Portland, Hour 3

MARK WALBERG: "Antiques Roadshow" has found a city full of treasures in Portland, Oregon.

I got to say, this is a "Roadshow" first.

(laughing): Wow.

Wow.

(laughing): You're kidding.

That's way more than I thought.

♪ ♪ WALBERG: "Roadshow" stopped by the Portland Art Museum to take a look at some incredible works created by Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest.

This impressively large carved dish depicts Dzunuk'wa, the mythological wild woman of the woods, and was likely used for a potlatch, a lavish, ceremonial feast distinguished by the host's generous gift-giving.

Back at the "Roadshow," indigenous materials from the Southwest will be in the spotlight later on.

But now, take a look at this dazzling cup.

WOMAN: This is a mystery for me.

It is something that my husband and I inherited from his aunt.

Aunt Jean and her husband lived in Eureka, and they did a lot of collecting, and collected art glass, and this was in her collection.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

My husband called it a princess cup.

It was, like, one of his favorite things.

Right.

I believe he called it a princess cup because probably his aunt called it a princess cup.

Okay.

But we really know nothing-- I know nothing about it.

My husband, unfortunately, has passed away.

I'm sorry.

Today's his birthday, though, so I just feel like it's all meant to be, that we're here with one of his favorite things, and I'm going to find out what it truly is.

And we are so fortunate to be able to see one of the things here today that he really, really did treasure, so thank you very much for bringing it to us.

You mentioned it was called colloquially the princess cup.

Yes.

Affectionately known.

The thing with this being a cup, of course, is that it has lots of holes in it.

Yes, that's problematic.

It's known as a zarf-- that's spelled Z-A-R-F.

It's a very unusual-sounding word, but it's actually coming from the Arabic for "envelope."

Hm!

Which basically, you know, to enclose something.

Okay.

And as we can see, because of the holes we mentioned a second ago, it's not going to work as a cup as it is.

Correct.

So it's going to have supported a glass that would have been used to hold coffee.

It's essentially a coffee-glass holder.

Really!

Yeah.

Wow!

Coffee was introduced into-- and this is where we sort of find out where it's from-- into Istanbul in the mid-16th century.

It's an Ottoman zarf.

The Ottoman Empire spread across the Near East.

It incorporated Syria, parts of Iran, Iraq, and so on and so forth, until the Ottoman Empire fell in the 1920s.

And so this was made during the Ottoman Empire, probably towards the end of the 19th century.

It's made of 18-karat gold, it's enameled, and it also has a profusion of these old mine-cut diamonds.

So quite clearly, for a coffee cup, it's exceptionally beautiful and handsomely crafted.

The reason being is that just, with tea, and with other drinking cultures across the world, coffee was seen as something that was still imbued with a lot of ceremony.

In, sort of, Ottoman Turkey and elsewhere, in Iran and so on.

And so the receptacles to hold the drink could have been incredibly lavish and well-made, such as this one.

This would have probably been used, even though it is such a luxury, high-status thing.

It would have obviously shown the status of the owner.

They're also often given as gifts to various courts and other high-status individuals within Europe and elsewhere.

So it's a beautiful object.

Yes, I wondered...

I would never have guessed that that was its purpose.

At auction, I would estimate this to sell for between $3,000 and $5,000.

(laughing): Wow.

Wow.

I'm... really surprised.

Pat would be so happy.

That's-- that's amazing.

It's, it's a lot of money.

For, to hold a cup of coffee.

Exactly.

It's beautiful.

It is.

It's really exquisite.

Thank you so much.

Well, thank you, thank you for bringing it on.

MAN: I brought my great-grandfather's pencil sketchbook that he took with him to Oregon when he was 33 years old, approximately.

It was sort of a working vacation that he made with his wife and two daughters, and it's just a record of his trip up the Oregon coast.

And who is your great-granddad?

My great-grandfather was Warren E. Rollins.

Warren E. Rollins, the famed Western artist.

I think it's great what you brought in, and it's particularly relevant, because here we are in Oregon.

Right.

We start out as a rather simple sketchbook.

And tell me what we've got here.

These are family photographs taken in and around Oakland, California.

He lived primarily in Oakland and commuted from Oakland into his studio in San Francisco.

He was also the president of the San Francisco Art Institute for a time.

Now, of course, Warren would go on to become the dean of the Santa Fe Art Colony, and is really best known for his views of the Southwest.

Correct.

But as we said, particularly relevant today, we are looking at sketches done right here in Oregon.

This one is, in the lower left, clearly dated, "July 7, 1894."

Right.

And we have a location of Clatsop Beach in Oregon.

Right.

The sketches are wonderful-- the quality's very, very good.

Some of the other sketches that I think are worth looking at... Another one of Clatsop Beach, again from July of 1894.

There's Warren's signature.

Warren really came into his own, arguably, in the first quarter of the 20th century.

So we get to see the sort of thinking process and the way that a young artist, a very gifted, talented, and very driven artist, who traveled extensively down the west coast, extensively in New Mexico, extensively in Arizona, California, teaching, etc.

Right.

We get to sort of see how he worked as a draftsman.

Another particularly nice one... Is this.

Which is, again, entitled "Life on the Beach," Clatsop-- located-- Warren's signature, and dated July 21, 1894.

It's so rare to get a sketchbook like this that hasn't been broken up, and I think from an artistic standpoint, and from an historic standpoint, I really love the fact that you've kept it not only in great condition, but that it's stayed together.

The book is actually-- encompasses 30 drawings, most on single sheets, a few on double-sided sheets.

So the very last page...

This is terrific, I think.

We've got the words "sand" and "light," and the drawing is really much more than a sketch.

It's really a fully realized coastal view with hillside.

Right.

It's terrific.

We believe that, given that some of the drawings are more fully realized than others-- most are signed, some are not signed, although all are unquestionably by his hand...

Right.

Taken in the aggregate, all 30, at auction, we believe would have a value of $6,000 to $8,000.

My goodness.

(chime) It's jade, but it's not as green as it appears.

WOMAN: Okay.

They closed the back because they're trying to darken the back and make the jade that's in there look greener.

MAN: Oh.

So they're tricking us.

That's kind of cool.

It's a tough one.

I mean, it's fun.

Def Leppard's still got some following, but I can't imagine more than, maybe a couple of hundred bucks.

Okay.

All right?

Sure.

Very cool.

APPRAISER: If you look closely, see how flat it is there, and shiny?

The background is printing, and we see them overpainted with watercolor, we see them overpainted with oils sometimes.

In this case, pastel.

These were massively reproduced.

MAN: Really?

We hate to deliver bad news.

I know... We only like to give good news.

All right.

Oh, well.

Sorry.

You win a few, you lose a lot, right?

WOMAN: I received this book as a birthday present in 1999 when I was living in New York City.

Ryan McGinley and I both went to the same school, the School of Visual Arts.

He was the youngest person to receive a solo exhibit at the Whitney Museum of Art.

My girlfriend at the time purchased it off the street for $25 from him.

Well, you actually got it in 2000.

Okay, sorry-- okay.

Because it wasn't published until 2000.

But yes, this is Ryan McGinley's own production.

He did his own publication of a catalogue of his work.

It's put together with double-sided tape.

(laughs) He made 100 copies and he signed and numbered all 100 copies.

Not every picture in here is safe for public television...

Correct, correct.

But we will show you some of these really remarkable photographs.

And he sold a few, he gave others away.

He did send them out to gallery owners and to museums to try and get a show, and it worked, right?

Yep.

The Whitney saw it, invited him in, and then he, as you said, he became the youngest person ever to have a show at the Whitney.

Here in the back is the colophon that he put together actually quite professionally, and signed and numbered here at the bottom.

There have not been a lot of auction records for this book, but it sold... One copy sold in the past few years for $5,000.

(laughing): Yes!

Okay, so I would-- using that as a level... Yeah.

I would say $5,000 to $7,000 at auction.

That's awesome!

Yeah!

WOMAN: I found it in a box of paper.

I was at an antiques sale, and I love paper, I love graphic art, so something in this box caught my eye, and so I wanted to buy the whole box.

So I bought the whole box, and then when I got home, I was astonished to find this poster among all the paper that was in there.

What other kind of things were in the box?

Little cards, notecards-- that's what I first saw, that's what caught my eye.

It was this exact picture on a little card.

So I don't know if they were advertising, but they all had to do with Spanish-- I think the bullfights, I'm assuming.

And just other travel paraphernalia.

I'm very partial to anybody who is interested enough to buy boxes of paper.

(laughing): I love paper!

What you have here is a poster for a festival in Pamplona, Spain.

And it's funny you should mention bullfighting, because people who have walked by and seen it up have said, "I love that bullfighting poster."

But it's not a bullfighting poster.

Oh, really?

It's actually better, in a way, than a bullfighting poster.

It's a poster for the festival that has the Running of the Bulls.

Oh.

The Running of the Bulls, a festival that takes place in San Fermín every July.

And it's an image that, until you opened it from your box of paper, I had never seen before.

Wow.

The artist's name is Martin Balda, B-A-L-D-A.

The golden age of vintage posters is 1920s, 1930s.

Especially for such a sort of, an Art Deco design, this is well outside of the Art Deco era.

And I'm thinking, a poster from 1960, that's not really so good.

Like, I'd love to see a great Running of the Bulls poster from the 1920s, 1930s.

But I also thought, "It's a really nice image."

And I did some research, and it's never come up for sale before.

There has been a poster from the mid-1950s, of the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, that came up for auction in 2007.

So that's ten years ago.

Mm-hmm.

A similar thematic poster-- it looked very different, it was actually an image from behind, it was from, like, the bull's butt point of view, and it was running down the street chasing the man.

Very different, but similar era, same event.

And by looking at the price of what that piece sold for, at auction, I think it would sell for between $2,000 and $3,000.

Wow.

That's amazing.

Especially since I paid $20 for the whole box.

That's amazing.

(chime) In 1968, I was living in the Philippines, and I went to a gallery showing, and there was a young Chinese artist from Taipei there named Liu Kuo-sung.

I got talking to Liu, I liked his work, and it so happened I was going to be in Taipei in a matter of a month or two, so I dropped by his apartment studio.

This was one he had just finished.

And we got talking, and I worked out a deal to pay him over time.

(laugh) Later on, I bought two more paintings from him, also.

What were you doing in the Philippines?

I was a foreign service officer then.

I was with the State Department.

The artist-- at that time, he was around 31, 32-- he was heading up a new group called the Fifth Moon Group, which was five young Chinese artists who were painting in a traditional medium, which is ink on rice paper.

However, as you can see, they liked abstractions, abstract art.

I just found that he was fascinating.

I was learning a lot about Chinese culture.

Of course, this was during the era of Mao Tse-tung and the Red Guards.

Here was this very avant-garde, attractive, articulate young Chinese artist, and I just fell in love with his work.

I really liked it.

And I've had this now for 49 years.

Liu was born in China, and he left China for Taiwan in 1949.

Yes.

And became quite a famous artist with the Fifth Moon Group afterwards.

And when you met him, actually, he was about to go to the United States to have an exhibition, and this work is typical of what he was producing in 1968, because he was very interested in moonscapes because of the Apollo 8 mission.

Oh, okay, yes.

So you can see, in this period, in the late '60s, he produced a whole series of this.

Here is his signature.

This is his last name, "Liu Kuo-sung."

And then you have "1968."

This is ink, painted on rice paper.

If you can see, there's a purple wash here, and then splashes of black ink.

It's almost a collage.

He was moving toward this cut-paper and ink technique that he was very famous for a bit later.

What did you pay for it?

I believe I paid about $500.

Which was a lot of money for me then, and I did pay it to him, with a handshake, in installments over the course of the year.

Well, you know, Liu Kuo-sung is now highly collected in China, and there are exhibitions and auctions devoted to him.

Oh, okay.

So currently, at auction, this painting would carry a pre-sale estimate of about $40,000 to $60,000.

(laughing): You're kidding.

That's way more than I thought.

No, I'm not kidding.

Way more.

I'm not kidding-- he's incredibly popular.

He's a phenomenon.

He's still living.

He was born in 1932, and he is still going strong and lecturing.

He did a big exhibition in Beijing in 2007, and he's a big promoter of new artists in China and Taiwan, experimenting with new techniques.

I have, as I mentioned, one smaller painting and one larger painting that were the same era, very similar.

I can see I'm going to have to readjust my insurance.

(laughs) (chime) APPRAISER: This is Don Barclay.

He's from Hollywood.

WOMAN: Oh.

He was an actor.

Uh-huh.

He did a number of caricatures of famous individuals.

He was involved with the 14th Air Force over there in China, and did caricatures of the entire commanding staff of that organization.

You don't have all of them, you have most of them.

Uh-huh.

Plus a beautiful 14th Air Force shoulder insignia.

And I think if we look closely, that is going to be the insignia that's on Claire Chennault's uniform.

Oh, cool.

So that is not just a 14th Air Force shoulder insignia, that is the 14th Air Force insignia.

Add that up with all of the illustrations, and you have a lot that should retail between $8,000 and $10,000.

Whoa!

I knew it!

Oh, my stars!

It's a delightful grouping of stuff.

Oh, good!

WOMAN: My father-in-law was a physician for a whaling company in the '30s.

And he acquired these, we're not quite sure how.

I got to say, this is a "Roadshow" first.

And you know what they are.

They're whale eardrums.

They're such wonderful, sculptural things.

It's just where nature transcends what we can imagine.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

These have developed over millions of years of evolution.

Back in the '20s and '30s, when they were still harvesting whales, it was legal to do that, and the sailors and the people working on the ships, I guess they would take anything they could find for a souvenir.

Mm-hmm.

And whoever did this, they thought they were really special, because they even mounted them on whalebone.

Yeah, yeah.

Even though they're super-rare, their value is pretty modest.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

They would sell retail for about $300 apiece.

Uh-huh, uh-huh.

Thank you so much.

MAN: I got this from my grandfather.

He invested in all kinds of things, and he bought this at an estate sale with a bunch of other Michael Jackson memorabilia, one of which was a stuffed kangaroo doll, and this, I think, he had it in his house for a while.

He passed away in 2006, and it came to me via my father.

APPRAISER: It's an interesting thing that he picked up in an estate sale.

We're not sure whose estate that was, so it's difficult to understand...

He went to a ton of these things.

Like, yeah, he just loved to go to these all the time.

This is what we call an in-house record award.

It was presented to him as a presentation piece.

It's commemorating the fact that it is CBS Australia's most successful selling record of all time as of 1985.

And, at this point, if we count them up, it's ten times platinum in Australia.

They're actually plated albums.

With record awards, there's a lot of different things you can look at for value in different hierarchy.

One of the things we really look for is, who is it presented to?

And we'll see here, it is presented to Michael Jackson.

This is one that was created for him, and it's not to a radio station to thank them for playing his songs, so that's a really important key when you're doing record albums.

Another thing that's important is, who's presenting it?

And in this case, we have an in-house record award, which means the record company itself is commemorating him on how successful it was.

The probably most sought-after record awards you can get are the R.I.A.A., which is the Recording Industry Association of America, and that is the official body that certifies record sales in the United States.

Most of these artists are American.

Like Michael Jackson, or if you had something like Bruce Springsteen, you would want their American reward first-- that would be the most desirable.

If you have an artist like The Beatles, fans really like the British ones, as well.

So sometimes, their home country has special meaning.

Okay.

This one is still pretty fantastic, because it's so big, and it's got a lot of impact on the wall here.

One other thing that's also very important, when you're looking at the value of record awards, is, which album is it?

You always want, obviously, their most popular album, and we have that here-- "Thriller," which is one of the greatest-selling albums of all time.

So the fact that this is also for "Thriller" really adds to the value on all fronts.

So we have no idea what he paid for it.

I have no idea what he paid for it.

Was he the kind of guy that would, like, really go for it?

Or was he pretty conservative with what he...

I think he probably bought it because it said Michael Jackson.

When it comes to those things, I think he was usually just trying to get a good buy all the time.

Yeah, if you tried to sell this the day before Michael Jackson died, you would have been hard-pressed to get $500 for it.

Really?

Wow.

If this were sold back when he died in 2009, it would've been a different price than it is today.

After he passed away, a lot of stuff hit the market.

Right now, at auction, the estimate on this would probably be somewhere around $2,000 to $3,000.

It's possible you might get upwards of $3,000 to $5,000 on a good day.

If it were an R.I.A.A., it might be more like $8,000 to $10,000.

Ah, okay.

And if this were 2010, some of these sold for as much as $25,000.

Oh, okay.

MAN: I have a Ute water jug that belonged to my grandmother, along with a coin silver bracelet, and a small beaded purse that she got for a fifth birthday present.

APPRAISER: Where was that?

Myton, Utah.

And what brought your grandparents to Utah?

Well, they were actually just on a short vacation.

My grandparents had met in about 1917, and soon decided they wanted to marry, but my great-grandparents didn't approve.

So they took her on a tour of the West.

My grandfather later caught up with them and they married.

This is your grandmother.

Yes.

This is the trading post in Utah.

Trading post where she got the items.

We have three different distinct cultures, all from the Southern Plains here.

The water bottle may not be Ute, although it could possibly be.

I think it's more likely Apache.

It's a domestic object.

It's part of their material culture.

It's made from split root.

The bottom is suffused with sap, perhaps pine sap, pine resin.

That would make it waterproof.

The handles are horse hair.

So it's all indigenous materials from the Southwest, and it would've kept water in it.

Not made for trade-- made for Native use.

Mm-hmm.

The little pouch is a different tribe, a neighboring tribe of the Apache.

I believe it's made by the Ute.

Mm-hmm.

That little design in the middle represents a peyote button.

It would contain a cactus bud known as peyote, or peyote bud, and this would have hallucinogenic qualities, and it would help elevate the individual who ingested it to a rapid advance to the spirit world, if you will.

Mm-hmm.

The beads are from Venice, Italy.

Oh, really?

They were traded to the tribes across North America, typically for beaver pelts, deer pelts, buffalo hides.

The hide is brain-tanned leather, deer hide.

Mm-hmm.

The bracelet is Navajo.

Mm-hmm.

And the bracelet, in many respects, reflects a number of cultures.

The silversmith and blacksmithing trades came up from Mexico along the Santa Fe Trail, into Sante Fe, up to Taos, and then throughout the Plains.

Mm-hmm.

So it's an acculturated medium-- work of silver, work of steel.

It's a marvelous technique and a marvelous application for Plains Indian people.

There was no metal culture prior to a certain date.

All of these objects created pretty much in the second half of the 19th century.

Mm-hmm.

Have you had these appraised?

I had a collector look at them a number of years ago.

What did they think?

She was impressed, she liked them.

I don't blame her, you know?

Mm-hmm.

What numbers did she assign, for example, to the basket?

I think we were at about six for the basket.

Six... And... $600.

Six...

Yes.

$600 for the bracelet, and $300 for the purse.

Okay.

And how many years ago was that?

Oh, I would say that's close to 20 years ago.

All right.

Things have developed, maybe, somewhat.

In some of these areas.

The Apache water container, today, on a retail basis, I think would command between $400 and $500.

Mm-hmm.

Perhaps a little bit more.

The ceremonial peyote pouch of the Ute, in a similar range of value, I think maybe $450 to $500.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

The bracelet, you thought around $600, or your appraiser did?

Right, mm-hmm.

The bracelet is early, perhaps as early as 1880.

Much earlier than what we typically see, and we see a great deal of Navajo silver on the "Antiques Roadshow."

There are tens of thousands of objects made by the Navajo for sale.

This bracelet, I believe, is made for a Navajo to wear themselves.

There was not very much Navajo silversmithing before the 1870s, so in a certain sense, this is at the dawn.

We look at the bracelet really carefully.

These little circular devices are stamped with the edge of a file.

One after another, so there are sets of four there.

That would take four strokes, just to make that one little design unit.

At a later date, there would be a die stamp that would incorporate all of the design with one stamp.

Ah-hah.

So this is handmade with a hammer and a cold chisel.

It shows a tremendous amount of wear.

Somebody had that on their wrist for a long time.

Long time, mm-hmm.

I think in today's market, on a retail basis, that bracelet would readily sell for, I think in the neighborhood of $4,500.

Oh, wow.

She carried her Sunday school money in the purse.

These scrolls came to our family after a relative died.

We hadn't seen them before...

Okay.

But they were in the home, rolled up in a box, and so we were amazed to see what they were.

Do you know who these people are?

I don't, and that's one of the things that intrigues us, who are...

They obviously are important people.

We just thought they were so beautiful.

Well, let me introduce you.

This is Mr. Gu Chun Li, and this Madame Li.

Ah-hah.

And I know that because of the inscriptions here on the side.

What I find very interesting is that these two ancestor portraits-- and they are ancestor portraits.

I know this, because again, in the inscription, it says that they are both deceased.

Ah, okay.

So it makes it very clear.

They bridge two dynasties in Chinese history, though.

The gentleman closest to you is from the Qing Dynasty, and I can tell by the costume.

Notice the Manchurian hat that he's wearing, the Manchurian robes with the dragon.

He was a descendant of the imperial family, and again, the inscription tells me so.

She is of the Ming Dynasty.

And can you see up here, this first symbol?

Yes.

Ming Dynasty, an earlier generation than this gentleman here.

These were painted around the same time.

These probably date from the 1820s or so.

There's a lot of good information in each of these inscriptions on the side, but it doesn't tell us who the artist is, unfortunately.

I see.

They're anonymous as far as authorship.

Yes.

Now, the Qings were Manchurian people, whereas the Ming aristocracy were Han Chinese.

Okay.

So it's an interesting mix of different cultural groups, let's say.

So, again, there's some mixed ancestry, whoever these were made for.

These lovely cranes, right here, which symbolize long life, they're feminine, they're usually seen on an empress or a female aristocrat's robe.

They're kind of a softer counterpart to the dragon, which is more masculine...

Yes, I see.

And shown on the robe of the emperor and some of his descendants and courtiers.

These are phoenix, up here, which are the true counterpart to the dragons.

Ah.

The phoenix are the symbol of the empress.

Have you had these appraised before... No.

Or have you ever showed them to anybody?

Well, just family, but we were hesitant to hang them until we found out a little bit more about them.

These are typically hung in such a way where there's a lot of brocade silk fabric here at the top and on the bottom, so they're not just hung, they're not framed the way Western paintings would be, where they're kind of cropped in.

Yes, yeah.

They're meant to hung from a high space on the wall and displayed as you see here.

And if these were to come up for auction, I'd put an estimate of $15,000 to $20,000 for this pair of paintings.

Oh, really?

Lovely.

(chime) APPRAISER: These are silver-plated, but what a presentation.

I mean, really, a marvelous presentation.

Made in England, about 1880 or so, and there would be salts.

Probably may put one between each couple seated at a table so you could share it.

APPRAISER: This is a wooden case.

WOMAN: Yes.

But see, it's been given this false paint-- faux painting to make it look like stone.

Mm-hmm.

They made a lot of these, and they were very popular.

So in today's market, they might have a value of $300 to $400 on a really good day.

Okay.

That would be high retail.

It's a handsome clock.

I've seen this figure over and over.

This is a copy of something else, not made to cheat or fool or deceive anyone, but based on the subject matter and the decorative appeal, which is actually very nice...

Yes, definitely.

I would think maybe $50 or $75?

Okay.

But most of this type of pottery is worth a dollar, five dollars-- it brings almost nothing.

Well, when I was a little girl, I kept asking Santa Claus each year for a Lionel train.

It took me three times before the old elf came through, and he brought me a pastel girl's train.

I would put my hamsters in the boxcars and I would set my parakeet on the hopper car there, and we'd go around and around the track.

We had a wonderful time with our train.

After the war, Lionel's trains weren't selling that well, so they were looking for all kinds of ways to boost sales.

And one of the ways, they figured if they could get little girls to like trains, that would be a help.

It wasn't that successful, which is why these are fairly rare.

A set like this, in the original box, at one point was bringing as much as $10,000.

Ooh.

Now it's down to around $2,000 to $3,000.

Oh.

But still, it's a pretty nice price for a set like this.

Thank you very much.

Well, thank you for bringing it in.

MAN: This was in my grandmother's house in Saginaw, Michigan, for a bunch of years.

Then it was in my mother's house for a bunch of years, and now it's been in our house for a bunch of years.

APPRAISER: Oh, my goodness.

So other than knowing who it's painted by, we don't know anything else about it.

The artist, Dwight Tryon, is probably one of the first major Tonalists in the United States.

Oh.

And he was very much influenced by the Barbizon School of painters in France.

So he was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1849.

Tryon was very talented at an early age, and he was primarily self-taught until he went to Paris in the 1870s.

Okay.

And there, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts.

And in 1881, he had the distinction of showing at the Paris Salon, which was quite an honor for an American artist, and then he moves to New York.

And while he's in New York, he establishes a studio, and he meets a very famous art collector and industrialist named Charles Freer, who was from Detroit.

Okay.

And Freer liked his work so much, he commissioned Tryon to do a series of landscapes for his home.

Today, those paintings are at the Freer Gallery in Washington, DC.

He also was supported by another important patron named Thomas B. Clarke, who was also an industrialist.

And Clarke was responsible for really making American art popular, because up to that point in the 19th century, most Americans were collecting European art.

So he had a very, very good, strong patronage.

In 1885, he actually becomes an art professor at Smith College, and he stays at Smith close to his death in 1925.

Oh!

Now, his early work is very somber and a little bit more monochromatic in its tonality, very much reflecting the Barbizon School.

By the 1890s-- and as you can see here, the painting was done in 1916-- he emerges out of that somberness into a very brilliant palette.

And you can see here the bright blues and reds, and how vibrant it is.

That's why we like it.

And he also began focusing on pastels rather than oils, and this is actually a pastel.

Oh.

And it's, of course, covered by glass.

The title of it is "October Morning," which is written on the back.

If this were offered today in a gallery, the sale price would be in the range of $15,000.

Wow, that's nice.

That's very nice.

What's very interesting, however, is that the market for American art, overall, has started to... Drop, or...?

Has dropped since about 2008.

Wow, okay.

And, in the past, there always were peaks and valleys of... You know, it would usually be in a five-year period, but it's been much longer than that.

And so, unfortunately, a lot of the Tonalists, including Tryon's work, has fallen off favor.

If this had been for sale in a gallery before 2008, it would probably be more in the $30,000 range.

Well.

And we hope it'll come back.

Yeah, we just have it because we like it.

(chime) MAN: It's been in the family for probably 200 years, or so?

So just handed down from my father to me.

It's been a working piece of furniture for all of its life.

It's never been anything other than in a house doing what it's supposed to do.

So it has a lot of blemishes and things on it that, from years of service.

Where is your family from?

Originally from the East Coast, the Hampton area of New Hampshire.

This piece met up with us in, probably in the Machiasport, Maine, area.

In about what year, would you say?

At about 1790, at that time.

Okay, okay.

It had already been in existence for quite some time, I think.

Well, I would date the piece around 1740, probably made in the Charlestown-Boston area.

Boston, at that time period, from about 1725 to about 1760, had more furniture makers than any city in America.

Philadelphia was its closest competitor.

There was about 224 registered people making furniture.

And whoever put this together didn't do it singly.

They did it with a group.

So there would be a cabinet maker, a person who would make the case itself.

This entire piece is walnut veneered with exotic veneers, so there'd be a veneerman who did it.

A japanner, who would've gilded the two incredible carved shells.

There would have been a carver, as well, on it.

So all together, about five craftspeople making this.

There is one very similar one in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Mm-hmm.

And on the back, on the lower case-- because of course, this is a high chest of drawers with a top and a bottom, it comes apart right here so you can move the two parts around-- theirs is signed "Ebenezer Hartshorn," so I am confident to say that this is probably a piece from his workshop.

The MFA piece is signed 1739, so I would say 1740 or so, we're kind of close.

I would say so-- that's what we were thinking.

Yeah, so, early Boston furniture and super-high style.

Very expensive piece when it was made.

Someone had to pay extra for the carved shells.

They paid extra for the compass inlay on the top of this piece, and then also on the sides.

Mm-hmm.

The MFA piece has new legs on it.

So I'm thinking that this piece, when we look at condition... Did your family ever do anything to it in terms of restoration?

Yes, unfortunately, there was some restoration done on the top part.

Was sawn off in about the early 1800s, and it went in two different directions, so the top half went with one family member, and the bottom with another.

The bottom half was painted green, and all of the brassware was removed.

Right.

The bottom little finials and the top were replaced in probably about 1930 by my grandfather.

You're right, the brasses on the top of this case are original, and the brasses at the bottom are reproductions.

But pretty good, though, when you look at them.

They're a nice job, and I think the legs are not correct on this.

We've not been able to figure out what the legs would've been... Just a padfoot.

The value gets compromised, even though it was an expensive piece in its day.

Sure.

I would put an auction estimate in the range of $10,000 to $15,000 on it.

Okay.

And the reason for that is, we can attribute this to a maker, and that's so, so important.

A piece, all original, by this same maker, sold in 2012, and that brought about $60,000.

Yes.

So if we had the original bonnet, and if we had the original legs, it would be a much more important piece, but I still think it's an historical importance.

It's just great.

Thank you.

(chime) This desk set belonged to my Great-Uncle Jet, and he was my father's uncle, and I inherited it through my parents.

My mother actually gave it to me while she was still alive.

Uh-huh, and how did Jet get it?

(laughs) Jet...

I never knew Jet.

He died before I was born.

All I've been told about Jet was, he was kind of a ladies' man, and he never married, and he had a lot of girlfriends, and they gave him expensive gifts.

And this set was a gift to him from one of his girlfriends.

Right, and how do we know it was a gift?

It's engraved on the bottom of the clock, "To Jet from Imogene."

So you have the date there, it's December 25, 1924.

Right, and does anybody know who Imogene was?

I have no idea who Imogene was, but I think it's a perfect name for the 1920s.

1920s is exactly when it was done, and this is a great set.

Tiffany made about 20 different desk sets.

This pattern is called "bookmark."

Bookmark, okay.

And it has these emblems here.

Do you know what these are?

They have meaning?

I have no idea.

(laughs) They're actually the printer's mark from early printers and publishers.

Oh, okay.

This would be printed in the book to identify the actual printer or publisher of the book.

Okay.

So, as I said, Tiffany did about 20 of these sets, and each set could actually have between 20 and 30 pieces.

And you bought as many pieces as you wanted.

So you have this set, which is actually sort of a small set.

You have these blotter ends, this is a date pad, this is a little cigarette box.

We know it's a cigarette box because it's lined in wood.

Right.

So it has a cedar lining.

You have the bookends, and you have the clock.

Right.

The clock is very rare, and what's even rarer is this little key.

This key always disappears, even though it has a special spot here.

So it has a little spot here for you to keep the key-- is that where you keep it?

Yes, that's where I keep it when it's on the desk, I keep the key in there.

So this is done in a gilt finish, it was called doré, but what's extraordinary about this set is, you have this painted decoration.

Okay.

And this is called "cold-painted."

Most patinas are integrated into the surface-- this is painted on with oil paints.

And as a result, it's relatively fragile.

Okay.

But this has survived in amazing condition.

In fact, I have never seen one with this amount of original paint in it.

So it's really, really extraordinary.

There is a little bit of discoloration here, but I think that's really relatively minor.

This set, in a retail setting, would bring about $9,500.

(laughing) That's really nice.

I love the set, I have-- I try to just dust it with a cloth.

I have no idea what to do with it but to use it.

So you do actually use it?

I do use it, I do use it.

(chime) APPRAISER: It's reverse-painted on glass, so we have paint, we have a little bit of ink, we have mother-of-pearl back in here to provide kind of a flash.

Value on it now is around $125.

Thanks so much for your information.

You're welcome.

APPRAISER 1: The most famous battle in Japan in the medieval 1600s.

The faces are very anime.

APPRAISER 2: Yeah, they're very anime, aren't they?

APPRAISER 1: Animated face, oh, yeah, very much.

APPRAISER 2: So that helps give us an idea of the date, so it's got to be 1970s, '80s.

APPRAISER: This is a doll made by the Armand Marseille Company.

It was called a "Just Me," and this doll is absolutely all original.

And it sells for about $1,200.

Oh, my gosh.

Wow.

WOMAN: I brought in this invitation to an execution, actually, a hanging, that was given to my great-grandfather when he was in Montana, as being part of the party that apprehended this murderer.

He was deputized by the sheriff as, like, this posse to, like, go out on this manhunt, and they succeeded.

It's a fascinating example of Western frontier justice.

Public executions were a way of administering justice and making everyone around you know that, "Hey, if you're going to commit a crime, this was what may happen to you."

But in the late 1800s and early 1900s, people started to move away from public executions, and went more to the private, invite-only.

And you would invite witnesses, members of the press, members of the family, to witness the execution.

And people really love collecting these morbid bits of memorabilia.

(laughing): It is a little morbid, it is.

Right now, the value on this, we'd estimate, at auction, would be between $1,500 and $2,000.

Oh, wow.

(laughing): That's way more than I was expecting.

I told my dad, "I think this is a worthless piece of paper."

And it's cool to have on the wall, but I had no idea.

I brought in some Civil War memorabilia from my great-great-grandfather, William B. Eaton, who was a sea captain and a blockader who sailed with Admiral Farragut during the Civil War.

And which ship did he serve on?

He served on the Circassian, which is where some of this is from, but he also served on the Ethan Allen.

What do you know about the Circassian?

Well, I know-- I just found out from looking at the stamp that it's a sailing ship, but it also had a steam portion of it, too, which is pretty-- it was a hybrid, so...

Which is pretty interesting, being in Oregon.

I think so, yeah, yeah.

Hybrids everywhere.

Yeah.

It's actually a really cool ship.

When you research that ship, you find out that it was caught in the blockade itself, and it was captured by the U.S.S.

Somerset on May 4, 1862.

They took it to Key West, Florida, and they auctioned it off, and it was bought by the U.S. government and put into service.

Oh.

And your ancestor was the commander of the boat.

It made nine different trips from New York and Boston down around Florida into the gulf.

Right.

And it would carry soldiers and provisions down to the gulf, and then would return with wounded, prisoners of war, cotton, and take it back up so they made the most of each trip.

The last trip was April 11, 1865, it rolls into harbor, Which is interesting, because that's the same day that Lincoln gave his last public speech.

Oh, wow.

What we've got are a few wonderful pieces of history.

Yeah.

Closest to you, we have a seal.

And what about this, what is this?

This is a boatswain's whistle, and what we think is that it was given to him by one of his peers who was also one of the volunteer captains for the Union.

We've heard that maybe he was the son of the owner of a newspaper in New York City, so, yeah, that's what I know.

And it's interesting you say New York, because who sold it?

Tiffany's.

Famous Tiffany's.

Right.

It's a gold boatswain's whistle, but what's cool is the little chain that's on it.

Our friends at the jewelry table said that it's probably a really fancy ornate watch fob.

Right.

Wow, yeah.

And it's beautiful, it's solid gold, excellent condition, and up here, we have a picture of your ancestor.

Right.

And he's in his uniform, proud man.

Right.

This is what I really love, though.

Oh, really?

You think of all those ships that were supplying the troops all over the country, and there's very little known about them, because they were the hard-working guys that made it happen.

Wow.

But we don't know much about them.

This gives us a glimpse inside what daily routine was on a ship.

The cover is sail cloth.

Oh, okay.

And they utilized it for a lot of different purposes.

Beautifully inscribed.

But when we open it up, it's got everything those men were supposed to do for every day of the week.

Right.

And it gives a glimpse from everything from polishing the brass to smoke breaks.

(laughs) It's something special, because they made a million muskets.

Right.

These, they're handmade, probably not many, if any, survive besides this one.

It's just beautiful.

Wow.

Well, it's such a unique group, and it's a glimpse inside that area that we don't see.

If it were my family's, I would insure this group for $10,000.

Oh, wow!

Great.

Wow.

Yeah.

Well, we'll make sure we take good care of it.

(chime) This piece belonged to my mother-in-law, and then when she passed away, it came to my husband and myself.

So it's now in my household, because he's passed away.

APPRAISER: Where did your mother-in-law get it?

Well, when my husband was a child, they all lived in Europe, and so one of my mother-in-law's hobbies was to go to the Picasso studio and buy pieces from the studio.

And so she acquired it at that point in the 1960s, sometime.

Where was the studio?

I just know it was in France.

Okay, all right.

Well, obviously, you have a piece of Picasso pottery here.

Yes.

From Vallauris, which is a ceramic-producing town.

Was a ceramic-producing town in France since Roman times.

Nice.

So, and still is a place where pottery is made.

The quality of clay there is quite good.

Several things you need to be a ceramic-producing area: clay, of course.

Yeah.

And river-- water power for transport and for the power to drive the factory.

So this is called "gros oiseau vert," which is "large green bird," and it is in fact a large green bird.

We'll take a look at this for a moment.

That's the front side of the bird.

These handles, which, you can grab one, too, they're wings, and they're meant to show the motion of the piece.

Oh... And these are the tail feathers.

So this is the bird... That kind of makes sense.

Right?

They're kind of...

So it's the whole bird, and it's interesting in many ways.

I read a review of Picasso's work.

It's described, his work in Vallauris, as "Genius on Holiday."

Oh!

He was so brilliant that... A little whimsical?

Whimsical, but also how casually decorated this is, how few brush strokes define this as a green bird.

It's something-- almost a toss-off for a lot of other artists, but Picasso, even when he wasn't paying a lot of attention to things, his genius just spilled over into the work.

So this is rather extraordinary as far as his Vallauris work is concerned.

There are marks on top, one is Edition Picasso, the other was the Madoura mark.

Right, I was curious.

So Madoura, representing the pottery.

And of course, they made more than just Picasso pottery there, but this is the line of pottery that Picasso designed.

And what Picasso would do is, he would design the pieces and decorate them, and then line artists would replicate the work he did at Madoura.

And then also, inside the top, we see "18 of 25," so this was made in 1960, there were 25 of them made.

Okay.

And several, certainly, have seemed to have survived.

This is a new one to the market, as far as I can tell.

Oh, okay-- well, I haven't been able to find anything comparable in size to it.

It's really large.

He made thousands of pieces of pottery.

Yeah.

But very few were on this scale.

Oh, okay.

It's zoomorphic-- he did a lot with animals.

Mm-hmm, I have a goat and a bird bowl at home.

Right, right.

Some people, as well, but mostly animal forms.

It captures, in a very spare way, a bird in flight.

And it's functional, too.

It is a piece of pottery-- this is a pouring pitcher.

If we see the front of this, there's a spout.

Right.

So you can grip it and pour out of it, and in that way it mimics the Roman amphora that were made there nearly two millennia ago.

So in terms of value, there's a couple of ways for me to evaluate this piece.

So, first, at-auction estimate.

Now, bear in mind that auction estimates tend to be a little on the conservative side.

The idea is, you want to create interest, and excitement and tension... Bidding, yeah.

...and you don't do that with a high retail estimate.

So I think, conservatively, at auction, somewhere between $65,000 and $85,000.

Wow, cool.

But in terms of what it's worth, three of these have sold at auction in the last several years.

Mm-hmm.

The least expensive one sold for $105,000, and the most expensive one was $135,000.

Wow, very cool.

So I think this is worth between $100,000 and $125,000.

I wouldn't estimate it that high, but at auction, they've been bringing that kind of money, and for an auction estimate, between $65,000 and $85,000.

At this level, height, and...

Same size.

Perfect!

Very cool-- thank you.

Congratulations.

Thanks.

Major piece.

WALBERG: You're watching "Antiques Roadshow" And now, it's time for the Roadshow Feedback Booth.

We brought a big empty box.

A big hatbox.

We were sure it's from the Titanic, and everybody loved our box.

Everybody loved the box!

They wanted to know what was in it.

Is there something in the box?

Is there a hat in the box?

No.

It's a big empty box, and it's $250.

These are keepsakes that Dad had hanging on the wall in his office on the farm, gathering dust.

(laughing): They're worth about $20,000.

We better put them away.

(laughs) And not use them for rolls anymore, for the holidays.

This is Bobo the Buxom Beauty.

I found it in an alleyway 15 years ago, and today, we learned that it is exactly worth the price which I paid for it, which is zero dollars, alley find.

(laughing) We bought both of them for $60, but it turns out that they're worth...

This one's $750.

And this one's about $2,000 to $3,000.

So we-- we walked away good.

Our good tastes were validated.

My wife and I brought this Cry Baby Pedal to "Antiques Roadshow" today.

It cost $50 in 1972, and today, it's still worth $50.

Wah, wah, wah.

I brought a painting from George Ames Aldrich.

This painting was probably done in South Bend, Indiana, and it was appraised for $15,000.

"Antiques Roadshow..." rocks!

Rocks!

WALBERG: I'm Mark Walberg, thanks for watching.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."