St. Louis, Hour 2

MARK WALBERG: "Antiques Roadshow" is charging ahead to St. Louis, Missouri.

APPRAISER: Now, as you know... WOMAN: There is a hole on the bottom.

There is a hole in the bottom.

(laughs): Right.

Oh, my goodness.

(laughing): Holy cow.

♪ ♪ WALBERG: "Antiques Roadshow" is back in St. Louis, area code 314.

(dial rattling) WOMAN (on phone): Please stand by while we connect you... WALBERG: ...to the Jefferson Barracks Telephone Museum.

Over 100 years of telephone history can be found here, including this curious piece of telecommunications tech, the Hush-a-Phone.

In this example, the apparatus at the top was attached to the mouthpiece of a candlestick phone, and was meant to give the caller a more private conversation and an improved sound.

Back at the Roadshow, appraiser Nicholas Lowry is hearing a clear connection between this poster and a love of travel.

Take a look.

It's from the...

I'm guessing the early '60s.

Ozark was a St. Louis-based airline, TWA bought them, I believe, in '86.

But other than that, I don't know much about it.

Where'd you get it?

I bought it at an estate sale in Springfield, Missouri, probably about ten years ago.

And what did you pay for it?

$20.

So it's standing up straight here in this easel because it's on a board.

Yes.

And sometimes posters which were printed on paper that are mounted to a board, it actually decreases their value.

Right.

But in this case, it is a silkscreen poster printed on the board, so this is as issued.

Okay.

And you think it's from the 1960s.

Yeah, the... to me, that's what it looks like.

Yeah, in fact, Ozark Air Lines existed from 1950 to 1986, when they were bought out by TWA.

This poster's definitely Mid-Century Modern, "Mad Men"-style, which is very popular.

We're here in 2017, but this late-1950s, mid-1960s style is still very much the rage.

People buy travel posters because they collect obscure airlines.

People buy travel posters sometimes based on the rarity or the unusualness of the aircraft.

But to me-- and I do think we agree here-- the strength of this poster is that Mid-Century Modern design, that very square-- said in a good way-- clean-cut, dapper look.

I know if you look this up online, you don't find any information.

So I draw on my experience as an appraiser, and I draw on my experience selling "Mad Men"-style graphics and obscure airlines and unusual aircraft, and I think that at auction, a conservative estimate for this piece would be between $700 and $1,000.

Really?

Nice.

(laughs) I grew up in a house with a number of Asian artifacts.

My father and mother after World War II lived in Japan for two years and brought them back.

However, this item was a found item.

My father bought an old house as an office in upstate New York in 1953.

There was a large wooden crate in the basement.

When they uncrated it, which I think was probably a year after he bought the building, this was in here.

We have intermittently tried to find out things about it.

We obviously know it is a Japanese Buddha, or Hotei.

But in terms of what, when, and where, we're really unsure.

We played with it as children, it terrified my children, it's dressed for all the seasons intermittently, so he's like a member of the family.

So you know what it is.

This is a figure of the Japanese immortal Hotei, H-O-T-E-I, who's representative, broadly speaking, of prosperity and good fortune.

This is a high-fired earthenware that has a glaze.

And this type of glaze that's in relief is called moriage, which just means "in relief."

And that's what we see here on the surface-- this very high-relief glaze that's made of an enamel that incorporates lead, which fires at a low temperature.

So this was made in a mold, but then there would be finishing work that was done by hand.

We see lots of these figures at the Roadshow, and most of them are about eight or ten inches high.

It's obviously important because it's large.

It's meant to dominate a location.

And why is that?

And that has to do with the role of natural disaster and how our lives are affected.

And specifically, famine.

Prior to the 20th century, this was something that was a constant.

There were literally hundreds of famines that swept through Japan where you would have a crop failure.

The main crop, of course, in Japan, was?

Rice.

Rice.

It was devastating.

So to have a figure, an immortal figure such as this, that represented prosperity... prosperity meant also being well fed, not having to worry about where your meals were coming from, and that also affected your attitude.

So you always see this figure with a big smile, with a large belly, showing that he was in prosperous times-- may those prosperous times be with you today.

And the size indicates that this wasn't likely made for someone's home.

This was made for a location that would have been seen by a number of people, probably from a distance, because it is large.

That may have been in a prominent family's household temple.

Okay.

It may have been a public location.

So we're going to tip him back.

There's an impressed stamp that says "Made in Japan," indicating that this was approved for export, so that the duties were paid.

As to the date, I think it was probably made around 1920 to 1930.

And just to share with everyone, you can see that it's heightened with gilding in all the high spots throughout.

And that's going to add stature and importance to this figure.

The value is going to probably be in the $1,500 to $2,500 range at auction.

Great.

We're happy to have it.

We're happy that it has good meaning, good luck.

And we got to rub its belly a lot.

Supposedly they are sticks used by the king and queen of an African tribe.

Who knows?

APPRAISER: This banjo was a Paramount banjo, probably 1928, 1930.

It was popular in that age like the electric guitar is now.

Because you could play it loud and fast.

APPRAISER: You got it from a friend.

MAN: Yes.

He worked for the studios?

It says "Universal" on his foot.

It sure does.

Certainly could have been made for Universal.

The key is if we can find out if it was in a movie.

Without knowing the movie, just a generic, crazy monster with "Universal" on it, I think it's maybe $200, $300.

Really?

If you can figure out the movie, if it's a movie that people know, we could double, triple up on that.

MAN: My mom had an Uncle Joe that had worked on a railroad, and he got it somehow, we don't really know.

But he knew some ballplayers.

It's been in our family since 1923.

You brought a 1923 New York Yankees team-signed ball, missing about two guys, and that's it.

Of course, you've got some prominent names on here, as one would expect.

Babe Ruth featured prominently in the sweet spot, and that's where he should be.

Interestingly enough, you have... You have a Lou Gehrig signature here, his first year, his rookie year.

20-year-old Gehrig.

He played all of 13 games, but he won a championship, and here he is.

You've got some evidence of tracing.

There's some enhancement in some of the signatures.

And you see it in the Ruth signature and elsewhere.

You'd have to have it authenticated-- send it out to a third party, have it looked at, and then really find out what you've got.

If there's enhancement, you're looking at a ball that's worth about $3,000 to $5,000 at auction.

Right.

If there's no enhancement, that changes.

You're looking at about $10,000 to $15,000 at auction, okay?

It's a great ball either way.

Right, yeah.

1923 Yankees baseball with a 20-year-old Gehrig's signature.

Right.

Good stuff.

Okay, cool.

WOMAN: I found it in the attic after I purchased a home, and it's literally moved from the attic to the basement, where it resided until today.

So occupying a place of prominence in your basement.

In a box in the basement, hanging out, yeah.

And what made you bring it today?

I was looking for things to take, and it caught my eye, and I just... "How about this one?

So..." Okay.

I'm actually going to take this apart here.

Okay.

And we're going to start... We're going to take this off, we're going to take this... see you later.

Okay.

We're going to take this off, here.

There we go.

Long cord.

Long cord, yes.

And voilà.

Voilà.

Now it is a vase.

And you actually got a peek at it before, so what do you know about it?

Right, and looking at this, I said, "This is not a typical lamp.

It looks like a vase to me."

And I pulled off the bottom and saw a stamp on there.

And it was a Rookwood stamp.

And I'd never seen a stamp like that before, so I was online, and able to see the stamp itself, and then a signature on the left there.

And we got in the car and... the next day, and came here.

So that's all I really know about it.

You are exactly right.

Okay.

This is a vase.

It was made by Rookwood Pottery.

And you noticed the artist's signature, a Japanese artist who's pretty well-known at Rookwood named Kataro Shirayamadani.

It has Roman numerals here.

Right.

For 1927.

There's a paper label down here, as well, and it says, "Black Opal, $35."

Right.

So in 1927...

Yes.

...this was $35.

Right.

$35 in 1927 actually is a pretty good sum of money.

The black opal glaze is one of the more interesting glazes at the time.

It has a black overglaze, and a lot of carving.

And as you see, all of these flowers, these daylilies, are carved by the artist.

And there's hazing on it at the bottom.

And it begins to shade up here.

It's got beautiful blue tone.

And until we saw the top removed, we had no idea what the lid was going to look like, how much damage might have been caused.

It's looking good at the top.

Okay.

Now, as you know...

There is a hole on the bottom.

There is a hole in the bottom.

(laughs): Right.

And, you know, I have a phrase, which is, "You drill it ..." You kill it.

"...you kill it."

And so when you see that, that usually indicates that something... unfortunately not's so good...

Right.

...with the vase.

It affects the value, sure.

But it's got its positive aspects, too.

What do you think it's worth?

Well, just looking with the Rookwood, the symbol, and vases in general, there's a range from a couple of hundred to a couple of thousand.

Yeah.

So I said, "Because of the damage I was going to go about $500."

Okay.

At auction, what would you say to $5,000 as a value?

That's so... that's wonderful.

(laughs): Yeah, that's awesome.

And if it didn't have the hole?

I would say probably $8,000 to $10,000.

Okay.

I'm so happy.

(laughs) Not bad, huh?

That's amazing.

I was a graduate student at the University of Michigan, and one of my friends bailed on the program in 1968, and he brought me these posters.

Actually he brought me a big stack of what he called junk paper.

And I treated it as junk paper, and my wife saw this, said, "I think we ought to mount them, put them on the wall."

So for 45 years, they've been on our guestroom wall.

The poster closest to you shows Grover Cleveland and James G. Blaine trying to win the fish of the presidency.

And there's a huge amount of tangled line, and it says, "New York."

And in this poster, it was printed after the election of 1884.

And apparently it was designed to commemorate the outcome of the election.

Grover Cleveland wins the fish, or the presidency, and James G. Blaine skulks off as the loser.

That's right.

And New York had 36 electoral votes, there were over a million votes cast, and Cleveland won by just over 1,000.

So it was a very, very close election.

And these prints were done, as you said, right after the election.

And it's called "The Great National Fishing Match."

Here they are contesting the presidency, and there is the result.

And it was a very bitter campaign.

Cleveland was actually from Buffalo.

He started as a lawyer there, and within four years went from a lawyer in Buffalo to president of the United States.

And these prints were both done by the Courier Lithographic Company of Buffalo, which was a small lithography company.

They were published by M. Lee.

And M. Lee is not somebody who's turned up anywhere else, so it was probably something... Lee was probably a supporter of Cleveland, and it was sort of a "nah-nah-nah" to the Republicans.

Yes.

And what's interesting about that is, there was another one of those in the same election.

Because one of the reasons it was close... Cleveland was supposed to win, but the report came out that he was having an affair with a woman in Buffalo, and may have had a child.

And the Republicans said, "Ma, Ma, where's my pa?"

during the election.

Well, after the election, the Democrats came back with, "Gone to the White House, ha, ha, ha."

So this is much the same kind of thing.

There was a lot of bitterness.

A supporter from Buffalo is saying, "Well, look-- we won."

My guess is they would have been hung up in bars or Democratic clubs where they would put them up, and everybody would go... (cackles) Something like that.

They probably didn't run off a huge number of them.

Maybe 500 to 1,000 were done.

How many survive is very rare.

I mean, you said you found one, right?

I have seen this poster, which is the aftermath, and that's probably the one the Democrats love the most.

I've never seen this one anywhere.

And where did you see that one?

Library of Congress.

Library of Congress.

And T.J. Nicholl, he was the artist, he was the cartoonist.

Couldn't find any record of him doing any other print, so he may have worked for a local firm.

Now, do you have a sense of what they might be worth?

I've worked as a historian for many years, and yesterday, my wife and I had a guessing game that if we got this far...

Okay.

I said $100 or less, she said $1,000, and our son in Singapore said $500.

So there's the range in our family.

Okay, well, your wife is a little sharper than you are on this.

She always is.

If these were in a retail environment, I would think something on the order of $1,400 to $1,600 for the pair.

Now, that includes the fact they're not in good shape.

They are rare enough, and they're appealing enough to collectors, that that really doesn't matter.

I'm delighted that we kept them for 45 years.

They came from my husband's family, and the painting is by Acee Blue Eagle, and we've always called it "The Little Blue Deer."

When they broke up their household, we inherited this.

And then I bought the book "Echogee," which we figure is the story about this deer.

And I remember seeing Acee Blue Eagle on television.

He sat out in front of a teepee, and he told stories.

Where were you when you saw him on TV?

I was in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and we were the first ones in the neighborhood to have a TV.

And it was five inches big.

Really?

Yes.

What did he talk about?

He told stories.

He told Native American stories.

Did he talk about "Echogee"?

I don't remember, it's been so long ago.

Acee was a prominent artist in Oklahoma.

His name was Alex McIntosh.

And McIntosh is a very old, important Creek-Scottish name.

He was Muscogee Creek, Pawnee, and Wichita, so he was a blend of three different tribes.

But his primary identification was Muscogee Creek.

His Creek name was Chebon Ahbulah, which means "Laughing Boy"-- chebon is "boy."

But he went by Acee Blue Eagle his whole life as an artist.

And he married a woman from Bali who was a Balinese dancer, so sometimes you'll find paintings of Balinese dancers that he did.

He represented the State Department at events, and was widely collected.

He realized at some point that he had a market bigger than just doing paintings.

His paintings were always fairly expensive and fairly desirable, because of his relationship with the government, and also because of his skill.

And he eventually became a professor of art at Bacone Indian School in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

And this is sort of Little Blue Deer grown up.

And it's tempera and watercolor on paper.

It's very typical of him.

The frame even looks like it's from the time period.

And he died in 1959, and I expect this was painted sometime in the late '40s, early '50s.

We've been talking about Little Blue Deer or Echogee.

This is the book that he put out called "Echogee."

And it's the story of this little blue deer who was a fawn, and about his encounters with other animals.

And I'm sure you've read it 100 times.

Yes, and I've told it.

Did you use it in classes, or...?

Yes, I would bring the painting in and show my students, and I would tell them the story of Echogee the little blue deer.

The book "Echogee the Little Blue Deer" was written and first printed in 1932.

And Acee, he was sort of one of the first great pan-Indian personalities.

He wasn't just Creek, he wasn't just Pawnee, he was Acee.

And everybody knew him.

He had a great personality, was known as a great teacher.

He continued to paint great individual works.

The large ones bring tremendous amounts of money.

If this painting came up for sale at an auction, I think it would easily bring $2,500 to $3,000 without any problem.

APPRAISER: He's a cute-looking fellow.

I doubt if it started out life as a lamp base, but it somehow got transferred into a light.

I think it's probably worth, in a shop, $200, $250.

Oh, well, that's a nice surprise.

People love penguins.

They actually had craftsmen who would set the pieces in there, as opposed to just gluing them in real quick, cranking them out.

The glue will discolor over the years.

These are still bright and pretty.

You might see this selling for, like, $75 or $85.

It's very unusual to me, because we see quite a lot of early handbags on the Roadshow.

They almost never have a label inside.

And yours is handmade in Paris, France.

It's in wonderful condition, and I would put a retail value on it between $250 and $300.

Really?

Yeah, it's lovely.

Wonderful.

WOMAN: My grandfather's mother was best friends with her neighbor, and her neighbor was a cousin to the artist.

So my great-grandmother would buy the paintings and give them away as family gifts.

So this one was actually given to my grandfather as a wedding present, and was in his first home with my grandmother.

The artist is Fred Green Carpenter.

And he was a really significant artist here in St. Louis.

He was born in Tennessee, but came to St. Louis early in life.

And he got a post at Wash. U. as an instructor, and he served out his entire career there.

He made some pretty significant contributions to the St. Louis artists' community, and really continued to exhibit.

He won awards at the Paris Salon, at the Panama Pacific Expo during his tenure at Washington University, and continued to paint in an innovative manner throughout his career.

This is an oil on canvas, and we can see that it's signed, and it's dated 1942.

He was known as a colorist, and he would paint exotic subjects, many of them figural.

We looked at this very closely, and could not determine the precise location.

Okay.

But we think it might be along the Missouri River.

At auction, a conservative estimate of value would fall in the range of $5,000 to $7,000.

Oh, my God.

(laughing): Wow, that's incredible.

I need to up my insurance.

MAN: I got this at auction over 20 years ago.

My career has been with parks and recreation, and we, you know, provide a lot of programs for kids.

I bought it and hung it in my office, and left it there for the last 20 years.

I just retired recently.

Sometimes we start to lose focus.

We get so caught up in the day-to-day.

I always liked this, because it reminded me it really is about the kids, and not about uniforms and trophies and all the other things.

Exactly.

So when you see this kid, what do you think of?

I think of sandlot, Saturday afternoon, let's just have some fun.

It's as simple and as easy as it should be, right?

Absolutely.

A great childhood.

This poster is all about perspective.

It is, yes, absolutely is.

This kid actually has a name.

Oh, really?

Great.

This kid's name is Skippy Skinner.

(laughs) And Skippy Skinner was a comic strip that was produced from approximately 1923 to 1945.

I'll be darned.

By that guy.

Really?

Percy Crosby.

He developed Skippy Skinner.

And he's a fifth grader.

This comic strip produced in the '20s, he was known as, like, one of the first characters that wasn't an animated animal or a caricature like Popeye the Sailor Man.

He was, like, a real-life kid who lived in the city.

He wore this hat, he wore this coat, and he got into a lot of trouble.

And he loved baseball, but he wasn't always so good at it.

I think that this poster was probably most likely done somewhere in the early to mid '30s.

We've never even heard of this kid today.

He's not well-known.

Yet he was huge in his heyday.

They merchandised dolls and toys after him.

And a certain peanut butter that started in 1932... Really?

...took its name.

I'll be darned.

Which even started a trademark battle.

(laughs) So Skippy was, like, the hottest thing in the late '20s, early '30s.

One movie that was done, a novel, a radio series.

He was a cool dude.

So that's why Spalding bats used this, licensed him, for this poster, and hired Crosby to do it for them.

It's a really rare poster.

Oh, good.

You have baseball and Spalding bats, and you have Skippy.

Right.

Even though you've got some condition issues up here and here... You bought it framed?

Yes, I did.

Okay, and how much did you pay for it?

I think I paid $50.

It was not over $50, I know that.

Okay, I would put an insurance value on it of $5,000.

Really?

Wow.

Holy smoke.

Wow.

All the things that could have happened to that, the way I treated it.

(laugh) We've seen a lot of Western paintings on the "Antiques Roadshow" by cowboy artists, but we don't see too many by cowgirl artists.

What can you tell me about this painting by Marjorie Reed?

Well, my grandfather bought it for my grandmother, and according to the records I have, in 1961.

And he bought it from a guy named Ray Jacobs, who owned the Julian Hotel.

And my grandparents lived in San Diego.

And I don't really know where Julian is, but I think it's in the desert somewhere close to San Diego.

This was probably brand-new in...

I would say in the '50s.

Marjorie Reed was born in 1915 in Illinois, and she and her family moved to California.

And she studied art with her father, who was a commercial artist.

And she even spent some time at the Walt Disney Studios.

But that was really too mild for her.

She was an outside girl, she loved the landscape, she loved the cowboy life, the cowgirl life.

In the 1930s, she heard about the route of the Butterfield Overland Mail Route.

It was a stagecoach that ran from St. Louis to San Francisco, and then San Francisco to Yuma.

It was an extensive route that was from 1858 to 1861.

So in the '30s and '40s, she packed up her dog-- which I can appreciate-- and her Model T, and traveled the route of the Butterfield Overland Stage Route.

And during that time, she recreated stagecoach pictures of the scenery and the images that would have been in the 19th century.

The stagecoach pictures are what she's best known for.

Yeah.

But in some ways, those are history paintings.

And this is really more of what she would have seen while she was out there.

She was an interesting artist in that she often signed a man's name to her work.

She often signed her husband's name, Harvey Day, or sometimes Fred Day.

She was a very prolific artist, and one of the very few American women artists who lived the life.

It's a period frame, and this is a linen liner.

The painting is oil on canvas, and is in really wonderful condition.

At auction, I would estimate it between $7,000 and $9,000.

Wonderful, that's nice.

I'm glad it made the trip back, then.

I might have put it in a box if I'd have known that.

I would say probably around $15,000 for insurance.

Okay.

Well, this letter has been a part of my life.

It was in my home long before I was born.

It was written in the Executive Mansion in Lincoln's own hand.

It's a letter written by Abraham Lincoln.

Written by Abraham Lincoln.

Well, it was sent to the colonel of the 91st Division, and that was my great-great-uncle, and his brother was my great-grandfather.

They were down in Brownsville, Texas, in the Civil War.

David C. Edwards.

This is what he wrote-- "If David C. Edwards "is in any trouble about desertion, "suspend action and report the facts to me.

Yours, A.

Lincoln."

And that was written because his fiancé knew that this boy had deserted.

Well, he was court-martialed, and he was supposed to be shot.

Which boy deserted?

It was a boy from Illinois.

And his fiancé came out with him to Brownsville, Texas, when he entered the Army, and she was still there when this happened, I guess.

So her fiancé deserted the U.S. Army...

He deserted.

during the Civil War.

Yes.

She waited until she heard that Lincoln was back in his office.

She got on a train and went straight to Washington, walked right up to his office, walked in, and said, "Please, "my fiancé is a wonderful young man, "he loves his country.

Please don't let them shoot him."

He picked up his pen, and while she stood there, he wrote this letter.

She took it back to my great-great-grandfather, and he was a colonel, and he... Of course, a letter from Lincoln like this, he's going to look at it.

And he did, and the boy was not shot.

So the fiancée got on the train from Brownsville, Texas, Yeah.

all the way to the nation's capital Right.

during the height of the Civil War in order to save her fiancé's life.

Yes.

You have a carte de visite, 1860s-era photograph of the family members, some Confederate money and U.S. money, and an engraving of the Lincoln family itself.

I've certainly seen a lot of Lincoln letters over the years.

And you've seen them similar to this?

No.

I don't seem them in the marketplace much at all.

Really!

And it's been in your family continuously since the Civil War.

Always, that's right.

I find the content of the letter extraordinary.

I think it really brings to life who the man and the president Abraham Lincoln was.

I would appraise the letter at... retail value, at between $10,000 to $12,000.

Oh, my goodness.

Well, I think the opening of his heart is of even more consequence than how much it's worth.

I have a photograph of Billy the Kid.

He stayed with my husband's great-uncle when he was hiding out in St. Louis.

Which one is him?

Right here in the center.

Oh, wow.

So we'll see-- supposedly.

I'm going to say it's, you know, the chances of it being...

I didn't realize that, yeah.

This lady brought me this photograph, and she claims this is Billy the Kid.

WOMAN: I think he was here in St. Louis with the family about 1875, 1880.

The first thing I would tell you is that the photographic paper was a silver gelatin paper that was not made before about 1890.

Okay.

So the photograph... Really, so you can tell that?

Yes.

Okay.

And here's the other thing.

If you're an outlaw, the last thing you want to do is stand and have somebody take your picture so somebody can recognize you.

No chance that...

I would...

Zero chances that it's Billy the Kid.

Okay.

As in none, zero, nada, zip, nothing.

(laughs): I get that, okay.

WOMAN: In July 2011, my husband and I saw an advertisement for a country auction.

It was literally in a barn in central Illinois.

When we walked in, we were... just love at first sight.

Didn't know anything about the marks on the bottom, but we just fell in love.

So you went after it.

He did.

And you bought it.

He started bidding, and he kept bidding.

And I was having a heart attack, because he kept bidding.

And when he got it, the purchase price was $1,600 on the vase.

I'd like to show the marks.

Very clearly marked, Denver Lonhuda.

And it has a date of 1903.

And the little symbol in the center is the LF mark, for Lonhuda Faience.

William Long, who was part of Weller Pottery for a number of years, had a fight with Sam Weller, ended up going to Denver and opened his own pottery, and made a line of pieces like this called Denver Denaura.

And they are typically this beautiful, soft, green glaze with vegetal flowers.

This is a form I hadn't seen before.

There are not a lot of these.

Condition, really nice.

I think we're probably looking at a retail price of maybe $3,500.

Oh.

In an auction setting, it might be more like $3,000.

But I think your husband did good.

Yes, he did.

Today you've brought in a very interesting painting by Elbridge Burbank.

That's right.

My grandfather was a surgeon up in Kansas City, and Mrs. Whitehead was a woman who worked with his family doing a lot of cooking.

I think she worked with him for over 20 years.

And during that time, my grandpa would just care for the family, the extended family.

She was married to a man who was of Navajo descent, and she, as a thank you just to him and for his care through the years, gave him this painting as a gift.

Gave it to your grandfather?

Yes, to my grandfather.

Elbridge Burbank was born in 1858 in Illinois.

And he had his first training in Chicago.

But early on in the 1880s, he went to Munich, where many American artists went to study, and he was in the company of two other Taos artists, or eventual Taos artists, Joseph Henry Sharp and William Robinson Lee.

So it was quite a coterie of artists who would eventually use the Native American as their subject matter.

He comes back and graduates from the Art Institute of Chicago school, so that was quite a prominent education.

And in the late 1890s, his uncle convinced him that he should go out West and paint all the prominent Indians or Native Americans.

Oh, interesting.

And so he goes to Arizona, where the Navajos were located.

Yes.

And you will see here that "Ganado, Arizona" is inscribed here in the right-hand side.

Oh, okay.

And that's where he went.

I see.

And he became very friendly with the trade post owner there, and basically painted, in his lifetime, over 2,000 portraits of Native Americans.

Wow.

Oh, that's fantastic.

And they were some in oil like this, and others were conté crayon drawings.

And in the group, he painted Geronimo.

He was the only artist to paint Geronimo from life, and he did seven portraits of him.

Oh, okay.

And in fact, Geronimo thought that he was the nicest white man that he had ever met.

In the upper left, we have the name of the Indian, as well as "Navajo."

The Indian's name is Tanti Ta.

In doing basic research on the Indian, we haven't really been able to find much out about him.

So that's something that we need to continue to do.

The artist painted many Indian chiefs and, of course, prominent members of the tribe, so we have to assume it's someone who had some prominence.

This is a Navajo blanket.

It's called a wearing blanket.

The head treatment is very typical.

And we have turquoise earrings called jaclas, as well as a silver bead necklace.

And those were also a typical accoutrement the Navajo would wear.

Condition-wise, as you can see, there are little tiny flakes of paint loss.

And these flakes can be restored.

Okay.

The painting's also somewhat dirty.

It would clean very nicely.

Okay.

It's also in its original condition.

It's waffling a little bit, though, in the frame, and can be rekeyed or tightened.

I feel that the painting was probably done between 1910 and 1920.

Since he did so many Indian portraits, we do see them from time to time, and they vary in price, depending on the stature of the Native American Sure.

and the clothing.

Okay.

And so in this particular case, the bright red blanket and the turquoise jewelry, I think, are quite striking.

And if this were in a gallery in the Southwest, the asking price would be $10,000.

Wow, that's fantastic.

Oh, that's special.

That's really nice to know.

WOMAN: Well, I found this watch when my parents' basement flooded two years ago, the day after Christmas.

And at the bottom of the flooded stairway was this big barrel.

And at the bottom of it was three pocket watches.

And also was all of this locomotive information from my great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather.

That's all we really know about it.

Okay.

Okay, so it's not surprising, then, this is what's called a railroad watch.

Uh-huh.

It's an interesting type of railroad watch.

It's a Ball-- that's the name of the company that sold it.

Now, Webb C. Ball was a Cleveland jeweler who, in the 1890s, became very concerned about railway accidents, because there was no standard timing amongst railway personnel, and very often two trains found themselves on the same track at the same time with terrible consequences.

So Ball decided that he would develop watches that were both very accurate and very inexpensive.

This was the result of it.

Ball himself didn't make watches, but he had various good watch companies make them for him.

This one was made by another company in Boston called the Howard Watch Company.

But this one is interesting, because not only does it say "Ball" on it, it also has this logo, "O.R.C."

Do you know what that stands for?

No clue.

That was the Order of Railway Conductors, fraternal organization.

By any chance were your... great-grandfather, was he a railway conductor?

Yes, they were.

These watches were made around the turn of the 20th century, early decade of 1900s.

The beautiful part of Ball watches is the finishing of the watch on the inside.

And we can see the beautiful finishing that they have in the metal.

It has 17 jewels, which is very common for a watch, but each of these jewels is set into a little gold cup that has a precision device to help regulate the watch.

It's also signed "O.R.C."

on it, as well.

The railway watches were made by the millions.

Most of them are worth a few hundred dollars.

This is very special.

This is one of only 70 watches that were made by Howard for the railway conductors' union.

The last one of these sold at auction made $6,000.

Oh, my goodness.

(laughs): Holy cow.

Oh, my goodness.

Oh, my goodness.

That is just unbelievable.

And, I mean, my grandpa's...

I mean, we just had it there.

And, I mean, if it wasn't for the flood, I don't know if we would have ever found it.

I mean, it's not in the best of condition.

Yeah.

So it might not make quite as much as $6,000.

Sure.

But this is a rarest of all rare Ball watches.

An auction estimate for this watch would be probably $4,000 to $6,000.

That's still unbelievable, unbelievable.

It just shows you never discount anything at the bottom of a barrel.

APPRAISER: A lot of people, not necessarily Roman Catholics, like them in their homes.

One like this in a good shop that sells that kind of thing, they're going to charge at least $2,000 for it.

It's authentic, it's in great shape, and it's really compelling.

Did you say it was plate?

I think so, yeah.

Even though it says solid silver?

Sometimes when you see that, it doesn't always mean that it is silver.

So they can be deceptive sometimes.

The patination suggests that it might not be silver.

A lot of times when you see a ring from this period, 1930s, a lot of people see the black and they assume it's a mourning ring.

I see.

But although that was the style, it has nothing to do with mourning.

It was just fashion.

I think it would probably be somewhere around $150, maybe $200.

All right.

WOMAN: It's a piece that my ex-husband gave me, probably about 40 years ago, and I don't know much about it.

This what we call micromosaic.

Okay.

They're little pieces of glass that are all inset into the body of the brooch.

This piece would date about 1870.

It's 18-karat gold.

And the piece would have been made in Rome, out of the Vatican workshops.

This is tourist jewelry for the era.

There's a number of motifs going on here.

You've got the pax, which is a religious symbolism from Christianity.

The two bees here, this is the symbol of the resurrection.

We've got wonderful foliate motif.

It really is just a lovely, lovely piece.

This type of jewelry a number of years ago was extremely collectible.

And the prices have come down a little bit, but even in today's market, if this came up to auction, I would expect this piece to bring somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000.

Oh, that's wonderful.

Yeah.

Absolutely wonderful.

Well, thank you very much.

You're welcome.

I appreciate it.

WOMAN: This is a Civil War commission for my great-great-great-uncle James David Rabb, who graduated from West Point in 1863, served for a brief three or four months, contracted typhoid fever in New Orleans in August of '63, and died in New Orleans.

So he died prior to the end of the war.

Yes.

We found both of these folded up in a manila folder.

Wow.

In the mid '80s.

Had the flag conserved and, you know, the commission framed.

Well, let's start with the flag.

You've got a great little 34-star flag in silk.

It's entirely hand-sewn, which is exactly the way it should be.

Now, there are a few condition issues with it.

There're some holes in here, but it's been conserved quite nicely.

One of the things that makes this flag very interesting also is the pattern of the stars.

If you notice, it's in a little star pattern itself.

It's a star pattern.

And that's another thing that collectors really enjoy.

If it had a standard star pattern, it would be wonderful, but not as exciting as this.

So the star pattern on this would date to 1861 to 1863.

The second thing that you've got is the commission.

And one of the things that I looked at when it first came in is the quality of the Abraham Lincoln signature here.

A lot of the times we see these commissions, they are worn, or they're faded, and it's kind of hard to see the autograph of Lincoln on there.

So basically this is an officer's commission.

Officers would receive a commission signed by Edwin Stanton, the secretary of war, and at the time, Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States.

Officers would have been the only ones who received a commission from the president of the United States.

You've got the flag that he had prior to his death, and you've got his commission as first lieutenant.

At auction, I think we would put the two of them together in the $3,000 to $5,000 range.

Spectacular.

MAN: I brought an old trunk that I inherited from my father, who, he inherited it from a very good friend of his.

When you inherited it from your father, where did you find it?

We found it underneath a carport in his house, covered up with a blanket.

Didn't think anything about it.

My brother and I were going to throw it in the trash, and my wife said, "It's going home with me."

So you inherited it from your father, and how did he come to own it?

He was a very good friend of Gertrude Fogler, who was a speech teacher for MGM Studios.

She willed almost everything to him that was left.

And we have here a photograph of Gertrude and your father.

And would this have been when he was acting and taking his diction classes from her?

Yes, this would have been about 1968 that this picture was taken.

As far as I can tell, this is the first Goyard trunk that's come into "Antiques Roadshow."

Maison Goyard had its origins in a firm called Maison Martin that stared in 1792.

And the first Goyard to enter that firm entered in 1845.

Goyard got its genesis in the late 18th century, but it's still in business today.

It's labeled in several places.

I'm going to go ahead and open it so we can see some of the most prominent markings of it.

So when we open it, the first thing we're presented with is a lift-out tray here that's got the Goyard branding on the straps.

And then the lift-out liner here has all the Goyard branding on the straps.

This is all original to the trunk.

The trunk is from the early 20th century, and that's really nice to have the lift-out liner.

The condition of the interior here is really wonderful.

Very bright, very clean still.

And then we get around to where we have the Goyard label.

And that's got a serial number.

Aside from this metal tag on the end, we also see the traditional pattern of the Goyard trunks and their handbags and all of their goods and accessories.

We've also got some travel stickers.

So she traveled around quite a bit.

And you mentioned some of the cities she traveled to.

She went from Paris to Morocco to China, London, Nova Scotia, Boston, New York, and then to L.A., where she ended up.

So she saw a lot of the world, and I think this trunk tells part of that story.

Yeah, it's got a few nicks and scratches in it.

Exactly-- it's had a life.

But it's very well-built.

And so talking about the nicks and scratches, condition is a very important component of value with any object.

And we've got some issues here, as we see on the back, with some losses to the canvas surface.

We've got quite a bit of loss here on the lid.

Some rough condition to the wood and the metal.

But a lot of this can be improved upon by a very good luggage restorer, especially the metal and wood parts.

The canvas is a little tougher, but it can still be improved upon.

And then another part of this trunk that tells its story are these painted initials.

So this is actually quite in vogue back in the early 20th century through today, to paint your monogram on your Louis Vuitton trunk, your Goyard handbag.

And so I think Gertrude may have purchased this secondhand, because obviously her initials weren't "F.W."

I know, I agree.

So once you've had a little bit of attention paid to it, worked on the leather, worked on the metal, done what you can with the canvas, in a retail setting that handles these really wonderful trunks that the French were making, I think you're looking at a retail price in the range of $4,000.

Okay.

Surprising.

I had no idea.

So that's good to know.

In its current condition, I think its retail value would be around $2,000, which would also probably be around the low end of an auction estimate.

Okay.

It's been a footstool in my house for 20 years.

(laughs): I put a towel over it, and I put my feet on it.

WOMAN: My grandfather had actually two occupations, one as a barber and one as a woodcarver.

He took time in between shaves and customers to whittle, which is what he called it.

He started with little animals, and making zoos for his wife.

And as he carved them for his wife, he began to make bigger objects.

This here represents one of his items called the preaching stick.

Your grandfather was Elijah Pierce.

He was actually my father's father.

And his barbershop was in Columbus?

In Columbus, Ohio.

Ohio.

And was he well-known within the neighborhood as... Oh, definitely.

Children, adults, especially those, he cut their hair, also knew a lot about him.

And then being a preacher, they knew about him in the church.

It was something that he used in preaching, is that right?

When he needed to tell a story to those he was cutting hair, he would pick something on that, or he would use it for his sermons on Sunday, as well.

You'll see his brush for shaving, the cup, the comb, and brush.

Back in those days they had the ice trucks.

He was highly religious, so you will see the cross and the two thieves on each side of the cross on there.

Well, it is a remarkable piece of African-American art.

History.

It speaks to his personal narrative and his religious fervor and spirit.

So it's all kind of present on this preaching stick.

In looking through the books in which this piece has been illustrated and exhibited, the consensus seems to be that it was carved somewhere around 1950.

For a long time, these pieces have been thought of as American folk art.

Correct.

There is now enormous interest in the artwork of self-taught African-American artists, because in this particular category, the expression and the intensity of what is depicted on these works of art is really central to the maker's being.

The highest price for a piece of work by Elijah Pierce is $87,500.

Okay.

The auction estimate for this work would be somewhere in the vicinity of $15,000-$20,000.

Okay.

If it were to be sold at auction, which we know... No.

is not going to happen.

For insurance purposes, I would say $40,000 or $50,000.

Okay.

WALBERG: You're watching "Antiques Roadshow" from St. Louis.

And now, it's time for the Roadshow Feedback Booth.

I brought in the 328-year-old book that I thought was from 1689, but actually found out it was only from the 1800s, and worth ten dollars.

The boy told me it wasn't worth anything.

And I brought in this silver tray.

It... the appraiser said that it was very well-loved, which made me feel very good.

But she said it was so well-loved that all the silver's gone.

(laugh) I brought my collection of photos from the World's Fair I bought at an estate sale and found out they're worth over $3,000.

Whoo-hoo!

Another cruise for the wife and I!

Today we brought this poster that I bought in Hong Kong, and this book from my grandfather.

I hope the next time that we come to "Antiques Roadshow" we bring something worth over $100.

I think he means $25.

My grandmother, when she visited Paris a couple of decades ago, bought this drawing from an art museum or an art gallery, and for $500, and brought it back.

And so we decided to bring it in, check it out.

And it turns out it was worth $5,000.

So a pretty cool return.

So thanks, Grandma.

Before we came, we made a guess on the value of each item and made a bet on who would win.

And she won in all cases.

Which means we get sushi tonight.

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

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."