

Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, Hour 1
Season 24 Episode 1 | 52m 28sVideo has Closed Captions
Kick off a new season of treasures with a $125K appraisal from the grounds of Winterthur!
Experience an all-new season of exceptional items appraised at distinctive, historic venues across the country, kicking off from the stunning grounds of Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library with a heartwarming valuation of a $125,000 family treasure!
Funding for ANTIQUES ROADSHOW is provided by Ancestry and American Cruise Lines. Additional funding is provided by public television viewers.

Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, Hour 1
Season 24 Episode 1 | 52m 28sVideo has Closed Captions
Experience an all-new season of exceptional items appraised at distinctive, historic venues across the country, kicking off from the stunning grounds of Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library with a heartwarming valuation of a $125,000 family treasure!
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: It's a bounty of riches when "Antiques Roadshow" visits the incredible Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library.
That's why I come to the Roadshow.
I wanted to learn something.
My mother would be really thrilled with what you just said.
Yeah.
(both laughing) ♪ ♪ PEÑA: Winterthur is truly a great country estate.
Nearly 1,000 acres in Brandywine Valley, Delaware, the property is simply spectacular, with rolling meadows, woodlands, and naturalistic gardens-- and, of course, one of the top collections of American decorative art in the country, from the colonial period up to the mid-1800s.
Founder Henry Francis du Pont was passionate about sharing these amazing treasures with the public.
And decades after his death in 1969, the nonprofit Winterthur Museum continues to draw American history buffs and antiques lovers alike.
♪ ♪ My grandmother's mother brought it from Sweden with her, when she came to United States.
♪ ♪ My dad gave it to me.
He bought outside of Madison Square Garden in 1981.
This is a great one, great tour shirt.
And then we've got all the tour cities and dates on the back.
Realistically, at auction, it's around $300.
Oh, wow, wonderful.
(laughs) WOMAN: It was a gift from my ex-husband, right before he left me.
He gave me a birthday present, and this was it.
Best thing he ever gave me, actually.
I know that it was probably purchased in Philadelphia, and it probably cost around $1,800.
I received it in 2005.
APPRAISER: It's actually a color screen print by Warhol from the first Campbell's Soup series that he did in 1968.
What?
Which is a set of ten different soup cans, all Campbell's Soup cans.
Wow, okay.
And these are based on a 1962 painted series that he had done and first exhibited at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles.
Okay.
Just as he was shifting from his career as an advertising artist in New York to more of a fine artist.
Mm-hmm.
And Warhol got on the map and became a famous artist through his appropriation of everyday images.
Right.
In this case, Campbell's Soup.
And he said that one of the reasons he chose Campbell's Soup early on is because, as a kid growing up in Pittsburgh... (chuckles) ...he was fed Campbell's Soup and ate Campbell's Soup all the time.
Makes sense.
So he made a, a set of ten different subjects, ten different soups, in the first Campbell's Soup series, number one, in 1968.
These were done in an edition of 250, each of the prints, and each of them are signed in ballpoint pen and ink and numbered with a rubber ink stamp.
Right.
And you can see that on the back of this image, because the mat is nicely cut out... Somebody cut it out, right.
Now, he was very well known when these were made, and the reason why he made them in the late '60s, based on a painted series from the early '60s, is that he could make multiple images of them, and, using screen print, run off a lot, and ten times 250, you have 2,500 prints to be sold from this series.
So... Not bad, yeah.
Cashing in on his growing popularity.
I found this one interesting, too, because up here, on the accent above the E on consommé, you can see the pattern of the white screen.
That's actually white ink on that, and you can see... Oh, my God, oh, yeah, yeah.
how it's crisscrossing with the red.
Wow, cool.
These were printed in New York and published through Warhol's publishing outfit called Factory Additions.
Mmm.
Even though he was well known at the time, a lot of people viewed these as, as... prints and sort of common images, not of great value.
What did he sell them for originally?
Originally, a couple of hundred dollars A couple hundred of dollars?
Yeah, wow.
Or the whole set for maybe $1,000?
A lot were put on the wall, and from the late '60s on to today, have lost their color, have been damaged, so...
The surface of a screen print is very susceptible to scratching... Gotcha.
...and bends in the paper and breaks.
Yours is in great shape.
Really?
Yes, on a scale of one to ten... Good.
Ten being the best...
Right.
You're about eight-and-a-half, maybe nine with this one.
Well, and it's been on a wall.
But you've kept it, you've kept it out of the sunlight.
It was on the right wall-- right, yeah, I did, I did.
So what would you guess?
What would you say is a, is a value?
(sighs): I am, I am clueless, because, I mean-- and part of it is what you were explaining, like, there were original paintings, and then there's this series of prints and that series of prints.
So, I don't know where this fits in.
I'm really clueless.
I'd never heard of divorce gifts, either.
Is that... That's a new thing for me.
It was a birthday gift right before the, right before he left.
Okay.
I think, maybe, we call it a guilt gift or something, I don't know.
Guilt gift, I like that one-- go with that.
Yeah.
In this condition, great shape, I would put a replacement value of $50,000.
What?
Come on.
That's crazy.
My goodness, I don't...
I'm speechless.
(shudders): I don't know what to say.
The more common the soup-- take tomato soup?
Right.
That's a $75,000...
Isn't it interesting?
$80,000 print, because it's tomato soup.
That's the iconic one, right.
That's the iconic soup.
♪ ♪ MAN: I found them at a flea market in Delaware.
There were five bucks apiece.
I'm really into antiques.
So, anything that's really unusual usually just sparks my interest, so...
So we have to separate the sentiment and family connection from this and look at it coldly, as a portrait of a pensive, middle-aged woman from the mid-19th century.
So, in an auction situation, this could bring, like, just a few hundred dollars.
That's fine, she's not going anywhere.
She's staying in my home.
I got it from an auction in New Jersey.
Yeah, you like to go to auction?
I love to go to auctions.
Okay, you got to be careful at auctions.
Okay.
You know that, right?
Yes.
You got to tell me how much you paid for it.
I paid, I think, probably $15 to $20.
Oh, in that case, you're careful.
Okay-- oh, my God.
So, let me tell you about it.
Okay.
You know it's an inkwell, right?
Yes.
The top comes off.
It's all there.
Right, okay.
How old you think it is?
Since I'm 67, it must be older than I am.
It is older than you.
But it must be, maybe a little bit older than me?
It's quite a bit older than you.
I would say... Did I just tell you my age?
You did.
Good grief.
Only to a few million people on camera.
Okay, oh, my God, I have...
Okay.
But, it's quite a bit older than you.
All right.
It'd be older than your grandmother, older than your great-grandmother, and maybe older than your great-great-grandmother.
Because this was made about 1850, 1860, something like that.
It was made in Germany.
And what I love about it is this guy here.
He's like a huntsman, and he's killed this deer.
And here he is rewarding his dog.
The whole thing is so lively, you know?
It's just fabulous.
Here you got something that's 160 years old.
It's perfect.
Are you kidding?
It's never been chipped, damaged, the two little pieces inside are there.
We should all be so lucky, right?
To be this old and in this good condition.
Yes, yes, that would be great.
Today, this is a collectible little piece.
It's not a, you're not going to retire on it, but you got $150, $250 here.
You serious?
Beautiful, beautiful.
Really?
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Oh, my God!
♪ ♪ PEÑA: The du Pont family's fortune in America came from making gunpowder in the early 19th century, and multiplied after the DuPont Company got into manufacturing chemicals in the early 1900s.
This wealth allowed H.F. du Pont to develop and fulfill his vision of creating a monumental museum dedicated to American decorative arts.
MAN: Well, it's a pitcher that's been in my family for a number of years.
And I knew my great-grandfather was in the Civil War, and it belonged to him.
Well, do you know who the young man is that's on the bottom?
Oh, is he the man that took the flag down?
May 24, 1861, there's a inn called the Marshall House Inn, in Alexandria, Virginia.
There's a Confederate flag flying up there.
It can be seen from Washington, right across the river.
They're, like, "We've got to get this down."
A man that was friends with Lincoln, Elmer Ellsworth, sent over to get that flag down.
He and his men go up the stairs.
They take the flag down.
And as they're coming down, the proprietor of the house, James Jackson, shoots Ellsworth and kills him.
The man that's with Ellsworth, Private Brownell, he shoots Jackson and then runs a bayonet through him.
And that's the scene that we have here.
Wow.
Brownell would later receive the Medal of Honor for killing Jackson.
We have Ellsworth fallen, with the Confederate flag partially visible on the side, the bayonet going through Jackson.
It's a stoneware pitcher.
Okay.
And what's cool is, it was made in 1861.
Really?
The beginning of the war.
(chuckles) Many people believe that this is actually the first commemorative pitcher that was made by an American potter.
Even though these are unmarked, we know that they were made in Trenton, New Jersey, by a firm named Millington, Astbury and Poulson.
This one is very pretty.
They made them a couple of different ways.
They actually made them with a white color, and this is the polychrome version.
They're the most desirable because they're beautiful.
You just look at it, and it's stunning.
Mm-hmm.
And at one time, they would have been embossed with Brownell's name, right through there.
And on the other side, it's embossed-- it's nearly impossible to see-- but it's embossed with Jackson's name, and just below that, "The Traitor."
As we turn it around, the imagery continues.
We have a beautiful large Union eagle, and it has the snake, representing the Confederacy, in its talons.
And along with that snake, we have the palmetto tree, representing South Carolina, which was the first state to secede, and that first national Confederate flag, like the one they took down off the Marshall House that day.
It's just a great piece, and it has the stack of arms with the flag.
Hmm.
And on the front, we have a presentation in gold that was added after the fact.
Mm-hmm.
And... We'll have to do a little bit more homework to figure out who those two guys are.
Right, oh, yeah.
I couldn't find anything on that.
But it's a wonderful piece of history, representing a very important time at the outbreak of the Civil War.
Ellsworth is actually referred to as the first officer killed during the Civil War.
This moment was a rallying cry for Union soldiers.
There would later be the Ellsworth Avengers.
(laughs) And they would make photographs of him, depicting this scene.
He was the first true martyr for the Union Army.
Wow, and being a friend of Lincoln on top of it.
Exactly.
And actually, after he was killed, Lincoln has his body sent for.
They bring him to the White House, and they put him lying in state in the East Room.
Wow.
Of the White House.
That's how important this man was to Lincoln.
Lincoln actually referred to Ellsworth as "the greatest little man I've ever met."
They actually cut the flag up that he brought down off of the house and took it home as souvenirs.
And occasionally, you will actually see pieces of that flag for sale.
It's a wonderful stoneware pitcher.
It's got the age, it's got the crackling, and to some people, that will detract from it.
I think it just gives it extra character.
(laughing) In this condition, it's a piece that would probably retail somewhere between $1,500 and $2,000.
Okay, wow, that's great.
In mint condition, they can sell for up to $3,000.
It's great to know.
It was given to my brother-in-law because he likes to collect medical, unique pieces, and we don't really know what it is, but it's very old.
Have you tried it?
Yes, it feels like you're getting an electric shock.
Yeah.
We've had it for a long time, and we just thought it was made really well.
Mom knows.
Okay.
Yeah, I think only $45, and I think there's some repairs on it, but I think it's authentic, yes, yes.
Well, I collect boxes, and about a year ago, I had...
I was contacted by a friend of mine in Massachusetts.
He said, "I've got a box you might be interested in."
So, I said, "Okay, well, send me some pictures."
And he sent me pictures of this.
So I said, "Well, how much do you want for it?"
So we settled on $800, but subsequently, I learned he paid $50 for it.
(laughs): Oh, wow.
Because he thought it would be good for his wife's jewelry.
And his wife said, "I'm not having an old thing like that in the house."
So, her loss was my gain.
I guess so.
Well, actually, the tradition of collecting miniature furniture goes back to the 17th century and, and earlier, even, in the Netherlands.
At first, one might think that your piece originated in the Netherlands, but actually, when we examine it closer, we see that the secondary wood is in fact pine.
If it had originated in the Netherlands, the secondary wood would have been oak.
But, by the secondary wood being pine, we know that it was made in Germany.
Ah.
And it is a mid-18th-century piece of furniture.
It has a lot of incredible parquetry on it.
Yes.
Geometric inlay, as opposed to marquetry, which is more floral and figural inlay.
And the back is very interesting, too.
I think we've got some incredible oxidation on the back.
It's been completely undisturbed, and you've got this wonderful surface on the back where the oxidation has occurred.
The wood is all uniform in age on the back, so you know that all of these boards started life together, and it hasn't been modified at all.
I don't think that the finish is completely original-- I think it's been cleaned-- but I think it is a good early finish.
I think all of the hardware is probably original to it.
Yeah.
And it is in remarkably amazing shape.
All of my colleagues were enamored with this when we first saw it, and we agreed that it's one of the best pieces of miniature furniture we've seen come into the Roadshow of European origin.
I think if it were to come to auction, a conservative estimate would be $3,000 to $5,000.
And it could exceed that.
I would be surprised if it didn't hammer down at around $6,000.
Wow.
That was a pretty good return.
Yes, yes.
But I like it so much because I've just never seen anything... Every time I look at it, I see new things.
♪ ♪ PEÑA: Ruth Wales du Pont's affectionate nickname for her husband Harry was "Squirrel," appropriate for one who was such a voracious collector.
♪ ♪ MAN: We got this sculpture from my mother.
It's a sculpture that shows her mother on the sofa reading to my mother when she was probably ten or 12.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
With her dog, Beowulf, in her lap.
I think the sculpture was made by a friend of my grandfather's whose name is Shrady.
This was always in my grandmother's apartment in New York.
Uh-huh.
On top of a, a Bible in the big living room.
Uh-huh.
But I never heard any talk about.
How did your grandfather know Shrady?
I think they were classmates at Columbia.
Well, Shrady went to Columbia.
His name was Henry Merwin Shrady.
He went to Columbia, and he studied law.
As did my grandfather.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Yes, yes.
Interesting.
But he, he went into business for a short while.
Then he came down with typhoid fever.
And during his recovery, he started to draw and to paint.
And he became interested in painting of animals.
And his father was a very, very famous doctor, so they shared an interest in anatomy.
And Shrady would go to the Bronx Zoo, for instance, and, and sketch the animals.
This is a wonderful sculpture of your family, and it's done in this really nice Impressionist style, and very intimate, which is unusual for sculpture.
Usually sculptures are what Shrady specialized in, which were monumental pieces.
One of his pieces was George Washington at Valley Forge.
And then he's also known for a huge, huge sculpture of Ulysses Grant in Washington, DC.
And what happened is, he worked on that sculpture group for 20 years.
Hmm.
And he only sculpted for about 22 years.
So, most of his time was on that, and he didn't do a lot of other things.
He's known for doing this large buffalo called, "Monarch of the Plains."
His career really was the sculpture of monuments and these big equestrian pieces.
The other thing is that he's self-taught.
And what's really lovely about this is the inscription on the back.
"To an old classmate "and a loved friend of many years, H.M. Shrady, 1920."
This is very unusual, and in terms of market value, it's a little bit hard to determine it.
Yeah, I assumed nobody would be interested in a sculpture of this sort.
There are other artists of this period.
There's Bessie Potter Vonnoh, who did these very intimate scenes of mother and children.
So this is, this is a genre that people do like.
It's probably worth, retail, in the $20,000 to $30,000 range.
Okay.
I'm always amazed by these tiny little shells.
They're only found in one part of the world, on Niihau.
WOMAN: Yes.
Off the coast of Hawaii.
And the work is just extraordinary, the way you can't even see where the joins are.
This is likely soapstone.
So, soapstone was a common material, relatively inexpensive, easy to carve.
It's a softer material than jade or jadeite.
Mm-hmm.
Soapstone was very popular, 1860 to the end of the century.
I acquired this through my son.
My son is deceased, he passed away in 1999.
Sorry to hear that.
Thank you.
Um, he had a love for music and a love for guitars.
And this is something that he basically left behind for me.
I don't know what he paid for it.
A friend of his told me it was in the $2,000 range.
It might have been at a guitar show or it could have been some other way, but that's all I really know.
And do you play this now, yourself?
I do, kind of a self-taught singer-songwriter type, and all I know, really, are chords.
The way I started is because I had a dream about him, I woke up, wrote down some notes, created a song, and the rest is history.
From that day forward, I've been playing guitar as much as I can, so... Mm-hmm.
It's a Fender Broadcaster neck, but I took the body apart.
I took the pickguard off to see...
There were, a couple of things about it concern me, as far as being a Broadcaster.
One, the finish doesn't quite match the neck on the, from the body.
Exactly.
The neck is, in my estimation, is an original Broadcaster neck.
It's not dated, but it's probably from around 1950 or '51.
Okay, wow.
The body, however, while it it is a Fender body, this, I believe, is a reissue from their vintage reissue series, probably made in the, around the 1980s.
Oh, okay, hmm.
And the pickguard also could have, could be original to that 1980s Fender-bodied guitar.
But everything else on the guitar-- the neck plate, the pickups, the wiring is the original cloth wiring, the control plate-- all the, all the parts on this guitar, the tuners included, are original to the original Broadcaster.
Broadcaster, wow, okay.
So, it's a perfectly, I'm sure, functional fine-playing guitar.
Yes.
And probably sounds, sounds great.
But, value-wise, this guitar, with the changed body, is worth approximately $8,000 to $10,000 at retail.
Okay.
If this thing was original right now, it would probably be worth about $40,000 at retail.
I'm going to keep it and continue playing it, continue to love it and enjoy it.
To honor my son, Jason.
Mm-hmm.
MAN: I brought a box that my father's cousin gave me.
They went to Asia to live in 1915 and stayed there until '36.
In '54, when I got married, I lived in Harrington.
Anne, as I say, she was a cousin to my father.
She would call me to do her handyman work.
And I never charged her anything.
And she gave me this in 1960.
And she died the next year, so I know nothing about it.
And she said, "It's not cheap.
It's, it's valuable."
That's all I know about it.
Okay.
So they had come back to the United States.
Yes.
And where were they living?
Harrington, Delaware.
What do you think it is?
I thought it was a ivory box, it...
The easy leap of faith is to say it might have been made in Asia.
That's my thoughts.
Yeah.
It was full of shells.
She told me she walked the coastline and picked up the shells and put them in there.
Okay.
So wherever they was living, they were close to water.
Okay, well, what we have, what you're looking at, is a scrimshawed, whalebone New England sailor's ditty box-- they call them ditty boxes Ditty box.
Yeah, because the sailors put personal, small personal items in there.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
And this is really a beautiful one.
It's fully developed.
I'm going to show the backside.
Mm-hmm.
You can see these wonderful floral arrangements.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
There's a small scene there.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
A memorial scene.
See this wonderful construction with the fingers?
Oh, yes.
Yeah.
And how they're put together with these beautiful little nails?
And it's fully decorated.
Yeah.
So, this would have been made by a sailor, probably off a whaling ship, somewhere around 1830, 1840.
Oh, yeah?
Things move around the world.
Oh, yeah.
Whalers moved around the world.
Oh, yes.
So, we were whaling all over the world, and I can't rule it out, but for cataloguing it, it's not logical to say that this was made and left in Asia, and your relatives picked it up.
Right, I have no idea.
Yeah, I would think they purchased it either before or after they returned.
It has a beautiful lid, and they're trying to show this wonderful exotic wood, which is mahogany.
Uh-huh, I thought it was.
And then you turn it over, and you see the thin layer of whale bone.
Of whale bone.
Now, this was not easy to make.
This came from the jawbone of a sperm whale.
Okay.
And it's called the pan bone, P-A-N. And they had tools for actually cutting the pan bone into thin strips.
Mm-hmm.
They would then steam the strips, and they became more pliable.
Yup.
And they were able to bend them around a form and then nail them very fastidiously... Yeah.
...and form these boxes.
These are very highly sought after, and this is a very, very good one.
There are parts of it that could be better.
But in terms of this particular box, in today's market, which has been a little challenged, I would feel very comfortable putting a retail valuation of $6,000 to $8,000.
Oh, wow.
I had no idea.
That's why I brought it.
I, as I say, I got it in '60, and I knew nothing about it.
So I, that's why I come to the Roadshow.
I wanted to learn something.
♪ ♪ I brought a Babe Ruth watch fob.
1937, this is my brother and I at Asbury Park, New Jersey.
And we were wearing-- now the watch is gone, the strap is gone, but Babe Ruth is still there.
And today?
I have no idea.
It's worth $200 to $300.
Oh, oh.
Well, that'll keep me in oatmeal and tobacco.
I brought a porcelain Siamese-cat lamp.
I'm not sure when exactly it's from, I think, like, mid-'60s, late '50s.
It has the original green bulb in it, so when it's lit up, the eyes shine green.
(chuckles) Well, this is...
I believe it's called an A7-L Apollo suit, the model for all the Apollo missions and even for later space suits, as well.
I.L.C., the makers of these space suits, they were in the same town as I was, and they had a lot of material they just didn't need anymore.
But they did need money.
Mm-hmm.
So, they had a parking-lot sale.
And, lo and behold, this was there for $100, and we got it.
Well, so, International Latex Corporation was a subsidiary of Playtex, you know, the women's undergarment company?
Yeah.
And in 1962, they got the contract to develop the space suits for NASA.
But, this isn't the actual entire space suit.
The space suit is made up of several layers.
This is the outer layer and the most iconic layer.
And what's fascinating to me about this, it's not a mock-up.
If you look inside, you can see everything they used to construct the suit.
I bought it just because I love the space program.
Mm-hmm.
And I was also an earth-science teacher.
So, I would take this school whenever we were studying space.
Then, as I got closer to retirement, I started going to these Super Science Days for elementary-school kids.
This collar would be looped over the heads of the children.
Yeah.
And we'd take Polaroid shots of them.
So there should be a lot of young people out there that have these old, faded Polaroids of that suit and their, their heads sticking through it.
I mean, I could only imagine, as a little kid, getting the opportunity to wear... Yeah.
...an authentic NASA space suit.
The nice thing about this is, it is legally bought and legally sold.
There is, it was sold you at this sale.
There's no question of ownership.
We would put an auction estimate of $15,000 to $20,000 on this.
(inhales sharply): Oh, my, goodness.
$15,000 to $20,000.
Yeah.
Well, I didn't buy it for that, but... (laughing): No.
(laughing): That's a lot.
PEÑA: The Reflecting Pool, once the family swimming pool, was part of landscape architect Marian Coffin's grand plan during the 1928 to 1931 addition to the Winterthur home.
The two bath houses near the pool were outfitted with an audio system so that the du Ponts and their guests could enjoy music, such as operas, favored by H.F. du Pont.
♪ ♪ It seems to be an antique bowl.
I bought it at a, sort of a charity auction about five or six years ago.
They called it a silver-tone dragon bowl.
I was born in 1976, and so that's, that's the year of the dragon in the Chinese zodiac.
So, I've always kind of kept a lookout for dragons, and I have a few of them.
I find them very interesting.
Oh, I see.
So, I work with some people from China.
And they always say that it's one of the more powerful symbols in the zodiac.
It's a Chinese export silver punch bowl.
It's made by a company called Wang Hing.
They were established in Canton in 1854, and due to their enormous success, opened up in Hong Kong in the early part of the 20th century.
I think this bowl dates from after they opened up in Hong Kong in the early 20th century.
Okay.
Obviously, the trade routes really started to open up in the late 19th century, and the appetite for Chinese export silver became a lot greater as that trade sort of opened up and tastes became a little bit more exotic, let's say.
We've got these wonderful dragons.
Now, these are separately cast and applied to the bowl.
The bowl itself is raised up on a form, as it would be normally, and then these dragons are cast separately.
The interesting sort of motif on this, as you've probably seen, is the flaming pearl in the center.
Hm.
So the dragon chasing the flaming pearl is something which you see a lot on Chinese decorative arts.
So, you often see these dragons in clouds, and appearing across the sky and all kinds of things, chasing this, this flaming pearl.
It's a very, very common motif in Chinese decorative arts-- textiles and export silver like we see here.
We tip it back... We've got the "W.H."
for Wang Hing.
We've got the 90 there, which is the sterling silver standard mark.
And we've got the character mark for silver in Chinese, as well.
So all in all, a fantastic bowl.
Very, very collectible.
The market for Chinese export silver has grown exponentially in the last, let's say, five to ten years.
So, you said you bought it at a charity auction?
It was a silver-tone bowl, Chinese-style?
Right, you know, I think, if I remember correctly, I think I paid about, about $600 for it.
$600?
Yeah.
Not too long ago-- not too long ago.
Yeah, about five or six years I've had it.
The auction estimate for this bowl, if it was to be in a well-advertised sale, would comfortably sit at $10,000 to $15,000.
Wow.
That's pretty major.
Congratulations for having it.
Thank you so much, David, I appreciate it.
♪ ♪ From the decoration of the flowers and the stenciling here, I would think late teens or early '20s.
This color of glaze was very popular in the late teens and early '20s.
This little shoe was my grandfather's shoe.
Mm-hmm.
And he was born in 1902.
And only one's around, I don't know what happened to the other one.
The unusual thing about this is that it's a green leather, instead of a black or brown sensible shoe.
Right.
This is a little more fun.
As a single shoe, I would put a value on it between $50 and $75.
Nice, nice.
And clearly, you could double that if you had the other one.
If I had the other one, yeah.
(woman laughs) WOMAN: It actually belonged to my father-in-law.
Um, he was in the boys' choir at the Washington National Cathedral, and when his voice changed, he worked on the custodial crew at the cathedral to help pay his tuition.
And he said he found this lamp in the trash, being disposed of, and he rescued it.
When he passed away, no one in the family wanted Dad's ugly lamp, and my mother-in-law was going to call someone to pick it up for scrap metal.
I asked her not to do that, to let me look it over.
When I saw that it was marked Samuel Yellin, I did a little bit of research, and my husband and I visited the Washington National Cathedral to kind of learn a little bit more about Yellin, and we were shocked to find what appears to be an identical lamp hanging on the wall of the Chapel of the Resurrection.
When my father-in-law had it displayed in his home, he had that shade on it.
I don't know if it was original to the lamp, or something that he created to go with it, but that's how we got it.
Well, I'll tell you what: It has nothing to do with it whatsoever.
(laughing) I think it was just a nice, decorative shade that fit well.
But no, it has nothing to do with the piece at all.
Okay.
I love the story, and what's really wonderful about this piece is this: the mark on it of Samuel Yellin is so very clear, and Samuel Yellin was a metalworker based in Philadelphia.
And he started his business in around 1907, and at the peak of the business, had over 200 people working for him, providing metalwork and lighting for great American homes.
Also, national monuments-- the Washington Cathedral.
From my little research I could do, he continued to supply pieces for the National Cathedral throughout a period of time.
What's lovely about the piece is that we're here at Winterthur today, and there are actually drawings in the museum collection of Samuel Yellin's work.
Really?
Yes, so really wonderful to see this here.
This is a single light fixture, and it's more ecclesiastical in design, so the value's, uh, a little on the softer side for his pieces.
But if I were to see this come up for auction, I would expect to see an estimate of around about $3,000 to $4,000.
That's fantastic.
That's an expensive piece of scrap metal.
(laughs) I bought this at an auction, a charity auction, in the late '80s, early '90s, and this one was also in a charity auction about five years ago.
What did you pay for them?
I know I paid $500 for this.
I'm not sure about that, but I would guess about $1,500.
What drew you to these?
Well, when I was 11, my grandmother took me to the first film showing of "The King and I," and I fell in love with the American musical.
And so, I've always been interested in acquiring part of its history, and these are sort of iconic pieces.
What we have here next to me is a costume sketch by Irene Sharaff of Chita Rivera, who portrayed Anita.
Right.
Both in the 1957 Broadway debut and the West End debut of the play in London.
On your side, we have, obviously, Carol Channing, in probably her most famous role, from the 1964 original production of "Hello, Dolly!"
And this one's by Freddy Wittop.
These are pretty great productions to have pieces from, because obviously they're both award-winning.
This one was done by Irene Sharaff, a very famous costume designer.
She was nominated for best costume design on this, but didn't win.
And that one, Freddy Wittop, he actually did win the award for best costume design for "Hello, Dolly!"
This won two of its six Tony nominations for scenic design and choreography, and "Hello, Dolly!"
won ten of their 11 Tony nominations, which actually was a record that held for 37 years.
So, this is really one of the most famous musicals, I think, also having Academy Award- winning film made out of it, and this role really was Carol Channing.
Yes.
She not only did the original production in '64, she did a 1995 revival, which is extraordinary.
All those years later, she was still able to carry that show.
And sadly, we obviously lost her in January of 2019.
Right.
The "West Side Story" piece in front of me, we see that Chita Rivera has signed the mat for you.
And she signed below this depiction of herself in her two primary costumes from the musical.
The "West Side Story" piece is a gouache and ink on board.
The Carol Channing is actually framed so that we can't see the edges to tell if that's board or paper.
But, it is also gouache.
Each of these are signed by the costume designer.
Sharaff has signed it and then also listed the name of the production, and listed "America," because these are the costumes that she would have worn during that most famous number.
And the Carol Channing is also signed by the costume designer.
And it's actually signed in paint.
When you brought them up, the first thing I think about with value is, in the marketplace, we generally don't see many Broadway pieces as compared to Hollywood pieces, the film costumes.
And they traditionally don't sell as well as the film costume sketches for these very famous roles.
But, when you look at these, you have to look at who is portrayed, what's the production, is it the original production, what's the character, how visually desirable are they.
And both of these tick every single box you could possibly hope to tick, because they're both really important shows.
They're both visually appealing.
I think your, your Carol Channing is probably the most visually impactful here.
A lot of times, when there are charity auctions, the whole point is actually to overpay for things.
Right.
You're there to support a charity.
It's a little bit of a good news, bad news on this, This one, you probably paid closer to what it is worth now.
But years ago, when you, when you bought it back then, and you probably overpaid for it just a little bit.
Now, it probably has caught up to where you're at, and the auction estimate would probably be $2,000 to $3,000.
Mm-hmm.
On the Carol Channing, I'm very conservative in this, because I think the fact that she just passed away, I anticipate that the market for her is about to shift, and I would expect there'll be more pieces of hers in the market, and so we'll have more data to go by.
Right now, I would conservatively estimate it at $2,000 to $3,000, as well.
But I expect that that would do better if it came up, because it's just such a great, striking piece.
That's great.
But I really didn't buy them as an investment.
I bought them because I like the work.
(laughing): So, I know he's a pig, and I know he was put in paper, and told not to let him break.
Just because it's iridescent doesn't mean it's Tiffany.
But I think he's great.
MAN: It is a telegraph for... by the steering wheel.
And they... then it... (bell dings) Dings, you know, and...
They set the course and also set the throttle and so forth.
♪ ♪ Hi!
Hi!
Hi!
WOMAN: My grandfather gave it to my grandmother.
I know that had to be prior to 1930.
It's been in a box for a lot of years.
APPRAISER: Wow.
A lot of years.
So, it's signed Tiffany.
So, that's a good thing.
That is.
We like that.
I like that, too.
All right, so it's a pavé diamond heart.
It's about as classic as jewelry gets in this period, 1915, 1920s.
The European-cut diamonds is set very closely together.
With pavé, one prong is actually touching three stones, so you don't see a lot of metal.
You see a lot of diamonds.
And we like that.
Right.
If you also look from the edge... Mm-hmm.
...you'll see that the diamonds are set in platinum.
Ah.
And the bottom is set in 18-karat yellow gold.
Oh, wow.
It was a beautiful technique.
You see in the back, you have all this beautiful azure cutting that you don't even see, but it allows light to come into the back of the diamonds.
Mm, mm.
There's approximately six carats of diamonds.
Oh.
And then you have the fact that it's Tiffany.
Right.
I would say at auction, any day of the week... Mm-hmm.
$6,000 to $8,000.
Wow, you're kidding.
(laughing): Oh, my gosh.
It's been sitting in a box.
(laughs) Well, thank you, that's great.
You're welcome.
Yes, terrific.
♪ ♪ PEÑA: There was heated debate over this Chinese porcelain punch bowl after it came to Winterthur.
A treasure from the late 18th or possibly early 19th century, the authenticity of the American flag on the piece came into question.
Had it been added to the street scene after its creation to appeal to a Western buyer?
H F. du Pont ended up keeping the bowl, and the flag has since been determined to be original to the piece, and not a later applied decoration by devious actors.
WOMAN: I brought a Philadelphia lowboy.
It's been in my family for about five generations.
Originally, it was owned by Dr. Jonathan Elmer, who was a senator from New Jersey.
He was in the Continental Congress for three terms.
So, you called it a lowboy.
I did.
Which is sort of popular term for this kind of furniture.
But we know from 18th-century inventories that it was actually a dressing table.
A dressing table.
Yes, and these pieces of furniture were often made in conjunction with a highboy, or high chest of drawers, with the same styles...
Okay.
...to them, and they were kept in bedrooms.
All right.
So, a lady would have dressed in front of this.
Maybe there would have been a mirror behind it.
So it's made of walnut.
When I saw it across the room, I knew it was Pennsylvania because of its trifed feet, and it has wonderfully carved feet.
It's really beautifully embellished.
And if you notice, up the top of the foot, there is what we call stockings.
There's another little telltale sign in here, which, when you pull out one of the drawers, you see the interior has got what we call a dust board.
There were about 400 cabinetmakers in Philadelphia during the 18th century, many of them coming from Ireland.
This was a typical convention in Irish furniture, and they brought it here to the Philadelphia area and the Middle Atlantic states.
So I would date this dressing table between 1730 and 1760.
Oh, my goodness.
It's a Queen Anne piece.
Mm-hmm.
The secondary woods, there's poplar, there's also some yellow pine.
It has a wonderful molded top with cut-- what we call a cut corner, which, you can see, it doesn't go out to a rectangle, but they clip it off to make a beautiful shape.
And then below, the brasses.
Now, again, from across the room, I can tell that these brasses have been replaced.
Yes.
And the brasses are Victorian brasses.
So if you notice those, the little line on the bail that you pull... Mm-hmm.
There's some little circular carvings on that.
Mm-hmm.
That is more of a Victorian convention, and not an 18th-century batwing brass.
Okay.
These brasses would have been bigger.
You can see the size of the batwings here, and they would have lined up with the one below, giving it this very kind of rectilinear form to it.
This, I think, is, is really the Pennsylvania aesthetic of Quaker craftsmen, and the Clifton and Carteret Furniture Manufactory was...
They were Quakers.
So, you get beautiful line, but you get simplicity, as well.
And I think that that's very evocative of, of this piece.
Have you had this appraised before or...?
Uh, no.
Um, just estate appraisal, which was, like, 15 years ago.
Yeah, was this an estate where there was a lot of material dispersed among family members or...
Eventually.
Did you get the whole kit and caboodle, or...?
No, I didn't get the whole kit and caboodle, no.
(laughing) What made you choose this piece?
I needed furniture in my house.
(laughs) So, I'd give the condition of this piece a B-plus.
And the reason we don't get an A is that there is a section on the top, which has been replaced.
Repaired.
It's a two-board top.
Probably an auction estimate in today's market would be in the $10,000 to $15,000 range.
Oh, my goodness.
(laughs) Wow.
(laughs) I may have to find another place for it.
(laughs) So, I would say $30,000 for... For insurance.
For a fair insurance value.
Okay.
That's good to know.
♪ ♪ This a piece of Louis Comfort Tiffany favrile glass.
It's actually marked, "Sample approved by A.J.
Nash."
And this was the man who was in charge of the glass-blowing department and actually was an innovator in many different types of glass.
It's a little more special because of the inscription on it.
APPRAISER: So this is pretty wild.
WOMAN: Yes, it is.
I liked it, I loved the leaves, and everything about it, really.
And it just has a pretty fantastic design.
There's a lot going on here.
Right.
Uh, it's a British uniform from the Revolutionary War period, 1780s.
And it was something my father found in England when he was walking down the street, and he saw a woman cleaning a glass with this.
And he said, "What's that?"
And the woman said, "The mistress of the house "told me I can use any rags that I want to clean."
So my father said, "Let me see the rag box," and there was this, and clothes inside it, and this red coat.
And he spoke to the mistress of the house, and he gave her five pounds, which is about $15.
For the whole... About $15 for the whole lot.
The whole lot.
This is in 1955.
(laughing): Right, right, right.
Well, it's, it's too bad that she cut the leg off of the breeches to use to clean with.
But that saved the rest of it.
It saved the rest of the stuff that you got, including this wonderful regimental coat.
It's an officer's coat from the 125th Regiment.
Now, that regiment was only in existence for two years.
Really?
1794 to 1796.
Ah... Yup.
Now, we can tell it's an officer's coat for a few reasons.
It's got gilt lace.
Yes, silver.
It was actually gold, it's faded.
Oh.
Yeah, it was actually, there's brass buttons, so it would have been gold lace.
We've got this wonderful fitted sleeve right here.
Got the cuff with paired loops or paired lace-- two here and two here.
And if we spin it around... You can see the detail of the false pockets here.
These are all non-functional.
Oh!
They're just for looks.
And down here, we can see Stanford Regiment, which, this is the, uh...
The logo for the, uh, 125th Regiment of Foot.
Oh!
It's a great piece, great piece.
The condition is awesome.
The other thing is, is, you can tell it's an officer's coat because of the color.
The color is scarlet.
Enlisted men would have had a brick or madder red coat.
Ah, that's why it's so red.
Exactly, exactly.
So have you ever had it appraised before?
No, never.
So, unfortunately, with the damage to the breeches, with the leg being cut off, it does affect the value, and they don't...
They aren't really worth anything, unlike the coat.
We would put a conservative auction estimate in today's market between $7,000 and $9,000 for the coat.
I'm gobsmacked.
(laughs) It's a great piece.
Whoa.
Like I said, the condition is just wonderful on it.
I knew it was in good condition.
Yeah, for surviving that long, it's just amazing.
♪ ♪ MAN: Well, I inherited this painting from my parents.
My mother wanted to give my father a gift that he would really love, and he loved reading to his children books that had illustrations.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
And this is one of the illustrations.
She knew how much he would love to get one of those, so she decided that she needed to make this a secret.
So what she did was, she saved five dollars from her food money every week for probably two years.
Oh, wow, that's amazing.
And didn't tell him this.
Right.
And then it was either his birthday or their anniversary, gave him a card that said, "You can go down to the Schoonover Studios and pick out a painting."
Oh, that's... And he was elated, to say the least.
Oh, how exciting.
And so we went down as four kids and a mom and dad, and we chose a painting.
Oh, terrific.
What I remember-- this would have been in the early '60s, early to mid-'60s, I'll say.
Mm-hmm, okay.
Dark wooden floors, paint, I think there were big windows at one end.
Mm-hmm.
And there was partially completed canvases here.
There was, you know, old...
Probably, I'll say, discarded ones there.
And you know, then there was...
There was sort of stacks of them.
Mm-hmm.
This is the one with a clipper ship, which he thought was extraordinary.
Great.
And then this galleon, and, I don't know, he just...
He settled on that one, and we all, of course, were thrilled.
Oh, that's great.
And we literally loaded it into the car.
And so it's been in your family ever since.
Ever since.
And the title of the painting is...?
"Privateers of '76."
Right.
The story was written by an author named Ralph D. Paine, who apparently wrote several books in the early 20th century, and a lot of them relating to history.
On the back of the painting, we have the inventory number for the painting, which is number 1248.
Mm-hmm.
There is a label, which actually is handwritten, and maybe by Schoonover himself, that says it's from chapter 13.
The title of the illustration is: "At A Hail From the Boat, He Went to the Rail."
At the hail of the boat meaning the one below, the figure on top comes to the rail.
Now, Schoonover, of course, is one of the premier artists of the Brandywine School, and he studied with Howard Pyle...
Yes!
Who's considered the father of the school...
Yes.
At Drexel Institute in Philadelphia.
Oh, I didn't know that.
And Schoonover was very good at, at wanting to get to reality.
So not only did he go out West, but he also went down to the bayous in Mississippi to sort of get a sense of how the pirates would have lived in that environment.
He had a house in Bushkill, Pennsylvania, in Pike County, which is in the Poconos.
Mm-hmm.
And he would spend his summers there.
But he used the landscape of that area in, in many of his paintings.
You know, I think that the card that Mr. Schoonover gave my parents when they purchased this said that it was painted in Bushkill-- is that what it's called?
Yes, Bushkill, Pennsylvania.
Yes, yeah.
And certainly he was very popular, especially in the early part of the 20th century, because he illustrated such classic books as "Robinson Crusoe," "Swiss Family Robinson," and he did a whole series of books for, um, on Zane Grey Western novels.
Oh, really?
Oh, my gosh.
So, he was quite into it, as well as magazine illustrations.
Mm.
He was born in 1877 and he actually lived till 1972.
So he was primarily painting in the early 20th century, and really, I think, up until he passed away.
The painting, of course, is oil on canvas, and it looks like the original frame.
This painting is dated in the lower right, '23, 1923, and that's when the novel was first published.
Mm.
He is popular as an illustrator nationwide.
If this were in a gallery, I think that it would sell in the range of $125,000.
(laughs) I know you're kidding me.
No, I'm not kidding you.
(laughs) It's a wonderful... (voice breaking): Really?
Yes.
Really?
It's a wonderful painting.
(inhales, exhales deeply) My father would be so thrilled to know that people were being turned on to illustrations.
Yeah.
And my mother would be really thrilled at what you just said.
Yeah.
(both laughing) Well, it means that her investment was a good one.
Oh, yes!
Oh, yes!
(laughs) There's a big surge of interest in illustration.
Well, I love this painting.
Yeah.
I love this painting.
PEÑA: You're watching "Antiques Roadshow" PEÑA: And now it's time for the "Roadshow" Feedback Booth.
And my little lamb that my grandparents put in our room every night when we spent the night, and it glows in the dark, is actually radioactive.
So I'm going to go find some hand sanitizer and, uh, take it back home with me.
I learned today that this crystal dish-- St. Louis crystal, was supposedly on the Queen Marie-- is actually an ice cream dish, and not a pudding dish, laying to rest a lifelong family dispute.
Just eat your ice cream out of it.
Okay.
(laughing): Thanks, "Antiques Roadshow."
(laughing): Thank you, had a great time.
And I brought these French prints.
They're Victorian, apparently.
And if they were from... if I was from Bel Air, they would be the French Prints of Bel Air.
Story has it that my grandmother was an underwear model in New York City, and she carried her necessaire everywhere.
Worth $50 to $100.
Thanks... thanks "Antique Roadshow."
I was feeling like, uh, my vintage cat lamp wouldn't be worth much, but the appraiser said it was worth anywhere from $100 to $150.
I only paid five dollars for it, so I'm pretty happy right meow.
And it's been a good time at the Roadshow.
I found out today that my President Kennedy inauguration invitation is worth $400.
Kevin pulls me out of line, and looks at my necklace, and says... (gasps): "Cartier!
Rubies!"
And then he says, "Glass, gold-plated," but it's worth $500.
We had the best time here at the... ...Roadshow.
Roadshow.
PEÑA: Thanks for watching.
See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."
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