GUEST: brought in an Uncle Sam doorstop.

It's really heavy.

(chuckles) And it says "For the Open Door Policy," which, I'm not sure what that was, but it was my grandmother's, and it's been handed down for generations, and now it's mine.

And I was always told, "Don't get rid of Uncle Sam.

He's really important, he's a really unique piece."

And I don't know, really, much about him.

APPRAISER: So what we have is a cast-iron doorstop, a figural doorstop, uh, created to hold a door open.

It's hand-painted.

It's circa 1910 to 1920, American-made, but we don't know exactly where.

Most likely New England or possibly the Midwest.

That's where a lot of the cast-iron foundries who would make sad irons, doorstops, and toy novelties were located.

The base here, it's really cute.

It's a nice play on words, "For the Open Door."

The Open Door was a political policy with the superpowers or the powers-that-be at around 1899, 1900, relative to trade and tariff interactions in China.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: Uncle Sam, obviously, this proud, dapper figure here, uh, represented the United States.

We were the ones that suggested that this policy of the Open Door in, in China at the time.

We'll turn it around to show the back half here.

So, this is the flat side that would be against the door.

Now, when I first saw it, it struck me because of the overall condition, uh, which is exceptional.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: These turn up unpainted sometimes.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: But finding one that's painted in authentic paint, uh, is quite rare.

GUEST: Oh, I missed that.

APPRAISER: I can probably count, I pro, I can probably only count about five examples that I know of.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: Which would probably make this the second-rarest doorstop in existence.

GUEST: Oh, stop it!

Seriously?

APPRAISER: Seriously.

(gasps) GUEST: Oh, my gosh.

(laughing) APPRAISER: Uh, the things that I'll look for... GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: The things that I'll look for... GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: ...is the crazing in the paint.

It's almost like an alligatoring or a crackling in the paint.

We can see it here.

That's a good sign-- that shows old paint.

One of the tools that we use when determining if the paint is original is a bl, a shortwave black-light U.V.

So it goes into the spectrum.

It's hard to see in open light here, but the way this lights is exactly what we want to see.

Nothing's really jumping out to suggest that the paint is tampered with or has been modified, restored, et cetera.

GUEST: When I brought it up here, I did chip a little paint off of it... APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: ...and it came off really easily.

APPRAISER: We definitely want to avoid any more chips.

(chuckles) Uh, actually, the rule in my household growing up was, treat every chip like it's $1,000.

(gasps) GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: The other rule of thumb that we've used is that the money's in the face, and his face is in great shape.

GUEST: Oh, okay.

APPRAISER: A conservative auction estimate would be from $10,000 to $15,000.

GUEST: Mm, wow.

Okay.

APPRAISER: And the... GUEST: Go, Uncle Sam.

(both laugh) APPRAISER: And the top price, uh, actually exceeded $20,000 on one that sold at auction before.

GUEST: Oh, my gosh!

Wow.

Wow-- thank you so much, that's... I can't even believe that, wow.