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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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1978 Feliciano Béjar Magiscope Sculpture

Value (2021) | $3,000 Retail
Watch  

GUEST:
I bought this about a year ago at a thrift store in Wisconsin. It was hiding in the back, it caught my eye with the, the shape of it, and it has "Mexico" written on it. Both of my parents are from Mexico, and I just bought it.

APPRAISER:
So what you, described it to me earlier as a magnifying glass.

GUEST:
That's what I call it.

APPRAISER:
It's not a magnifying glass at all. It's a Mexican artist named Feliciano Béjar. Feliciano was born in Michoacán region in a poor family. He assisted his father as a young man. He was a street peddler. So handling small notions and bottles and trinkets and things like that. And that sort of got his creative juices flowing a little bit. He later apprenticed with a carpenter and would start using scrap pieces and found objects and put them together and started making different things. As an artist, he had a very long and sort of meandering career. He got into painting for long time as a young man, and he actually traveled to New York for his first exhibition in 1948, and it's really not until the 1960s that he stumbled upon this style of art, which is really sculpture. And he perfected this form—the first piece actually came out in 1966. These objects were made mainly with found pieces. So pieces of machinery and gears that he would fit with these polished lenses of glass with these concave areas in them.

GUEST:
Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER:
They became known as magiscopes, and the magiscope became his trademark piece for the rest of his career. The purpose of the piece is not to make reality more clear. It's to distort reality, to see things in a different way. You can see his name here inscribed in the glass, followed by the date 1978. On the base here, we see the inscription, "To," someone's initials, "Mexico," and then the date. In this case, it may have been a gift from him to someone which he had inscribed. In terms of how his pieces present, this one is much more finished, much more polished. The other ones have a more raw and kind of industrial feel, but they always have this finished, very refined lens piece. This is a small piece, this would be for a desk or a tabletop.

GUEST:
Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER:
He made pieces that are human-scale in terms of size. He really hasn't gotten his due as an artist. Although this is sculpture and fine art, and collected as such, he's still considered more of a craftsman than an artist. How much did you pay for it?

GUEST:
I want to say six dollars, no more than ten.

APPRAISER:
Any idea at all what a piece like this might be worth?

GUEST:
No, I think I was guessing maybe $100?

APPRAISER:
He must have made this in a series. I wasn't able to find information about how many in the series.

GUEST:
Oh, okay.

APPRAISER:
But an identical piece is being offered in a retail setting right now for $3,000. So it's a pretty, pretty great purchase.

GUEST:
(laughs) Yes.

APPRAISER:
From, from the thrift store.

GUEST:
Yes.

APPRAISER:
Yeah. I think, as time goes on, his pieces are going to increase in value.

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Appraisal Details

Appraiser
Kelly Wright
Decorative Arts, Silver
Update (2021)
$3,000 Retail
Appraised value (2019)
$3,000 Retail
Featured In
Bonanzaville, Hour 3 (#2406)
Best Bargains (#2521)
Event
Fargo, ND (June 01, 2019)
Category
Sculpture
Form
Art , Sculpture
Material
Glass , Metal

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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