♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: It's another great day for treasure seeking as "Antiques Roadshow" visits Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey.

APPRAISER: It's a real unicorn in the World War II collecting realm.

It was an innovation in its day.

My gosh!

♪ ♪ PEÑA: Grounds For Sculpture, a park that balances horticulture with fascinating sculptural art, was the brainchild of Seward Johnson.

Johnson, an artist and philanthropist who died in 2020, has 33 works on display here.

Several of Johnson's sculptures might look rather familiar.

Johnson took two-dimensional scenes from well-known works of art and blew them up into life-size, or much larger, three-dimensional arrangements.

For example, Grant Wood's "American Gothic" was the inspiration for Johnson's "God Bless America."

"Roadshow" is feeling right at home among all the sculptures at the park.

And we're eager to see more of what our guests brought from their homes today.

MAN: I got the helmet from my grandmother.

I was visiting when I was about 14 years old.

It was actually upside down on her table in her living room with dirt in it and a flower growing out of it.

She said, "Well, that helmet belonged to your father's uncle."

It was her brother.

She started telling me things about his exploits in the, in the Navy, and, uh, one of the first things she said was that he was the first Naval officer to land on Normandy.

I thought, "Oh, Grandma..." And she then started talking about him being involved in helping develop plans for the assault on Normandy.

And I thought, "Oh, how much of this can you, can you come up with?"

So I didn't pay too much attention.

She told me a few other stories, and then asked me if I would be interested in the helmet, and I said, "Oh, yeah, sure."

I took it home and played with it for a while, and it just sat at home until about the 75th anniversary of D-Day, and I thought, "I'm going to check into this," and sure enough, my grandmother's stories were quite accurate.

This is the helmet from Captain James Earl Arnold.

Your uncle was a very important man.

He was the Naval officer in charge at Utah Beach.

Yeah.

One of the first to land.

And when we look at that event, it makes the hair stand up on your arms, because the D-Day invasion at Normandy is one of those moments in world history where the course of the world hangs in the balance.

Now, we didn't win the war at Normandy.

Right.

But we cer... Had we been kicked off those beaches, it, at the very least, would have taken another year or two and who knows how many lives... Hm, uh-huh.

...in order to accomplish the mission that had to be done.

And your uncle is a key player in making sure that that all comes together.

Imagine A, trying to keep it a secret, B, the tides have to be just right.

They have to have a full moon, because the Airborne has to be able to pick out their targets.

Right.

There are so many things that have to come together just right.

He is involved in all of that planning.

On this particular helmet, there is a specific designator here in the front, N.O.I.C.

: Naval officer in charge.

So he's Naval officer in charge at Utah.

His deputy and the other people on his staff there with him would have had similar helmets or similar markings.

Oh, mm-hmm, I see.

And of course, that's also at Omaha.

Mm-hmm.

But he's the only guy there with the captain's eagle on his helmet.

Oh.

Oh, really.

So there is but one of these.

Wow.

We have an early-production World War II M1 helmet.

The seam for the brim that goes around the edge of the helmet is in the front.

Mm-hmm, oh.

At the very end, that's moved to the back.

On the interior, we've got "Captain Arnold," and then... On the reverse, it's stenciled "USN."

Mm-hmm.

United States Navy.

Now, you have a copy of a photograph of your uncle very, very clearly wearing that helmet.

This has to have been on June 6.

Oh, really?

He's still, he's still wearing his invasion life belt.

Oh!

So this puts him on Normandy on June 6, wearing that helmet.

Wow.

And you had asked earlier, "Does the stenciling appear to be level?"

No, to me, it does not.

No.

It's a little off-kilter.

Yeah.

And you can recognize that in the photo.

You can see it there.

Great photo.

Yeah.

And it eliminates that problem of getting that helmet to June 6.

This is everything that you would want to see.

It's a real unicorn in the World War II collecting realm.

Wow.

It's something that represents a fantastically important human endeavor.

Mm-hmm.

One that had an impact on the lives of millions of people.

It's amazing.

I mean, there are people in Europe alive today that would not have been had your uncle not have been so good at his job.

If this hadn't happened.

If I was cataloguing this for an auction, I would put an estimate on the item between $30,000 and $40,000.

Wow.

(gasping) I can't believe that.

Mm.

(sniffs softly) Amazing.

Pretty expensive flowerpot.

(chuckles) Wow.

Well, thank you.

(exhales): I can't...

I just don't have words to say.

♪ ♪ WOMAN: My husband got it from a living estate sale out of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and had it shipped to me in Florida for Christmas this past year.

APPRAISER: Most of the trunks that we see, they will be a domed-top trunk.

And Louis Vuitton discovered that you were able to stack these trunks more easily if you created a flat top.

Mmm!.

And he put a canvas cover on these, and a lot of the trunks we see are wooden and leather and brass-bound, so they're very, very heavy.

So his, his trunks were...

It was an innovation in it, in its day.

Okay.

They were waterproof because of the canvas, and then much more lightweight.

So a modern thing in the 19th century.

Do you know what your husband might have paid for this?

(chuckling): $3,000.

At auction, we would probably expect it to fetch in the $3,000 to $5,000 range.

Oh, okay.

They're wonderful things, and you're lucky to have this.

Thank you, thank you.

Okay.

WOMAN: The piece belonged to my grandmother.

She was from Italy, and then New York City in about 1907.

My grandfather, who purchased it, was the maître d' at the Waldorf Astoria.

The Tiffany jewelers used to come in and he got to talking to them, and wound up at the store, and picked out this piece of jewelry for his wife.

This particular brooch is by Louis Comfort Tiffany, and it was done around the years that, uh, it was purchased, about 1905, 1910, around that sort of period.

It's set with a cabochon moonstone with a wonderful color.

Probably a Ceylon stone in India, which is really where they were mining these wonderful stones, and it's set with Montana sapphires.

The actual mine itself was owned by an English company.

It was purchased by a company called Johnson, Walker, and Tolhurst in 1899 for $100,000, which is actually $3.1 million...

So... ...in today's money.

So funnily enough, the majority of Montana sapphire jewelry you find is actually in English jewelry pieces.

So where was this piece probably made?

This piece is definitely made in America, with a filigree gold and platinum setting.

Ah.

So you got a yellow gold back, a platinum top.

The filigree gold work is a very intricate detail.

It's done with solder and pierced work to give it this very, very intricate sort of filigree light pattern.

And they do this twirl with it?

And make it absolutely beautiful.

Yeah, they would twist it, and it's all, it was all done by hand.

So the piece, it is signed on the back, Tiffany and Co.

If you had to replace something like that today, in a retail setting, I'd say you'd have to spend around $18,000.

(gasps): Whoa.

No, I had no idea.

So it's a, it's a wonderful thing.

None at all.

It's a wonderful thing.

I don't know... And you told me you had a dream last night about the value.

What was...

I did, I dreamt that you told me it was worth $660.

Well, it's a little bit more than that.

(laughs) On occasion, I've worn it to weddings.

MAN: My husband and I collect costume sketches, and we have a dear friend that gave this to us as a gift, and he knew that it was our favorite movie.

APPRAISER: How long ago did you get it?

Probably about five years ago.

And, uh, he collects, as well, and he worked in the costume industry in Hollywood for years.

So that explains, perhaps, how he may have had access.

I believe so.

We don't know the full story.

So we have a costume sketch, and it says right there what it is, Gloria Swanson, "Sunset Boulevard," the 1950 film which had costumes designed by Edith Head.

Edith Head's probably the most prolific costume designer on the planet-- she's won more Oscars for her costume designs than anyone.

The first thing that we talk about when we deal with costume sketches-- especially with Edith Head, this is a big issue-- is it actually production?

Mm-hmm.

Or was it from one of her trunk shows?

Because she was famous for doing these wonderful fashion shows in the 1960s, and she recreated a lot of the costume designs to put on display.

One other thing that we see with Edith Head sketches is, oftentimes you see nice, big, bold Edith Head autographs, and we don't have that here.

And to me, that's actually a good thing, because she did that consistently for all of the trunk show sketches, but none of that matters on this one, because we have this wonderful frame job that you did.

Thank you.

Which allows us to take a look at all of the information that's contained on the back of this.

And what we see here is the absolute quintessential typical stamping system that Edith had used when she was at Paramount.

Here you have the producer, the director listed, you have which fabric she's planning to order, the cost.

You have the full time it's gonna take, 18 days to make this costume.

Interestingly, they're going to rent the fur.

So all of these things are absolutely 100%.

There's no question this is a production sketch.

But the information back on the front side of this that I like to look at... ...is the swatching.

And we have that still that's attached to it, which is fantastic, because that is the scene in the film.

"Sunset Boulevard's" obviously a classic, and it's this wonderful art imitating life... Mm-hmm.

...of following Gloria Swanson, who had a terrific career in silent films, into the talking era.

And the woman that she plays, Norma Desmond, in this film, is not adjusting well to life with sound.

By my count, I think she has 15 costume changes, and I think this comes in around number 12.

So we're partway through the movie when she makes the famous return to Paramount Pictures to see Mr. DeMille.

It was nominated for 11 Oscars and won three.

It won for best screenplay, it won for best art direction, it won for best music, Franz Waxman.

In the costume collecting world, you know, most sketches generally sell for under $500, depending upon who it is, and what it is, but then you have these pieces that are so iconic, that you know there would be a great deal of competition if it would ever come up at auction.

And so I think, conservatively, I would put an estimate of $10,000 to $15,000.

And I wouldn't be shocked if it soared past that $15,000 towards the $20,000 mark.

More than I thought, so that's nice to know.

Very exciting to hear that news, thank you.

♪ ♪ PEÑA: Works by internationally renowned sculptors can be found at Grounds For Sculpture, like "Dorion," by Bruce Beasley, "Garden State," by Isaac Witkin, "Paolo e Francesca," by Beverly Pepper, and an untitled work by Kiki Smith.

I brought a poster that was given to me by my aunt.

She's actually my second cousin, but I grew up with her and so, we always called her my aunt.

It's a French poster, I acquired it in about 1995.

It is a wonderful French poster advertising mineral water.

Eau minérale, alkaline mineral water.

And it's designed by a French artist, Marcellin Auzolle.

This poster was printed in France.

We see the French printer's name up along the side.

But the product is Swiss-- it's Swiss mineral water from Montreux in Switzerland.

I think they are scarlet ibises.

Now, let me tell you what scarlet ibises have to do with Swiss mineral water and French graphic design.

Okay.

Absolutely nothing.

(laughs) The whole point of this poster was that it was supposed to be somehow comically jarring to the viewer's mind as they pass it on the street.

It was supposed to immediately impart its message, which is, "Drink this water."

And I think it would have very much achieved its purpose.

The artist designed a lot of posters, and he designed posters over a very long period of time.

So we don't even know an exact date of this poster, and I date it to around 1910, 1912.

I found that in the last 20 or 30 years of auction records, it has not come up for auction once.

So that does suggest that the poster is very rare.

And in my estimation, if this came up to auction, it would sell for between $800 and $1,200.

Okay.

Well, it will definitely stay with me, because it's a great talking piece for my house, and we love it.

MAN: I believe it was 1973 or '74.

I came across an ad.

It was simply listed as an Ub Iwerks drawing from "Steamboat Willie."

This was $40.

I wasn't sure if it was authentic.

I took a chance.

It is certainly authentic.

It's the original 12-field paper with the two peg holes.

"Steamboat Willie" is one of the most iconic Disney cartoons.

It was done in 1928.

This was only a seven-minute short.

This is about six minutes into the film, where Mickey is playing, like, a xylophone on the cow's teeth.

Right.

(chuckles): Right.

Value-wise... Mm-hmm.

...we would put a pre-sale estimate at auction of $2,000 to $2,500.

Wow.

(laughs) It's a wonderful, charming drawing.

Thank you for bringing it in.

Thank you, I appreciate it.

MAN: This belonged to my great-uncle.

He was a physician by training here in New Jersey, and to get him through medical school, he would drive for wealthy families in Rhode Island.

He would take them antiquing, and developed an eye for antiques.

During the course of his professional life, he was a, an avid collector of paperweights and other fine arts.

And one day, helping him clean out his garage, we came across this, it was wrapped in plastic in a bag.

And I asked my uncle, "What is this?

", and, "It's very interesting."

And he's, like, "You can have it."

We never went into detail about the piece.

I have had it in my possession for about 30 years.

I have looked online for stuff like this.

In my opinion, it doesn't fall in the category of memorabilia.

It feels different, it's quite heavy.

Yeah.

I could almost do curls.

(laughs) It's different to me.

It doesn't look like a lot of the mass-produced...

It doesn't look commercial.

It has a very elegant and refined presence.

I talked to other appraisers, and we all thought that it was made in a foundry, for starters.

Okay.

There's no marks on it where it was put on an anvil and did any hand work with it with a hammer or anything like that.

Have you ever heard the term "end of day"?

No.

Well, "end of day" was used in a lot of manufacturing places-- glass, porcelain, foundries-- when they wouldn't be on the company time, and they would make things for their own amusement.

Ah.

That's one possibility.

Okay.

The other possibility is, because there's a mortise joint here created by a slot, I wondered if it might have had some other piece that went under it, but that might just have been the way they terminated it, also.

With the idea that it might be mounted as a piece of sculpture.

It's a really wonderful piece of folk art.

I would say that it is a cast-iron bust of a Black man, circa 1900.

And I think it's American.

Okay.

If it's an end-of-day piece, then it could have been made as a whimsy by anyone.

Yeah.

This is somebody that had skills, because they've had to make some kind of a model in order to create the mold, which opens the door that they possibly made more than one.

Right.

His hair is painted black in the back.

Can you see traces of that paint?

I, yes, yes.

And there's traces of red where his lips are, and you can see a little bit of traces of paint where his eyes are.

Mm-hmm.

Some people would look at this, and think this is a racially stereotypical depiction of a Black man.

What are your feelings about that?

I don't see that at all.

You mentioned earlier the lips looked a little red.

They look red.

It could be rust, as well.

I have thought and processed a lot of that, as well.

When I look at this, I see a dignified Black man with a wide nose.

We have wide noses.

I see full lips.

We have full lips.

I see a dignified person.

I don't see anything negative from it.

So what made you pick that out of your uncle's house?

I just feel something from it.

It, it emanates some energy to me.

It just resonates with me.

Conservatively, out there in the market, it probably would be in the $1,000 to $1,500 range.

Okay.

That's awesome.

PEÑA: Anthony Caro played an important part in the development of sculpture in the latter half of the 20th century.

His abstract compositions were sometimes created by welding found or prefabricated metal elements together.

This piece, "Potpourri," shows how Caro eliminated the use of bases and placed his works at floor or ground level.

WOMAN: I brought with me five figures from an animated movie called "The Daydreamer."

We had purchased them in 1985.

My husband was a sculptor and a collector, and I was a collector, too.

And we used to, every year, go to the Cranford ant, antique advertising show in New Jersey, and one year, one of the dealers had these five figures that drew our attention, because my husband, one of the things he loved to collect was puppets.

Ah!

And the animated figures fit right in with what we had.

Oh, that's so cool-- well, you are correct.

Yes, they are from "The Daydreamer," which was by Rankin/Bass Productions, which... Rankin/Bass is so iconic when it comes to the world of animation and film and television.

You just see these puppets, it's, like, boom!

There is no denying these are from a Rankin/Bass production.

Wow.

The company was founded by Arthur Rankin, Jr., and Jules Bass, a New York-based production company.

Right.

But when they first started, in 1960, it was Videocraft International.

Interesting.

They did not get under the moniker of Rankin/Bass Productions until 1968.

When they came out swinging in 1960, they had "The New Adventures of Pinocchio"... Hm.

...which was a stop-animation TV series.

Cool.

And when it came to Rankin/Bass, they worked at two things.

They did traditional cel animation, hand-drawn.

Oh, right, okay.

But what they were really known for was their stop-motion animation, which has been coined as "animagic."

Yes!

(laughs) Which used these handmade puppets.

The characteristics, the bubbly cheeks, the expressions-- they're just filled with energy and joy.

Yes.

They make you happy just looking at them.

So while "The Daydreamer" is a lesser-known film, as it is not a holiday special, it is still a great story.

It's based on the life and career of Danish author, uh, Hans Christian Andersen.

The film was released 1966.

It's coming off the huge hot success of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

Right, right, right, right.

Which, when kids watched that 55-minute special in 1964, it was, like... (makes explosion sound effect) Christmas coming to town.

This is awesome.

So nice.

Working off that success is what enabled them to get just such an all-star cast.

The two closest to you are the tailor characters.

The first tailor was voiced by Victor Borge.

Oh, wow!

The second tailor in was by Terry-Thomas.

Yeah, he looks like Terry... (laughs) Yes.

We have Ed Wynn as the emperor.

Oh, wow.

And then getting to the major all-stars, we have Patty Duke as Thumbelina... Mm-hmm.

...and the one and only Boris Karloff.

Oh, my gosh, I love Boris.

Right?

"Frankenstein"?

I mean... Yeah, yeah.

Yes!

How could you miss it?

Right.

And so the film followed Hans Christian Andersen.

Right, right.

And it followed him as a young schoolboy, son of a poor shoemaker.

Uh-huh.

And while he was supposed to be studying for school, he instead decided to daydream, and on the search for the Garden of Paradise.

Even though Rankin/Bass Productions was a New York-based company, they actually subbed out all the work... Yeah!

...and these puppets were made in Japan.

Get out!

I didn't know that.

Yup.

So they were all hand-manufactured by Tadahito Mochinaga of MOM Studios.

Uh-huh.

These puppets are all articulated.

Every hand, every leg, the head, the neck, they all moved because they had to position them, and they're just so intricate, and it's very tough to find them today surviving.

It's believed that less than 100 puppets were produced over the course of Rankin/Bass history.

Mm-hmm.

So to have five from the same film is rather incredible today.

Wow.

We're calling them production puppets.

There were puppets made for a lot of different marketing reasons, promotional items, but it is very confident, when looking on at the screen, you would believe them to be screen-used puppets from the film.

Do you remember what you paid for them in 1985?

I do.

Because it was big money for us.

It was, like, our mortgage payment.

It was, uh, $350.

For the set of five?!

For the set of five.

Whoo!

And the dealer was, like, he really indicated to us, like, "You are getting something special, and this is really a bargain."

For the group, because while you can sell them individually, they would best be sold as a package.

So today at auction, for the group of five, they would achieve in the $50,000 to $80,000 range.

(laughs) Oh, my gosh!

Oh, m... Did you hear that, Ed?

My husband passed away a little while ago at a good old age.

But he would love that.

Thank...

Tribute to you, Edward.

That's amazing!

When I saw these, I said, "Whoa!"

It's absolutely incredible.

Thank you, that is amazing.

(laughs) Very, very happy.

WOMAN: In 1977, I worked at the International Center of Photography in New York.

Cornell Capa was the director.

When I left, he gave me this photograph, and he also wrote me a letter.

This is a gelatin silver print of a ballet school in Moscow taken by Cornell Capa in 1958 when he was there documenting life in Russia.

This is one of his most well-known photographs, if not the most well-known photograph.

But prints of this he continued to make, '60s, and '70s, and even later.

We know for sure that this was printed before 1978, because that's when he gave it to you.

So we know that it's a 1970s print.

At auction, this would be estimated between $5,000 and $7,000.

Okay.

That's wonderful to know.

Yeah.

MAN: In the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, my father had a parking garage in New York City, in Greenwich Village, and it was on 11th Street, and a block away was, uh, 10th Street, of course.

And 10th Street in the, uh, '50s and '60s and '70s was a gathering place for some post-Impressionist artists, including the the de Koonings, Elaine and Willem, Wolf Kahn.

They would park at my father's garage.

The artists began to arrange things with him when they didn't have the cash.

One of them was, uh, Wolf Kahn.

This is Wolf Kahn as a much younger person than most of us knew him as.

This is from his studio, up in Brattleboro, Vermont.

This is by Elaine de Kooning.

She apparently wanted to do a trade.

They couldn't settle on anything and eventually said, "Well, I'll tell you what, I'll do one of you."

And he said, "Sure!"

They're both more or less contemporaries, and best known for their work through the 20th century in abstraction.

Mm-hmm.

It's not exactly what we're seeing here.

In Wolf Kahn's case, it's the abstraction of landscape and outdoors and natural things.

In Elaine de Kooning's case, she worked in portraiture, mythological scenes, and pure abstraction of bulls and bullfighting.

In 1962, she came to the limelight as an artist because she was commissioned by the Truman Library to paint JFK's portrait.

She, of course, married de Kooning.

Her maiden name was Elaine Fried.

Mm-hmm.

And she met him, he was 16 years her elder.

She worked a lot with him.

Her career was secondary, and eventually, she came to the forefront and is now being much more appreciated than she was years back.

It looks to me like she's dated it right down here.

Oh, I see, I, I never looked.

'70... '73.

And that looks absolutely right in terms of a dating.

That's 60 years old, and that's about what I recognize him to be, about 6... That's right.

That is an early work by Kahn, I would say from sometime in the mid-1960s.

And it would be something very scarce to see on the market nowadays, and something you could only come to through a personal connection with the artist.

It's a transitional work, as I see it for him, from this darker, grayer palette to the brighter palette.

It's the artist in the studio, it's a large canvas.

If this came up for auction, I would say an evaluation of somewhere around $30,000 to $50,000, perhaps $40,000 to $60,000, would be conservative for that.

Very good, excellent.

The de Kooning is a much more specific work, that's a portrait of your father.

Right.

It's less abstract.

That being said, it's still wonderfully done.

You do have some abstraction here in the background.

At auction, I would put a value on this painting of between $7,000 and $10,000.

Mm-hmm.

Well, it's a lot more than six months' worth of, uh, garage rent.

There you go.

Even today.

(laughing) Thanks for bringing them in.

Sure.

Well, thank you very much, I appreciate it.

♪ ♪ PEÑA: In the Fairgrounds Gardens, the abstract work of Magdalena Abakanowicz confronts visitors.

This installation is called "Space of Stone."

Common themes of isolation, anonymity, obedience, and oppression can be found in Abakanowicz's work.

Several of her pieces were included here in the very first museum exhibition in 1993.

WOMAN: This is a watch I inherited around 20-some-odd years ago from my uncle.

He inherited it from, I believe, one of his clients.

He was a financial adviser in New York City, and she left it to him in her will, and then he passed it on to me.

And what do you know about it?

I don't know anything, really.

It's just a Cartier ladies' watch, I'm assuming 1950s, but I really don't know the year.

It's been sitting in a lockbox for the last few years.

(laughs) Do you ever wear this watch?

I can't get it on-- I wish I could.

(chuckles) Okay.

You know it's Cartier, it's signed Cartier on the dial.

It's a little earlier than what you think it is, though.

It's not from the 1950s.

Okay.

It's 1920s.

The 1920s?

Yes.

Oh, wow, it is older.

It is older-- Roaring '20s, Art Deco.

Wow.

The case is in platinum.

I love all the rose-cut diamonds all around it.

We can date this around 1920 because of the use of rose-cut diamonds.

Not too long after that, they started using single-cut diamonds, and then, much later, they started using full-cut diamonds.

It's one of the earliest wristwatches made, so it, it's quite lovely.

Wow.

The bracelet on it's not original.

That actually looks more like of the style of the 1930s through the 1950s.

This originally had a, uh, black grosgrain silk ribbon band on it.

Does that affect the value?

Not particularly on this watch.

On some watches, it could greatly affect it, but on this one, it had a ribbon bracelet, so that could be put back on.

The value is in what we call the head of the watch, which is without the band or without the bracelets.

The piece, though, itself has French platinum hallmarks on it.

So this, this came from Cartier in Paris.

Oh, nice.

It's, it's, it's a French piece.

What do you think of the shape of it?

I like it.

It's called the tortue, which in French is a turtle.

Oh.

And so it looked a little like a turtle, they thought.

There's a lot of interest now in Cartier watches.

Did you have an idea of the value on this piece?

Um, my daughter and I were talking, and we thought around $5,000 to $10,000?

$5,000 to $10,000 was probably the correct valuation about 15 years ago.

Oh, okay.

But right now, I see this at $20,000 to $25,000.

Oh!

Very nice!

Oh!

I like that!

Very nice!

WOMAN: Well, this lamp was my grandmother's.

When she had passed away, we ended up divvy up articles that she had, had left behind.

My grandmother used to have it on the table in the living room.

Whenever she went out, she always turned on the light, and then I could always see it from the driveway.

You could just see it shining.

And she had a big picture window, and it was just so beautiful.

And I remember as a child, too, I was so delighted, because underneath, there was, like, three little strings to pull, and it was so exciting to be able to pull each light.

I'm glad you were able to acquire it, because it clearly has a lot of sentimental value.

Yes, it does.

It was made by the Pairpoint Company, and they were based in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

And initially, they were only making metalware, and they merged with Mount Washington Glass, which, which was also in New Bedford, in 1894.

And by 1900, it became the Pairpoint Corporation.

Oh.

They made a lot of lamps.

Started the lamp-making business around 1904, 1905, and into the 1920s.

I think they made just 100 designs.

And the design of your shade is called the Berkeley shade.

Berkeley refers to the shape, which is this dome shape with this flared rim.

The surface is called Chipped Ice, and it was meant to look like frost on a windowpane.

The other part of the process was the reverse painting.

It's painted from the inside.

I believe that this particular lamp may have come in two sizes.

Okay.

I think there was a 14-inch size, and this is a bigger size.

Oh.

There's actually a mark on the base.

It's a diamond mark with a P in the middle.

And that stood for Pairpoint.

The shade is not signed, and they weren't always signed.

Okay.

But we know for sure that's who made it.

It has a couple of defects, and it's just from age.

There's a loss of paint on the underside.

Yeah.

And then there's one chip to the edge.

There is some corrosion on the metal stem of the lamp base.

I'm not sure that it can be repaired in any way.

This lamp is over 100 years old, so it's going to have some defects.

I would put a circa date on this lamp of, um, 1912.

Because of the issues with the shade and with the base, in today's market, I probably would value it between $1,000 and $2,000.

Okay.

If it were in perfect condition, it would probably be more like $2,000 to $3,000.

I see.

This is a market that's been softened.

I think I'll keep it for a while, though.

Every time I look at it, I think of my grandmother.

My aunt said she bought it at an estate sale in Arizona about 1938.

It was probably made a little bit earlier, maybe 1930.

It's woven by a Navajo woman on the Navajo reservation.

Oh, yeah.

Probably woven in Northwestern New Mexico.

The women were weaving rugs for non-Natives.

If you could touch this, you could feel... You could even close your eyes.

Mm-hmm.

And in this particular case, there are no knots or bulky elements.

It's all very flat.

This is really well-woven.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

You have a treasure here.

Oh.

It, it's, it's absolutely beautiful.

Oh...

The design is dynamic, the condition is great, the colors are strong.

Do you have any feeling for, uh, value?

I was hoping even $1,000.

How about, on a retail basis, $6,500?

Oh, wow.

I think it's...

I'm shocked.

I think that would happen.

I'm shocked.

(laughs) I really, I'm speechless.

(chuckles) MAN: My mother was born in the town of Sosnowiec in Poland in February 1926.

She was the child of religious Jews.

World War II began for her in September of 1939.

And in February of 1942, shortly after her 16th birthday, my mother was summoned to the train station at 4:00 in the morning, and under armed guard, she was sent to a labor camp in Czechoslovakia called Oberaltstadt.

A few months after her arrival, she was able to write home to her parents, and that postcard has survived.

This is the front side of the postcard.

Where is this?

It's the area around the Oberaltstadt camp in Czechoslovakia.

The postcard is actually written in German.

It's not in a handwriting that we recognize as hers.

What we believe is that she asked someone at the camp to write the postcard for her in German, which may have been what the German censors wanted her to do.

She writes, "My dearest and unforgotten parents.

"I received your postcard and read it with "lots of joy and tears.

"Dear parents!

"I wonder why you don't write more often.

"I wonder what is going on.

"I heard that this week was terrible for you "with the relocation.

Many people left Sosnowiec."

And she goes on to say how she had heard from a friend of hers who also went to the camp with her that her parents were okay, which alleviated her concerns as to their welfare.

And then also, in the, at the bottom of the postcard, she sends her greetings to all of her brothers and sisters who were still at home.

Because my mother was the first one from her family to be taken from home and sent to a slave labor camp.

Basically, what was happening there is, the Germans needed labor.

They were working for textile companies, for manufacturing companies, and Jews and other non-Aryan people, they just pulled in slave labor.

Now, why don't you describe these two photographs?

Well, the bottom photograph is a picture of my mother that was taken shortly after the war began.

In that photograph, she was approximately 13 or 14.

It was either taken late in 1939 or early in 1940.

And the upper photograph was the photograph that was taken in 1942, while she was at Oberaltstadt.

They took her on an excursion to the countryside, and she had her photograph taken with some of the German overseers from the slave labor camp.

And it was something that was very important to my mother, because she carried it in her wallet for years after the war.

The photograph is cut out in spots, because my mother was told that if she was photographed with Aryans, that she could be punished, and the Aryans could be punished for having their photograph taken with a Jew.

There is a part of the photograph that's cut out that shows a man standing there.

We're not sure, but one of the stories that my mother told was, when she was at the factory at Oberaltstadt, one day, the SS came in and announced that any workers who were not assigned to a machine would have to go for resettlement.

At that point, all the Jews in the camp-- and this was a camp of all Jewish girls-- knew what resettlement meant.

It meant they might be sent to a death camp.

And she went up to this foreman, who was over six feet tall, and my mother was under five feet tall.

And she said, "I looked up at him and I said, 'Am I going to have to leave also?'"

And this foreman said to her, "Not you, you're one of my best workers."

And he walked her over to a machine, and he just said, "Look busy."

So it's possible that this gentleman or another gentleman may have been instrumental in seeing to it that my mother was not sent for what they called resettlement.

Now, the blouse.

How did that come about?

I think she wanted to have a change of clothes to have so that she could blend in with the crowd more if she, she left the camp.

She always returned, obviously.

She didn't want to get, to get punished or get caught outside the camp grounds.

So she fashioned a blouse for herself out of material that she found on the factory floor.

In May of 1945, when Oberaltstadt was liberated, she knew that her older sister and her younger brother were at a nearby labor camp called Langenbielau.

And she left the camp with other girls and went to the train station.

And she was actually reunited with her older sister and her younger brother at the train station.

My mother's oldest brother survived the war.

Her parents and her younger brother and sister, whose names were Sarah and Akiva, they were killed at Auschwitz.

My mother never had an exact date for when it was that her parents and her younger sister and brother perished.

My mother passed away in 2014 and we found these items.

There are a lot of times when I look at these items, and I talk about these items, when I can't help but become very emotional.

Because nowadays, to think of someone who had just turned age 16, a young girl who should be going to dances, going out on dates, is basically fighting for her life.

I mean, it's, it's... (voice breaking): ...just a very difficult... Yeah.

One of the things that is incredibly difficult is, part of what we do here is put a monetary value on something.

And you say, "How can you put a monetary value on this?"

But the reality is, either in an estate, the I.R.S., if it's being given to a university or a museum, people put a value.

And also for insurance.

There's the famous quote, "People who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it."

And you need items like this to learn about it.

Also, on the blouse, there are very, very few three-dimensional objects that came out of those camps.

A value on this, either for insurance or donation, would be $10,000.

Although the real value is in how it can be used to teach the future generations.

For us, it gives us a tangible connection with a past which was basically stolen from us by, by the Nazis.

PEÑA: One interesting fact: the artist of this work, called "Carmelita," is the subject of a piece by Seward Johnson.

"Autin's Advanced Artistic Awakening" is a hyper-realistic installation that shows sculptor Autin Wright mid-step, his attention drawn to something unexpected.

In addition to being an artist, Wright was the supervisor for paint and patina at the Seward Johnson Atelier for 28 years.

MAN: I brought a silver crucifix with mosaics on it.

And it has the four major basilicas of Rome.

I was in college, and a friend's elderly relative passed away.

And so she and I and a friend went to go housesit in the house while they settled the estate.

And while we were there, I noticed this cross.

And I flipped it over, and on the back side, it has a, a taped message that says "Blessed by Pope Leo."

Pope Leo was pope of the Roman Catholic Church in the year 1900.

And the crucifix is from the holy year 1900.

Uh, every 25 years, the Catholic Church celebrates what's called a holy year, and it says "anno santo," which is holy year, and "Rome", and the year, "1900."

The next year, I studied abroad in Rome, and so I thought, "Well, I'm going to take this crucifix with me, see if I, by chance, can get it blessed."

The pope gave his message, his blessing, and then he worked the rope line.

I asked him to bless it.

He took my hand in his hand and blessed the crucifix.

So it's blessed by Pope Leo XIII in the year 1900 and by Pope St. John Paul in 1983.

The cross is what we would call a micromosaic cross.

And it was made in the Vatican Studios.

And the wonderful thing is, it is actually dated 1900.

And, as you said, that was a holy year.

So I would imagine there were a lot of pieces produced out of the Vatican Studios that year.

Hm.

Right.

We'd almost refer to this as sort of like a Grand Tour item.

Traditionally, people think of the Grand Tour as in the 18th and 19th century.

But someone would travel to Rome, and as a souvenir, a memento of their trip... Oh.

...they would pick up this object.

Examples such as this, when they do come up for auction, sell for around about $1,000.

Which is not an insignificant sum.

Yeah.

With the provenance, and with all of the historical information, I would say that you would almost certainly double the value to $2,000.

Knowing that both popes blessed it and to have it come on the "Roadshow" is a really lovely thing.

So thank you so much.

Great.

Thank you.

MAN: This is a McCabe 1790 carriage clock.

It's been in the family a long time.

And it's been on the dining room table when I grew up... And it sounds like from your accent it wasn't here on this continent.

No, it's, uh, London, England.

London, England.

James McCabe was born in 1748 in Ireland to a watchmaking family.

Uh, within 20 years, he's moved to Belfast, and then eventually to London, and set up a shop in the Royal Exchange.

And the Royal Exchange was a commerce center where some of the finer manufacturers of goods would not only work, but display their wares.

The 1790 number that you see on the dial... Yeah.

...is not a date.

It's actually a serial number.

Oh, I th-- wow.

Okay.

So, coincidentally, right?

Yeah?

1790, it sounds great, right?

Yeah.

But it wasn't made much longer after that.

Yeah.

This clock probably was made before 1810 and probably after 1800.

Now, we don't call this a carriage clock.

Oh.

Although it has a lot of carriage clock aspects to it.

The case presentation falls into the category of a library or, more appropriately, a table clock.

Okay.

London quality in the 1800s was second to none.

Very, very good quality.

Everything in this is essentially handmade.

This is a brass case that they've treated with a finish to give it a period look.

The finish is original to this clock.

The dial's brass and it has a silver wash.

If we turn this a little bit, you can see that it's a striking clock.

Strikes the hour on a bell.

And at the bottom of what we call the back plate... Yeah.

...we see that it's also signed by James McCabe.

Showed that he was the manufacturer.

Shows that he was the manufacturer.

(chuckles) And the fact that he would sign the bottom of it would indicate that they were, this is something that they were really proud of.

Okay.

If we turn it to the side, you'll notice that it has this what we call a fusee movement.

This clock is powered by a coil spring, which is inside this brass canister.

Yeah.

The clock will run faster during the beginning of the week if it's just on a coil spring because there's more power, in theory.

So what they did was, they added this fusee-shaped, or this tapered, cone, and when the clock is fully wound, it pulls from the small side of the drum.

Yeah.

And it tapers upward over the week.

So it equalizes the power... Yeah.

Yeah.

...over the length of the run.

A sign of, again, quality.

You'll notice that it has a chain, and the chain is what's the connection between the two.

If you can think of somebody making that chain at a bench, probably in a candlelit room, and putting all those links together?

(chuckling): Yeah.

Yeah, 'cause... Yeah.

Chains often break and they're replaced with cable or cord.

So the fact that you have your original chain is really a nice added feature to this clock.

If you were to replace this clock, I think that you probably would have to budget somewhere in the neighborhood of $4,500 to $5,000 buying it out of a good shop.

Yeah.

Wow-- it's a great clock.

Thank you.

Very, very good quality.

Okay, thank you very much.

WOMAN: It's from my mother.

She bought it early '70s, I believe.

When I got married, uh, '95, that's when she gave it to me.

Up until Mikimoto got involved, pearls were available only to the very rich.

Only to the kings and queens and princesses and popes.

They were able to develop a cultured pearl in a round form and introduce it to the market in 1919.

Mikimoto made it possible for pearls to become an affordable luxury.

Yours is a really great strand.

Really well-matched for color.

They're blemish-free.

Current market value on this, at retail, would be in excess of $8,000.

Okay.

Well... (laughs) Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

Thank you so much.

I'd love to know more about how you found it.

Uh, shopping at a Salvation Army.

It's a jar and cover.

Let's take a look at who made it.

It was made in Berlin in Germany by the Royal Porcelain Works, the KPM factory.

And we know that by this nice clear mark here.

Just above it, you can see very faintly a trace of blue line there.

That's a scepter mark, which is a mark of the KPM factory.

We think it was made about 1890.

It has some flourishes on it.

The little knop here, as we would call it, is expertly painted in gilt.

Kind of a Gilded Age finish.

As is the foot.

You didn't have to do that, but they decided to put this little swag on it and put a dark blue, rich blue ground on it, which is very late 19th century.

The pot itself and the top are made by a conventional technique called slip casting, where slip, or clay in liquid suspension, is cast into a mold.

It's made of porcelain and the painting is done by hand.

All of the colors are painted in enamel, uh, including the ground color.

And then the gilding, that would be done as a kind of finishing touch.

There's a lot of work gone into this object.

Very expertly done.

And what's nice about it is the condition.

It's really in good shape.

So what did you pay for it?

Five dollars.

If it came to auction, the estimate on this beautiful KPM vase jar and cover would be between $1,000 and $1,500.

Not bad for five dollars.

Not bad at all.

MAN: It's a sculpture.

William Edmondson.

It was given to us by my brother.

It's been in our house since 1985.

This is what is now classified as a dove.

Edmondson was African American.

He was born in 1874 in the Nashville area.

In about 1930, 1931, he took up carving stone pieces.

He says he got a message from God, and God directed him to make these pieces out of limestone.

It's a very soft, easy-to-carve material.

And he opened a yard and there was a sign that said "tombstones and garden ornaments."

This is 1930s in America, and here he is in Nashville, he's in the shadows of one of the great universities, Vanderbilt.

And people became aware of Edmondson and his yard.

And one of the professors there invited a New York fashion photographer, a woman by the name of Louise Dahl-Wolfe, to come down to Nashville to photograph Edmondson's yard.

She did.

She took the photography back to New York and actually wanted to publish them in "Harper's Bazaar," and was denied that request.

It was a racist overtone in America, especially when it came to an African American artist breaking into the mainstream.

She also showed them to a friend of hers, Alfred Barr, who was then director of MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art.

Alfred Barr, a progressive and a real fan of modernism, interpreted Edmondson's work as these modern reductive sculptures.

And he gave William Edmondson a one-man show at MoMA in 1937.

It ran from November to January of 1938.

12 pieces in an alcove of the museum.

Edmondson never journeyed to New York to see the exhibit.

People really didn't know how to judge Edmondson's work.

"The New Yorker" gave the most prominent review.

And they understood the modernistic feel, this reductive nature of the bird.

But also said, more than likely Edmondson will return to Nashville and fade into obscurity, which he basically did.

He carved until 1948.

He died in 1951.

And a lot of the work was dispersed at that time.

Can you tell us about what went back and forth for him to acquire this?

She was Edmondson's niece, and he paid $700 in the early '80s with the caveat that it not be sold.

Well, we're going to give your brother's name, because he's a very seminal figure in Edmondson's progression in the art marketplace.

It was Edmund Fuller.

And Edmund Fuller curated a show in the '70s at the Montclair Art Museum, and the name of the show was "Visions in Stone."

Your brother wrote a book.

He was an important guy in people being aware of Edmondson's work.

The dating of these pieces is very difficult.

So we're going to date this somewhere between the time that he had the exhibit at MoMA in 1937 to the time that he stopped working in 1948.

Because this is a family piece, and I would assume it's going to stay in the family, we're gonna put an insurance value on it of $125,000.

(inhales, murmuring) (laughing) Ah...

Yes.

Uh, no, no, it, um, that's completely beyond... We're going to have to, uh, find a, um... Yeah...

I, I wish I could act like I'm sure Edmondson would have act, and said, "That's not... That's strictly not the point," but it, it changes your life... Yeah.

...you know, to have something like this in your living room.

And that's good and it's bad.

(chuckles) Um...

Yes, I, I understand what you mean by good news, bad news.

Mm-hmm.

I would expect this to increase over the years.

He's a very, very important artist.

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

Hi, all, you know all that stuff we've been collecting all these years?

Well, we hit gold today.

(laughs) We just had a great appraisal by Laura, who was fantastic.

And we collect these things, costume sketches, but this was one of our special ones, and she said it was very special.

So I'm still in shock.

(laughs) I had a great time, uh, bringing the, uh, Louis Vuitton trunk that I bought for her for Christmas last year.

And it turns out that I did not get ripped off.

(laughs) Right...

Ever since I've been married, last 53 years, it's lived in my sock drawer.

I took it out, wore it to weddings, and really haven't worn it in many, many years because I don't go to too many formal events anymore.

(softly): And it's really been kept in her underwear drawer.

Stop that!

(laughs) Shh!

I was hoping it was real-- I wasn't sure, but, uh, now I know.

And when I learned the value, I was really happy.

(chuckles) I've kind of tried to research this for 25 years, and I never found out this information before getting it from Nick today.

So we're very happy.

The poster is going to come right back home with us, and go right back on the wall where it came from, and pass down through our family now.

I plan to keep the watch.

(laughs) I guess we're keeping the watch.

PEÑA: Thanks for watching.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."