Transcripts For KQED Frontline 20131210

Subaru. A proud sponsor of antiques roadshow. Its not about the things we have, but the memories we make with them. Liberty mutual insurance. Proud sponsor of antiques roadshow. And by contributions to your pbs station from its t welcome to antiques roadshow. Hi, im mark walberg. This week were in des moines. Lets play a little Word Association game. If i say iowa, what word comes to mind . Well, if you thought corn, youre onto something. Iowa is famously the largest producer of corn in the nation, harvesting almost 2 1 2 billion bushels of the crop in 2009. Lets see what treasures crop up in des moines. Appraiser howard, tell me about this football that you have right over here closest to you. This football i got in 1963, so i think its a 1963 season. I got it in october of 63 when i got married. I invited a girl named rhoda to the wedding and she worked for dr. Brusky. Dr. Brusky was a Team Physician for the packers at that time, and she gave me that as a wedding present. Tell me about this football now, too. That one there i got i think in 65 or 66. I knew a guy named prosky, he was the groundskeeper then for the packers, and i asked if he could get me an autographed football. And he said, well, go buy a football that you can write on easy. And he had them sign it and give it back. But i noticed when i got the box back it had howard on the top prosky and then somebody underneath wrote frank howard. And frank howard used to be a ballplayer. He lived in green bay, used to play Minor League Ball in green bay, and i wondered maybe they, when they signed it, they thought they were signing it for frank howard and not plain old howard. laughing well, how lucky for you to be able to have an in with the Green Bay Packers to get an authentic signed football. Thats wonderful. As old as they are, i mean, these signatures are about as dark as they could have been signed at the time, which is wonderful. And both footballs have essentially the same big names that became hall of famers. You know, you have vince lombardi, you have bart starr, jim taylor, willie wood these fantastic packers teams that really ruled the 1960s. And in this condition, they are just fantastic. Now, what did you think that the value might be . Well, i figured this one would be worth, oh, 500. And this one, because its a lot easier to read the signatures and the ball is made for signatures, i figured maybe 750, 800, maybe 1,000 tops. Okay. I wasnt sure about Vince Lombardis signature because rumor around town was that he had dad braisher sign all his footballs for him because he was too busy. Well, i can tell you that his signature, which is right up on the top panel here, it is authentic. Probably because he thought he was signing it for frank howard. both laughing well, this earlier ball is definitely a 1963 teamsigned football. This is a 1966. 66 . Okay. Signed team ball. And the great thing about this being a 66 is that its the first year super bowl. I never thought of that. Theyre very, very nice. I think that this 1963 football, in auction, would probably sell for about 3,000. 3,000 . Yeah. Even though its hard to read some of the signatures because of the ball . The contrast is a little bit tough on it, but the signatures are still very dark, and thats the important thing, is the condition of the signatures. This ball, being the first super bowl ball, probably would have a value, in auction, at 4,000. Thatd be 7,000 for the both. Wow, great. Woman my grandmother was an antique collector and also a dealer. I can remember her going on antique trips out east and grandma and grandpa would come back with a piece of furniture strapped on the top of their car. This is probably from the early 1800s. Okay. And its the last combination of a blanket chest that you see in the early 19th century that was based on the earlier form of what people called a sixboard chest. It was made from six boards, and the last incarnation had the drawers in it. And the great thing about this one is the paint. Back then, they would use pine or poplar or some other type of unadorned wood, construct the piece and then put the paint on it. The homes were very dark then, and when this was new, the paint was very exuberant. They were trying to basically brighten up their houses with it. And i was noticing when i was going over this earlier that it looked like even the pulls had been painted over. I had noticed the pulls, too. I thought that was odd, but. That they painted over the brass pulls, but you do think theyre original . Yeah, i do. And those are hepplewhitestyle pulls, and thats right for this time period. The whole thing probably was just a smorgasbord for the eyes when they picked it up new and put it in the house. Youre missing a foot. Right. And i think, originally, the feet might have been just a little bit higher. The top has wear and some of the paint decoration is missing on that, but thats common because thats the place it would have been touched the most. Otherwise, though, i think its a really nice chest. We talked about this at the furniture table, and we feel real comfortable that retail on this would be about 2,500. Oh, okay, thats wonderful. Its a fun piece to have, so. And its useful. Uhhuh. Think about this back then, all of your clothing would have fit in this. Not anymore, but yeah. No, no. laughter woman my daughter got it from her fatherinlaw. And, of course, its very heavy. And she put it on the floor under the Kitchen Cabinet right next to the dog food dish. And it was there for two years, and i kept looking at it because i thought it was so pretty. And she gave it to me. And do you know what its made of . I was hoping its marble; i dont know. Well, as youve learned today carrying it around, its pretty heavy. Yes. And it is made of marble. Oh, good. And the artists name is erastus dow palmer, who was american. Born in 1817, died in 1904. And is widely considered to be one of the most important american sculptors of the 19th century. He is one of the earliest in the american neoclassical movement. And this subject, while we dont know who it is, is really wonderfully carved. And on the reverse of the plaque, its signed 1864. Oh, my. So we know the date. While many of the neoclassical movement sculptors from america traveled to italy for an education, he was selftaught, which is another reason why hes considered to be such an important artist in the neoclassical movement. As we can see, we have a minor condition issue to the nose, which is a chip to the marble. And generally that would affect the value, and i feel that it has a little bit, but hes considered to be such an important artist that it doesnt bring it down as much as one might expect. If i were to see this at auction, i would put an auction estimate of 10,000 to 15,000 on it. And ive been carrying it around all afternoon. Oh, my. Eleven years ago, a similar plaque sold for 35,000. Now, the market has gone up and down and up and down since then. So we feel that 10,000 to 15,000 is a conservative auction estimate. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks for bringing it in. Man my grandpas brother died and there were some boxes of books and some of the family members were allowed to, you know, take stuff; i got the books. I havent read the book, so. Dont ask me what its about. But he had put some of the books in protective plastic. Some of the books had writing on the inside, and so i chose those. Its an interesting thing. When you get collectors that are collecting the modern first editions and when i say modern, im almost talking the last 70, 80, 90 years their dust jacket is the beall and endall. You open the book up, and you have the title page. Its in good condition. Its a first edition. But, when you collect this type of book, the dust jacket is almost the whole value. So, one of the items i check for first is a lot of times someone will clip out the price. This has the price. Thats very, very good. Another thing that i did is i looked at the jacket, and its a little hard to see, but the book underneath this is green. And the color of the book bled through on this edge right here. And i opened it up and theres no color underneath here. Okay, so it didnt bleed through. It didnt bleed through. One of the things that you run into nowadays is where the dust jacket is 90 of the value, there are many people who, sometimes they do it purposely, and theyll copy a dust jacket. They can do it incredibly well nowadays, but its a copy. Okay. Or people bought the book and, not trying to defraud anybody, not trying to fake anything, but they just wanted a nice dust jacket on the book. Okay. One or the other of this happened on this book because if the color had bled through, it absolutely had to be on the other side of it. Right. So this is a highquality reproduction of the dust jacket. Also, the reproduction was taken from a library at some point because you can see that there was some type of Library Stamp here. So, the book, as it is, with a dust jacket thats not right, is worth, retail, 100 or so. Its not a terribly valuable book. But when you first brought this to me, and i looked at it and i saw this beautiful dust jacket, unclipped, i was saying, thats a 3,500 book. It was originally worth five dollars, it was free to me, so if its a hundreddollar book, you know, its a hundreddollar book. Man well, i ran across this very grimy painting at a consignment store. It was only priced for five dollars. I looked at it and i thought, well, despite the grime, it looks pretty good. I looked at the background, it kind of seemed to be maybe impressionist. I didnt know much about it, but for five bucks i brought it home. And my wife told me i overpaid. How much did she tell you it was worth . A quarter. Let me tell you what you found. Its inscribed, to gordon from alson clark. Alson clark was a california impressionist, but he didnt start in california. He studied under James Mcneill whistler in paris, and he was an accomplished impressionist artist. He came to california for health reasons, and he went out into the desert in a rebuilt dodge truck painting plein air paintings. And what i think you have here is one of those plein air paintings. I would place this painting probably 1930 or so. Okay. And your painting thats worth a quarter to your wife is actually probably, at auction, would be estimated in the 600 to 1,200 range. Very good, very good. Woman it was my late husbands, and he, i believe, acquired it from his father, who came from england in 1920. He was born in 1910. I didnt know that he had it, we never talked about it. We werent married for a very long time, and he died suddenly. And i went through his things and i found it and i didnt know what it was. The chain is 14karat gold. Well, thats good. Of course, we know gold is one of the highest prices that its been in years, and we expect it to keep going up. And right at the time were filming now, gold is at about 1,200 an ounce. Thats for pure gold. Now, this chain is 14karat gold. And that means its a little more than half gold. The other half is metals they added to make it hard enough to be for jewelry. Its not from england. Surprisingly, its american. So, somehow your husbands family ended up with an antique, latevictorian american vest chain, even though they were english. Theres a locket down at the bottom. It has a crystal on it, and this opens up. This part was the watch fob. The fob is what hung outside of the vest of the mans suit, and thats what they showed off. And this kind of locket, generally, if they could find one, theyd put a Fourleaf Clover in it and pressed it flat between the glass and it would magnify in that dome. The rest of this is a vest chain with very fancy links. And this is what the gentleman wore for his pocket watch. But im going to undo it. These are very desirable and hard to find with such beautiful links. Think about this im going to show you something. If we click this into this. And im going to reach down and get a necklace stand and do this. Ladies love mens antique vest chains to wear as a beautiful old gold necklace. Wow. In retail value, its between 4,000 and 5,000 for this necklace. Are you serious . If you were going to keep it as an heirloom and insure it, absolutely. Minimum of 5,000 insurance to replace this chain. Wow, i cant believe that. Its like. Wow. The medal was worn by my greatgreatgreatgrandfather and his son carried the signal book. He was an important man. What organization was he in . He was a Brigadier General. In the grand army of the republic. Right, right. The Union Veterans of the civil war were in the grand army of the republic. It was their organization after the war. And he was instrumental in the state of iowa for helping form the grand army of the republic. You had a National Organization and you had departments for each state or area. And he was actually the commander of all of iowa in 1874 and 1875. Years later, in 1886, the state department of iowa wanted to say thank you for all he had done. They gave him this medal. And on the back of it we have his name, the 1886 date that they gave it, and it was by unanimous vote. And it even says on the medal a unanimous vote to give it to him. And you can tell how much he loved this thing. He has that chest poked out and you can see that exact medal. A lot of the medals were made just out of a simple cast brass or cast bronze. This one is jewelermade. Your ancestor was 50 years old when he went into service. He rose all the way from captain. He was brevetted Brigadier General, meaning an honorary Brigadier General at the end of the war. After the war, in the veterans organization, he was a general again. And we have the stars on the rank badge. We also have the 40 rounds, which is the corps badge that he served under during the war. Because he was such an important man, thats why you have all of these extras on here. Okay. Now, this is out of this world. Twenty years i have been enjoying civil war artifacts. Ive never had a chance to lay my hands on one of these before. What is this . My dad always called it a signal book. Its for the signal corps. At the start of the civil war, there was not a signal corps. Now we think of radio operators and things like that. Back then they actually used flags they would wave the flags in certain directions, they would wave certain flags, or they would use lights or torches. This one was used mainly on the mississippi river. At the southern part of the mississippi river, you have port hudson, which was the confederate stronghold on the mississippi. It was one the confederates just couldnt afford to lose. There were 6,800 confederates in the fort there at port hudson. And 30,000 Union Soldiers lay siege onto there, meaning that they bombed it and they bombed it and they bombed it. For 48 days, they threw everything but the kitchen sink at these guys. Really . If we open up the book, if you notice, it was printed to be used in 1862. The battle was in 63; they mark out the two and put the threes. And its so cool because you have a twosection paper. You have one where when a signald come in, youd write down what theyre saying and youd sent it to the superior. And a few of these are actually to admiral porter, who was in charge of the union navy at port hudson. Theyre requesting shells, theyre requesting support. So the signatures in the book are actually the signalmens writing, not actually ulysses s. Grant and admiral porter . Unfortunately not. Its the order from general grant, not directly written down by general grant. Right, okay. And its going to admiral porter. Its by their command, not by their hand. Theres not a lot to compare it to. There might be others out there, but i honestly dont know of them. A regular message book from the civil war is a few hundred dollars. This one, i think, would easily bring 3,000. Really . The medal and the photograph, theyre priceless in iowa history because iowa played such a pivotal part during the civil war. The medal and the picture are probably another 1,000 or 1,500. Really . Id insure the three pieces for 5,000. Thank you. Thank you. Im excited. Woman this object i found in my mothers attic, so i brought it down and said, mother, what is this . She said, it was here when we bought the house in 1942. The house was built in 1911 and 12. I have no idea what it is, and im not interested. If you want it, take it home. So i did. And its been in my basement, wrapped up, ever since. And you dont know anything about it . I really dont. I know its very old. I can see the numbers on it, and the coin. What is the date that you saw on the metal mount . I believe it was 1726. Could you get the date off the coin . It might have been 1701. Very good, excellent memory. Now, do you know what its made of . Some kind of wood . It is made of birch. But its a special kind of birch. Its a kind of birch called burl birch. Any part of the burl of the tree is pretty resistant to liquids, which is why it makes the most sense to use it in a tankard. As we look at this, you notice its missing the thumb piece. And the thumb piece here would have been carved probably with a lion or maybe a flower. And this is actually called a peg tankard. This would have been to measure out even quantities. An extremely important tankard to a family. Ceremonial, very good, and it comes from norway. Really . I never would have guessed that. Theyre a pretty common form in norway. And its got this beautiful carved trailing tulip here. And theres that big, old coin sticking right in the middle there. We would date it probably to the first half of the 1700s. Its got nice carved lion feet here. These are all silver mounts, and we do have some silver issues here. Theres a big crimp. If you look on in the inside, you can see all the burls. Oh, for heavens sakes. Is it done by hand, do you think . Absolutely. Its actually very, very nicely done. And its got wonderful surface to it. Its really quite lovely. And i would say for replacement purposes, youd be talking a value of around 5,000 on it. 5,000 . That is just wonderful. Not bad for a leftover in an attic. For a leftover in an attic and residing in my basement for a long time. Thank you so much. The mystery is solved. Wait till my brother finds out. I know. laughing oh, thats just wonderful. Paint, pencil, metal, wood these are just some of the common materials artists have used for centuries to create their works. But what about sand . In the late 19th century, iowa artist Andrew Clemens took a local raw material and made masterpieces with every colorful grain. Expert wes cowan joined roadshow at the state Historical Museum of iowa to explore some of clemenss amazing sand bottles, now highly prized works of folk art. Mark, these were all made by a gentleman named Andrew Clemens, who was from mcgregor, iowa. Clemens was born in 1857 and died young in 1894, when he was only 37 years old. When he was five years old, he was stricken with encephalitis that left him completely deaf. And over the next couple decades, this guy mastered the technique of making these remarkable pictures better than anyone that ive known to exist. All of this sand was packed dry, no water involved, no glue involved, and all of those colors are naturally occurring from the area around mcgregor. Lets start by talking about the smallest piece here. And if i didnt see it in comparison to the pieces were about to look at, i would think this was his ultimate masterpiece. When you look at this thing, youre struck by the level of detail. I mean, its like a painting of the ship, and then these great, vibrant colors. Pretty remarkable. In 2002, the first clemens bottle that any of us had ever seen appeared at the roadshow in hot springs, arkansas. At the time, we all were sort of scratching our head because we could find no auction records for one. So we said, oh, 4,000 to 6,000. Since then, a number have come out of the woodwork and the price range is 4,000 to 6,000 all the way up to 25,000 theyve sold for. So you would think a small bottle like this, similar to this, would be in the 4,000 to 6,000 range . Exactly. At auction . Exactly. And then we move to this second piece, and it is amazing. Tell me about this. Well, it really is a masterpiece. And the ships on the front are amazing. The detail on the back, with the flowers, and the presentation inscription is really remarkable. I wouldnt be surprised at all to see one similar to that, if it. Whenever it appeared on the market, to sell for 25,000 and up without breaking a sweat. Boy, talk about a masterpiece, tell me about this large piece here. Well, this bottle, 12 inches, we know was presented to the museum here by Andrew Clemenss relatives. And the story that came down with the bottle when it was presented was that clemens made this bottle for his mother and it took him two years to do. He signed it down at the bottom, Andrew Clemens, mcgregor, iowa. Of course, on the front you see the iowa state seal. But the back side, of course, is what is really remarkable. Because here we see george washington, the father of our country, on horseback. And look at the shading on the horse. This particular piece is a oneofakind made for his mom, but if one like that were to have survived and is out there somewhere, what would you say that would be worth . You know, speaking theoretically, um, 50,000 and up. Maybe 100,000. Who knows . None has ever appeared. And if there was one out there like it, id love to know about it. It is amazing to see this beautiful art. And when you look at these pieces in particular and realize that not only is the detail amazing, but he did the entire thing upside down, capped it and then turned it right side up, its just amazing. Thanks for sharing them with us. Well, im fascinated with the guy, and im glad you enjoyed it. Man this has been in my house ever since ive been a young kid. Its affectionately called the thing. My mother said that it was put together by my greatgreatgrandmother. Judging by some of the dates on the coins, they range from 1880 to 1890, so i would imagine it would have been done shortly thereafter. Its just something you can sit and look at for hours on end, and youll never see the same thing twice if you look at it long enough. Its a wonderful thing, the thing. The thing. Its a piece of memory art. And these pieces were made throughout the united states, typically made on ceramic jugs. The theory behind them is that when a relative passes away and drawers are cleaned out and little pieces of memories are found, they use those pieces to construct a piece of artwork as a memory of that person. And what i find intriguing about this is the fact that she made it of herself. And typically it was always thought they were made after the fact, when the person passed away. And when we start to examine this wonderful use of a late19thcentury pedestal, we see, starting from the top, see a little carved bible. And going down the piece, some of the things i find intriguing the coins, marbles. These might have been memories, prizes that she won at a state fair. Okay. These little triangular things. Was she a potter or was there a kiln in the family . Uh, that i dont know. Because these are little stands that you put a piece of pottery on when you put it in the kiln for firing, so that the air gets underneath and bakes the underneath as well. And there are several of these throughout the memory piece. She must have had some skill to be able to put Something Like this together. Absolutely. Now, condition here is imperative, because this is all afterthe fact and applied to the wood. Its plaster, it dries up, the pieces fall off, and we always find them and theyre in just deplorable condition. Mmhmm. This one is just virtually mint. Now, these large marbles, tell me about those. Uh, those were replaced at some time by my mother. They are not original. Okay, and you can tell that theyre not late19thcentury marbles. But there were marbles on there. There were marbles on there, okay. Well, lets just turn this around very slowly, and you see a gold bracelet. So there are things put in here of value. Coins we dont know how rare they are. We found some teeth. both chuckling we do see memory pieces. But this is truly tour de force. And there are people that collect these, and theyre very highly thought of in the folk art world, because they are original works of art. Okay. And as a retail value, i would have no problem saying it was worth between 4,000 and 6,000. Wow. Thats quite a bit. It is, it is. For something that sat around in the house for years and years and years. Woman this vase is from my grandmother. My grandmother was a cook for a wealthy lady in minneapolis around the turn of the century, and her brother was the family chauffeur, and over time, this woman and my grandmother became very close, and this woman gave my grandmother a lot of beautiful things, and this was one of them. And i have to say that i have always called it the worlds ugliest vase and its been living in my basement for 30 years. This vase is made by one of my favorite german companies. Really . Called royal bonn. We see a lot of german pottery and porcelain when we do antiques roadshow, and weve been seeing a lot today here in des moines. And i think royal bonn does not get its due. Their wares are usually not highfired porcelain, like a lot of the other german or austrian makers. You can tell by the weight, and you can tell by the color. So it was less expensive to make Something Like this than to make porcelain. Its fired at a lower temperature. You could tell that it is white earthenware. So they were less expensive to make, less expensive to fire, but the decorations on a lot of the porcelain pieces were done by transfer, which is commercial and quick. And royal bonn is usually done by hand. Really . And often you have these lovely ladies on it or beautiful sprays of flowers. You dont see high art nouveau like this. So youve been to this exhibition on art nouveau, so you would have an idea of the time period about 1900 or so, plus or minus. Royal bonn was started in 1836 by a gentleman called franz anton mehlem, and added the name royal in 1890 and was eventually sold to the very large and important Villeroy Boch in 1920. So lets look at the piece all around. It has these beautiful irises, very stylized flowers. Some incisions that have been glazed. We have a little chip here. Yes. This is also what happens when it is lower fired. Its a little more fragile. There are also some little chippies down here, nothing major. These would be fairly easy to restore. That chip over there may cost you 50, 75 to have fixed. As far as value goes, many, many pieces of royal bonn are just in the low hundreds, but this has such nice style to it, has a good shape, a good size, i would think that at auction it should be able to bring about a thousand dollars. Wow. So i guess ill take it out of the basement then. Well, thank you. Im beginning to think a lot more highly of it now. Woman i bought them in 1999, within about a month of each other, from a dealer, and he had rather lavish descriptions of each of them. But i just thought they were fascinating, and i really liked them, so i bid and i won the auctions. The printouts that i made off the auction site said that the fly whisk was probably kongo. He said it was ivory, and he didnt describe the hair on the bottom, but i think its elephant hair. The center figure is a fang. I think its pronounced bieri box, in which they kept cranial caps, and that is a guardian figure, and they brought the cranial caps out at rituals and special times, and in the meantime, they kept it in a hut and the figure guarded the ancestors bones. The small mask i know nothing about. He said it was bakuba. He thought it was a childs initiation mask, but i do know that small masks were worn on foreheads and on shoulders, so its not necessarily a childs mask just because its small. Was this on the internet . Yes, this was on the internet. And so did he give you guarantees, or how did that work . No, he did not give me any guarantees. Okay, this first one is a kongostyle. Now, the country that its from is the democratic republic of the congo, and thats spelled with a c. Mmhmm. The tribal name is spelled with a k kongo. Now, the first thing that we do when we know what an object is, we look for the appropriate wear patterns. This is a fly whisk. Its a status symbol. Its a symbol of authority. And so what wed expect to see is a great deal of wear where the hand would have touched this. Mmhmm. Now, its somewhat troublesome that the patination seems somewhat even on this and not really indicative of a great deal of wear. So this is definitely a reproduction, which is being made for sale, fly whisk. This piece is probably somewhere around mid20th century. Now, this piece over here, these fang features are very exaggerated. This shape of the head is really troublesome. Mmhmm. And so in my judgment, this piece was also made for sale. Okay. Now, this piece here you thought is a mask. I think its the top to a kuba box. Really . Because when you look at the wear along here, down on the nose, the side here, the kuba dont have any masks like this. Really . But they do have a tradition of box making. Yes, and i have a few boxes. And they have lids. It never occurred to me. Now, stylistically its really weird, its really aberrant. I think this is a little bit earlier. I think this is the first half of the 20th century, maybe into the 20s or the 30s. Yeah. Now, the total that you have on this piece. What did you pay for this . 1,200, about. Twelve hundred. Mmhmm, and 2,800 for that. Twentyeight hundred. And 500. And 500. 500 for that. So our total is. 4,500, about. 4,500. Unfortunately, the total value of these pieces is going to be more in the 500 to 600 range. Wow. Youd expect on the internet or in a retail shop, this piece would be somewhere around 100, 150. A piece like this is going to be in the 200 to 300 range. Okay. This piece over here as an authentic kuba box lid without the box. chuckles right. For a retail price, youre still looking at about 150. If they were all authentic, easily the group could be in the 50,000 to 60,000 range. Man well, i found this book when i was at college. Once a year they have a book sale. This was in the religious section of books for 25 cents. I thought it sounded interesting, so i picked it up. Its houdinis miracle mongers and their methods. As you may know, when his mother passed away, he was very interested in trying to reach her, and he went to a lot of mediums and he went to a lot of seances. And after a while he began to see that these were a lot of fakes and people were taking advantage of people who were in mourning. Mmm. Houdini didnt like that, and he knew a lot of the techniques they were using. So he took it upon himself, from about 1920 on, which is the year this was published, to start exposing them and going to seances and would debunk them. He put out this book, which was debunking a lot of the methods that were used. And the title says, a complete expose of the modus operandi of fire eaters, heat resisters, poison eaters, venomous reptile defiers, sword swallowers, human ostriches, strong men, and the like. So it was a real expose on what he knew. We have the first page, houdini has inscribed it. Erik weisz was his original, his birth name, and he changed it to houdini for show business. But here hes inscribed it in a bold, clear signature, to w. S. Davis, best wishes from the author, houdini, january 1921. So, right after publication. The book was published, like i said, in 1920. A lot of times theyre dated 1920. It would have come out the beginning of 21, january. Im sure it was an early presentation. Its a great thing. The book itself is worth several hundred dollars in this condition. Its in fairly good condition. Wow. With the inscription, though, significantly impacts it. His autograph is relatively rare. I mean, he did sign things, but on this book in particular, its a good one to have inscribed. Copies have come up at auction, and we would estimate this at 2,000 to 3,000. Really . Yeah, so you did very well for your. On your purchase. My husband and i were at an estate sale, and it was around valentines day, and he decided it would be a great present for me for valentines day, which i was thrilled about. He paid 20 for it. They had a piece of masking tape on the top of it that said it was from 1871. And thats all i know. Well, we know thats accurate, the date is, because of the style of the gown. And this was considered very seductive for the time, because it actually showed the womans form from the front. Up until this period, you had all this skirt and you didnt see the movement of the womans hips when she walked. Of course, she was corseted up, and a good corset will take three inches off of your waist. Wow. So, while this waist of this gown measures 21 inches right now on this mannequin, it would have been about a modern 24inch waist, which would have made you a size zero or size one today. There are a few condition issues, but overall, the look is in what we would call good vintage condition. Okay. If you were going to a nice vintage clothing show or a shop, you would expect to pay between 600 and 800 for this dress. Oh, wonderful, wonderful. Man this picture is of my granddad, Franklin Augustus seiberling, sr. , who started Goodyear Rubber Company and then went on to found seiberling Rubber Company in the 1920s. After my dad died, it was given to me. Do you know when it was given to your grandfather . It was given in 1928. It is listed on the back that it was given by his sales staff to him as a gift. Now, what i want to do here first of all is take it out of its box. Now, whats interesting about this watch, not only was it a presentation piece, but it was also the 50th anniversary celebration of the Gruen Watch Company being in business from 1874 to 1924. The Gruen Watch Company was set up in 1874 in cincinnati, ohio, and what they did was they produced a watch with a solid gold movement. And not only that, they put ruby jewels in it, 21 of them, plus two diamonds as well. And the metal is pink gold. Now, these watches are not unique. They made a small production run of them, and over the years ive seen a few of these. But what ive never seen is the watch in its original presentation box. And youre very lucky. You have saved one of the advertisements for this watch when it was brand new. Now, very seldom do these watches really ever survive with all of this material. And when i was looking at the box, inside i found this small tin box. Now, this was designed to be a jewelry box. But furthermore, it has some other goodies in it as well a small box from the Gruen Watch Company, which, when you open it up, has a crystal. Its pentagonal because its the 50th anniversary watch. Its a spare part. Should you ever be so unfortunate as to break the crystal of this watch, theyve supplied you with another. Youll find these watches in a price guide for maybe 4,000 to 6,000 for an auction. But when its in this kind of condition, when it has the portrait of the owner, you have a bit of the advertising with it, its in its original box, its hardly ever been used, you have a spare crystal, it falls into the category, really, of a mint condition watch. In an auction, i would probably estimate this somewhere around 8,000 to 10,000. Oh, very good. Thank you. Youre quite welcome. These belonged to my late husbands greataunt and her husband, who owned Movie Theaters in northwest iowa. They had 11 at one time. Really . This was the 20s through the early 50s, i believe. Well, you brought a large selection here. Theres a whole bunch in this folder. Right. Plus theres production yearbooks, lobby cards, onesheets. These are called window cards. Mmhmm. They were sent to the Movie Theaters for the theater to mark here the name of the theater and the play dates. And then they would go out to local stores and give them this to put in their window hence the name and give them a couple of passes to the theater. Right. That type of thing. And they were always on a light cardboard, and most of them, the early ones, were silkscreened. Mmhmm. Theyre a very pleasant format for collectors because theyre smaller than the large posters. Yes. But they have very strong graphics, so window cards are very popular. Now, a full window card measures 14 x 22, and this is a complete window card for the original 193738 release of snow white and the seven dwarfs. The film was in release for, like, three years. Most of the window cards were in the later part of the run, and this is most likely a 39. This piece would, at auction, sell for 4,000 to 5,000. Now, this is a common occurrence with window cards theyre trimmed. People liked them, but they didnt like all this writing at the top, so they would take the top off and then you get a 14 x 17. Okay. Now, strangely enough, it does not really detract that much okay. From the value, because collectors know that the only thing up here. Was blank. Was either blank or there was some writing in it. Now, this is from the general release of gone with the wind. Gone with the wind opened up in limited engagements with an intermission. Right. It got the. Really the posh treatment. Mgm was really treating it as a special movie. But then it went into the regular run, what we call a grind run, where it showed all day long. And this was their tag line nothing cut but the price. Okay. Even though it was showing in your Movie Theater all day long, it was exactly the same one that was showing before. So this dates from about 1940. And as a trimmed lobby card, it would sell for 1,500 to 2,000. Okay. This one is from 1939, and its a very desirable image, very desirable poster, and would sell for about 2,000 to 2,500. Now, the wheeler and woolsey hold em jail is from 1932. And there is almost no paper on this. Yeah. We have found almost nothing on this title. In many cases, Something Like this, when it comes up for auction, it will become the guide for all the other people who find material related to this film. Sure. So its a rather important piece and would sell in the 3,000 range. My. Now, i went over the entire portfolio with another appraiser, and we came to the conclusion this would sell in the 25,000 to 28,000 range at auction. Well, ola, who was the theater owner, would be thrilled. The guys name on here is my grandpa. In 1939, he was nine years old. My greatgreatgrandfather drove him to kalamazoo, michigan, to pick it up, and then it came into my possession and now im going to cherish it, for sure. He played. Its the square. Square dances. With a tenor banjo . With a tenor banjo. Which, you know, is a gibson. Yep. And its a very interesting model. Its a florentine model. Gibson, during the big band era of the 1920s and 30s made lots of these very loud. Yeah, it is. Mastertone model banjos. And not only very loud, but in some cases very fancy, like this one. The florentine was all carved and painted up as you can see. And this is an interesting variation on the florentine, because florentines generally didnt have what we call the hearts and flowers inlay here and this checkerboard pattern. Thats what youd find on style 6 gibson mastertones. This is probably a custom model. The banjo was actually made in 1927. 27, okay. According to the serial number; i looked inside. The first year for the florentine banjo. And im not really sure whether the first year involved some variations or not. Perhaps the strangeness of the banjo is because it was the first period for them, and strangely, a pearloid peghead overlay that doesnt have any rhinestones in it, and originally these all had rhinestones, the ones ive ever seen. The other thing is that its got an ebony fingerboard, and some of these models back then had rosewood. Youll see that this one is rather heavily carved with this interesting kind of royal motif. Yes. The metalwork is engraved metalwork and goldplated as well. You have that also on the tailpiece and on the armrest. And. Youve got goldplated tuners. Okay. Just goldplated. Goldplated, not solid gold, goldplated. Okay. And this strange cord hanging down is because the gentleman who played it had a skin head on it before this and they used to use a light bulb inside to heat up the skin head to tighten it up before a performance. This should have a retail value of 8,000 to 10,000. Yeah . Thats amazing, really. Are you going to play it . You bet. Well, like i said, i can make it make noise, but i cant play a tune, but you bet im going to play it. Woman we were in france for a business trip, and i had a chance to go either to versailles or to the flea market, and i chose going to the flea market. Id always heard about it, always envisioned it, and this is where i went. You found this, and when was that . That was in 61, 62. So almost 50 years ago. Oh, yes. Well, you know who the artist is. Its by a romanian artist named demetre chiparus. Yes. And he was one of the leading sculptors of the art deco period. So he worked basically in the 1920s and 1930s. And this work that you have is really incredible. Its gilt bronze, and this is carved marble. He did a number of works that had mixed materials. Hes really well known for having done bronzes that had ivory in them that were further painted. His work is really quite rare, and as a matter of fact, even though im saying that its rare, we see more chiparuses on the antiques roadshow than any other sculpture. Theres only one reason, though. Most of the chiparuses we see are fake. Oh, they are . But youre lucky enough to have one that is authentic. It is a genuine chiparus from the 1920s, from the 1930s. Whats so interesting about yours is the size of it. Most of the chiparuses are sort of this big or this big, and you have the giant economy size chiparus. It was a hassle to get it home, i can tell you that. Well, youre lucky that you persevered. Its in great condition. Its gilt bronze, and then this has a brown patina on it, and you have the marble and its slightly tinted here. This piece is called the clowns dream in the literature. Over here we have the signature. Its signed chiparus. Now, you didnt pay very much for it at the paris flea market, did you . chuckling no, i didnt. 50 dollars. 50 dollars. Im embarrassed to say. Chiparuss works are very desirable now. Theres a Strong Influence of russians on the market, and the russian collectors like chiparus. I could see a value for this in a gallery of 100,000. Oh, m. Oh. My. Goodness. Oh, my goodness. Oh i am shh. I am. Beyond shocked. I had. Oh whew and the market is very strong for this. This is extraordinarily unusual in this size. And the condition also is just extraordinary. It has everything going for it across the board. It. It means a lot to me. Well, thats good. I really. Love the piece. I cannot believe it. Thank you so much. Youre welcome. Youre watching antiques roadshow from des moines, iowa. Check out roadshow online at pbs. Org to watch this and other episodes, appraisal clips and webexclusive video. Dont go away. Well hear from folks in the feedback booth right after this. Versatility and safety drive all our vehicle designs. Because however big, small, new, or old your cargo may be, its all precious. Subaru. A proud sponsor of antiques roadshow. Its not about the things we have, but the memories we make with them. Liberty mutual insurance. Proud sponsor of antiques roadshow. And by contributions to your pbs station from walberg and now, its time its t for the roadshow feedback booth. Dad, this was ugly when you inherited it, and its still ugly, but its worth 400 to 600. Whoohoo laughing we got in at 8 00. We got in at 8 00, out at 9 00. We got the rest of the day to go shopping before our husbands find out what were up to. Glad we came to roadshow. Mine was appraised at 30 to 50. His was appraised at 30,000 to 50,000. Whoa, betty. So this is dancing dan that was made for my fatherinlaw back in 1926. We didnt know if it was worth anything, but today i found out it was worth 400. Hi we got up early today and came to the roadshow. We had a great time. I found out her glassware is worth. A thousand bucks. And these not so much. But we had a great time. Yes, we did. And im buying lunch. I brought my 50cent yard find, and theyre worth about 15 bucks apiece. I lost my dad, i dont know where hes at. I hope they get a good price for him. Um, great experience, great time with my dad. Thank you. This is usually date night watching. Roadtrip. Roadshow. Roadshow. Antiques roadshow. Wow, this is a trip. And we found out our family heirlooms are worth a little bit, but theyre worth even more to us, and thats all that matters. But boy, did we have fun. Its been a good day, and prices are really, really favorable. Thanks, its been a joy. Im mark walberg. Thanks for watching. Well see you next time on antiques roadshow. Captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org walberg im sure there are viewers right now who are watching who have sand art, and they may think they have clemens work, but there were imitators doing this kind of work, werent there . Thats right. Almost immediately, as clemens gained success and fame, imitators sprung up. And weve got a bottle made by a guy named john adams from mason city, iowa, and its signed and dated 1933. When you look at that, though, youre immediately struck by, thats really good, but it doesnt compare with these. Just look at the level of detail. The imagery in this bottle is sort of murky compared to the crispness here. When you look at this piece alone, you would remark at the detail. But when you see it in comparison to clemens work, you immediately realize it couldnt have been him. But, you know, even a bottle like that still has value. Can you give us an example of what a bottle similar to this might go for . Its not as valuable as the clemens bottles, but still, i think in the right setting, that could sell for 2,500, 3,000. Well, as a small child, there was an antiques shop across the street from the Grocery Store that we used to go to, and i always wanted to stop and my mother never stopped. But for my sixth birthday, she stopped at that antique shop and she bought for me a handmade wooden bank for a dollar. Now, in the 60s, a dollar was a lot more than it is now, but that was my first antique, and it was the most wonderful birthday present i think i ever got. At least i thought it was. So that started me collecting at a young age. Welcome to antiques roadshow. Got treasures . Des moines sure does. Man this piece my father acquired, im guessing either at a flea market or a gun show. Woman i said it was very ugly. We had a laugh about it. And it didnt get brought out until friday. Oh, my goodness. Thats wonderful. Dont miss a minute of antiques roadshow from des moines, iowa. Stay tuned. Captioning sponsored by subaru, liberty mutual, the corporation for public broadcasting and viewers like you firecrackers exploding announcer now, the people who make antiques roadshow possible. Its not about the things we have, but the memories we make with them