Your typical chest would have a rectangular top with a molded edge. Right. But this has got these cut corners that are supported with the molding underneath, and the case follows with these beautiful fluted pilasters that go from top to bottom and continue to what we call a triplefaceted foot, and whats really interesting about that foot, with a little more research, we could probably figure out the maker, because this faceted foot is only done by a few cabinetmakers in philadelphia. Oh all right. And then, its got this figured walnut, really what we kind of call tortured grain, or crotch walnut. This comes from the y in a tree, where the. Oh. And thats what creates that wonderful motion in the wood. The grain will draw your eye up the chest. And then the american cabinetmakers strive for verticality in their pieces. And then if we also look at the front of the chest, youve got these period queen anne brasses, but what really makes this special is its size. Its what we call a diminutive chest. Its got a very narrow width, and when you start taking in inches on the width, you can start adding dollar signs. Now, that being said, there are a few condition issues with the chest. The first thing is the surface. Now, if youre a fan of the roadshow, you know we like those dirty, grungy surfaces. Right. But this has been refinished. Its kind of got this shiny surface. If you look at the front of the chest, youll notice white marks on the drawers. Yes. Those are what we call halos, and as one of my colleagues say, halos are great on angels, but not on furniture. Does that mean that it was painted at one time . It isnt. What that is is residual brass polish, so someone has put the polish on the brasses and rubbed it in, and its worked its way into the pores of the wood. Oh. All right. You also have some repairs and cracks to the foot facings, but that being said, its still a special chest. I think we can easily say, at auction, we place an estimate of 12,000 to 18,000 on this chest. Oh, really, on this chest . I would never have known that. If this had its original surface, wed easily say 30,000 to 50,000. Man i got this watch from my grandfather, who passed away three years ago. We had it appraised about two years ago, and he said it was probably around 3,000, but i could put some work into it, maybe bump that value up to about 5,000 or 6,000. Have you done any of the research, in terms of the history behind it . I believe its from the 50s. What did your grandfather do for a living . He was an electrical engineer. Its made by rolex in geneva. Rolex is a very, very large, very famous swiss watchmaking company. It is a very famous model. Its a reference 6234, made in 1954. It differs very slightly from regular pieces of this type of era in that it also has a chronograph feature. A chronograph is designed as a stopwatch. You have two buttons on the side. The top one is to start and stop the time. The bottom one is to reset it again. Theyre actually largely popular with auto racing, which is why i was quite curious about his profession. But the other aspect of this watch is they were antimagnetic, so if you worked in magnetic fields, then it could well be that he needed an antimagnetic watch. Yeah. It looks like he took good care of it too. Originality comes into play quite a lot when youre dealing with vintage pieces in any type of sense. The glass thats on there is still the original glass. It has a few scratches on there, et cetera, but in my view it sort of gives it great history behind it. The hands are original, and the dial is a multicolored, so its white also with the blue and the black outer track. Its a still excellentcondition dial, and very often with these type of pieces, because they were sports watches, they tend to get slightly discolored. The bracelet, incidentally, is not original and really doesnt add any value to the piece. This piece, i think, estimate today for auction purposes, is around 25,000 to 30,000. laughs um. So its a little higher wow. Than the value that they had given. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you very much, charles. So, larry, you came up from turkey creek, right . Turkey creek, kentucky. Tell me about this bus you brought. Well, i think its a 1920s turner, is what i was told. Got it from a friend of mine. Hes a real good friend, and he actually gave it to me. He gave it to you. I didnt have to buy it, he gave it to me. I think he got it at an estate sale. Now, you collect toys . I do collect toys. So he decided that hed be a real good friend and give you this bus. Yeah, because i dont have anything like this. Ive got a lot of cars and trucks, but nothing this early. This is that early pressed steel. Right. And youre absolutely right, its 1920s, its turner, and of course you know a little bit about toys. You know buddy l made buses and buddy l made the big pressed steel stuff. Then there were Companies Like turner that came along. Its a nice toy and pretty nice gift. Yes, it is. You have any idea what it might be worth . Im beginning to think its worth pretty good money. I dont know; ive had a lot of oohs and ahhs on it. Well, ill tell you, its a rare bus. Is it really . Frankly, its about the third one ive ever heard of. No way. Well, boy, i hope your friend doesnt want to take it back now. Im hoping not. I dont know. Well, even though its missing a headlight, i dont think thats that important once you get into this level of rarity. The last two of these that i know of, selling at auction, were 5,000 and 6,000. No way. Are you serious . I am dead serious. Wow. And the last one was 6,000 and it had a repainted running board. This is a little bit better than the last one i know of thats selling at auction. This is a minimum 5,000 to 6,000 bus. Im going to have to do a lot of, uh. Youre going to have some fun with your friend. Yes, i am. Yes, i am. Well, you might just have to buy him lunch or dinner. Hes a good guy. Hes a good guy. I think it was maybe worth your drive from kentucky. Yeah, im really tickled. It was an honor to be here. Woman it came from my brothers estate, and although, um, its not the type of art that i generally, um, warm to, i was intrigued by the fact that it appears to be oil on board. Mmhmm. And, um, which i thought was somewhat strange for a pinup pose. Its an interesting painting, and it falls within the genre of illustrator art. Earl moran did, not only magazine work, started his career with sears roebuck, born in the midwest, studied at the chicago art institute, ultimately settled out in hollywood, very prolific. Knew marilyn monroe, knew betty grable. His works were highly prized. I had a couple of colleagues who are very familiar with marilyn look at it. And the consensus seems to be, unfortunately, that its probably not marilyn. Its got a little bit of flaking, a little bit of paint loss, but nothing really extreme. Its a terrific work, and sometimes, if it is of an absolutely known subject, such as a marilyn monroe, it can be worth more than if its simply a beautiful woman. A painting like this, condition aside, probably 5,000 to 8,000 at auction. Its a really nice painting. Its a great example of illustrator art. Man its been in my family for as long as i can remember. It was owned by my mothers side, and when my grandmother passed away, it came over from scotland to where i grew up, just outside of buffalo. Well, its a beauty. Its a vase or an urn. Its a vessel. The most striking part of this piece is this medallion here. Its made to look like a carved cameo shell, but its made of porcelain, on porcelain. And that technique is called patesurpte french term paste on paste. And that is done by applying one thin layer of slip, which is liquid porcelain, over the other, over the other. So, instead of casting this, like a piece of jasperware, like wedgwood, this is applied with a paintbrush. So youll get these beautiful, translucent effects. So usually when you see a piece with patesurpte, which are quite rare, they have these diaphanous gowns, these long, flowing shawls, so that you get to see the light through them. Now, this technique was perfected by a frenchman called marclouis solon, and solon worked for the sevres factory in france. So when one sees a piece like this, so beautiful, one immediately thinks, mmm, perhaps this was done by solon, perhaps this is a piece of sevres, and then, when he went to england, solon worked at minton, so i thought, perhaps its a piece of minton. And it is none of these folks. Im going to show the bottom. And we see the mark of the crossed swords of meissen. Meissen is german. And not only is it german, it is seminal german porcelain works the most important. They have been around since the earliest part of the 18th century. And so this mark is widely copied, and often you see fake meissen marks. Uhoh. This is real meissen. Oh. It would be difficult to fake the entirety of it. The qualitys too great. Ive never seen patesurpte faked. This particular mark tells us that the piece was done between 1850 and 1924, and because of the decoration style, we all thought that the time for this was probably during the 1880s, and we dont know who this artist was. This is not solon. He didnt work at meissen. Were going to turn it around so folks can see the back, with these lovely serpent handles, not uncommon on an urn at meissen. And the value on that, at auction, would probably be somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000. Sweet great im surprised. Woman i came by it through my parents, and theyre gone, so it went to my sister. Shes gone, so i have it now. And do you know where they acquired it . My parents were traveling in europe right after world war ii. I think he had business over there, and they came upon this in france. Mmhmm. And brought it back. That was maybe the late 40s. And do you know where in france they acquired it . I heard it was from aubusson, where they used to make the old tapestries. It is from aubusson. It is a tapestry from the mid20th century. I would put a date 1945 to 1950 on it. The cartoon, which is the design of the tapestry, was done by a gentleman named jean lurcat, who is, without a doubt, the premier tapestry designer in france, of mid20th century france. Ooh, la, la. He is also a painter, also was a carpet designer, but hes really best known for his tapestry designs, his cartoons. And he really was one of the driving artists behind the revitalization of the aubusson tapestry looms in the mid20th century, after the war, to make these very modern, fantastic pieces. Its a handwoven tapestry weave. They still had trained artisans in the town of aubusson. This particular piece, while designed by lurcat, was made and woven by a Company Called pinton brothers, which was one of the leading aubusson workshops in the mid20th century. Lurcat, his signature is here in the bottom corner, but next to it is a pf, which is pinton freres, which is pinton brothers. The name of this tapestry is gobi. Its inspired by a night scene in the gobi desert in china. You mean you recognize it . Which is why you have kind of bamboolooking motifs through the tapestry, and these blue dots that are kind of hinting at stars, as a night scene. By the modernism of the mid20th century, everything was highly stylized, so the suggestions of ideas as opposed to really naturalistic depictions. I know a lot about lurcat. I know a lot about lurcat tapestries. You do. This is one of the greatest ones ive ever seen. Really lurcat tapestries can tend to be quite busy, a little too much going on. This has a cleanness to it that is really, to me, the best of mid20th century french tapestry. Do you have any idea of value . Well, i was thinking maybe 5,000. The retail value is 15,000. Whoa. Its really quite a remarkable tapestry. My husband has an aunt betsy, and she has over the years collected automata dolls, and she was very nice and generous and gave me this doll for christmas two years ago. And i think she just wanted to make more room in her house so she could collect a few more. But this is very special. I dont really know a whole lot about her. I think aunt betsy bought her maybe ten or 12 years ago, but she does not remember what she paid for the doll. What you have is what we refer to as an automaton, or mechanical, french doll. Its made by the jumeau company. Oh, it is . Whats wonderful about it, many times the mechanism is in a box and the doll stands on the box, but the mechanism on this doll is actually right inside the torso of the doll. The head is very adult, which is very unusual. Theyre usually childlikelooking faces. And this has another unusual feature. It has an open mouth with teeth. That doesnt always translate into more valuable, it just is very unusual to see this head with teeth. This doll was made probably between 1880 and 1905. I wanted to demonstrate how it works. Theres a key underneath the skirt, here. And then theres this lever that you pull out. Right. And then we can see it operate. And she has a surprise, of course. There it comes. squeak laughs laughs the doll is bisque, the arms are bisque, the chest plate is bisque, which is unusual on this doll. Usually the clothing comes up to the neck. Oh, okay. The shoes are not original, the hat is not original, the dress is not original. But i believe its well done, whoever dressed it. Mmhmm. This doll is the cadillac of mechanical dolls. It is an amazing doll, and on the retail market, were talking about 30,000 to 35,000. And she gave this to me . Oh, my goodness. laughs she may want it back thank you again for bringing it. Its just wonderful. Oh, no, im totally shocked and surprised. toy squeaks walberg we think nothing of snapping pictures of friends and family today, and with digital photography, most people have hundreds, if not thousands, of images of loved ones. But for early americans, one single miniature portrait might have been all there was for someone to remember his kin. The Smithsonian American Art Museum has over 400 miniature portraits on display at the Luce Foundation center. Expertly designed for study and comparison, the institutions holdings are ready for their closeup. Nancy druckman well, the first one is really a masterpiece. Its by Charles Willson peale. He was born in 1741, and he was the patriarch of one of the most important painting dynasties in america. In 1767, he was sent to london, and one of the patrons who financed peales trip was a man named john beale bordley, from maryland. And, done in watercolor on ivory, these are bordleys two sons, thomas, age 12, and matthias, age nine. What makes this even more touching is that thomas died in 1771. This is considered one of the best things he ever painted, so if were talking about relative values, it would probably be somewhere in the range of 50,000 to 75,000. This one is a really intriguing piece. This is the work of a woman artist, initially selftaught. Her name is Sarah Goodridge. She was born in a small town in massachusetts and found her way to Gilbert Stuart, one of the most important and influential portrait painters of the late 18th and early 19th century. And stuart took her in as a student and mentored her, and this portrait, again on ivory, is of Gilbert Stuart, painted in 1825, and he said, this is the only true likeness that has ever been painted of me. And those are actually strands of Gilbert Stuart and his wifes hair. Walberg that make the bracelet . Druckman that are braided into that bracelet. My goodness, what a treasure. It is a treasure. The highest recorded price for a miniature by Sarah Goodridge is something around 6,000. But this one is really out of the ballpark. Very difficult to assign value, but that gives us some context. Yes. These two represent a real shift, because these are works that are done on paper. So were out of the precious sphere of watercolor on ivory made for the american aristocracy, and were now into miniatures in a democratic kind of way. This one dates to 1850, and its by a named folk artist, James Sanford ellsworth, and in ellsworths time, we have the introduction of photography, nipping at his heels, and so he did these funny little abstract renditions that have curlicues and wings. There are a lot of them that do exist in the marketplace, and theres a fairly consistent price level. They usually sell somewhere in the vicinity of 5,000 to 7,000. Well, theyre really remarkable pieces and incredibly beautiful, and thanks for sharing them with us. Thank you. Woman we think its maybe a temperance banner. It came from my grandmothers attic. My mom and one of my aunts were cleaning out the attic thats the home that they grew up in and found this folded up in a little plastic bag. So, ive unfolded it and have tried to take as good care of it as possible. Well, the first thing we want to do is we want to try to date this. And we date Something Like this by looking at the material and by looking at the style of the lettering. We see its made of a very, very fine linen material, on a beautiful cotton backing. And its quite early. It depicts the railroad. Its the metaphor, because railroads are something exciting, so theyre telling you not to get on this train, and if you do, the stops on the train are pretty hazardous, leading all the way to black valley, and your tickets are sold at all liquor shops. Now, whats interesting about the Temperance Movement at that particular time is its part of the overall Reform Movement thats going on in this country. So, this is not necessarily just something by a preacher who is antidrinking. This is part of a serious awakening thats going on in a country that is new, and that all of a sudden, people have to show up at work, all of a sudden people are operating machinery, and liquor is cheap. Its plentiful, and people are drunk. A lot. So this whole Reform Movement that was coming in were talking about education, child labor, diet and drinking. So its a very, very important facet of american history. It would have probably been hung by a traveling temperance person giving temperance speeches. In a way, the roots of this all led up to prohibition. There are some condition situations here, but im not going to use the word condition problems, because this piece was used, it took journeys, it was hung, it was taken down, it was rehung, and really has no effect on its value. Condition remains extraordinary, because of what it is. So in terms of value, i think a retail value of this is in the 5,000 to 6,000 range. Well, thank you. Woman my boyfriend passed away a few years back, and its from his estate. It is an 18thcentury american tankard, and this is made of coin silver, which was what they used in the late 18th century into the mid19th century in the United States. There was not a tremendous amount of silver made in the United States in the 18th century. Not a lot of it has survived, either. Most silver at that time was imported from england, because thats where all silver craftsmen were in the late 18th century, for the most part. There were some very good silver makers, and they were in the more metropolitan areas, and baltimore at that time was a major port city. So it is made by george aiken, who was a prominent baltimore silversmith, and he did make a tremendous amount of silver, actually, and a lot of it has survived. Its marked very clearly on the bottom with his mark, and that mark has his first initial, g, and aiken, his last name, and that was a mark that was used around 1790. He began making silver in baltimore as early as 1787, which is when he first ran some ads in the local papers. What struck me most interesting about it was that they made lots of spoons and lots of small cream pitchers, but not a lot of large hollowware. You do see it in america in the 18th century, but its primarily in the northern part of the country. Another thing thats interesting about it is the name on it. It has two names, griffith and lee, and i learned from the Baltimore Historical society that griffith was actually a very prominent merchant family in baltimore in the late 18th and early 19th century, and then, of course, the lees were very, very famous in the baltimore, annapolis, maryland, and virginia area. So, what did you pay for it . I paid the. Into the estate i paid 1,000 to get this. And do you have any idea what it might be worth, or any thoughts about what it might be worth . I had it appraised about seven years ago, by somebody who was not specific on the silver appraising. Thought it was worth about 6,000. I would think if this came up to auction today, it would conservatively bring 12,000 to 15,000, maybe as much as 15,000 to 20,000. Wow. Its a very rare example by a southern colonial silversmith, and whenever it comes up, they do really fight for it hard, so thered be a lot of competition if it did come up for sale. Okay, well, thats wonderful to know. My father was the last original Cleveland Brown to retire. His career extended from 1946 to 1968, and hes known as lou the toe groza. And why is that . He was a phenomenal placekicker, and hes inducted into the pro football hall of fame. I might add that if there was a hall of fame for fathers, hed be in it as well; he was a great dad. I was probably seven years old when he retired from the browns. A recent honor is the ncaa has an award named after him for the top kicker of the year, which is kind of a neat thing to continue his legacy, even though hes been long gone. He died, unfortunately, ten years ago. At 76, right . 76 was his age when he died, and thats the number that they retired many years ago with the Cleveland Browns. Now, what did he do after he retired . Well, even when he was playing back then, they had to have second jobs. He had an insurance business, and hed get out of a Football Game and the next day would be trying to sell insurance. So these are items from your dads career. Yeah what we have here on the right is one of his football jerseys. On the left here, i have my dads. One of his sideline jackets. And one thanksgiving after my father passed, my mom came in with a paper bag and we all drew cards, and we selected rings out of a bag, and this is the ring i got. Its the 1950 championship ring, which he wore many, many years, and it means a lot to me because it was the browns first championship in the nfl, and he won it with a lastsecond field goal on Christmas Eve back in 1950. Right, against the rams, right . Exactly. Exactly. I get home after getting this ring. I was going through some images and the one up top is actually a picture of him holding me as a baby, and hes wearing that ring, so it kind of gives you chill bumps, seeing that. Thats fantastic. Well, i think youre even being a little modest about your dad, because your dad was part of eight championship teams. The browns played in the aafc, allamerican football conference, winning four championships in a row. The league folded and they became part of the nfl. When you think of the browns today, they havent been to a super bowl in years. Exactly. They havent won since 64, and its largely part because of your father, otto graham, paul brown, jim brown. These were the men who were behind the great brown teams, and they won, of course, in 50, this year, as well as 54, 55 and 64. He was the only member of the browns in history to be on each of their championship games, which is kind of neat. Is there a funny moment that you remember about your dad in football . Theres one where he was probably 45 when he retired, and in his earlier years he used to take great pride in kicking off and running down and making the tackle as a kicker. Right. But in the later years, when he was older, he was 45, he was slower, heavier, as you can see in that picture, so paul brown would keep him back as a safety valve, and he happened to be kicking off, it was probably one of his last games, and a rookie from the opposing team knocked him down on his back, and my dad laid there, dazed, and this young guy reached down and said, sorry, mr. Groza. laughs so that kind of emulate. That tells you what kind of respect he earned from being in the nfl that long. Well, lets get to the values. So you have this great sideline jacket that your dad wore, im guessing this was in the 60s, as well as this jersey. We cant place it for sure. Now, insurance value on the jacket, which of course has the old browns logo, the brownie logo. Id probably put about 5,000 value. The jersey, because we cant place it to a particular year, i would put about 10,000 on that. Okay. If you had a jersey from one of the four championship years, or even the aafc years, then that would be a higher value. Okay