American Stories

♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: The tales of these treasures will keep you riveted.

When he started playing "The Star-Spangled Banner," that was something that I had never imagined.

It was incredible.

Getting, I'm getting chills, just thinking about it.

Shut the front door, girl.

PEÑA: It's "Antiques Roadshow: American Stories."

♪ ♪ This belonged to my father-in-law, who was a medicine man.

PEÑA: "Antiques Roadshow" believes that every object has a story, and in the next hour, we've collected some of the best "Roadshow" stories from all across America.

APPRAISER: She was the first woman aviator... MAN: In the United States.

APPRAISER: In the United States.

PEÑA: Stories of love... She was the Duchess d'Andria, and this was her engagement ring.

PEÑA: Loss...

I brought a Testament that has a bullet hole in it that my great-great-uncle carried during the Civil War, and he was shot through the Testament and died at the Battle of Peachtree.

PEÑA: Success... My great-great-great-grandfather went to the Gold Rush.

He made a strike...

He was a '49er.

That's right.

Wow!

An original.

PEÑA: And some luck.

MAN: The story from my aunt says that my father won it during World War II in a poker game.

PEÑA: Starting off with memories and mementos from one of the most iconic cultural happenings of the 20th century.

Could you tell me the story of how you got these items from Woodstock?

The jacket I picked up after everything was over on Monday morning.

They were lying there in the mud, and I picked this one up and asked my girlfriend, "Do you want the other one?"

She said, "Ew, no."

And the program, there was a huge pile of them that was probably ten feet high.

They never delivered them.

They couldn't get them onto the grounds, and they got them there on Monday morning, and I guess they just dumped them there.

But I picked up a whole handful, I've still got the one.

It was called the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair, and they had asked a bunch of kids from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe to come and be a part of it.

They flew everybody in, so we were guests of management.

It was really great, because all these guys were coming up and asking, "Where are you guys from?"

And they were all excited to see "Indians," quote-unquote.

When we first arrived there, we were given two tipis, and so when it rained, we were fine.

And with our passes, we could go to the performer pavilion and get a case of beer if we wanted and sit there dry and drink, and we had a good time.

(laughs) Well, you had probably a very different experience at Woodstock than your average person who went, because you had passes from management.

What you're discussing, bringing in the people from the Institute of American Indian Arts out of Santa Fe... Uh-huh.

...is a really well-documented story.

And obviously, you were among those people who were lucky enough to go.

Right, that's how it worked out, yeah.

And while you were there, my question is, did you watch any of the acts?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Who did you see?

Well, I guess probably the most, what you might call the important thing, was Jimi Hendrix at the end.

I remember waking up, it was still dark, and I heard them introducing him.

So I woke up my partner and said, "Let's go down and catch this," and she was a big, huge fan.

We were ten, 15 feet away from him while he was playing, and then when he started playing "The Star-Spangled Banner," that was something that I had never imagined.

It was incredible.

Getting, I'm getting chills just thinking about it.

Well, these are priceless memories that you have.

We do see these come up for auction from time to time.

Mm-hmm.

There were different colors.

Right.

This is, carries the original logo that was on the poster designed by a man named Arnold Skolnick.

You don't have to say Woodstock when you look at this jacket.

You see this and everybody knows this is from Woodstock.

Yeah.

But to have one of the original jackets worn by management, and as you said, there are other colors of jackets.

There's red and green.

Yeah, red was for security.

Yeah.

And then the green was for stage crew.

When these do come up for sale at auction, they traditionally sell anywhere between $2,000 and $2,500.

Mm-hmm.

And then you also mentioned the program.

Because they were never officially kind of distributed there, there were kind of stacks of them that...

Same with the tickets, that they just stopped taking tickets because people crashed the gates.

Right.

These are rare.

The value on the programs is completely dependent upon condition.

So in the condition that you have here, I would expect this one to sell anywhere in the $500 to $600 range at auction.

They have sold for as much as $1,200, but that was a near-mint, fine copy, and that's the difference condition will make on something like this.

Oh, yeah, I'm sure.

So all together, it's a really great group of objects here.

And like I said, the memories that you have from the event are worth more than anything I could put a dollar figure on.

Yeah, and I remember most of it.

(laughs) No.

WOMAN: I brought a label from a peach can that has a letter on the back from World War I.

My aunt passed away three years ago at the age of 95, but before she passed away, my uncle had died, and this had belonged to him, and it was all folded up, and I looked at it and I said, "My gosh, it's got a letter on the back."

And she said, "Yeah," that my Uncle Bob had had it for years and years and that his father had probably given it to him, because I don't recognize the person's name on the back of the can, but they were both from Brooklyn, and the letter was sent to a man who worked for this company here, Jurgens, who were, I guess, a distributor.

And the letter is all about enjoying this can of peaches in the trenches in World War I.

The front is beautiful, just as a piece of graphic art from the turn of the century.

Mm-hmm.

And we see here that we have the individual who's, who sent it, the date, and then the censored mark.

In this case, this is a lieutenant in the Fourth Infantry.

Right.

His job was to look at that and to make absolutely certain that there wasn't any information in the document that was inappropriate to go back to the folks at home.

The back is really what gets us interested in this piece.

And we've got a letter from a fellow here... Mm-hmm.

...who is writing from Machine Gun Company, Fourth Infantry Regiment, which was one of the more actively engaged American divisions in World War I.

And apparently this fellow was quite taken by the peaches.

He's writing, he says, "Dear Sir, "Here I am on the firing line in the bottom of a trench, "having just finished my day's rations of corned willy "and hardtack, and having finished it all off by eating this can of peaches from your firm."

So clearly it, it meant a lot to him, enough to save the label and send it back.

There's something else in here: "They tasted so good, "I feel it my duty to congratulate you and your firm for putting such goods within our reach."

But he signs it, interestingly, here.

He says, uh, "Believe me, they are worth fighting for.

Your friend, Eddie."

Clearly, this meant an awful lot to him... Yeah.

...in the circumstances that they were in.

Rations in World War I were not exactly high-level cuisine.

(laughs) They were more-- they were, they were-- they were concerned about two things: they were concerned about getting the food to the front, and having it be nutritious and provide the guys enough calories to keep going.

But more importantly, they also wanted it to, to make it from point A to point B without getting you sick and turning it into a botulism grenade... Oh.

...and to be sealed up to where it would be resistant to the chemicals that were in the air where, the gas that would settle.

Right.

So canned goods were particularly well-suited to that, because they're all wrapped up.

In the realm of value, these labels from fruit cans and crates and that sort of thing are collected, because they're decorative and they're, they're attractive, as just a nice period lithograph.

But on its own, this would be about a ten-dollar item.

It doesn't have a whole lot of value...

Right.

...on its own legs.

Right.

But as something that was so significant to this individual that he wrote that congratulatory letter... Mm-hmm.

...and sent it back home, this is something that, frankly, shouldn't exist.

He even talks in there about, "The trenches are littered with the wrappers from your peaches."

As a document of front-line life for an American soldier in World War I, I would expect to see a retail value today for this in the neighborhood of $550 to $600.

Wow!

Not bad for a can of peaches.

WOMAN: I brought in my grandfather's violin.

My mom and dad always called him Pops.

He died in 1945, so I never got to meet him.

But he made violins, and he repaired violins for the Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, the New York Symphony.

He worked for a company for a while, and then he opened up his own shop, and when he passed away, my mother took one of his violins, and I played this violin since I was in second grade until I had an injury and could play no more, and I am dying to find out what to insure it for.

I've heard the story of my Pop for all of my life, what an amazing man he was and everything he'd done, and how he became a violin maker.

Well, I'm very excited about this violin that you brought in today.

I can't wait.

(chuckles) You brought in his tools.

Yeah.

And you brought in a picture of his shop in Manhattan.

Yeah.

His name, of course, was Nicholas Heinz.

Yeah.

He started training as a violin maker when he was 14 years old.

Wow.

So he studied with Frederick Koenig, who was a violin maker in New York City.

And so your grandfather, from the age of 14 to 19 years old, trained with one of the top makers in the United States.

He also worked in Chicago for Lyon and Healy, he worked in Philadelphia, and then he opened his own shop in 1926.

So this particular violin that you brought in today has a label on the inside, and it says, "Nicholas Heinz, Violin Maker and Repairer," and above that label is a brand that's been branded into the wood that says, "N.

Heinz."

I love this picture.

He seems so proud and just brimming full of energy.

These are his knives for carving...

Correct.

and this little tiny plane is a violin maker's plane.

It's used to do the arching, the fine arching that would be around the edges of the instrument.

This violin is made in very traditional materials.

The belly of the instrument is spruce and the back and the ribs are a flamed maple.

Ah-hah.

And the pegs are carved in a beautiful design, as is the tailpiece.

I believe that the pegs and the tailpiece were actually made in Germany, and that he would have purchased them for this instrument.

Oh.

I thought he made them.

What do you know about the bow?

I know how I broke the tip on the bow, but I don't know much about the bow.

I fell off the stage playing the violin when I was a young girl, because the girl next to me kept butting me with her arm on the violin, and I scooted my chair over and I fell off the stage... (chuckling): Oh, dear.

On the way down, I thought, "Well, I could drop the bow, but I can't drop the violin.

My mom will shoot me."

And when they called to say that I'd fallen off the stage, my mother goes, "And how's my violin?

Did she break it?"

And they go, "No, and Irene's okay, too."

The tip plate broke off, but it doesn't affect the value, and the tip plate is perhaps ivory.

It's either ivory or it's mammoth, but you can't tell by just looking at it, and that can be replaced-- it's not a big deal.

Oh.

So the bow is intact, the bow is a French bow.

It is stamped right here, it's stamped, "Paris."

So in the world of retail, I would value this bow at $4,000.

Holy Hannah!

Wowzer!

Shut the front door, girl, are you serious?

Yeah, it's a beautiful bow.

Wow, wonderful!

The violin, I would value... My baby.

...at $12,000.

(gasps) It's a master-quality instrument.

Aw, sweetie, I love that.

And all of the ephemera that you brought, the tools and the, the pictures and the letters, I would say, in, combined with the value, would add $3,000 to its value.

Oh, my goodness.

So all the ephemera and the violin should always stay together.

This was built by my great-great-grandfather.

They built this for the Columbian Exposition in 1893, and they won a third prize.

He was a German immigrant.

He immigrates to the United States as an expert ironworker.

As we could see from this, he was very skilled.

And you could see how accomplished he was by the fact that two years after he immigrates to the United States, he is commissioned to produce the stairwell for the Statue of Liberty.

My great-great-grandfather gave this to my great-great-grandmother on their anniversary.

Now, she gave this to you.

Andy, what did you get?

Nothing.

Nothing?

I guess I'm chopped liver.

(laughs) MAN: I was visiting Las Vegas, it was the summer of '86.

The University of Nevada- Las Vegas and the University of North Carolina played an alumni basketball game.

After the game was over, I was in the casino, and Michael Jordan and the rest of the team came back.

I saw them sit down at a table, and I sat down at the table with them.

(chuckles) What did you guys play, poker?

Blackjack.

Blackjack, okay.

How did he play?

He played okay.

At first, we all were doing, we were all winning, and then he upped his bet, and we all started losing.

You had your opportunity.

You wanted an autograph, so you went ahead and you went for it.

I...

When he was leaving the table, I asked him, yes.

Looks like he found a blue ballpoint pen, he did his typical, usual Michael Jordan autograph right on this paper coaster.

So, '86, he got hurt early in the season.

He broke his foot, and he came back the same season.

Yes.

The Bulls, when Jordan returned, finished with a 30-in-52 record and still made the playoffs.

If we're giving it a grade, it looks about an eight.

Okay.

On a, on a one-to-ten scale.

Overall, great piece.

At auction, probably fetches somewhere between $2,000 to $3,000.

Oh, wow, very good, wow.

Thank you.

(chuckles) This belonged to my father-in-law, who was a medicine man.

And that was about the turn of the century, so this could have been maybe 100 or more years old.

APPRAISER: Yeah.

Rex, my husband, is very much involved in presenting Indian programs, and so he's enjoying them for about 20 years.

Now he's wearing them special occasions.

Yeah.

Yes.

So this is his dress clothes...

Right, uh-huh.

When he does formal things and important things...

Right.

...he wears all this Navajo silver.

Right, uh-huh.

And, and does this basket, does he use that?

Yes.

In important things?

He uses that for wedding ceremonies for those that want to be married in the Indian way.

Does this have cornmeal in it when it's used?

Cornmeal mush and... yeah.

Bridegroom and the bride, they put their finger there one at a time and feed each other with it.

That's great.

Yeah.

I didn't know that part of it.

(laughs) Well, I've seen a lot of these baskets, but they're never used.

They're things people bought at tourist places or trading posts...

Yes, yeah.

And, you know, they're worth $50 or $75.

This one, because of your family story, it's a very important thing.

Yes, right.

It's more important to your family than money.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And the same with the jewelry.

It's hard to put a dollar amount on something that's this important to your family.

Yeah.

The, the basket, I would say $250 to $350.

Right.

With your family story, I would never sell it.

No.

There's no price enough to have this.

I really like the bracelet.

It's traditional Navajo, it's set with turquoise.

It's made out of hammered silver.

With tools-- it's not cast, it's not made with machines.

It's all handmade.

Right, yeah.

If I found a bracelet like this, I would say... $800 to $1,000.

Oh, wow!

Uh, the, it's, very beautiful bracelet.

Yeah, yeah, we won't part with it.

Well done, and, again, you don't want to sell it.

No, no.

But that's... the belt, again, $1,500, $1,800.

Possibly more.

Yes.

But the family history is so important to this.

Yeah.

And I really appreciate you coming in.

Oh!

It's, it's been great to talk with you, meet you... (laughs) ...and see somebody using their traditional heritage in their life.

Thank you very much.

MAN: The story from my aunt says that my father won it during World War II in a poker game.

And she swears that that's the truth, so I believe her.

Where was the poker game in World War II?

Do you remember which country?

Well, he was stationed in France and went up that way.

He came in the Normandy invasion and was also involved in the Battle of the Bulge, so in, in that area.

So you don't really know very much at all about it, other than it's a snake bracelet.

I don't, sir, no.

It's an interesting design, because the first snake jewelry was the Egyptian asp.

Wow.

And it's not the time of the poker game.

It's probably 1870, 1880.

It's English.

Wow, wow.

And I would wager that that's 18-karat gold, which is very high.

And the diamonds are very good quality, as well.

But what gives this very good value is that big sapphire.

If you could test it, which is very difficult, because you don't want to take it out... Sure.

...and it's got the gold around it, which is gonna enhance the color... Sure.

I would imagine it's Kashmir sapphire, which is the top, top, top grade of sapphire.

Do you have any idea?

No, I really don't, Peter, I, I've never seen anything like it, and when I searched on the internet, I couldn't find anything, and everybody I talked to says they've never seen anything like it, so... Well, how much would you like it to be?

Well, I'll put it this way: it doesn't really matter to me if it's a dollar.

It's a family heirloom.

It's a... keepsake from my mom, who passed away in October, so it has very high sentimental value.

So, frankly, you could tell me it's worth a million dollars, and it wouldn't make a darn bit of difference to me.

Not quite, but how about about $25,000 or $27,000 retail?

Well, that's wonderful.

That's nice to know, to be able to get an appraisal and have it appraised... A lot of the value is the fact that it's got such a wonderful stone in the center of it.

If it were a lesser stone, it might be around $18,000 or $20,000, but I'm firmly convinced that $25,000 is a very fair retail price for it.

Well, I, you know, I think that's amazing, and I'm thrilled, and it's an honor to be on "Antiques Roadshow," and it's, it's wonderful, and I'm very, very pleased.

WOMAN: This is a collection of circus memorabilia and Wild West Show.

My grandfather ran away from home when he was 12 years old.

And he went to go on a sailing vessel.

On the sailing vessel, he learned about rigging and taking care of the sails.

And because of that, he had the experience when he went into the circus to do that type of work.

So he worked for various circuses throughout his lifetime.

He went from Barnum & Bailey to the Wild West Show.

And then tell me about your grandmother.

My grandmother, she came from Budapest, and originally, she was a ballerina at the Budapest Opera House.

And from there, that's how she joined the circus.

I guess she ran out of work.

She met my grandfather, they married in New Orleans, and the rest is history.

And what year would that have been?

About 1906 when they got married.

And your grandfather started working for the circuses in about 1902?

1902, right.

And he was a chief rigger, and then he became property manager.

So he had to take care of all the items that got destroyed because of, maybe a train wreck, or there was a cyclone.

And he had to take pictures of all this, so I have all the original pictures.

Right.

And then my grandmother went further, and she cut out pictures and articles in the newspaper about what happened to verify what he was doing.

Yeah.

We had hundreds of images to go through in the form of real photo postcards, mounted photographs.

You also had lots of documents and letterhead signed by the owners of the circuses right here.

101 Ranch, Barnum & Bailey Circus, signed by one of the brothers there.

And that one is a authentic pen signature.

This is just a sampling of what you have here in the binders.

Right.

We have a couple of real photo postcards here, one that was taken while the circus tent was on fire.

Right.

And then above, we have one after a cyclone damage.

So they took these images, made them into real photo postcards.

We rarely, if ever, see images like this.

You're going to see some of the circus freaks, you're going to see images of the circus in action.

But these type of images are rarely seen.

On the bottom here, we have a cabinet card photo of Pawnee Bill, who was partners with Buffalo Bill.

It's a nice classic image of him.

We have one program we've put up here, as well, and you have so many more here.

And the top image, it says "sole survivor of Mount Pelée volcano."

And this was in St. Pierre, Martinique, and the volcano was in 1902.

It wiped out the entire town of St. Pierre.

Oh... 30,000 to 40,000 people perished in that volcano, and it's recorded that there were two survivors, is all.

And you know why he survived?

He was in prison, and there was poor ventilation in his cell.

Oh!

His name is Ludger Sylbaris, and of course, being in the circus, they went ahead and advertised it as the sole survivor.

So just another one of the great images of dozens that you have in, in here.

Well, to start off with the programs, and you have quite a few here.

But the one we've put up here is going to be a good general example of what the rest are.

They're going to be worth between about $50 to $100 each at auction for the programs.

And the signed letterhead from the circus owners are going to range in value from $75 up to $250 each.

Mm-hmm.

And again, you have numerous examples of those from all the different companies.

The cabinet photo of Pawnee Bill, I would expect that at auction to bring between $400 and $600.

Wow.

The great images here in the real photo postcards would sell at auction for between, on the low end of $75 to $100 each, up to as high as $250 each for some of those fabulous images that you have.

Oh... (sighs) And the photo of Ludger Sylbaris, I consulted several other appraisers that deal in antique photographic images, and nobody has seen an image of him before in the form of a mounted photo like that.

And easily we would say at auction, we would expect that to bring between $1,000 and $2,000.

(gasps and exhales) It's one of the rarest images we've seen of anybody involved in the circus in years.

The collection you brought in today in total, I'd put an estimate at auction for between $12,000 and $16,000.

Oh, wow, wow.

There's just so many beautiful pieces in there.

Thank you so much.

I have to thank my grandma and grandpa for doing this for me.

This is a piece that my grandfather picked up on his travels to Europe.

It's a bit of a mystery for us.

He opens up...

He has little drawers inside, super-cute.

And it's just a darling size.

This had been given to either my grandmother or an aunt by a male suitor alleged to have worked for Tiffany.

This is a Tiffany flower-form vase.

Now, it should actually be completely glass, but it looks as though it was broken off of the stem and then put in this bronze vase.

So what you have here is, we've made lemonade out of lemons.

(laughs) The value of this would be around $700 retail.

If it were the whole piece, it would be $1,500 to $2,000.

Okay.

Of the brewery, this is the only part that was ever actually built.

This print was done very shortly after the factory opened, and it would have been a projection of what they thought would happen, given the great sales they were having with beer.

As an early American advertising poster advertising beer, at auction, this piece would be estimated $1,500 to $2,000.

There's a great word for it: we call it breweriana.

It's a treat to see it-- it makes me thirsty.

(laughs) So my grandfather grew up in Japan... Uh-huh.

And then became a teacher in Japan.

Uh-huh.

He later became a professor at Stanford and I inherited his library.

Oh, right.

I dared never touch the books until now.

Right.

Just before coming here.

So these books were published in Yokohama in 1895, and it's two-volume set of a, of a first edition.

We were very excited to see them, because not only are these two volumes extremely rare, they also have an incredible history.

The author, Joseph Heco, was actually the first Japanese American.

So he was actually found at sea in the 1850s by an American frigate and brought to San Francisco, and became involved in the Gold Rush, actually, in the 1850s.

He eventually became an American citizen and worked with the California, um, Senator Gwin.

He ended up in Washington, DC, where he actually met President Lincoln.

He later returned to Japan and worked with Commodore Perry when they opened up Japan to Western influences.

And he published these books about his life in 1895 in Yokohama.

Have you had these books ever praised or evaluated in any fashion?

No, and you're saying this is the author?

Yes, that's an inscription from the author, not probably to your grandfather... No.

...but to someone that he had known.

Yeah.

That adds additional level of interest associated with it.

Well, I can tell you that I was very excited to see these, because only three copies of this book have appeared in the auction market for the last 30 years.

Um, so they're very, very hard to find.

(sniffling) Do you have any sense of the value?

Well, I would say conservatively that the pair would probably have an auction estimate of $6,000 to $8,000 in today's marketplace.

And you probably could have them insured for at least $10,000.

Uh, it's an, it's an incredible book.

So glad you brought them in.

Thank you so much.

We'll put them in either in a museum or in a safe deposit box.

MAN: Well, I have two pieces of art done by John Biggers.

He's my Uncle John, as I know him.

He and my father were classmates in college at Hampton Institute.

This piece was in our house for as long as I've been alive.

And the story goes, my Uncle John was throwing it out of his garage, and my dad happened to be there, and said, "Well, no, don't throw it away, I'll take it."

I tried to get these restored, and the restorer here in town told me that she couldn't touch them until I got insurance on it and an appraisal.

Well, they are two drawings by John Biggers.

They're charcoal drawings with white chalk editions.

Now, we don't have a date on them, but my guess is that they would date to the 1950s.

This is the style he was working in, and they seem like they would be from that time period.

Do you have any idea who the subject is?

This could be a lady he experienced while in Africa or a tribute to his wife with an African look to her.

Mm-hmm.

I think 1957 was the first time he went to Africa.

That would make sense for the date.

His wife is still alive... She is, she is.

So it's possible that, um, she could be contacted and find out if, if it is her.

The interesting thing about these two is that they are really a pair.

I mean, you have the front view and then the back of the same figure, and that's very rare to find.

At auction I would value them as a pair $12,000 to $18,000.

Well, I really appreciate that.

Thanks for bringing them in today.

Oh, my pleasure.

In the 1840s... APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

...my great-great-great- grandfather... Mm-hmm.

...Pembroke Showman...

Right.

...went to the Gold Rush.

California.

Mm-hmm, he was a '49er.

That's right.

Wow, an original.

Mm-hmm.

He made a strike, and preparing to come back to Maryland... Mm-hmm.

...where he was originally from, changed his gold in for coins.

And to guard against holdup men, he sewed this vest, and sewed the coins into the vest, which you can see the circles.

Wow!

Where they were sewed.

That's just amazing.

Brought a stagecoach, then back, um, came through Ohio to visit with some relatives, and he stayed with them a while and liked the area, so he ended up buying 140 acres there with the gold coins.

And that farm is still in the Showman name.

That's tremendous.

Never seen anything quite like this.

I'm sure you know history of the '49 Gold Rush.

It actually started with John Sutter, who built a mill out there.

He was from Switzerland.

When they were out in the San Francisco-Sacramento area, they had Sutter's mill, and his foreman, James Marshall, was helping to build the mill one day, and they were scratching around and they saw these glints of gold.

Well, of course, they couldn't keep a secret.

The papers had gotten ahold of it.

The next thing you knew, you had the Gold Rush.

Mm-hmm.

Of course, mostly men, mostly trying to find their fortunes.

And there's a huge difference between the haves and the have-nots.

Mm-hmm.

Your great-great-great-great- great-grandfather was a have.

There was a lot of violence.

There were brothels.

There was gambling, there were pleasure palaces, bars-- you name it.

And anyone coming cross country, they didn't take railroads at that time.

They took stagecoaches or horses.

So they had to do this to protect themselves.

A lot of the letters that have survived from that time... Mm-hmm.

...you'll see where it says things like, "I saw so-and-so get stabbed today for a few gold pieces" or "someone getting shot."

So trying to value something like that today, very unusual piece, but probably somewhere in the vicinity of about $2,000 to $3,000.

Is that right?

MAN: I acquired that ring some years ago, back in the '70s, from a friend of mine.

APPRAISER: Why did your friend give it to you?

Well, it wasn't actually a gift.

He kind of got in a little bit of trouble, and called me, and I had gotten him out of trouble two other times.

And I told him I needed a little collateral this time.

So I went by his house and picked up the ring, and told him when he gave me the money back, he could have his ring.

And that was in 1972, and... Now, when you say he got in a little bit of trouble, can we ask a little bit more about that?

Well, it was a phone call from the jailhouse.

Oh, my!

Yeah, yeah.

He was one of those people who enjoyed life kind of illegally, they say.

Ah-hah!

I see.

So he needed a little bail money, and the $500, what I had to get for the bail money, get him out of jail, and I'd had the ring, and hid it at my mother's house.

And all of a sudden, some years later, we went all, went out to eat, and I thought I had it hid in a chest drawer, but evidently she found it, and she was wearing it, and she claimed it.

So I've only had the ring... She claimed it?

Oh, she said it was hers?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, but I think she knew it was mine anyway.

But I've only had it back in my possession probably for the past five, eight years now.

Well, it sounds like your friend had a good friend in you.

Certainly.

To go and take care of him in his time of need there.

Right.

Have you ever had anybody else take a look at that ring for you?

Well, we took it to a jewelry store in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Weren't too happy with what the lady told us, so... (laughs) Weren't sure about what she was saying.

Uh, didn't know exactly what she was telling us.

I see.

So that's why we decided we'd try to come to the "Antiques Roadshow"... Bring it in here.

...and get a true appraisal on it.

Okay, well, it's a great old ring, and I think you got... You told me you got $500 into it.

Right.

That's right?

It's a early-20th-century ring.

It's an Edwardian ring.

It's got some old mine-cut diamonds in there.

There's a couple of them that are about three-quarters of a carat.

A couple of them, they're about a half a carat each.

Can you tell me what she said at the jewelry store that didn't make you so happy?

Well, it was actually the money.

(laughing) Oh, yeah.

That's, that's always the story, isn't it?

Yeah.

She was telling us the weight of it.

Then she was telling me what kind of metal the ring was, which I'm not sure what she said it was now.

And I forget what, how many carats she said it was, but she offered to purchase it for $1,200.

Ah-hah!

It sounds a little bit unethical to me.

Exactly.

A ring like this is, it's pretty desirable in today's market.

We see these from that era pretty regularly, and it's a great ring-- it's platinum, which is commonly what they used to make jewelry back then.

That was kind of the new metal in town...

Right.

...back in the early 20th century.

This ring is probably made in America, would be my guess.

I see a lot of rings like this made from people who emigrated to the U.S. who had the craft of making jewelry like this.

And it's in great shape.

So, so nobody wears it now?

My wife, uh, she says it's too big for her.

Oh.

She's got little hands.

I see, okay.

So she says it's too big for her hands, so she doesn't wear it, so it just kind of just...

So, so it's not hers now?

It's still yours?

It's hers.

Okay, all right.

I give, I 'fess, it's hers.

Okay, all right.

I think in today's market, an auction value on something like that would probably in, be in about the $3,000 to $5,000 range.

Whoa!

Yeah.

It's a little different than what you had originally heard at your jeweler there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So hopefully that's a little bit, a better number that sits with you better.

That's, that's good news.

MAN: It belonged to a great-uncle of mine.

The gentleman whose name is at the base was a philanthropist in the early part of the 1900s who amassed a huge fortune.

I think you called him the "King of the Bronx."

Yes.

Okay.

It's done by a fairly famous French bronzer by the name of Isidore Bonheur, and Isidore made fame doing animals.

It's worth around $6,000 to $8,000.

It's a really good example of a Bonheur bronze from this time period.

Wow, great.

I brought a Testament that has a bullet hole in it that my great-great-uncle carried during the Civil War, and he was shot through the Testament, and died at the Battle of Peach Tree.

He actually had this...

In his pocket, yes.

...in his pocket.

And this is a photograph of him.

This is a tintype of him, yes.

We see tons of Bibles on the "Roadshow," because during the Civil War, they gave out hundreds of thousands of them.

We don't see many like this.

If I was gonna insure this and the picture, I'd insure it for $5,000.

Ooh, thank you!

That's wonderful!

Well, I'm an avid believer of an artist named Charles McGee.

And one weekend, I went to an estate sale, and I found this one here, and I thought it was a print.

The person who sold it to me sold it to me for over $1,000.

And I said to myself, "Since it's a print, that's a lot of money."

But I wanted it so bad, so I bought it for $1,000.

I gave it to him.

Then I found out later on it wasn't a print.

It was an original piece of art made out of graphite and charcoal.

And I don't know more than that about it.

So Charles McGee was born in 1924 in South Carolina.

And at the age of ten, he came to Detroit, which would be a city that would become very important for him, and likewise, he became very important for the city.

In 1969, he put together a, an exhibition called "Seven Black Artists," which was very important in terms of the history of African American art in Detroit.

It was a seminal exhibition with a lot of important artists, including himself.

After that, he even went on to start his own gallery.

And in 1995, he had a one-man show dedicated to him at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

So he really became a fixture in Detroit.

Now, that's just a little bit about him.

And, by the way, he's still alive.

Yes.

Right now, he's 90 years old.

Right.

And is still working.

When we look at this, what we see is something that has a lot of emotion to it.

What do you think the value might be today?

I have really no idea at all.

I have no clue.

I couldn't even begin to think about what the value would be.

Okay.

Because I'm not even sure when it was really drawn, so...

Right, well, it does look like it's probably from his '60s-'70s period.

Okay.

The, the value that I would put on it today for an auction estimate-- it's a large work-- uh, would be $4,000 to $6,000.

Okay, all right.

Wow.

Well, that's an improvement.

(laughs) This piece was originally an engagement ring of my great-aunt.

Wow.

Her name was Renée Thornton.

She was actually a coloratura soprano at the Metropolitan Opera in the 1920s.

In the '20s, okay.

Right-- after that, she divorced her husband, who was a conductor of the Met.

And she ended up marrying in the '30s, early '30s, a duke from Italy.

And she was the Duchess d'Andria, and this was her engagement ring.

My mother inherited it, and she didn't like it as an engagement ring.

So she changed the back of it, and changed it from a ring to a pendant that my mom could wear.

Okay.

It's a very beautiful piece.

Thank you very much.

I think it's from around the turn of the century.

Uh-huh.

And I think that because it is topped in platinum and backed in 14-karat yellow gold.

Wow, hm.

You can see the platinum running along the top and the yellow gold along the bottom.

If it were earlier, it would be silver-topped yellow gold.

Okay.

The diamonds around, so you have a great group of diamonds.

These are all mostly old European-cuts.

Mm-hmm.

That center diamond is a carat, about a carat 17.

And this is by calculation.

So I'm measuring and figuring out what I think it is.

Okay.

But the whole brooch, excluding the center, you have about four-and-a-half carats of diamonds.

Wow.

Okay?

Now, I do see that this bail has been changed... Mm-hmm.

And this pin stem, as well.

So there could have been marks on the back of the piece.

Mm.

And they've probably been removed with these two additions.

With the addition.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, it must have been an amazing engagement ring.

Yeah, can you imagine?

I mean, just the size of it.

I can't.

I mean, it's so sweet.

The heart, and then obviously, the crown up top... Up top... ...referring back to royalty.

Knowing the provenance... Mm-hmm.

...the style of the diamonds-- they're a nice color-- I think a piece like this, retail, would be $20,000.

(gasps) (laughing): Are you kidding me?

(excited squeal) (laughing): May I hug you?

(laughing) MAN: I knew I had a great- grandmother.

Her name was Bessica Raiche, but I didn't know the details behind it until probably ten years ago when my mom brought her to my attention.

She said that we had all these, um, artifacts of hers.

APPRAISER: Who was Bessica?

What did she do?

She was the first woman aviator.

In the United States.

In the United States, yes.

She built, designed her own planes, and flew them.

Her and her husband did.

Um, when their first plane was built, they actually built it in their house, and then come to find out that they couldn't get it out, so they had to tear the front of the house off to get it, to get it out.

That's just amazing.

Yeah.

When did she take her first flight?

Uh, 1910.

In a plane that she built... and designed herself.

Actually, her first flight, I think, was in 1908, and that was with, uh...

In a biplane.

And then when she, I think she got the flying bug, and built her own plane.

Her first solo flight was in 1910.

I understand she was also a medical doctor?

Yeah, she was a doctor before she became an aviator, and then due to health reasons, she had to quit the aviation business, and she went back into her medical practice.

Until today, I had never heard of your illustrious great-grandmother, either.

And many people haven't.

(chuckles) How can this be that America's first female aviator is virtually unknown outside of a tiny circle of aviation aficionados?

Yeah.

I have no idea.

Well, here you brought with us today this early medal that designates that she is America's first woman aviator.

On the back of the medal, it's dated 1910.

Correct.

You've brought a picture of Bessica Raiche.

Mm-hmm.

There she is in her plane.

Right.

And over here in the air.

Exactly.

And the most amazing thing about it is, nobody knows who she is.

Well, I'm hoping that through our conversation, maybe we can change that just a little bit.

That would be nice.

One of the items you brought is this letter from another rather famous gentleman, Harry Houdini.

Yes, and he was also an accomplished pilot.

And if you notice, on the bottom of the letter here, it says the, uh, "first successful aviator in Australia."

(laughs) I had no idea Harry Houdini was a pilot.

He's better known for other things.

Yeah.

But you have a treasure trove of all kinds of artifacts and images and other related material... Yeah.

...to her early aviation pioneer career.

Yes, we do.

We have quite a bit of it.

Unfortunately, her husband, when they divorced, he ended up burning a lot of the stuff-- plane drawings, the designs.

He sat in front of the fireplace and said that, "We don't need this anymore," and threw them, you know, threw them in the fire and burned them.

Oh, my goodness, that, that's... Maybe that helps explain...

Right.

...why she's not as famous as she deserves to be.

Could very well be.

The value of a Harry Houdini letter is in the $2,000 to $3,000 range at retail.

For the collection we have before us, I think a valuation at retail would be $5,000.

Okay.

Very good.

You've brought a nice collection of Whistler etchings and drypoints to the show today.

Why don't you tell me how you got them?

I got them from my father.

Um, I inherited them from him.

And it was for me kind of a piece of my father that was left after he passed away, and a connection to him.

And I actually knew your father.

I did some business with him, and he was a fairly well-known collector.

What did he do for a living?

He was actually a professor for all his life, and raised a big family.

He grew up in a real humble home.

His dad was an upholsterer, and what I remember is, he always told us that he put himself through college eating a can of baked beans and a PowerHouse candy bar every night for dinner.

So that's what I appreciate about him, is that he was able to do this on a professor's salary.

Over here is "The Wine Glass," which is an etching from 1858.

And it's one of the only still-life etchings that Whistler made.

And it's also one of his earliest works.

As you may or may not know, Whistler was born in Massachusetts, and he studied college in America, and after school, went to Europe and never came back.

He lived between France and England.

And this is a work that he did in France in 1858.

The two women here are both drypoints, and drypoint is made by scratching directly into a metal plate.

It's a technique that is difficult to get many impressions from, because the drypoint wears down over time.

This is "A Model Resting."

And this is a study of "Maud Seated."

And they're both from the 1870s.

This here is a view of the Little Putney Bridge in London-- that's also from the late 1870s.

Okay.

And then we have two views of Venice.

This is "Little Venice."

And this is "A Doorway in Venice."

And these both date from around the early 1880s, and Whistler was actually bankrupt at the time.

He had sued the critic John Ruskin in London for calling his paintings obliterations, basically.

Huh.

And the result of that suit, which he won... Uh-huh.

...but he didn't get any money for, was that it bankrupt him.

Wow.

And so he took this commission... Uh-huh.

...to go to Venice and produce these prints.

And finally, there's a view here of Brussels.

This is called "The Palaces in Brussels," and that is from the 1880s.

Now, do you know what your father spent on them when he was buying them, and when he bought them?

I think I saw one, he spent, like, $185 or $220, $220, something like that for... And this was in the '70s?

'60s, he started in the '60s, and collected through the '80s.

Right.

Well, your father had a great eye.

And he sought out what seems to me some of the scarcest examples he could find.

If you look at this print here, for instance, on the back of the sheet, you see in Whistler's handwriting, "Selected proof."

Oh!

So this is a print that the artist himself thought very highly of.

Actually wrote on?

It's the artist's proof.

And on this print, "The Palaces in Brussels," you see a dedication from Whistler to one of his collectors.

And on a number of the prints, you also see Whistler's signature, which is a butterfly.

He was sort of a dandy.

Uh-huh.

Fashionable guy, and he used his butterfly signature.

Here you see it larger on "The Model Resting."

And you see it even printed in the plate on the view of the Little Putney.

Oh.

Whistler's market has risen dramatically in the last ten years.

Really?

Really?

So in the time that your father bought these... Uh-huh.

...the value has increased.

At auction, "The Wine Glass" would bring around $5,000 to $8,000.

Oh, wow!

"The Little Putney," which is a beautiful proof... Mm-hmm.

...would bring between $3,000 and $5,000.

Oh, goodness.

Each of the drypoints, "The Model Resting" and "Maud," would bring $15,000 to $20,000.

Wow!

The view of Little Venice, in the neighborhood of $12,000 to $18,000.

You're kidding.

The "Doorway in Venice"?

Uh-huh.

$20,000 to $30,000.

Wow!

And finally, the best for last, "The Palaces in Brussels," exceedingly scarce print.

Really?

That would bring around $60,000 to $90,000 at auction.

(gasps) You are kidding.

The grand total at auction would be around $130,000 to $190,000.

You are kidding me!

No.

(chuckles) Wow!

It's a wonderful collection.

I thank you for bringing it in.

That is amazing.

They're beautiful prints.

They're just beautiful.

I'm, I'm just shocked.

In my ten years doing the show, I've never seen Whistler prints... Really?

...of this caliber.

Really!

These are museum pieces.

Wow, that's amazing.

PEÑA: Coming up, What can you tell me about George Ohr, the Mad Potter of Biloxi?

I know that he chopped his own wood, built his own kiln.

And I think he rode around town on a bicycle.

He just kind of listened to his own drummer.

He was a real hardcore Arts and Crafts potter from Biloxi, Mississippi.

And he had bulging muscles.

He dug his own clay from the Tchoutacabouffa River.

And he'd be wheelbarrowing it through town.

He had arms like Popeye.

He was an artist, so he was a little wacky.

It's okay.

He was very attached to the pieces that he made.

He called them his mud babies.

Let's say you were to go there and watch him make a pot, he would sometimes sign your name on the side of the piece and then he wouldn't let you have it.

So consequently, most of what he made stayed within his possession.

In October of 1894, his pottery burnt down in the great Biloxi fire.

And he lost everything he had.

And he was poor to begin with.

But he loved his pots so much that he went into the ashes and he salvaged boxes of his pots.

And where he used to call them his mud babies... Mm-hmm.

...after the fire, the ones he saved he called his burnt babies.

Okay.

And this is one of his burnt babies.

All right.

Okay?

You can see on the surface this kind of gnarly texture?

Yes.

It's because it blistered the glazes.

So we know this pot dates to 1894 or earlier.

Also, this particular mark is one of his earlier marks.

Now, you bought this from... An online auction.

Online auction, okay, and you paid?

$1,200.

$1,200 is about twice what it's worth.

This piece today is worth retail about $600.

Okay.

They used to be unsaleable, but his work has become so valuable over the years that they've risen considerably.

This probably went from $100 to $600 in the last ten years.

The architect Frank Gehry is building the new George Ohr museum in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Mm-hmm, okay.

And people are already anticipating price rises for Ohr's work because of that museum, which is gonna put George Ohr on a world stage.

While it's not worth what you paid for it, I think it's only a matter of time before we get there.

Okay, very good.

PEÑA: Thanks for watching this special episode of "Antiques Roadshow."

Follow @RoadshowPBS and watch us anytime at pbs.org/antiques or on the PBS Video app.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."