HOST: ANTIQUES ROADSHOW is having a treasure hunt extravaganza at Bonanzaville in West Fargo, North Dakota.

APPRAISER: And frankly, there's just something satisfying about typing away. (keys clacking)

HOST: The past is preserved and explored here at Bonanzaville, U.S.A., a pioneer town assembled by the Cass County Historical Society, with buildings and artifacts that really once were the homes, businesses, and belongings of early settlers. Take a look at this old cabin, the first to be built in Fargo in 1869. Back then, Fargo was a tent city, so this shelter was special. But would you ever have guessed that this 780-square-foot building would also be used as a hotel, the sheriff's office, and as a jail over the years? ROADSHOW is discovering so many treasures with fascinating and unexpected histories here today. Check it out.

(people talking in background)

APPRAISER: Retail value in my store...

GUEST: Yeah, so he passed it down to my father...

GUEST: My friend bought me this at an antique shop. He thought I'd like it. I do like it, I love it. It's green and ugly enough to be cool.

APPRAISER: It's a 20th-century piece that's made to look old.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And she's got on my favorite color, by the way, pink.

GUEST: Oh, okay.

APPRAISER: We're going to look on the back of her head. So, Simon and Halbig, Heinrich Handwerck. Heinrich Handwerck had a doll factory, but he didn't make his own doll heads. He ordered them from Simon and Halbig.

GUEST: It's been in our family for many years. Didn't realize what was on this side until later years, because the other side of this sign says "museum" on it. And it was used as a sign in front of a pioneer museum that my husband's grandfather had. So it was taken down, and I put it in my basement.

APPRAISER: When was the museum torn down?

GUEST: I would say in uh late '70s, early '80s, possibly.

APPRAISER: The fact that the face of the sign was facing a building is why it's in such good condition today. Do you know who actually painted "museum" on the back of the sign?

GUEST: I'd have to just make a guess at it, that it was my husband's grandfather that did it. Because it was just kind of roughly done. You know, nothing fancy, just "museum."

APPRAISER: If you look at the back, there's actually a stamp that says, "The B.F. Goodrich Rubber Company." That's because this sign would have been given to a retailer or a dealership. It would have been someone where they were selling Goodrich tires, and it would have been intended to be returned to the B.F. Goodrich Rubber Company. And when it comes to this type of collecting, like, one of the trade terms, we always call it "rusty gold." I mean, you have a little bit of rust here from the mounting holes, from where a screw would have been. The sign was produced by Ingram-Richardson in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. And they were known for doing this porcelain enamel on rolled iron. Now, the company started right around the turn of the century making license plates. After 1916, they stopped making license plates, but they went forward with street signs, automobilia signs. So this sign dates to about circa 1950, give or take five years. And the reason why we know that is because of what it's made of, the porcelain enamel over the rolled iron. Because as you get out of the 1950s, moving into the '60s, this process of making signs like this was very, very expensive. And it's what we would call a SSP, single-sided porcelain sign. And when it comes to sign collecting, condition, condition, condition, is everything. And I mean, can't you picture it? If you're a muscle head car guy, I mean, you have the '65 Vette in one garage, you have the '66 Pontiac GTO, and right above the two cars, I mean, you're going to be hanging this on your wall. This is a mantique. And to have this today at auction, conservatively, I'd say that you'd achieve between $1,500 and $2,500. It's in absolutely impeccable condition, and that's why this sign is going to command a premium in the market today.

GUEST: Wow. That's good news.

APPRAISER: Yeah! (laughs) Did you think it would be worth that much money?

GUEST: (mouths): No.

APPRASIER: (laughs softly): No. If you needed to insure the sign, I'd be comfortable putting an insurance value of about $3,000 on it.

GUEST: They were my grandpa's long-jump skis.

APPRAISER: Uh-huh.

GUEST: And he grew up in Oslo, Minnesota.

APPRAISER: In Oslo, not Norway, but Minnesota.

GUEST: Yup, that's him long-jumping.

APPRAISER: I'd say around $250 for the grouping.

GUEST: All right.

APPRAISER: But it's lots of fun and...

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: Yeah, it's your...

GUEST: They're just fun to have.

GUEST: The lady who wore this at her wedding was from Ithaca, New York. And it's been stored away all these years.

APPRAISER: Whoever has been storing it did a very good job keeping it in good condition for something that's over 200 years old. You so rarely see the 18th-century clothing. It's just a treat for us.

WOMAN: Well, I bought that from a friend as a Christmas gift for my husband.

APPRAISER: And how long ago was that?

GUEST: It was about 20 years ago.

APPRAISER: Uh-huh. And what do you know of it?

GUEST: I just know that it's Weller pottery.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: And that the glaze is done by Sicard.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: And that's all I know.

APPRAISER: Okay. Well, it is, as you're saying, a piece of Weller-Sicard pottery, done by Jacques Sicard. Jacques Sicard pioneered these iridescent glazes, which cover this piece, and was hired by Samuel Weller to come to Zanesville, Ohio, in about 1903 to ply his craft there. He kept his process a secret. Supposedly, he had to fire these pieces seven times to get these iridescent glazes. But Samuel Weller was notorious for hiring people, learning their secrets, and then firing them. So Jacques Sicard was a smart dude.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: He kept it to himself and his assistant and worked there for about four or five years before retiring. So, uh, I, I like this piece for several reasons. And, first of all, let's say, how do we know it's Weller-Sicard? It's not the only iridescent pottery out there. Number one, because there's no mark on the bottom of this, only a production number. But if we look on the side, over here, it says "Sicard," and over here, it says "Weller." So we know it's a piece of Weller-Sicard. That's one way of knowing. Number two, it's a molded form. We know this is a Weller-Sicard form.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: I wish I had some silver mitts. You know, those gloves you clean silver with?

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: Because there's so much color in the top of this piece, especially in this part of the lid right here. There's shimmering scarlet and, and midnight blue and emerald greens. This thing would really glow with some silver polish cleaning it off. So that all said, it's a beautiful piece of Weller-Sicard. And you knew what it was when you bought it. What did you pay for this?

GUEST: It would have been under $500, because I wouldn't have paid more than that.

APPRAISER: Okay, that's a good rationale.

GUEST: (laughs)

APPRAISER: On today's market, a piece this rare and this clean-- especially if we can bring up the color-- at auction, somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500. So it's a very nice piece.

GUEST: That's... good, thank you. Okay, I'd seen the vases, but I'd never seen one with the cover, so...

APPRAISER: That's because the covers tended to break over the years. It's really, really hard to find one.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: I'm not kidding.

HOST: Agriculture has been a top industry in North Dakota for generations. The Greater Fargo-Moorhead area and the Red River Valley was once home to many bonanza farms. Bonanza, the Spanish word meaning "fair weather" or "prosperity," defined the successful farms that sprang up across the Great Plains during the second half of the 19th century. Wheat was the main product then, and it remains one of the state's top crops today.

GUEST: I got them about 40 years ago in London. I got them at an antiques fair, and they were in the back of a small place that was selling them. I asked them about them. The lady told me that she believed they were Chinese, and she bought them from a guy who had an estate near her shop, who said occasionally wanted to sell things cheaply. They weren't framed the way they are now. They were in big, heavy wood frames, and they had wood backings that were nailed in them. So I had them reframed. And when they reframed them, they showed me that there was a perfect shadow of these birds, because they were on acidic paper. So, I, that's all I know about them.

APPRAISER: I will posit that they were framed probably toward the early part of the 20th century to the mid part of the 20th century, and that they had previously been in an album of paintings, and that the paper that you see here is in such great shape because they had been closed for over 100 years, probably closer to 150 years.

GUEST: Oh, boy.

APPRAISER: These are not Chinese. And that's confirmed by the type of painting, which is characteristic of a group of works done under the auspices of the East India Company, which was granted the corporate rights to secure trade through most of East Asia, and-- beginning in 1600, and they continued through the mid-19th century. And one of the things that they did was to create a school of painters who used the local talents, fused in a manner that was informed by English painting styles. And that's called Company School paintings. The painting medium is watercolor, and I believe these date from about 1800 to 1820. I don't know exactly where they're from, although, in Calcutta, there were a number of artists that worked there, and in Lucknow, they were, as well. And they tended to focus on botanical subjects and birds. And so they would create these albums of local scenes, which the British, then, would bring back to their home after they finished their time working in India. They're extraordinary. And in the album they were in, these would have been considerably larger sheets of paper than what we see here.

GUEST: Oh.

HOST: The reduction in size of the sheet does affect the value. I'm curious, what would you think they would be worth, if you had to go buy these today?

GUEST: I have no idea. So, I paid about 200 pounds for them about 40 years ago, which would have been $300, approximately. I'm hoping they're worth more than that.

APPRAISER: A price that I think, I feel confident that would be easy to go by would be around $4,000 at a retail price.

GUEST: Oh, that's wonderful.

APPRAISER: If you went to a shop to buy them for the pair. And it could be more than that. But I would say around $4,000 today.

GUEST: Great.

APPRAISER: If these had not been cut down and not yellowed, in a retail market, it would have been, I would say, close to $10,000 for the pair.

GUEST: I brought this violin, fiddle, whatever you want to call it. It's, I guess it's how it sounds when you play it, eh? But, anyway, I actually know what the label inside says. It says, "Commenced by Stephen Stone in 1878 "for his son John J.G. Stone, finished by his brother George in 1884." In English, not Norwegian or German. (laughs)

APPRAISER: The records in the cabinet are worth about a dollar apiece. And in the condition it's in, with the albums, I would estimate it to be worth about $250.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: But clean it up, seriously.

GUEST: Yeah, oh, yeah.

APPRAISER: Then it will be worth a little bit more.

HOST: The number 684 engine is an American type 4-4-0 steam locomotive built by New York Locomotive Works of Rome, New York, for the cost of $10,500 in 1883. This powerful iron horse was used mostly on lines in Montana and Idaho for the Northern Pacific Railroad through the late 1920s. Number 684 was then used by a smaller railroad company and bought back by Northern Pacific in the early 1950s as a showpiece when the company wanted to promote its legacy in the railroad industry. It came to Bonanzaville in the 1980s.

GUEST: This is a railroad sales book for Wallace R. Lee, who worked for the Baldwin Locomotive Company, and he traveled the world for Baldwin for years and years selling steam engines. He was my first wife's grandfather, so he's my son's great-grandfather. And I knew him, he lived to be 100. But when he died, this came to me.

APPRAISER: So you brought this lovely book, elegantly bound in this brown Morocco, and it comes with a little travel case. And the book is full of these photographs. So we have the illustration of the, of the train on the front, and then the train specs on the back. And he's got a note, note here for how many engines he sold. He sold four different engines of this single one. And here, here are some other examples. The earliest date I saw was about 1905 to 1911. Tons of information, including, at least on one example, how much people paid, which is noticeably absent from some of the others. But even on one, on this one example here, he's done a little math, where he sold, it says he sold three for $83,300, and he's worked it out to, it's about $27,000 per engine. Which is good, that's, this is our question.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: How much did these, did these things cost?

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: They cost a tremendous amount of money.

GUEST: A lot of money, yeah.

APPRAISER: In 1906 dollars. I like pieces like this one that appeal to a lot of different collecting areas, right? There's a lot of meat here, obviously, for vintage photography collectors, right? Because there are probably 80 examples of vintage photography of trains.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Um, there, and then, of course, if you are interested in railroad history, there's even more meat here for you. There are the photographs. Many of these may be lost examples of trains. And then a very concise, detailed listing of all of the specs of the train. At auction, we'd list it for $800 to $1,200, but where it lands is anybody's guess.

GUEST: Sure. Great-- it would be difficult to have salesmen's samples of engines.

APPRAISER: Of engines, exactly.

GUEST: Yes.

GUEST: I was married to my husband for about 30 years. It was our second marriage. He was somewhat older than me. And he was in an I&R platoon in World War II with the 242nd Rainbow Division of the Army. As the leader of the platoon, as the Allies were moving in and the Germans were moving out, he was selected to go to this castle in Germany where Goering had stored all of his artifacts that he had stolen from various countries, and out of their museums and so forth, I think. So the Polish either general or colonel that was in charge of getting their artifacts returned was so grateful to the Americans, and to him in particular, that he gave him this and two or three other things. And a couple of the things that were sent through the mail didn't get there through the mail, but this arrived in good shape.

APPRAISER: And what's so interesting about it is that he had official permission to take this away.

GUEST: Yes, he did.

APPRAISER: And you have this wonderful, the original document.

GUEST: Yup, I do.

APPRAISER: That authorizes him to have this piece.

GUEST: It says, "18th of March, 1946, "I certify that I have personally "examined the items of captured enemy equipment, "that they do not include any explosives or firearms "capable of being concealed on the person, "and that the mailing thereof is in conformity with existing regulations of the theater commander."

APPRAISER: You know what this piece is?

GUEST: Well, I know it's a sculpture.

APPRAISER: Uh-huh.

GUEST: And probably a bronze, I'm guessing. I knew that it was Russian that was written on the base of it, because we had some friends who recognized it as such.

APPRAISER: It is a wonderful Russian bronze. It's signed by both the artist, as well as the foundry that produced it. The artist's name is Ober. It's very clearly signed here on the back, in Cyrillic, A. Ober. And then, on the front, is the foundry mark. And the foundry is called the Woerffel Foundry, and...

GUEST: And is that actually in Russia, or was it in a different country?

APPRAISER: Yes, yes.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: So this artist is very interesting. He was Russian, but he studied in Paris.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: And one of the people he studied with was the son of the famous animal sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye. And he studied with Louis Barye in Paris.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: And while he was in Paris, he liked to go to the Paris Zoo, and he would make sketches of the various animals-- models-- so that he could accurately capture the animal himself. The hallmark of these Russian bronzes is the amount of detail that you have.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: I mean, the expression of both the figure, as well as the horse. The horse certainly has a personality. And you have these very nicely defined, all the bridles. The way the bridle and the harness is done is really wonderful. And the whole action of this figure is great. And the Russians were really wonderful at capturing this. And they did a lot of sort of contemporary scenes. The artist was born in the 1840s and he died in 1917. And this was probably cast in the late 1890s. I was talking to one of my colleagues...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Who happens to be Russian. And he said that the way the Russian was written, it may not have been written by a Russian person.

GUEST: Oh, really?

APPRAISER: It has the Woerffel, the Russian foundry mark, but there is a chance that it could have been cast in Germany. It could have been cast in Paris, also.

GUEST: Oh, really? Okay.

APPRAISER: So it might take a little bit of research to actually determine it. It's really a wonderful piece. And I think, if it was in a gallery, it would probably be in the $8,000 to $10,000 range.

GUEST: Oh, okay, great!

APPRAISER: The Russian market sort of hit a peak ten years ago. One of this model brought over $20,000.

GUEST: Oh, is that right?

APPRAISER: But I think it's either James P. or Gene P. Miller. But I'm not finding the artist instantly. And yet, it's a very competent watercolor. How much did you pay for it?

GUEST: I think it was around $30, $34, $35.

APPRAISER: Really? That's a nice buy.

GUEST: I thought so-- I bought it because I liked it.

APPRAISER: This one is fitted with an alarm. A little lever would fall, and this mechanism would beat this bell for all it's worth.

GUEST: Huh.

APPRAISER: And, of course, no snooze. It would continue to beat that bell until you were awake.

GUEST: My grandmother collected cut glass.

APPRAISER: Well you got a very fine punch bowl made by a company called Hawkes. And they were located in Corning, New York. You also have this beautiful ladle. And this is very high quality. This, the silver was made by the Gorham company in Providence, Rhode Island and this also matches perfectly.

GUEST: I got it from my mother who got it from her mother who got it from her mother who got it from an old lady before that at the age of 14. My grandmother was born in 1886. So which meant she got it in 1900. So I’m not real sure how old it is but mom thought it was over 100 years old.

APPRAISER: Yeah, your mom’s right. Mothers are always right, come on. (laughs). So you know the little secret about this ring but the reason we wanted to show everybody at ANTIQUES ROADSHOW is I don’t see these often because they don’t survive. You know, they have a little secret about them. It looks like a band ring. It’s a little faceted garnet in the center. And it’s engraved around the outside. And then inside it says “mother.” It’s engraved. But you know the secret. There’s a little hinge over here that gives it away. This opens up. And you open it up. And I asked you if you know why it opens up and what would go in there. And you told me…

GUEST: Probably either a hair lock or a message to smuggle to somebody else out of during the Civil War.

APPRAISER: Which I never heard that.

GUEST: Well, I’m not sure if it’s true. Through the generations if it, you know, actually comes that way. If you could write it small enough to get it out of there.

APPRAISER: I imagine it could happen, maybe it did. But it is absolutely for putting a lock of hair.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: They just didn’t throw it in there though sometimes they used a method where they would braid them or weave it.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And then it would fit in there perfectly. But it’s just so n- It’s what we call a memorial ring.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And it’s really neat to see. Because you can see that it’s very thin. And then you have the hinge. They just don’t survive in this condition. So this is fabulous. I love it.

GUEST: Thank you.

APPRAISER: I want to thank you for bringing it in. and if you had to replace that today, you know it’s not like it’s a ton of money but it’s at least $500 at auction today.

GUEST: Okay. Thank you.

APPRAISER: You’re welcome.

GUEST: (laughs).

APPRAISER: It’s cool right?

GUEST: It is.

APPRAISER: It’s a very cool ring.

GUEST: We purchased this last year at an estate sale in Fargo.

APPRAISER: Oh, really?

GUEST: And it was a good price, so, I love it.

APPRAISER: What did you pay?

GUEST: We paid $60 for this. Full price was $120, but second day it went down to $60.

APPRAISER: And so did you see it set in the room?

GUEST: Yes, they had it set up with barware in it.

APPRAISER: It is a really wonderful piece of teak Danish modern furniture. The thing about this 20th-century furniture is, it's got loads of labels on the back of it. This piece says, "Made in Denmark." This is how we know where it was made, this Soborg Mobler. It's basically a furniture manufacturing company. There's also a stamp for John Stuart Incorporated. And the interesting thing about it is that John Stuart was a retailer. He did do some manufacturing in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He also had an outlet in New York City. So he sold high-end Danish furniture. The mystery, though, is, who made this piece? And that is really revealed by the little handles on the front of it. So, you can see, this is a tambour.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: What I love about this furniture, this tambour, is that it's a form that you see in the late 18th, early 19th century. And they're still using it, it's just so serviceable. But here it is in a piece of furniture from the 20th century. So this tambour is made with a canvas backing, and they've glued pieces of wood, strips of wood, on it, so that it folds very nicely. The handles are known from two furniture makers, designers, out of Denmark. It's designed by the firm of Peter Hvidt and Orla Mølgaard-Nielsen. They were in business in Copenhagen from 1944 to about 1975. Mølgaard studied with the grandfather of Danish modern furniture. And his name was Kaare Klint. If you look at, though, this sort of cabinet, and understand that it has superb finger joints on the bottom of this section, and then also on the top....

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: When we look at the top of this thing, we see it's totally finished. And whenever you see a piece of furniture like that, with a finished top, you've got to know it was meant to be seen. It probably is two pieces, two chests that are standing on top of each other. I also noticed on the base that there is a shadow for where legs would have existed on this top piece.

GUEST: Ah.

APPRAISER: So, I think it's, you, you got a twofer here. And then there is this other sliding door here, which is all cabinets. But the... You know, the thing about the Danish modern furniture is that they were really working off of the Bauhaus influence from Germany in the 1920s and '30s. And so it was clean line, very, very serviceable, and really meant to be useful.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And we know that Denmark had a close relationship with Indonesia, which is where a lot of this teakwood comes from. They were trying to lock up the spice trade in the 17th century. There's still a relationship today with Denmark and Indonesia. The Danes were also experimenting with plywood, and part of this is actually a veneer on top of it.

GUEST: Oh, okay.

APPRAISER: So we have a Hvidt-Mølgaard teak chest on chest which was made probably in the mid-1960s, so 1965. And I think it's $2,000 to $3,000, maybe, as a nice auction estimate. What a steal! Right?

GUEST (laughing): Oh, my gosh, $60!

APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: That's fantastic.

APPRAISER: And it's showing three teeth. But usually, there should be four.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: So this doll has had a little bit of an issue.

GUEST: Oh, sure. (laughs) That's a tactful way to say it.

APPRAISER: And it's painted bisque.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: So the center stone is a ruby.

GUEST: Oh, it is!

APPRAISER: It's in 14-karat gold. And on the side are little single cut diamonds. And if you bought it for $75, I think you got a pretty good deal.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: Fair-market value would probably be $100 to $150 on it.

GUEST: Awesome, thank you.

APPRAISER: Thank you for bringing it.

GUEST: Yeah.

GUEST: I acquired it in an antique store in Oklahoma City about 15 years ago, roughly. And we were with some good friends, and she was very knowledgeable in Native American studies or artwork, and she said, "Oh, my gosh," you know.

APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: I knew what it was, is, it's a horse stick or a dance stick.

APPRAISER: Right.

GUEST: As they call it. And she said, she said it was Lakota, late 1800s, is what she felt.

APPRAISER: And what did you pay for it?

GUEST: I paid $700.

APPRAISER: Okay. All right, well, this would have been a stick, as you said, that would have been made to honor the warrior's dead horse.

GUEST: Very likely, mm-hmm,

APPRAISER: And so as such, it would be an important ceremonial piece that was danced during the Plains grass dance. And this is something, in the use of these sticks, was the latter part of the 19th century. Let's think about this thing logically. Now, I'm going to pick it up.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: If this were, were held and danced, what I'm asking you is, does this surface make sense? The surface, it's appeared to be darker up here, and there's no way that they would have grabbed it.

GUEST: No, not up there.

APPRAISER: And so when we look at it carefully, what we have is, we actually have a piece that's been made to look old.

GUEST: Oh, really?

APPRAISER: And so this is probably more from the '20s or the '30s.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: And I would think in an auction, it's probably worth $200 to $300.

GUEST: Oh. So, apparently, I paid a little too much. But it's worth that to me.

APPRAISER: Well, that's important.

GUEST: Yes.

GUEST: This is a portrait that was of my, my grandmother. Her name was Clara Galassi. She was in movies in Europe. And her stage name was Dolly Grey. This was painted in Paris, I think, in the 1920s. The artist is Tade Styka.

APPRAISER: How did she know the artist?

GUEST: He just painted a lot of famous actors and actresses of the day, and writers... uh... politicians. I don't know exactly how they met. I think they met in Paris.

APPRAISER: Do you know any of the films that she starred in?

GUEST: I have a list of the seven or eight, but the few that come to mind are "Maratona," "Le Dolomiti" was a second one, and then "Metropolis" was a third one, I remember.

APPRAISER: And that's probably around the age where she appears to be in this painting.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: In her 20s.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: Most likely.

GUEST: She had just gotten married to my grandfather, and he was an engineer working for the Marconi House in Paris. And so that's why they had been there for a time in Paris. And my mother was born in Paris.

APPRAISER: And what year was your mother born?

GUEST: I think 1925? About the time that she was still making movies.

APPRAISER: That's a wonderful story and...

GUEST: It is.

APPRAISER: It's fantastic that your grandmother was a silent film star.

GUEST: Yes. I knew her briefly when I was a child, growing up. I'm not sure the year she died. It was after 1954. Probably 1958.

APPRAISER: It is signed lower left, "Tade Styka." He was a Polish artist, born in Poland.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: In 1889. And he was born into a family of artists. His father was Jan Styka. His brother was Adam Styka. The father, Jan Styka, was very well-known for his portraiture, as well. He was also someone who lived and worked in France. So his son also started studying in, in France. He was working in Europe a lot, and then he, eventually, he emigrated to the United States. He did probably paint this in Paris, I, I believe. It's not... it doesn't say Paris anywhere.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: But she was starring in a lot of movies that were...

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: ....you know, German-made, and, you know...

GUEST: German, and in Paris, yeah.

APPRAISER: Yeah. I just fell in love with this painting as soon as I saw it. The expressiveness in her face. The way he depicts her hair falling around. It brings out her, her beauty here. Polish art is growing in value.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And especially, this is kind of a Polish art dynasty, if you will.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: With the father and the two sons.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: So the most recent high auction records for paintings by Tade Styka have been in Poland.

GUEST: Oh, I see.

APPRAISER: And his real name is Tadeusz Styka. The painting itself is oil on board. I would feel very comfortable putting an auction estimate of $12,000 to $18,000 on the painting.

GUEST: Oh, okay, wonderful.

APPRAISER: If you were going to insure this painting...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: I would say to insure it for around $30,000.

GUEST: I see, okay.

APPRAISER: It's a document from the War of 1812, I'm assuming, because that was what was going on. It's a military appointment. Now, who, who was it appointment to?

GUEST: My great-great-great- grandmother's brother.

APPRAISER: And it was signed by the governor of New York who went on to become a vice president.

GUEST: Unfortunately, the president is the one everyone collects, the vice president not so much. A retail value is $50, maybe $100.

APPRAISER: This is called... We call them a beetle-back mandolin, a potato bug mandolin. You see, most of them you see are made from 19... 1880s up until the early 1900s, and then they pretty much disappeared because nobody wanted them any longer.

HOST: This farmhouse was built by David Houston in 1881. Originally near Hunter, North Dakota, it cost $7,000. Houston was a Scottish immigrant, farmer, poet, and inventor of the roll film camera. What hasn't been captured on film? The spirit of Houston's wife, Annie, who some think haunts this home. Tales have been told of the rocking horse moving on its own, as well as the swaying of crystals on this floor lamp with no breeze and with no other people in sight.

GUEST: I don't know much about it. I found it at a rummage sale, and we paid $40 for it. Um, other than that, it's just been part of the family since about 1982.

APPRAISER: So you bought it in 1982.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And you spent $40.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: At a rummage sale.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: I want to go rummage sale-ing with you, that's for sure.

GUEST: Any time. (laughing)

APPRAISER: Well, this is an amazing piece of furniture. It's, it's done by, by an important Scandinavian designer, a gentleman named Arne Vodder. Arne Vodder was, was a student, of probably the, the guru of, of Scandinavian furniture, Finn Juhl. And Arne Vodder went on to have a career of his own that was really quite important. He made a lot of great things. He did a lot of design work that, that are in institutions, museums, and really helped kind of craft how Danish design looks. One interesting thing about your chair is the fact that, that these... These straps-- which are about 16-ounce cow leather, I'll add-- um, are nailed on. And they're done so in a, in a semi, kind of not precise way. I've never seen that in Danish design before, and it makes me wonder if at some point in history, before 1982, uh, they, they weren't replaced or redone by somebody. They, they don't tend to have that smooth, symmetrical look that Danish design is so, so known for and, and cherished for. So if that was done originally by the factory-- and I have some serious questions about that-- but if it was, this piece is, is quite valuable. Do you have any idea what sort of value this might have?

GUEST: With that being said, no, I don't.

APPRAISER: Well, if that's original, I think at auction, this piece would probably bring $15,000 to $20,000 minimum.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: That's being fairly conservative.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: If that was done by somebody, if somebody replaced these straps or redid these straps, I would say this piece is probably worth $6,000 to $9,000.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Being that you're in this piece for $40!

GUEST: $40. (laughing)

APPRAISER: Congratulations.

APPRAISER: You brought three friends today in baseball cards. I see Gil Hodges, Jim Rhodes, and Mickey Mantle. Tell us how you got 'em

GUEST: Well, I was about nine years old, and my mother was kind enough to purchase Stahl-Meyer hot dogs, and on the back of those hot dogs were these pictures. As I understand, looking at the history of this, they were produced from 1953...

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: ...to '55.

APPRAISER: Hmm.

GUEST: Just regular hot dog, you know. And you had to be careful when you opened them up so you didn't cut the card. Every team was represented on the back of those Stahl-Meyer cards-- every New York team-- the Yankees, and the Giants, and the Dodgers.

APPRAISER: So Stahl-Meyer was the major supplier of hot dogs to ballparks in the 1950s. And it's interesting that you mention the Dodgers, the Giants, and the Yankees. Because in the '50s, New York was the epicenter of Major League Baseball. In 1953 to '55, they inserted baseball player cards from the New York teams. You have Gil Hodges here, who's the first baseman of the, the Brooklyn Dodgers. You have Jim Rhodes, who was better known as...

GUEST: "Dusty."

APPRAISER: There you go! Who played for the Dodgers. And then, of course...

GUEST: Mickey Mantle.

APPRAISER: The great Mickey Mantle. They started in '53. They went to '55. And every year, they would have a different promotion on the back of them. One year, you could sign up for a raffle and get tickets to a game. And this is how you would tell the different years. This year is actually 1955. And you can tell because the backs, you could either send 50 cents and two wrappers for a Yankees cap, or you could get a Yankees pennant. When we think about baseball cards, who do you think of post, post- World War II for baseball cards?

GUEST: Topps was the top one at the time.

APPRAISER: That's right. But there were a lot of these what they call regional brands that would put out small groups of cards in the packages of their wares, so that they could market to baseball fans, and that's what makes these extremely rare. So when we're valuing cards, what we're doing is, we're looking at the particular player, the issue, and then we look at the condition. Do you think they came like this, in the wrapper, possibly?

GUEST: Oh, yes, I'm sure.

APPRAISER: In that condition.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: And that's what also makes them very rare. Cards are graded on a scale of one to ten-- ten being the highest. So what takes off points and gradings, if you've got excessive wear, if the margins are cut unevenly. Another thing about these cards is that you do not find them in high grades, and I think that's because of whatever damage they suffered in the wrappers coming out. So Gil Hodges and Dusty Rhodes, fine players. I think Gil Hodges should be in the Hall of Fame, but neither one of them is. So at auction, I would put an estimate on each one of them of $200 to $400, okay? Now, the Mantle is an entirely different story because of who he is. He is the most collected postwar baseball card. So when you add that to Stahl-Meyer,

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: and the fact that there are only 20 of these known, possibly, of the Mantle that exist, even in not-great condition because you've got these creases in here, and you've got this soiling here-- which is probably from the printing-- and you've got a little crease there. Now, I've seen examples of these cards that have graded as low as a one, and they're actually much worse. I think this would grade out to probably a two. And I think you're looking at an auction estimate of $5,000 to $7,000 on the Mantle.

GUEST: Wow. (chuckling) Something else. Wow, that's great.

APPRAISER: Don't you wish you had three Mickey Mantles?

GUEST: I wish I had three Mickey Mantles. (chuckling) Not, not to belittle the other two fellas.

APPRAISER: I don't know if you guys realize this, but this gentleman makes his own stink bait. Did you know that? So what did you bring today, sir? Do you want to tell me or should I tell you?

GUEST: You tell me.

APPRAISER: It's a bottle.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: Am I going too fast?

GUEST: No.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: Why are they taking a video of us? Is that you?

APPRAISER: Yeah, that's me. I was much younger here. All right, so you have the goggles, and then what is this? Does this go all the way to New Jersey?

GUEST: Dad, what's that?

APPRAISER: This is the entire population of Fargo.

GUEST: Thank you.

APPRAISER: All right. Now I've got to...

GUEST: I can hold it.

APPRAISER: I'm going to build my stink bait collection now. (man laughs) You know? You've inspired me.

GUEST: All right.

APPRAISER: Thank you.

HOST: These colorful mosaic tiles were on exhibit at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago in 1933. They were made at the University of North Dakota School of Mines, where Margaret Cable led the ceramics department. Bonanzaville has nine of the 11 tiles created, while the University of North Dakota has one. The 11th tile remains missing after it was stolen from U.N.D. in 1976. "Roadshow" appraiser David Rago reckons the nine tiles here might bring $100,000 to $200,000.

GUEST: This box has been in our family for many years. My mother's cousin, his wife, had taken pottery classes from Margaret Cable at University of North Dakota. And when classes were all done, Margaret was selling some of her extra pieces afterwards.

APPRAISER: Do you know about when that was?

GUEST: I want to say in the late '40s? Early '50s?

APPRAISER: And do you know what she paid for it?

GUEST: Uh, yes, the price is actually on the back of it. It was originally three dollars, and it was marked down to $1.50.

APPRAISER (chuckles): All right, well, let's take a look at the back. We do see, in fact, the three-dollar price tag that's been marked in half down to $1.50. And we do see the signature for "M. Cable." You see the classic mark of the University School of Mines, which meant that it met their standard. And then we see this number 162. And what was fascinating, in 1938, they started documenting the pieces that were being sold. And so we know exactly when this was.

GUEST: Oh, interesting.

APPRAISER: So it was the 162nd piece that was sold after 1938. And it's clearly in the records as a small box with cowboy, and the piece was made in 1943.

GUEST: Oh, nice.

APPRAISER: Pretty consistent with your story. So today, it's interesting as, as we look at School of Mines pottery, and what comes through it, North Dakota was incredibly popular for their clay, and that's why it worked. The chemistry of the clay worked really, really well. And as a result, collectors have really been seeking after it, and it's been able to hold its value over the years. Nice incised top. Obviously, a cowboy riding a horse. And if you sold it at an appropriate auction today, I think you would probably see an estimate of between $800 and $1,200 on it.

GUEST: Wow, really? Nice, nice.

APPRAISER: It's really cool, though, a great piece.

GUEST: It is a great piece. It is beautiful. The colors are so indicative of North Dakota.

GUEST: It's from my mother's side of the family. And it's from her aunt and uncle. So it'd be my great-aunt and uncle.

APPRAISER: Well, this style of quilt is called a crazy quilt. And it actually can be a family history quilt, as well. You date a crazy quilt by the ages of the fabric. So the newest fabric is probably the date that it was made. And this quilt has fabric all the way back to the 1860s in it. What's wonderful about this quilt is, it's made in the opulent era, the 1890s. And the newest fabrics in the quilt are from the 1890s. And there is so much American history in this quilt. The ribbon here talks about President Harrison, who was president of America in the 1890s. This is actually Columbus Day, October 21, 1892. So it was a big historical event.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: There's hand-painted things. Like, this piece right here, actually, the rosebud, the roses, and the forget-me-nots, are all hand-painted. There's embroidery all over the quilt. And if you look, every block has some type of stitching around the block or on top of the block. We get a lot of crazy quilts in, we, we see a lot of them. And the average price we give is $400 to $600. But this quilt is what I would consider over the top. And these reasons: the beautiful fabrics, all of the historical things, the, the portraits, even, that are on it in silk. She's just absolutely lovely. She's 1870s or early '80s.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: And so it's probably more of a family history than you realize.

GUEST: I think it was my grandmother's brother's wife's. I think they traveled a lot in the Midwest area. And they must have chronicled it this way, instead of taking photographs, like we do. It's almost like this is, like, a photo album. I thought it was interesting up here the hose company ribbon up here for, I think, fire hose, because my great-uncle was a fireman in the St. Paul Fire Department.

APPRAISER: Have you ever had this quilt appraised before?

GUEST: Mom had it appraised a long time ago, probably back in the '80s or something. It was like the $3,000 to $5,000 range, or $5,000.

APPRAISER: Well, the condition of it is almost flawless. I did not see any type of rips or tears in the silk. There is no deterioration. For insurance purposes, I would put a $5,000 value on insurance purposes.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: Yes. (laughs)

GUEST: Oh, my gosh. I had no idea that these were cigar...

APPRAISER: This is a portable typewriter, which means it's only about 25 pounds, rather than 75 to 100 pounds. Um... and the important thing about these is making sure that they are still operating. Because if they're not working, they're just decorator pieces. Um, and, frankly, there's just something satisfying about typing away. (keys clacking) And you can tell it's been a little while since I've used it. Trying to tap the keys hard, but it's kind of difficult.

GUEST: My boy bought a farm site, and he found it in the basement of the house.

APPRAISER: Okay, what war would you say that comes from?

GUEST: I'm guessing World War II.

APPRAISER: You guessed right. It's a pressed paper liner. And you can see, since it's been injured there, we can see its guts a little bit. You've got layers of cardboard that have been kind of pressure-formed. The edge is rolled, and it's covered in fabric, and, and made to hold this shape. A regular World War II helmet is typically going to sell for $100 to $150 with a decent liner in it. One with this Hawley liner, I would put a price on this one of about $300.

GUEST: Wow. My boy will be happy to hear that.

APPRAISER: He did pretty good.

GUEST: Yeah!

GUEST: Actually, my great-uncle is an archaeologist/optometrist. And it came from his basement, which, he used to have all kinds of good things in his basement, so...

APPRAISER: Oh... And where did he get it?

GUEST: He did it... he said that he got it from a dig somewhere in New Mexico, and that's all I really know about it.

APPRAISER: Well, it's not from New Mexico. It's never been buried.

GUEST: Oh, my!

APPRAISER: And... (laughs) And it, and it belongs in one piece like this. It's a Hopi kachina, and the top part's called a tableta, which had been taken off or come loose. Originally, it had feather plumes. It was probably made some time between 1900 and 1920, something like that.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: It's a beautiful piece. And do you know what these are?

GUEST: I don't know enough about them, no.

APPRAISER: These are to educate the children and young people in the tribe about the beings that carry prayers to the gods, or to the heavens, in, in our culture, is what we would say. They learn who the dancers are that come out in the plazas at these different ceremonials. This is the way they learn how to identify them. And so they're important to the culture. But they are educational tools. If I saw this one for sale, today at auction, even in this shape, with the feathers gone-- which is okay, that's not a problem-- but even with the tableta loose, probably $2,500 to $3,500.

GUEST (laughing): Oh, my gosh. I let my kids play with this, so...

APPRAISER: Hey, that's what I can tell you.

GUEST: Thank you very much, I appreciate it.

APPRAISER: Thanks, Pauline.

GUEST: That's awesome. None of anything anybody told me was right about any of it.

GUEST: My mother was an apprentice at age 16 for Georg Jensen, the silversmith from Denmark.

APPRAISER: And that was for five years.

GUEST: For five years, yes. This is the apprentice piece that she made in order to become a silversmith. And...

APPRAISER: And this right here is?

GUEST: That's a certificate of completion of the five years of apprenticeship. And this piece, she received the bronze medal, and she was the first female silversmith certified in Denmark.

APPRAISER: And that year was?

GUEST: 1933.

APPRAISER: Here are the line drawings of the grapevine-pattern piece, which is a Georg Jensen covered vegetable bowl with the correct marking for 1933, which was the year she graduated. She had her own drawings to assist in the making of the piece.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: Tell me a little bit about this letter.

GUEST: That's a letter that Georg Jensen wrote, certifying that she had finished her apprenticeship, and recommending her and praising her for her hard work, and certifying that she would be a, a good person to hire if anybody was going to hire her.

APPRAISER: What we have here is the book on the history of the Georg Jensen firm, and this particular picture is what we're looking at. Tell me about that picture.

GUEST: It's a picture of the workshop in Copenhagen. You see Georg Jensen is standing here, and it's a workshop full of men. And if you look it's, it's hard to see, but if you see, there's a woman peeking out, and that's my mother. She's peeking out there.

APPRAISER: The pieces here...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: Tell me a little bit about these.

GUEST: Well, the, the center necklace, that one there, that one was made in 1932, and that one has her initials and the, and the date. That was before she finished her apprenticeship.

APPRAISER: The initials on this are "E.H."

GUEST: "E.H."

APPRAISER: Which, of course, match her name.

GUEST: Go with Else... Elsebeth Haugaard. Yes.

APPRAISER: Okay. And then the, the bracelet and necklace.

GUEST: Those, I believe she made afterwards, while she was married, because the initials are "E.S." And that's for Elsebeth Stanness.

APPRAISER: Okay, and she got married in?

GUEST: I think in 1936.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: '37?

APPRAISER: The bowl itself is a covered vegetable, and all silversmiths use different marks for different time periods. So the one Jensen mark which is in the center actually was started in 1933, coincidentally the year she graduated. The Jensen firm was founded in 1904. This pattern came out around 1925. This is the 408, and it came in a variety of sizes.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: I guess this was the masterpiece that your mom created...

GUEST: Yes, yes.

APPRAISER: ...as, as her crowning project to become a silversmith.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: The retail value on something like this by itself, it'll vary from country to country because...

GUEST: Yes, I know.

APPRAISER: ...probably it's more popular overseas than here in the United States.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And you'll see prices anywhere from $10,000 to $15,000 for this. This happens to be earlier. Many of them are post-1945.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: So this happens to be an earlier piece, which would command a little more premium.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: This is very attractive. And this on its own would probably be in the $2,000 to $3,000 price range. These being a little bit later, probably not as desirable, but still nice.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: This would probably be in the $1,500 to $2,000, this probably around $700 to $1,000. But when you look at the entire package-- first woman silversmith in Denmark...

GUEST: Denmark.

APPRAISER: A letter from Georg Jensen, an, an entire archive of drawings that she had done, the drawings for her masterpiece already in the book, it doesn't get a whole better than that for a silver collector. After talking to a couple of my colleagues, we would assume that there's, for sure, collectors out there worldwide...

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: ...that somewhere in the $30,000 to $35,000 range, your entire collection would be able to be sold.

GUEST: That's...

APPRAISER: It's, it's fabulous. It's incredible. It's, it's, it's a one of a kind. And what's so amazing is, for all of those years, the piece is in magnificent condition.

GUEST: I know. She would be very happy.

APPRAISER: Great, well, thank you so much.

GUEST: Thank you.

HOST: And now, it's time for the ROADSHOW Feedback Booth.

GUEST: So I'm here in Fargo, North Dakota, with my antique mother's stuff-- my mother's antique stuff.

GUEST: And I am here with this crock. (both laughing)

GUEST: Had some pictures of, uh, Paris here. We thought they were old antique pictures worth a bunch, and thought we would be able to go to... fly to Paris. And we found out we got... might have just barely a gas tank to get back home to Iowa,

but we had a great time.

GUEST: And today we brought a set of spectacles, a collection of spectacles that we found in our old house. And we found out lots of good information about it.

GUEST: And we found out they're worth more than what I ever imagined they would be worth.

GUEST: And we can see that clearly now. (chuckles)

GUEST: This is tater, I'm tot. And the stuff we brought is not worth a lot. But we love the ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.

GUEST: We had a bunch of junk until the last stop, and these Desert Storm Topps trading cards are worth between $2,000 and $3,000. We were surprised.

GUEST: And I thought I had a really cool Native American artifact. But it turns out it was...

GUEST: Just a rock.

GUEST: (laughing): Just a rock.

GUEST (in North Dakotan accent): We came to Fargo to see the Roadshow. Did we have some fun, you know? Ya, you betcha.

GUEST (chuckling): Uff da meda! Thank you, ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.

HOST: Thanks for watching. See you next time on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.