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00:00Ever since I saw this piece of jewelry I thought it was the most beautiful thing and my mother
00:09thinks it's ugly. It is probably the ugliest thing I've seen on the Roadshow. I mean it's
00:13not really a pretty thing. It's Antiques Roadshow, pretty or pretty ugly.
00:30As the saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that's always true when it comes to art, collectibles, and antiques.
00:43What you might think is tacky or unappealing might be highly desirable to someone else.
00:48I think it's beautiful. My husband thinks it's ugly and he didn't even want me to bring it today.
00:53It's beautiful.
00:54Regardless of differing opinions, we've got the sometimes ugly truth about some pretty interesting
00:59and valuable treasures. Take a look.
01:02I actually inherited it for my birthday last year from my Aunt Libby, and she got it from her Aunt Libby.
01:11And she's from Leesburg and she's had it in her family for a long time.
01:16And ever since I saw this piece of jewelry I just thought it was the most beautiful thing.
01:21And since my Aunt Libby doesn't have kids, for my birthday she gave it to me, so I was really excited.
01:28When it was my great aunt Libby's piece of jewelry, my mother used to like comment on how much she hated it because she thinks it's ugly.
01:37The brown lines in it, she thinks it makes it look horrible.
01:40And I'm like, but it's character. I think it's character.
01:43It's interesting. It is opal, the center stone. Opal comes in many forms. It comes from many places.
01:50Sometimes it's more milky. Then you have black opal, which is like this very dark with this fire in it.
01:56And then out west, especially out here, you see what they call boulder opal. And this is very reminiscent of boulder opal.
02:03For example, that tends to have more of these matrix lines in it, which is you seeing there.
02:10A long time ago you had an appraisal on this, correct?
02:13Yeah, it was done in 1978 by my great aunt Libby and it was for $2,500.
02:19It is signed.
02:20Oh, it is? Oh, I did not know that.
02:23And right over here, it says Marcus and Company.
02:27Now, Herman Marcus came to this country from Germany in 1850. He was a very talented jeweler.
02:37When he started here, he worked for multiple firms. But most notably, he worked for Tiffany and Company.
02:45He left Tiffany and then worked for another big company called Feed Door Star. And it became Star and Marcus.
02:51That dissolved. Guess where he went? He went back to Tiffany. After that, he started working with his sons.
02:58Oh, really? Oh, wow.
02:59And then the firm then became Marcus and Company.
03:02Oh.
03:02He made this beautiful Art Nouveau style jewelry. That's the design you see.
03:08He was very meticulous about his metal work. It's accented by old mine diamonds.
03:14Oh, wow.
03:14And then you see he had this use of this bright enamel in the background. That's green enamel.
03:20The enamels that work for him, a lot of them train at Lalique, who was also known for making great enamel.
03:27Oh, wow.
03:27Oh, wow.
03:28The ring up here, you wear it like this, with that ring on top.
03:32Technically, it was designed to be worn like that.
03:39Really?
03:39Wow.
03:40Something hanged down. Something like a freshwater pearl. You have a piece that if you had to rewrite
03:50that insurance appraisal today, you would have to rewrite it for $12,000.
03:55Oh, my goodness. Wow.
04:01It's an important piece. And Marcus Drury, while it's always been good, more people are recognizing his genius.
04:07Wow.
04:08And I will save it for whoever's named Elizabeth in my next generation.
04:14Because it's a tile and because it's a god, I thought it was probably something that would go
04:25over a doorway in China because he's so ugly to maybe keep away evil spirits.
04:29Absolutely. You were very close. This is a Chinese glazed pottery roof tile, actually.
04:36Roof tile.
04:37And let's look at how it's made here. This wonderful curved base allows it to sit right on the roof.
04:43We can all picture the fabulous Chinese architecture with pagoda roofs that end in that lovely curve.
04:50These tiles sit at the end of the curve along the edges of the roof line
04:56and are decorated in fancier houses, temples, and so forth with wonderful figures like this one.
05:03This particular one was made probably in the Ming Dynasty around 16 to 1700.
05:10So it's really quite old. Oh, I'm surprised.
05:13When you first brought it to the table, I thought, this can't really be a Ming one because it's in such
05:17lovely condition. It doesn't look like it's been battered by the elements. But the colors of the glazes
05:23are just right. The molding of the face and the details of the fingers and so forth.
05:29Very surprised. I thought it was even flat because the green in this color is
05:33so close I thought it might have been a mistake. They are close. No, I don't think so. I think
05:37they actually intended to make this the shawl around his shoulders a lovely turquoise blue,
05:43which you see a lot of in the Ming tile work. Often there's a lot more yellow in these figures.
05:47This one is particularly dark with the green and the brown. Now, you found it where? You were looking
05:53for? I was in an antique market at Aberfoyle, Ontario in 1966. Were you looking for Asian art?
06:01No, I just happened to catch my eye. And do you remember what you paid for it?
06:05Under $100, probably around $65 or $75. Okay, that's fabulous. Well, these don't bring
06:10immense fortunes at all because there were, of course, even in the Ming Dynasty, many, many of them.
06:15There are many roofs in China and many roof tiles. But a lovely one like this would probably bring
06:21at auction today around $1,000. Oh, isn't that great? So I think you made a very good buy and I think you have a great thing.
06:27A friend of mine bought it online five or six years ago. He didn't really care for it. And he finally
06:48just said, here, you can have this. It's ugly. I don't really want it. So he gave it to me.
06:53It's not ugly. It's unusual and it's wonderful. And contemporary art is really hot right now.
06:58It's by an American artist named George Condo, who was born in 1957 and then went to New York
07:05in the 80s and was part of that whole wonderful New York scene around that time. He was friends with
07:11Andy Warhol's factory folks and also collaborated with William Burroughs, the writer, and also with
07:20Alan Ginsberg. His style is called Figurative Abstraction, which is an unusual contemporary
07:26surrealist style, which I think we can really see in this drawing. This is a very special little piece.
07:33The back of it has an art gallery label, so we have a nice documentation of where it's been.
07:41I'd value this piece at between $1,500 and $3,000. Wow. Cool. Wow. Oh, that's amazing.
07:51I know that it came from my paternal grandfather's side of the family, and I always thought it was
08:09this old, ugly vase. Why would you put that out? That is so ugly. And my girlfriend had tickets to
08:15come to the show and invited me, and I thought, I'm going to take that old, ugly vase. Okay, well,
08:19let me tell you a little bit about it. Your vase is Japanese, and it dates from the first quarter of
08:24the 20th century. And it is part of a group of Japanese ceramics that are referred to as coralline.
08:31And you can see the flowers are built up with little beads of glass. There is a mark here,
08:36it says U.S. patent office. Yeah. That's so it could be imported into this country. Oh, okay. The value is
08:43probably in the $800 to $1,000 range. Okay. And the question is, is this still an ugly old vase?
08:51No, it's not. I think it's going to have a prominent place in my home now. It's gotten prettier in the
08:55last five minutes. It has. I don't think my mother's getting it back. Well, I bought it in 1940 at an
09:04antique shop. My mother said, what on earth do you want with that ugly thing? She said, it's not even
09:10comfortable. You've got a cross between Adirondack, the very natural-looking carved wood, as well as
09:17mission style, also known as arts and crafts, probably made in Michigan. Valuation on it,
09:23I would probably say in the neighborhood of $1,200 to $1,500. Great chair for a great person. Yeah.
09:28Well, thank you.
09:40I've sort of inherited it from my grandfather, who was a collector for 35 years. He probably acquired
09:47this clock sometime in the early 60s. This is called the wall model acorn clock. And there were
09:53several models that the JC Brown company made of this acorn clock. They were all made, I think,
10:00in the 1840s and 50s. And this one I have always felt was the rarest one. Also, it was probably the one
10:07that was made the latest. The mantle acorn clocks were the earlier ones, and they looked quite
10:13different. When I first saw one of these acorn clocks as a young collector, I said, that is the
10:19ugliest thing I've ever seen in my life. But since then, I think there's a haunting beauty about these
10:24things. When these clocks were made in the 1830s, 40s and 50s, they were very bold design for someone
10:32who was going to manufacture these clocks and try to sell them to an American audience. What an unusual
10:39design. Peter, when I first saw this clock, I thought that the veneer on this door had been
10:45removed and replaced. But looking at it further, I don't think so. It has a laminate on it of some
10:51sort, which is ebonized. And I believe that's original. One of the most interesting features of
10:56this clock is the label. It's got the original JC Brown label, who worked in Bristol, Connecticut,
11:04only about a half an hour's drive from where we are now. And the reverse painting does show some
11:11restorations here on the back where it's been in-painted. The surfaces on the side have been
11:18varnished in an unattractive way, but that's the only real restoration I see to this clock.
11:25When we open the door to this, this is what I found inside. A note that says, rare, $2,500. And I say,
11:33well, where did this come from? And you told me? That was my grandfather's estimate of its value
11:38several years ago. Well, it's very rare. Its condition is good. It's about $12,000, $13,000 when
11:45you consider its greatly unrealized and undiscovered American antique.
11:54I was fascinated when you came through the line this morning and said that this was something that
12:08as a child you saw in a guest bedroom and thought, this is a really weird thing.
12:16Very ugly. Yeah. Very depressing.
12:18So tell me a little bit about what you thought as a kid looking at it.
12:22I just, it was always there and I grew up with it and I just thought it was
12:27very strange, very depressing. Yeah.
12:29Um, my friends spent the night with me in the bedroom and they always thought it was very,
12:33I kind of wished my parents would get rid of it. It was very embarrassing. Yeah.
12:36And then as an adult, I got interested in needlework and I began to look at it carefully and say,
12:41this is really impressive. It's a piece that was made in actually Hadley, Massachusetts.
12:48Oh really? Yes.
12:49At a particular school called the Abbey Wright School in South Hadley, Massachusetts in the early 19th century.
12:58The way that we can tell that is that it has this very characteristic, sometimes gold,
13:03in this case silver thread that's coiled around to embellish those urns. And as I said,
13:11it was probably made in the early decades of the 19th century by a very diligent little girl,
13:17uh, in, in your family, uh, whose picture I think is there and she was, uh, concerned. Yeah.
13:26Um, and this also teaches us a lot about American history because it's not really that morbid.
13:33Uh, it was the kind of mourning picture that was done in the years immediately following George
13:40Washington's death when it was a fashion for mourning art. He died in 1799 and this was made in the first
13:50decades of the, of the 19th century as part of that kind of fashion. And, uh, you can see that these are
13:57blank so that there was no particular relative that this was done for and made in the most beautiful
14:03materials with fugitive dyes, vegetable dyes that have flown away. And these were the kinds of things
14:11that families, as they moved west, kept with them. So the fact that it has shown up here in San Diego
14:18is another aspect of American history. So it's a really wonderful. Now sometimes they would have
14:24put, uh, names in those. Yeah. If there had been a convenient relative who had died, they would have
14:29been memorialized in that. I looked up her husband and he died after her and I thought,
14:34is this the sort of thing you... This was just something that was made. So you didn't kind of do it
14:39in anticipation. Not necessarily. But there is an interested market for this. And if this were to come
14:45to auction, I would guess that it would bring somewhere in the vicinity of $45 or $5,000.
14:52Wow. So... A friend, the reason I brought it was that a person who knew something about
14:57antiques was looking through our house and said, this is very interesting. And so I thought, well,
15:01okay. It is. Yeah. And I'm delighted to see it. Great. Well, thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you.
15:18Who does this belong? Belongs to my mother. She said that it was special and that it was English.
15:24Well, I agree on both things. Did she say anything about why it's special?
15:29She said it was two potter people that specialized in painting really ugly fish.
15:36Well, there were brothers who worked in a part of London called Southall. Southall is a part of London
15:43that has a long tradition of making stoneware, which is what this means. And they worked in the late
15:4919th century and into the early 20th. And they were called the Martin brothers. And yeah, they were
15:55weird. They were, I mean, you look up weird and you get a picture of them. Oh, that's great.
15:59You can see the decoration. It wasn't just fish. They liked all kinds of what I would call beasties,
16:05you know, but they're definitely weird, every one of them. And why would you put fish in any event
16:11on a sugar bowl, which I think is what it is. It's worth about a thousand dollars at auction
16:18and possibly as much as $1,400 or $1,500. Oh my gosh.
16:23Yeah. Great thing. Amazing.
16:26Does your mom have other weird stuff? She does.
16:29Well, look around if she has any other Martin brothers. I will.
16:39I brought a picture that has been in my family as long as I can remember. I saw it hanging on the
16:45walls. I was growing up, thought it was rather ugly, big. And after my mother passed away,
16:52I wrapped it up and put it underneath my bed. And that's where it's been until today. My great
16:57grandfather is in the photograph down in the bottom. Well, when you pulled this out of your,
17:04your cart, I first saw the frame and it's a wonderful tramp art frame. It's made of wood.
17:10And then I saw the photograph. The photograph, as we can see, is the Philadelphia Liberty Bell,
17:16complete with crack. And this was done by a pair of commercial photographers from Chicago, Arthur
17:24Mole and John Thomas. And they became famous during the First World War with these living photographs.
17:30Really? That took thousands of troops to create these images. They did the Statue of Liberty,
17:37the head of Woodrow Wilson, Eagles, all sorts of things. This was one of their most famous images.
17:44Really? And it's copyrighted 1918. The partner Mole would stand up on an elevated place,
17:51just bellowing down to the group below to get it orchestrated, get it organized and photographed.
17:57This happened to be taken at Camp Dix in New Jersey. The print itself is in excellent condition.
18:04The frame. It was made in 1921 by William Bergstrom, who must have been the hired, hired hand.
18:13And he so carefully made a frame that perfectly... Amazing.
18:20...reflects the photograph. You've got two great things.
18:23To ensure this piece, I would put maybe $8,000 on it.
18:26Well, that's wonderful. My friend bought me this at an antique shop. He thought I'd like it.
18:39I do like it. I love it. It's green and ugly enough to be cool.
18:43It's a 20th century piece that's made to look old. Okay.
18:47This is made out of my relative's hair by my grandmother's grandmother. And ever since I was
18:54five or six years old, I was just fascinated by it. And I'm the only one in the family that is.
18:59It represents an enormous amount of skill, something that was done during the Victorian
19:03period where people saved their hair and either made jewelry out of it or did these family hair
19:08wreaths that were sort of a memorial. Any idea what this is worth?
19:11It's not worth anything according to my wife and daughter. That's why it sits in a closet and it's not displayed.
19:22When I first saw this, I got a real thrill because when I see boxes like this,
19:27you know what the first word that comes to my mind is? Fabergé.
19:31Now we should open this up because when I opened it up initially,
19:34I was slightly disappointed because I didn't see Fabergé, but I did see something else.
19:39You can tell me where you got this box.
19:41I bought it from a dealer in Florida.
19:44At the time he had three of these and he wanted to keep two of them and didn't like this one.
19:50He thought it was kind of ugly.
19:53Well, it's a very interesting lid. We can take the box out,
19:58put it on the table. And this is what we call, when we set it off, a singing bird box.
20:11Now this is the kind of music box that was made in Switzerland. But what's interesting about this is
20:19the outer box that it comes in. And that says Hammer Galleries. And that refers to the famous American
20:25industrialist, Armand Hammer, who was amongst the first people to bring treasures out of Russia after the Russian Revolution.
20:33Now, what's very interesting about this is the lid that you mentioned. It's a rather wild looking
20:39character. And if I let my imagination go wild, I'd say that's probably Rasputin. But that lid didn't
20:47start life on that box. It has absolutely nothing to do with it. Probably when this box was new,
20:54it had a bouquet of flowers, a scene of Geneva, something like that. It's enamel. It probably got
21:00broken. And it was replaced with a Russian character, and it was sold as a Tsarist treasure.
21:06Now, don't look so disappointed at me right now, because even so, the box like this is still quite
21:13a valuable object. And even with the lid the way it is, and this was probably done 75, 80 years ago,
21:20it's probably still a $10,000 to $15,000 box. It's still quite special and quite a wonderful object.
21:27And I'm really delighted that you brought it here. Thank you.
21:42It actually belonged to my father-in-law. He was in the Boys Choir at the Washington National Cathedral.
21:48And when his voice changed, he worked on the custodial crew at the cathedral to help pay his
21:52tuition. And he said he found this lamp in the trash being disposed of, and he rescued it. When he
21:58passed away, no one in the family wanted dad's ugly lamp. And my mother-in-law was going to call
22:03someone to pick it up for scrap metal. I asked her not to do that to let me look it over. When I saw that
22:08it was Mark Samuel Yellen, I did a little bit of research, and my husband and I visited the Washington
22:13National Cathedral to kind of learn a little bit more about Yellen. And we were shocked to find
22:18what appears to be an identical lamp hanging on the wall of the Chapel of the Resurrection.
22:23When my father-in-law had it displayed in his home, he had that shade on it. I don't know if it was
22:28original to the lamp or something that he created to go with it, but that's how we got it.
22:32Well, I tell you what, it has nothing to do with it whatsoever. I think it was just a nice decorative
22:36shade that fit well, but no, it has nothing to do with the piece at all.
22:40Okay. I love the story, and what's really wonderful about this piece is that the mark
22:44on it of Samuel Yellen is so very clear. And Samuel Yellen was a metal worker based in Philadelphia.
22:49He started his business in around 1907, and at the peak of the business had over 200 people working
22:54for him, providing metal work and lighting for great American homes, also national monuments,
23:01the Washington Cathedral. From my little research I could do, he continued to supply pieces for the
23:07National Cathedral throughout a period of time. What's lovely about the piece is that we're here
23:12at Winterthur today, and there are actually drawings in the museum collection of Samuel Yellen's work.
23:17Really?
23:17Yeah, so really wonderful to see this here. This is a single light fixture, and it's more ecclesiastical
23:23in design, so the value's a little on the softer side for his pieces. But if I were to see this come
23:28up for auction, I would expect to see an estimate of around about $3,000 to $4,000.
23:32That's fantastic. That's an expensive piece of scrap metal.
23:45My grandpa was kind of a wheeler dealer, and he liked to go out and make a deal and barter and trade,
23:51and this was something he came home with, one of many unique items that he came home with.
23:57When you got it, were you just, did you like it? What did you think?
23:59Not at all. When we were cleaning out the house that I got it from, I was on the verge of giving
24:04it to Goodwill or Salvation Army, and my husband said, let's take it home and take a little bit
24:10closer look at it. It was one of those things that was kind of always in my family, kind of always
24:14hanging out in the background that I never really liked. I actually thought it was kind of an ugly
24:20vase. Okay, that's fair.
24:21So it is now in my home, and I'm just curious what the value of it is. Okay.
24:28On the bottom, there's a marking, and we did go online and find out that Guido Gambone,
24:34I think is how you say his last name, was the maker of the vase, and it was made in Italy.
24:39Let's take a look at that mark on the bottom. On the bottom, there's a donkey, and below that,
24:46it says Gambone, and then below that, it says Italy. Guido Gambone lived from 1909 to 1969,
24:54and his pottery company in Italy, after World War II, they made some really interesting things
25:00in the 1950s and 1960s. This particular vase would probably date from the 1950s or 1960s,
25:07before Guido died, and the mark with the donkey on the bottom is usually associated with him.
25:13Now, his son continued on after him, and then the mark changed, his son Bruno, and the mark changed,
25:18but usually this mark is associated with the father. Right.
25:21Now, he did a lot of stuff with figures on it, with people, animals, and kind of almost looked
25:26a little like Picasso or something sometimes. Abstract, yeah. Abstract. And then this one is just geometric.
25:31Yes. And if you look at it, it's a little lopsided. And this was not actually made on a wheel,
25:38but this was actually coil made. Okay. So there would be a coil of pottery, and you can see that
25:44by looking on the interior. Okay. That this long coil of pottery was made and then put round and round
25:51and round and smoothed off. Okay. And then they added this really rich, rough, bubbly glaze,
25:57which is really kind of wonderful. The shine, yes. Yeah. Gamboni pottery was actually sold
26:01in the United States, so it was exported here. It was fairly expensive. Several of us appraisers,
26:07we all looked at this. Sure. And none of us have ever seen a piece of gamboni this big.
26:12Okay. So it's remarkable in its size. I would believe that a retail price would be somewhere
26:18between $7,000 and $10,000. Oh. Okay. Oh my gosh. Okay. So if you had given it away to Goodwill.
26:32So I have my husband to thank for that. Yeah, if it weren't for him, we wouldn't be here today.
26:36So this was the piece that brought us to Antiques Roadshow.
26:39My great-grandmother brought it over from Czechoslovakia and gave it to her daughter. And when
26:53my dad was born, she gave it to my father because he was a boy and it's a boy doll. We named him
26:58Hunzy Cech. Hunzy Cech. Because he's from Czechoslovakia. My daughters think he's creepy.
27:04Oh, those silly dolls. What are we going to do with him? So he's all hands strong.
27:12His eyes move. Okay. I mean, he's a family member. He is one of your family members. That's
27:20what I like to hear. Your doll is actually from Germany. Oh, is it? And then maybe sold in
27:26Czechoslovakia as a souvenir doll. He was originally made about 1910.
27:34And what we really love about him is that he was made by Kestner and he's mold 221. And Kestner
27:42was a self-proclaimed king of doll makers. And he kind of used that the market, his dolls,
27:49but he ended up really being the king of them. He sold and made a lot of dolls. And your doll has a
27:56abyss head and a composition body. And his eyes are made of glass. It's mouth blown glass. And they're
28:06what we call googly eyes. His costume was probably made in Czechoslovakia because it is...
28:12Well, that's where my grandparents were from is Czechoslovakia.
28:16And then he does have on his original mohair wig and his little wool felted hat with silk flowers and
28:24beautiful embroidered ribbon. And then the other thing we talk about with this doll is Thermgrin.
28:30And just a big, like, I am so happy, but I'm also might be up to a little bit of something.
28:37His bisque head is in excellent condition. And that's where the value is.
28:42But we've got a little damage to our toes. And that's just because it is composition.
28:49It's just a wood product. And that's really easy to break fingers and toes. And we're really lucky
28:56because he has all his fingers. It's just we do have that toe damage. And then he also needs a
29:02little restringing because you can see his arms just... Normally, you could actually hold their arms
29:08up because that's how I like to pose them. I like to pose them with the arms standing straight up,
29:12like, ta-da, here I am, ready to start trouble. These dolls are actually pretty hard to find.
29:19In today's market, his retail value, with the damage, would be somewhere between $4,500 and $6,500.
29:30It's great. You move out of the box.
29:52Unfortunately, in the 70s, my father was cleaning out the attic and threw out the base because he thought
29:56it was ugly. And when he passed away, it became mine.
30:00The Handel was a company in Meriden, Connecticut, made this sort of lamp early part of the 20th
30:05century. They started in the late 19th century. I think the good news is that the shade alone
30:10is probably a $4,000 to $6,000 shade. But if you had the base, it would probably be double that.
30:16So $8,000 to $12,000 for the lamp. It's kind of a shame, but we don't know how elaborate or how good the base was.
30:22I brought a gold liqueur ballerina bowl music box. It's belonged to my first wife. She passed away
30:33several years ago. I don't know a whole lot about it, but I always thought it was really just the
30:36coolest thing. Have you tasted the liquor? Oh, no, no, no, no. You don't want to open it.
30:46It's made with washers and screws and bolts,
30:49and it looks more like an engineering piece than a jewelry piece to me.
30:54It was my mother's and we don't know if she purchased it before she came from Europe in 1940
31:00or if a friend of hers who traveled extensively brought it to her.
31:05This is a piece of German jewelry. We can date it specifically to 1931. It's made by a company
31:12called Jacob Bengel. He opened the company in the 1870s. He was a locksmith and started a company to
31:19make watch chains, and now they're in the jewelry business. And by the early 20s, they're being
31:26influenced by the Bauhaus school. The German Bauhaus is a movement that's combining arts and crafts and
31:34art deco. It's a structural design. This is machine age. The material it's made out of is chrome-plated
31:40brass, and it drops two pendants of glass that are to look like lapis lazuli, and it's enameled. It's a
31:49pretty elaborate example of a brick-linked form. This piece, if it were to come to auction, would
31:55probably take an estimate of $900 to $1,200. We'll have to learn to appreciate it more. Thank you.
32:18I bought it in an antique mall on Lincoln Avenue in Chicago in 1990. The dealer told me that
32:25he purchased it in a barn in southern Wisconsin, and I believed him because I literally picked pieces
32:32of hay off of it after I purchased it. I was immediately drawn to this, and after thinking
32:39about it, a lot of people consider tramp art and things like this the ugly ducklings of folk art.
32:46It's easy to love something that's very refined and finely made, but there's also a group of us out
32:53there that love things with personality and funk. This is funky. Yeah, this has personality. It's true.
33:00So I like things like this, and this is a really elaborate one. Yeah, I mean they did these nice
33:07little rosettes right there in the center of the first skirt or the first drop, and then down at the
33:13bottom they did those tapered spools to give that a V effect. And this is a perfect example of what
33:21somebody does with their imagination. It's made out of found objects. Right. And it's whatever the man
33:28or woman that made this came up with. The other thing that struck me was that this has what I would
33:35call a ragged patina. From putting it in the barn, that's what happens. Think about this. When this was
33:43made new, it had this bright gold paint. Right. And these panels, these cloth panels,
33:51were very bright. Right. So I'll bet you the first time it went in somebody's house,
33:57it would be like, whoa, you walked by it and it would just bowl you over. And now it does the same
34:02thing, I think, with the subtleties. We could wax poetic and get all intellectual about the shadows and
34:08the negative space and all that kind of stuff. But it goes back to a very simple thing. It's something
34:14that he saw in his head, he or she, and it's just something that was executed really well that gives
34:22us sort of a visual delight. So you bought it in when? 1990. Okay. What did you pay for it then?
34:30175 dollars. That was a pretty good investment. I hope so. Well, I talked to my colleagues over at
34:38the full cart table and the furniture table, and we were thinking for an insurance value in today's
34:44market, we would do somewhere between a thousand and fifteen hundred. Well, that's great news.
35:00I went to a farm auction about five or six years ago, about 20, 30 miles west of Minneapolis here.
35:12They were in a box, two together, and I bid on them. And I started the bidding at a dollar,
35:17and somebody bid three or four. And anyway, I wound up getting them for five dollars.
35:22Five dollars for both of them? For both of them, yeah. And did you know anything about them? No,
35:27I didn't. I just liked the looks of that one in particular. I thought this one was kind of ugly,
35:32but so I got them and took them home, and I hung that one in my living room for quite a while,
35:39and I hung this one in the family room. And I've just enjoyed them since I had them. The painting on
35:46the top is by an artist named Spencer. It's signed in the lower left, and it's actually a painting that
35:51was done more recently, certainly in the latter half of the 20th century, and probably by
35:57an artist who is a bit more commercial and painting for more decorative reasons. We put a value of
36:03around 100 to 200 dollars on that if you were to find it in an antique shop. Now, the second painting,
36:10were you able to read the signature on this? I couldn't see the name, so I couldn't look it up.
36:14Well, here we have the signature in the lower right, and the name of the artist is Victor Higgins.
36:20Victor Higgins grew up on a farm in Shelbyville, Indiana. He was born in 1884, died in 1949.
36:28Oh, you know all about this. Well, he's a well-known artist. He's actually a member of what's called the
36:34Taos Society of Artists. Now, when you bought this, did you think this looked like a particular area?
36:41I go to Arizona in the wintertime, and I thought it looked like down in Arizona,
36:45New Mexico, down in that area. Well, you're absolutely right. He moved there permanently
36:51from Chicago around 1915, and he remained there till the end of his life. He was well-known for
36:59painting pueblos and the life of the Native American, as well as landscapes, like you see here. His style
37:07started out in a more impressionistic manner, but by the time this was painted, he became a little bit
37:13more of a modernist, and you see some of the hard-edge lines and forms that denote modernism,
37:20as opposed to impressionism. Now, the date of this painting is not exactly known. However,
37:27the painting itself is on masonite, and masonite was not really in use until after 1926. So we can
37:35say that this was done after 1926. Is that oil or acrylic? That's oil. Okay. And you can see that it has
37:43sort of a yellow cast over the surface. It's very dirty. Does it need cleaning? It needs cleaning.
37:49Right up at the edge, you can see that it's a little bit lighter blue. And if it were cleaned,
37:55it would, that sky would actually be a bright blue. But it should be cleaned by somebody who knows
37:59really what to do, not me. Right. Yes, that's right. And the cost of cleaning something like this would
38:05not be very expensive, because it's otherwise in excellent condition. The frame is original. It's very
38:11typical of what he would use. And you can see it's a painted frame, as opposed to gold leaf. If this
38:18were for sale in an art gallery in Santa Fe, for example, which is where he probably would sell best,
38:26I think it would sell in the range of $75,000.
38:29Oh, you blew me away. $75,000? Yes.
38:37I don't believe it. Well, if it were cleaned, it could even be up closer to $100,000, depending on how
38:42it cleaned up. Wow. That's quite a find. $75,000. Yeah, it's wonderful. Unbelievable.
38:59It was a violin that my Aunt Vivian had used. We know it's really old. It was inherited by my
39:08immediate family about 30 years ago. And frankly, it's been sitting in a closet over the last 30
39:14years. So your family believes that it's actually from the 16th century, because it's got a label
39:20that says, Gaspard Tiefenbrücker, 1519. And it's something that your great aunt played in recital.
39:26Yes. She was quite a musician. And it's been in your family all this time.
39:30This is a very unusual style, because it has, instead of a spiral scroll, it has the carved man's head.
39:38Some people believe that to be the head of the maker, Gaspard Tiefenbrücker. But you can see that
39:43the carving on this example is quite fine, especially the detail in the beard and the eyes and all of the
39:50facial features. His hooked nose. There is actually an etching that exists of Gaspard Tiefenbrücker that
39:56this is taken from. As we head down towards the bottom of the instrument, we see a beautifully inlaid
40:02flamed maple fingerboard. Coming down the face of the violin, we see various relief carved motifs.
40:09On the sides, we see wood inlaid to look like an old city scene.
40:16As we go to the back of the instrument, this is where it gets really spectacular. We have three types of
40:25decoration. We have the relief carving at the top. We have an oil painting. And all of this intricate
40:32inlaid wood that shows a scene of an ancient city. It's not actually from the 16th century. It's a French
40:39instrument that was made in the 1800s, probably by the shop of Derraze in Miracourt, France. But it was
40:47done very, very beautifully and it was done true to style. Now, your aunt had an outfit here. She's got
40:53a case and a bow. Let's look at the bow. It looks rather plain. It looks a little bit like it hasn't
40:59been used in quite a while. The hair is broken on it. As we take it out, we see that it's actually a very
41:05fine bow. In its simplicity, it's got a certain elegance. This bow was actually made in probably
41:13the late 1940s in the shop of Eugene Sartori in Paris. It has a mother of pearl inlay in the eye
41:21of the frog. And it's got beautiful sterling silver fittings. It's got a beautifully carved head up here.
41:29And that was all done by hand, done by knife work. This bow by Eugene Sartori is a classic example of
41:37one of the most innovative makers of the 20th century. As I turn it around, you can see his
41:42stamp on the shaft of the bow. The value of your violin is between three and four thousand dollars.
41:49The value of this bow, although it was purchased to accompany the violin probably for a hundred dollars
41:54or so. It's worth, at a retail violin shop, $14,000 to $15,000 today. Holy smokes.
42:02When was the bow made? Late 1940s. No kidding. Wow.
42:07I got an estate sale. I paid something under $50. Oh wow. My husband thinks it's ugly and he didn't
42:28want me to bring it today. It's beautiful though. I think it's beautiful. It was born as a base. Oh,
42:34okay. In Japan. Oh, in Japan. In early 20th century. Wonderful. If it didn't have a home,
42:41it could have been much more value. We have decided that it's really, really ugly, but it might be worth
42:48something. So it's either gothic, real gothic, sort of gothic, or just plain ugly.
43:00It's been part of our family for a lot of years and people always made fun of it because it was so
43:04ugly and we would rub its belly for good luck and take it to bingo games for luck.
43:09My wife doesn't care for it too much. You brought this piece and there was a sort of a controlled gasp
43:16at this table up and down because it so looks like a piece of English Martin Brothers.
43:24And so I looked at it and I flipped it and I see this mark, which is a French mark,
43:32Saragumin. Saragumin is not only one of the largest French potteries, but it's one of the biggest
43:42potteries ever. I believe they had up to 3,000 employees. They did everything, every type of
43:52pottery and they did lots and lots of copies of other people's stuff. So I have never seen a piece of
44:00Saragumin that imitated so well a piece of Martin Ware. Probably dating to the 18, late 1880s or 1890s,
44:12though it has a drilled hole. Perhaps somebody was making a lamp, but this is before electricity so
44:18that would make no sense at all. That would have been done later. Right. He is so fabulous. He's so
44:26expressive and so crazy. What a fantastic glaze. And he's insane. Love him. I would put this at auction
44:38at two to three thousand dollars. Wow. Easily. I would have never imagined that. That is fantastic.
44:55Well, my father-in-law purchased it in Jerseyville, Illinois at an antique shop and he had it for
45:06several years. He had four daughters, one of which I had married, and the girls didn't appreciate the chair.
45:15They didn't care for it too much. So when my father-in-law passed away in 1973, he had given it to me because
45:24I think they thought it was gaudy or ugly or something like that. But I appreciated the craftsmanship in it.
45:31Well, believe it or not, over the years we've seen a few of these chairs. I think they're believed to
45:37have been made in Texas. Hardly a surprise, right? No, I think they were Texas longhorns.
45:44Exactly. That's what I had thought. This particular example is especially graceful.
45:49The man who made this chair went to great pains to turn these beautiful acorn terminals on the
45:54crest rail of the chair. Richard, how old do you think the chair is? I thought it may be in a
45:59neighborhood of a hundred years old. Yeah, that's pretty close. It might even be a bit older than
46:03that. It could have been made at the last probably quarter of the 19th century. So it's an amazing piece
46:08of distinctly American furniture. Now at the time the chair was purchased, do you have any idea what
46:14it was paid for? He paid $75 for it. $75. And did he buy it just because it appealed to him? Well,
46:20he had Jersey cows and he had cattle and it appealed to him so he brought it home. So presumably if the
46:28cattle didn't produce, would he show him the chair and say you guys better shape up? Well, he could have
46:31possibly. Well, at any rate, I think this really is a superior example of its form. It's not a chair
46:40for everyone, but I dare say there are collectors of Western memorabilia who would very much covet this
46:47chair and want to own it. As far as value is concerned, I would think probably in the area of
46:52about $2,000 or $2,500. Got it from my uncle's aunt. She lived in Chicago. That's about all I know
47:13about it. Well, you know a little more. You know who made it. Yeah, it's on the bottom. Yes,
47:17and what does it say? Tiffany and Company. And what else does it say? Sterling silver and the letter T
47:24and some numbers. Well, the letter T means it was made between 1891 and 1902 when Charles Tiffany was
47:32in charge of the production. The first number is the pattern number and the second is the order
47:38number for the piece. It's very unusual and not only is it sterling, but it has enamel on it,
47:44beautiful enamel decoration. It's almost over the top, I have to admit that. And then all of the
47:51stones are actually American stones. They're American turquoise and various other stones,
47:57plus the enameling and as I said, with the sterling mark. You have no idea where she got it. None.
48:04But she lived in Chicago. She lived in Chicago, right downtown, near the Midway Plaissance,
48:11which was part of the site of the Columbian Exposition. So I don't know if that has anything
48:17to do with it or not. Now, when was the Columbian Exposition? 1893, I believe. Okay. Well,
48:24I think you've got a winner here. This was made for the Columbian Exposition. It was? Yes. By Tiffany.
48:30When you first came in, what did you tell me when you took it out of the bag? I said,
48:33it's ugly. Well, and I agreed with you. But boy, the more I looked at it, I couldn't believe how
48:40wonderful it was with all of these stones and then to check the mark and everything. It is
48:45absolutely spectacular. And when you turn it over, down here at the very bottom of the mark,
48:52there is a globe with a T superimposed on it. I saw the T. And a little tiny line in the middle
49:00that says Tiffany. And that was the exhibition signature four pieces in the World's Fair. So,
49:08your great aunt must have had some very special friend that gave it to her. Wow. Or one of her
49:13husbands, maybe? Maybe. There were several, yes. There were several. Do you have any idea what it's
49:21worth? Well, just because it's sterling, maybe $15,000? If it was sterling, that's what it would be
49:27worth. But with all enameling and everything else and auction value on this piece in today's market,
49:34which is a little conservative, I would say $50,000 to $100,000. Oh, what?
49:40You're kidding. No. Do you still think it's ugly? Yes. Excuse me. How much? $50,000 to $100,000. Okay.
49:54There's something my sister got at a garage sale about 10, 11 years ago. I don't think
50:10she paid over $5. We were taught never to pay that much. It has its home on my mother's wall in the
50:17living room, but to all of us, it's ugly. It's an interesting painting. It is probably the ugliest
50:22thing I've seen on the roadshow. I mean, it's not really a pretty thing. And I think there's some
50:26clues here about it that we're going to go through that make this a much more valuable painting than
50:29what you might see at the garage sale. It's a volcano scene. You can see a volcanic eruption here.
50:34It's done by an artist by the name of Grace Woodward. Her whole career really doesn't amount to much at
50:39all. But she did happen to study with Whistler and went to Europe. She was born around 1858. But what she
50:45did do was she went to Hawaii around the turn of the century. And we see this painting here of an
50:50eruption of a volcano. And you see it's signed down here, Grace Woodward 22609. That's very important.
50:58Now on the back of it, it says there's a partial inscription on a label that says,
51:03Ilauea IS Hawaii. And what that is, is probably Kilauea Island of Hawaii. All right. And what this
51:13is, is a very rare painting, even though it is dark and, and not very attractive, it's a rare dated
51:23eruption of Kilauea. What's more important, she probably observes it. This is what done on a panel,
51:30an artist board, which she would have taken in the field. And it's also done very close. So she
51:34probably went up there to see this in the moonlight and actually paint that from life. A very rare thing
51:39that doesn't come up all that often. Now, if this were to be sold in the mainland, you might only get
51:44maybe a few hundred dollars for it. But because it's a rare early painting of a noted eruption of
51:51Kilauea in Hawaii, I would expect this painting to get almost four or five thousand dollars.
51:55Is that right? It's amazing.
51:58Yeah, it's a great find. Wait till my mother hears this.
52:10Thanks for watching this special episode of Antiques Roadshow. Follow at Roadshow PBS
52:15and watch us anytime at pbs.org slash antiques or on the PBS app. See you next time on Antiques Roadshow.
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