Vintage Birmingham

APPRAISER: They are a terrific pair of potpourris.

You must've been Grandma's favorite!

That's it!

How'd you know?

(laughing) (laughs) APPRAISER: You want to kiss me now or later?

(laughing) Now and later.

Okay, and later, all right.

♪ ♪ MARK WALBERG: "Antiques Roadshow" first visited Birmingham, Alabama, the South's steel city, in 1999.

There, we saw treasures made of other metals, such as bronze, silver, and platinum.

How have the values for these and other items changed since the turn of the last century?

Which values went up, down, or stayed the same?

Here's your chance to find out, right now on "Vintage Birmingham."

WOMAN: I got it in Florida about 17 years ago.

And I got it at an estate sale, but I don't know what I paid for it, I forgot.

APPRAISER: Well, can you guess?

Somewhere probably around five dollars.

Well, it's really charming, and it's a bronze.

It's what they call an Austrian cold-painted bronze.

This cat also has a secret, doesn't it?

That's right.

The cat opens up, and it converts to a little naughty image here.

Right.

And it's kind of, I would think, an early Transformer.

This was probably done circa 1900.

There was a very famous artist that made these.

His name was Bergman, and he did large-scale sculptures.

Mm-hmm.

But he always signed his small, "naughty" bronzes, "Nam Greb," which is "Bergman" spelled backwards.

Oh.

And he always signed his pieces.

This piece does not have Bergman's signature, so I have to assume it is a colleague or a contemporary of his.

But it does have the Austria mark on the back, which indicates that it is an Austrian bronze, so what you've got here is a lovely little naughty bronze.

By day, kitty, and by night, a, a very risqué image.

Value on a piece like this, because they're highly collectible, is $2,000.

Oh, my goodness.

Isn't that fantastic?

Yes, it is.

Well, thank you very much for bringing it in.

It's a lovely, lovely piece.

Thank you.

You brought some very interesting "Gone With the Wind" material.

I wonder if you could tell us a little about where you found it.

My husband's a mechanic, and a lady he needed to do a motor job for, she didn't have the money, and she had this stuff.

She wanted to do the barter system, and he said no.

Uh-huh.

So she sold it to me for $400, and she gave him the money, and I wound up with this stuff.

Yeah, and I understand your husband made you go to the bank, take out a loan for it.

Yup, I paid for it for a year.

Yes, sir.

Well, you got some interesting material.

And the first thing we have is actually a program for the original premiere of "Gone with the Wind" in Atlanta.

And that's nice in and of itself.

You see here it's the premiere, and the original ticket stub.

But what's more interesting is the fact that this woman actually knew Margaret Mitchell.

And we have a first edition of "Gone With the Wind."

It says May 1936.

But it's also inscribed by the author, Margaret Mitchell, and it says here, "To Vivian Ladiday, with much love from Margaret Mitchell."

Now, that's good, but what's even better are the personal letters.

And this is one here.

And what's interesting about this is, the letter says-- it's talking about her fame.

After she wrote "Gone With the Wind," and the movie was coming out, how it changed her life, and this is something-- she almost went into seclusion afterwards, because of the amount of attention.

It says here, "For nearly a year, "everyone I've ever known has brought "or tried to bring their friends to meet me.

"Utter strangers have descended on me in scores, "and people with letters of introduction "have arrived unexpectedly in the firm belief "that I would give them a day or two.

"You cannot imagine "how bad the last year has been, "or the unbelievable numbers of people who have been on our doorstep."

And what's interesting about this is that the letters are of such a personal nature, and there's two more of them, here.

Yes.

Now, have you ever had these appraised at all?

Not yet.

Just the $400 that you got to pay for them?

Right.

Well, of course, "Gone with the Wind" is always collectible, it's always in demand, especially here in the South-- it's very important.

And because of the personal nature of the letters, they're even signed "Peggy" rather than "Margaret," which is very nice.

I would place everything, as a whole, if they were to come up at auction, at $6,000 to $8,000.

Wow.

Yeah?

(laughs) A little bit better for the $400 investment, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, thank you very much for coming.

Okay, thank you.

(laughs) WOMAN: These are urns that I inherited from my grandmother.

APPRAISER: Okay.

And I just love them.

What do you think they are?

I was told they were Sèvres urns.

Okay, do you know anything about Sèvres?

Not much.

Okay.

The Sèvres factory was the royal porcelain factory in France.

It supplied porcelain to all of the king Louis, and it was a very important factory throughout the 1700s and into the 1800s.

Now, they did a lot of work which involved extremely, finely painted porcelain, okay?

Now, you thought that these were porcelain.

Right.

Well, they're not.

(laughs): Okay.

They're actually enameled metal.

Hmm.

Which is rarer and probably a lot better.

They do have that porcelain look to it.

Right.

But what they do-- how they make enamel is, is they take very finely ground pieces of glass, and they actually lay it on top of a copper or metal surface, and then they fire it into... very, very highly and very intensely.

And that's how you get this wonderful glaze to it.

You can see how beautifully painted this panel is here, painted with a courting couple.

And oftentimes, you'll get a signature along the bottom.

In this case, there's no signature, but that really doesn't matter a lot.

And you also have a landscape painted along the lid.

I also wanted to point out that these bits that look like pearls and garnets are called jeweling, and jeweling is a form of enamel, just as this enamel ground is.

Now, along the backside is, like, double, double, double your money.

You get a nice landscape panel on the back.

What's wonderful about these is that it's a combination of really finely painted panels and these gilt bronze mounts.

Now, these are potpourris, because it has this open band at the top.

So you would have incense or scented flowers or whatnot that you would put up on a mantelpiece.

What do you think they're worth?

I have no idea.

I knew you were going to say that.

Of course you did.

(laughing) They are a very, very finely painted pair of potpourris from around 1860, in the Sèvres style, and they're probably worth around $8,000 to $12,000.

(laughs): Oh, my gosh.

They're beautiful.

Thank you.

There's one thing that I wanted to point out, though, just for the future.

It looks like very early, probably in the 20th century, there was a restoration that was made here.

It's very easy to chip this metal, and without that little bit of restoration, they would be worth even more, but they are a terrific pair of potpourris.

Thank you.

You must've been Grandma's favorite.

That's it!

How'd you know?

(laughing): Thank you very much.

Thanks for coming in.

Appreciate it.

Goodness, good, gooble dee goo.

WOMAN: We have a local gallery that does prints and framing, and he very willingly, gave me some numbers to call in New York, some in Atlanta.

APPRAISER: And what were you trying to find out?

Uh, just anything at all about them.

How to take care, how to restore, and the age and the worth.

Right.

They say on them that they are by N. Currier, and they have the date on them.

This one's 1852, and this one's around the same date.

So you know that it was allegedly done by the firm of Currier and Ives before Ives joined, by N. Currier.

Currier and Ives prints, or Currier prints, are the most often reproduced of all American prints, so it's always a very important question to ask.

And one thing you do is, you look into a book like this, which is the standard reference book on Currier and Ives, checking out the titles to make sure the titles match exactly and that the size is correct.

But you have to do more than that, because they've been reproduced to very close to the right size with the right titles, photographically.

So one thing you need to do is, you need to look at the grain using a magnification.

And when you brought these in, the first thing I did was look at that.

And I'd like you to look through here.

What you see is, you see an irregular pattern, and that is the stone lithography.

And what that means is that these are, in fact, original prints, because they're made by stone lithography, not by a dot matrix, and not by a collotype.

Isn't that wonderful?

So combined with the fact that they are the right size, they are the right titles, they are originals, because they're stone lithography.

That's great.

A lot of people come to the show and they hear, "You shouldn't mess with this antique, because you're decreasing the value."

With antique prints, it's the opposite way.

Opposite?

Absolutely.

This foxing, which you can see on this print, all over the print, that's a fungus that grows on there.

They also have acid from the backing that's into the paper itself, and if you don't treat them, they'll get worse.

Luckily, these can be restored.

You can remove the foxing from them, you can deacidify them, and the color is wonderful, so they'll be nice and bright and worth quite a bit.

And I would say in the condition they're in, they're probably worth around $6,000.

They have big margins, which is very important, beautiful color and everything.

Thank you.

But if you have them restored and so that they're crisp and clean, you're going to end up with prints that are worth as much as $8,000.

Think so?

Now, that's a retail value, but they're some of the best Currier and Ives prints, and they're delightful, and I'm delighted.

Thank you.

And that's $8,000 each.

Each.

APPRAISER: It's a copy of Raphael's "Marriage of the Virgin."

It was a common thing for a lot of Americans to go from the United States over to Europe to buy particular things just like this.

Its value could be in the range of $10,000 to $15,000 or $8,000 to $12,000.

Even though it's a copy, it's a really high-quality copy.

APPRAISER: It's from northern New Mexico, in one of the Rio Grande pueblos.

This is a work of Tonita Roybal, and she was married to a notable Pueblo painter by the name of Juan Cruz Roybal.

She would form the pottery, he would paint the pottery.

Its value would probably be in the $1,500 range.

It's a great pot.

MAN: Thank you.

WOMAN: Thank you.

It's very nice to know.

Thank you very much.

MAN: I've had it since I was 11 years old.

I asked my dad, I wanted an Alabama football.

And he came home one day and had a football.

APPRAISER: This ball came from the Crimson Tide's undefeated season of 1966, which poured over into 1967, when they won the Sugar Bowl, beating Nebraska 34-7.

This ball was given out with all the signatures on the team, including the coach, Bear Bryant, their legendary coach.

This was right in the heart of Bear Bryant's reign.

Paul "Bear" Bryant, one of the winningest coaches in college football.

They won in 1965, and in '66, which they played the Sugar Bowl in January of '67, they went undefeated, 11-0, they beat Nebraska 34-7.

Didn't you figure they'd win the national championship that year?

Absolutely.

Because Notre Dame had a tie.

Mm-hmm.

But they won the national championship.

Value-wise, because they didn't win the national championship, yet they went undefeated, this ball-- there couldn't have been too many of them made.

Probably somewhere in the vicinity of around $800 to $1,200.

Great, fantastic.

WOMAN: I was introduced to antiques at a young age.

At the age of nine, I was at an antique auction with my parents, and a piece that I wanted, which was a wicker doll stroller, you know, a baby carriage, came across, and that was going to be mine.

I had my own money, and when it came up, I put my number up, and I said, "Do you see that doll stroller?

That's mine."

So I bought my first piece at the age of nine.

How fun.

Now, how did you come across this?

This was bought at an estate sale of a woman-- she was the secretary to the U.S. ambassador in the Panama Canal.

Mm-hmm.

I was told it's a Chinese incense burner, and that it might be Rose Medallion, that's all I know.

Okay.

This is porcelain, and I can tell that by a closer examination.

The second thing that I can tell about this object is that it is an unusual shape, and I want, just so everybody can see it, I'm going to take the top off.

And you notice it's got these holes in the cover, which is why your friends thought it was an incense burner.

Well, in fact, it's not an incense burner, it's for flowers.

Wow.

And the stems are kept separated by those holes.

Neat!

Now, the other thing that's interesting that most people don't realize-- the opaque colors that you see on here, the pinks and the yellows and the dark greens-- these are colors that were invented by Westerners working in China, in the late 17th century, for the Chinese court.

They're not colors that the Chinese invented.

And we know that the pink color, specifically, did not exist prior to about 1720.

This is a type of ware we call famille rose or Rose Medallion, and it would date to about 1860.

And I can be pretty sure about that when I turn it over, and I see this sort of rough surface.

Right.

It's an orange peel effect.

Hmm.

We call that orange peel, and this could actually date as early as about 1840.

Wow.

1840 to 1860.

And it's somewhat of a neoclassical shape.

It's a very nice example, with these rather nice, gilded turned handles, that look-- are simulating rope.

Right.

And what did you pay for this?

$200.

$200?

Well, you got a pretty good deal.

It's worth about $500 to $600.

Wow.

So, a nice thing.

Thank you.

My mother gave me this for my first birthday, which would've been in May of 1935.

It's been in the family ever since.

I sat in it, my sons have sat in it, and my wife and my son's grandchildren sat in it.

I'm always excited when I see a piece that has come down through and been preserved like this.

And as I understand it, you've tried to do a little research to figure out...

I've tried to look in the antique books, I've gone to antique stores, I've looked on the internet.

And while we were down at Disney World, I talked to the people down there about it.

No one knows a thing about that chair, not at all, so we figured we'd come to the authorities, so here we are.

Oh, well, that's great.

Well, what you have here, of course, is a Mickey Mouse rocking chair, and of course, Mickey Mouse is on one side, and as you know, on the other side, we have his girlfriend, Minnie.

This was part of a set of children's furniture.

There was a Mickey Mouse table, two chairs, there was a Pluto stool, and there was a horse-collar bookcase about this tall.

Well, of all the pieces, this is the one that a Mickey Mouse collector would really like to have, because this has probably some of the finest Mickey Mouse graphics from the classic '30s period.

And it's just in remarkable condition.

One of the things that we use to date Mickey Mouse is what we call the "pie eye," where they would animate the eye by cutting that little sliced pie.

That dates it as a '30s Mickey.

What I also found intriguing, and I didn't know until you brought this in, was that it was made by the Kroehler Manufacturing Company, who was probably one of the-- still one of the great commercial furniture makers in this country.

That speaks to the solidity and the survivability of this, which is a very fine piece of furniture.

Probably quite expensive in its day.

Today, I would say retail value in this condition would be $1,000 to $1,200.

Well, that's great.

Good, good.

So it was good you saved it, and thank you for bringing it in.

Well, thank you so much for telling me about it.

Really appreciate it.

Appreciate it, thank you.

APPRAISER: Martin, I understand you're the owner of the piece.

MAN: Yes, that's right.

And you are a sixth-grade schoolteacher.

Yes, I'm a... And you've been using this in school?

Yes, I take it to school when we study countries that use headrests, and let my students pass it around and look at it so they can be familiar with what a headrest really is.

Well, now, before I get into this, are you all willing to go out on a limb?

Is it real, or is it a reproduction?

MAN: Well, sure, that's why we came.

We want to know.

Okay.

This is a real piece.

As you know, a neck rest is like a pillow.

It goes under the back of the head, and quite often, it is used by women who have these very elaborate coiffures that are assembled with mud and oils, and they keep the same coiffure for months.

MAN: Yeah.

So this keeps their head off the ground, and their coiffure intact.

Now, as we can see on this, there's a wonderful patination here, where it's been used, down on the edges.

And as we lift it up, we can see that this has, indeed, rested on the ground.

Now, one other thing that we should note: these are Islamic designs, and you have a wonderful blending of Africa and Islam.

The country is Somalia.

It's probably 1920s, 1930s, so it's not very old, but it definitely has been used.

Now, a neck rest like this, this would be worth $500 to $700.

Wow.

So was that a reasonable investment?

Sure, I paid a couple of bucks for it.

I'd say two bucks to $500 to $700 is a good investment.

Thank you.

Well, thank you so much for coming in.

Thank you, John.

MAN: Uncle Steve's daughter's husband, Lanier, is the one that makes these.

That's our second cousin.

And Mother and Daddy used to go up and visit with them, and see Uncle Steve, and they would go up there a lot, and she brought this and some other small pitchers, um... APPRAISER: So she's got a collection of them?

She's got several of them, yeah, she keeps this one on top of the-- above the cabinet, and this one's in the entryway, and it's got a little brother that sits there with it, so that's... MAN 2: I think it's probably about six or eight pieces we've got all together.

Really?

Now, this is called a face jug or a grotesque jug.

And when they were first made, they were used to put vinegar in them, lamp oil, moonshine, whatever, and a lot of these go all the way back into the 19th century.

And what has happened is that people in the national market have discovered their uniqueness, their Southern-ness, shall we say, and so there's a lot of interest in them now.

And one other thing I wanted everybody to see was the teeth down here and these grotesque features.

They were exaggerated features, I think, to make them more decorative.

They actually took pieces of broken china to make the teeth out of.

Now, this piece probably was made more for decorative purposes.

It was hand-thrown, and then they would mold the decoration and put colors over top of it.

You can see where they have green on the flowers and blue on the grapes.

And Lanier Meaders almost always signed his pottery on the bottom, and both of these have his scripted signature right here.

You were telling me that one of the pieces that he made, your mom actually wrote her name in the bottom of it?

Yeah, she wanted to make sure she got it.

He made it especially for her and wanted to make sure she got it, so... Yeah.

And you told me, you still have the original bill of sales on these, too.

Yes.

You've got to remember that they've been doing this for successive generations now.

Other members of his family are also potters.

And Lanier became very popular in the '70s.

The thing that's important about these is that they go back before he was into such large mass production.

You were thinking maybe in the '50s?

Yeah, early '50s.

Early '50s, okay.

Their production level wasn't nearly as high then, and the people who collect these are much more interested in the ones that came along in the early years than they are the ones that came along later.

These molded pieces like this have been bringing anywhere from $1,200 to $2,800.

And the face jugs, different price ranges, depends on the size, depends on the detail of the decoration, but they'll go anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000.

I figure this one right here's probably worth about $2,500.

Wow.

That's great.

And I think putting things like this grotesque jug in your house is an acquired taste.

I mean, have y'all ever thought about putting it in your house?

No.

(laughing) APPRAISER: What's so special about this menu?

"Bill of Fare, Lulu Belle, Gay Nineties Cocktail Bar?"

MAN: Well, in 1959 I was a waiter at this restaurant, and these two folks came in as customers.

What two folks?

Well, the duke and duchess of Windsor.

Ah, not your average customers.

No, they were not.

And you took care of them?

Yes.

How did you get that honor?

Well, they asked me to, because I had been raised in Canada, so it was an effort to put them in a comfortable situation.

Do you remember what they were served?

Yes, they both ate lobster in a steakhouse, but that's what they ate.

So how did you get the menu?

What did you say to them to get this menu?

Well, I asked them if they'd be willing to sign the menu for me, and they said they would.

As a matter of fact, they were very gracious about it.

Well, I'm sure you know the story of the duke of Windsor.

He was born 1894, son of George V. He was the oldest son and slated to become the next king of England, once George died.

He was also known as the Playboy Prince.

I mean, he was dapper and debonair in an era where royalty was scrutinized, even more so than today.

He was just about to become the king of England.

His father passed away in '36, and he was having an affair with Wallis Simpson.

Now, Wallis Simpson was not only divorced, she was Mrs. Wallis Simpson, in the process of getting divorced again.

He was forced to abdicate the throne, and he lived the rest of his life in exile, married in 1937 to Wallis Simpson.

It really took the breath out of him.

He was beloved.

He had so much charisma going for him.

He traveled all over the world, and this was a real shame.

So what makes this menu great is the fact that, A, they both signed it, and they signed it as duke and duchess of Windsor, which were kind of their consolation titles.

They are well-collected today.

There's been a couple of major auctions of their artifacts over the years.

To have both signatures on a menu and to you, and you can document history and provenance?

Yes.

I would value this, if I were going to put it in auction, for about $2,500 to $3,500.

Really?

Well, I am amazed.

But I'm grateful, thank you very much.

Well, that's good.

You know, I think the only thing left is, what did they have for dessert?

(laughs): I can't remember.

Thank you.

Going to heat up this... Heat up the scissors here.

WOMAN: Yeah, yeah.

And then place it in what is the scrimshaw to see if it penetrates, which it's not.

So much scrimshaw is not actually period.

It's been faked and reproduced.

So, value, with the bag of rocks that you've got at hand... (laughing) How many rocks were in the bag?

(laughs) APPRAISER: Now your date's on your computer.

You never, you don't even use calendars anymore.

And so people are going retro and decorating their offices with artifacts from the past.

This one would go maybe $65, $75.

There's a big boom now to collect office memorabilia.

APPRAISER: Now, what you can see with these is, we've got some real serious condition problems.

They're pre-Columbian, 1000 to 1500 A.D., but it would have a really negligible value because of condition problems.

So these things, you're really talking about $10 to $20, no more.

APPRAISER: All of this came out of this trunk?

Yes.

And you saved this trunk and all of this from the bulldozer?

From the bulldozer.

What you've got here is a great assemblage of stuff that relates to one of the great horses of the late 19th and early 20th century, Jim Key.

Jim Key was a horse that could read, write, spell better than 15-year-old children, I think he said.

That's correct.

And all of this belonged to his trainer and owner... Dr. William Key.

Dr. William Key.

Jim Key was the number-one voted attraction at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, on the midway.

That's true, right.

All of this material together, I would say, probably has a value of $3,000 to $5,000, $4,000 to $6,000 on the market today.

It cross-cuts so many different markets.

It's just a great group of stuff, and it really was a pleasure being able to see it.

It is.

Thanks for bringing it in.

Thank you.

WOMAN: Shortly after I married my ex-husband, we went to visit his family in Maryland.

APPRAISER: Right.

And while they're on the visit, I was down in the basement for some reason, and I saw this chest.

Just sitting in the basement, okay.

Sitting in the basement with tools in it.

And I really liked it.

Okay.

And so I asked my ex-husband's grandmother, Nana, if I could have it.

And she said, "Take it home."

So I went home on the airplane with it sitting in my lap.

(chuckles): That's great.

I don't have to tell you when it was made, because you saw that date when you were in that basement, right?

Yes, right.

1778.

And what you brought is this wonderful, small Chippendale chest.

And you were mentioning that your aunt thought it was a salesman's sample, possibly?

Nana thought it was a salesman's... That's what she told me it was, it was a salesman's sample.

I think it would've actually been made for a fairly wealthy, well-to-do family in Maryland.

Uh-huh.

It has Maryland characteristics, it's a Maryland Chippendale piece.

The person it was made for would've been "B.F." We don't know who that is.

The chest was made of local walnut, which would've been found in Virginia or possibly right there in Maryland.

And it has these wonderful little knobs, and down here, you have these Queen Anne brasses with these pulls, which have been added later.

The front has this lovely fan inlay of lighter wood, and then the feet are wonderful.

Those feet are big Chippendale feet, big brackets.

And if we take a drawer out, on the inside, we see that it's made of poplar.

The color's really nice here, where it's protected from the air, and it has nice oxidation on the back, where the air snuck through the back.

Uh-huh.

Now, we're just going to quickly tip it up like this and show you the feet, and the feet are the original feet.

The only blocks that ever held it were these little glue blocks, which are now missing from here.

Mm-hmm.

And it's just absolutely right, the color's great, the oxidation's great.

Now, the last thing I want to do is to show you that this top does come off.

There's a mahogany top on here, and I mentioned to you that I...

Wanted to pop the top, right.

I asked if you if I could take it off, we're going to take it off carefully.

Let's see if we can get it up.

If you could hold that side...

This was added later, this top.

Oh, really?

It's not original, and now you can see this nice molding here, and you can even see, there's some glass rings on top, where people set a drink.

Right.

So you found this in the basement.

You had a great eye, noticing it.

The retail value on this would be-- and I'm being conservative, to tell you the truth-- would be $50,000.

You're kidding.

I'm not kidding.

That's wonderful.

Okay.

Wonderful.

Are you going to continue to keep it as a silver chest, or...?

Probably, it's...

Okay.

It's my boy's inheritance.

That's-- so I'm glad it's going to stay in the family.

Yeah, yeah.

And I'm being conservative at the $50,000.

I could easily even say upwards of $60,000, so... Retail?

Retail, yes, retail price.

So... Wow.

Congratulations, okay.

Thank you.

You want to kiss me now or later?

(laughing) Now and later!

Okay, and later, all right.

Thank you very much, Carol.

Thank you!

You made my day.

You made mine, wow!

That's great.

I can't believe that.

Yeah, it's a great thing, wonderful.

Wow.

You've brought a wonderful piece of glass here today, and you've brought a wonderful daughter along with you?

Yes, ma'am.

One of your favorite pieces, is it?

Yes, I like the way it looks.

The colors are really pretty.

And I can always remember it being in the house, just remember seeing it everywhere.

Can you tell us anything about the background of the piece?

It came from my grandmother, who grew up in Memphis, Tennessee.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

And I admired it when I was 15 or 16 years old, and she gave it to me.

Isn't that nice?

And I've had it ever since.

Good!

And it's special to me because my grandmother gave it to me.

I see.

This has a wonderful blue color with a silver iridescence.

The piece is indented, dimpled, if you want to say that, and it has also this wonderful rippled top to it.

We always look at the base to see what we can find on the base of a piece.

No signature.

It tells us that it was free-blown, because it has a polished pontil across the base, and the iridescence was applied to it and then combed, like with a comb, to give it this wavy decoration.

It makes it even more brilliant.

This kind of iridescent glass was made in a lot of different glass factories, so we have to find some other clues that will tell us which one it came from, since it's not signed.

One of the best clues that we can have is that it has a red base color to it.

You see that it's blue on the outside, but it's red on the inside.

You've got to hold it to the light.

This tells us it was made in Austria.

It is a Loetz vase, made about turn of the century.

Do you have any idea what it's worth?

No, ma'am.

Not at all.

You said you were a little nervous about that, Meghan.

About, about the outcome.

We just figured it was something like $20 to $50, maybe?

I mean, it's much more, isn't it?

Uh-huh, much more, right.

Loetz pieces of this type are very popular right now, and I would expect at auction, it would bring about $3,000 to $5,000.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

It's a good name.

We just thought it was $20!

WOMAN: We've had the doll in the family for about 50 years.

It was my mother's doll.

Uh-huh.

And she was born in 1909, but I don't know where she got it or... All right, well, I'll give you a little rundown.

It's a German doll, and it was produced anywhere from the late 1890s to the early 1900s.

It's made by a company called Handwerck, and if you look on the back of the doll's head, you'll see there is the name, "Handwerck, D.E.P., 109 and 15."

The 109 stands for the mold number of the doll's face.

Handwerck is the maker.

Okay, she's unusual because she's a black doll.

The Germans and the French had a great fascination with American art and culture in the late 19th century, so they produced these dolls for export.

You asked me a question about the two little strings on the back of the head.

Right, uh-huh.

Those were to tie her eyes in when she was shipped from Germany to America.

Oh, really?

She's got glass eyes, which are brown.

Uh-huh.

Pierced ears, which if you look closely...

Her hair is black mohair, which is male goat's hair.

She was made in an area of Germany called Waltershausen, which was very famous for very fine-quality dolls and toys.

Most black dolls from this era are a lot smaller.

She's very unusual because of her size, she's almost 32 inches.

She's got a really good-quality joined composition body, which is wood and papier mâché.

These were her original clothes, which are sort of a little bit tattered, but it's better to be tattered and original than replaced.

Okay.

The head's bisque, which is porcelain with a matte finish.

Any idea as possible to the value of her at all?

No, I don't have any idea.

Well, again, her size and her quality, she'd be, you know, between $2,000 to $3,000.

Ooh, that's great!

Isn't that great?

That is great.

Thank you for bringing her in.

Thank you very much.

This is a lovely, crazy quilt you've brought in today.

Is this a family piece?

Yes, it is.

This was made by my third-great-aunt.

She was from one of the original families in Huntsville, Alabama, but later actually lived here in Birmingham.

Mm-hmm, and you've brought two pictures of her.

Uh-huh.

One in her youth.

Correct.

And one when she's an elderly lady.

Right.

Because she actually lived until 1944.

She was born in 1860, and we believe that the quilt was finished or completed in 1887.

That would have made her 27.

Well, Susie was really an outstanding embroiderer.

She has done absolutely beautiful work on this quilt.

She's put all the things in this quilt that crazy quilt collectors look for.

Really?

This is very nice.

She has this beautifully done peacock.

This is quite unusual.

Here we have a birds' nest that appears to be made out of chenilles and silk.

Throughout this quilt, there are all kinds of beautiful embroideries.

Almost any place you look on this quilt is just very visually exciting.

We see a lot of crazy quilts on the "Roadshow," but this one is probably the most outstanding one I have ever seen.

Really?

The ribbon-work border, the beautiful appliqués.

The condition is absolutely marvelous for a piece this age.

I would say that in a quilt shop, this quilt would probably go for about $2,000 to $3,000.

My, that's nice.

Really do appreciate you bringing it.

It's just a visual delight to look at.

Well, thank you so much, and thanks for highlighting her work, I appreciate that.

Thank you.

WOMAN: This cup was made by my husband's grandmother, who was born the night of the bombardment of Fort Sumter.

We've got the Civil War beginning April 9, the first shot fired, the bombardment of Fort Sumter, and then we see her born on the 12th or 13th, so it's right in the thick of it, it's the beginning of the Civil War.

I would say value on it as a historical piece, with all of this great Civil War action going on, would be probably in the range of $2,500 to $3,500.

Really quite a wonderful, wonderful piece.

Thank you so much.

Thanks for bringing it.

What happens is, you start out with a plain copper backing, then they fill in the enamel decoration in the background, then they add the shading, a little bit more shading, and finally they just polish it.

And you end with that when you start out with that.

Wow.

That's cool.

It's like a teaching set.

That's exactly what it was intended for.

It's wonderful.

Thank you.

It's very nice.

Thank you.

MAN: My family was stationed in England in the early '60s, and I was a teenager.

And right before we came back to the United States, we went to a large estate.

We purchased this, and the best that I can recall, he paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 for it.

It's a Black Forest clock, carved in the Black Forest, Southern Germany, and it's one of the greatest examples I've seen.

Look at this eagle.

Look at the feathers and the detail on the dog and all the foliage and everything else.

Now, you may wonder how we're able to date these.

Although, almost all of these were done in the 1800s, this one might have been done around 1860 or so, 1870.

This has a French clockworks that was probably made around 1850 or '60.

It's in wonderful condition.

I'd put the value of this somewhere in the area of $10,000 to $12,000 in today's prices.

Okay, that's excellent.

WOMAN: I was in my hometown of Starkville, Mississippi, at my mother's, and she is moving to a new home, so she had taken the pieces down from the walls and was getting them ready for a garage sale.

Uh-huh.

And when I saw them in the stack of things she was putting in the garage sale, I asked her if I could have them, and she said yes.

She had gotten them from an antique dealer in Macon, Mississippi.

Uh-huh.

I believe she paid around $100 for the pair... Oh, that's terrific.

And that was 20, 20 years ago.

Well, that's wonderful.

This painting is by John Henry Mole, who was a British 19th-century artist who was, in fact, known for his scenes of childhood-- children and bucolic green scenes.

The scene on the right is by Philip Windt, W-I-N-D-T.

He was a Dutch watercolorist, also from the 19th century.

They're in terrific condition.

This one would brighten up a bit with cleaning.

But really in wonderful condition.

Some of the labels on the back of this painting, for example... ...are the artist's label, some information about him, and the fact that this was, in fact, acquired, originally acquired at his estate sale in England in 1887.

So the documentation on the back of this painting is really terrific.

So good scenes of children.

Lovely paintings.

And I would estimate them between $3,000 and $5,000 for this painting.

Hmm.

(laughs) And $800 to $1,200 for the watercolor.

Oh, that's wonderful.

Terrific.

I'm glad I got them from my mother before she sold them.

Keep them out of the garage.

Right.

(laughs): Thank you.

We were talking earlier how this came into your family, and you were telling me about the man who gave it to you.

Right.

His name was Harry Hutchison, and this was in, like, 1934.

And my mother befriended him, and we had an extra room in our house, and he and his son and daughter-in-law moved in and stayed with us for a couple of years.

And when he left, why, he left that with me.

Do you have some idea of what this is and what it was designed to do?

It's an escapement model for a clock.

How it works, or anything of that sort, I'm not too sure, but... What fascinates me about something like this is that you've talked to people about watches all the time, and they're always just too small for you to explain what it is that makes them work.

And what an escapement model is is a model of what you hear ticking inside a watch.

And there's an inscription on here saying that this was made for the Hutchison School, so he must have run a school for watchmakers.

My guess is that this model was made sometime in the 19th century, probably in the 1880s or so.

And it's a working model that his students would've had to be able to make in order to graduate from the school.

Yeah.

And what's wonderful about it is the craftsmanship that's gone into making it.

One of the things that people ask me is, "Well, can I get my watch fixed?"

And I say, "Well, really, there aren't very many people left who can do that."

And if you look at this, and you look at the wonderful work-- the engraving that's on it, the beautiful screws that have been put into the palettes here-- each one of these pieces is adjustable.

Underneath this wheel is a small barrel that contains a spring.

What is missing from this is a pin that would've fit right here.

Were that pin there, we could show how this vibrated back and forth and turned.

Unfortunately, we can't do that.

Right.

Even though there's a couple of pieces missing, which really are trivial to fix, something like this, in a shop, I could easily see $1,500 for it, maybe $2,000 for it.

This kind of work no longer exists, and it's why mechanical watches are collected.

It's a wonderful object, and it's one of the nicest things I've seen on the "Roadshow."

Well, thank you.

I'm surprised it's worth that much money.

It's a very beautiful piece of metalwork.

MAN: Well, this belonged to my first cousin-in-law.

I'd done some work on one of his buildings to repair it in trade for the sculpture.

It's been in the area since probably the early '50s, around '52, where some Mexicans had broke down outside of Phil Campbell and sold this to Grady Fuller, who owned a store across from where they broke down from.

APPRAISER: I see.

Well, what this is supposed to be is a piece from Nayarit, Mexico.

I bought one of these pieces many years ago, and it cost me a lot of money and a lot of grief.

And so I've tried to learn a lesson from it and going to try to pass it on to you.

Nayarit culture made these things between about 200 BC and 200 A.D.

The real Nayarit pieces, however, are a little different.

The first thing-- the facial expressions are not correct.

For this culture, the nose would've been different, the mouth, especially, would've been different, and these little ear spools, they would've been different on the ear.

The second thing is the surface.

Generally, these pieces had either a real shiny red surface without all this modeling, and the black that you see on here would have been impurities in the clay, but they would've also popped out extremely smooth and shiny, almost like shoe polish.

The final thing that really tipped me off: it's extremely heavy.

Nayarit pieces are very light.

The clay up here in this hole, which let the air out during firing, you'll see it's very thin in the original pieces.

If you broke this piece, you'll see a cross-section of the arm, it'll be very black and unfired in the center, because they couldn't get it hot enough.

These guys make this stuff just the way they did 2,000 years ago, they just don't finish it as complete.

I was driving through Mexico, I bought a piece about 50 miles from Nayarit in about 1972.

Great piece, looked fine, until I dropped it and broke it.

And then I became very well aware of the problem, and it was almost a ringer for this.

This is supposed to be a man playing a flat high drum with a deer horn.

As a decorator object, these pieces are pretty desirable.

They'll bring $350 to $500 in the decorator shops to go in people's houses.

If it was a real 2,000-year-old piece, it would bring $4,000 to $6,000.

And I wish it was a $4,000 to $6,000 one, because we haven't seen one that big.

I appreciate the info, there, because I needed to know something about it, and that helped me understand a little bit more about it.

APPRAISER: You brought us a very interesting box.

What can you tell me about it?

Well, it was my dad's stepmother's, and right before she died, she gave it to her.

This is a 19th-century Dutch sterling silver box.

Most likely used as a tobacco box for loose tobacco, for a pipe, back in the 19th century.

But this box is absolutely fascinating.

The decoration, number one, that you see is beautiful quality, very nice hand-chased decoration with landscape scenes and floral motifs.

But interestingly, the lid slides open to reveal a beautiful landscape scene.

Very, very unusual.

Then continuing on, on the inside, we have two little doors up top here that open up.

Again, with these very nice landscape scenes.

The bottom of the interior is where the hallmarks are, you can see them at the bottom of the box, which indicate that it is Dutch, and it is 19th-century.

And lastly, but certainly not least, the bottom slides open, and again, we have a beautiful scene.

Do you have any idea what this box might be worth?

I don't know, maybe $50?

How much?

$50.

$50.

Well, I hope that this will please you, but a good auction estimate-- should you ever decide to part with this box-- in today's market, would probably be somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000.

Oh, my God.

(catching breath): That much?

I hope that makes you happy.

Yes, it does.

Thank you for bringing it to the Roadshow.

Thank you.

WOMAN: In the mid '40s, the actress Constance Bennett came to Montgomery, Alabama.

She was visiting, actually, Tallulah Bankhead in Montgomery.

Okay, famous people.

And she went into one of the jewelry stores in Montgomery, and she saw an emerald ring that she wanted, and she asked the jeweler if he would trade this ring for the emerald, and he did.

Okay.

And after she left, he called-- the jeweler called my grandmother and said, "I have a ring here I think you would be interested in."

So she went and looked at it and was interested.

She went home and told granddaddy that there was a ring at the jeweler that she would like to have.

Granddaddy looked at her and said, "It's not your birthday, it's not our anniversary, "and it's not Christmas-- I am not buying you a diamond cocktail ring."

Oh, but what did he do next?

Well, the next morning, at the breakfast table, Granddaddy asked her if she was going to the club for lunch.

And she said yes, she was, and he tossed this across the table to her and said, "Well, here's something for you to wear."

That's a good man.

I think so.

The story is perfect, and it could be Constance Bennett's, and this is the clipping on that you brought in saying that it might be Constance Bennett, because she was in town at that time.

I have sold many pieces of Constance Bennett jewelry over the years, and they've all been authenticated.

Okay.

This particular diamond ring is what we call a bullet shape.

The ring is platinum.

It's Deco, and the ring was made by Cartier's Paris.

She bought a lot of jewelry there.

Oh, really?

And it's hallmarked inside, Cartier Paris, with their number.

Okay.

It's a very, very white diamond.

You've heard me talk about diamonds before.

Sure.

The whiter they are, the more money they are.

So, now, what you have here is a unique, famous ring, so I hope you wear it in good health.

I wear it every day.

But after I tell you what the value is, you might put it away again, I don't know.

But, a ring like this today, in this market, could easily sell for somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000.

Oh, how wonderful!

That's great.

I don't know what your grandfather paid for it, but whatever it was, it's more money than he did.

Well, I think so.

And we don't know what the emerald was worth when it was traded.

Well, this is worth a lot to me.

I really appreciate it.

Wear it in good health.

Thank you, I will.

WALBERG: Coming up, a cabinet made to display precious objects My husband was in the Army.

In 1958, we were stationed in Heidelberg, Germany, and I found it in a very small shop.

I had decided that I could only afford $100 for anything that I would purchase, so that's what I paid for this piece.

$100 limit.

$100 limit.

Okay.

This is a piece of furniture that has the generic name of Boulle, B-O-U-L-L-E. Named after André-Charles Boulle, who was the great cabinetmaker in the era of Louis XIV.

But this piece dates in the third quarter of the 19th century.

At that time, France was trying to revive the glories of an earlier era.

They were nostalgic for 18th-century France, actually, the late 17th century.

And Boulle, who had developed this style of putting cut brass marquetry into tortoise shell, and hence, furniture made in this style ever since has been called Boulle furniture, although it was made by a number of makers in the 19th century.

But the great thing about this piece is that it was made not only in this era of historical revivalism, but this piece was clearly made for display.

It was to show off ceramics, books.

The had a mania for display in this period.

It's been called a period of ostentatious storage.

Do you use it for display yourself?

Yes, I do.

You do.

Mm-hmm.

These pieces have one great problem, as you're aware of, and that is condition.

Humidity and heat does a job, and as we can tell, some of the brass is lifting on this piece.

Yes.

And to put it back, it's a bit like the proverbial putting toothpaste back in the tube.

(laughs) But it can be done, but it's a very expensive process.

I would think that a piece like this at market today, in this condition, would bring somewhere in the area of $5,000 to $7,000.

Mm-hmm.

But that's a great improvement on your $100 in the 1960s.

Yes, it's considerably so.

And thank you for bringing it in, it is... Well, thank you.

...a great pleasure to find such an architectural piece, such a decorative piece, such a French piece here in middle Alabama.

Well, thank you so much.

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

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."