GUEST: Well, I think it's a Pilgrim chair, but I, I understand that it's really called a Brewster chair.

There was a man in Plymouth that settled there, and he, I think he was a, a minister, and his name was Brewster.

And I've seen sketches of this type of chair.

APPRAISER: How did you come to own this?

GUEST: It's come down in the family for years.

APPRAISER: What's the family name?

GUEST: The, the family that this came, it was Hall.

APPRAISER: And is, does that family go all the way back to the period of Brewster?

GUEST: It, it goes pretty far back.

APPRAISER: Well, you're, you're right, these are sometimes called Brewster chairs.

William Brewster is thought to have owned one of these.

He was one of the founders of Plymouth Colony.

This is the very, very beginning of, of European settlement in America.

So your family goes back... You said, also, I think, said the Alden family.

GUEST: I, I have... Yeah, the family goes back to, um, John and Priscilla Alden.

APPRAISER: John and Priscilla Alden.

GUEST: Yeah, uh-huh.

APPRAISER: Okay.

Well, and John Alden was on the Mayflower.

Now...

GUEST: Right, right.

APPRAISER: Well, we often have p, things come in where people th, say, "Oh, my forebears brought this over on the Mayflower."

Well, your forebears really were on the Mayflower.

But do you think this came over from England with them?

GUEST: No, I don't.

APPRAISER: You think it was made here?

GUEST: No, I think it was made here, yeah, yeah.

APPRAISER: Okay.

So when do you think the chair was made?

GUEST: I thought it was made probably the late 1600.

APPRAISER: Well, there was a big revival of interest in these chairs in the late 19th century, and people like Wallace Nutting made copies of some of these famous early Pilgrim chairs.

So a lot of times, what we see coming into the ROADSHOW are those copies.

But this is a real chair.

GUEST: Oh, really?

APPRAISER: And it is in extraordinary condition.

I think this is a, a 1680 period chair.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: I think this is coastal Massachusetts.

The back posts here are ash, which was one of the favored woods there, and I think these are, are soft maple arms.

When we put on our market goggles, we look at things in terms both of, of family history, but also in terms of beauty.

And the ultimate question out there, when we look at value, is, is, who wants it?

Have you ever had the chair appraised?

GUEST: I did once, and, and I think it was, uh, $2,500, they had appraised it.

APPRAISER: $2,500.

GUEST: Uh-huh, right.

APPRAISER: I think you should insure this chair, given the history and the condition, for $50,000.

GUEST: Oh, my goodness, yeah.

APPRAISER: Whatever you have done to keep it in this condition, you obviously have cared for it, just like all of your forebears, and it is wonderful to see it here.

GUEST: Thank you.

APPRAISER: So maybe you want to sit in it.

GUEST: (laughs) I'd love to.

APPRAISER: Would you?

GUEST: Yes.

Ah, good.