- 2 days ago
Antiques Roadshow - Season 30 (US) - Episode 04: Georgia State Railroad Museum, Hour 1
Category
📺
TVTranscript
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
01:40book came out, she bought it new. I guess she asked Margaret Mitchell to sign it for her and
01:44she did. So it's an autographed copy by the author. Let's take a look because it's not just
01:49Margaret Mitchell in here signing. We've got Margaret Mitchell inscribing to your grandma.
01:55Yes. After about six months, she was so swamped, she refused to sign anymore, which is good for us
02:01on the collecting side of things. And then over here we have some some Hollywood greats.
02:08We have the movie stars names, the ones who are living who went to the centennial premiere,
02:12which was in 1961. So we have the autographs of Olivia de Havilland and Vivian Lee, who won the
02:19Academy Award and David Selznick, who also won the Academy Award as producer of the movie.
02:25They played the movie for the centennial of the beginning of the Civil War. So 1961. There are
02:31some very interesting points about this book. Points are ways that we determine the edition of a book.
02:37And For Gone with the Wind is very popular, went into second edition almost immediately. And the way
02:44we can tell is this copyright date. This one says May 1936. And that means for sure, 100% first
02:52edition.
02:53So that that has 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
03:10was about. I think they thought it was important to document these people.
03:15And then here there are signatures of people that were formerly enslaved that were still living.
03:20I think my grandfather dated both of those two pages, like 1939, 1940. So just a couple of years
03:28after the book and a year after the movie. The signatures in the back really speak to the epic
03:34nature of the story itself. And of course, the time period that it's trying to cover. The fact that
03:39there are people that fought in the Civil War on the Confederate side and people that were formerly
03:44enslaved writing their names in here, it's just sort of a testament to what an important work this was.
03:52It was a big story for the city of Atlanta. The other thing is this photo, which is fabulous because
03:59it's got Margaret Mitchell. Which one is she in that photo? Yeah, she's in the front and the center.
04:04That's a picture when my grandmother and great grandmother and great uncles were on a house party
04:10out in the country with Margaret Mitchell. And we think that's maybe her first husband
04:14before they were married. It's a 1920 photograph. So they were 20 years old. And she's wearing pants.
04:21I read that her skirt caught fire when she was little and her mom was so afraid that she dressed
04:26her in pants and they called her Jimmy. Interesting. Which is just the cutest thing.
04:32Have you ever thought about value of a signed first edition of Gone with the Wind? We've thought
04:36about it. We were guessing $1,000 if we're happy if it's that or more. Well, all of those special
04:42features of your grandmother's copy, an auction estimate would be $20,000 to $30,000 for your
04:50little book. That's fantastic. If I would have been happy with $1,000, I'm 20 to 30 times happier.
04:56I like that.
05:03Kind of a long story, but it was in a house and I rescued it from what it turned out
05:07a couple
05:08weeks later to be certain to do. And to be honest, for all the research I've tried to
05:13do, I really can't figure out what it is. I don't know if it's a game or if it's something
05:18for writing. I'm not really sure.
05:24The most interesting thing about it is it never happened. So it's the 1976 Winter Olympics.
05:29They were supposed to be in Denver, Colorado, but the city defunded it. That's about the extent
05:34I think it was Helsinki, but that might be totally wrong. So I just kind of wanted to get a
05:39little
05:39bit more info and I thought it was pretty neat.
05:46I've got a basketball signed by the 92 Dream Team. My father-in-law immigrated to the States.
05:52He's Dutch. And he did that in the early 90s. And he's been telling me that he has a basketball
05:59signed by Michael Jordan and the Dream Team. And I never believed it.
06:03Last week, I told him that we were going to the roadshow because we're big fans. And here it is.
06:08It's been in his attic since then. He just said he got it as a gift from a friend when
06:13he moved here.
06:14Hey, that's a pretty good gift.
06:15Yeah.
06:16This is a basketball signed by the 1992 Dream Team from the 92 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
06:22This ball would have been made available at the 1992 Tournament of the Americas in Portland, Oregon.
06:27It was a qualifying tournament before the Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
06:31It's a limited edition. 200 of these were made available. When it comes to the Dream Team,
06:36Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Larry Bird, Clyde Drexler, David Robinson, Charles Barkley.
06:42I mean, it is, as a nerd, it's like the Avengers of basketball assembling on the court.
06:49The Dream Team, they're literally, when you talk about domination, they were straight steamrolling
06:55the competition, average of 44-point lead for every game. In the final gold medal game versus Croatia,
07:02I remember the score being 117 to 85. So even in the end, it was just total annihilation.
07:09They 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 edition, you really can't get any better. In terms
07:25of marketing as an auctioneer, this is a slam dunk for collectors today. Conservatively at auction,
07:32you would easily see this ball in the $30,000 to $40,000 range.
07:40That's amazing.
07:41What a gift, right?
07:42Yeah, what a gift.
07:51The 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
08:06the goods from the interior of the state, from farms and plantations to the port. Savannah is a port
08:12city. And so then those goods would go on a ship and be transported across the ocean or to other
08:17parts
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 Savannah
08:39stepped in and halted demolition. And we're able to save it and we've operated this property as a museum ever
08:45since.
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.
09:09Have you worn it or used it since?
09:10Not so much.
09:12Not 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 Arithmeten.
09:25They 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. Currently,
09:53it's not moving. It's not working. It's probably gummed up, which is very common with these watches.
09:58It 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.
10:13It's priceless to me because my dad gave it to me, but that's wonderful to know.
10:20And I made an A in trick. So it helped.
10:24I 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
10:41the shabby little store. It 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,
10:47opened it up, and it's translucent. It's on a translucent film, which looked like a good sign.
10:52So we'll see. Yeah, we're just happy to be here. We love it. Fantasia is my favorite movie.
10:58So I know this guy's churnabog from the night on Bald Mountain.
11:02So me and my mom were yard sailing one day, and we were on one side of the highway,
11:07and she saw the lamb across four lanes of traffic. And we did maybe a little bit of a dangerous
11:12U-turn.
11:14And we jumped out of the car, and the guy told us it was $5. So yeah, we took it
11:19home.
11:19So 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,
11:56you can see these really in a retail setting in the $4,000 range. Oh, wow. Yeah. You might just
12:04try
12:04to get his tail attached so you don't lose his tail, because that's important. Okay. This muzzle is a
12:09little dirty, and that's good. So lovely, wonderful $5 yard sale find. Absolutely. Thank you so much.
12:19I brought in a cast iron mechanical bank. I got it in western New York. A friend of mine,
12:24who's an antique dealer, he borrowed money from me, and we were making a business investment
12:29into a friend of his. And a few months later, his friend died, and so did the business.
12:33He's kind of felt guilty a little bit about it. So once in a while, he'll give me a few
12:36items.
12:37So 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
12:51hit the toe. What did you find when you looked it up?
12:55The J.E. Stevens Creedmoor Bank.
12:58The Creedmoor 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.
13:06Okay. But then they made reproductions after that. Sure. The entire basis of the design of the
13:11mechanical bank was to make saving money fun for children. That way they wanted to save the money.
13:16So by introducing a movement, it created a toy, an action. Your research was spot on. The Creedmoor
13:23Bank was made by a Connecticut company, J.E. Stevens, and we see it quite often. It's a fairly common
13:28bank,
13:28a 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
14:00your paint is very thick, a bit drab in color, I believe the paint to be completely original.
14:06Oh, nice. The casting is also a little crude,
14:08a little more crude than I'd expect from the American cast iron manufacturers. This one instead
14:13is a cast iron mechanical bank, but made in Europe, either in Germany or in Austria. This bank was a
14:20few
14:20years later, circa 1890. This is actually much, much rarer than a Creedmoor Bank by Janie Stevens.
14:27Oh, wow. Yes. Much better. Much better example here. I'll turn it around so we can see the back
14:31side of the bank as well. Another characteristic which is different is the color of his uniform
14:36itself. It's almost in a reverse painted colors. We have a red robe and he has white pants. Normally,
14:43we'll see a gray, red, and blue, but in a different configuration than that which he's wearing.
14:48Now, this bank is quite dirty. I do believe it will clean up very nicely with a little
14:55time and energy. But you have to be careful when you're doing it. You don't want to disrupt
14:58the original paint. Now, a normal Janie Stevens Creedmoor, there are thousands of them out there.
15:03Of course, condition is king, but you can pick up a Creedmoor Bank around $300 to $500 range. When it
15:11comes to the variations, they're much scarcer and hard to come by. The paint on this example is quite chipped
15:17and worn. However, it's authentic, and I would value this with an auction estimate of $1,000 to $1,500.
15:25Well, that's good news. That's awesome. Yeah, it's cool.
15:36My husband is a retired surgeon. He had a patient who gave it to him at the end of her
15:42life. He had taken
15:44care of her for many years, and it was a thank you from her to me for all the hours
15:50that he had spent
15:51with 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 Jean Schlumberger by
16:05Tiffany & Company. It's in 18-karat gold, some full-cut diamonds, and cultured pearls. It is
16:13made in New York, and it came in this Tiffany box that is original to the bracelet. It's stamped 18K
16:20with the maker's mark on the clasp. He was from France. He began working for Tiffany in the 1950s,
16:27and created this amazing sort of latticework bracelet. His main goal was to have natural
16:33motifs and naturalistic organic designs. It was just a beautiful sort of way of approaching jewelry.
16:41The name of the bracelet is Heliodor, or Gift of the Sun. It's actually articulated all in the center.
16:48These little pearls, everything sort of rocks back and forth. Right. Some rock back and forth a little
16:54faster than the others, but depending on what you're doing, whether you're sitting or dancing,
17:00they might just jiggle a little bit more. The design would have come out of approximately the
17:06late 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.
17:18These are iconic bracelets. At auction, conservative value would be between $20,000 and $30,000.
17:25Wow. And people covet his jewelry designs. Wow.
17:28So 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.
17:40The turntable behind me is essentially the heart of a roundhouse. Without a functioning turntable,
17:45you can't get the locomotives in and out of the roundhouse. So why a roundhouse? It's the most efficient
17:51way to house and repair and maintain a large fleet of steam locomotives. So this turntable had to be
17:59expanded twice in its history. The original turntable is only 50 feet long. It was also
18:05manually operated. What that meant was the steam locomotive had to be centered on the table and
18:09perfectly balanced. Each end of the turntable had a handle that stuck out and you would have a couple of
18:15men on each end that would push on that handle. They could actually turn the locomotive manually.
18:21Later, the turntable was steam powered, air powered, and now it's electrically powered.
18:34That's a pickle jar that originated in Dahlonega, Georgia. At one point,
18:39it was used to serve the Yankee soldiers pickles at the end of the Civil War. When it was over,
18:44soldiers left and my great-great-grandmother wound up marrying one of them and took off with him.
18:50Oh my goodness. How was the family feeling about that?
18:55I'm sure it all worked out for the best because here I am.
18:58So 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.
19:08She detailed what took place at the Mint City as it was known as Dahlonega.
19:14The first thing I look at when I look at a piece of 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,
20:05it'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 white aqua,
20:20but the thing that really makes this neat is that story. So if we went out of here today,
20:26we could probably find one of these bottles for sale retail for $300 or $400. But I think with that
20:33story, to somebody who values that history, it's probably more like a $1,000 bottle.
20:40I would have thought if I walked into an antique store, it'd be $40 or $50.
20:44And that would have been my thought. Well, we can add a zero at least. Well, that's good news.
20:57It 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.
21:32And he was a master of the enameling technique. Fisher won a scholarship to attend the National
21:39Art Training 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
22:04and established 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, the sons of God
22:19saw the daughters of men that they were fair. It's a magnificent, magnificent example of his work.
22:26And 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. There's
22:44nothing like it in the world. While we know there are other Fisher enamels out there, that says something,
22:50that he said that a hundred years ago. Despite the very minor condition issues, it's a magnificent item.
22:57This truly is a museum-quality work of art. Do you have an idea of what it cost originally?
23:04P.S. We don't have a receipt, but we were told he paid $8,000 for it.
23:08P.S. And in about what year? P.S. 1926, when the letter was written.
23:13P.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 $100,000.
23:30P.S. Well, this is a letter written to my wife's foster uncle in 1957 when Kennedy did the commencement
23:46speech at the University of Georgia. He didn't get to talk to him when he came there, but he wrote
23:52him
23:52a letter and said he was sorry he missed him, and they discussed what they did in World War II.
23:57P.S. Well, I do a lot of thrifting and estate sales, and I just...
24:07This is from a home in Williamsburg, Virginia. An old lady, her mom, it was her mom's, and she,
24:15her mom passed, and that's pretty much all I really know about it is that it was her mom's.
24:21It 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. I took him
24:48back to college
24:49with me. I took him to graduate school after that. When I tried to explain it to my fraternity brothers
24:55or friends, they said he looked like drink coasters to me, and they have been used as drink coasters.
25:02Came back, moved back to Savannah, got married, had four children, and I sort of forgot about it.
25:07And then last year, I read in the New York Times that he died, and so I remembered that I
25:13had him.
25:14So they are by Carl Andre. He was the leading minimalist artist, and we're showing him this
25:19way, but let's show the way it's really supposed to look. I have the receipt, but I don't have it
25:26with me. The picture with the receipt has a picture of it arranged like that, so I've assumed that
25:31that's the way it was meant to be. His work is meant to be flat on the ground. Right. The
25:37larger
25:38works can be 10, 15 feet square. He felt that people should be able to walk on them. Wow. This
25:44minimalist movement was a reaction against abstract expressionism, and the idea was to reduce art to
25:50the most simple basic forms. He was very prominent. He had exhibitions in major museums, the Guggenheim,
25:57the Tate. He's quite controversial in his personal life. I read a little bit about that. You read
26:01in the Times. Right. Carl's wife was Ana Mendieta, and she was a very prominent Cuban artist.
26:09She was well known for her Earthbody series. His wife died, and he was tried for secondary murder,
26:17and he was acquitted. But many, many people in the art world felt that he was guilty. And as a
26:26result,
26:26every time he showed after that, this was the 1980s, there would be huge protests saying that he really
26:33was guilty. He went off to Europe. He stopped showing, and his career was really in decline. Do you know
26:41who your father bought it from? After I got more interested in it, I found out that the art director
26:47had introduced him to a friend of his, Angela Westwater in New York. And she was a very prominent
26:53art dealer at that time. Right. So it has a really great provenance. And I understand you have some,
27:00you have all the material. We do. And I can't remember how much he might have paid for them.
27:05And if I had to guess, I'd probably say maybe $2,000 or $3,000. His work is very desirable,
27:11very, very collectible. I 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 has a stamp here from Marseille. And I ended up looking everything up,
27:37amazingly found a lot of information. It was made for the archers in a parade for a town in France's
27:45tricentennial. And I actually found a video of the guys marching in it. So I have a great story. It's
27:50beautiful and it fits me like a glove. She wears it around the house. I do wear it around the
27:56house.
27:58This is an Andy Warhol collection of prints. My grandmother met Andy at one of his exhibits in
28:09Sacramento, California, and had him sign the front of this collection for my mother, Catherine.
28:17And 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
28:34later in his career. It's called Andy Warhol Myths. So in this case, it was really terrific that he
28:43signed the cover of this group as well as the image of Howdy Doody. What I thought the most striking
28:52image actually is that Andy Warhol included himself in the group of portraits. You get the shadow on the
29:00wall and him sort 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
29:25gallerist, Feldman, who was the publisher of the cards as well as the lithographs. Have you ever had
29:33them appraised? No. They've been sitting in storage in my mother's house and I've only heard about them.
29:42Okay. This is like the longest I've spent time with them and seeing them and looking at them.
29:48Uh-huh. At auction, I would place an estimate of about two to three thousand dollars on this group of
29:55dollars. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you for bringing me this. Oh, 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 fiance. He passed away about two years ago. It belonged to
30:22his mother.
30:24Now, he was 95 when he passed away and so you can imagine how long this has been with her.
30:33So I was thrilled to have it. When the jewelry moves, when you're walking, when you're dancing.
30:39Oh, yes. It's scintillating and catching the light. I love the use of the baguettes,
30:45kind of ribbon-like. And then you have marquees, cut stones. You have pear-shaped stones.
30:52And 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
31:05of Van Cleef and Arpel's jewelry. And if you turn around and you look at the back, it looks like
31:12it
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.
31:26Okay. He was born in Union City in the early 1920s. He had an office in New York
31:33in a manufacturing facility at 609 Fifth Avenue. And he was in the business for 50 years.
31:41Oh, that's a long time. And he made a lot of fabulous jewelry like this.
31:45I bet so. I think this was probably made in the early 1960s. You can find comparable things like
31:52this for sale. And they're around $40,000 to replace this today. It's a beautiful price.
32:00Yeah. I mean, look, if it was at auction, I would probably put it in for $12,000 to $18
32:08,000.
32:08I see. If it was Van Cleef. Oh, I know. It'd probably be $60,000 to $80,000 for an
32:15auction
32:16estimate. Retail would be $100,000 and over. It's not. It's not, but it's still fabulous. It is.
32:22It looks very Hollywood. Okay. What we have here is a 1964 Crucianelli 702V. It was made by the
32:31Crucianelli Company in Italy. And they were most famous for actually making accordions. And it's pretty
32:36comparable in appointments to Gibson in the period, though it was much cheaper at the time. And
32:42sounds like a million bucks.
32:50They said that this guy was like, they didn't know how somebody could taxidermy this toad.
33:01And this guy might be worth at least $100, which is blowing my mind. But when I got him at
33:07the store,
33:07he was either 24 or 20 daughters. Ribbit. Ribbit.
33:23In 2021, my father-in-law passed away and my husband inherited this artwork. The artist is Alexis
33:31Jean Fournier. And as we went through a collection of things of my in-laws, we also saw some other
33:38pieces that had his name, his picture. And so it really had me interested in digging. And so I did
33:46an ancestry dive. And come to find out, the artist Alexis Jean Fournier was married to my husband's
33:52great aunt, Emma Frick, was his first wife. This is a wonderful oil painting. It's by Alexis Jean Fournier,
33:59as you know. He was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. On July 4th, 1865, he trained first in Minneapolis.
34:07And then, as so many 19th century American artists did, he went to Paris to train. And he went first
34:13to the Académie Julienne. He then traveled around Paris and northern France. And he was especially
34:20interested in the Barbizon painters. And over the 1890s and the 1901s, he did a whole series of
34:29paintings. He called the series the home and haunts of the Barbizon masters. And given the architecture
34:35and the style, we know that it's clearly something that would have been painted in France, probably
34:41would have been painted in the 1901s as part of that series. What makes it special is its light.
34:47That light is just beautiful, but it's a light that's more very late 19th century or in early 20th
34:54century. And so that's part of the key to knowing about when it would be dated.
34:58It's had a troubled past. It's had some condition issues.
35:01Okay.
35:02And 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,
35:20is the painting is starting to cup. So instead of lying flat on the canvas, the edges are just
35:27starting to cup up. Right now it's pretty stable, but at some point you will probably lose more paint.
35:32But condition affects value. Other than condition, the thing we tend to harp on is provenance.
35:39This was in the artist's family. You can't get better provenance than that. In its current
35:45condition, if it were to be brought up at auction, we'd estimate it at $20,000 to $30,000.
35:50Okay. I would recommend conservation. When everything is properly laid back down and consolidated,
35:58you're probably looking more like $35,000 to $55,000 for an auction estimate. Okay, wow.
36:12Another 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 in 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
36:52and exhausted it up into the air to keep that out of the shop complex so it was a little
36:57bit more
36:57comfortable for people to work here. This was the height of technology in the 1850s when this facility
37:32was built.
37:34The caucasus region. It's silver, silver gilt, also niello worked, which are these beautiful oval
37:42panels here picked out in black. It's also got filigree on it. And each one of these panels is
37:47cast and made individually and then worked together with a pin along each one so it creates the belt
37:53shape. And niello work is characteristic of pieces from this region and from this time. So each one of
37:59these has a slightly different decorative element to it. You have a little foliate motif in a sort of
38:05star shape. You also interestingly have a stylized tugra mark on several of them. And that is the symbol for
38:13the Ottoman sultan who lived in Istanbul. And it is marked behind the buckle in Arabic or script. How much
38:21did you
38:21pay for it when you bought it? Well, when I bought it, I bought it for the weight of silver.
38:25So I paid less than
38:27a hundred dollars for it. Interesting. Okay. But I think this is worth much more than the silver content.
38:33I think a retail price for this today should comfortably sit within a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars.
38:40Very good. Thank you. Thank you very much.
38:50I played it when I was in my twenties. I bought it in Miami. It has a repair sticker inside
39:02from a Miami violin maker. But an even older one dated 1899.
39:18This 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.
39:32And it was Sunday morning. And they had like a flea market set up with booths and tables along the
39:39river.
39:39And this was all polished and shined up and caught the sun and it caught my husband's eye.
39:46And it was going to go home with us. Okay.
39:49We think we paid around a hundred dollars for it, but we're not sure. Right.
39:53And we know that we made the vendor's day because within 10 minutes, he had folded up shop and went
39:59home.
39:59And 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
40:14a hundred dollars a piece. So you can settle that for us.
40:18Okay. Well, I'll try to do my best. So I remember when I first did the first season of Roadshow,
40:23these gramophones would come in and they were always a big hit. Now, the markets have changed since then.
40:29And there are also real ones and later productions. Uh-huh.
40:33I think you're both right. I want to settle this. Oh, 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
40:49in and around the 1940s. Okay.
40:52The other part of it is the back mounting that's holding up the whole horn is either replaced or a
40:59later production. Okay.
41:01You 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 and
41:14the sound of my master's voice. Right.
41:16The mold maker thought that the dog was defective because his head was cocked.
41:23Oh. So he changed the mold and made all of them with their...
41:27So I have a Sparky with his head on straight and he's probably not worth very much because of that.
41:32Well, his name is actually Nipper, not Sparky. Oh.
41:36So it was Nipper. And even on the record, you can actually see that he is there with his head
41:41cocked.
41:42Right. And that's Nipper. Also, he has the black spot around his eye, which he shouldn't because
41:48that Nipper never had that. And also the way that this is painted, you can see that there's
41:54the paintbrush. They paint it outside of the lines. So this is the knockoff Nipper. So this is the
42:00knockoff. This is a later production. However, with everything together with the gramophone and the
42:06reproduction Nipper, I would put an auction estimate in the 800 to 1200 price range.
42:12Really? Yes.
42:13Okay. So am I right or is my husband?
42:18That is the question. I think you're both right.
42:22Okay.
42:28This painting was bought in Sumner, Georgia. It had an antique shop. My son bought it for 37 bucks.
42:37I 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.
43:00It's so nice to have a picture of a clock and its original setting really places it
43:05time-wise. My aunt and uncle told me that it had been in the family since the 1800s.
43:13Do you know about its origin at all? I do not.
43:16Okay. Do you know who made it? No, never had it appraised at all.
43:20Okay. Well, this is a figural clock and it was made by the Ansonia Clock Company in New York.
43:27And it really was made to sort of be less expensive than a French clock, but it's still a beautiful
43:34thing.
43:34It's one of these clocks that's worth fixing because it'll be a good timekeeper for years to come.
43:38So it's worth putting money into the movement and having it restored. I can see that the movement is
43:43is a little bit 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
43:54anywhere from, oh, $550 to $850. And you got to know that the market's down right now. It used to
44:02be
44:02more valuable. And I'm sure it will come back, but right now these figural clocks are a harder
44:07sell to younger generations.
44:11I actually found it at a thrift store. I think it may be attributed to the artist Frank Stella.
44:16And how much did you pay for it?
44:19So what you have here is a color screen print with pencil marks by Frank Stella, a great post-war
44:29abstract artist. You recognize it right away. A very modern mid-century look. And Frank Stella was a
44:35pioneer of abstraction. In the 1960s, he was one of the first artists to do non-objective painting. And
44:44this is a print version of some of the paintings he did. It's a 1967 screen print called 14 de
44:52las
44:52Flores. And it comes from a portfolio called 10. It included 10 works by 10 different artists. Works
45:00by Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg. Really, at the time, the cutting-edge artists. Published by the
45:07Leo Castelli Gallery in New York. And it was published to honor their 10th anniversary. It was printed in
45:14an edition of 200. It's initialed and dated and numbered in the lower right in brown ink. And has the
45:22emboss mark 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 by
45:42pencil. 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 Long Rock. Frank Stella rose to prominence in the late
45:5560s in New York. And this is also from 67. So this is an early work by him. So it's
46:01really a great
46:02example. This is a Kulik frame. It's a classic mid-century design frame that was actually pioneered
46:10at MoMA. Kulik was a frame maker. He was also a painter, but he was a frame maker who pioneered
46:16this.
46:17This frame was cutting edge in the 60s and quickly adapted by many contemporary artists and galleries.
46:23Do you have any sense of the value? Somebody had mentioned like $2,000 to $5,000 for Frank Stella.
46:30So
46:31if it's more than what I paid for it, then I'm happy. Well, I think it's in good condition. We
46:37see
46:37that for the bright colors. There's a little dust inside the frame. It's dirty. But I'm glad you didn't
46:43touch it. I would estimate it at auction at $5,000 to $7,000. Nice. That is wonderful. I'm thrilled.
46:57I got 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.
47:22I believe it was 1992 and she paid $16,200. Okay, so not nothing.
47:31Not nothing, especially for her. She liked having women artists in her house, their artwork anyhow,
47:39and this 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 Colombia, not Chile. Oh, really? And is still living and actively working. She is 93
48:03years old, still has her Bogota workshop. This work is signed on the reverse, so we do have a date,
48:09May 1992. It comes from her series called Lost Images or Imagen Perdida. That was a series of about 17
48:18works, at 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 would get
48:54this close to a work by damn at all. Get out of here. Thank you. This is really exciting. Really?
49:01And what do you think this material is? Well, it looks like leather, but I'm sure it isn't, so.
49:09Exactly. It's not leather. It definitely has that look to it. It's cut strips of linen
49:14that she has gessoed, painted, and then gilded. And before the last gilding, she's also pulled out
49:23threads in a weaving process called drawn work. And so she's cut and drawn these threads out to create
49:30little breaks in between each square of gold. Now, going back to what your mother paid. Remind me again?
49:39A $16,200. Okay. So about $35,000 today. That's not nothing. That's a decent price.
49:49Taking into consideration that it does need some conservation,
49:52I'm going to be very conservative. Conservative.
49:55Conservative. In this condition, untouched, I would say easily, comfortably,
50:01an estimate at auction of $150,000 to $250,000.
50:07Yikes. All right.
50:12That's, it's worth doing the, um, doing the work on it. Definitely. I think you wouldn't need to
50:17spend more than a few thousand to get it really in tip-top shape. Would that change the, uh, 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,
50:41because her works have gone for well above that number at auction in recent times.
50:46Oh, my. They're very sought after.
50:49Thank 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 a hundred years old,
51:02and it's just a family heirloom. And it wasn't worth much, but it's worth the world to me.
51:10This Charles Lindbergh chair is one of a kind, but this, and heavy to carry,
51:14but this ring is worth more than it. It's $2,000, and it was a lot lighter.
51:18The item we thought was going to be a million-dollar winner for us
51:24was about $150, but since I paid a dollar, that's fine.
51:29This was a wonderful 50th anniversary trip. We appreciate it.
51:33Yes, and I bought this ring watch, it's worth a couple hundred dollars,
51:37and found out this was a reproduction.
51:39And I bought this cup, and they told me it's only worth about $12, so...
51:44We had a great time, though.
51:45Yes.
51:46This 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.
51:55I bought 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.
52:22Antiques Roadshow.
Comments