Special: Junk in the Trunk 7

MARK WALBERG: Antiques Roadshow has extra treasures to share from our season 21 tour.

It's a stunner.

It is.

The bull looked like it was actually flying.

WALBERG: Right now, in this bonus hour we like to call Antiques Roadshow: "Junk in the Trunk."

Roadshow!

MAN: Have a great day, everyone.

Good to go.

WALBERG: Roadshow's first stop in the summer of 2016-- Orlando, Florida.

Art and antiques were the main attraction in this theme-park-centered city, where we discovered junk, gems, and everything in between.

This says that it was a mid-1800s wedding trunk.

But the banding is 1600s.

And the lock is a nice Templar lock, so I want to find out what I got.

APPRAISER: This is made by Neuner & Hornsteiner, Mittenwald, Germany, around 1890.

It's a nice violin and it's in good condition.

So you should learn to play violin.

Is this a print, or is it a lithograph or etching or?

No, this is an etching.

Etching.

So with this plate mark, the beveled edge shows that it was printed on a metal plate, a copper plate.

Okay.

WOMAN: My paternal grandmother was able to travel the world a whole lot during her lifetime and loved to bring back little mementos from her travels.

These I believe came from Brazil as rough-cut stones, which then she brought home to have set.

Do you have any favorites?

I like the...

I think it's an aquamarine, it's the blue one.

Your grandmother brought obviously South American gemstones, and they're of varying qualities.

They're not exactly the top drawer on the amethyst, there's some shading in there.

There's some vacancy of color.

But the good news is that she brought them to the best place to set them.

What year did she bring them?

They were in sometime in the 1950s.

This is good news, this is very good news.

These were set by Tiffany and Company.

Walter Hoving was a businessman who took over as president of Tiffany and Company between 1955 and 1980.

And the first thing he did was sweep out the cobwebs from what had been sort of a failing company.

Tiffany was heading into bankruptcy.

In the 1950s, Walter Hoving brought in Jean Schlumberger to design jewelry.

And these pieces, while they're not signed Schlumberger, they're signed Tiffany 18 karat.

They're very typical of the kind of innovative work that Jean Schlumberger was doing.

We've got two colors of quartz.

We've got the citrine, which is that honey color, amber color.

We've got the amethyst, which is the purple color of quartz.

And then we have an aquamarine, which is the blue color of beryl.

Because they were set at Tiffany and Company, I think what you have here is a collection that's worth a good deal more.

The particular upsides are on the less expensive quartz stones-- the citrine and the amethyst.

I think the citrine might sell at auction for between $3,000 and $4,000.

Okay.

The amethyst, which is set with tourmalines and diamonds, might sell for $5,000 to $7,000.

And the aquamarine, which is really quite nice, set with diamonds might sell for $7,000 to $9,000.

Oh, that's really exciting news.

She would have been so thrilled.

MAN: I brought this hand-carved cane.

It looks like it's out of one piece of wood.

It's something I picked up from my uncle's estate.

He got it from Indiana.

I believe it was probably made in Kentucky, but that's all I know.

And when did he buy it?

He bought it probably about 30 years ago.

Mm-hmm, and do you know what he paid?

He paid $100 for it.

He did.

And how did you acquire it?

I acquired it from the estate, which I gave about $200 for.

So he paid $100 and you paid $200.

Yes.

So we have this cane, and it depicts a hunter's cane.

And I'm going to point over here to this wonderful hound that's reclined on the top of the cane.

And it's basically being used as a handle for the cane.

And as we go down the cane, we see a shotgun.

And we see on this side, the body of a snake winding around the cane.

And we put it over here, we get to see the head of the snake.

Which we see a lot in folk art canes because it's a biblical reference to the Garden of Eden.

And I think this is a hickory sapling that he carved down, and then painted the elements black.

And you can see this patina that has set up because the paint has dried up, so we have this craquelure.

It's really very elegant.

And it's kind of ironic because it's a hunter scene, and it's not a big, heavy piece of wood.

It's a very elegant piece of wood.

And that you would get that out of a hickory sapling.

It could be a Midwestern cane.

I've seen hickory from Pennsylvania, I've seen it from Indiana.

I've seen it from various parts of the Midwest.

So to definitely say it's from a particular state would be incorrect.

Dating it is sometimes a little bit tricky, but I'm going to date it about 1890 to about 1920.

Right in that window of time.

And I don't recognize this as a body of work.

I've been at this a long time, I do not recognize the hand.

So in folk art, we say it's "one and done."

My thinking, because it's so elegant, the cane lovers, the folk art lovers are going to love this cane.

And today, I would put a retail value on it, approximately $3,500.

Phew...

Possibly a little more.

That's more than what I figured.

(chuckles) WOMAN: I inherited it from my mother.

She and some of her friends were quite into collectibles, and I'm assuming that she purchased it somewhere in the Washington area.

The market for Weller has really plummeted in the last ten years.

It's very soft.

There are a couple of lines that have continued to be very interesting to collectors, and this is one of them.

This is a line called "cameo jewel," and the jewel portion of it really comes from the faux jewels around the perimeter of the piece.

These are all hand-painted, they're ceramic that are painted to look like jewels.

And they encircle the base of the piece.

So that's where the name comes from.

What's exciting to me about this piece is I've never seen it before.

And Weller is one of those companies that produced thousands and thousands of pieces.

But once in a while, you see one that just you wonder where it's been, or wonder why you've never seen it.

There may be others of this, but it's the first one I've ever seen.

And my colleagues and I, we have not run into the beautiful woman picking grapes.

You've got grapes all over the front of the piece.

But we've also got a vignette on the back, carved into the back, which reflects and adds to the grape theme.

Oh yeah.

And actually, I think between the jewels in the bottom are grapes and grape leaves as well.

It is.

So the grape theme carries through.

Appropriately with the grape theme, this is a tankard.

It has a handle and a spout.

So I suppose you could keep your fermented spirits in there if you wanted to.

(laughing): I guess.

I've discussed it with some of my colleagues.

We think that a retail figure would be around $4,500.

Wow.

Really?

That's retail.

Whoa.

I love the colors, I love the design.

It's a stunner.

It is, it is.

I love it.

WALBERG: In Virginia Beach, the sold-out crowd was eager to discover any news about their carefully selected items.

APPRAISER: We get lots of bracket clocks on Roadshow.

This is more impressive than almost all of them.

But the condition of the movement being rusted is a significant hurt.

APPRAISER: The fact that the wings have survived the test of time, I mean those are almost accidents waiting to happen.

At auction today, you'd be looking at between $800 and $1,200 for it.

APPRAISER: A good working decoy.

In other words it's a decoy not made to be a decorative bird, but rather a bird used for duck hunting.

In this condition, it's probably worth about $125.

Wow.

WOMAN: This was my great-great-grandfather's.

He acquired it back in the early 1800s.

And it was passed down from him to my great-grandfather, then my grandfather and then my mother and now mine.

Wow!

What an amazing provenance.

That's so important.

We might take a moment to open here and look at this really wonderful piece here.

You know what it's called?

It's a ship's chronometer.

It is indeed.

And this was made by the firm of Parkinson & Frodsham.

And they are London makers and they are sort of the Rolls Royce of instrument makers in the mid-19th century.

Really?

And actually they were founded around 1801.

What is really important about marine chronometers is all about naval history and how important knowing what time it was.

Because if you didn't know what time it was, you were kind of up the creek, you know what I mean?

Mm-hmm.

Because in order to determine what the longitude was for celestial navigation, you needed to know exactly what time it was.

Right.

Now, I knew that you've got a bunch of receipts and a bunch of old records.

What do those talk about?

I think they were to calibrate it, is that correct?

That's exactly right.

And they were a second off, three seconds off, four seconds off.

That's how important these were.

So on a ship, you had two or three.

Because if you were a ship owner, you would lose a ship if they weren't able to navigate.

So this is actually interesting in that there's a number on the front that's 1846.

But that's not the date, it's actually the number of the chronometer that it is.

And actually the key here to wind it is the same number.

So that's how you know it's really complete.

This one was probably made around 1835.

And that's about the time it came into your family.

Right, that would be about right.

Any captains?

Seafaring captains.

A seafaring family.

Right.

Have any idea what this is worth?

I have no idea.

Maybe $1,000, $2,000?

I don't know.

If you're insuring this in today's market, I would insure this for around $5,000.

$5,000?

Yeah.

It is the best.

Yeah.

You can buy from this time period.

It is every captain's dream to have a chronometer.

Wow, wow, that's a really good value.

But the most important value is the personal value and family value.

You've brought this magnificent Hispano-Moresque vargueño taquillón.

Where did you get this?

Actually, I got it in an auction here in Norfolk, Virginia.

And it actually originally came two owners ago from an estate in England.

It was a vice president for Liberty's of London, the fabric design house.

It passed to his daughter, who brought it to the United States.

Then when her stuff was auctioned, I picked it up at the auction.

Well, you showed me some brochures, which actually showed this vargueño in a home in England.

It was in a house in the 1500s.

I also have a set of dining room chairs.

Yes.

That came from the same house.

And I have, like, old pictures of this vargueño with the chairs.

Yes.

Well, actually when you read the brochure carefully, it was a reproduction house of a style of the 15th century.

Really, okay.

Yes, and I think that initially these are really desks, writing desks made in Spain.

They were popular in the 15th century, 16th century, 17th century, 18th century.

Really for 400 years they were making these desks very popular.

Okay.

I think what we have here is an 18th century example.

One of the reasons is that there is more narrow wood in this than the earlier Renaissance style when we look at the drawers.

When I call it Hispano, obviously that's Spain.

But then we go to Moresque, and that's the decoration on it.

So let's look at the whole piece together.

We're going to unlock it and show the writing surface that you would use.

So we're going to open here.

And it's all locked up.

The Spanish were fantastic with their lock boxes.

So if you could help me?

This would have been your fold-down writing surface, which has amazing tooled leather on it.

Very beautiful.

And then all of these cubby holes.

So you can see the iron would have locked it up, you could have kept your important papers in here.

Uh-huh.

You could have kept your jewelry, money.

It also has handles on the side so that it's able to be carried around.

I also called it a taquillón, and that's the base section.

Oh, okay.

That's a chest of drawers that these vargueños, these desks sat upon.

Okay.

I think we have a lot of restoration on this piece.

And I think that the hint that this was in a reproduction house in England says to me that when it was purchased, it was put into a home.

It had been sort of gussied up, if you will.

Much of the gilding has been restored on it.

Okay.

And also some of the cabinetry itself on the base when I looked carefully.

Yes.

I feel as though these bun feet, the green bun feet are probably an add-on.

When you look carefully at the post going down into the feet, you see that there's restoration above it.

It's just not really the way you'd like to see it.

Do you notice the colors that are on this-- red, green and white sections?

Those are painted.

I would have expected if that had been a Renaissance piece we would have seen inlay work.

But in fact these are painted.

Okay.

They almost look like arabesque letters to me.

I was... okay, I was wondering what they were.

So that's why I call it Moresque as well.

A piece like this was made for that market and that style in Spain in the 18th century.

So a period piece, certainly 18th century, a lot of restoration work.

It's hard to pinpoint it as a sales price, but I would say for insurance, I would probably insure this in the $10,000 to $15,000 range.

Okay, great.

Wow.

MAN: These two etchings were purchased by my mother, who is Dutch.

And she relayed this to me that she purchased these in 1935 when she was nine, walking down the local block in Haarlem in the Netherlands in an old bookstore.

For two guilders, which I guess at that time was pennies.

I just remember them as a child growing up.

She always had a keen sense of art and would go downtown in New York City to thrift stores and bring different things home.

And we always had sort of a rotating frame of art all over the wall, but this was the one constant.

This was always hanging on the wall when I remember growing up.

She always thought they were worth something, and I inherited them.

She was Dutch, she was living in Haarlem in the Netherlands, and acquired them in between the wars for...

Correct.

For pennies, which was still probably a difficult time to buy art.

They're a pair, they're meant to be seen as a pair.

They are engravings after designs by the famous artist Pieter Bruegel.

And you can see Bruegel's name engraved in the plate on this one here closest to me.

And then over here, the one closest to you down there on the lower right.

And it's "Bruegel INV," which is a Latin abbreviation for "invented this," or designed it.

So Bruegel is the designer behind these.

He was a famous artist in his day.

And he would have been hired by a Dutch publisher to produce drawings, which were then engraved by somebody who worked for the publishing firm.

In this case they're by a fellow named Pieter van der Heyden, who then made engravings after Bruegel's designs in the 1560s.

They were wildly popular in their day.

They were the best satire in Europe, for the most part.

One of the indicators of that is the legend beneath each of the engravings.

You have the legend in both Dutch, on the right, and French, on the left.

So throughout northern Europe, these would have been popular and collected by people, and they would have been produced in the hundreds, if not thousands.

They're great satires.

The subjects here are the rich kitchen, closest to me, and the poor kitchen.

Or the fat kitchen and the thin kitchen.

And you see all these great pokes at each of those subjects by Bruegel with these people just eating and living gluttonously, food all around them.

And they are plump.

Conversely, you have the people here in the poor kitchen, or the thin kitchen, just scraping by.

There's a bunch at the table grabbing at roots in a bowl.

There's this guy back here, the peasant kicking one of the fat people out the door.

You have the emaciated dog down here.

What do you think they're worth?

Well, I know they're more than two guilders.

(laughing) Whatever that is now.

My guess would be maybe $1,000?

They are very, very scarce.

Very few impressions of these have come up for auction in the last 20, 30 years.

And they're in good shape.

A lot of times these were treated as ephemeral things, and they didn't last 100, 200 years beyond their creation.

If these came up to auction today, I would put an estimate on them-- this is conservative-- for the pair, at $20,000 to $30,000.

Whoa.

Now, just in the last five years, two other sets have come up for sale.

At more conservative estimates, in what I can tell similar condition to these, and they've sold for $55,000 and $60,000 the pair.

So when I say $20,000 to $30,000 conservatively, I think you could go much higher than that with these.

WALBERG: An tiques Roadshow found love at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and at the Indiana Convention Center, where the love of art and antiques was on display.

I love seeing these old canvas stamps.

The craquelure you can actually see it on the back as well as the front.

Yes.

The back of the painting can tell you almost as much as the front can.

APPRAISER: I mean, I think the malachite's worth more than the art piece is.

You know, probably $50, something like that.

MAN: They're barrels from the Ford Motor Company.

We got them at a garage sale.

When my wife went to the sale and she asked what the guy wanted for them, he goes, "Well, I'll take $60."

She goes, "Apiece?"

He goes, "No, for both of them."

MAN: So these are some items that my dad had from Knute Rockne.

My dad went to the University of Notre Dame in 1927 to '31.

In his junior and senior year he was in charge of athletic equipment for Rockne, and he lived his junior and senior year in a little small room in the gymnasium.

And these are letters that Rockne wrote my dad, giving some instructions what to do.

And my dad was written up in the Scholastic magazine at Notre Dame one time in 1930.

Okay.

And tell me about one of the favorite stories about Knute Rockne.

My dad was really a fan of Rockne, obviously, and said how kind he was to the different people, including some football players that got hurt, and that he had told my dad to give these football players a job so they could stay in school because they couldn't pay their own way through school.

And in one of those guys that was hurt, Rockne didn't think he was really injured, he thought he was just kind of faking it.

But then a few weeks later, he found out from the X-ray that he really did have a fracture, and he publicly apologized in a banquet in Notre Dame just actually the year before he was killed.

Knute Rockne was killed in an airplane crash in 1931, right after they won the national championship in 1930.

Right, and they won the national championship in '29, too.

'29 as well.

Both were undefeated teams, yes.

And he played at Notre Dame.

He did.

And then coached at Notre Dame.

You brought along a publication that has your father pictured there in the center.

That's the Notre Dame Scholastic.

That would have been from about, what, 1926 or so?

I think that was 1928, I think.

'28.

Well, the first letter, the closest to you, has some great content where Rockne is telling your father that he's in charge for now while he's out of town.

That one at auction would sell for $2,500.

The one closest to me has a little shorter signature, a little less content to a different player.

That one at auction would sell for $1,800.

Terrific, thank you very much.

Of course we don't plan to ever sell them, we'll pass them on to our kids.

Well, my dad loved baseball.

How he got these balls, I don't have any idea.

But when he passed away, we were... siblings were kind of divvying up his things.

The balls were there and I said I'd take them.

And where did he keep them, were they displayed?

Oh, they were in his sock drawer, dresser drawer.

In a sock drawer.

They were really nothing, yeah.

And I didn't think they were much of anything.

You know, you hear about reproductions and whatever, so.

I just basically had them in my sock drawer for a few years.

No big deal, just a couple of signed baseballs.

Just a couple of baseballs.

Well, let's just say this is going to be a tale of two baseballs.

Okay.

The first baseball here on the right is really interesting because you can see we have Babe Ruth right here on the sweet spot.

And then when you flip it over to this side, right here, you have Lou Gehrig, okay.

And then when we flip it over again, you have what I call the key signature.

Not that it's the most important player, but that's right here, Joe Giard.

Okay, Joe Giard was the key signature because he only played on the Yankees for one year.

And by having him on the baseball we're able to identify this as a 1927 Yankee baseball.

1927 Yankees, arguably the best team in baseball history.

Obviously people would argue that, but I personally think that could be true.

You had Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig combining for an enormous amount of home runs.

Batted in over 300 RBIs combined.

And the Yankees came in first in the American League with 110 wins, and then swept the Pirates in the World Series, 4-0.

The other baseball is interesting too, because this is a circa 1950s Milwaukee Braves ball.

And you have Henry Aaron over here, you have a couple of Hall of Famers.

Sadly, that baseball is a stamp ball, not a signed ball.

And the reason why I'm glad that you brought it in was because at the Roadshow, we've seen an enormous number of stamped baseballs.

And it's a good kind of tool for us to be able to show a stamped baseball in an appraisal like this so people can realize things to look for, to find out that it's stamped.

One of the key things you look for when you see a stamped ball is very often you'll see the signature going off into the stitching.

You can't sign a baseball like that with the signature going off into the stitching.

What happens is it would be stamped onto the ball itself, and then they would fold it up and stitch it that way.

The other thing you see on a stamp ball that you don't see on most signed baseballs is that the signatures are going in different directions.

You have a signature this way, you have a signature that way.

On this side, they squeeze in.

What they try to do is squeeze in as many signatures as they can.

Yeah.

In terms of value, this particular baseball is just a great souvenir baseball.

It's a nice keepsake and memento.

$50, maybe $100, no big deal.

And again, when you see a stamped ball, you're going to see same consistency in the signatures, everything's the same.

But this ball's another story.

This is a really, really good example of a '27 Yankee baseball.

It does have some wear on some of the panels.

On this panel here you can see it does have some scuffing and some wear.

But you have a fairly good Ruth signature, you have a really strong Gehrig signature.

As a team ball signed has most of the players on it, you don't have one signature, which is pretty important-- or very important-- and that's Miller Huggins, the manager.

I'll give you a conservative auction estimate, I would expect it to sell somewhere in the $15,000 to $25,000 range.

Wow.

Yeah, could be more.

Balls like this have sold as high as $40,000 and $50,000.

But based on the condition, I think that's the fair range to do it.

Yeah, good spot for a sock drawer, isn't it?

Yeah, nice to be in a sock drawer.

Did he have it in a sock or just rolling around?

Nah, probably just rolling around.

Rolling around loose.

Well, it's a nice sock drawer find, and a good story about two baseballs.

WALBERG: In Fort Worth, Texas, a city of cowboys and culture, Roadshow took in a very early work by Italian Renaissance painter Michelangelo, before discovering less "tormenting" treasures back at the Roadshow event.

It doesn't look like it's laid down.

It's in nice condition.

It's appropriately framed.

It is a familiar sight.

Thanks for bringing it in.

Thank you so much.

APPRAISER: Very popular with our young collectors, you know, the composition is, especially the dolls from the 1940s.

Candy Kid, he's a real treasure.

I really appreciate you bringing him in.

So your father was a doctor.

Yes.

And in all of his spare time, which it doesn't sound like he had much spare time, he made violins.

Well, the office was right at our home.

It was separate, so it was a little easier for him to manage that.

The picture of a city in Lyon, and it's beautifully done.

Yes.

About three or four years ago.

my wife and I went to a book and paper show, and upon buying a ticket you were entered into a raffle for a door prize, and lo and behold, we won a $50 gift certificate.

We spotted these two photographs.

We decided on the larger one because we had just bought a new house, needed some art to put on the wall.

Also, it reminded me of my father because my father, grandparents ran a cattle farm.

I always remember my father having a portrait of a prized bull on his desk.

So I had that connection.

Bought it for $50, took it home, eventually looked up the name, Stryker, Fort Worth.

Saw, oh, this guy's kind of well known.

So few weeks later, called up the dealer and said, "Hey, we'll take the other photograph."

And so we bought this one for approximately $100, I think.

Since then, a few years, went on to buy these other two photos online.

Well, let me tell you something about John Stryker.

He was an extremely interesting man.

He was born in Rockford, Illinois.

Believe it or not, he studied penmanship.

After studying penmanship, he went on to study photography, moved to Fort Worth, Texas, and started doing rodeo photography.

The legend is that he had a camera strapped to his boot and he would lay down in the arena and take the pictures so the bull looked like it was actually flying.

Super locomotion, it's way up in the air and the cowboy is doing the best he can to stay on.

He would, after the rodeo, post these on a board and sell the photographs to the cowboys.

So a lot of the photographs are not really in great condition, although this one happens to be.

Now, this photograph is interesting because it shows the theatrics and circus-like atmosphere of a rodeo.

You have a... probably a clown dressed up as a matador to keep the bull from goring the cowboy.

He's highly collectible.

There's just not a huge amount of them out there that are in decent condition because they were owned by cowboys and nailed up to their wall.

This particular photograph is in really good condition.

I'm going to value this photograph at $1,500.

I'm going to value the smaller photograph at probably $500.

Whoa.

Now, the two bull pictures are very unusual.

At retail, the pair of them are $1,500.

Wow.

I had no idea.

(chuckling) Well, they just hang on our walls, we enjoy them no matter what.

But no idea they were worth that much.

Such a big tie to Stryker and Fort Worth.

That's why I'm so happy that you brought these in, it's really a great connection.

Well, we're in cow town.

WOMAN: My husband has a lot of interest in all kinds of the Chinese cultural things.

And this is a Buddha, so he has a lot of interest in that kind of thing.

And he was advised to buy this by someone?

He always look at the Buddha things, and it has a lot of Buddhas there, and he will show that kind of Buddhas to his friends like a group.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, and the friends will tell him if this Buddha's worth it to buy, or this one is really, really interesting.

Well, they were good friends.

Yes, yes.

And what did he pay for it?

About $30,000.

Yeah, and when did he buy that?

It's an auction house online.

What time period?

It is at the beginning of this year.

Well, it's an image of Vairocana Buddha, right.

It's a rare image.

And it's also a Yongle one from 1402 to 1424.

Oh.

And it's a beautiful example of these gilt Sino-Tibetan bronzes.

In the hand of the Buddha there's an object called a vajra, and that represents a thunderbolt.

It's a symbol of instant enlightenment.

The other hand is in a position of benediction.

Mm-hmm.

And then he's seated like in a yogic position.

They were made as gifts from the Chinese empress to various clerics in Tibet.

Often they're signed, but sometimes... in fact this one actually is signed, which I just noticed.

Yes, that's Chinese characters.

Yes, bestowed during the Yongle reign.

And in fact, I didn't see that signature initially when I saw the thing, but I just saw that it was a really beautiful bronze.

Thanks.

Well, that signature actually changes what I was going to say in terms of the value.

Did you have any idea what the value was of it?

No, I have no idea for that.

Well, this bronze, it's really good quality, very finely done, perfect proportions, very, very elegant.

This bronze is worth between $150,000 to $200,000.

Wow!

Yeah, he had good friends.

Okay, thank my friends.

If there was no signature on it, I would have said $100,000 to $150,000 anyway.

But with the signature, $150,000 to $200,000.

$150,000 to $200,000?

Yup, yup.

It's good.

(laughing) It's excellent!

WALBERG: Having fun in the sun was guaranteed when Roadshow visited Palm Springs, California, a modern architecture mecca.

But this desert playground had more than cool mid-20th century design to show us.

Did you guys travel far to get here today?

No.

No.

It took us about 45 minutes.

Yes.

That's not bad.

That's not bad at all.

We had to get up earlier just to get ready.

Yes.

(laughing) I got these little soldiers that my grandmother had.

Little toy soldiers.

Yeah.

They're cast-iron, they're probably made by a company called Grey Iron in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania.

That's where we live, Pennsylvania.

Oh really?

Mm-hmm.

Revolutionary War toy soldiers.

Not a great deal of value, maybe four to five dollars apiece.

Hey... you can keep them.

Thank you.

And where'd you get this?

A garage sale.

And how much did you pay for it?

About $20.

Oh, that's, that's great.

At auction I think it'd probably fetch about $400 to $600.

MAN: About 20 years ago, my husband and I were in Rome, and we went into a small shop that sold movie posters.

And this was folded up on the top of a stack, and it was in very bad condition.

And the guy said, "You probably don't want to buy it because it's in such bad condition."

And when we saw what the subject was, we said, "Oh yeah, we do want to buy it."

So he said, "Well, we can let you have it for $30."

So we thought that was a pretty good deal, so we bought it, and we've had it ever since.

Well, I would say that anything taking a flier on $30, you're always going to win.

Because to get something this big to put on your wall, it's going to cost a lot more than that, no matter what it is.

But this in particular, Ki ng Kong, obviously one of the most collectible of that genre of film.

And the images from these are so impactful.

My favorite part about this, it's an Italian one panel.

Usually in the movie poster world, people want just like with first edition books, they want the original country of issue.

So traditionally, you would think that the U.S. would be the most desirable, but with King Kong, they're all desirable because the graphics are so amazing and they did amazing stone lithography in Italy.

The other thing that's really nice about this one, we actually have the artist's signature up on the top right corner.

Olivetti, who is the Italian designer who did this poster, who's a known graphic artist.

And even given the condition issues you have, this poster's somewhat rare so it does come up occasionally.

When it does, it almost always sells for around $6,000.

Great.

That's good to know.

(chuckling) WOMAN: They were given to my great-grandfather, who was in the second Opium War in China, and they're inscribed.

My great-grandfather was in the British Army.

APPRAISER: So they've been in the family for over 100 years.

Since 1861, yeah.

Wonderful.

Do you happen to know what they may be made from?

Well, I've heard they're cloisonné.

I'm guessing they're brass.

I'm pretty certain they're Chinese.

Yes.

Quite right, they are Chinese.

You mentioned they were inscribed 1861.

Yes.

They're actually earlier than that.

These are Qianlong period, probably mid-18th century.

They were produced during the high point of Chinese decorative arts.

And they are actually a gilt bronze base with a cloisonné enamel.

Overall, the condition's average for the pair.

If I was to give it a figure out of ten, I would likely give it something like six, six and a half out of ten.

We see some pitting, some enamel loss, which is consistent with age and use.

These were functional objects.

We see extensive wear to the gilding.

And you see most of the wear to the high points where it's been removed and reattached, the cover.

But these are all really good telltale signs of age, that they were used, functional objects.

It's also likely that these were produced for the imperial household.

The quality, the style, the repeating Indian lotus on a turquoise ground.

And I'll lift up the base.

Beautifully worked.

Pretty.

To show flowers.

This wonderful archaic key.

We have a stylized taotie mask with ruyi lingzhi mushrooms.

So they're beautifully worked.

I'll also point out there's a little lip here.

Uh-huh.

They're missing a liner.

Oh.

So there was a third element, and a liner sat in the rim.

Oh.

I rarely see these compotes or covered basins with their liners.

Oh, okay.

It's scarce.

Now we go back to the point you mentioned that they're inscribed.

It's presented "to W.H.

Edwards "by H.M. 67th Regiment, by 10th Company Engineers as a mark..." And then it continues.

"...of respect and appreciation for services rendered to the company at Tianzhen."

1861.

1861.

An interesting time in China, as you mentioned.

The Second Opium Wars.

In 1860, the Summer Palace was attacked by Anglo-French troops, the Legion.

The English were part of that, the French and others.

Many objects left and were removed from the Imperial Palace in 1860.

Oh.

(chuckling) Objects were removed and came onto the open market in a variety of ways.

Some were removed by the Legion troops, as souvenirs, which was commonplace then.

Others were sold by eunuchs and those from the court who lost their means of employment.

One of the few resources available to an unemployed civil servant were the objects around the palace.

So objects were removed, there were auctions, they were sold at markets.

The value in an auction today is likely to be between $20,000 and $30,000.

Oh.

Okay.

(chuckling) That's very interesting, thank you.

I guess my dad was right, they were worth something.

An insurance value would probably be around $40,000.

MAN: This was given by my mother, who actually, she got it from my grandfather a long time ago.

And I think that I remember when I was a child that I couldn't touch anything.

She used to tell me, "Don't touch it, don't touch it," and I never thought that I'm going to get it in the end, to keep it in the end.

So it's a beautiful piece, I love it.

I don't know much about it.

I know that it was from Hungary, it's very old, stayed in the family for a long time.

And that's all I really know.

I've played with it a couple times.

So is this a piece that was acquired here in the United States, or is it from abroad?

No, I think what they told me was it was brought from Europe.

It was brought from Europe, and around what year was that?

Well, my grandfather came like in 1935, '36.

You think this is something that he brought with him?

I think so.

Yeah, that's what my mom used to tell me.

So Hungarian is right.

I would say Austro-Hungarian.

There's a good chance that this is Viennese.

It would date from the Belle Époque period, which... probably early 20th century.

That period's known for opulence, it's known for luxury, it's known for high style, and that's what this chess set has.

When you look at the number of techniques that were employed, you have enameled silver, you have semiprecious stones inset.

The figures themselves are predominantly silver, with quite a bit of enamel work and gilding.

The bases on the figures are also set with cabochon pearls, as well as what appears to be cabochon amethyst stones.

It's just really a tour de force of craftsmanship.

I've scoured the piece pretty thoroughly.

I'm not finding a maker's mark.

I'm also not finding any silver marks on there.

There really isn't a question, though, that the figures are silver, and a lot of the other elements are.

So I'm going to date it to around 1900, probably Vienna, looking at it stylistically.

A lot of these have come on the market in the last five to seven years, and I've seen other examples of variations.

The soldiers are a little bit different, the style of costume is a little bit different, the enamel colors are different, but they all are selling in a consistent range.

And there are a few that have sold for extraordinary numbers.

Did you have an idea of what you thought the value might be on it?

I have no idea.

Would you like to take a guess?

A guess?

Yeah, in your mind what did you think?

Maybe $10,000?

I think a fair auction estimate on a piece like this in today's market is $20,000 to $25,000.

Excuse me?

$20,000 to $25,000.

Oh wow.

In London last year, a similar chess set with blue enamel, but otherwise identical to this set, sold for-- with the buyer's premium-- $57,000.

But that's a bit of an outlier.

I think when it comes to auctions, you want to sort of stay reserved and hope for the best, and hope that you're going to get two people in the room that really fall in love with this piece, which I think they will if it ever comes to market.

WALBERG: An tiques Roadshow's final stop was Salt Lake City, where thousands of treasures from Utah and beyond got a closer look.

Hi.

I have some old, old bottles.

Okay, okay.

And these are the old fancy minis.

Okay.

Look at all the different colors.

They were dug up out of outhouses in Park City.

Whoo!

All right.

I would have thought this was French and not English because, number one, it's porcelain.

The way the flowers are designed, it's really far more typical of a piece of Limoges than a piece of Stoke-on-Trent.

Were it not for the information, I learned something from you bringing that in.

But, they're right across the Channel from each other, and they were copying each other and so why wouldn't the British try to capitalize on the porcelain market the French were creating?

And that's what you have, late 19th century English porcelain.

APPRAISER: You bought it probably as 19th century, I'm guessing, 18th, 19th.

But it's nice, and I would say at auction today you're looking probably in the $4,000 to $6,000 range.

WOMAN: These posters were taken from the Fulton Theatre in Lancaster county in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

My father-in-law was a magician, and he collected everything magic.

A whole house was full of magic, doves lived in the basement and these were some of the pieces that he had that he thought were very valuable.

These are lobby cards for a performance that Thurston did in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

And the images, to people who collect magic, are going to be very familiar because these were both posters that were produced in a much larger format.

About 27 inches wide by 41 inches high.

So maybe two and a half or three times this size.

And the images were used to promote his shows around the country.

Now, the regular posters that were larger didn't have the strip on the top that gave information about the actual performances.

They were more generic in that they just showed Thurston.

The one closest to you, magicians tried to portray to the ticket-buying public that they were capable of communing with the black arts.

And so it was a very commonly seen theme or meme to have little imps, little devils whispering into the ear of the magician-- a sort of an arcane explanation for the tricks that he could do.

Then on the poster closer to me, you actually have an exhibition of one of Thurston's levitating tricks.

"She floats all over the stage."

Do you have any idea when these are from?

My husband thought it was late '20s, early '30s.

But I found some newspaper articles in Pennsylvania from like 1915 where he was performing in the area, but I'm not really sure.

So, one of the big mysteries about these kind of magic posters is that they're very hard to date.

Because the performer would have printed thousands of copies that were then used to be overprinted by the local theaters.

Even with the full-size copies, we don't know the exact date.

So when these have come up for sale at auctions, they're dated as circa 1935.

But I did a little detective work, and using a sort of a reverse historic calendar, I took a look to find out what year April 4 fell on a Saturday.

April 4 fell on a Saturday in both 1925 and 1931.

Now, 1925 is too early for these posters, so we can now accurately date these to 1931.

Now, just to put a fine point on it, it's possible they were printed earlier in the thousands and used in 1931.

So now the question is, what are they worth?

Right.

Very few of these lobby cards have come up for auction.

And when they do, they tend to bring between $500 and $750 each.

Great.

So combined I'd say it's about $1,000 to $1,500.

Great.

And I will point out that the condition on these isn't that good.

But I feel that they're rare enough that collectors can't be that picky about condition in this case because there's not a lot of other ones to choose from.

Cool.

I brought in a sketch of my mother-in-law.

Her grandfather was a prominent man in Salt Lake and was later the mayor of Salt Lake.

Ran around or had a good group of friends, and one of them was Mahonri Young.

Mahonri Mackintosh Young, who's here.

Yeah.

And so they were good friends, and this is a sketch he did of her because of that association.

And what does the sketch say?

"To Jane, from Uncle Hon.

November 25, 1949."

And his signature.

Mm-hmm.

That's what I know about it.

It was... obviously she held onto it, and then when she passed away a few years ago, my husband's family was dividing up the stuff and this was something my husband particularly wanted just for sentimental reasons.

Sure.

And family history.

Absolutely.

So that's how we have it.

Great.

Well, it's a great piece, it's a great memento.

And of course the artist, who is primarily thought of as a sculptor, is Mahonri Mackintosh Young, who was born in 1877, died in 1957.

He was also, though, a draftsman.

He was somebody who is perhaps best known because of his affiliation with his-- familial affiliation-- with his grandfather.

His grandfather was?

Brigham Young.

Brigham Young.

Yeah.

Indeed, Brigham Young.

Brigham Young died very soon after Mahonri's birth.

Mahonri was known not only as a sculptor of laborers, of boxers...

In fact, one of his boxing sculptures sold recently at auction for over $80,000.

But he also was somebody who did monuments.

And in particular, what's the monument here that we're seeing?

So this was taken the day that, I believe, they were unveiling or opening the This Is The Place state monument at This Is The Place State Park that he had done the sculpture work for.

And he began the This Is The Place monument when he was 62 years old.

So it took him quite a while.

Wow.

So he's really somebody who is best known as a sculptor, but this is such a touching note because of the personal nature of the dedication.

Clearly signed, clearly dated, it's a pencil on paper.

It's in fine condition, got a little bit of wrinkling in through here.

And a teeny tiny spot of discoloration there, but nothing to worry about.

Any idea what this might be worth?

No idea whatsoever.

Well, it's a great piece that has sentimental value, but it's something that if it were to be insured today, I would insure it probably for around $1,200.

Hmm, wow.

Okay.

WOMAN: This was left to my husband from a friend of their family.

And every time they would go to this woman's house, he just loved this painting.

This is Monument Valley in southeastern Utah, and it's a place where a lot of photographers nowadays love to go and take pictures of beautiful, very strange sandstone formations.

And who's the artist of this?

His name was Henry Lavender Adolphus Culmer.

Do you know much about him at all?

I know he was a Utah artist, and he was very well thought of.

There are a lot of his paintings in prominent Utah family homes, and they seem to hang on to them, they don't seem to go out at auction or anything, so.

Well, he is one of Utah's early painters, and one of the most famous for painting the landscapes of Utah.

As you said, Henry Lavender Adolphus Culmer was born in England, though.

Right.

Came over here when he was about 14 years old with his family because they heard about Mormonism from the missionaries.

Yes, they came across the Plains, and he has actual memoirs that he has published about his trip across the Plains, which is very interesting.

Have you been able to identify where this is?

We think it's a formation called Castle Rock.

But we think that he might have taken some artist license with the two peaks.

Because most of them aren't that sharp down there.

Right.

This area here, this rock formation does sort of look somewhat like Castle Rock in there.

Yes, yes, it does.

This is a little bit different, there's some other formations it could be.

There might be some license, it might be the way he painted it as well.

If you learned about Culmer, he was sort of largely self-taught.

He worked with some of the early artists such as Kirkland and Lambourne, who were Utah artists.

But he was not classically trained.

Now, one other influence was he knew Thomas Moran.

I don't know if you know his work, he was a very famous painter of the Grand Canyon.

And Thomas Moran is known for his beautiful light in his paintings, his paintings of the Grand Canyon.

I think you see that up in here, this great light.

When you see this out here it just emanates out of the painting.

It probably could stand a little bit of cleaning.

If you look up in here, there's a little bit of dirt and a little grime there.

It would brighten up a bit.

It's in its original frame, it's a beautiful frame, it's in good condition too.

These frames tend to break apart over the years, they're very fragile.

Also it hasn't been touched, it's not lined, it's on its original canvas, so it's a great piece like that.

This is oil on canvas, and based on the stretcher and the canvas on this, I would expect this was probably painted around 1900.

Now, have you had it appraised at all?

Do you know the value?

My husband had one he had for $3,600 in 1972 or '73.

And then about four years later it was $4,800.

Well, because it's a subject, Monument Valley, and because it's in great condition, this is the type of painting that collectors of Utah landscapes would love this painting.

I would put it into auction at about $25,000 to $35,000 for an auction estimate.

I think it's going to stay in the family, though.

Good, yeah.

WALBERG: Well, we've come to the end of this special episode And now, it's time for the Roadshow Feedback Booth.

And we came today to find out a little bit more about my mother-in-law's childhood doll, and found out that she's well played with, but still worth between $75 and $100.

So she'll stay in the family, and we're happy to have her.

So we came to the Antiques Roadshow with our wee Scottish pictures, and they're both worth $1,500 each.

So we're not going to be millionaires, but at least we got to come to the Antiques Roadshow, and we got to meet a couple of men from Scotland, too.

This is a Frisbie pie tin, it was my grandfather's.

Well, he worked for the Frisbie Pie Company till it went out of business in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

He said it was his favorite job he ever had had because he had worked in coal mines.

So making pies made him a very, very happy guy.

We came to Antiques Roadshow to check out the... some family jewelry we've had.

Found out that they're from the 1940s.

And they are costume.

Not as much as we thought, but we had such a fun time, and now Audrey can wear this as much as she wants, and we're going to have fun with it.

And it was a great experience.

Right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I had to bring George Harrison, but George, I'm sorry, I love Ringo.

We both have real bad hair from the lines, but we love Antiques Roadshow.

Thanks.

And Lisa had a great time.

And I brought my salt and pepper shaker, 1940s, Fifi and Fido.

They look like my dog Carl and my cat George.

(laughing) $25, but they're priceless to me.

Thanks, Antiques Roadshow.

Thanks, Antiques Roadshow.

WALBERG: I'm Mark Walberg.

Thanks for watching.

See you next time, on Antiques Roadshow.