 1940

Value (2018) | $4,000 Auction – $6,000 Auction
Watch  

APPRAISER:
Obviously, we have here a signed photograph of Joan Crawford, but what is this other piece, and how did you get these?

GUEST:
So this other piece is a schedule that Joan Crawford wrote out. So my grandmother-- which is my father's mother-- for a brief period in 1940s, was actually Joan Crawford's nanny. I don't know if you ever saw that movie "Mommie Dearest," or anything like that, she was actually kind of a witness to that. And this was the schedule that she had to follow very closely. She couldn't deviate from the schedule, and this was something that I came into possession with because my father passed away a few years ago, had it in the house that my grandmother had been the nanny, but we didn't ever really know where this stuff was. So when he passed away, we were going through all the stuff he had hoarded over the years, and we finally found this.

APPRAISER:
Wow. Well, Joan Crawford was a very generous signer. So being someone who works in this world, I've seen a lot of Joan Crawford handwritten documents, letters. She wrote a lot of letters to people, thanking them for things.

GUEST:
Yeah.

APPRAISER:
And she was very generous with her signature, so we see a lot of photographs. She was not, however, so generous, perhaps, in her home life, which is a controversial topic.

GUEST:
Yes.

APPRAISER:
When her daughter Christina wrote the book "Mommie Dearest," a lot of people came out in Joan Crawford's defense and said, "That's not true, I know Joan Crawford, it couldn't have happened." Her first husband was in support of it, Katherine Hepburn stood behind her. And then there were some people in Hollywood who came out and said, "No, I think that a lot of the stuff in the book was true." And there's been a lot of debate, and I think what the most interesting thing to me about your documents are, they are a firsthand record of someone who witnessed what went on in that household in intimate detail.

GUEST:
Yes.

APPRAISER:
The fact that Joan personally typed this herself shows what an extraordinary control freak she was, and left nothing to chance. And the most shocking thing to me in this entire schedule, which outlines exactly when the children were to be awoken, when they would eat, when they would be dressed, when they would be sent to do their "duty in the bathroom," as she puts it.

GUEST:
Yes.

APPRAISER:
But the most shocking one here, talking about the baby, "then tie him in his play chair while his room is being cleaned."

GUEST:
Yes.

APPRAISER:
So in my mind, this is the first evidence, absolutely hard-fast, no question about it, someone on the scene, Joan Crawford telling her nanny to tie up her child in a chair.

GUEST:
Yeah.

APPRAISER:
Which, one of the things that we saw in the movie, he was tied to the bed so he wouldn't kick his feet about.

GUEST:
Right.

APPRAISER:
You had some other handwritten notes that mentioned something about that, as well.

GUEST:
Yes, yes.

APPRAISER:
So to me, it's very interesting on that front, because this is absolutely black-and-white.

GUEST:
Right.

APPRAISER:
She's telling her nanny to do this.

GUEST:
Yes.

APPRAISER:
Because this is something we see a lot of...

GUEST:
Yeah.

APPRAISER:
The photograph, when these come up-- this is a really beautiful one-- but when the photographs come up, they sell for about $300.

GUEST:
Yeah.

APPRAISER:
Regularly. But I think when you put this in the context of everything that you have-- the notes, and this schedule-- the whole group would be in the $4,000 to $6,000 range at auction.

GUEST:
Wow, very cool.

APPRAISER:
It's interesting because your grandmother was also interviewed for the book "Jazz Baby."

GUEST:
Yes.

APPRAISER:
And she says in that, that interview in the book that, "I saw what happened and everything in that book is absolutely true. 'Mommie Dearest' is true."

GUEST:
Yeah.

APPRAISER:
She mentions that she has some notes and documents that she thought supported Christina's claims.

GUEST:
Yeah.

APPRAISER:
And this is the first we're getting a peek at them. I don't think anyone's ever seen these before.

GUEST:
Wow, yeah.

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Appraisal Details

Appraiser
Laura Woolley
Collectibles
The Collector's Lab
Los Angeles, CA
Appraised value (2018)
$4,000 Auction – $6,000 Auction
Featured In
Hotel del Coronado, Hour 2 (#2308)
Event
San Diego, CA (May 29, 2018)
Category
Collectibles
Period
1940s
Form
Autograph , Document , Photograph
Material
Paper

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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