Sands Point Preserve, Hour 1

♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: "Antiques Roadshow" is raring to go and ready to welcome our guests to the Sands Point Preserve in Nassau County, New York.

APPRAISER: This is Mickey Mantle's true rookie card.

That's every thrift shopper's dream.

♪ ♪ PEÑA: The Sands Point Preserve is a historic tribute to the Age of Opulence on Long Island's North Shore.

There are four 20th-century mansions here, spread out over 216 acres: Hempstead House, Castle Gould, Falaise, and Mille Fleurs.

The oldest, Castle Gould, was built by financier Howard Gould-- a huge, 100,000-square-foot castle modeled after Kilkenny Castle in Ireland.

Gould built it for his wife, the actress Katherine Clemmons, but when Clemmons criticized the castle, he built this Tudor-style mansion, Hempstead House, a mere 50,000 square feet and much more cozy.

"Antiques Roadshow" is finding the Hempstead House accommodations very hospitable today, as our experts discover treasures on the Long Island Sound.

Oscar!

Hey.

Tell me what you brought today.

I brought a Rolex.

My dad left it when he passed away.

When we were growing up, my twin and I, we were, we would always kind of fight for it, because we always thought it was, like, a nice piece of watch.

He decided at the end that he would give it to whomever would go the farthest in education.

So... We were kind of competing growing up.

Uh, we studied the same things, graphics and arts, and all that.

At the end, I got a master's degree and it ended up on my, on, on, on my end, but, uh, we share it.

I share it with my brother.

It is just something sentimental.

Why do you think your father bought this particular watch model?

I have no clue.

(chuckles) I think he...

I mean, he used to dress really nicely and he liked really cool things.

I think he bought it back in the '80s.

We're originally from Mexico, and I think he saw it as a precious gift.

I have no clue why he chose that specific model.

Well, let's talk about the watch a little bit.

Sure.

So, we know it's a Rolex.

Yes.

It's a Rolex Daytona Cosmograph.

The reference number is a 6263.

I looked at the serial numbers, and this watch was manufactured in 1978.

Okay.

Okay?

You see it's got the three subdials for different timing.

Yes.

We have the outside tachymeter on the outer ring.

It's been given all kinds of different names that only exist in the collectible community.

So yours is known as the panda dial.

Really.

And that comes exactly from the panda bear, black and white.

Yes.

So when you look at it, you see, here you have a silver-white dial.

You have the black subdials.

Other watches have black dials with white subdials.

Most collectors feel that this is the most pleasing dial of all the watches.

Okay.

Another feature, you see we have "Daytona" in red.

Yes.

Above the six.

I loved the color combination, the black, the white, and the red.

It's very pleasing, isn't it?

Yes.

Well, the red on some of them is called the Big Red, and it's a wider, fatter, bigger font.

Uh, this is a smaller red.

Some other features are, it's a manual wind.

Yeah, I love that.

I love hearing the little clicking and... (chuckles) All the mechanical things that comes with it.

And you have a screw-down waterproof crown.

Yes.

This model has screw-down waterproof buttons.

The earlier models of this watch, the buttons could accidentally be depressed, and you might start off a timer or stop a timer inadvertently.

Mm.

So to fix that problem, they decided, "Let's make them screw-down," and now you can't accidentally move them.

Right.

Let's talk about some values.

Sure.

(laughs) Sound interesting to you?

Yes.

Yeah, all right, so, this dial is perfect.

It is the most beautiful dial.

No fading, no chipping.

No moisture ever got in there.

It's incredible.

Right.

Your crystal that covers the watch, that's plastic-- acrylic.

It's got a little bit of scratching.

But what I like about this is that you've left it just as your dad gave to you.

And in this day and age, that's a very important feature on a watch.

So...

Cool.

In today's market, we hear all about these selling privately, selling at auction, selling for all kinds of crazy numbers.

And this one here, this is going to be a little bit of a crazy number, too.

Oh, my God.

(chuckling) So, in today's retail market, this watch is going to sell $95,000 to $105,000.

Oh, my God, no way.

Oh, my God.

(chuckles): That's crazy.

Really, I...

It's crazy, 'cause I've worn it on the subway sometimes.

(laughing): And knowing that I had, like, $100,000 on my watch, on my wrist, wow, that's... Insane-- thank you, Dad.

(laughs) I love wearing it, but definitely I'm not gonna wear it that often.

Only on very, very special occasions.

It's signed on the back, Fulton Ross.

Uh-huh.

The title of the piece is "Gigi."

And I purchased it at an antique store in the town that I live, which is Patchogue.

Oh, okay, and how much did you pay for it?

I paid $45 for it.

I tried to do a little research on the internet.

It wasn't easy to find her name because it's signed Fulton Ross, instead of her full name, which is Gale Fulton Ross.

Mm-hmm.

So, um, I did find that Gigi is the name of a wife of a prominent art collector.

Uh-huh.

And he commissioned Gale Fulton Ross to create this of his wife, Gigi.

What probably happened is that, as you say, it was commissioned by this person.

The interesting thing is how is, how it ended up up here in, uh, uh, Long Island.

Right.

The painting itself is, uh, signed on the back, Fulton Ross.

Uh, it's dated 1995, and it has the title "Gigi."

And it's funny, because when I first saw this painting, I thought there was something wrong with it, because... (laughs) ...as you can see, all these...

Right.

...splatter marks around and so forth.

It almost looked like it was in, it was in distress.

It's an oil on canvas.

It's a pretty big painting.

And it's got a wonderful, commanding presence.

But again, when I saw it from a distance, I thought, "Oh, my goodness, this thing is probably going to be worth, I don't know, $5,000 or $6,000."

But this is actually deliberate.

She splattered the painting, and it gives it sort of an Expressionistic flair, too.

It's not just a straight-up portrait.

Right.

That's what I liked about it.

I like the fact that she's very formal, but it's very punk-looking and rebellious to have all this splatter.

Yeah, exactly.

So is that what attracted it to you when you saw it?

It, I thought it must be what she's reading, sure.

And I'm an English teacher, so I thought, if my husband didn't like the painting for our house, that I could bring it to the classroom.

Ah, excellent, excellent, yeah.

She's primarily known as a portrait painter, but she does sculpture and printmaking, as well.

I would actually put the value somewhere around $17,500 retail.

(laughs): Oh, my God-- oh, my God.

Yeah.

Yeah... That's every thrift shopper's dream.

I'm so glad the power of reading still has some value.

Thank you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

PEÑA: The first owners of Hempstead House never spent a night there.

By the time the dwelling was completed in 1912, Howard and Katherine had divorced, a drama widely covered by the press, where Howard accused Katherine of having an affair with entertainer Buffalo Bill Cody.

Howard sold the estate to mining tycoon Daniel Guggenheim in 1917.

♪ ♪ So Ed, you brought in three baseball cards for us today: a 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle, a '52 Mantle, and a 1951 Bowman Willie Mays.

Tell us, how did you get them?

I collected them when I was a little kid.

I kept him and my mother didn't throw them away.

I probably saved the cards I liked the most, but baseball cards that I didn't care about, I would go, and you'd flip a card.

If it's a head, then the other person would have to get a head; if he didn't, you'd win that card.

But how much were cards selling for in 1951?

I think, for a nickel, I think you probably got five cards and a bubble gum.

And we always threw the bubble gum...

It was pink bubble gum.

You always threw the bubble gum away.

You brought in three of the most important postwar baseball cards.

And we value cards really based on three major factors.

And the first is the player themselves.

Mantle and Mays are both Hall-of-Famers, and from 1949 to 1958, every year, one of the three New York teams was in the World Series.

Mickey Mantle is still considered to be the epitome of the 1950s.

Crosstown, you had Willie Mays, also a rookie that year, and also a very highly desired baseball card.

Now we have two top Hall-of-Famers here.

Secondly, we look at the issue.

These are Bowman.

Bowman was the preeminent card maker.

And this is Mickey Mantle's true rookie card.

What we look at in issues, we have the player, but their rookie cards are more valuable and desirable than the others.

This last factor is condition.

We look at the quality of the image itself, we look at how evenly cut the margins are... Mm-hmm.

And we also look at the corners: how sharp are they?

I think this card would probably grade out somewhere between a 3.5 and a four, and I think this one would grade out somewhere around a five.

The Mays is probably going to be somewhere around a four, maybe a little bit higher than that.

You'd have to get them graded by a professional grader.

2021 has been-- and I'm going to use a technical term for you-- a crazy year for sports card values.

You have, in the '51 Bowman, one of the two most desirable postwar cards.

Mickey Mantle is the most collected postwar baseball player, and the '52 Topps-- which is ironic, because it's not his rookie-- is the number one collected and this is the number two.

We're going to start with the '52.

I think an insurance value, at the very least, on this card is going to be $15,000 to $20,000.

On the Mays, I think a minimal insurance value-- because again, remember, it's his rookie card, so it's going to be a higher value to start with, even though it's a lower grade-- I think this is $20,000 to $30,000.

Now, let's talk about this.

It's probably a 3.5 to a four, but I think minimally, you're still looking at insurance, with an escalating market, at $30,000 to $50,000.

Pretty good.

You've got sitting here in three cards, $60,000 to $100,000.

Pretty amazing.

A lot of good memories, too.

WOMAN: I acquired this from my father- and mother-in-law.

My father-in-law worked for Herman Miller for 35 years, and this was among the pieces that I got.

George Nelson is the designer of this desk, and Herman Miller is the manufacturer.

It was designed in 1955.

This particular desk is really rare.

It rarely comes to auction.

In a gallery, the value would probably be in the $3,500 to $5,500 range.

(gasps) Wow.

Does that surprise you?

Yes, it does, I... (laughs) To be honest, I really had no idea.

I'd say about six or seven years ago, I went to my local thrift store, and when I saw this bowl, my first thought was maybe my sister or my nieces would like to use it as a pasta bowl.

Coming from an Italian family, we know that you can never have too many pasta bowls.

For $3.75, I couldn't pass it up.

Knowing what I know about Italian families, it's not big enough to be a pasta bowl.

(chuckles): True.

It's a beautiful bowl, though.

It's actually a fruit bowl.

This is English porcelain.

I would date it to about 1830.

It's not worth a fortune.

If you ever decided to sell it, and I hope you don't, you'd probably be lucky to get more than $100 or $150 for it.

It looks the same today as it did 200 years ago.

Well, I'm glad I didn't put pasta sauce in it.

(both chuckling) We have a nice collection-- tell me what they are.

Photographs, I believe, of Byrd's expedition to Antarctica.

These were all taken by the fuel engineer.

My grandfather, who had his business of lab and photography, had the oil company as a customer, and the fuel engineer was a good friend, brought the film back, asked my grandfather to process it, print it.

My grandfather asked if he could make a copy for himself, and he said yes.

So to our knowledge, there are two copies of each of these photographs.

This was the first Byrd expedition.

There were others that followed.

But that's what these photographs are of.

And that expedition was from 1928 to 1930.

It was personally financed.

It wasn't a government expedition.

If you think about it, going to Antarctica at that point, the only place they could go was where dogs could take them, so they couldn't get very far.

Also, the conditions there were terrible.

(chuckling) Byrd's idea was, first of all, it was geological.

They wanted to get knowledge of the geology.

But he brought down planes.

And the idea was, you could fly those planes over the Antarctic and do a tremendous job mapping.

Okay.

That was what the real advantages Byrd's expedition was.

There were about 80 people who were on the expedition.

Only 40 stayed over, and they stayed over a year.

And the man who took these photos, Mulroy, was an oil engineer, but he was also, for the expedition, engineering and energy.

They had to conserve energy.

They only had so much they could bring.

If it came in through the ships, if they came in once, that was it.

But also the temperature-- 20, 30, 40 below zero.

Sometimes even getting down to 70 below zero.

It's not easy.

If any moisture got in his camera at 30, 40, 50 below, it would freeze solid inside.

The fact that we're seeing what looks like simple sort of everyday photos that you would have taken back in the '30s and '40s, or maybe, a lot of us remember the '50s, we just snap it... (chuckles) And that's what they look like.

There's a lot more to it.

To it.

And it was a successful expedition.

I love this photo.

And look at the ship they were on.

They had to find a ship that, it could get through the ice.

Mulroy, actually, a lot of his-- his jacket, a lot of his artifacts, a lot of the things he had in the South Pole-- his collection of photographs was actually put up for sale about 15, 20 years ago.

Okay.

And, and the sale, it was expected to bring $600 or $800, somewhere in that... For the photographs alone.

I can't tell from the description.

It sounded like he might have had some other photographs to go with it, but they went for five times that amount then.

Really?

I think it was 2006 they were sold.

I would say now, if you were selling these retail, they would easily get $8,000 to $12,000.

Whoa.

(chuckles) I wouldn't have expected that.

Amazing.

They're interesting, and it's a little slice of history.

I mean, I've always enjoyed looking at them and showing them to my friends.

PEÑA: Daniel Guggenheim bought the estate and its contents from Howard Gould for $600,000.

Adjusting for inflation, that would have been a nearly $14 million price tag in 2021.

Daniel was following his brothers' lead, as Isaac and William Guggenheim owned estates nearby.

Uh, it is, what I believe, uh, an old military uniform.

I think it's, uh, 1812.

I'm the president of a local historic house and because of that, I have a lot of, uh, love for historic, uh, items and artifacts.

And, uh, one of the local houses was being, uh, sold.

It was a privately owned house, and because we have a very good relationship with them, they invited us on to purchase some artifacts.

And I went up into the attic, 'cause I love looking, um... And I found a burlap sack.

So I grabbed the sack, I look in, uh...

It looked to me like it was a Santa Claus outfit.

(laughs) So, now, now, my wife is big into Christmas.

Around Christmastime at our house, looks like it threw up Christmas.

So I thought that'd be a neat little gift to get her, something, you know, from, from, from back in the day.

So I put it back in the sack and, um, I didn't know what I had until a couple days later when I got home.

And who wore it?

I think, uh, I think, uh, Cornelius Bennett wore it.

You know, we were looking through the house for, for months before it was sold, and we had purchased a bunch of books and so on.

And one of the books we found was a, something called a family book.

And the family book actually showed a little bit of the history of what's in the house.

Now, I don't know how accurate it is, and that's why I'm here today to, for you to correct the wrongs.

But the interesting thing was that it said that in the attic-- along with some of the other things that I found in the attic, so I know it was in the right spot-- it said Grandpa, uh, Bennett's, uh, militia, uh, uniform.

So I, I don't know if this is his uniform or not, but it sure looks old to me.

It is very festive, I know you, you know, thought it was a Santa Claus suit.

It does.

Especially the collar when you grab it.

I'm sure, I'm sure.

Yes, yes.

Um, Cornelius Bennett did serve during the War of 1812.

He did serve, okay.

Yeah, he was in the First New York Militia Regiment under Colonel Dodge.

Wow.

And they were called up in 1814 as the British moved down Lake Champlain.

He was called up for the Battle of Plattsburgh.

Now, I couldn't tell whether he actually fought at the Battle of Plattsburgh, or whether he was just there, but we know he was there because his pay records survived.

And the cut of this coatee fits in perfectly with that.

(exhales) That's unbelievable.

So with the documents you have, we're not, um, righting a wrong.

We're basically saying it's right.

Wow.

Excellent.

Um, from what we can tell.

So this uniform was probably produced, um, I would say probably around the beginning of the War of 1812, so around 1812.

Okay.

Um, and more than likely, he wore it in 1814, um, when they were shipped up to Plattsburgh, New York.

It's made from a super-fine blue broadcloth and scarlet broadcloth for the front facings, collar, and cuffs, which conforms to New York 1809 regulations.

The entire coatee is sewn by hand.

This metallic braid and ball buttons, each regiment could do something a little different.

Um, some had New York state buttons on them.

Colonel Dodge seems to have done something a little bit different with his regiment, with these buttons and metallic braid.

Great hand-sewn buttonholes.

On the back... ...we've got the ball buttons and the braid again, we've got, um...

The lining is turned over to create that same trim that's on the edge of the, uh, shoulder straps.

Now, would there have been pants that were with this uniform, as well?

Yes.

There would have been at one point.

New York regulations called for white small clothes.

Oh, okay.

So you would have a white waistcoat and pantaloons that went with it.

So, uh, what'd you pay for it?

Uh, well, when I purchased it, it was a group of a, a bunch of different artifacts that I took out of the house.

So a couple of maps, a couple of old jugs.

It was about $150.

Oh.

So you've got a great historic value.

And the fact that we have his name, it identifies it to a human being, which is super-cool.

That's great.

Which is great.

Sometimes we see these things and there's no name attached to it, and it's a great object, uh, but this one we can identify to a human being.

An auction estimate, because it's identified, I would put $5,000 to $7,000 on it.

Great.

If you did the restoration work to it, I think it would raise the value up a bit.

Might bring it up to the $6,000 to $8,000, $10,000 range.

And in, insurance-wise?

You know.

Insurance purposes, um, I would say probably in the $10,000 range.

Great, okay.

But it's a great piece, and, uh, thanks for bringing it in today.

No, thank you so much.

You know, for thinking it was a Santa suit, it's...

It's, yeah, that was the funny part.

Ho, ho, ho.

(laughs): Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Thank you.

MAN: My father was head of a governmental commission called the Office of Civilian Supply.

In 1943, this was given to him by Irwin Wolf.

He was the president of the Kaufmann Department Stores and he was an adviser to the Office of Civilian Supply.

That's great.

The cel itself is from a movie that Disney did in 1942, "Donald Gets Drafted."

It's a great animation cel.

This one's pretty special, as far as I'm concerned.

Because of the size, condition, background attached to it, and the image, I would say at auction I'd probably estimate it somewhere between $3,000 and $4,000.

Wow.

It's a great piece, it really is.

This painting was given to my grandfather for his birthday celebration, uh, around 1964.

My mother's high school friend's father is a close friend of Zhang Daqian.

Hm.

So he reached out to Zhang Daqian to obtain a painting, to paint specifically for my grandfather's birthday, and was presented to him.

And what was your grandfather's name?

Huide.

Yes, that's what I thought.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay, it's... (speaking Chinese) This is what the first line says.

Right.

"Given to elder brother Huide for his perusal and appraisal."

But the date of the painting is actually 1959.

Wow!

The combination here would be 1959, sixth month.

Wow, okay.

Okay?

Okay.

And then signed by the artist here, Daqian Zhang, and then his, um, classic signature.

Right.

With two seals of the artist.

Right.

Zhang Daqian was actually called the Picasso of the East.

Oh, really?

Yes.

Okay.

(chuckling) Yes.

He was an amazing, amazingly prolific artist.

He painted in many styles.

Of course, his best-known style, which actually was generated through his love of Tang Dynasty blue-green landscapes.

But later, because of his deteriorating eyesight, he developed into this what they call splashed-ink, blue-green po mo style, which, you know, have set record prices...

Right.

...in the, in both the private and the auction world, in the millions and multi-millions of dollars.

Zhang Daqian was born in 1899, and he was born in Sichuan Province to a family of a number of artists.

Yeah.

When he painted this painting in 1959, he was living in Brazil.

Really?

Oh.

He left China in 1949 and traveled, did various exhibitions throughout the world, he was such an energetic person.

Always dressed in classic Chinese long robes, with a very long beard.

Right.

Very distinguished.

Right.

He felt as though, if you painted an orchid, the orchid painting wasn't worth the paper that it was on unless it depicted the gracefulness of the leaves in the wind.

And you can certainly see that here.

This painting is executed in ink on paper.

You can see the sweeping of the black ink in the graceful leaves of the cymbidium orchid, and also just the touch of color in the green blossoms of the single orchid.

So within the context of the fact that this is an orchid painting and not a splashed-ink painting, and within the context that it was 1959, this piece would bring, have a pre-sale estimate at auction of $10,000 to $15,000.

Thank you.

An insurance value of this painting would be around $30,000.

Wow, thank you.

We are definitely going to keep this in the family.

Yes.

Fantastic, thank you very much.

Thank you.

♪ ♪ PEÑA In 1918, a year after Daniel Guggenheim bought the estate from Howard Gould, "Forbes" magazine ranked Daniel as the 13th-richest man in the country, with a net worth of $70 million, equivalent to around $1.3 billion in 2021.

My mother closed out her house a few months ago.

Mm-hmm.

And, um, she gave this to me.

It belonged to my great-grandmother, who made it.

Wow.

And what do you know about your great-grandmother?

I know that she came from Czernowitz, which was the Austro-Hungarian Empire at one time.

Mm-hmm.

And is now the Ukraine.

She came to the United States in 1885.

Mm-hmm.

And lived with her brothers in Philadelphia.

Okay.

And then she got married and moved with her brothers and her husband to Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, but she started this a year before she got married, I believe.

Mm-hmm.

And then continued working on it for a few years after it.

I know that my great-grandfather had some money at that time.

Mm-hmm.

Which would explain how she had time to work on this.

(chuckles) Even though she had a couple small children.

And that after this was done, a couple of years later, they pretty much lost all their money.

Oh.

And she never again had time to do this sort of work.

Mm-hmm.

Well, it's a beautiful Victorian crazy quilt.

We call it a crazy quilt because it doesn't have the regular pattern that we see in so many of the cotton quilts.

Mm-hmm.

Either earlier or later.

This one is dated 1891, January of 1891.

The background silks are probably from dresses.

The edging, possibly she purchased that, because you have a fairly uniform repeat... Oh!

...on the, these sort of teardrop shapes on the edge.

The spiderweb... Mm-hmm.

...is, is an unusual thing, no matter what.

But the fact that it has a little Frozen Charlotte doll... Mm-hmm.

...trapped in the spiderweb just fascinates me.

So I think that's really lovely.

And right near you, that big spray of flowers coming down... Mm-hmm.

They're wonderful because they're, they're raised up from the background, but then they also have the stamens, which are totally three-dimensional... Mm-hmm.

...and stick out from the quilt background.

You've got some very unusual motifs in this.

This one with a bug on it.

I was wondering if that could have been hand-painted.

I believe that one is painted and this one, as well, which is another bug.

Mm-hmm.

And then... My favorite is that...

The boot?

Yes!

Well, the boot is perfect because it's the, it's that time period, as well.

Uh-huh.

So it, it's another thing that just ties in... Yep.

...with the time of the quilt.

Her use of the colors is beautiful.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, it's really just lovely.

The colors all work so well together.

You do have a few condition issues.

Yes.

I think there's a few near you where the black silk has split.

The other thing is, she never had time to finish it.

Yeah.

So you can see that the back has, is just the raw embroidery.

Maybe that's when they lost their business.

Or, or when she had children and just put it away thinking, "I'll get to it someday."

Mm-hmm.

That does affect the value of it.

Mm-hmm.

But in this condition, with so many really unusual and charming motifs, I would put a retail value between $1,200 and $1,500.

Very nice.

If it had the back, you could double that.

And of course, I'd rather keep it.

It's just super-special to us.

Yeah, it's a family treasure.

WOMAN: I brought you a tray that I found in my parents' house when I was cleaning it out.

It was covered and hidden behind some folding chairs.

It was sitting in front of my fireplace, and, um, I had to put it away once I contacted you guys, because I was afraid the teenagers would come in the house and draw on it with a Sharpie.

(laughing softly) Well, I'm glad they didn't, and thank you for bringing it in.

So the tray is from England, from the 19th century, and it's painted tin, or what we call toleware.

I'm going to estimate this tray dates from somewhere from about 1830 to 1850.

If I were to see this to come up for auction today, I'd expect it to sell somewhere between about $800 and $1,000.

Very nice.

MAN: It was actually my mother-in-law's.

APPRAISER: Oh, I see.

And she used it as a planter and an ashtray.

Planter?

Ooh, right, okay, oh, good.

(chuckles) Oh, ashtray is maybe good.

Yeah.

Ashtray for, like, smoking?

Yes.

Oh, right, okay.

It's a Chinese incense burner.

They use it for religious reasons... Mm-hmm.

...for meditation or, um, for concentrating.

Mm-hmm.

Or sometimes, um, worshipping ancestors by burning incense.

In auction, this should make about $1,500 to $2,500 or so.

Mm.

Very cool.

Good.

Right.

Nice.

WOMAN: I brought a postcard written by Edvard Munch.

In the very early 2000s, I had to travel to Oslo, Norway, all the time for work.

I wandered into the National Gallery and made my way to the Munch room, where I, I saw "The Sick Child."

It was so moving.

I could feel the grief.

It was clear that he, he must have had a lot of grief, if he could communicate that grief... Yeah, he lost his sister... ...to somebody else, to just a observer of this painting.

He lost his...

He lost his sister Sophie when, I think she might have been around 15... Yeah.

...when he was maybe 13.

He carried that grief with him through his life, because he keeps coming back to that.

Yeah, even "The Scream," they think, has references back.

Yeah.

I mean, it was all, that, he was haunted, and he was sick himself.

He had a lot of illnesses as a kid.

Yes, yes.

And it's a big theme in all his, his work, is death.

I wanted to learn everything I could about Edvard Munch, and then art in general, and it just, it kind of changed my life.

(chuckles) Okay, so you don't need me here, then, eh?

(laughing): Well, no, and then I, I came home and I wanted something from Edvard Munch.

I went with an art dealer friend to an auction house, bid on a print, and just came very close.

Very close?

Did you underbid it?

I didn't get it.

One below, or...?

No, like, you know, I was elbowing my friend, "We can go higher," and he's.

like, "Absolutely not."

(laugh) And then sometime in 2005, someone that loved me bought me this.

Aw.

And so I feel like, you know, I have a piece of Edvard Munch... You certainly do.

(chuckles) This would be about the next-best thing you could get.

I think it's even better so-- in a way.

Well, we all know Munch for "The Scream."

But his artwork has a depth to it that people can really sense the genuine pathos that's in his work.

So this is his portrait, known as "Self-Portrait With Cigarette."

It was painted in 1895.

Now, to the fun side, what do you know about the, the side that he's corresponded on?

Uh, well, I've been looking at this every day for about 20 years, and, um, I know a litt... You know German?

You know a little German?

A little bit of German.

Okay.

I think it says, "Dear Mr.

Struck, You have my permission to reproduce 'Omega and the Pig.'"

And then, "I'm doing really well.

Heartfelt greetings, Edvard Munch."

You're absolutely right, he's writing to his friend, artist and publisher Hermann Struck.

And he wrote a book, it was published in 1908, and it was called "Die Kunst des Radierens," which is "The," um, "The Art of Etching."

And for that, he got five artists to participate and in, include one of their works.

Do you know about his breakdown in 1908?

It's my understanding that he was living quite a life, you know, full of partying and drinking.

(chuckles) And he was part of kind of a society of artists and writers in Norway.

Mm-hmm.

And he had a very, um, dramatic girlfriend, and I think that she shot him and shot his hand.

Yeah, yeah, it was like Sid... And...

It was like Sid Vicious in those days.

Yeah.

And finally, he had really come to a crashing halt.

Yeah.

He went into a psychiatric care in Copenhagen.

This comes from the period when he had been released, he was recovering, and that's why in the note he said, "I'm doing well."

It's not just a simple sentiment put in.

It's really, he's reporting to Struck that he's okay, and he's getting back in the artistic saddle and he's producing works again.

His signature is pretty rare.

His, his autographed letters don't come up much.

I would put an estimate of, uh, $3,000 to $4,000 on it.

Wow.

It's very kind of a special item, and, and you did well.

Thank you.

Or what, you know, whoever got that for you did you a great thing in that gift, and I'm sure you'll treasure it.

PEÑA: Fans of F. Scott Fitzgerald may know that grand houses like Hempstead House on the Sands Point Peninsula of the Long Island Sound were the inspiration for the place he called East Egg in his famous novel "The Great Gatsby."

Um, this is a map that I bought probably back mid to late '90s at the 26th Street Armory, at an antique show.

I paid about $200 for it, and I had it reframed and I've enjoyed it ever since.

So the first thing I'd like to talk to you about is trying to determine what exactly this is.

In fact, it's something that we in the trade refer to as a poster map.

And these maps were made as tourist knickknacks.

These maps were made as decoration.

They weren't particularly advertising anything, right?

A poster advertises something.

A map tells you how to get from point A to point B.

This is more of a decorative keepsake, a, a tourist tchotchke, if you will, something that might have been a memento of a trip to New York.

So, as we see in the cartouche, the poster was printed in 1926 and the artist was C.V. Farrow.

That's Charles Vernon Farrow.

Mm-hmm.

Not a particularly well-known or famous artist, but his work here is exquisite.

Yeah.

It's, it's a shame that there aren't more examples of his work.

First of all, the border is extraordinary.

The border is this sort of cacophonous traffic jam of multicolored cars and people, so wonderfully visually expressing the tumult of New York streets.

It makes it very clear that the scale is all askew.

Yes, and...

They're, they're telling you, "This is not a map."

Like, "Don't use this to get around the city.

If you're a tourist, don't use this."

But this gives such a great feeling for New York.

These wonderfully dressed flappers and the gentlemen who are courting them...

The gangster, I think.

(laughs) You say he's a gangster because he's wearing a plaid suit.

I'm not sure what you mean by that, but point well-taken.

Uh, the, the, the imagery is great.

Yes.

For example, St. Gabriel's Park.

I'm a native Manhattaner, born and raised on the island of Manhattan.

I'd never heard of Gabriel's Park until I saw this.

So you paid $200 for it.

Yes.

Any thoughts as to what it might be worth now?

Well, I mean, there have been thoughts anywhere between $1,200 to $5,000, anywhere in between there-- I really don't know.

The thing about poster maps is, very much like real estate, their value largely depends on location, location, location.

And while there are poster maps from around the world, all across Europe and from different parts of America, the more important and the more desirable the location, the higher the value, which really puts this 1920s, flapper, Art Deco-era map of New York right in the middle of the desirability bull's-eye.

Great.

Certainly to my mind, this poster is worth far more to somebody who loves New York or who maybe lives in New York than it would be to somebody who lives in Michigan.

I mean, this poster speaks to New York, it exudes New York, it's a, it's just this wonderful piece of New Yorkiana.

I've been dying to say that all day.

(chuckles) Um, so at auction, I would estimate this piece between $800 and $1,200.

Again, most likely selling to a New Yorker.

Now, to the thoughts that you had and that your friends had, in good condition, I would estimate it between $1,500 and $2,000.

Oh.

So, in fact, it being mounted to a board and the colors having faded almost cuts the value in half.

Okay.

But I will also say that it's a very rare piece.

It's only come up to auction once that I'm aware of... Mm-hmm.

...in the last 20 years.

Mm-hmm.

And because of its impressive New Yorkiness, it is possible it could sell for more than that.

Okay.

I don't actually think it would ever get to the $4,000 or $5,000 range.

Mm-hmm.

But certainly, to sell between $2,000 and $3,000, even in this condition, it's not out of the question.

MAN: I brought you two windows to a lunar module that wasn't built.

Either Apollo 18 or 19, because they only...

The Apollo missions only went to Apollo 17.

So, my dad worked for Grumman Aerospace.

They don't have infinite storage, so they were headed for the scrap heap, and my dad decided to bring them home.

Well, you know, we think back in time for a space race, and today we have a space race with billionaires going on, right?

(laughing): Yeah.

These are, um, front windows...

Yes.

...where they would be in the module that actually went onto the moon.

Right, they were-- the commander and the pilot... Mm-hmm.

...would, is what they would have looked out of.

They're pretty, uh, collectible.

For auction, each one would be valued between $8,000 and $10,000.

(breathlessly): My, I never expected that much.

But, so lucky to have these.

So, my grandmother was an Irish baby nurse and, like, housekeeper, right here in the area, worked for some really wealthy families.

Uh-huh.

Um, I must have been, like, three years old... Mm-hmm.

We went to visit her at work.

(chuckles) At this old woman's house.

And the old woman just took the ring off and gave it to me.

Well, you must have been darn cute, because this is a really nice gift to give to a three-year-old.

(laughs) This is a Verdura gold, platinum, and diamond cocktail ring.

Fulco di Verdura was an Italian jeweler who came to great prominence in the middle part of the 20th century, really, right at the beginning of the war era.

Verdura actually designed the Maltese cross that Coco Chanel made very popular in her costume jewelry.

He also did collaborations with other important jewelers like Paul Flato.

But he was also an independent jeweler and signed his pieces with his last name, Verdura.

So his designs are, are generally sort of sophisticated, chic, but very bold.

It's about five carats of diamonds total weight.

This probably came out of the firm in the 1960s.

So, because of the fact that it's signed and in the current market, which is very hungry for pieces that are signed by Verdura, great example of sort of a typical ring that epitomizes his style, at auction, I would expect it to sell between $7,000 and $9,000.

Oh, wow.

And I would expect it to the higher end of that estimate or even better.

Well, um...

It's a, it's a great thing.

I'm glad I kept it safe.

Yeah.

(both laugh) Wow, thank you so much.

Yeah, of course.

It's so tiny, I don't think I could have ever worn it.

It is a small size, and if you do ever have it resized, just be careful to not get rid of the mark.

Okay.

Yeah, my wife and I bought our house in 1990 here in Manhasset, and about 2005, we decided to do a renovation on the house, which meant making sure there was nothing up in the attics.

We found this in a back corner of the attic.

I mean, it was just, like, "What is it?"

It was all wrapped in newspapers and stuff.

And we opened them up and we found these two paintings.

And we said, "Okay, this is great."

They ended up hanging in our new dining room.

From what I know about them, they were done by an illustrator that did "New Yorker" covers.

I don't know how to pronounce her last name, but it's Edna Eicke?

We have an old house, so it was like a perfect fit, and we've both enjoyed them for years, hanging in the house.

So you have two wonderful images here by Edna Eicke, who is a 20th-century American artist.

She was born in Montclair, New Jersey.

She lived from 1919 till 1979.

Oh, okay.

And she really is known more as a New York artist, even though she was born in New Jersey.

She studied at Parsons School of Design.

Oh.

She actually studied advertising and fashion and she got her career started doing window displays.

Interesting.

And eventually, she started doing illustrations for magazines.

She did "Vogue," she did "Woman's Day," "House and Garden," and, as you've mentioned, "New Yorker."

Wow.

So, these are two of her very well-known images from "New Yorker" magazine.

She did 51 covers, I believe, in all.

That many, wow!

(laughs) The one closer to you is called "What's Your Name?"

and it's from 1950.

Mm-hmm.

And then the one on this side is "Children on a Bridge," which is from 1948.

Now, what did you want to learn today, while you're here, about these?

Oh, well, what we'd really like to learn is... Well, my wife thinks they're not real.

I think they are real.

But we came here to find out if they're real or not.

(laughs) And what do you mean by real?

Real, the real paintings, the originals.

Okay.

Well, I will tell you that we're going to settle the score here today.

(laughing): Okay.

They are reproductions.

Okay.

(chuckling) They are wonderful examples of her work.

And certainly, if you wanted one of her images in your home, the one especially closer to you is one of the best-known that, that you'd want to have.

There was a box set put together of her works, and I think these may be from that box set, which included 12 of her most popular images.

Oh, wow.

So they are printed on paper.

They don't look so much like reproductions because they're not offset lithographs.

They're a photolithographic process, but you wouldn't see a dot screen... Mm-hmm.

...if you looked at it under a magnifying glass.

(laughing): Yeah, we did, yeah.

So, there's a couple of ways that, that I can tell, and things that we look for.

Mm-hmm.

First of all, they're completely flat.

So when you look at them, you don't see a lot of paint or brushstrokes.

Oh, okay.

You see a very kind of flat application of the ink.

Mm-hmm.

Another sign, and it's very slight, but the colors have shifted just a bit, and that is based on light hitting the print.

It, it just shifts it over time, and it looks a little bit different.

But they are wonderful images to hang and to view.

And a, a very important illustrator from the 20th century.

In terms of value, you probably would end up getting $100 to $150 for the pair.

Okay.

And if they were the original illustrations, we'd add about two zeros to that.

(laughing): Wow.

So, you would be looking at $10,000 to $15,000.

(laughs) For the pair if they were paintings.

Well, they'll still hang in the house.

They're pretty pie-- pieces and everybody loves them, so... (chuckles) I hope that your wife is happy with the news.

Maybe happier than you are, since she was right.

(both laughing) I'm sure.

(laughs) PEÑA: Hempstead House is no stranger to film and television crews.

It's brought depth and grandeur to many projects, including "Scent of a Woman," "Malcolm X," and "Great Expectations."

And now "Antiques Roadshow."

In the summer, I live in the Adirondacks and we have a little chapel that just celebrated its 90th anniversary.

And, um, a few years ago, they were cleaning the basement, and I do all the flowers at the chapel, and they said, "Hey, this is, uh, something for flowers.

"Take it and get rid of it, because we never want to see it again."

So, I, I grabbed it, and it was covered with grime, and I cleaned it off and the glaze was just amazing.

So, I saw that there was a mark on the bottom, but I really couldn't get down to where it came from.

Okay.

It's a piece of Pisgah Forest Pottery by Walter Stephen.

Pisgah Forest was started in Arden, North Carolina-- it's outside of Asheville-- in 1926.

Mm-hmm.

Now, Stephen was a real Renaissance man.

I mean, a true potter.

Small studio, hand-thrown pieces.

Uh, he made his own potting tools.

Wow.

Built his own pottery.

I mean, this guy was a real, true Arts and Crafts potter.

Wow.

And so the production was, was fairly limited.

He's known primarily for making Chinese-style flambé glazes, pâte-sur-pâte decoration, which is like built-up decoration of scenes... Mm-hmm.

...and crystalline glazes.

Mm-hmm.

And the interesting thing is that the pottery was, was a little too expensive for the locals.

So it was tourist pottery.

Oh.

And that's one of the reasons why Pisgah turns up all over the country.

Oh, interesting.

Yeah.

So the rarest of his better work are crystalline pieces.

I've seen more pâte-sur-pâte pieces, and they're with traditional scenes of covered wagons and Native... Yeah, I've seen them with the Conestoga wagon and all that.

Yeah, and Native Americans.

Yeah.

He actually rode in a Conestoga wagon when he was young, so it was from his, from his youth.

Oh, wow.

He lived-- he was on the frontier.

He met Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill.

He was, he was quite the guy.

Quite a guy, yeah.

So you have a piece of, of pottery done by Walter Stephen, but it's exceptional in several ways.

Number one, it's crystalline, obviously.

It's much larger than they tend to be.

Most crystalline pieces are five, six, seven inches tall.

Mm-hmm.

If you see them at all.

But on top of that, it's got really beautifully grown snowflake crystals over the entire surface.

It's pretty amazing.

This is not an easy glaze to achieve, especially at this time, before the, the advent of electric kilns.

Mm-hmm.

To get the conditions just right inside of a kiln to grow crystals on the side of a pot is very tricky when you're dealing with a wood or a gas kiln.

Yeah.

So the fact that he was able to achieve this makes it quite exceptional.

I don't believe I've seen a crystalline vase this large.

I've had some of the pâte-sur-pâte decorated pieces and the flambé, which are the most common, but, uh, to find a beautifully thrown large piece with these green crystals-- another unusual thing, the color green in crystalline is quite rare for the work-- is, uh, is among the best that I've seen.

It's not dated, but I'd date this to about 1930 to 1935; I think it's a fairly early piece.

At auction, conservatively, I would say between $2,000 and $3,000, but I wouldn't be surprised if it brought, like, $3,000 to $5,000, in that range.

Wow.

It's really quite nice.

Wow!

Yeah.

You could look for Pisgah for the next ten, 20 years, and maybe you'll see one this good.

Wow, amazing.

WOMAN: The artist is Joe Leyendecker, and he was known to us as Uncle Joe.

And he was a friend of our grandfather's, and they became friends at the turn of the century.

So, the earliest record we have of their relationship is 1898, something like that.

We don't know how good the friendship was, but we imagine that it was a very close friendship.

I see.

Sadly, our grandfather took his own life... Oh.

...in 1921, when our father was still very small.

And so, Uncle Joe never lost contact with the family.

I see.

And when our mother and father were married... Mm-hmm.

...and when Dad's two sisters were married, Uncle Joe gave a painting to each of them as a wedding gift.

And they were married in, uh, 1931.

So it's been in our family forever.

And when Mother and Dad were married, he said that he wanted to paint the background gold to celebrate the wedding.

I see.

And so what we noticed, of course, was that he changed his monogram to a full signature after he painted it gold.

And he painted out "Easter."

Okay, well, you've answered part of my question... Yeah.

...which is why a painting that starts looking like this now looks like that.

Yeah.

Which, I love it, it's highly decorative, it's beautifully done.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Draftsmanship is great, colors are great.

So, this was published April 3, 1926.

Right.

Now, Joseph Leyendecker was the most popular American illustrator during this time, was a great influence on Norman Rockwell.

They knew each other.

He did 322 covers for "The Saturday Evening Post" alone.

Wow.

In total, Joe Leyendecker painted over 400 covers, and this all coincides with what was called the Golden Age of American illustration, which took place roughly from around the 1890s to about 1945.

Hm.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

And during this time, Americans by and large got their images, their information, their entertainment from periodicals and from magazines.

At the same time, you had advances being made in printing.

Four-color printing was introduced.

Yes.

And so you have greater sort of clarity and optical fidelity in the reproduction... Mm-hmm.

...relative to the original painting.

A number of the "Saturday Evening Post" paintings that went on to be used as covers that have been featured at auction have the original lettering.

And also have these two parallel horizontal lines, and you can kind of see in a raking light where they would have been.

Yeah, yeah.

Really well-done.

He is, amongst other things, known for working quickly, and the market right now for an American illustrator is, is pretty strong.

It's very strong, in fact.

Mm-hmm.

I don't know if the painting has ever been appraised.

No.

I don't know if you have any sense as to its, its val...

The closest we can come to it is what our cousin sold hers for, and she sold hers for $125,000 15 years ago.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

The last "Saturday Evening Post" cover that came to auction this year was estimated at $150,000 to $250,000.

Sold for over $4 million.

I think an auction estimate, a conservative auction estimate in 2021, is probably $150,000 to $200,000.

Now, if I saw this painting come to auction, however, would I be surprised if it came closer to $200,000 to $300,000 or more?

Uh-huh.

I would not.

Mm-hmm.

In fact, I would very much fully expect that that would happen.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, my sister's daughter is looking forward to owning it.

(chuckles) I see, okay, so it will stay in the family.

Oh, yeah, it will stay in the family.

Well, it's a great painting.

I think for insurance purposes in 2021, I would probably insure the painting for $400,000.

Mm-hmm.

Well, thank you, David.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you for bringing it in.

All right, okay.

PEÑA: And now it's time for the Roadshow Feedback Booth.

I was really surprised at how old this desk is.

It's from 1955.

All I could say is, I'm glad I didn't throw it to the curb the way my kids wanted me to.

Today I was surprised that other people are as interested in these photographs as I am, and that they have actual value.

I've had it for 25 years, and he pointed out things that I never even noticed before.

So it was fun.

It was a great experience being here on the "Antiques Roadshow," and I look forward to many more trips to the thrift store.

Well, yesterday I was eagerly looking forward to this, as was my wife, Mena, and today everything went very smoothly, so I'm still very upbeat about the whole experience.

(chuckling) What I have is a postcard from Edvard Munch, and I loved this object yesterday and I loved it today.

I just know a little bit more about it today.

He hated it, and now he loves it.

He's going to let me go to whatever thrift store I want to now.

I love the "Roadshow."

This is one of my favorite shows on TV.

I tried to come here a few years ago, but I couldn't.

This is my third time.

Third is the charm, I made it.

Yes!

(laughs) And I was invited by my twin brother, always wanted to come here, and he was the one that brought me here.

So, very excited.

(chuckles) PEÑA: Thanks for watching.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."