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Antiques Roadshow - Season 30 (US) - Episode 04: Georgia State Railroad Museum, Hour 1
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00:04Roadshow found the sweetest treasures in the Peach State when we visited the Georgia State
00:09Railroad Museum. I've got a basketball signed by the 92 Dream Team. I see why people cry on Roadshow.
00:35The Georgia State Railroad Museum is more than a whistle stop for Antiques Roadshow today.
00:41We've set up at the former Savannah Repair Shops, where steam-powered trains once chugged in for
00:48maintenance. Completed in 1855 for the Central Railroad and Banking Company, the site was
00:55transformed into a museum over a century later, and has been managed by the Coastal Heritage Society
01:01since 1990. Check out the treasures that made our experts stop in their tracks.
01:15My mother bought it for me when I was a child in like 1951 or 52. It's probably 73 years
01:24old.
01:30This is my grandmother's copy of Gone with the Wind. She was born in 1900, and she was friends
01:36with Margaret Mitchell. They were childhood friends, grew up in Atlanta. And so when the book came out,
01:41she bought it new. I guess she asked Margaret Mitchell to sign it for her, and she did. So
01:45it's an autographed copy by the author. Let's take a look, because it's not just Margaret Mitchell in
01:50here signing. We've got Margaret Mitchell inscribing to your grandma. Yes. After about six months,
01:57she was so swamped, she refused to sign anymore, which is good for us on the collecting side of
02:03things. And then over here, we have some Hollywood greats. We have the movie stars' names, the ones who
02:10are living who went to the centennial premiere, which was in 1961. So we have the autographs of Olivia de
02:17Havilland and Vivian Lee, who won the Academy Award, and David Selznick, who also won the Academy
02:23Award as producer of the movie. They played the movie for the centennial of the beginning of the
02:28Civil War, so 1961. There are some very interesting points about this book. Points are ways that we
02:35determine the edition of a book. And for Gone with the Wind is very popular, went into second edition
02:42almost immediately. And the way we can tell is this copyright date. This one says May 1936. And that means
02:50for sure, 100% first edition. So that's important for value. There are more signatures.
02:57Yes. So on that page, it looks like my grandparents went out to a Confederate veterans home and met with
03:04some very old Confederate veterans who signed the book as kind of a representation of what the book was
03:11about. I think they thought it was important to document these people. And then here, there are
03:16signatures of people that were formerly enslaved, that were still living. I think my grandfather dated
03:23both of those two pages, like 1939, 1940. So just a couple years after the book and a year after
03:29the
03:29movie. The signatures in the back really speak to the epic nature of the story itself. And of course,
03:36the time period that it's trying to cover the fact that there are people that fought in the Civil War
03:41on the Confederate side and people that were formerly enslaved. Writing their names in here, it's just
03:47sort of a testament to what an important work this was. It was a big story for the city of
03:54Atlanta.
03:54The other thing is this photo, which is fabulous because it's got Margaret Mitchell. Which one is she
04:02in that photo? Yeah, she's in the front and the center. That's a picture when my grandmother and
04:06great-grandmother and great uncles were on a house party out in the country with Margaret Mitchell. And
04:12we think that's maybe her first husband before they were married. It's a 1920 photograph. So they were
04:1820 years old. And she's wearing pants. I read that her skirt caught fire when she was little and her
04:24mom
04:24was so afraid that she dressed her in pants and they called her Jimmy. Interesting. Which is just the cutest
04:31thing. Have you ever thought about value of a signed first edition of Gone with the Wind? We've
04:36thought about it. We were guessing $1,000 if we're happy if it's that or more. Well, all of the
04:41special
04:42features of your grandmother's copy, an auction estimate would be $20,000 to $30,000 for your little
04:50book. That's fantastic. If I would have been happy with $1,000, I'm 20 to 30 times happier. I like
04:57that.
05:02It's kind of a long story, but it was in a house and I rescued it from what it turned
05:07out a couple
05:08weeks later to be certain doom. And to be honest, for all the research I've tried to do, I really
05:14can't figure out what it is. I don't know if it's a game or if it's something for writing. I'm
05:19not really
05:19sure. The most interesting thing about it is it never happened. Since the 1976 Winter Olympics,
05:29they were supposed to be in Denver, Colorado, but the city defunded it. That's about the extent I
05:34think it was Helsinki, but that might be totally wrong. So I just kind of wanted to get a little
05:39bit more info and I thought it was pretty neat. I've got a basketball signed by the 92 Dream Team.
05:49My father-in-law immigrated to the States. He's Dutch. And he did that in the early 90s.
05:57And he's been telling me that he has a basketball signed by Michael Jordan
06:00and the Dream Team. And I never believed it. Last week, I told him that we were going to the
06:05road
06:05show because we're big fans. And here it is. It's been in his attic since then. He just said he
06:11got
06:11it as a gift from a friend when he moved here. Hey, that's a pretty good gift. Yeah. This is
06:16a
06:16basketball signed by the 1992 Dream Team from the 92 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. This ball would have
06:23been made available at the 1992 Tournament of the Americas in Portland, Oregon. It was a qualifying
06:28tournament before the Summer Olympics in Barcelona. It's a limited edition. 200 of these were made
06:34available when it comes to the Dream Team. Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Larry Bird, Clyde Drexler,
06:40David Robinson, Charles Barkley. I mean, it is, as a nerd, it's like the Avengers of basketball
06:47assembling on the court. The Dream Team, they're literally, when you talk about domination, they were
06:53straight steamrolling the competition. Average of 44-point lead for every game. In the final gold
07:00medal game versus Croatia, I remember the score of being 117 to 85. So even in the end, it was
07:07just
07:07total annihilation. They were incredible. And being in the 92 Olympics, this was the first time FIBA,
07:14International Basketball Federation, allowed for players from the NBA competing in the Olympics.
07:20When it comes to a package, this being a known addition, you really can't get any better. In terms of
07:26marketing as an auctioneer, this is a slam dunk for collectors today. Conservatively,
07:31at auction, you would easily see this ball in the $30,000 to $40,000 range.
07:40That's amazing. What a gift, right? Yeah, what a gift.
07:50The Central Railroad and Banking Company became the Central of Georgia Railway Company in 1895.
07:59The railroad was really critical to Savannah and to Georgia. It was developed in order to transport the
08:06goods from the interior of the state from farms and plantations to the port. Savannah is a port city.
08:13And so then those goods would go on a ship and be transported across the ocean or to other parts
08:18of the country. In 1963, the Central of Georgia ultimately closed the repair facility and it was
08:25left vacant for many years and these properties really fell into disrepair. And so when the property
08:31was being demolished for the very valuable Savannah gray brick and scrap metal that was here, the city of
08:39Savannah stepped in and halted demolition. And we're able to save it and we've operated this property
08:44as a museum ever since.
08:51I brought a wristwatch my dad gave me in high school that has a slide rule around the outside
08:59when I was taking trigonometry. He was a Methodist preacher and couldn't afford good things.
09:06So he gave you quite a gift?
09:08He did.
09:08He did.
09:08Have you worn it or used it since?
09:10Not so much.
09:12Okay.
09:13It's made by Juvenia, a very fine Swiss watchmaking company. They were founded in 1860.
09:19This particular model is called the Arithmo, comes from the word arithmetic.
09:24They introduced this in 1945. It's in a stainless steel case. It's a 17 joule automatic self-winding movement.
09:35This was a calculator. This company, Juvenia, they proclaimed theirs to be the best. Solid,
09:44nice construction, the rotating bezel. So you can do your calculations by moving it around.
09:52Currently, it's not moving. It's not working. It's probably gummed up, which is very common with
09:57these watches. It happens. And a cleaning and an overhauling, it'll be working just fine again.
10:03This watch today, retail, this will sell for between $7,000 to $8,000.
10:11Wow.
10:12Dollars.
10:13It's priceless to me because my dad gave it to me, but that's wonderful to know.
10:20And I made an A in three, so it helped. I guess it worked. It did its job, didn't it?
10:26It did its job.
10:28So this is what I believe might be an animation cell from Disney's masterpiece, Fantasia.
10:35I picked it up in an antique and bookstore in Philadelphia, where we're from. And it was the
10:41shabby little store, had great, wonderful treasures. I picked up so much stuff over the years.
10:45And I thought this was just a sketch. And then I took it home, open it up, and it's translucent.
10:49It's on a translucent film, which looked like a good design. So we'll see.
10:54Yeah, we're just happy to be here. We love it. Fantasia is my favorite movie.
10:58So I know this guy's churnabob from the night on Bald Mountain.
11:01So me and my mom were yard sailing one day, and we were on one side of the highway. And
11:07she saw the
11:08lamb across four lanes of traffic. And we did maybe a little bit of a dangerous U-turn. And we
11:15jumped out
11:15of the car, and the guy told us it was $5. So yeah, we took it home.
11:20So I would say that this is a sheep designed by Hans Peter Kraft. And he has an apt last
11:28name,
11:29since this is a wonderful piece of Kraft work. It was made in Germany. And it is done with this
11:36wonderful wool, boiled wool. And all of the legs are original in their ash, a wood, with his ears in
11:48leather and those glass eyes. He's so alert. It's a spirited, wonderful, fun object. Well, you can see
11:57these really in a retail setting in the $4,000 range. Oh, wow. Yeah. You might just try to get
12:04his
12:05tail attached so you don't lose his tail, because that's important. Okay.
12:08This muzzle is a little dirty, and that's good. So lovely, wonderful $5 yard sale find.
12:15Absolutely. Thank you so much. I brought in a cast iron mechanical bank.
12:21I got it in Western New York. A friend of mine, who's an antique dealer, he borrowed money from me,
12:26and we were making a business investment into a friend of his. And a few months later,
12:31his friend died, and so did the business. He's kind of felt guilty a little bit about it. So
12:35once in a while, he'll give me a few items. So what can you tell me about the bank itself?
12:39Well, it's a shooting bank. It'll shoot a penny from the rifle into the tree.
12:44First, you cock the holder back. You slip a penny on there and see how the head went down. Now
12:51you hit
12:51the toe. What did you find when you looked it up? The J.E. Stevens Creedmoor.
12:58Creedmoor Bank. Okay. How about the age of the bank? Do you have any idea?
13:02Well, the original ones came out in 1877, as I am aware. Okay.
13:06But then they made reproductions after that. Sure. The entire basis of the design of a mechanical bank
13:12was to make saving money fun for children. That way they wanted to save the money. So by introducing a
13:18movement, it created a toy, an action. Your research was spot on. The Creedmoor Bank was made by a
13:24Connecticut company, J.E. Stevens. And we see it quite often. It's a fairly common bank,
13:29a very popular bank. 1877, 1880, that's the time frame we see that bank and associate with that bank.
13:36However, there are slight differences between this bank and the Creedmoor Bank we normally see.
13:40They did make a few variations of this style shooting bank, with the figure wearing a different hat,
13:45and then right here on the front is a base plate. That's often where we'll see Creedmoor Bank,
13:52the new Creedmoor Bank. Volunteer is another name. I'm happy that yours is blank. And even though your
14:00paint is very thick, a bit drab in color, I believe the paint to be completely original.
14:06Oh, nice.
14:06The casting is also a little crude, a little more crude than I'd expect from
14:10the American cast iron manufacturers. This one instead is a cast iron mechanical bank,
14:15but made in Europe, either in Germany or in Austria. This bank was a few years later, circa 1890.
14:23This is actually much, much rarer than a Creedmoor Bank by J.E. Stevens.
14:27Oh, wow.
14:27Yes, much better, much better example here. I'll turn it around so we can see the back side of the
14:32bank as
14:32well. Another characteristic which is different is the color of his uniform itself. It's almost in
14:38a reverse painted colors. We have a red robe and he has white pants. Normally, we'll see a gray,
14:44red, and blue, but in a different configuration than that which he's wearing. Now, this bank is quite
14:49dirty. I do believe it will clean up very nicely with a little time and energy. But you have to
14:57be
14:57careful when you're doing it. You don't want to disrupt the original paint. Now, a normal J.E. Stevens
15:01Creedmoor, there are thousands of them out there. Of course, condition is king, but you can pick up a
15:07Creedmoor Bank around $300 to $500 range. When it comes to the variations, they're much scarcer and
15:14hard to come by. The paint on this example is quite chipped and worn. However, it's authentic and I would
15:21value this with an auction estimate of $1,000 to $1,500. Wow, that's good news. That's awesome.
15:27Yeah, it's cool.
15:35My husband is a retired surgeon. He had a patient who gave it to him at the end of her
15:42life. He had
15:43taken care of her for many years and it was a thank you from her to me for all the
15:50hours that he had
15:51spent with her in the hospital and making house calls. And when was that?
15:572019. She said that her husband had had it made for her. The bracelet is made by
16:04Jean Schlumberger by Tiffany and Company. It's in 18 karat gold, some full cut diamonds and cultured
16:12pearls. It is made in New York and it came in this Tiffany box that is original to the bracelet.
16:19It's stamped 18k with the maker's mark on the clasp. He was from France. He began working for
16:25Tiffany in the 1950s and created this amazing sort of latticework bracelet. His main goal was to have
16:32natural motifs and naturalistic organic designs. It was just a beautiful sort of way of approaching
16:40jewelry. The name of the bracelet is Heliodor or Gift of the Sun. It's actually articulated all in
16:48the center. These little pearls, everything sort of rocks back and forth. Right. Some rock back and
16:54forth a little faster than the others, but depending on what you're doing, whether you're sitting or
16:59dancing, they might just jiggle a little bit more. The design would have come out of approximately
17:04the late 50s, 60s. I believe the style was reinstated, but it's hard today to really ascertain the exact
17:13date as to when this particular bracelet was made. It would require a little bit more research. These are
17:18iconic bracelets. At auction, conservative value would be between $20,000 and $30,000. Wow. And people
17:26covet his jewelry designs. Wow. So it's quite a collectible piece. It is beautiful. Thank you so much.
17:33A roundhouse is a building where locomotives are maintained and repaired. The turntable behind me
17:41is essentially the heart of a roundhouse. Without a functioning turntable, you can't get the locomotives
17:46in and out of the roundhouse. So why a roundhouse? It's the most efficient way to house and repair and
17:53maintain a large fleet of steam locomotives. So this turntable had to be expanded twice in its history.
18:01The original turntable is only 50 feet long. It was also manually operated. What that meant was the
18:07steam locomotive had to be centered on the table and perfectly balanced. Each end of the turntable
18:12had a handle that stuck out, and you would have a couple of men on each end that would push
18:17on that
18:17handle. They could actually turn the locomotive manually. Later, the turntable was steam-powered,
18:24air-powered, and now it's electrically powered.
18:34That's a pickle jar that originated in Dahlonega, Georgia. At one point, it was used to serve the Yankee
18:40soldiers' pickles at the end of the Civil War. When it was over, soldiers left, and my great-great-grandmother
18:47wound up marrying one of them and took off with him. Oh, my goodness. How was the family feeling about
18:54that?
18:55I'm sure it all worked out for the best, because here I am.
18:58And, uh... So how do you know that the Union Army ate pickles out of this?
19:04There was a document in there that was written by my great-great-grandmother. She detailed what took place at
19:11the
19:11Mint City, as it was known as Dahlonega. The first thing I look at when I look at a piece
19:17of glass like this,
19:19I look at the coloration and what it is, but I also look all around all four sides to make
19:27sure that
19:28there's not any broken places in it. But, you know, the kicker on this is to look up under the
19:35bottom
19:37and see if it has wear. Yeah, there is some. Look right there. You see all that wear? Right.
19:45This bottle was molded, and it was made in a factory. There's no way to know for sure which
19:52factory made it, but I'm 99% sure that it's an American bottle. This is the size bottle that would
19:58have sat on the countertop in a country store in the 1860s or 70s. Right. If you look at the
20:04pattern,
20:04it's called Cathedral, but it goes right along with the Gothic style of decorative arts that was
20:12real popular in America and England in the 1840s and the 1850s. And the color is called Light Aqua.
20:20But the thing that really makes this neat is that story. So if we went out of here today, we
20:27could
20:27probably find one of these bottles for sale retail for three or four hundred dollars. But I think with that
20:33story, to somebody who values that history, it's probably more like a thousand dollar bottle.
20:40I would have thought if I walked into an antique store, it would be 40 or 50.
20:45And that would have been my thought. Well, we can add a zero at least.
20:48Well, that's good news.
20:58It is an enamel by Alexander Fisher that was purchased by my husband's grandfather in 1926.
21:09You brought this wonderful enamel plaque set in its original architectural bronze frame.
21:17He did sign the plaque and dated it 1901. He is an Englishman born in 1864. He died in 1936.
21:31And he was a master of the enameling technique. Fisher won a scholarship to attend the National Art
21:40Training School in London, where he studied in the mid-1880s. And part of that then became
21:46a traveling scholarship to go on and study enameling in France and Italy. But I think it was with the
21:52French masters that he really developed the techniques that he brought back to both create
21:57works with and to teach others about. After his studies in the mid-1880s, he came back to London and
22:04established his own studio where he both created enamel and taught enameling. This form of enameling
22:11is painted enamel. And the depiction comes from the verse from Genesis. Under it,
22:18the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair. It's a magnificent, magnificent example of
22:25his work. And you have this letter from Fisher, dated 1926, in which he writes how special this work is.
22:35P.S. I am so glad the enamel is a pleasure to you. It was a great effort as a
22:42piece of enamel.
22:42P.S. There's nothing like it in the world. While we know there are other Fisher enamels out there,
22:49that says something that he said that a hundred years ago. Despite the very minor condition issues,
22:55it's a magnificent item. This truly is a museum-quality work of art. Do you have an idea
23:01of what it cost originally? P.S. We don't have a receipt, but we were told he paid $8,000
23:08for it.
23:08P.S. And in about what year? P.S. 1926, when the letter was written.
23:12P.S. Well, that would have been a lot of money back then, but that's appropriate because,
23:17again, at the time, he was an important creator of these things. This should be insured for
23:22$100,000. P.S. Woo. That's quite a bit. Yeah. Wow. I guess better up the insurance a little bit.
23:35Wow. P.S. Well, this is a letter, uh,
23:39written to my wife's foster uncle in 1957 when Kennedy did the commencement speech at the
23:47University of Georgia. He didn't get to talk to him when he came there,
23:50but he wrote him a letter and said he was sorry he missed him, and they discussed what they did
23:55in World
23:56War II. Well, uh, I do a lot of thrifting and estate sales, and I just, this is from a
24:08home in
24:09Williamsburg, Virginia. Uh, an old lady, her mom, it was her mom's, and she, her mom passed, and that's
24:17pretty much all I really know about it is that it was her mom's. It was probably about $80.
24:26Christmas of 1978, my mother and dad decided that instead of giving us a bunch of stuff that
24:33wouldn't last, they would give us some art. And so these four squares are a sculpture from Carl Andre.
24:42And of course, when they gave them to me, I had no idea who Carl Andre was.
24:48I took them back to college with me. I took them to graduate school after that. When I tried to
24:52explain
24:52it to, to my fraternity brothers or friends, they said it looked like drink coasters to me. And they
24:59have been used as, as drink coasters. Came back, moved back to Savannah, got married, had four children,
25:05and I sort of forgot about it. And then last year, I read in the New York Times that he,
25:10that he died.
25:11And so I remembered that I had them. So they are by Carl Andre. He was the leading minimalist artist.
25:17Right. And we're showing him this way, but let's show the way it's really supposed to look.
25:23I have the receipt, but I don't have it with me. The picture with the receipt has a picture of
25:29it
25:29arranged like that. So I've assumed that that's the way it was meant to be. His work is meant to
25:34be flat
25:35on the ground. Right. But the larger works can be 10, 15 feet square. He felt that people should
25:41be able to walk on them. Wow. This minimalist movement, it was a reaction against abstract
25:47expressionism. And the idea was to reduce art to the most simple basic forms. He was very prominent.
25:54He had exhibitions in major museums, the Guggenheim, the Tate. He's quite controversial in his personal
25:59life. I read a little bit about that in the, in the, in the, in the Times. Right.
26:03Right. Carl's wife was Ana Mandieta, and she was a very prominent Cuban artist. She was well known
26:10for her Earthbody series. His wife died and he was tried for secondary murder. And he was acquitted.
26:19But many, many people in the art world felt that he was guilty. And as a result, every time he
26:27showed
26:27after that, this was the 1980s, there'd be huge protests saying that he really was guilty. He went
26:34off to Europe, he stopped showing, and his career was really in decline. Do you know who your father
26:42bought it from? After I got more interested in it, I found out that the art director had introduced him
26:48to a friend of his, Angela Westwater in, in New York. And she was a very prominent art dealer at
26:54that time.
26:55Right. So it has that really great provenance. And I understand you have some, you have all the
27:00materials. We, we do. And, and I can't remember how much he might have paid for them. If I had
27:06to
27:06guess, I'd probably say maybe two or $3,000. His work is very desirable, very, very collectible.
27:13I think an insurance valuation would be in the $10,000 range.
27:17Probably shouldn't use them as drink coasters anymore. Unless it's a really fine wine.
27:27This, I actually ended up finding at a rag house. And it had a piece of paper in the pocket.
27:33And it
27:33has a stamp here from Marseille. And I ended up looking everything up, amazingly found a lot of
27:39information. It was made for the archers in a parade for a town in France's tricentennial. And I
27:46actually found a video of the guys marching in it. So I have a great story. It's beautiful. And it
27:51fits
27:51me like a glove, so. She wears it around the house. I do wear it around the house.
27:59This is an Andy Warhol collection of prints. My grandmother met Andy at an, one of his exhibits
28:09in Sacramento, California, and had him sign the front of this collection for my mother, Catherine.
28:16And that's about all I know. I'm nervous.
28:23So Andy Warhol is one of the most desirable American artists, not just for the 20th century,
28:29I think overall. This is one of the most iconic groups that Andy Warhol put together later in his
28:35career. It's called Andy Warhol Myths. So in this case, it is really terrific that he signed the cover
28:45of this group, as well as the image of Howdy Doody. What I thought the most striking image, actually,
28:53is that Andy Warhol included himself in the group of portraits. You get the shadow on the wall and him
29:01sort of looking into the picture. These are essentially postcards. And the group was an
29:09advertisement for large poster-sized lithographs that numbered and signed. This was done in 1981.
29:17And then, unfortunately, he passed away in 1987. It was a collaboration between Warhol and his
29:25galleries, the gallerist Feldman, who was the publisher of the guards, as well as the lithographs.
29:32Have you ever had them appraised? No. They've been sitting in storage
29:37in my mother's house. And I've only heard about them. This is like the longest I've spent time with
29:45them and seeing them and looking at them. Uh-huh. At auction, I would place an estimate of about
29:52$2,000 to $3,000 on this group of guards. Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you for bringing me this.
29:58Oh, yes.
30:04I brought in a brooch that could also be worn on a pendant. I've had it for approximately four years,
30:13and it was given to me by my former fiancé. He passed away about two years ago. It belonged to
30:22his mother. Now, he was 95 when he passed away. And so you can imagine how long this has been
30:32with her. So I was thrilled to have it. When the jewelry moves, when you're walking,
30:38when you're dancing. Oh, yes. It's scintillating and catching the light. I love the use
30:44of the baguettes, kind of ribbon-like. And then you have marquees, cut stones. You have pair-shaped
30:51stones. And it's all set in platinum. Most people who come in to see me in my regular everyday life,
30:59and they have this brooch or something like this, they always come in and they tell me I have a
31:04piece
31:04of Van Cleef and R. Pell's jewelry. And if you turn around and you look at the back, it looks
31:12like it
31:13says Van Cleef. It's signed Van Cleef. This is his full name. George Bud Van Cleef. He was a jeweler
31:23from the same state that I come from, New Jersey. He was born in Union City in the early 1920s.
31:31He had an office in New York in a manufacturing facility, 609 Fifth Avenue. And he was in the business
31:40for 50 years. Oh, that's a long time. And he made a lot of fabulous jewelry like this. I bet
31:45you. I
31:46think this was probably made in the early 1960s. You can find comparable things like this for sale.
31:54And they're around $40,000 to replace this today. It's a beautiful price. Yeah. I mean, look,
32:01if it was at auction. Yeah. I would probably put it in for $12,000 to $18,000. I see.
32:09If it was Van
32:10Cleef. Oh, I know. It'd probably be $60,000 to $80,000 for an auction estimate. Retail would be $100
32:17,000
32:18and over. It's not. It's not, but it's still fabulous. It is. It looks very Hollywood.
32:25Okay. What we have here is a 1964 Crucinelli 702V. It was made by the Crucinelli company in Italy.
32:33And they were most famous for actually making accordions. And it's pretty comparable in appointments
32:38to Gibson of the period, though it was much cheaper at the time. And it sounds like a million bucks.
32:50They said that this guy was like, they didn't know how somebody could taxidermy this toad.
33:01This guy might be worth at least $100, which is blowing my mind. But when I got him at the
33:07store,
33:07he was either 24 or $20. In 2021, my father-in-law passed away and my husband inherited this artwork.
33:30The artist is Alexis Jean Fournier. And as we went through a collection of things of my in-laws,
33:36we also saw some other pieces that had his name, his picture. And so it really had me interested
33:43in digging. And so I did an ancestry dive. And come to find out, the artist Alexis Jean Fournier
33:50was married to my husband's great aunt, Emma Frick, was his first wife.
33:55This is a wonderful oil painting. It's by Alexis Jean Fournier, as you know.
34:00He was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. On July 4th, 1865, he trained first in Minneapolis. And then,
34:08as so many 19th century American artists did, he went to Paris to train. And he went first to the
34:14Académie Julienne. He then traveled around Paris and northern France. And he was especially interested
34:21in the Barbizon painters. And over the 1890s and the 1901s, he did a whole series of paintings. He called
34:30the series the home and haunts of the Barbizon masters. And given the architecture and the style,
34:37we know that it's clearly something that would have been painted in France, probably would have been
34:41painted in the 1901s as part of that series. What makes it special is its light. That light is just
34:48beautiful. But it's a light that's more very late 19th century or in early 20th century. And so that's
34:55part of the key to knowing about when it would be dated. It's had a troubled past. It's had some
35:01condition issues. And you know what? When you're 100 years old, you end up with condition issues.
35:06But if you look closely, you can see there's a fair amount of retouch. If we look up here,
35:11you can see sort of some discolored areas. It's especially obvious here. If we look along the edge,
35:16you can see where it's been retouched. The other thing that's going on, especially with the sky,
35:21is the painting is starting to cup. So instead of lying flat on the canvas,
35:25the edges are just starting to cup up. Right now, it's pretty stable. But at some point,
35:31you will probably lose more paint. Condition affects value. Other than condition,
35:35the thing we tend to harp on is provenance. This was in the artist's family. You can't get better
35:43provenance than that. In its current condition, if it were to be brought up at auction, we'd estimate
35:48it at $20,000 to $30,000. Okay. I would recommend conservation. When everything is properly laid
35:57back down and consolidated, you're probably looking more like $35,000 to $55,000 for an auction estimate.
36:03Okay. Wow. Another integral part of the operation of the repair shops was this 125-foot-tall smokestack.
36:21The smokestack exhausted the smoke and hot gases from the forges in the blacksmith shop,
36:28and also the boiler and the boiler and engine house. It did this through Bernoulli's principle,
36:35which is a movement of air from high pressure to low pressure. So those fires in the forges and in
36:41the boiler create a high pressure system. And at the top of the stack, there's a low pressure system.
36:47The air is cooler, the breeze is blowing, and it sucked that smoke off of those fires and exhausted it
36:53up into the air to keep that out of the shop complex so it was a little bit more comfortable
36:58for people to work here. This was the height of technology in the 1850s when this facility was built.
37:08I brought a belt that I acquired in the 1980s. I really wanted to know more about the belt.
37:15Okay. Where did you buy it? I bought it in a pawn shop.
37:19Really? Yes, I did. And where was that? In Atlanta.
37:22Oh, wow. And what drew you to it?
37:24It reminds me of items that I collect from North Africa.
37:28Well, it is in fact Ottoman. So that means it's from Turkey, and more specifically,
37:34the Caucasus region. It's silver, silver gilt, also niello worked, which are these beautiful oval
37:41panels here picked out in black. It's also got filigree on it. And each one of these panels is cast
37:48and made
37:48individually and then work together with a pin along each one. So it creates a belt shape.
37:54And niello work is characteristic of pieces from this region and from this time. So each one of these
37:59has a slightly different decorative element to it. You have a little foliate motif in a sort of star shape.
38:06You also, interestingly, have a stylized tugra mark on several of them. And that is the symbol for the
38:13Ottoman sultan who lived in Istanbul. And it is marked behind the buckle in Arabic or script.
38:20How much did you pay for it when you bought it? Well, when I bought it, I bought it for
38:24the weight
38:24of silver. So I paid less than $100 for it. Interesting. Okay. But I think this is worth
38:31much more than the silver content. I think a retail price for this today should comfortably sit within
38:38$1,000 to $1,500. Very good. Thank you. Thank you very much.
38:50I played it when I was in my 20s. I bought it in Miami. It has a repair sticker inside
39:01from a Miami
39:03a violin maker, but an even older one dated 1899.
39:17This is a gramophone. We picked it up maybe 25 years ago in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Okay.
39:25We had just completed a week-long hiking tour of the Slovenian Alps. Wow.
39:31And it was Sunday morning. And they had like a flea market set up with booths and tables along the
39:39river. And this was all polished and shined up and caught the sun and it caught my husband's eye.
39:45And it was going to go home with us. Okay. We think we paid around $100 for it, but we're
39:52not sure.
39:53Right. And we know that we made the vendor's day because within 10 minutes,
39:57he had folded up shop and went home. And I have to settle a bet between you and your husband?
40:03My husband has always been convinced that it's got to be authentic because it came from Europe.
40:08Right.
40:09Uh, I know that there are all kinds of knockoffs that look exactly like this that are worth about
40:14$100 a piece. So you can settle that for us. Well, I'll try to do my best. So I remember
40:21when I first
40:21did the first season of Roadshow, these gramophones would come in and they were always a big hit. Now,
40:27the markets have changed since then. And there are also real ones and later productions.
40:32Uh-huh.
40:33I think you're both right. I want to settle this.
40:35Oh, you're a diplomat.
40:36I did not want to offend anyone, but there's a couple of things that I want to point out.
40:42First of all, this label in green, that is a later reproduction of the piece. I would date this in
40:50and around the 1940s. The other part of it is the back mounting that's holding up the whole horn
40:57is either replaced or a later production. You also have this dog. And tell me the story about this.
41:05That dog I found at an outlet store in Savannah. This is Sparky. He should have his head cocked
41:14and the sound of my master's voice. The mold maker thought that the dog was defective because
41:22his head was cocked. So he changed the mold and made all of them with her. So I have a
41:27Sparky with
41:28his head on straight and he's probably not worth very much because of that. Well, his name is actually
41:33Nipper, not Sparky. So it was Nipper. And even on the record, you can actually see that he is there
41:41with his head cocked. Right. And that's Nipper. Also, he has the black spot around his eye,
41:47which he shouldn't because that Nipper never had that. And also the way that this is painted,
41:53you can see that there's the paintbrush. They painted outside of the lines. So this is the
41:58knockoff Nipper. So this is the knockoff. This is a later production. However, with everything together
42:05with the gramophone and the reproduction Nipper, I would put an auction estimate in the 800 to 1200
42:11price range. Really? Yes. Okay. So am I right or is my husband?
42:18That is the question. I think you're both right. Okay.
42:28This painting was bought in Sumner, Georgia. It had an antique shop. My son bought it for 37 bucks.
42:36I don't know anything else about it other than that.
42:45We inherited it from my grandmother. And we have a picture of it from the early 1890s
42:55in the home that it was living in at the time in Wisconsin. It's so nice to have a picture
43:01of a
43:02clock in its original setting. It really places it time-wise. My aunt and uncle told me that
43:09that it had been in the family since the 1800s. Do you know about its origin at all?
43:15I do not. Okay. Do you know who made it? No, never had it appraised at all. Okay.
43:21This is a figural clock and it was made by the Ansonia Clock Company in New York. And it really
43:28was made to sort of be less expensive than a French clock, but it's still a beautiful thing. It's one
43:34of
43:34these clocks that's worth fixing because it'll be a good timekeeper for years to come. So it's worth
43:39putting money into the movement and having it restored. I can see that the movement is a little
43:44bit grungy or dirty. It hasn't been attended to in a long time.
43:48So it might be time to get that done. A clock like this in a retail situation would probably be
43:54priced anywhere from, oh, $550 to $850. And you got to know that the market's down right now. It used
44:02to be more valuable and I'm sure it will come back. But right now these figural clocks are a harder
44:07sell to younger generations.
44:09So they actually found it at a thrift store. I think it may be attributed to the artist Frank
44:16Stella. And how much did you pay for it? $3.99. So what you have here is a color screen
44:23print
44:24with pencil marks by Frank Stella, a great post-war abstract artist. You recognize it right away,
44:31a very modern mid-century look. And Frank Stella was a pioneer of abstraction in the 1960s.
44:38He was one of the first artists to do non-objective painting. And this is a print version of some
44:47of the paintings he did. It's a 1967 screen print called 14 de las Flores. And it comes from a
44:55portfolio called 10. It included 10 works by 10 different artists, works by Roy Lichtenstein and
45:02Robert Rauschenberg, really at the time the cutting edge artists. Published by the Leo Castelli
45:07Gallery in New York and it was published to honor their 10th anniversary. It was printed in an
45:14edition of 200. It's initialed and dated and numbered in the lower right in brown ink and has the embossed
45:22mark of the printer lower left. The colors are really strong. It's got a great color. It has pop
45:28and it's on this great graph paper. So this is a color screen print, which is a print made through
45:36screens, individually printing each color. And they're separated by fine lines that were done
45:42by pencil. Someone would have done that by hand. It's well documented as a screen print of Frank Stella.
45:48It's in many museum collections, including the Museum of One Rock. Frank Stella rose to prominence
45:55in the late 60s in New York. And this is also from 67. So this is an early work by
46:01him. So it's really
46:02a great example. This is a Kulik frame. It's a classic mid-century design frame that was actually
46:09pioneered at MoMA. Kulik was a frame maker. He was also a painter, but he was a frame maker who
46:16pioneered this. This frame was cutting edge in the 60s and quickly adapted by many contemporary
46:22artists and galleries. Do you have any sense of the value? Somebody had mentioned like two to five
46:28thousand dollars for Frank Stella. So if it's more than what I paid for it, then I'm happy. Well, I
46:36think
46:36it's in good condition. We see that for the bright colors. There's a little dust inside the frame.
46:40It's dirty. But I'm glad you didn't touch it. I would estimate it at auction at five to seven
46:45thousand dollars. Nice. That is wonderful. I'm thrilled.
46:57Got it at an estate sale a few years ago. I don't think more than five bucks.
47:02I have no information about this thing other than it's pretty and I like it.
47:15We inherited it from my mother and it was by far the most expensive piece of art she purchased. I
47:31got nothing especially for her. She liked having women artists in her house, their artwork anyhow. And
47:40this we knew was a woman from Chile and it's something that always got a lot of attention.
47:46And who is the artist? Olga de Amaral. Yes, so Olga de Amaral is a quite well-known fiber artist
47:56and actually from
47:57Colombia, not Chile. Oh really? And is still living and actively working. She is 93 years old,
48:03still has her Bogota workshop. This work is signed on the reverse, so we do have a date, May 1992.
48:10It comes from her series called Lost Images or Imagen Perdida. That was a series of about 17 works,
48:19at least that many are known and some are in museum collections. Really? And it was a traveling
48:25exhibition at the time that went to several venues throughout the U.S., including the Allrich Gallery
48:32in San Francisco where your mother had acquired this. And where was this piece displayed? In her bedroom,
48:38actually. And she spent the last years of her life in bed, so it was significant. It was an important
48:45piece
48:46for her. When this came in, I kind of couldn't believe what I was looking at. I did not think
48:53I
48:54would get this close to a work by damn at all. Get out of here. Thank you. This is really
49:00exciting.
49:01Really? And what do you think this this material is? Well, it looks like leather, but I'm sure it isn't.
49:08So exactly. It's not leather. It definitely has that look to it. It's cut strips of linen that she
49:15has gessoed, painted, and then gilded. And before the last gilding, she's also pulled out threads in a
49:24in a weaving process called drawn work. And so she's cut and drawn these threads out to create little
49:30breaks in between each square of gold. Now, going back to what your mother paid, remind me again?
49:38$16,200. Okay. So about $35,000 today. That's not nothing. That's a decent price.
49:48Taking into consideration that it does need some conservation, I'm going to be very conservative.
49:54Conservative. In this condition, untouched, I would say easily, comfortably,
50:01an estimate at auction of $150,000 to $250,000. Yikes. All right.
50:12It's worth doing the work on it. Definitely. I think you wouldn't need to spend more than
50:18a few thousand to get it really in tip top shape. Would that change the value?
50:23Oh, yeah. Again, I'm going to say conservatively, I'd add another $100,000 to that. $250,000 to $350,000.
50:31I see why people cry on Roadshow.
50:37I would insure it for $500,000, because her works have gone for well above that number
50:44at auction in recent times. They're very sought after. Thank you. Thank you very much.
50:53And now, it's time for the Roadshow Feedback Booth.
50:57And this is my grandfather's watch. It's about 100 years old. And it's just a family heirloom.
51:05And it wasn't worth much, but it's worth the world to me.
51:09This Charles Lindbergh chair is one of a kind and heavy to carry, but this ring is worth more than
51:15it.
51:16It's $2,000, and it was a lot lighter.
51:18The item we thought was going to be a million-dollar winner for us was about $150. But since I
51:26paid a
51:27dollar, that's fine. This was a wonderful 50th anniversary trip. We appreciate it.
51:33Yes, and I bought this ring watch. It's worth a couple hundred dollars and found out this was a
51:38reproduction. And I bought this cup, and they told me it's only worth about $12. So,
51:44we had a great time. Yes. This is my antique rattan hat. And I asked how to keep it clean,
51:51and they said, it don't matter, because it's only worth $50.
51:55Womp womp. I brought this clock that belonged to my grandfather, and it's worth about $100.
52:03And I brought Tom. He's priceless.
52:07We've wanted to come to the Antiques Roadshow for a long time,
52:11and we brought these timepieces, and we had the time of our lives. Thank you, Antiques Roadshow.
52:18Thanks for watching. See you next time on Antiques Roadshow.
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