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Antiques Roadshow - Season 30 (US) - Episode 10: Castle Farms, Hour 1
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00:04Antiques Roadshow is storming Castle Farms in a friendly way as we visit Charlevoix, Michigan.
00:11I received that from a dear friend. Her husband had passed.
00:14Was her husband's name Ed by any chance?
00:16It was. It was.
00:35Over the decades, Castle Farms has served as a venue of different purposes to different people.
00:41The former farm complex, located near the shores of Lake Charlevoix, started as part of a summer residence when it
00:49was built in 1918.
00:51Since then, it's been a dairy farm, an artist's haven, a rockin' concert venue, a popular wedding destination, and today,
01:00the regal backdrop for Antiques Roadshow.
01:03What treasures coming in today will be treated like royalty? Take a look.
01:09Good. Have fun. Go through the White Arch.
01:14So, tell me about your chair.
01:16It was left in the cottage that my parents bought, like, 65 years ago.
01:21Okay. It's really cool. First of all, it's the lion head. It's very decorative. It's also made out of quarter
01:28sawn oak.
01:28I think the green eyes are unbelievable. It's worth probably $300, $400, somewhere in there, anything, give or take.
01:35Okay.
01:38Well, I have an Evelyn Ackerman mosaic that I picked up a few years ago in an antique mall locally.
01:45I paid $100 for it.
01:47Well, I love that this is turned up in Michigan because this has a Michigan origin story.
01:53Does it?
01:53Both Jerome and Evelyn Ackerman were born in Detroit in the 1920s.
01:59Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman were really influential mid-20th century modern artists, and they both studied here in Michigan.
02:08What you have here is one of their glass mosaics that Evelyn started designing in 1955.
02:17Originally, Evelyn did the design and production of these herself, but the orders were coming fast and furious, and it
02:25was just too much for them to keep up with.
02:28So, eventually, they handed off the manufacturer of these to a family of artisans in Mexico City.
02:35Okay.
02:36And that's where this was made.
02:37Okay.
02:38We looked at the original order form from 1958.
02:42So, we know the title of this work is Birds in Cage.
02:47Page.
02:48And at the time that this particular mosaic was produced, it was sold for $70 retail or $35 to the
02:57trade.
02:58Okay.
02:58And a lot of what the Ackermans did was selling to the trade.
03:01They sold to interior designers, they sold to architects, and they sold to department stores.
03:08And they're composed of Venetian glass tesserae, pieces that are arranged in this way so that you could create these
03:16types of patterns.
03:17And what Evelyn did is she designed these in, like, a small cartoon sketch, and then she blew them up
03:23to full size,
03:24and she would ship over to Mexico City the original drawing, as well as a color key code, how she
03:31wanted the birds to look,
03:32what was the color of the cage and the background, and they were issued in a few different sort of
03:37color ways.
03:38And they're always on this Masonite backing.
03:40Okay.
03:41Which was great to see.
03:41This is its original wood frame, exactly as it was produced.
03:46The Ackermans' work has been receiving a lot of attention, particularly in the last 10 to 15 years.
03:53Yeah.
03:54In 2005, this panel came up to auction with another panel, a companion piece, you might call it, that also
04:02had birds in it.
04:03Okay.
04:04And in 2005, those two panels sold at auction for $650.
04:11So, about $325 each.
04:14Yeah.
04:14In today's market, if this panel were to come to auction, we would conservatively estimate it between $4,000 and
04:22$6,000.
04:23Oh, my.
04:26I see a lot of their pieces online, and I kind of keep an eye out for their work.
04:33I mean, it doesn't turn up a whole lot.
04:35This is actually a coin bank.
04:37We thought that a cork belonged in here, but it actually is a lid where you can put coins and
04:41save up.
04:42There's ball, anchor hockey, turner glass, all kinds of things.
04:45So, it was really cool to learn about.
04:51These belong to my husband's grandmother and then his parents.
04:56And when they sold their home, we were divvying up stuff, and we were lucky enough to get...
05:02This is one of a pair of andirons and fireplace tools.
05:07She made up a lot of stories, so we are not quite sure where they're from.
05:13I love golf.
05:15I've played since I was a kid.
05:18This locket was given to the architect of the Eisenhower cabin at Augusta National.
05:24The picture was given by Dwight Eisenhower to all the individuals that donated money for the construction of the cabin.
05:34I bought the locket on an online auction in 2014, and I believe it was a little over $2,000.
05:42The picture, I really do not remember.
05:45I don't know where I bought it or, honestly, what I paid for it.
05:48This locket, for golf fans, they'll instantly recognize the map and flag logo.
05:55Augusta National Golf Club was founded in 1931 by the Grand Slam winning golfer of 1930, Bobby Jones, and his
06:03partner, Clifford Roberts.
06:05Now, let's fast forward to 1952.
06:08That year, they decided to create and give out lockets in the form of the map and flag logo to
06:15the winners.
06:16And it's almost the certificate of membership into the Masters Club.
06:20You get one when you win the first time.
06:23This is a locket that was designed after the lockets that were given out to the Masters winners.
06:29Dwight D. Eisenhower started playing golf in the 1920s.
06:33He became infatuated with it.
06:35It was one of his favorite hobbies.
06:36In 1948, he was brought down to Augusta by one of their members, Bill Robinson.
06:42Love the club became a member.
06:43He becomes President Eisenhower in 1952.
06:47They realize that they have to build a special cabin for him so he can have privacy when he goes
06:55back to Augusta National Golf Club every year.
06:57They hired H. Lowry Stull.
07:00And his firm, Stull and Ebe, had six months to build this cabin.
07:06Now, it's not a cabin as we can see here.
07:07It's a three-story, seven-room structure.
07:10Really nice house.
07:11And they built a basement for the Secret Service.
07:14Okay.
07:15So, because they finished on time and in such a great manner, Bobby Jones, Clifford Roberts, and the Eisenhowers wanted
07:24to gift something special to Stull, the architect, and to the interior designer, Edith Hill.
07:31Okay.
07:31What could be more special than this locket?
07:34Sure.
07:34So, they went to this jeweler, October of 53, and had lockets made for both of them.
07:41Okay.
07:41So, you see the map and flag logo, and then you open it up, and look, there is the cabin,
07:46and there are the engraved signatures of Mamie and Ike.
07:53And then you open this, and now you see the signatures of Cliff Roberts and Bobby Jones, and you see
07:59the portraits of Mamie and Ike.
08:01Now, we flip it around, how do we know that it was Mr. Stulbs?
08:06Well, there's his name engraved right there.
08:08Sure.
08:08The photo, which we did examine, we're not professional authenticators, but we believe the signatures to be authentic.
08:15So, this photo, I would put an auction estimate of $2,000 to $3,000 on it.
08:20Really?
08:21Wow.
08:22That's incredible.
08:24Now, let's get to the locket.
08:25Because it also has the box, that does add value, I would put an auction estimate of $25,000 to
08:32$30,000.
08:34God.
08:35Wow.
08:36That's crazy.
08:37I can't wait till my kids hear this.
08:41So, they think I'm nuts.
08:44So, this will, that is awesome.
08:48Wow.
08:48Okay, great.
08:55Castle Farms was originally part of a 1,500-acre estate owned by the Loeb family.
09:02Albert Loeb was the acting president of the Sears and Roebuck Company, the original and the best mail-order catalog.
09:10The inspiration for the castle came from Albert and Anna's honeymoon in France, and they based all of their architecture
09:18on French Normandy-style castles.
09:21He wanted to show how successful you could be if you used all of the farming equipment that was sold
09:27in their catalog.
09:28So, he built this as a working model dairy farm.
09:32So, Albert had 200 head of Holstein-Friesian cattle and had an award-winning cow.
09:39She set a world record.
09:41Named Marion, she produced 35,000 pounds of milk in one year and had to be milked six times a
09:48day.
09:48So, it was really great that we were the first farm in Michigan with automated milking machines.
09:56I've got a Super Nintendo Donkey Kong Country competition cartridge.
10:00It starts up in the game, like, right at the first level and just goes for, I want to say,
10:06five, ten minutes and then just shuts the game off.
10:09I'm assuming that either a friend gave it to me or I could have bought it and not known that
10:14I accidentally got the competition cartridge.
10:16I love going to flea markets, though, and I've had, like, a game reseller there offer me $1,000 for
10:21it, and that was probably around 2012, which made me realize even more so I should probably hang on to
10:26it, because it must be worth a little more than that, at least.
10:29It's a particularly rare and iconic video game.
10:32This was from the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, SNES, which is a great system.
10:37I grew up playing it.
10:37Yeah.
10:39I loved this game as a kid.
10:40So, this was made for competitions.
10:42There were two competitions.
10:44The first one was in 1994.
10:46It was Nintendo Power Fest.
10:47Oh, wow.
10:48And then in 1995, there was a blockbuster championship, and the goal of the competition was to get the highest
10:54score within five minutes.
10:56So, then, after the competition was done, some of the copies were sold through, Nintendo had a magazine, Nintendo Power,
11:03which was two subscribers.
11:05Those subscribers were offered the opportunity to buy the cartridges, because they didn't need them for the competition anymore.
11:10Okay, interesting.
11:11It's not clear how many or if all of them were sold that way.
11:14Some of the literature suggests that there were only 2,500 copies of the competition cartridge made.
11:20Oh, wow.
11:20And very few wound up getting into the market.
11:24A lot of them are in collector hands.
11:25Wow.
11:25As you can see, this cartridge has Hollywood Video stickers on it, which is interesting, and I wasn't able to
11:31find any record of the competitions being done at Hollywood Video.
11:35The 1995 competition was a blockbuster competition, a major competitor, or the major competitor of Hollywood Video.
11:42I see there's writing on it.
11:44Yeah, that's my initials.
11:45Just, at some point, my brother and I and friends trying to keep games separate, and by then, I had
11:50already had this one just inexplicably in my possession for a while, so I was like, it's mine.
11:54These sell not frequently.
11:56Okay.
11:57Conservatively, at auction, I would estimate it between $2,000 and $4,000.
12:02Oh, right on.
12:02And it could be more.
12:03One recently, a graded copy, but that didn't have the initials, the Sharpie, the label on the top, which was
12:11added, and it didn't have the slight damage to the back sticker.
12:14That sold for $5,500.
12:16Oh, wow.
12:17Jeez Louise.
12:17I would keep it as is.
12:18You could always submit it for grading, but with the writing on it, they probably would give you some kind
12:23of qualification on the grade.
12:25I gotcha.
12:25Okay, cool.
12:26Well, thank you so much.
12:48Thank you so much.
12:57It was acquired by my grandmother in maybe the 1940s or early 50s in the Southwest.
13:06She wintered in Tucson, Arizona.
13:09These are really wonderful paintings.
13:11These are coming out of New Mexico.
13:13There are eight northern pueblos.
13:15This is all along the Rio Grande Valley, so this would be right north of Santa Fe by maybe 20
13:20miles.
13:21Oh, for heaven's sakes.
13:23Yeah, it's called San Ildefonso Pueblo, and these were probably done in the, you know, late 20s, early 30s.
13:33These paintings were done by Jonita Pena, who often signed her name Kwa'a.
13:38That was her Indian given name.
13:40She was born in 1893, and she died in 1949.
13:45She's one of the earliest Native American women painters.
13:50Prior to this, people were predominantly working on pottery.
13:54They're doing textiles.
13:55And so this is sort of a new industry.
13:58These are watercolors.
13:59The condition is fantastic.
14:01This is actually a ritual dance to the pueblos, which is a basket dance.
14:05Look at the details that we have in the baskets.
14:08Look at the necklaces.
14:10There's coral, and there's shell and turquoise, but also there's great greenery.
14:14Over here in this painting, Closer to You, we've got two hunters and two attendants, singers and a drummer.
14:21And then we've got this is a deer dancer, which is part of an animal dance.
14:26But I love all of the details.
14:28And that's what she was really known for, was she was very specific.
14:33These are ceremonies that are autumnal and about harvest.
14:38They're about hunting, and they're about sustaining life within that village.
14:42And I have six more of these paintings.
14:47My husband and I chose these three to keep, and we were going to put the other, which were much
14:52smaller, in a garage sale.
14:54And my daughter said, oh, mom, don't do that.
14:59Yeah.
15:00She said, I love those.
15:01And I said, well, do you want them?
15:03And she said, yes.
15:04And so they're hers.
15:05She saved them from a garage sale.
15:07She saved them from the garage sale.
15:08Oh, I love this.
15:09Yeah, we did not think that they were maybe valuable.
15:13We just loved them.
15:14I'll start with this one closer to the basket dance.
15:17So this particular painting, if it were coming up for sale in a retail situation, would be worth about $4
15:27,500.
15:28Oh, my word.
15:29Yeah.
15:31That's a real surprise.
15:32Yeah.
15:33Yeah.
15:33Oh, my goodness.
15:34So the one closer to you, maybe just a little less, maybe around $3,800.
15:40Yeah.
15:41Yeah.
15:41This smaller one is going to be worth around $1,600.
15:45That's beautiful.
15:48That's a surprise.
15:49They may have been sold for $20.
15:52Oh.
15:52$15 at the time.
15:57This is a silk tapestry.
16:00It was given to my dad by a client of his back in the early 50s, I believe.
16:08Okay.
16:08My mother took it to an appraisal.
16:11She was told that it was probably circa $1,900 and that it was worth around $700.
16:18How long ago did you have it appraised for $700?
16:21I think it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 years or so.
16:26It went from my folks to me, but it's always just been stored either in their basement or
16:33in my basement.
16:34Country of origin.
16:35Chinese.
16:36And very, very overtly Chinese.
16:38But in terms of the date, this is where it's really interesting.
16:43If they were to identify this border, for example, 1900, not so far off, but the majority of this
16:53so-called tapestry or textile, 18th century.
16:57So this is quite, quite old.
17:00And this would date, I would say, likely the last quarter of the 18th century, 1775.
17:06It has this lovely horizontal shape, but it didn't begin its life this way.
17:12This textile that you have, very symmetrical with these seams that sort of separate four
17:18panels.
17:19This was originally a robe, a garment, mind you, that not just had these four dragons,
17:26but would have had five others, too.
17:28Five dragons are elsewhere.
17:30Who knows?
17:31Hopefully still in existence.
17:32But this is the configuration that has nine dragons in all.
17:36It would have been in the style of an imperial court robe, but it also has some Buddhist iconography
17:42on it.
17:43So this may have been a priest's robe done in the imperial style.
17:46In the 18th century, the emperors specifically were devout Buddhists.
17:52So Buddhist iconography and imperial iconography really sort of came together.
17:57It's a roiling sea with mountains that come out of it.
18:01The mountains are the earth.
18:03And then finally, this realm in which the dragons fly, this is the heavens, the celestial realm.
18:10Furthermore, though, these creatures right here, which somewhat resemble butterflies, these
18:15are actually bats.
18:17And bats only have the significance that they do here in Chinese.
18:21Why?
18:22Because the word in Chinese for bat, fu, is also the word for prosperity.
18:28Even the clouds, the shape of the clouds are reminiscent of a particular fungus called
18:34the lingji fungus, which bestows immortality.
18:37So everything in this has meaning.
18:39It's auspicious.
18:41And it is, in some respects, associated with the divine.
18:45So this is an altar frontal.
18:48So in a shrine or in a Buddhist temple, they would repurpose these robe panels to go into
18:56the front of an altar.
18:57There is a strong market right now for Chinese textiles.
19:01And this is driven by Chinese interest.
19:02I think that this particular textile would have an auction value from $4,000 to $6,000.
19:09Oh, my goodness.
19:14I'm speechless.
19:18You know, I think about it just being stored in the pole barn.
19:24Well, I'm a collector of lanterns, and I found this about 20 years ago at a stay sale.
19:32And from the limited research that I could find about it, it was, I believe, made in Ohio
19:38Brass Works in Ohio.
19:40And it was one of the very first pneumatic pump-up type lanterns.
19:44I think I only paid $20 for it back then.
19:48Um, I don't really know too much about it.
19:50I picked it up at a local Salvation Army store, and I just thought it was pretty.
19:54And I'm hoping we find out something about it today, because I have no idea about it.
19:58It was $4.
20:01So, for more, I'll be happy.
20:06Well, this is a Tiffany, maybe, right?
20:10A diver's helmet, I think.
20:12Okay.
20:13That's all I know.
20:14I bought it in 1974 from an antique friend of mine, an antique dealer.
20:21And he never told me what it was, really.
20:24He just, I bought it.
20:26It's a great nightlight.
20:27Yeah?
20:28Yeah.
20:28How much did you pay for it?
20:30Uh, about $1,100.
20:32Okay.
20:32Do you think that was a good deal?
20:34Yep.
20:34Yeah?
20:35All right.
20:35So, what would you like to know from me today?
20:38Is it really a Tiffany?
20:40The good news is, yes.
20:42It is.
20:42It is a Tiffany Studios lamp.
20:44I don't see your signature on it.
20:45Because it would have been on the base plate, and it's missing.
20:49Oh.
20:49Oh, yes.
20:51Oh, okay.
20:51So, this is actually a diver's lantern, not a diver's helmet.
20:55Oh, okay.
20:56It's had kind of a hard life, sir.
20:58It has?
20:59Yes.
21:00The handle's a little worn.
21:02You can see that some of the letting, it's not patinated.
21:07It's painted, and some of the paintings come off.
21:10Okay.
21:10And the switch is replaced.
21:13Oh, gosh.
21:14Oh, gosh.
21:15Oh, no.
21:16But it's still a Tiffany lamp.
21:17Yes, it is.
21:18Okay, good.
21:18And it's an early Tiffany lamp.
21:21And it's one that everybody's looking for.
21:24Oh, great.
21:25So, we would date this to be circa 1900 to 1910.
21:30Okay.
21:31If we had the base plate, we'd be able to narrow that down to a specific date.
21:35But it's missing, and it can't be replaced.
21:38So, that's why we've given a little bit of a range.
21:41Have you seen these before?
21:42I have seen one before.
21:44With the base plate?
21:45With the base plate.
21:48So, looking at this piece, and knowing that it's had a hard life,
21:52and knowing that there's some damage to it,
21:55and knowing that it's kind of rough.
21:57At retail today, $25,000 to $30,000.
22:03Holy Toledo.
22:05Wow.
22:07No.
22:09My ex-wife is going to know about you.
22:13Oh, my gosh.
22:14$25,000 to $30,000.
22:16Wow.
22:18I never, okay.
22:21I never thought it'd be worth that much money.
22:25Wait till I tell my buddy who I bought this from.
22:28I'll be done.
22:29Well, thank you very much.
22:30I appreciate it.
22:31I'm going to enjoy happy hour tonight.
22:33I can tell you that.
22:36In, like, 1989, I was working at a government facility in Lexington, Kentucky.
22:42They were getting ready to do a bunch of renovation.
22:45I kept seeing all these dumpsters, and I saw some stuff, lamps and things I thought was pretty nice.
22:51So I asked my boss, where is that stuff all going?
22:54He says, to the dump.
22:55I said, well, if there's anything in there that I would like, could I have it?
22:59He said, well, sure.
23:00Tomorrow it's going to the landfill.
23:01Okay.
23:02So after work, I went out and looked around a little bit.
23:05This was kind of hanging kind of precariously out of one of the dumpsters.
23:10Okay.
23:10And I picked it up and looked at it, and I said, well, this is kind of interesting.
23:13I took it home and cleaned the glass off.
23:16It had a lot of smoke and nicotine on it.
23:18So it's been hanging in our house off and on for a number of years, and we enjoy it.
23:23The building started in the early 30s as a federal reformatory for drug users.
23:30Okay.
23:31And then later on in its life, the federal prisons moved in there.
23:35Gotcha.
23:36Okay.
23:36And when I was there, it was just a minimum security, so there was no fences or anything like that.
23:40But then due to demands, they decided they were going to put fences up.
23:44And so that started the renovation, opening up walls and pushing things back.
23:51I think it's kind of sad that they didn't want this in a prison.
23:54I think this could cheer up a prison.
23:55Yeah, that's what I think the whole purpose was, I think, originally,
23:58because it is kind of a happy scene, and it could have worked very well there.
24:02Yeah, absolutely.
24:04This work is by Ethel Spears.
24:06It's signed here, lower right.
24:09You can see it's very tiny.
24:11And it is watercolor and gouache and pencil on paper.
24:17Ethel Spears was born in 1903, and she died in 1974.
24:22She initially trained at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in tapestry and textiles.
24:28As I understand it, she finished her training and then decided,
24:30no, I don't want to do that, and then moved over to paintings.
24:33And she studied with a modernist muralist, a guy named John Norton.
24:37From there, she went to Woodstock, the art colony there, a few years in New York,
24:42and then back to Chicago, actually, to the School of the Art Institute where she became a teacher.
24:47And that was in 1937.
24:49Before that, she was doing some work for the government,
24:52and I think this work would have been done right around that time, right around the mid-30s.
24:56She was an artist that worked in a lot of different mediums.
25:00Tragically, I think that ultimately led to her death.
25:02While she was at the School of the Art Institute, she started an enameling program there in 1953.
25:10And it seems pretty clear that she got lead poisoning through that work, inadequate ventilation.
25:18But there were some great things at the Art Institute as well.
25:21She met her partner, Kathleen Blackshear, who's another fairly well-known artist there at the Art Institute.
25:28This picture has sort of signature elements of Ethel's work.
25:32It's very dense. There's a lot of figures in it.
25:35They tend to all be doing fun things.
25:38And even where there's not figures, there's a real density of decoration.
25:42There's no part of it that's lazy.
25:43It looks like this is the original frame, too.
25:46At auction, I would think this would be worth in the realm of $4,000 to $6,000.
25:51Oh, interesting. Yeah.
25:54You're not kidding.
25:58Well, not bad for picking it out of a dumpster.
26:00Straight out of the dumpster.
26:05Well, my name is Linda Mueller,
26:08and I like to say that the castle owns me.
26:14Sometimes the castle will kind of hint that it needs something,
26:19and I do my best to put it in.
26:21Even when it was a wreck, it was beautiful,
26:24and I loved the stone.
26:27I'm just crazy about stone.
26:30When the former farm came up for auction in 2001,
26:34it was in rough shape,
26:35but the opportunity for Linda and her husband Richard
26:38to own the castle was too good to pass up.
26:41We all thought it was just the neatest property,
26:45but we worked with the State Historic Preservation Office
26:50to make sure that we were doing it by the book.
26:53I even had original building plans
26:57that came from the Loeb family.
27:00The big barn had been dirt and sky,
27:03and it took two years to complete that.
27:07I had planned to take 10 years to restore the property,
27:14and we got it done in five years.
27:18I brought today three dolls that belonged to my grandmother.
27:21I know they were important to her
27:23because she always kept them boxed up in her hope chest,
27:27never let my dad or his brother play with them.
27:29They didn't even bring them out to display them.
27:31We only actually just recently found them
27:34about three months ago, getting out of my dad's office.
27:36I know that they're from the Blondie comic strip,
27:39and it's Dagwood, Blondie, and Baby Dumpling.
27:43The dolls relate with the comic strip, Blondie,
27:47that came out in 1930 as Blondie,
27:50and she wasn't married at the time,
27:52and she was dating other guys,
27:55and the public didn't really just love that.
27:58So she met and married Dagwood,
28:01and of course, when you get married and love someone,
28:05Baby Dumpling will come along, right?
28:07They were made in 1935 by Knickerbocker.
28:11They're made of composition,
28:13which is a wood and glue recipe that molds really well.
28:17They're this great middle-class average family
28:22where Blondie's sort of the one that anchors the whole family.
28:25She's the one that kind of glues the other two crazy kids together.
28:30Right.
28:30They have hand-painted faces.
28:33They have molded hair,
28:34and of course, Dagwood and Baby Dumpling
28:36have to have the exaggerated ears
28:38like they did in the comic strip.
28:40These dolls were sold as a group.
28:43They've always been together since day one,
28:45so that adds extra value for that originality.
28:49All original costumes.
28:52Everything about them is glossy and nearly new-looking.
28:56So I would say that a retail value for these dolls
29:00would be somewhere between $1,500 and $2,000 for the group.
29:07Wonderful.
29:15I received that from a dear friend.
29:17Her husband had passed.
29:18No one in her family was that into music,
29:22and she gifted it to me.
29:25It went from under her bed to under my bed
29:29and really hasn't been seen a whole lot.
29:31Was her husband's name Ed by any chance?
29:33It was.
29:34It was.
29:35It was his pride and joy.
29:37He took really good care of it,
29:39as with the amplifier.
29:40What you have here is a 1968 Gibson EB2D electric bass guitar.
29:46This is the bass version of Gibson's famous
29:49semi-hollow-body guitar, the ES-335.
29:51This was actually made in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
29:54We have a 30.5-inch scale-length mahogany neck.
29:57We have thin-line construction.
29:59Two pickups, which is great
30:00because the original models only had one in the neck position.
30:04A lot of players found it kind of muddy, kind of woolly,
30:07impossible to get a bright tone out of,
30:09which is why we have the second pickup near the bridge.
30:11Gives some much-needed clarity to the instrument.
30:14This is such a cool instrument,
30:16and the fact that it has a nameplate on it really tickles me.
30:19It's in one of my favorite Gibson custom colors,
30:22known as sparkling burgundy,
30:23which you can see originally was a very deep red,
30:26but because of UV rays, sun exposure, all of that,
30:29the red dye in the finish,
30:30as well as the clear coat, have both aged.
30:33So we've got this kind of orange-copper thing going on
30:36that I love.
30:37And it doesn't hurt the value at all.
30:39Some people prefer a redder instrument.
30:41Some people prefer it to look orange or even gold
30:44when they get a lot of sunlight.
30:45Now, the amp you have here is an Ampeg B18N Portaflex.
30:49It was made in New Jersey in 1966.
30:52All tube, 18-inch speaker, and a very cool flip top
30:56where the amp lives inside the cabinet for storage
30:58until you're ready to play.
30:59You flip the top over, lock it down, plug it in,
31:02and you're ready to go.
31:03For this instrument, at retail,
31:05you're looking at between $4,000 and $6,000
31:08for this instrument in its color and condition.
31:11You also have the original case.
31:12What a great gift.
31:13Yeah.
31:14The amp at retail, we are looking at about $2,000 to $2,500.
31:19Okay.
31:21Wow.
31:22It's one of my favorite things about guitars,
31:24that they age like this.
31:25We both love copper.
31:26Yeah, yeah.
31:28We're big copper fans.
31:30These are, I think, military goggles from my grandfather.
31:34My grandfather served in World War II in the Navy.
31:36You can change the, like, brightness, dimness
31:39when you turn the knob.
31:41The elastic's a little worn out.
31:48Well, I have a Sean Connery action figure
31:51from Dr. No, with a number of accessories
31:54that I'm sure are not appropriate for children.
31:58So, this was actually from my grandmother,
32:01who is a giant James Bond fan.
32:03I know she got it as a gift from my dad,
32:04who's over in line, who's probably so jealous right now.
32:08He gave it to her as a gift, and, uh,
32:10but I'm not sure when.
32:17So, I got this from my mom,
32:19who got it from my great-grandfather.
32:21My great-grandfather was a master carpenter
32:24for Euclid Beach Park,
32:26which is a now-closed amusement park
32:29in the east side of Cleveland,
32:30and he was leaving work
32:33and found it in the trash.
32:34He decided to take it home.
32:35He had two daughters,
32:36so he thought they might like it.
32:38It's from Philadelphia Toboggan Company.
32:40They made small ones to sell,
32:43and that's what they would bring
32:44to sell the carousel.
32:46And when did he work at the amusement park?
32:47I believe 1936 or 38 to the 1940s.
32:52It was made by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company.
32:55It's a company that specialized
32:56in the production of carousels
32:59as well as roller coasters.
33:01So, with the company being founded in 1904,
33:04and your great-grandfather working at the park
33:06by the sort of late 1930s,
33:09we can obviously very safely date this
33:11to perhaps the 1920s, early 30s.
33:14They were known for their very detailed,
33:17very lifelike figures that they made.
33:19And I agree with you.
33:21This is almost certainly a salesman's model
33:24to show both the style of figures
33:28that they made for carousels,
33:29but also the quality of their work.
33:31It's constructed of carved and painted wood.
33:34It has glass eyes.
33:36I love the fact that it is,
33:38it has a complete array of very lifelike details,
33:42including the teeth and tongue in the mouth.
33:44Very nicely carved and painted.
33:47The saddle has all of the tooling marks
33:50and black there that you would see
33:51on a full-size reel saddle.
33:55And, of course, the saddle blanket being red
33:57with a yellow striping.
33:59And then the gold-painted trim at the bottom
34:01representing fringe.
34:03And I also really appreciate the fact
34:06that at the back corner of the saddle blanket,
34:09you have carved there the PTC
34:11for Philadelphia Toboggan Company.
34:14There's a little bit of very nice restoration to it.
34:18The artist captured the muscle structures,
34:21the hooves, took great care
34:23to very carefully repair the top of the ear there,
34:27and as well as the rear hoof and joint in the leg there.
34:31And I actually really personally like the fact
34:33that they didn't repaint those restored areas.
34:36It's restored to show the form
34:38and the elegance of the piece,
34:40but not trying to hide the fact
34:42that it is a restoration.
34:44Carousel horses are quite collectible.
34:47Okay.
34:48But they're very large.
34:49Something like this,
34:50being a small version of that
34:52as a salesman model,
34:54we think would likely appeal more so
34:57to collectors than a full-size horse.
35:00Because think about it,
35:01if you had a full-size carousel horse,
35:03where are you going to put it in your house?
35:04If it were to be offered in an auction setting,
35:08I would suggest an auction estimate
35:10of between $4,000 and $6,000 for it.
35:13Oh, wow.
35:14Okay.
35:14That's more than I thought.
35:15I think a very fair insurance valuation
35:18for it would be about $8,000.
35:20Okay.
35:23Well, I wasn't really expecting to come.
35:26I ended up volunteering to drive my brother over,
35:30and so as I was coming out the door,
35:33my wife said,
35:34take Charlie with you.
35:35Tell me the story behind Charlie.
35:37Well, Charlie is from my wife's childhood home,
35:40along with a number of posters
35:42that were glued to drywall at one time.
35:45This was among those.
35:46And, of course, during remodeling,
35:48we needed to save some things,
35:49and this came off the wall.
35:51How did this come to be in the house
35:52in the first place?
35:53My wife's brother traveled a lot
35:55and picked up posters when he traveled.
35:59And my other question is,
36:00how did it end up stuck on drywall?
36:02He did that to a lot of posters.
36:05He, things from Fillmore East and Fillmore West
36:08and concert posters ended up just glued to the wall.
36:12And how did you get it off the drywall?
36:15Drywall knife and careful lifting.
36:18So, yeah.
36:19It's, there is a little hole that we think
36:22is from drywall nail pop,
36:25which drywall does.
36:26Is it still mounted on the drywall?
36:28Um, no, it's on the paper,
36:30just on the paper itself.
36:33So, City Lights was a Charlie Chaplin film in 1931,
36:38and it was four years after the silent movie industry
36:41became the sound movie industry.
36:43And Charlie Chaplin stubbornly and defiantly
36:46and rather proudly decided
36:47he didn't want to do a sound movie.
36:50He wanted to keep up with the silent movie tradition
36:52that had been so kind to him
36:54and that he had dominated.
36:55And so this movie done in 1931,
36:57even though sound technology existed,
37:00was still done silently.
37:02That's a pretty extraordinary
37:03and a pretty bold step indeed.
37:06Charlie Chaplin himself was an iconic image
37:09in the film industry.
37:11He was the biggest star.
37:12My news to you on this particular
37:15beautiful sunny afternoon
37:16is that this is an original lithograph
37:19from 1931 advertising the movie
37:22when it came out in Chaplin's time.
37:24Wow.
37:26That's really amazing.
37:28The colors are beautiful.
37:30The colors are beautiful.
37:31There's something else about this condition-wise
37:33which we can't quite see because of the frame.
37:35The poster had a larger blank area
37:37at the top originally
37:39for text of the theaters it was in.
37:42And there also would have been a margin at the bottom.
37:44So, I don't know if you remember when it was framed.
37:47Yes, those are not there.
37:48So, they have been trimmed off.
37:49Yeah.
37:50So, you have a poster
37:52that is an original lithograph from 1931
37:56that has by all accounts
38:00seen better days.
38:01Yes.
38:01With posters like this,
38:03they can be restored.
38:04In this condition,
38:06were to come up for auction,
38:07it would sell for between $3,000 and $4,000.
38:10All right.
38:11All right.
38:12Wonderful.
38:13That's nice to know.
38:15In perfect condition,
38:17this most recently sold for almost $7,000.
38:23Because of Castle Farms' earliest connection
38:25to Sears and Roebuck,
38:27there's a small building dedicated to materials
38:29found in the retail giant's mail order catalogs.
38:32The focus of the collection
38:34is on items from the time
38:35when these castle-like barns were built,
38:38around 1918.
38:40If there was anything you wanted
38:42from tools to food,
38:46houses, you could buy a house,
38:48you could buy a barn,
38:49you just looked in the Sears catalog
38:52and they would send it to you.
38:55One smaller example,
38:57this gong bell toy.
38:59A bear in a blue sweater
39:01standing atop a wheeled platform.
39:04When the toy moved,
39:05the bear hit the silver bell.
39:07The price for this entertaining piece?
39:10Just 50 cents.
39:13In 1967,
39:15we were on a family trip,
39:16my parents, my sister, and my brother.
39:18And it was to Washington, D.C. primarily.
39:21But then we did a little side trip to Monticello.
39:25And back then,
39:26it had an antique slash thrift shop.
39:30And my mother fell in love with this vase.
39:33And so my father bought it for her.
39:37And been a treasure.
39:39It's been in a china cabinet
39:40in my dining room in my home,
39:42the top shelf center.
39:44So I see it every day.
39:45When we bought the vase,
39:47and the tag is still on the bottom,
39:49it was $40 in 1967.
39:51The mark on the bottom,
39:54you can see the initials KPM.
39:56Right.
39:57KPM stands for
39:59the King's Porcelain Manufacturing.
40:01I'm translating from German.
40:02Okay.
40:03In Berlin.
40:03Then the Orban cross above that.
40:06And further on is the scepter,
40:09which is another typical KPM mark.
40:11Okay.
40:11The other labels are from
40:13the gift shop at Monticello.
40:15So KPM is known for a few things.
40:19Beautiful portraits,
40:20plaques of mythological figures,
40:24biblical figures,
40:25beautiful women with long flowing hair.
40:26Okay.
40:27They also made vases.
40:28Okay.
40:29They were kind of over the top.
40:30Very Victorian kind of stuff.
40:32Okay.
40:32So then something unusual happens
40:34at KPM in 1908
40:37when a young man named
40:38Theo Schmus Bottas
40:40became the artistic director.
40:42Okay.
40:42And I think Theo said,
40:44hey, we've been doing
40:45kind of Victorian stuff for years.
40:47Look at what they're doing
40:49at Royal Copenhagen,
40:51at Rookwood,
40:53beautiful high-glazed porcelain pieces.
40:55With Art Nouveau style decoration.
40:57Oh, so that's where it comes in.
40:58So you see a subtle change
41:00coming around that time.
41:01Okay.
41:02Thanks to Bottas.
41:03And this is a perfect example
41:06of his influence.
41:07I would think this vase
41:08dates from around 1910.
41:10I think these are stylized ferns.
41:13Okay.
41:14Little fiddlehead ferns.
41:15Oh, yeah.
41:15And you see all the dots.
41:17Yes.
41:17The porcelain.
41:18It all had to have been done
41:20with an eyedropper probably.
41:21Wow.
41:22Very detailed work.
41:24There are four panels.
41:25Each have the same design on them.
41:27All ferns, I think.
41:28So it's porcelain body
41:29with enamel decoration.
41:31Okay.
41:31These pieces are rare.
41:32They still don't show up a lot.
41:34I mean, when you unwrapped this,
41:35I was shocked how pretty it was.
41:37I mean, it's just one of those pieces
41:38that grabs you.
41:39It is beautiful.
41:40I think probably an auction value,
41:43we're looking at $2,000 to $3,000.
41:45Okay.
41:46That's pretty exciting.
41:47Yeah, I love it.
41:48She's a beauty.
41:55I grew up with this clock
41:57in my grandmother's house.
41:59It was one of the items
42:00from my grandmother's house
42:01that I remember more than anything.
42:04And the big story
42:06that I remember the most
42:07with this clock
42:08is my mom always used to tell a story
42:10about how it magnifies sunlight.
42:12And so it was on there
42:14on a little end table
42:15by one of their couches.
42:17And all of a sudden,
42:18the couch started smoking.
42:20So it caught, yeah,
42:21the couch at my mom's house on fire.
42:24So now we always need to make sure
42:26that we don't have it
42:27anywhere near the sunlight.
42:28So it's got to be
42:29in the center of the room,
42:30not by a window,
42:31so we don't start
42:32any more fires with it.
42:33It's unbelievable.
42:34Yeah.
42:35Do you know what it's called at all?
42:36I don't know anything about it.
42:38I just always loved it.
42:40I've never seen anything like it.
42:41I don't know what it's called now.
42:43It's called a crystal ball club.
42:44And there's two reasons
42:46why it's exceptional.
42:47First of all, the size.
42:49It's just a little smaller
42:50than a volleyball.
42:52This is scaled up
42:5310 times the norm.
42:54And I've only seen one other
42:57that's this big.
42:58And the second thing
42:59is that the complications
43:00that it has,
43:01it has the calendar,
43:04the numerical date,
43:06the day of the week,
43:07and then the moon phase
43:09at the bottom here.
43:10And all the hands
43:11you said are off of it,
43:12but they're inside of it.
43:13Right, they're inside.
43:14Yeah, it got shaken.
43:16And that's a great thing
43:17that you have the hands
43:18inside of it.
43:19Probably made circa 1890.
43:21And it's a French origin.
43:23It was a really nice quality thing.
43:25I would put a value
43:26on this clock
43:28that burns couches.
43:31Probably about $3,000
43:32in its present condition.
43:34If you put the hands back on it
43:36and you get it serviced,
43:37I could see it being worth
43:38as much as, say, $4,500.
43:41That's great.
43:42It's going to stay
43:42in my living room
43:43for the foreseeable future.
43:45I love it.
43:46Maybe put a fire extinguisher next to it.
43:50I believe this is
43:51a Puget Sound felling axe
43:54from the Pacific Northwest.
43:56This is a Sager chemical.
43:59That was a company
44:00that made falling axes.
44:02It was made to take down
44:04the large trees.
44:05It's got a 42-inch handle on it.
44:08I got it in trade.
44:09I'm a saw filer.
44:11And I was filing saws
44:13for a guy, big saws.
44:15And he said,
44:15I don't want to pay you,
44:17but I'll give you an axe
44:18if you file my saw.
44:20So he said,
44:20I could do that.
44:27This belonged to my father.
44:29He was an architect
44:31during the 60s and 70s and 80s.
44:34He was very much
44:36into mid-century modern.
44:38I remember it first
44:40in probably about the mid-60s
44:42when my dad acquired it.
44:44Uh-huh.
44:44You remember growing up with it?
44:46Oh, yes.
44:46And he pointed that thing
44:48up on the shelf?
44:48Oh, yes.
44:48We always looked at it
44:49and wondered why it was
44:51so strange-looking
44:52and why he even bothered
44:53to buy it.
44:54We always in the family
44:56called it an anteater,
44:57but he said it was a polar bear.
44:58Oh, he was wrong.
45:01It's an anteater.
45:02Oh, all right.
45:04It's made out of ceramic.
45:06Uh-huh.
45:06It is fragile.
45:07It is made out of porcelain
45:09and it has this wonderful glaze
45:10and, of course,
45:11it has this wonderful form to it
45:13and it has a conforming base.
45:15The artist is Gordon Newell,
45:16born in 1905 in California,
45:18and he went to a number
45:20of art schools out in California
45:22and eventually became a teacher.
45:24In the 1930s,
45:25during the Depression,
45:27there was something called
45:28the WPA,
45:29the Works Progress Administration,
45:32which hired artists,
45:33painters, sculptors
45:35to keep them employed.
45:36And Gordon seemed to be involved
45:38with architectural things.
45:39So, you know,
45:40what kind of commissions he got?
45:42He got post offices.
45:44Oh, I see.
45:45Yeah.
45:46So there'd be like a relief
45:47over the entrance of the post office
45:48or maybe something inside.
45:50Very interesting commissions.
45:52He lived in Carmel, California,
45:53and he exhibited widely
45:55other things,
45:57non-WPA pieces.
45:59His work is in a number
46:00of collections,
46:01something at the White House of his,
46:03and he exhibited
46:04at the famous 1939 World's Fair
46:07in New York City.
46:08It's a spectacular piece,
46:09the way it's stylized,
46:11simplified,
46:12and I think it captures
46:13the whole spirit of the artist.
46:15This piece was made
46:16in the mid-1950s,
46:18probably about 1958.
46:19It's not signed,
46:21and it's also on a very nice
46:22wooden base.
46:24Yeah.
46:24I don't know if it was original,
46:27but it could be original
46:28because it's tapered perfectly.
46:30A number of these have come up
46:32for auction.
46:33They do very well,
46:34especially because
46:35in the last 10, 15 years,
46:37the interest in mid-century
46:38modern design has skyrocketed.
46:41Very, very popular,
46:42especially among
46:43young new collectors.
46:44One recently sold
46:46at auction for $7,500.
46:48Wow.
46:50That's amazing.
46:52An auction estimate
46:52would be in that
46:53$7,000 to $10,000.
46:55Wow.
46:56An insurance evaluation
46:57might be closer
46:58to $12,000 to $15,000.
47:01Very nice.
47:02So I'm glad you have it out.
47:03It's a spectacular piece.
47:05Well, thank you very much,
47:06and I'm very surprised
47:08and very pleased.
47:09My mom bought it
47:1160 years ago
47:13at an antique shop.
47:14I really don't know.
47:16I'm trying to find out
47:17what it is.
47:17And it weighs
47:18about 40 pounds.
47:20That's all we know.
47:21You ever cook anything on it?
47:23No.
47:25It's been in a box for years.
47:27Yeah, it's in pretty good shape
47:29for being...
47:30However old it is.
47:32I don't know.
47:33I don't really know
47:35anything about the artist.
47:36It was in my parents' home
47:38my entire lifetime.
47:40Right.
47:40And I know that my mom
47:42used to tell us
47:43that this picture
47:44was in her childhood home.
47:46Well, the artist is
47:47John George Brown,
47:49and he was born
47:50in Durham, England
47:51in 1831.
47:53He had artistic talent
47:54early on,
47:55but his parents decided
47:56he needed a trade,
47:57so they sent him
47:58to be a glass cutter
47:59in Edinburgh.
48:00While he was there,
48:01he attended
48:02the Royal Scottish Academy
48:04so that he could keep up
48:05with his interest in art.
48:07And by the age of 22,
48:08he decided to move to London
48:09and started painting portraits.
48:11But he was enamored
48:13with the idea
48:13of going to America.
48:14So in 1853,
48:15he emigrates
48:17and he settles in Brooklyn.
48:18And we can see
48:19his signature there
48:20with the initials N.A.,
48:21which means that he was
48:22a member of the National Academy
48:24in New York.
48:25As an artist,
48:26he is probably one
48:27of the most prominent
48:28genre painters in America
48:30in the 19th century.
48:32He actually had
48:33the claim of fame
48:34to be at the important
48:3510th Street Studio,
48:37which was a major studio
48:38of artists that included
48:40Winslow Homer
48:41and Frederick Church
48:42and Albert Bierstadt.
48:44So he was among
48:45the best of the best.
48:46He was best known
48:48for painting children
48:49and he was very masterful
48:51at it.
48:51Most of his paintings
48:52tend to feature
48:53little boys
48:54and they tend to feature
48:56street urchins,
48:57boot blacks,
48:58and newsboys
48:59on the streets of New York.
49:00Often they're immigrant children,
49:02they're wearing
49:02tattered clothes,
49:04and yet they have
49:05cheerful smiles.
49:06They often have a dog
49:07with them.
49:08So it's a very typical
49:10kind of thing
49:10and he was very prolific
49:11as a painter.
49:13The subject here
49:14is really more unusual
49:16for him.
49:17It's a little girl
49:18and although he did
49:19paint girls
49:20from time to time,
49:21he did so more readily
49:22in the 1860s
49:24and this painting
49:25is probably done
49:26circa 1880
49:28and it, of course,
49:29focuses on
49:30such a charming child
49:32and he's really reflecting
49:33the innocence
49:34and playfulness
49:35of childhood here,
49:36which was a very popular
49:38topic in the Victorian era.
49:41The painting has a label
49:42in the back
49:42with the title
49:43which is
49:43Making Houses of Sand.
49:45The composition
49:46is quite interesting
49:47because J.G. Brown
49:48was just known
49:50for painting
49:51very realistic images
49:53of the children
49:53and what makes this
49:54a little more interesting
49:55is that in the background
49:57there are all sorts
49:58of figures
49:58and they're a little bit
50:00more abstract
50:01so I find that
50:03really creative
50:03in terms of his work
50:05and not something
50:05we normally see.
50:07The painting is
50:08oil on canvas
50:09and it's in
50:10excellent condition
50:12because of the subject
50:13I think that
50:14in a gallery
50:15in New York
50:16in particular
50:17the painting would sell
50:19for $150,000.
50:20Oh my gosh
50:22Oh my gosh
50:24I had no idea
50:25I'm going to start crying
50:26I had no idea
50:28Thank you
50:29Oh my gosh
50:32It's just stunning
50:33and when I saw it
50:35I thought
50:35it's just breathtaking
50:36It's really cute now
50:37because I have
50:38one granddaughter
50:39Oh
50:40We live up
50:41on the water
50:42in northern Michigan
50:44and she can be
50:45the little girl
50:46Oh yeah
50:46Oh wow
50:48Wow
50:49Thank you
50:50Oh you're welcome
50:51Thank you
50:55And now it's time
50:57for the Rocho
50:57Feedback Booth
50:59And it turns out
51:00that our baseball
51:01signed by the Yankees
51:03along with Mickey Mantle
51:04is actually stamped
51:05Looks like we're
51:06going back to work
51:07tomorrow
51:07We wanted to find out
51:08some history
51:09about our scary
51:10eggplant baby
51:11We knew it wasn't
51:13too old
51:13but we found out
51:14it's mass produced
51:15not worth much
51:17Our daughter even says
51:18it wasn't worth
51:19the quarter
51:20we paid for it
51:21We found out
51:22that my grandmother's
51:24silver candy dish
51:26is worth about
51:27a thousand to two thousand dollars
51:28I brought this ancient pottery
51:30that's actually as old
51:31as I thought it was
51:33but it's restored
51:34but we got to find out
51:35that it was actually real
51:37and comes from the era
51:38in Nicaragua
51:40and we're happy to be here
51:41ten years
51:42ten years married
51:43so thanks for having us
51:45we both brought in
51:46a couple items
51:47I brought some pocket knives
51:48and a coopy doll
51:49that I dug up
51:50by my chicken coop
51:51found out that this is worth
51:53about as much as
51:53everything else buried by it
51:55and this is about
51:56250 bucks
51:58and I'm just glad to be here
51:59instead of crying in my basement
52:01about not coming to roadshow today
52:03today we brought
52:04our little fryer chuck
52:05cookie jar
52:06and found out
52:07that even though
52:08he's been in our family forever
52:09he is worth
52:10about $13
52:12so he'll be holding
52:14cookies for the foreseeable future
52:15but we had a great time
52:17thanks Antiques Roadshow
52:18thanks for watching
52:20see you next time
52:21on Antiques Roadshow
52:22on Antiques Roadshow
52:23and on Antiques Roadshow
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