MARK WALBERG: Antiques Roadshow was wowed by the crowd in Cleveland, Ohio.

GUEST: My husband rides Harley-Davidsons, and this was his belt when he was in his cool stage.

GUEST: That's a great investment.

APPRAISER: It certainly is!

GUEST: Wow!

WALBERG: Antiques Roadshow visited the home of the Cleveland Orchestra: Severance Hall. And while the musicians were on break, we got a behind-the-scenes glimpse at this historic building. Debuting in 1931 and designed by Cleveland architects Walker and Weeks, the hall showcases a symphony of diverse architectural styles that work in harmony to make this concert hall a stand-out city landmark. Another example of a mixture of different styles? We'll explore this mysterious piece later on in the show, but now, check out this local treasure.

GUEST: I went to an auction, and I found a scrapbook down in the basement. And it was all dusty, it was up on the shelf, and I took it down and I started to look through it. Looked like it had some interesting things, didn't really see these. Thought I'd bid on it.

APPRAISER: What did the scrapbook sell for, if you don't mind me asking?

GUEST: $50.

APPRAISER: $50. So these ticket stubs are from the 1920 World Series.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Which was between the Brooklyn Robins, not the Dodgers-- they were called the Robins…

GUEST: Okay, okay.

APPRAISER: …Because of their manager, Wilbert Robinson-- and the Cleveland Indians.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: These two are from games three and four in Cleveland.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: So these are actually the sixth and seventh games of the World Series. The Brooklyn Robins had the first three games at Ebbets Field, then at Dunn Field here in Cleveland, the Cleveland Indians hosted the teams. And the Indians won the World Series in the seventh game, five games to two. Back in 1920, it was a best-of-nine World Series. That's why we have a team winning five games to two. And it was a very important World Series. Obviously, it was the first for the Cleveland Indians, but what was cool about it was there was an unassisted triple play in game five. Bill Wambsganss famously had an unassisted triple play in the World Series, one of the most famous plays in World Series history.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: So, it's a remarkable series for that alone. There was a grand slam in game five, and the Cleveland Indians basically dedicated the season to their fallen comrade, Ray Chapman, who had been killed earlier in the season by a bean to the head.

GUEST: Really.

APPRAISER: A bean ball to the head by Carl Mays…

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: …And it was a terribly tragic…

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: …Event in baseball history, and it really spurred on the team to eventually win the World Series. Tickets are a great collectable. A stub like this, though, you're dealing with a very old piece of paper here that could easily disappear over the years.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: That's why scrapbooks are a great thing to find –

GUEST: Right, right, right.

APPRAISER: - and to look through and see, you know, what you could find.

GUEST: Right, right.

APPRAISER: So, these are wonderful treasures. Game six is a good one, but game seven is very important.

GUEST: Is it.

APPRAISER: Because it is that clinching game…

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: …And people love the clinching game ticket.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: There are some condition issues. These were glued down.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: So there's some glue on the back of the tickets.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: But overall, they present very nicely…

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: …And that's what collectors like.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Well, I would put a retail value on these ticket stubs at about $2,000.

GUEST: Really? Nice, excellent!

APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: Nice, nice, nice. That’s great!

APPRAISER: So, not bad for a $50 investment.

GUEST: No, no, no-- that's exciting, that's neat. Excellent. (laughing) Thank you!

GUEST: My grandfather was Bill Wamby. He played for the Cleveland Indians, among other teams. He had a 13-year professional career. And after he retired in the '40s, he went and managed girls' professional baseball.

APPRAISER: You said Bill Wamby, but his last name was...?

GUEST: Wambsganss.

APPRAISER: Wambsganss. He did play for the Cleveland Indians…

GUEST: Correct.

APPRAISER: …So he's kind of a local hometown hero, and I think he's really well known for being the only player in history ever to complete an unassisted triple play in a World Series.

GUEST: In a World Series in 1920.

APPRAISER: Right, 1920. And it's something that's never been done again, and I don't know if it ever will be.

GUEST: He was interviewed once about the triple play, and he said, "You would have thought I was born the day before and died the day after," but he had a 13-year career, but everybody remembers…

APPRAISER: Focuses…

GUEST: …That one –

APPRAISER: Right.

GUEST: --one play.

APPRAISER: And at the time, he was a second baseman.

GUEST: That’s correct, yes.

APPRAISER: So you got the player going off second base, caught a line drive, and tagged the runner from first coming into second.

GUEST: First to second, right.

APPRAISER: What we're looking at here, I think, is really super because up until not that long ago, women's baseball was not treated in the same fashion as men's professional baseball…

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: …And with the movie League of Their Own and with the… opening of that wing in the Cooperstown Hall of Fame, it's really come more to the forefront. Now, you have two pictures up on top.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: Those are two team pictures of teams that he coached in the Women's Baseball League.

GUEST: That's right, the Fort Wayne Daisies, and then the Muskegon Lassies.

APPRAISER: What I also found really neat was that little piece of paper you brought there. It's the All-American Girls' Baseball League. It says "Girls' baseball, not softball," and that's very cool to me because up until that point, women played softball, men played baseball. And also, the parameters for the bases and everything else are different than professional men's baseball. Down on the bottom, it shows that he was the head scout.

GUEST: That's right.

APPRAISER: Now the trophy, to me, is really interesting because it's a trophy for them winning the title…

GUEST: That’s right.

APPRAISER: …And that was with the Muskegon Lassies.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Overall, the trophy's in great shape. It is missing the bat.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And that's not hard to replace. What also is very cool, down here, it says, ah, "To Bill Wamby," and then it lists the players' names, which is great.

GUEST: Great names.

APPRAISER: Yeah. Cookie and Tex and everything else. I'm assuming because it's such a personal family thing that it's something you're gonna keep in the family.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: I would advise you to place an insurance value on the whole group as an archive somewhere between $8,000 and $10,000 for insurance purposes. Yeah, it's irreplaceable stuff. Trophies from Women's Baseball League…

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: …I haven't seen one. When we give an insurance appraisal, understand, it's not definitely saying –

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: -- that's what it would sell for, but it's important to… to cover it in the event that something does happen.

GUEST: Incredible.

APPRAISER: But it's just, it’s just great, and it's not just because it's the Women's Baseball League. You're talking about a pretty important figure in Cleveland baseball history. So…

GUEST: He was a great guy, too.

GUEST: Hello! We made it, yay!

APPRAISER: You know, it's a mass- produced work of art.

GUEST: Okay.

GUEST: I had a friend that just died and we went to the funeral, and when we got there, the one daughter came up and hugged my wife and said, "I'm so sorry, you inherited the rooster." (laughs) We love it, it's been great.

GUEST: I brought a map that I got at an auction in southern Wisconsin about two or three years ago. I bought it because it looks really cool and I've never seen anything like it before and I love collecting… stuff that I've never seen, so this definitely fit the bill. I've had it hanging in my room, and I paid $65 for it.

APPRAISER: There's lots of 20th century relief maps, but it's very unusual to see a 19th century relief map. Although they made multiples of this, they made very few, and they're sort of individually hand-made. I mean, it's all individually painted. You've got a little crackling going on… but as that kind of thing goes, pretty nice shape. Any feeling for what it might be worth?

GUEST: Um… a couple hundred dollars?

APPRAISER: I would say a retail value of around $2,500.

GUEST: Are you serious?

APPRAISER: Absolutely, yeah. It's a very unusual thing.

GUEST: Oh my gosh, thank you so much.

GUEST: This is Anne Jacobs and her brother, Joseph Jacobs, and they lived in Wooster, Ohio, which is actually only about, uh, 50 miles southwest of here. She was born in 1835, and I believe he was born in 1833.

APPRAISER: So, that would mean that she's probably about three there.

GUEST: That's what I would imagine, yes.

APPRAISER: So, we're talking about maybe 1838 when this painting was…

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: …Was painted.

GUEST: I would say about-- yes.

APPRAISER: And this was a family painting?

GUEST: The people that owned it, the parents died and the children had no room for it anymore, and so I was able to buy it from them. They were distant cousins.

APPRAISER: The scale of this painting suggests that this family had some money.

GUEST: Yes, I believe they owned a mill in Wooster, Ohio.

APPRAISER: It's a wonderful Ohio painting. When you first came up to the folk art table, we saw this and we're saying, "Oh, well, this has got to be somewhere back East." And then we started looking at it, and really, it is a Midwestern painting. There's very little body of work…

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: …To talk about Ohio folk art portraiture. It's not signed, which is typical of folk art paintings. It's probably done by an itinerant…

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: …Who came through Wooster. You very seldom see two children in the same painting. What else is so great about this is that she's holding that wonderful cat. You can see the cat sort of squirming there.

GUEST: Not too happy.

APPRAISER: Not too happy. He's holding this marvelous pull toy, and I love the little red yarn…

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: …That's attached so he could pull it along. It gives the painting just a little splash of color. And here at the top, we have the dress and the wagon.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: That certainly adds value to the painting. Does it add 20% to the painting? No. But it's nice to have it all together as a package. It's in the original frame.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Which is great. It's been relined-- the canvas has been laid down on a newer piece of canvas to protect it. It's had a little bit of conservation, and you can see here, for example…

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: …That there may be a little bit of inpainting there.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: I would like to have seen a little bit something in the background to really sort of bring it all together. But at the same time, the kids are sort of jumping off the – off the canvas. What did you pay for it?

GUEST: I paid a lot for it because I really, really wanted it. I paid $20,000 for it.

APPRAISER: Well, you know –

GUEST: It was the only time I ever asked my father to borrow money, too. (laughs)

APPRAISER: Well, so you paid $20,000, and how long ago was this?

GUEST: About 20 years ago.

APPRAISER: Okay. We all agreed that it's right there at the top, certainly at the top for an Ohio folk art painting.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: But it's not just a great, great, great folk art painting…

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: …Because it's just missing a little… a few things-- the background—

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: --Their faces are a little bit flat.

GUEST: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: But nonetheless, we all agreed $30,000 to $40,000 is an easy estimate for this—

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: -- and there might be a lot of upside if it were to come to auction. It's a great folk art portrait, probably the best that I've seen in the time that I've been selling antiques in Ohio.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: And that's almost 25 years.

GUEST: I went to graduate school at the University of Akron back in the late '70s and befriended some staff and administrative people, and one of them was a guy by the name of Ian, who owned this – this piece. And we always had fun with it and played around it. He retired, moved to Florida, he passed away and it passed then to his sister, and then it came back to some mutual friends in Akron, and about ten years ago, it came to me.

APPRAISER: And so as we know, and we have the book right here, it's by Harry Bertoia. He was an Italian-American sculptor. Moved here in 1915 and moved to Detroit and studied at the Cranbrook Institute. Did jewelry design to begin with, and then met many people, including Charles and Ray Eames, the furniture designers. He subsequently went to work for them, and in the '50s helped design a couple of very successful lines of furniture for them, so much so that he received a lump sum of money and went and pursued another passion of his, which was sculpture. Ultimately, in his lifetime, he made about 50 public works sculptures, and many of them are what are called sonambient sculptures, and this is one of these sonambient sculptures right here. Bertoia moved to Berks County in Pennsylvania, and his soundwave sculptures, he really manufactured them mostly in the 1960s. The book that you've brought in with it, what's really wonderful about this is it's actually inscribed to your friend Ian and signed by Harry, which is a wonderful thing. Bertoia's works aren't signed, and there are some fakes out there, so this really reinforces that we know this is by Bertoia. It is made of bronze, and then there are vertical rods of bronze that are soldered very closely together. Earlier on, when we were talking, it was actually vibrating just ever so slightly. What is very interesting is that in the 1990s, one of Bertoia's children-- he died in 1978-- discovered a huge cache of vinyl records that Bertoia had made, and they were recordings of his sonambient sculptures.

GUEST: Wow, I didn't know that.

APPRAISER: I think there were 11 versions in the end, but it was a huge cache of these vinyl presses, and they sold and they went into the market. I've never heard one. I'm sure they're quite interesting to hear. These works come up not infrequently at auction. Occasionally, his public works pieces come up for auction as well, but these smaller pieces, they come up, they're highly sought after and highly desirable. Have you ever considered what it might be worth?

GUEST: I've seen what some of the non-sound pieces are worth, and I actually thought-- and I know what the big ones belonging to institutions are worth-- I actually thought this just might be a study for one of the… larger works.

APPRAISER: We've done some research, and I wasn't able to find that this reflected a study for any larger ones. That's not to say that there's not one out there. If this were to come up for auction, I recommend keeping the book with the inscription with it. While I don't believe it would increase the auction estimate, it can only enhance the ultimate sales price of the piece. If we were to see this come up for auction today, we're very, very confident that an auction estimate would be $20,000 to $25,000.

GUEST: Wow, nice. Thank you.

APPRAISER: His public works pieces bring considerably more. In 2014 -- October of 2014 -- one of his public works pieces sold for $440,000. It's a real treat, and thank you for bringing it into Roadshow.

GUEST: Thank you. Appreciate it.

(rods chiming)

GUEST: These are my husband's and my father-in-law's kidney belts for when they rode a rigid. Now everything's a soft tail, so… you really don't need these, but they're still cool. This is my father-in-law here—

APPRAISER: Right here.

GUEST: --and he rode his Indian to work every day until he retired, and they would laugh when he would come into work in the snow. But he did. He rode an Indian, and this is his belt here. My husband rides Harley-Davidsons, and this was his belt when he was in his cool stage.

(both laughing)

APPRAISER: You're always in your cool stage when you're riding a Harley.

GUEST: And now - and this was a hat that he wore, only he wore it backwards.

APPRAISER: And you?

GUEST: I rode with my husband, I used to ride, and then a friend of ours got injured and it kind of scared me, so I ride with my husband.

APPRAISER: But you're still on the back?

GUEST: Yes, I am.

APPRAISER: And you don't need these.

GUEST: No, no.

APPRAISER: Well, that's a good reason why.

GUEST: Although the older we get, we might go back to them. (laughing)

APPRAISER: People don't know a lot about kidney belts. You see belts on people in stores when they're moving stuff today, but kidney belts were one of the first items that were actually made for motorcycle riders and were used by motorcycle riders because think about it: back in the 1920s, you're not riding these beautiful highways like you are today; you're riding these choppy roads with ruts, and you didn't have suspension and shocks like you have today.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: These belts were made to protect your kidneys.

GUEST: Absolutely.

APPRAISER: They were made originally just like leather jackets, to protect you, but they've become fashionable. Starting in the 1920s, they were produced by several different companies. Motorcycle riders are a breed unto their own, right?

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: So, you could create your own belt with certain studs. Buco was a big company that made belts. That's Buco right here, they are out of Detroit. And you could buy standard or you could have them personalized. You could put your initials, you could put conch shells on there. You could do sequins, whatever you wanted to do.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Your father-in-law's is even cooler, because riding an Indian, what else would he have? You wanted to be the chief. These belts were probably made circa 1940s, maybe 1950s. These started getting phased out in the '50s and '60s. Roads got better, motorcycle shock absorption and suspension got better, and by the '70s and '80s, they were pretty well phased out. You only see them in motocross riders today.

GUEST: Right, mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: The Buco belts sell generally, depending on what the design is on them, anywhere between $300 and $400. Really ornate ones or unusual can sell for as high as maybe $1,000. This, because it's so unusual, would sell for a little bit more with the chief on there, $500 to $700.

GUEST: Wow!

APPRAISER: And the hats are great. The hats have been made by Harley for years, and those are going to sell, depending on condition, between $200 and $500.

GUEST: Wow!

APPRAISER: So if this were to sell at auction, I would say it would sell somewhere between $1,000 and $1,600.

GUEST: Wonderful!

APPRAISER: And you know what they say: accessories make the outfit.

GUEST: They do, absolutely!

VOLUNTEER: It's hard to tell if you don't look, but I'm not real sure.

APPRAISER: It's a Martin – Martin D-28.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: D-28.

GUEST: I thought it looks like it could have been a, uh, a banner that they carry into a procession.

APPRAISER: I'm going to send you to textiles, okay?

GUEST: She was given to my mother in - or grandmother - in 1940, and the doll was dated back to 1885, according to what her memory was.

APPRAISER: This is a French doll, made about 1885, and if you look at it, it's got a closed mouth, paperweight glass threaded eyes, very good quality bisque, the original wig. The size is what's so unusual. It's a very desirable size now because most people that are still collecting dolls are downsizing, so they want this size.

GUEST: Oh, oh.

APPRAISER: She's made by a French firm called Jumeau, which was one of the prolific doll firms in France at that time period. The dress appears to be original. Also, what makes her a little bit more unusual is she's on a shoulder plate.

GUST: Oh, yeah!

APPRAISER: A lot of times, they were on composition bodies, but this is an earlier version on a shoulder plate. And it's a portrait Jumeau. Unfortunately, she has a hairline crack. If she was perfect, she would be worth anywhere between $2,500 and $4,000.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: Being that she has a hairline crack, it's about $1,500 to $2,000.

GUEST: Wow…

APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: I had no idea. No, I really didn't, for real. This is amazing, thank you so much, Floyd.

APPRAISER: Yeah, you’re welcome. Thank you.

GUEST: I am so appreciative of this.

GUEST: These are a couple pictures that my father picked up at an auction in Madison, Indiana. He loved collecting art. And he bought a collection of these by Belle Hoffman, and he didn't know anything about her, just loved the paintings. There were 13 in the group. Then he did some research and found out she was from Cleveland. Supposedly, she was a buyer for the Higbee Company, which was a department store in Cleveland. He had some postcards that came with the collection, and supposedly she went to Grace Kelly's wedding and knew Ava Gardner, and this...

APPRAISER: Oh, my!

GUEST: Yes, Ava Gardner had sent her this postcard, talking about Grace Kelly's wedding.

APPRAISER: So she traveled in some…

GUEST: She traveled.

APPRAISER: …Very heady circles.

GUEST: She did, and I know she traveled overseas because one of my paintings is from Capri, where she painted, in Italy.

APPRAISER: Well, I'm not surprised, because after you showed me these pictures, I got quite interested in Belle Hoffman, and I've – I’ve done some very quick research—

GUEST: Oh!

APPRAISER: -- and I've been very impressed with Belle.

GUEST: Good.

APPRAISER: Belle was apparently quite a woman. She began her career here in Cleveland as a dress designer.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: And studied art at the art school here in Cleveland and also at the New York Art Students League…

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: …And became a painter, and in 1912, at the ripe old age of 23, gathered together a group of like-minded young women and founded the Cleveland Women's Art Club, which had its first meeting in her studio in the Gage Galleries here in Cleveland.

GUEST: Oh, my gosh.

APPRAISER: And I've read a couple of really interesting newspaper articles about that, both contemporary with the founding and recent, in which she is described variously as articulate and outspoken, and… no shrinking violet…

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: …And well-versed in the New York City commercial art world…

GUEST: Oh my gosh.

APPRAISER: …And that the club was very lucky to have her as its spokeswoman and I think leader at the time. She was quite a force, and they pointed out that not only was she a wonderful painter, but that unlike most of the other women in the group who painted or made art in other media, primarily, they had to teach to earn their livings, and she was able to earn her living as a designer, so I guess she was sort of a cut above.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: She did spend a lot of time in Gloucester and Provincetown and that area in the summers in the 1918, 1919 period. She was influenced by the impressionists in France. This beach scene is a perfectly lovely example of that genre, with the sparkling sun and waves and children. This picture is a lively example. Ah, I saw another version of it… and it was entitled "The Red Cross Fair.”

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: So it's a particular event. In this one, you can see her handling of the paint and how incredibly colorful, and these flags moving in the wind and so on. She's an extremely accomplished painter. Since she signed them clearly but did not date them, it's a little difficult, but I would suspect that the beach scene dates from the year she was… on the New England shore, 1918, 1919. And this picture one would assume, based on the costumes and so on, might date from the '20s.

GUEST: Oh, wow. That’s amazing.

APPRAISER: At the same time, it's possible she was doing subjects later…

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: …That were from an earlier date. They both are oil paintings.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: When your father bought the group, do you have any idea how much he paid for it?

GUEST: I think he paid around... between, like, $98 and $100 for it.

APPRAISER: For the entire group of--

GUEST: For the entire group of--

APPRAISER: -- how many?

GUEST: The entire collection, 13.

APPRAISER: Of 13 items.

GUEST: Mm-hmm, yes.

APPRAISER: And how many of them do you have?

GUEST: He gave me three of them in... oh, about five years ago. My sister also got three. My daughter has one.

APPRAISER: And what's happened to the rest of them?

GUEST: Um, my mother is still alive, and they are in her collection.

APPRAISER: Her prices at auction are few and far between and not particularly high.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: There are no pictures comparable to these except one version of this composition here.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: So, it's a little bit of a seat-of-the-pants appraisal, but my colleagues and I have agreed that because these pictures are so lovely and commercially desirable, that each one of them would probably carry an estimate of between $7,000 and $9,000.

GUEST: Oh wow, that's great.

APPRAISER: I—

GUEST: Thank you, that's amazing, yeah! That's a great investment!

APPRAISER: It certainly is.

GUEST: Wow!

GUEST: This has come down through my family, which is originally from the Pittsburgh area since the time that Pittsburgh was even founded, and I think I might be the… fifth or sixth generation that has had it. It came through my mom's side of the family. Way back, we had some maiden aunts whose dad was a financier in Pittsburgh. It came through them, and they called it, um, a hot chocolate set.

APPRAISER: And do you know who made it or where it's from?

GUEST: No, my grandmother always told me it was Sèvres, and I hope I'm saying that correctly.

APPRAISER: Right, you said it correctly.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: First of all, we look at the mark on the bottom.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: and right here on the bottom, we have the word "France," so we know where it's from.

GUEST: Okay!

APPRAISER: It's from France, and then above that is a Sèvres mark…

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: …But actually, it is a Sèvres-style mark.

GUEST: Oh, oh.

APPRAISER: And virtually almost everything that is marked with a Sèvres mark was not actually made by Sèvres.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: In this case, this particular set was not made by Sèvres. We don't know who made this set…

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: …But it probably doesn't matter. Now, because it says the word "France," we know it was made after 1891.

GUEST: Alright.

APPRAISER: So this is probably 1890s, 1910. It is exceptionally good quality. I mean, this is magnificent in terms of quality.

GUEST: Fantastic.

APPRAISER: And it would seem strange that someone would manufacture something with a fake mark that is such high quality. You'd think they'd want credit for it.

GUEST: Exactly!

APPRAISER: All of the scenes are entirely hand-painted on it. All of the gold detailing, which is raised—

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: --which is a much more expensive process than flat…

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: …Is all done by hand. And some of the backgrounds are iridescent.

GUEST: Yeah!

APPRAISER: And around the turn of the century, that was kind of a new thing.

GUEST: Okay!

APPRAISER: It's iridescent like Tiffany glass iridescent.

GUEST: Yeah, okay!

APPRAISER: And so that was very popular in this time period. And you've got several different colors of iridescence in the design, so that's another thing that helps date it. Now, it really doesn't look that much like what real Sèvres made.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: The shapes are similar…

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: …But not exactly. Now, this particular color in French porcelain is usually called rose pompadour, which is a term that Sèvres originated, with the pink rose color. And what we would call this is a cabaret. A cabaret is a two-piece coffee set. Someone could have certainly served whatever they wanted to in it, but probably what they did was put it on display.

GUEST: Right, right.

APPRAISER: Now, your family that originally had it, did they have much money?

GUEST: They were very wealthy. They were early in the steel industry in Pittsburgh, they were contemporaries of the Fricks and the Carnegies, and they traveled, all that whole early 1900s lifestyle that you see on Downton Abbey. I think they were very much like that.

APPRAISER: Right.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: Well, that is no surprise.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Because the quality is so high, when this was new, around 1900, this would have been some of the most expensive porcelain that you could have bought.

GUEST: Get out!

APPRAISER: It would have cost an immense amount of money. Certainly, they could have bought it in France or in travels…

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: …But they could have bought it at the best stores in—

GUEST: In Pittsburgh, okay.

APPRAISER: -- or Boston or New York.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: Now, despite the fact that it was not actually made by Sèvres, it still has really nice value, and in today's market, I would think that a retail value for this set would be between $5,000 and $7,000.

GUEST: (voice breaking) Thank you… that's great.

APPRAISER: It is a nice set.

GUEST: Thank you.

GUEST: I'm hoping that they think it's worth more than $100. $100 is my make-or-break point.

APPRAISER: These are the ones made stained glass for homes.

APPRAISER: Correct, yeah, it's not liturgical. It's a great scene, and the nautical scene will help sell it.

GUEST: My dad served in the Army mapmaking division during World War II. He was stationed in Paris, and he and another group of American soldiers got to visit various artists' studios. Le Corbusier was one, and at the end of the session that they had, the artist said, "Please, help yourself to my drawings and watercolors." So my dad took this piece and another sgraffito card and gifted them to me about ten years ago.

APPRAISER: Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, better known as Le Corbusier, was born in Switzerland in 1887 and was a true renaissance character. He was an architect, an urban planner, an artist, and wrote many, many theories about architecture and how people should live.

GUEST: Ah.

APPRAISER: And how people should live well. In his artwork, what he strived to do is see the figure as structure, as almost architectural structure. It's a terrific watercolor. And based on the style and your provenance with the piece, I would date it to circa 1940, 1945. At auction, I would value it between $15,000 and $25,000.

GUEST: Wow, that's great.

GUEST: It's been in my family I don't know how long, but my uncle brought it from Switzerland probably in 1905, and I knew it all my life. I never was allowed to touch it, so I didn't know that the bear's head moves when you put something in it like a pipe or something. But it may be older than that because my family owned a restaurant and inn in Switzerland, so it probably came from there. So I don't really know its age.

APPRAISER: In this business, we look at objects all the time, and to me, the best ones are the ones that just make your eyes dance around. And if you look at the bear on the bottom down here, I mean, he looks all ferocious and everything.

GUEST: (laughs)

APPRAISER: And lucky for you and your family that your relatives would not let anybody play with him.

GUEST: (laughs)

APPRAISER: Because it's got some moving parts on it.

GUEST: Yes, it does.

APPRAISER: One thing I noticed is this box has got a broken hinge. That would be easy enough to fix. And the other thing I noticed was that this little... this ashtray section here has been replaced.

GUEST: I suppose so, that's what I figured.

APPRAISER: Yeah, it probably had a covered wooden box or something…

GUEST: Oh!

APPRAISER: …There to begin with. And he's just so well carved all the way around. The cool thing about him is you could put him in between two chairs…

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: …And you could come at him from all four sides, and it would still look fabulous. And one last thing I noticed when I lifted up his head, you can still smell the pipe tobacco down in there.

GUEST: (laughs) Yeah.

APPRAISER: So that was probably a humidor. Most people refer to these as Black Forest carvings.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: Which is really not exactly right, because there was a school of wood carvers in Brienz, Switzerland, and they started up in the early to mid-19th century. And by… 1905, they were very well established, and 1884, they actually started the Brienz School of Woodcarving to keep that tradition going, and it's still in existence. And if you look on a map, Brienz is right at the end of a lake, and it's in an area where the temperature is very temperate, and it's the kind of place that a lot of people would go to when they would go on the Grand Tour. And what happened was probably with your family living there, they probably knew somebody that did this and bought it from them, maybe even had it in the restaurant, although I kind of doubt it in a way because it's in such good condition. So for purposes of dating it, let's just say circa 1900, could be late 19th century. But it's so well done, that's what sort of elevates it another level above most of the carvings that you see like this. And in these, size matters, too. It's nice that it's a nice big one. It's carved out of probably walnut. His eyes are actually glass, and it was done in Brienz. I talked to several of my tablemates, and we feel like that a good insurance value on this would be $5,000.

GUEST: Oh boy. (chuckles) Well, thank you.

GUEST: These posters belonged to my father. They're part of a collection. He grew up in northern Minnesota. Of course, he loved to ski. Over the years, he just started writing away and accumulating what we have before us. My, ah, grandfather owned a short line railroad in northern Minnesota-- the MRL and M, Minneapolis Red Lake Manitoba-- and so hence the railroad connection. They rode the rails as children and adults, so many of my posters do have a railroad affiliation.

APPRAISER: Yeah, they do. Both of these, the Union Pacific and the Canadian Pacific, are posters that were issued by the railroad in order to get people to ride the trains along their route. They weren't necessarily promoting skiing, per se; they were promoting train travel. Sun Valley was founded and formed in the 1930s by Averell Harriman, who was actually the chairman of the Union Pacific Railroad. And he thought rather cleverly that if we can give people something to do on the train trip from New York to California, they're going to ride the trains more. So they basically created the resort of Sun Valley just for that reason. It's interesting, the artist is Austrian-- August Moser. To the best of my understanding, it was early on in the American ski tourism industry. They had to go to Europe, where there was a longer tradition of travel posters featuring ski areas, and so they chose an Austrian artist.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Well, we know the approximate date, mid-1930s for the Sun Valley poster. The Canadian Pacific poster is roughly the same era, probably a little bit closer to 1940. It's anonymously done, as were many of the posters for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Skiing posters are very, very popular. And originally, these were just considered railway advertisements. And many years ago, they could have been bought quite cheaply by people who were railway enthusiasts. Nowadays, as ski memorabilia, they've become more and more sought after. The more valuable of the two is the one that's closer to me. What makes a ski poster most desirable is the ski resort that it's promoting.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Location, location, location. And in the world of ski posters, Sun Valley really is one of the marquee locations. Now, the poster next to you has come up for auction several times in the last decade. And at auction, it sells for between $1,500 and $2,000. Now, the poster closest to me, which we can date to between 1933 and 1936 based only on the Union Pacific logo…

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: …And I have to point out that Sun Valley first began operating in 1936, so that makes this one of the earliest…

GUEST: Oh!

APPRASIER: …Of the Sun Valley posters. At auction, I would estimate this poster between $4,000 and $6,000. And I have to say that in the last 12 years, it's only come up for auction twice, which is an indication of its rarity. And the last time it came up for auction, it sold for more than $10,000.

GUEST: Oh my gosh.

APPRAISER: Yours is not in great condition. The colors are a little bit faded, and there are some creases that you can see in the top corners. So the two of these, estimated between $5,500 and $8,000.

GUEST: Wow. Thank you.

APPRAISER: You're welcome.

GUEST: That's wonderful. (chuckles) I will treasure them more.

GUEST: I go to, sometimes, mansions and large house sales.

APPRAISER: Yes.

GUEST: And I bought some carpets at this, uh, house sale. A friend of mine was with me, and he needed the carpets. And he asked me if I would trade him those small pieces or pieces of carpet…

APPRAISER: Yes.

GUEST: …For this rug. And I traded him, and that's how I got this rug.

APPRAISER: Okay, do you remember how much you paid for the carpets you traded for this?

GUEST: Between $50 and $100.

APPRAISER: And do you have any idea what type of carpet this is?

GUEST: No, I don't.

APPRASIER: First and foremost, it's an antique Persian Fereghan carpet that was woven in the early 20th century, circa 1910. It comes from the northern part of Persia, and these rugs are known for being woven in all-over patterns. The pattern of this example shows the gul henna plant. It's referred to as the gul henna pattern. And "gul" in Farsi translates to "flower." So it's showing the flowers of the henna plant. If you look at the carpet, you can see you've got a diamond grid lattice enclosing gul henna plants. Another item that's very good about this carpet is the fact that it's on a light background. Most of the Fereghan carpets that come into the market are on dark blue backgrounds. So, a large part of the value of this is the decorative aspect of it, and the decorative trends have leaned more towards lighter colors than darker colors. Another thing that's good is the all-over pattern. Most of the carpets that are out there have center medallions, and that can lead to problems when placing them in spaces.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: So you have a little more flexibility as to how you could put this in a home and use it in a space. And finally, a very large attribute that significantly raises the value of this is that it comes in a square size. The rug's about nine by ten, and most carpets come in standardized sizes of eight by ten, nine by 12. So when you come across a carpet that's got an unusual size, it will enhance the value. Now, with all of those benefits, of course the condition will come into play, and that's going to take a little bit away from the value on this carpet because it's got a fair amount of wear. You can see certain areas here where the foundation is showing. Another thing is that it appears to have been over-tinted at some point, and this may have been the result of a bad chemical dye that was originally put into the rug.

GUESS: Okay.

APPRAISER: So what they have done is they've enhanced this pink color in certain areas. And you can see that this color has run in certain areas, most likely when the rug was sent out to be cleaned in the past.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: In this condition, this rug would sell for $1,500 in the auction market. However, if it was in better condition, you'd be looking at something that was worth $5,000 in the auction market.

GUEST: That's very good.

APPRAISER: So thank you so much for bringing it in today.

GUEST: Oh, thank you so much.

GUEST: They thought the piece originally was from Transylvania.

APPRAISER: It's actually probably from Vienna.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: I mean, it would be wonderful to think that it was, given the bats that we have on it.

GUEST: Sure.

GUEST: The girl is my great-grandmother's great-grandmother.

APPRAISER: All of us at the folk art table all loved it. At auction, it would be $5,000 to $10,000.

GUEST: Nice!

GUEST: I brought a wooden bud vase. I collect bud vases, and I picked this one up at, I think, a church bazaar, and didn't really notice anything about it until I was dusting it one day. There is actually a signature, well, kind of a signature on the bottom. I found the name "Doug Ayers" on the internet as a wood sculptor, and that's all I could find.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: I know nothing about this guy.

APPRAISER: He actually was a California artist working in Mendocino, California. Most of his work was begun in the late 1970s and in the 1980s, part of the modern Arts and Crafts movement. Did you pay much money for it?

GUEST: No, I mean, I'm guessing it was about five dollars. I don't pay much for any of the bud vases I buy.

APPRAISER: You're a pretty good shopper. Can I take you shopping with me?

GUEST: Great.

APPRAISER: A couple of things have come up on the marketplace for him at auctions in recent years. And there were two or three of them that sold in the range of $300.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And then there are some current listings online retail where they are being offered for about $700.

GUEST: Oh, wow. Nice, that’s great!

APPRAISER: So your few dollar purchase was pretty good, huh?

GUEST: I love it.

GUEST: In 1972, I worked with a gentleman, and we scuba-dove together. He had a Rolex watch, and we went diving. I thought it would be nice to have a watch like that, so he went to Jamaica, picked it up at the Freeport store for me, and I've owned the watch since 1972 and have worn it almost every day until about 2008.

APPRAISER: This is the original purchase price of the watch?

GUEST: That's correct.

APPRAISER: $100 and...?

GUEST: $129.

APPRAISER: And this is the store that it was purchased in.

GUEST: That's correct, out of Montego Bay.

APPRAISER: Right. And then this is the original warranty that came with the watch.

GUEST: That's correct.

APPRAISER: And you also have all the other accompanying paperwork that you had showed me before.

GUEST: Yes, I do.

APPRAISER: How deep did you go?

GUEST: We went to about 90 feet.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: So I can't claim that I took it as deep as it said it could go.

APPRAISER: So the watch was purchased in 1972 and made within a few months of that time period, so it's a 1971, 1972 watch.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: This is called the Red Submariner. This is the first version of the Submariner that had a date on it. And they've started putting the "Red" name on it for about five or six years.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Previous to that, it was a "no date" sub.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: So this watch has been increasingly more popular, and right now, there's a monstrous cult following for what they call the “Red Sub”. Rolex is one of the premier sports watch brands in the world. They're noted for dependency, they're noted for their waterproofness. The versions today now have sapphire crystals, whereas yours was plastic. They keep making improvements, but the vintage watches, people just love the watch and just worldwide, clamor for the watch. And it's always been since the early days one of the top watches in the world and is for sure the most popular watch in the world.

GUEST: Very interesting.

APPRAISER: All Rolex watches are made in Geneva, Switzerland. Have you ever had it repaired?

GUEST: Yes. I had it cleaned and a new crystal put on it, and I have the paperwork for that.

APPRAISER: It's a good thing that at whatever point you sent it to Rolex they didn't do the work on it, because Rolex tries to bring the watch up to today's standards. Doing that to this watch would have diminished the value tremendously. They would not be able to put the red dial on, so if you would have come in today, it would have had a standard dial, and it would have been worth probably a fraction of what it could be as an original piece.

GUEST: Interesting.

APPRAISER: So in the retail market, this watch would have a value of about $15,000 to $17,000 given that you have all the original papers and you've not had the watch refinished or any major work done to it. Um…It’s - it's amazing that—

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: --you've been able to wear it all those years, enjoy it, and turn $129 into $15,000 to $17,000. Congratulations.

GUEST: Amazing. Thank you.

GUEST: I bought it in 1963. It was the summer, and I used the money out of my very first paycheck to buy it. I went to a bookstore, just fell in love with it, and it was just solely for me, and I've kept it all these years.

APPRAISER: Had you heard of Maurice Sendak before that?

GUEST: Not at all, no.

APPRAISER: It's Maurice Sendak's best known book, and what you bought is the true first edition. And the only way that you can tell a first edition of “Where the Wild Things Are” is if it has its dust jacket. The book won the Caldecott Prize, and when the book won the Caldecott Prize, the publishers affixed a gold seal saying so to the front covers. Then I looked inside at the dust jacket flap, and I saw that the price was $3.50, which is the correct price for first issues of that dust jacket, and that the code down at the bottom was the right code for first editions of that dust jacket: "1163." Then I looked for mention of the Caldecott Award, because as soon as Sendak won the Caldecott Award for this book, the dust jacket changed to include mention of that Caldecott Award. So not only was there this seal on the outside of it, but it says, "Maurice Sendak, Caldecott Award-winning author." And there's no copy on the front flap, and on the back flap of the dust jacket, there's nothing here about the Caldecott Award. Boom, winner. It's a first printing of “Where the Wild Things Are”. As soon as you lose the dust jacket to this book, which is such a wonderful dust jacket-- I mean…

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: …There's a wild thing right there-- it loses almost all of its value. So in dust jacket, a fine copy of this book. I don't expect that you would know the value of this book, do you?

GUEST: $3.50. (laughs)

APPRAISER: A fine copy of this book is worth $7,500. But there's a little bit of wear to this book.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: There's some tearing, and there's a little bit of age toning. The retail value of this book in this condition is $4,500, so still a good profit from the…

GUEST: Well, I never…

APPRAISER: …$3.50 that you paid as a teenager.

GUEST: Yeah, I never bought it to collect or make money off of it.

APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: And I still love it dearly. My mother said I was a fool to spend my money on it, and I can tell you, I feel very vindicated now.

APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: I thought kind of hard when I bought it at an antique shop that had said Le Roy was an English portrait painter.

APPRAISER: Louis Vuitton also made them, and those examples, they're worth a lot of money. When they're in this type with the dome top, they sell for around $100 to $200.

PRODUCER: What is that?

GUEST: We're not really sure. We're hoping you guys could tell us!

GUEST: It has been in my family since probably about the '30s. My great-great-uncle was a doorman in New York City, and somebody gave it to him when they were moving out. And then it went to my great-grandmother. When she passed away, it came to my mother, and about 15 years ago, my mom gave it to me because she knew how much I loved the piece. We've always referred to it as the music stand. We're not really sure what it is, but that's how we've referred to it. And my mother used to have the record player on it when I was a kid, so I used to love listening to the records.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: And we'd prop them in the front so as we were playing the record, the cover art would be on the front part propped up.

APPRAISER: Oh, fun. We don't see things like this every day. First of all, it's interesting that it rotates. I think it's a very good question: what exactly is this? Well, stylistically, this is bridging the gap between the Art Nouveau… style—

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: --and the Arts and Crafts style.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And if you look, like, the carving at the end here—

GUEST: These, yeah.

APPRAISER: -- it's very naturalistic and flowing, very much in keeping with the Art Nouveau that was flourishing…

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: …In the 1890s.

GUEST: Oh!

APPRAISER: At the same time, it has that oak with the bright grain and the sort of austerity and shape, at least, of the Arts and Crafts period.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: So this falls right there on that line between the two. But I love the silhouette that's created by that naturalistic carving. On the side, you've got the drawers there. I do think this is a music stand or a portfolio stand.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: The drawers are just the right size for a folded sheet of music at that period.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And we can just rotate it around here. Look at all of this dramatic openwork carving. This was made by a very charismatic American by the name of Charles Rohlfs. Rohlfs made this probably about 1905, and he was working in Buffalo, New York, in that period. Under here, there is a little cipher, and it's meant to look like a saw…

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: …And a sickle.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And it has an "R" in it.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And that is for Charles Rohlfs. He thought of his works as real originals…

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: …And he liked to say that they didn't refer to any other style, that they were just out of his mind, and it was his passion and love for them that brought life into them and made people love these things.

GUEST: That's cool.

APPRAISER: It is very distinctive. And part of what I love about this is Rohlfs wanted this to be a mystery. He wanted it to be something that people puzzled over and said, "What is that?" Both in ornament and in function, it's an open question. Works of Charles Rohlfs are in museums all over the country.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: There has been a major exhibition of the works of Charles Rohlfs in recent years…

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: …So this piece is a treasure. Now, I want to know, what does your husband think of this?

GUEST: (laughs) My husband has been wanting to put it on the fire pit because it's in such bad shape, but my question was, was it worth investing to get it back in a better condition?

APPRAISER: Your husband's going to have a hard time living it down after this, I think.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: I would estimate at auction, this piece is worth between $40,000 and $60,000.

GUEST: Oh my gosh. I think we'll invest the money.

APPRAISER: So I'd stay away from the fire pit.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: It has been refinished at some point. It would have been a dark, smokier color.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: If you do want to have the piece conserved…

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: …It's going to be expensive because…

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: you need a very highly trained person to do it…

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: …And there are a number of different areas that need attention. I would guess you could spend $5,000 conserving the piece…

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: …And I would guess it could add maybe two or three times the cost of your conservation to the value of the piece.

GUEST: Okay.

WALBERG: You're watching Antiques Roadshow from Cleveland, Ohio. Remember, you can see us anytime online at pbs.org/antiques. Don't go away. The Feedback Booth is coming up right after this.

WALBERG: And now it's time for the Roadshow Feedback Booth.

GUEST: I brought this very rare, exquisite, hard-to-find Queen Elizabeth coronation cup that when I showed it to the appraiser, told me they only made about 60 or 70 million of these things. It's worth about nine dollars if you find the right buyer.

GUEST: We had no idea what this strange risqué woman was. Um… our appraiser was embarrassed that he knew what it was, but it is a Naughty Nelly boot jack.

GUEST: And she's going to be my new bathroom doorstop.

GUEST: Watch was appraised today, wasn't worth as much as I thought, but watch very closely: you're getting sleepy. Yes, you're going to pay me $75,000.

GUEST: And I had my nails done special for the Roadshow, and I had a great time.

GUEST: My nails aren't quite as pretty, but I still had a good time.

GUEST: I was hoping that this here necklace would afford me the following conversation, or just saying - telling my manager, "Hey, I wouldn't be in for the foreseeable future." But alas, I'm still a barista.

GUEST: I think it's Colonel Mustard in the dining room with a candlestick holder.

GUEST: You mean the early 1900 Austrian candlestick?

GUEST: No, I mean the bronze Japanese early 1900s candlestick holders.

BOTH: Thanks, Roadshow! We had a great time.

WALBERG: I'm Mark Walberg, thanks for watching. See you next time on Antiques Roadshow.

GUEST: I bought it in a box of what I thought was sheet music. And apparently, this was not just sheet music; it was something special.

APPRAISER: This is an autographed music manuscript and original score by Deems Taylor, who was a very important composer and music critic of the 20th century.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Most people today remember him because he is the narrative voice of Fantasia, and he's actually the person who made the musical selections for Disney to animate in Fantasia. We pulled out the score to Jurgen. Jurgen was a very popular novel by James Branch Cabell. And then this is Deems Taylor's manuscript for his original composition, and it's signed several times. There's not a lot of Deems Taylor manuscript material out there. I would place an auction estimate on this piece of $1,000 to $1,500.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: Yeah, nice.

GUEST: Unbelievable.

APPRAISER: What did you pay for that box?

GUEST: $20 for the box.

APPRAISER: I think you did pretty good.

GUEST: I went to an auction and I found this really nice trunk I liked, and clear in the bottom was a paper bag, and the paper bag had this and a bunch of other jewelry in it.

APPRAISER: And how much did you pay for the trunk?

GUEST: $75.

APPRAISER: What you have here is a beautiful pastel, cornflower blue sapphire and 18-karat gold bracelet. It was made around 1950, and it has Italian hallmarks. I would say about $6,000 to $8,000 auction estimate for this bracelet.

GUEST: Okay. I did not expect anyplace near that much, but wow.

GUEST: Our next-door neighbor was cleaning his garage, and my mom saw it in the trash. So she went over and did a little dumpster diving, and it's been in the family ever since.

APPRAISER: It's from Papua New Guinea, and it's from the Sepik River, and it's called a kundu drum. It's carved out of one piece of wood. And on the top, it is covered with some sort of a reptile skin. It's probably 1920s, which is relatively early. I think at auction, you could expect about $600 to $800 for this.

GUEST: Okay, great.