♪ ♪ When I saw this across the room, I thought, that's what I really love.

This poster ties for the most valuable single piece I've ever appraised.

(chuckling): Oh, my goodness!

Wow!

♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: In 2009, "Roadshow" fans hauled their prized possessions to the San Jose McEnery Convention Center to seek the advice of our experts.

Right this way.

Welcome to "Antiques Roadshow."

PEÑA: Guests were told where, when, and how their objects were made.

And, of course, what they were worth.

If these treasures came into "Roadshow" today, would our appraisers provide the same estimate?

Or have an evolving economy and changing taste impacted their values?

Let's find out in this return to San Jose, California.

Izabel Coles is a cousin of my mother's.

She designed, I was told, for Tiffany's for about seven or eight years.

And then she decided to go on her own and she opened her own shop on 57th Street in New York City.

This is the-the scrapbook that contains about 35 to 40 drawings that she did.

And she drew them with the hope of having Tiffany make them.

And we have some jewelry that is based on the drawings that were done.

Just as there were several different artists that designed for Tiffany, so were there several companies that made the jewelry for Tiffany & Company.

In this instance, we don't have any reference to who the company was that indeed made these pieces.

Why don't you tell us about your beautiful brooch?

Uh, it was... my mother left a note that it had been designed for her grandmother, which would be my great-grandmother.

We have another drawing of a beautiful aquamarine ring and, uh, brooch, and here indeed is the ring that's in the drawing.

This ring was designed for my mother for her 16th birthday.

And she was born in 1909, so that would be 1925.

Both of the jewels are, are 18-karat gold.

And the aqua is a very large-size aqua.

It could be almost ten carats.

And it's flanked on either side by demantoid garnets-- picking up the theme of the green with the blue-- and then a very, very pale, what appears to be citrine.

Tell us about this wonderful necklace.

This necklace was designed in the '40s and was made out of safety pins because it was wartime...

Right.

...and materials were scarce.

Right.

And she wanted to show, I think, that you could still have a beautiful necklace...

Exactly.

...with very little investment into your materials.

This is Izabel.

And she's wearing another design of a safety pin.

She did it in different colors-- this is a pin, and another bracelet.

In the retail market, I would estimate the total of all of this, for $40,000 to $60,000.

No.

I-- I mean, I'm doing what everybody says they won't do.

Are you in shock?

Yes, I'm in shock.

GUEST: This actually was my grandfather's guitar.

He passed away when I was really young.

And he gave that to my father.

And I learned how to start playing guitar on this when I was about six, seven years old.

My father passed away about eight years ago and it was left to me.

These guitars have a serial number that's stamped on the neck block, where the neck attaches to the body.

Mm-hmm.

And there's a model designation stamped right above that.

And so we know this guitar was made in 1934.

Okay.

And it's a Model 000-18.

This is really the first of the modern-style Martin guitar... Oh, okay.

I didn't know that.

...with a, with a longer neck, 14 frets clear of the body, the solid headstock with right-angle tuning machines.

Now, 1934 was hard times.

Right.

And this guitar was in the $60-$70 range, so it was not an inexpensive piece of equipment.

You could have fed a family for a long time on what your grandfather paid for this guitar.

Oh, wow.

Interesting.

The 000-18 falls about in the middle of Martin's price range.

They made a number of guitars that were a lot more expensive, for instance, the ones played by Roy Rogers and Gene Autry and those guys, but they made a lot of instruments that were much less expensive, and they really depended on those during the Depression because people didn't have a lot of money.

So this would have been, in the top 20% in terms of value of what Martin was selling in 1934.

And what makes it valuable is that despite the number of people who've owned it and all the different transitions in ownership, it hasn't really been changed much.

All the finish is original.

It has lots of wear from belt buckles and shirt buttons and things like that.

Right.

In this business, that's what we call honest wear-- it still has its original celluloid pick guard and original bridge.

There's one bridge pin that's been changed...

Right.

...as you can see.

And what also helps this guitar's value is that it doesn't have any cracks, and Style 18, being made in mahogany, it's a fairly fragile wood when you make them as lightly as Martin was at this time.

And they usually have just multiple cracks.

But the thing that is interesting about this guitar is that right after this was made, Martin shortened the scale length, the distance between the-the-the nut and the saddle.

And so this has the long scale, which they only did on this size guitar for about four years.

Oh, wow.

Interesting.

So because of that, it's much more desirable to the modern guitar player.

It's much more limited in terms of numbers.

Because not very many of them have survived.

Wow.

I didn't know that.

So in a specialty retail shop, a guitar like this would-would sell for probably $15,000, $16,000.

Whoa... really?

(chuckles) That's fantastic.

(laughs) So, thanks for bringing it in.

Thank you very much.

My father was a chiropractor in a small town up in the foothills in sa-- California here, and sometimes, people didn't always have, um, money to pay.

So they would often bring things that they thought might be of interest to my parents.

Well, the book is by Joaquin Miller.

It's called "Unwritten History: Life Among the Modocs."

As a piece of California history, the book itself is a collectible title.

But what makes your copy special is the inscription.

From Senator Stanford, who is Leland Stanford, who was a U.S.

Senator from California, he was our governor...

Okay.

...he is the founder of Stanford University.

He is a very important figure in California history.

The book by itself is a $150 to $200 book.

But the Leland Stanford association makes this a much more desirable copy.

I would estimate this at $600 to $800.

But it's a terrific piece, and thank you so much for bringing it in.

Thank you, I appreciate that.

GUEST: Well, this is a picture that hung on the wall of my grandmother's house in Kansas.

And when my grandmother passed away, about ten years ago, I got most of the contents of her house and this came with it.

APPRAISER: And where was your family originally from?

Not Kansas.

No, um, they came from New York state via Germany.

Well, what this appears to be is a marriage certificate.

Earlier you had told me that most of the writing is in German.

And actually, if we examine it closely, it's actually in English.

(both laughing) It says, "Abraham Stine, the son of Henry Stine, and his wife Elizabeth."

And it dates it 1813, and it's from Columbia Township, County, P-A.

I recognize the hand to be that of an artist called Reverend Young.

Oh, my word.

And he painted these, uh, for birth certificates and marriage certificates.

It's a wonderful watercolor.

This is not the original frame.

Uh-huh.

This frame dates probably a hundred years later.

There are some water stains, and that hurts it a little bit, but it can be cleaned, and they can be removed.

Value in today's marketplace, $4,000 to $6,000.

My word!

Wow, that's amazing.

GUEST: I was in an estate sale in San Francisco in February.

And the man of the house was French.

And he was in his 80s, and he had a whole wall of them.

Plus a whole bunch more unframed and I fell in love with them, called my husband and said, "Honey!

(laughs) I found something I really love!"

And he says, "Well, go ahead, and buy it, it could be your Valentine present."

I said, "Can I buy one for Valentine's, Mother's Day Easter, birthday, anniversary..." So, I bought a few.

(laughs) How-how many did you buy?

I bought four framed and eight unframed.

And-and why did you choose to bring this one in today?

I couldn't find anything about it.

I finally found Dunkerque on the map of France, but it was one of my favorites, and so I wanted to learn more about it.

And how much did you pay for it?

Framed, $500.

You paid $500, so it's an expensive Valentine's Day gift to yourself.

Yeah... no, it was from my husband.

(laughing) It was an expensive Valentine's Day gift from your husband.

It is a French travel poster advertising travel to Dunkirk in the north of France.

And it's advertising travel on the Chemin de Fer du Nord, which is the French railway of the north.

It was designed by an artist named Roger Broders, and Broders is considered to be one of the best, and he's certainly one of the most popular Art Deco artists working in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s.

Now, this poster isn't dated, but through reference books we know that it was done in about 1930.

And Roger Broders is really famous for the travel posters he did for the different French railways because they all have this sort of very exquisite Art Deco feel to them.

The majority of his work is landscapes.

But the pieces of his that really command the highest prices are the ones that depict people.

And here we have an image of a couple who, to me, really sort of bespeak everything "Great Gatsby."

They're an elegant, Art Deco, refined couple with beautiful clothing.

And they're shown enjoying the harbor of Dunkirk.

Now, Broders was such an exceptional artist, I-I've never been to Dunkirk, but knowing how good he is, I can imagine this is exactly what the skyline of the harbor of Dunkirk would look like-- and the poster was produced not only by the Chemin de Fer du Nord, but also by Syndicat D'Initiatives, which is basically the chamber of commerce.

Oh, okay.

So, the local chamber of commerce, together with the railway, said, "Buy a ticket, come to our town."

He did about 170 different posters.

This poster is one of his two rarest images.

Oh, wow.

It's so important that when they did a catalogue raisonné of all the posters he designed, this was the picture they chose for the cover of the book.

Really?

I did some research, and I was trying to remember what was the most valuable piece I had ever appraised on the "Antiques Roadshow."

So I actually went onto the "Antiques Roadshow" website and I checked the appraisals that I have done over the years.

And, in fact, this poster ties for the most valuable single piece I've ever appraised.

Oh, my gosh.

And that value, at auction, I would estimate it between $15,000 and $20,000.

(laughing): Oh, my God.

(laughing) I can't believe it.

I'll go home and thank him.

Honestly, nothing says "I love you" more than a $20,000 travel poster.

Oh my... oh, my gosh.

Oh, my gosh.

Happy Valentine's Day.

(laughing): I know, really.

GUEST: I really don't know very much about the piece.

My mother inherited it 60 years ago from a dear friend.

APPRAISER: Well, first of all, on the bottom we have the mark "930," which is a Norwegian standard for silver.

So the base of this is silver.

We also have another mark on here and it's "M.

Hammer."

And this stands for Marius Hammer of Norway.

Marius Hammer is the most important silversmith in Norway.

He was a contemporary of Fabergé.

This piece is a plique-a-jour piece made to look like a stained glass.

This particular piece was made circa 1900.

And when these were originally made and sold in Norway, they were only sold to the wealthy.

You happen to have one that has horse's heads.

Usually, they'll have a dragon.

The horse's heads are the rarest.

It's a bowl shape.

The interior is red guilloché enamel.

And the value of this piece, in today's market-- we're in a little bit of a slump in the market, so this is a conservative retail price-- would be $7,000.

Oh, great!

Unbelievable.

Oh, my goodness.

A friend of mine had it, and we decided to, uh, buy it from him.

I like clocks.

I made a grandfather clock in high school.

And I know it was for ships but that's about all I know about it.

Well, this is a pretty important marine chronometer, probably made sometime around 1815.

And it was made by Thomas Earnshaw, who was a London maker.

He was born in 1749 and he died in 1829.

What he's really well known for is he invented the patent spring detent escapement, which is an escapement that compensates for changes in temperature.

Two metals working against each other, and as a result, it's a much more accurate way of keeping time.

Now, that's very important when you're measuring longitude, because if you're sailing across the ocean, if you're off a couple of minutes, you could be on a shoal of rocks or you could be in another port.

During that early period of maritime sailing, the English government put out a prize for that, which was won by John Harrison.

He actually invented the chronometer.

This particular maker improved it.

And his improvements were used universally after that time period.

He won a prize from the Board of Longitude.

He became known as the father of the chronometer.

And you can see that it is a chain fusee, it gets its power from the spring here and the original chain is still there.

This is actually supported in a very protective case.

This fits into this brass cylinder here and it has a porcelain dial.

It's very easy to read.

And when we screw on this bezel, it's locked into place.

Now, it's set in a gimbal so that if the boat's rocking, it compensates for that.

It does have a hairline crack in the dial.

It's fitted in a box that helps protect it from the elements.

Can you tell me what you bought this clock for?

Uh, I paid $125 for it.

How long ago did you purchase this clock?

Um, within the last year.

This particular clock would probably have an auction estimate of somewhere between $6,500 and $8,500.

Whoa.

That's a pretty good investment of $125.

Yeah.

A pretty good investment, huh?

(chuckles) Yeah.

I ran into this at a, uh, just a yard sale with three other canes.

And they were two dollars each, and I fell in love with this one.

This is the history of the 1890s boxing scene.

Number one we have John L. Sullivan.

Underneath him by two is Peter Jackson, who was one of the great early Black heavyweight boxers from Australia.

I'm thinking this is probably 1895, 1896.

Okay.

Good.

Two bucks, I think you did okay, Ken.

If I were gonna put an auction estimate on it... Mm-hmm.

...it'd be-- because of the folk art, the carving and the boxers, and the rarity, probably $1,500 to $2,500.

Wow, okay.

So does that make a good investment for you?

I think so.

Yeah, well Ken, I think it was a knockout.

(laughs) Yeah.

I would say.

GUEST: Well, it's been in my family.

It was my Grandmother Fuzzy's.

Uh, she was a piano teacher, uh, in Southern California.

And, uh, I learned my piano with this, uh, lantern on my face all the time, and, and...

Okay, when did she get it?

She did a lot of shopping in the '30s.

So I assume it's that old.

Philip Handel started a company in Meriden, Connecticut in the late 19th century and then subsequently moved to New York City.

This was always an electric lamp.

So it was early 20th century, and I no-- I notice here you've had it re-wired, or someone had it re-wired?

Yeah, she probably did, yeah.

Well, that's good, because electrical fires are very bad for everybody's, sort of, well-being.

(chuckles) But you have a beautiful little lamp, that was retailed as a piano or organ lamp.

Great classical form, beautiful quality.

You have slag glass here that's a panel.

This is not a leaded panel, but it's just metal over slag glass.

I think a good insurance value would be about $5,500.

Oh!

You're kidding!

No, it's a great little lamp and-and I'm glad you enjoy it.

Wow, yeah, we use it in the house.

GUEST: I worked in Yosemite in 1971.

And I came down for a weekend to visit my folks to bring more records back up to Yosemite.

I stopped at a flea market in Castro Valley, and I recognized the photographs, and I inquired as to how much they were, and he pulled one out, and I asked him, "Who took it?"

And he gave me some line, a brother-in-law or somebody, so I kind of knew he didn't know what he had-- I didn't really know what he had, but I asked, "Did you have any more?"

He brought out two more; I paid $1.65 for three Ansel Adams.

I think they're originals.

APPRAISER: I know you're concerned as to whether Ansel Adams actually made these prints.

And I believe he did make them.

Number one, if we look in the lower right corner of this print, which is called "Nevada Falls," we see that his signature clearly appears in ink below the photograph, which is typical of the display and presentation of Ansel Adams's prints.

Earlier we looked at the back of the mount... Mm-hmm.

...and we saw that they each had a hand stamp.

And that hand stamp did not have a ZIP code associated with it.

ZIP codes were introduced around 1963, so the print date on the photographs could actually be as early as late 1950s, since the hand stamp so clearly is an early Ansel Adams hand stamp.

Ansel Adams revisited earlier negatives, because some of these negatives were made in the '30s and '40s... Mm-hmm.

...and printed from those early negatives prints in 14 by 11 inches, "Merced River," 11 by 14 inches, and then "Vernal Falls," slightly smaller.

In the 1970s, as he got older, he delegated the printing responsibilities to Alan Ross.

And in 1975, when Alan Ross started working with Ansel and printing from these older negatives... Mm-hmm.

...Ansel wouldn't sign his name.

He would initial the prints... Oh!

...to indicate that he had seen them, that he had authorized them, but they weren't printed by him.

At auction, this group of photographs is worth $15,000 to $25,000.

(exhales) For all three of them?

For the three together.

This chair came from my stepfather's family.

I came into possession when my mother passed away.

She always said to me, "Don't ever let this go."

I, at one time, got offered $75 from an antique dealer for it.

I knew what my mother said.

Okay.

The little bit of research I did indicated it might be a Philadelphia shell chair.

You're absolutely right.

And from there I know there's so many reproductions of a lot of these chairs.

Right.

I'll tell you, when I saw this across the room, I thought, that's what I really love, and that's Philadelphia Chippendale.

So, so you're right, it's Philadelphia, absolutely.

If a client went into a shop and wanted a chair, he-he might order a chair really plain or one with a shell.

This has these carved ears with nice little tool marks here.

They used little chisels.

Mm-hmm.

And you come down and this is a typical Philadelphia splat.

We call this a tassel back chair.

Oh... And then we come down and-- who did the seat, by the way?

I think my mother did-- she did a lot of needlepoint, and it's, uh, her work.

(chuckles) It's nice.

It's nice to have that, right?

Okay, come down to the skirt and this is a wonderful, classic Philadelphia shell, flanked by carving on the knees... Mm-hmm.

...and classic claw and ball feet.

They have webbing.

It's just typical of 1770, 1780 Philadelphia.

In addition, if we turn around the ba-- turn it around to the back, this through tenon right here, this exposed tenon, is a side rail which goes through the back leg... Oh, so... ...which is typical of Philadelphia.

Now, here, on the edges, it's really dark and then it's lighter right here.

Now, that's a combination of the fact that people, when they touch this chair... Oh... you put-- you'd touch it there.

...touch it here.

And the oil from their hands from over 200 years of touching it has made it this wonderful black color.

So if we come back around, we can see that finish on the front.

And on this great Philadelphia scallop shell, here's this... see this light, dark, light, dark, light, dark...

Right.

That has all the original shellac from the 18th century.

It's-- So it's a good thing I didn't get it refinished or something.

(laughs) Oh my, it's a great thing.

And that's what gets me so excited.

You come over to the ears, look at this contrast of dark and light.

And people ask, "Why is original finish so important?"

And one reason is if you took off that finish, that original finish, this shell would look very flat.

And the chair is made of American black walnut, Oh...

Okay.

...which is really the wood of choice for the Queen Anne style in Philadelphia.

Yeah.

Now, if this chair were refinished, let's take off the finish, let's make believe you didn't listen to your mom and you said... "I'll clean it."

Okay.

"Oh, it's a...

I'll clean it up," it would be probably a $2,000 chair.

With the original finish, this chair is easily worth, at auction, would-- $8,000 to $12,000.

$8,000 to $12,000 easily.

All right.

So you can average $10,000.

Okay!

So, not bad.

Could you-- Not bad, no.

(laughing): It was... better than the $75 offer.

GUEST: My father is a retired doctor.

And many years practiced in Manhattan.

And has had a great love for watches and clocks for all his life.

He used to occasionally go to a pawn shop to see what was available.

And he picked this up at a pawn shop on Third Avenue.

Do you know when he bought this watch?

My best guess is about 30 years ago.

I think it's an aviator watch.

This watch was designed by Charles Lindbergh after he flew across the Atlantic, and he worked with Longines to make a aviator's watch.

Do you understand why it's large like this?

Because of dim lights in the cockpit?

Well, in the 1930s, when this watch was made and used, there was no pressurization to planes.

So you would wear them on the outside of a jacket.

It was cold.

Oh...

There was no pressurized plane, so it was very, very freezing cold in these planes.

So they would wear layers of clothes.

They might wear a jacket under a sweater and vest.

Most of the time these came with big straps.

They would put it here or over here so you could look at it as you were flying.

They did make a few different versions of this watch.

This is probably the most valuable version.

It's the largest version they made.

It's made strictly for flight.

There was other smaller versions that came out.

They made this watch from mid-'30s till probably around the war years in the '40s.

Do you have any idea what he paid for it?

Actually, I do.

Okay.

He paid no more than $100.

A hundred dollars, 30 years ago.

30 years ago.

Okay.

A watch like this on the retail market today probably would run around $12,000.

It's a pretty rare watch.

There aren't many of them around.

Really?

And this is, yeah, one of the first ones I've seen in the last five or ten years.

It's really a great pleasure to have this great watch here.

Thank you, my father's going to be pleased.

GUEST: Godmother gave it to me, and she rescued it from a teacher's retreat up in the Hudson Valley area.

I want to talk about this for several reasons.

It is a piece of Gustav Stickley and there are ways you know this when there's not a very clear mark.

And first of all, this is a later piece of Gustav Stickley.

We know because it has this little tricky thing going on.

It's got this lift front that locks into place.

And then from underneath it folds down.

So we know when we start seeing this little gimmicks it's a little later, like about 1910 or so.

But certain things tell us it's Gustav Stickley-- first of all, we know it's a good piece because it's pinned in the front and in the back instead of screws being used it's got wooden dowels-- you see these through tenons on the sides, these are real through tenons-- this shelf ends on both sides with through tenons that lock it in place.

Dating to about 1910, at auction, a piece like this would certainly sell for $1,500 to $2,000.

And probably more like $2,000 to $3,000.

Okay, great, thank you.

GUEST: I lived in a small town called Tortona in Northern Italy in the Piedmont Region.

There was a mom and pop, kind of, antique store.

And I spent a lot of my money buying art there.

(chuckles) APPRAISER: And, and what is this painting?

The artist is Italico Brass.

He painted this painting, I think, in 1920.

He died around 1943.

Now, what kind of price tag did they have?

The equivalent of around, I guess, $600 at the time.

It's Venice, and it's a piazza, I believe, called San Trovaso.

And I, um, actually found it on a map and went there before I left Italy, and I brought a photograph of the scene so you can compare today versus 1920.

This is a work that is oil on canvas.

This is an example of a painting by Italico Brass, who's a... really, an-an Italian impressionist artist.

He's born around 1870 and does, as you say, live until 1943.

He studies originally in-in Munich, and then in Paris, but he really hits his stride in Venice.

And we see views like this are the-the things that are the most prized of his works.

He follows in that tradition, of Venetian views.

They go back to the 18th century with Canaletto and then through the 19th century with the sort of photographic realists.

But this is a slightly later take on it.

It's a much more impressionist and beautiful atmosphere that you have, and less formal.

It's not the Grand Canal, it's not the Doge's Palace.

It's a little back canal here.

And you see it done in a, in a charming, inviting, and intimate way; we see this lovely little tree here and the wispy, uh, branches and leaves, and below that you have these, these schoolchildren being ushered out by the nuns and a, a sleepy little barge going by and folks along the bridges.

It's in pretty good condition.

It has a couple of little patches on the back, but you really can't see the small little holes.

It's-it's slightly dirty-- probably could stand a cleaning.

It's probably its original frame, but it looks like they spray-painted it at one time.

Well, given that this is a fairly pristine work by him, it's a good size work for him too.

He has... not too many have come up at auction.

This is one of the larger ones.

I would think this would go towards the upper end of what his things have been selling at, at auction.

An auction estimate for this would be about $20,000 to $30,000.

Wow!

(chuckles) Wow, I'd no idea.

That's incredible.

GUEST: It was my friend's, and she used to keep it in her closet.

And I just admired it, and kept after her to get it from her.

And what she has told me, it was her grandparents', and they were in Germany.

And in the '30s they went to London.

And when she was a little girl, it was in the nursery and she used to remember seeing the red Roman numerals light up.

And eventually you acquired it.

I did.

Well, this is very appropriately called a night clock.

So on this wonderfully painted dial with this nativity scene and the star of Bethlehem up on top, you'll also notice a skeletonized disc which rotates behind there, telling the time with Roman numerals.

And as you know, when we open the door... we see a space inside where you would place a candle.

And that candle would show through on the other side.

Now, it's the candle part of this clock that makes this an extremely rare clock, because when you're lighting a candle and forgetting about it, you're apt to burn your house down and burn the clock down, too.

(soft chuckle) The chimney at the top would let the heat out and let the smoke out from the candle, and no doubt provided a little smoke into the room and soot on your ceilings, but some very sensible clockmaker put an electric fixture in this, so that an electric light would shine rather than a candle inside, and thus avoiding any hazards of fire.

And it was in no way, uh, destructive to the case.

They mounted it in there very carefully.

It does have the original clock movement with its original verge-and-crown escapement.

And this clock, which was made by Christoph Münhofin in Prague, probably dates 1675 to 1700.

Wow.

So this has seen some restoration through the years, but an extremely rare clock and a very important clock.

I would appraise this for auction purposes today at $8,000 to $12,000.

(chuckling): Wow.

Wow.

So that was a nice gift.

(chuckling): Oh, my gosh.

I'm shocked.

(chuckles) Wow.

I'm going to move it to the living room; it's been in my hallway.

(both laugh) GUEST: This pottery was owned by my grandparents, and then my mother acquired it, and then when I was a kid, I didn't see it anymore, so I thought maybe I broke it or my sister broke it.

But then my sister happened to be up in the attic after Hurricane Katrina, and she found these boxes, and when she took it down, this was one of the vases that was in the box.

I was hoping she would find my train, but she didn't.

(chuckling) I got stuck with the vase.

(chuckles) It's signed "A. Walter, Nancy," and it is a ceramic vase done by Almeric Walter, who is really best known as a glass artist.

Walter worked in Nancy, France.

Probably this piece would have been dated around 1900, maybe a little bit before.

And mostly what we see on the "Roadshow" are paté de verre pieces, which are actually glass paste that Walter became very proficient at making, and they're multicolored pieces, typically forced into a mold, and-- and some really amazing creations.

We see a fair amount of that.

I think, from what I can tell talking to my colleagues, this may be the first piece of A. Walter pottery that we've seen on the "Roadshow."

And the colors, interestingly enough, are very similar to the glass work that he did.

But, being a scenic, it's-it's actually a very charming piece-- very soft pastel colors.

Now, there are some rather long and deep craze lines in the piece.

Typically they all had these long craze lines in them.

So, it's not something that happened from your sister or from Katrina.

Mm-hmm.

It just seems to be consistent with the way the pottery was made.

It doesn't seem to affect the value at all.

Now, had you had... uh, thoughts of value?

Well, I thought it was worth between five and eight, maybe, hundred.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Well, it's not too far off.

I think probably an auction value on it would be more like $900 to $1,200.

Okay.

GUEST: I have some Margaret De Patta pieces that I inherited from my mother and father.

They were married in November of '49, and the ring is my mother's engagement ring.

So I'm assuming that they purchased all of them at that time; I'm not sure.

These are examples of a rebel.

Margaret De Patta was a rebel in many ways.

These were American studio jewelers.

They were mid-century modernists.

They were rebelling against the type of jewelry that was mass-produced.

What they wanted to do was to deconstruct things and to make things sharp and clean.

And they used, not diamonds and gold and precious metals; they might have used sterling and some stones and some wood.

And they were not for the masses.

They were for the intellectual elite.

And there was a group on the East Coast and there was a group on the West Coast.

Now, Margaret De Patta was the leader of the West Coast group.

She started making jewelry in the '30s and opened her workshop in 1935.

But she didn't just design.

She was actually hands-on.

She made this jewelry herself, and she well marked it.

I want to show you what the mark looks like.

"De Patta," and then we have the capital M with a little dot over the M. Her technique was called constructivism.

She just pared it down to the essence of what jewelry should be.

Now, what we have here are iconic examples of her work.

Very strong, clean lines.

She used interesting stones.

Right here we have rutilated quartz, and she favored sterling.

On this piece down here, which is a matching pin and earring set, she's used ebony.

The white material is chalcedony, which is an agate, and freshwater pearls.

The ring is also rutilated quartz and sterling.

On today's market, on a retail level, this brooch would be $3,000.

Oh.

The pin and earrings would be $2,500.

The ring by itself is $1,500.

Oh, my.

GUEST: It's been on the wall of my house my whole life.

My father was a writer.

And he traveled all around a lot in the '60s... APPRAISER: Uh-huh.

And, uh, he lived in San Francisco for a little while.

And he came back with it.

The Grabhorn Press was founded in San Francisco in 1919, and it really was the most distinguished fine press on the West Coast for almost 50 years.

Edwin and Robert Grabhorn had come out from Indianapolis and formed this press, printed many things in very limited quantities-- 100 copies, 30 copies-- and were very, very famous, even to this day, as essentially the founders of the fine press movement in the West Coast.

There are many, many collections of these books, but you very rarely see things that are one-off from the press itself since it was disbanded in 1965.

We're pretty certain that this was either created from a friend or admirer of the press and hung in the press's store.

You have here, which is a fish and a trumpet that is, uh, the equivalent of their imprint on every cover of each book.

So, for a collector of Grabhorn memorabilia, this is really a fabulous item.

Because it's so unique, we, conservatively, as a group, estimate it at about $700 to $900.

Oh, wow.

But it may well be something that would go for significantly more than that for the right kind of collector.

Mm.

It's a really incredible piece of authentic San Francisco history.

GUEST: Well, it was, uh, going to be discarded from my husband's stepmother's garage.

And, uh, it was tied up in a bundle with newspapers and what have you, and she said, "Oh, just throw those away.

Nobody's going to want..." Now you say "those," so there was more than one?

Yes, there are more than one.

How many of them?

Well, I have four more of the boat pictures and one that is called "Ice Boating on the Hudson."

Okay.

And you did what with them?

I cleaned them.

Okay, now, they were very dirty, right?

They were very dirty.

And-and can you tell me how you cleaned them?

(chuckles) Probably not the right way.

Okay.

But I washed them very gently with a mild soap and water.

And then I let them dry thoroughly, very flat.

And then I cleaned them with an art gum eraser.

Okay.

But one was not salvageable.

Well, it-it certainly looks beautiful.

They are, as you know, by a man named Frederic Cozzens.

Yes.

Frederic Cozzens was an American artist.

He specialized in marine prints.

And he got one of his big breaks in 1880.

The New York Yacht Club commissioned him to make six watercolors.

Mm.

And they loved them, and so he thought, "Well, if I can make "some prints of my watercolors, "I can make more money, my fame would grow, "maybe people will pay even more money for my watercolors."

Mm-hmm.

So he decided to have chromolithographs done, and that's what this is.

A chromolithograph is a print where each color is printed separately.

Mm.

And the idea was that they could make a print that looks like a watercolor.

And if you look at the detail and the quality of the-- of the water, it's absolutely beautiful.

He issued a portfolio called "American Yachts," and it had a whole series of these yachts, and that's what the prints you have are from.

And the portfolio first came out in 1884.

It was quite a success, and he issued a few extra ones.

This is from the supplement.

And if you look down here at the date, you can see it's 1885, so it's the year afterwards.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Each of these prints was issued in a portfolio with paper covers, and they had labels.

And, in fact, on the back of the frame is a label which has the name of the boat and the copyright date...

Right.

...and the fact it's by Cozzens.

We see a lot of ship prints.

Most of them are just copies of paintings.

And they're nice prints-- they're worth maybe $100, $150.

Why is this different?

One is that Frederic Cozzens himself was involved in this.

This was something that he did to promote his own art, so he followed it, he made sure it was done properly.

This is something that was done by hand and it gives it a richness and a texture-- they really do look like watercolors.

If we saw this in a gallery, I would expect to see a value of about $1,800 on it.

Really?

Each individual print.

Oh, my goodness.

Yes.

The way you cleaned them, you were very lucky you were dealing with chromolithographs.

Because putting paper in water when it has color is a recipe for disaster.

But because chromolithography, the color is put on with an ink, it actually stays on there.

Now, you had them framed, correct?

I framed them.

My husband and I framed them.

Oh, you framed them?

Okay.

Now, you said that the mat board, you were told this is acid-free.

Yeah.

That's not totally correct.

Oh.

Okay, this is acid-free on either side, but the core is wood pulp.

Yeah, you see the brown.

You can see where it's cut, that brown is acid.

When you frame, you should use all acid-free-- rag mat, basically.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

(chuckling): Thank you.

(chuckling): Thank you.

GUEST: I'm one of those people that likes to look for what other people throw out, and... APPRAISER: Ah.

I looked in a dumpster at a local park, and I found a bunch of books and this was one of them.

It's a book called "Hawaii: the Isle of a Thousand Wonders."

It's in nondescript library binding of rather cheap cloth.

This is the original cloth binding.

As we see, they were photographed and arranged by Ray Jerome Baker, who was born in Illinois in 1880, and he died in 1972.

So he was 92 when he died.

He spent a lot of his time in California, until his late 20s, when he befriended Jack London.

He was a photographer, and he had a charge against him in California of, uh, pornographic photography, and in 1910, he went to Hawaii, where he seems to have lived ever since.

And he became a filmmaker and a photographer and a significant book publisher.

Here we have the title page, giving the date of publication, rather like an old book.

He does it as a colophon at the end.

And here he is: photographer, but also publisher of fine books.

And here we have him talking about Hawaii, the Big Island.

And each of these books he published has the especially prepared guard sheet with the title, and there are very fine photographs that he took of views in the Big Island.

Any idea on how many of these might have been published?

There isn't a note of that, but one has to believe that it was a small edition.

I would have thought 500 or maybe 1,000.

Hawaiian books, and particularly books with early photographs, are collected, and the works of Ray Jerome Baker are sought after.

The only comparable I can find at a recent auction was at a specialist sale of Hawaiian books in 2004 in New York, where a similar title, but published three years later, in 1941, brought $4,750.

Oh, my goodness.

This being earlier and being focused on the Big Island, I would've thought would have an auction value today of $5,000 to $6,000.

Um, I like it.

(chuckles) So you did very well in the dumpster.

GUEST: My father gave this to me.

He owned an Asian art goods store in San Francisco.

He told me that one day, a gentleman from the Avery Brundage Asian Art Museum came in, and... asked if my father would be interested in donating it to the museum.

He said he would love to, but unfortunately, he's leaving it to his children.

What excited me about this-- number one, it came with its own box.

This is the box that was the carrying case... Mm-hmm.

...the container that this box went in.

And the inscription is describing the scene here, which is Chinese boys at play.

The artisan who made this also wanted to emphasize the bright colors.

You've got the lively movement; the bright colors emphasize that.

But look at the workmanship.

This is gold inlaid lacquer.

And it's extremely small pieces of gold foil that are inlaid in lacquer and highlighted with mother-of-pearl.

Really?

Just extraordinarily finely worked detail.

The red here is lacquer, with gilt highlights.

He could have used hard stones, for instance, for this rock... Mm-hmm.

...but instead he used lacquer to depict the rock.

And this was done purposely to show the skill of this artisan in making this box.

It's a writing box.

You really don't know that until you take the cover off and you look at the interior.

And on the interior, what you see is this, which is what's called an ink stone... and this, which is a water dropper.

And this is enamel-decorated, it's silver.

Now, in my opinion, I think this actually dates to a later period than the box.

Oh, really?

Which is not unusual.

Sometimes you would have these that would be lost, or they'd be damaged, they'd be replaced.

But as we look over here on the cover, this artisan trained under one of the greatest artists in Japan, a man named Ogata Korin, who lived in the late 17th, early 18th century.

He was the master of this man, whose name was Ogawa Haritsu.

And he goes by the name Ritsuo.

Mm-hmm.

And that's his signature... right here.

Oh, okay.

Haritsu lived until 1747.

This dull color originally was really brilliant because it was silver.

So this is silvered lacquer.

Huh.

This is all in low relief, lacquer decoration butterflies on the interior.

So this is an extraordinary tour de force of craftsmanship, and that was what Ritsuo was known for.

Because of some of the colors that are used in the figures and the way the decoration is done, I'm inclined to believe that this is a follower of Ritsuo, rather than by him.

Mm-hmm.

Nevertheless, an extraordinary example of craftsmanship for a Japanese lacquerwork box.

And I would say that you ought to insure this for $25,000.

Really?

My father would be very happy.

GUEST: I brought a Wayne Thiebaud drawing, which was a wedding present to me and my husband.

And, um, it's from Wayne and his family.

My ex-father-in-law was very good friends with Wayne.

He's a California artist who's often associated with the Pop Art movement, whose better-known artists are New York artists like Warhol, Lichtenstein, Indiana, Dine.

And he's not exactly a Pop artist, even though he's often grouped with them.

He was born in 1920 in Arizona and grew up in California.

Early on, he apprenticed and then worked as an illustrator and a cartoonist at Walt Disney Studios.

Oh...

He later taught at Sacramento City College and also at University of California, Davis, and then started doing exhibitions and becoming more and more famous as an artist in his own right.

And one reason why he is typically grouped with the Pop artists is because he mainly did paintings, prints, and drawings of everyday objects and made these objects, in a way, larger than life into fine art.

Now you can see down here the drawing, which is done in pen and ink, is dedicated to you on May 5, 1990.

This is all in pencil by the artist.

And then with a nice wedding wish here from Thiebaud and his family.

And dated, again, 1990.

So you have the artist's signature down here as well.

Now, within this picture are lots of little pictures.

And that is wonderful, because they're all very, very evocative of Thiebaud's style.

If you look at any Thiebaud book, you're going to find images of larger-than-life pastries, candies, lollipops, this sort of thing, in very, very bright colors.

And then down here is a beautiful young woman.

That's a picture of me.

(laughs) And that's what I thought it was, with a flower in your hair.

So that's, that's just wonderful that he did that.

It has so many of his iconic motifs within it.

And it dates from 1990, which is really at the high point of his career.

Oh... By this time he's a very, very well-known artist.

All in all, it looks to me to be in, in great shape.

There's one little area right here where the ink seems to have smudged.

If I had to put a replacement value on this, I would say you're looking at about $30,000.

(laughing): Oh, my goodness.

Wow, I didn't think...

I better get it insured.

(chuckles) PEÑA: And now it's time for the "Roadshow" Feedback Booth.

We brought our priceless antiques and found out that priceless has a whole new meaning-- more "less."

(laughs) And thanks to "Antiques Roadshow," we found out our grandparents' Louis Vuitton steamer trunk... Will help pay for our grand tour of Europe.

Thanks, "Antiques Roadshow."

Our flight jacket patch was worth $500, and my book was worth $5,000.

Now I can finally go to Hawaii.

My collection of cameos from the 1940s turned out to be just over $200, and this ring was a real ruby at $200 to $250.

And I found out this is worth a little bit more than it was repaired for, but not enough for a college education.

And we'll be back next time with even more and better junk.

Hey, I thought I'd leave you home.

My brother's going to be really excited that my grandfather Charlie Root's 200th win ball is worth $1,000.

And now I'm ready for a drink of water.

I'm ready for a drink.

I found that this beautiful silver gravy boat was worth $3,000 today.

And I came with my best friend, Yvonne.

Yvonne?

Irene?

Eileen.

I bought this decanter at a secondhand store for two dollars and just found out it's worth $800.

Thanks a lot, "Antiques Roadshow," we had a great time.

PEÑA: Thanks for watching.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."