Bonanzaville, Hour 3

♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: Treasures from all over the Midwest are turning up at "Antiques Roadshow's" visit to Bonanzaville in West Fargo, North Dakota.

APPRAISER: Everybody goes, "Wow, look at this!"

(chuckling): Oh, no, really?

(playing wavering notes) That's all I got!

♪ ♪ PEÑA: Bonanzaville, U.S.A., is the fantastic backdrop for today's "Antiques Roadshow" event.

The very name of this Midwestern attraction suggests a place of abundance.

And when it comes to showing off the history of Cass County, this little pioneer town certainly lives up to its name.

Among the 400,000 items in the collection, the first tractor ever made by John Steiger and his sons Maurice and Douglass back in 1958.

The farming family had a need for a more powerful tractor.

So the brothers got to work, building the vehicle in a converted dairy barn and doing so mostly from salvaged parts.

It was this bright green machine, affectionately called "Barney," that launched a successful tractor business.

Almost 20 years after Barney, the 10,000th Steiger tractor rolled off the factory line.

What kinds of treasures are our experts digging up at "Roadshow" today?

Find out.

♪ ♪ (people talking in background) Late 1800s to the early 1900s.

I remember...

It had a letter with it, and this is the envelope.

That's crazy.

Number 1 Snoopy Place.

Number 1 Snoopy Place, Santa Rose, California.

When it comes to collecting for Charles Schulz and "Peanuts" memorabilia-- when it comes to the comic strips-- the money is really in the original artwork.

When it's just a Charles Schulz signature, it's not worth a ton.

It's maybe only a $50 to $75 signature on its best day.

But the fact that you have, on a new strip, with the letter and everything, I could see a collector paying a couple of hundred bucks for it.

Fun item, right?

Yes.

Awesome.

It's a model 1853 Enfield rifle.

We got the British crown.

All right.

Because it's made in England.

And we have the 1862 production date.

And over here, what is this here, what is this?

Those are actually the size designations marked .25-25, which is the English way of marking 25 bore.

Oh, okay.

Which for us is .577 caliber.

.577 caliber, oh, put that down, hon.

.577 caliber.

(laughing) So, so when I talk to my buddies, they'll know what I'm talking... (laughing) I'll sound like I know what I'm doing.

It's a great old gun.

In today's world, this, as a gun, would probably sell in the $1,200, maybe even $1,500 range.

Oh, wow.

It's more than I thought.

♪ ♪ BOY: I brought my grandma's old dress.

It's based off of the Pearly Queens and Kings.

Mm-hmm.

But instead of being called a Pearly Queen, she called herself Pearly Pat.

She sewed every single button.

I don't know how long she spent, but it seems like it'd take billions of years.

She sewed everything onto this and then she got to wear it around to charity.

Mm-hmm.

This thing weighs at least 50 pounds.

It is very heavy.

She'd walk around outside.

She'd do it for hours on end.

She'd fundraise a lot of money for, like, hospitals, churches.

It's a a jacket and a skirt, floor-length skirt.

And your grandmother did an amazing job of sewing all these mother-of-pearl buttons.

And the suit itself, the basic black suit, probably dates to 1970.

And it could have taken her years to complete the button pattern on it.

You also said that she did it to raise money for charity, and another way that we know that is, on the back, in buttons, she spelled out, "All for Charity."

So she was not only a very talented seamstress, with all this button work and making the designs-- she's got a fish and butterflies-- she was also a very generous woman.

There's probably 1,000 buttons on this suit.

It's a real showstopper.

As you said, generally worn by the Pearly Kings and the Pearly Queens, who were predominantly known throughout England.

There's not as much of that type of activity in this country.

But they had these elaborate button-covered costumes.

She's got some great figural buttons on here.

There's a fish.

There's a heart-shaped button.

She's got a cross, a cat.

The more you look at it, the more interesting things you can find.

Her work is just really wonderful, and we think that an insurance value for something like this would be $2,000.

Wow, oh, wow.

Some of the buttons on the jacket have great value on their own.

These very large ones on the front are probably worth almost $100 each.

Some of the others on the back are $35.

So, if you appraised it almost as a button collection, it would probably be between $1,000 and $1,500.

Wow, that's a lot of money for just buttons.

If we brought her button collection, we'd probably have to fill up the whole car...

There's still more buttons-- you could make one.

(laughs) Oh, yeah, I definitely could.

♪ ♪ WOMAN: My grandfather was a collector, so he just kind of had just a lot of amazing things, just everywhere.

So this is the one thing after he passed away that I said I really just admired when I was a child, and my Aunt Amy said that I could have it.

This is some Mexican folk art.

Okay.

And it's done by Sergio Bustamante, and he is known for these sort of bigger-than-life sculptures like this that are very colorful and dramatic.

A piece like this, a fair market value, would be probably in the $600 to $800 range.

Okay.

I love this piece.

I love it.

I think it's really fun.

WOMAN: I brought a picture that has been in my family as long as I can remember.

I saw it hanging on the wall as I was growing up.

I thought it was rather ugly, big.

Mm-hmm.

And after my mother passed away, I wrapped it up and put it underneath my bed, and that's where it's been, until today.

My grandfather is in the photograph down in the bottom.

Well, when you pulled this out of your, your cart.

Mm-hmm.

I first saw the frame, and it's a wonderful tramp art frame, it's made of wood.

And then I saw the photograph.

Right.

The photograph, as we can see, is the Philadelphia Liberty Bell, complete with crack.

And this was done by a pair of commercial photographers from Chicago, Arthur Mole and John Thomas.

And they became famous during the First World War with these living photographs.

Really?

That took thousands of troops to create these images.

They did the Statue of Liberty.

Oh, my.

The head of Woodrow Wilson, eagles-- all sorts of things.

This was one of their most famous images.

Really?

And it's copyrighted 1918.

The partner, Mole, would stand up on an elevated place, just bellowing down to the group below to get it orchestrated, get it organized and, and photographed.

Wonderful.

This happened to be taken at Camp Dix in, in New Jersey.

Oh.

The print itself is in excellent condition.

The frame was made in 1921 by a man by the name of William Bergstrom, who must have been the...

Hired hand.

Hired, hired hand.

And he so carefully made a frame that's perfectly... Amazing.

...reflects the photograph.

You've got two great things.

To insure this piece, I would put maybe $8,000 on it, something like that.

Well, that's wonderful.

♪ ♪ PEÑA: The Pioneer Fire Company shows what an 1890s fire station would have looked like: hand-pulled carts, a horse-drawn fire wagon, with modest living quarters upstairs, where two volunteers would have lived to care for the horses.

Fargo suffered the worst fire in its history in 1893.

By one count, 140 residences and 219 businesses were destroyed.

The only fatality was a volunteer fireman who succumbed to injuries he sustained fighting the blaze.

After the fire, rebuilding began immediately, with new fire codes favoring brick over wood construction.

MAN: This is my grandfather Wesley Winkler's helmet.

He served in World War I in France in, from, I think, 1918 to 1919, and he was in the Engineers.

And this helmet was the helmet that he wore, and he had a friend of his in his unit paint this commemorative at the end of his service over there.

We were able to do a little research on the gentleman.

We found him in... Is it Laverne, Minnesota?

Yes, correct.

Where he was from?

Yup.

There are all kinds of wonderful records that are available today.

They're all online, so we're able to see that he went over in June of '18, came back in June of 1919, and was with the, as we see here, the 55th U.S.

Engineers.

Yes.

They were a standard-gauge- railway construction unit.

Primarily, they were involved in creating the rail system that got supplies from the depots to the front lines.

Okay.

How have you been taking care of this?

Where did you find it?

Well, it was always at my grandfather's house.

And when he passed away, my father got it.

Then when my father passed away, I, I got it.

And it just sits on my bookshelf.

What appealed to you specifically?

Memory of my grandpa and being proud of his, his service.

And I know it meant a lot to him.

And it certainly meant a lot to my dad.

And I know when he passed away, I spoke up right away.

"That's the only thing I care about getting," so... Well, your taste is excellent.

Thank you.

We've had quite a few World War I painted helmets over the years.

Oh , okay.

To the tune of thousands of them.

Really?

This is the nicest World War I painted helmet that I've ever seen.

Oh, sweet.

What appeals to, to us on this helmet?

A lot of them are done simply with a unit insignia, to wear.

So that is something that would have been done after the Armistice that they would wear during the Army of Occupation.

Some of them that are a little bit more elaborate were done as souvenirs, either over there or on the ship on the way home.

This falls into that category, but it is just orders of magnitude better than anything that I've ever had or seen.

We have the artwork on the front, which is a combat scene.

We've got guys going over the top in the trenches.

His name and unit, which is a little unusual to see that on there.

No artist's signature-- I'd love to know who the... Did he ever mention to you who the artist was?

No, no, I just thought it was somebody in his unit, and I believe it was done on the boat coming back.

I'm sure there was some sort of a, a transactional basis, whether it's rations or cigarettes, or...

I was going to say, probably a pack of smokes or something.

This one is just, it is absolutely stunning.

You see we've got the American flag here, done as kind of a banner front and back.

A rising sun, the eagle, the guys going over the top, and the quality of the artwork is far better than what we normally see.

When you see a really, really nice one these days, you have to be especially careful, because starting even 20 years ago or so, there were some professionally done helmets that were coming in from overseas, but they're done as commemorative pieces.

They're not sold to deceive, but the quality of the artwork is utterly fantastic.

I mean, it is premier-level stuff.

But those are modern-- they're not original.

This we know to be original.

Most World War I painted helmets are going to run between $100 and $300.

This is a helmet comparing to some of the very nicest ones that I have seen and sold.

This is a helmet that I would expect a retail value of $2,000 to $2,500.

Wow, wow.

He'd be proud.

♪ ♪ There are stoneware collectors that will kill for this, because they could find 100 of these little crocks plain, and only one with the date and somebody's name on it.

What would have been an ordinary, utilitarian piece of pottery becomes a $1,000 to $1,500 crock because it's signed and dated.

If you would've showed this to me without this inscription on it, I would have said it was worth $60.

It is very festive.

Yes.

That's why you liked it, right?

Yes, yes, yes.

They've got the dragon festivals going on and they're all on parade, these little boys.

So, it's a symbol of wealth and good fortune for the New Year.

Oh, good.

Which is very good.

That's great.

It's great-- how much did you buy it for?

$200.

For $200.

At an auction, yeah.

Well, you didn't do too bad!

(laughing): I guess not!

So today, this lovely Chinese ginger jar would be worth about $400 to $600.

Fabulous.

Thank you very much.

Yeah.

We're happy.

We like the dragon on it, it's a dragon.

It brings us good luck.

WOMAN: Well, I live in a small town, and we have a local barber that had been there for years, and he was retiring, and I was invited to come into the shop.

He always decorated with old and interesting items, and he was liquidating what he had for decor in the barber shop.

And this is what I bought from him.

When did you get this model?

It's been a couple of years ago now, I guess.

I knew my husband would love it.

He's a big fan of anything that has wheels and wings, so, yeah.

(laughs) So, I basically bought it for him.

Sure-- did you find out why the barber had it?

Why it was in his shop?

Actually, the pilot that gave it to him came in for haircuts all the time, and one day, he walked into the shop with this airplane, and said, "Dale, here, you can have this for your, your decorating in your store."

Do you know much about it?

All I know is that it's a TWA Constellation, and that a pilot was the one who owned it to begin with.

Well, that it is.

It's a sleek, beautiful, wonderful airplane.

Look at how it's got this wonderful, kind of a dolphin tail with the three fins.

Mm-hmm.

The props were a little noisy, and in some versions, they would actually have the first class in the back of the airplane.

Oh.

To avoid that engine noise.

Uh-huh.

I believe that there were over 800 of the actual airplanes produced over the years.

These were display models, and they were promotional.

You would find them at travel agents.

Some of them were probably in the shops at TWA.

Oh, mm-hmm.

I believe this was a production contract that may have come from the shops at Lockheed.

Lockheed were the manufacturers of this airplane.

It's a burnished aluminum.

Mm-hmm.

Some of the later models that were promotional were actually plastic.

Oh.

But this is the real deal.

It's to scale, it's got the decals with the windows.

If you look up in here, it's got the "Star of America" on here.

What do you do with it now?

Where do you have it in your home?

Well, my husband kind of claimed it.

Uh-huh.

So it's, it's in his little man cave up near the ceiling, where he can look at it.

So, he, he really likes it.

What a fantastic, fantastic promotional display.

What do you think it's worth, have you got any ideas?

I don't really know.

I paid $200 for it, so if it's... Whatever over that is... Well, the next time I go looking for good buys, you can go with me, okay?

(laughing) I admire your skill.

There have only been four or five of this model that I could find had sold at auction.

Auction value on this airplane is $5,000 to $6,000.

(gasps) (chuckling): Oh, no, really?

Oh, that's amazing.

Oh, my goodness.

Pretty good for a $200 investment.

That is.

Yeah.

And you know, the barber that I got it from, he was just in my store a couple of weeks ago and I was telling him how much my husband liked it.

So, he'll probably want it back now.

(both laughing) Your husband might get a crew cut when he goes in next time.

Yeah, yeah.

♪ ♪ PEÑA: The original Embden Depot was built in 1900 by the Northern Pacific Railroad, which built tracks through Red River Valley in 1872.

Railroads were the lifeblood of North Dakota towns like Embden and Fargo.

Towns not on or close to railroads often did not thrive, and some did not survive.

WOMAN: Well, I found it on the shelf in the back of a little shop.

Just thought it looked like a good piece, but I didn't know what it was.

I didn't recognize the markings on it.

So I purchased it and then did some research, and it said, apparently it is attributed to Marblehead Pottery.

And when you bought it from that, that shelf in that little shop, how much was that?

Three dollars.

And that was recently?

A couple of weeks ago.

Indeed, it was made by the Marblehead Pottery in Massachusetts.

Doctor Hall had started a sanatorium, helping young women with... with physical and, and neurological issues through the making of pottery, which was a great idea.

And it was a pretty common idea at the time, at the turn of the last century.

Okay.

Except that it was found that instead of helping the patients, it was putting a lot of stress on them as patients, and it wasn't helping the pottery.

And the actual pottery was sold to someone else.

Okay.

So, Arthur Baggs took over the pottery in about 1915.

This particular piece would have been done, the original design, around 1919...

Okay.

...and produced over and over again through the 1920s, and probably through the '30s, as well.

What I love about this is that you are buying it at this time, in the 21st century, for three dollars.

Originally, it may have been a couple of dollars.

Okay.

These days, a very reasonable auction estimate would be $1,000 to $1,500, okay?

Okay, wow.

And, and the retail estimate, $1,500 to $2,000.

Okay.

♪ ♪ APPRAISER: What you have here is a pair of Art Deco railroad wall sconces, probably from the very famous 20th Century Limited train designed by Henry Dreyfuss.

Current value in today's market is $1,800 for the pair.

They're in excellent shape, and if you have them rewired, they'd be worth even more.

MAN: Wow.

APPRAISER: It's an Austrian ocarina.

Made in Vienna, it's a very large size, and your father engraved into the surface in 1937, "Boy Scout National Jamboree."

And what can you tell me about what he did there?

He played this ocarina on the radio, national radio.

He was very proud of the fact he attended that event.

Well... As you can tell.

It's just a really nice carving job, and Boy Scout memorabilia is very, very collectible.

I would put a value of about $75 to $150 at auction on this.

Oh, cool!

Okay.

(playing wavering notes) That's all I got!

(both laughing) This is a book that was created by my great-great-grandfather, a man named John Collins.

He was an artist and a lithographer, lived in Pennsylvania.

He was the grandson of Isaac Collins the printer.

He did this book for or from, or something to do with the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876.

He supposedly made one for each of his daughters.

But this is the only one I've ever come across.

I have looked for the other two, contacted several descendants of the other sisters, and nobody's ever heard of one.

My mother inherited it from her father, my grandfather, when he died, and then she passed it on to me.

She's still alive, but, but she passed on the book to me, because I sort of collect the family artifacts.

This is a sketch book that he put together, and it starts with some original photographs in it.

So this is an 1876 photograph of the Centennial Exposition.

It was celebrating the 100th anniversary of the country, but in the exposition, it was essentially a World's Fair.

It was showing what was going on in the world, what the relations the United States were making.

What type of industrial and artistic things were going on.

It was a big success.

One of the hardest parts that I found in this book was choosing just a few.

(laughing) I'd like to show every page of this book.

He was an incredible artist.

I mean, this is absolutely gorgeous, showing what it looked like.

Mm-hmm.

The ceilings, the detail.

When you get watercolors this old, a lot of times, they fade.

they're not sharp.

And you can really tell the precision that he did.

This is sort of showing... Yeah, I love this one.

The fishing of the country.

The beautiful flags hanging, the people looking, the costume, the, all of the different fish that were part of the industrial U.S.

It's very unusual, because this was sort of a multidimensional item.

I asked a few of the people in the art tables, and everybody goes, "Wow, look at this!"

Not only do you get people who might be interested in the art... Mm-hmm.

But there are a lot of collectors who are very interested in expositions, World's Fair.

So you have all of those people.

Mm-hmm.

And one of the people I consulted is from Philadelphia, and he just said, "People will go crazy in Philadelphia for this."

If this came up, you have one chance in your lifetime to buy it.

And you say that you believe there were two others of these.

Yes.

Boy, would I love to see those.

Since it's staying in your family, you're looking more for insurance, insurance appraisal.

Yes.

And of course, it could never be replaced in any case.

It's just, for the family, it's priceless.

An insurance value would be $12,000 to $15,000.

Okay, whoa.

That's, that's a lot, but not nearly enough to make me depart with it.

or anybody else in the family.

This really made my day.

I'd love to take it home with me.

(laughing) But I'll leave it to you.

Well, thank you.

This book is a first aid book that was my great-grandfather's, and he was in Sweden and in the army.

Yes.

And 1879 is when he enlisted.

And when we opened the book, we found that it's all in Swedish, but full of what we assume are instructions.

And when you get to the back, there's a pocket, and this bandage is folded very strategically and tucks into the back of the book.

So when you open it, there's these images that depict lots of different kinds of injuries.

There's numbers on the individual injuries, and we think they coordinate with the information that's in the book.

It's printed on cloth, but it, it is an actual real bandage.

Mm-hmm.

Medical surgery in the post-American Civil War years in Sweden and the rest of the world... Yeah.

...was pretty primitive.

It involved a lot of amputation.

Mm-hmm.

And each one of these images depicts a soldier with a different type of wound with a very similar bandage to this... Mm-hmm.

being treated in a different manner.

This soldier's, the bandage is being used to, to hold his arm in a sling, and then, if we look further down, we see that part of his leg has been amputated.

I'd never seen a printed bandage like this before.

When you unfolded it out of the pocket... Yeah.

I was just, like, "What on earth is this?"

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

The book and the bandage were published in 1885.

Most of these would have been battlefield-used.

Mm-hmm.

And they would not have survived.

Oh, yeah.

And they would not have been in this kind of condition.

At a retail value, I think I would appraise this item at between $800 to $1,200.

That's cool, yeah.

Thank you.

This is a Charles and Ray Eames- designed leg splint that was developed for use in World War II.

The metal splints they were using to secure broken legs and things would vibrate on the ships and cause further damage to the legs.

Mm-hmm.

So, the Eameses were developing this bent plywood technique, and they were awarded the contract.

This was one of Charles Eames's very first designs.

And of course, they went on to make a whole host of furniture.

Some of the most famous designs used bent plywood.

It's such a fundamental component of American design and collecting of American design.

Mm-hmm.

This was my dad's ukulele.

When he was a young guy in his 20s, he was a amateur vaudevillian.

He tap-danced, and he played the ukulele.

He died young, he died in 1967, and I've had it ever since.

In fact, the strings on it have never been replaced.

So, you don't play it yourself?

I don't play it myself.

But you've kept it in your family, and...

I've kept it.

Yeah, I'm an only child, and it just naturally came to me.

I figured it's from the '30, '20s or the '30s.

It's a Martin.

I'm so glad you brought it when you brought it.

It's, the case isn't here, but the case is completely falling apart.

And so, when I see a case like that, I go, "Oh, I can't wait to see what's inside."

When I looked inside, it just made me smile, 'cause not only is it... you're correct, the date.

This is... this model was made between 1920 and the early '30s, but it's also in fabulous condition.

What it is is a C.F.

Martin 3K soprano uke made by the C.F.

Martin Guitar Company in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

And it's kind of special, because in the ukulele line, Martin went from style zero to style five.

This is a style three, and that's because of the decoration.

They didn't make a style four, and so this is next to the top-of-the-line instrument.

But what really makes it special is that it's made out of Hawaiian koa wood rather than mahogany.

Not only is it beautiful Hawaiian koa wood, but as you move it in the light, this has a lot of flame to it.

Yeah.

It's the same with the back.

Very pretty.

What almost always happens to these instruments is, eventually, they get a crack in them or are damaged.

And this instrument has been maintained in wonderful condition all these years.

Very minor nicks and scratches, little dings, what we call honest play wear.

No repairs to the instrument of any kind of all.

No damage of significance.

The style three has the fancier inlays in the fingerboard.

Right.

It has this little wedge piece inlaid in here, which looks like it's ivory, but it's actually ivoroid plastic.

Even back then.

The only thing that's on, on the instrument that's made of ivory-- which could be a problem nowadays-- is this thing called the nut.

They've been changing regulations with the sale of ivory.

The sale of ivory, less than 200 grams on a musical instrument is not an issue unless you were shipping it international, and then you just have to figure out what the regulations were at the time.

Right.

The market in these have changed significantly.

20 years ago, they were worth very little.

Ten or 15 years ago, they would spike through the roof.

And then they've leveled off a little bit.

'Cause when they spiked through the roof, they came out of the woodwork, and people wanted to sell them.

Right.

I would say, in the current marketplace, that this instrument, in this condition it's in, would sell in a retail market for about $3,500.

Wow, that's great.

It would have sold in the highest of the market, maybe for $5,000.

Right.

But that was then, and this is now.

It's still a significant number, and, and a, and it's a beautiful instrument.

What do you think your dad would think about this value?

(chuckles): Oh, I...

I think right now he's laughing his head off in heaven.

He would love it.

He would be... he'd be amazed.

PEÑA: The Dobrinz School was built in 1895 in the Mapleton Township and was named after the Dobrinz family, as their 13 children attended the school.

When North Dakota became a state in 1889, most of its roughly 1,400 schools were ungraded, meaning that students were not placed in grades.

Students worked at their own pace to advance, so a 15-year-old might be learning the same lesson as a ten-year-old.

WOMAN: I bought this about a year ago at a thrift store in Wisconsin.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

It was hiding in the back, it caught my eye with the... the shape of it, and it has "Mexico" written on it-- both of my parents are from Mexico-- and I just bought it.

So, what you described to me earlier as a magnifying glass.

That's what I call it.

It's not a magnifying glass at all.

Okay.

It's a Mexican artist named Feliciano Béjar.

Feliciano was born in Michoacán region in a poor family.

He assisted his father as a young man.

He was a street peddler, so handling small notions and bottles and trinkets and things like that.

And that sort of got his creative juices flowing a little bit.

He later apprenticed with a carpenter and would start using scrap pieces and found objects and put them together and started making different things.

As an artist, he had a very long and sort of meandering career.

He got into painting for a long time as a young man, and he actually traveled to New York for his first exhibition in 1948.

And it's really not until the 1960s that he stumbled upon this style of art, which is really sculpture.

And he perfected this form, the first piece actually came out in 1966.

These objects were made mainly with found pieces, so pieces of machinery and gears that he would fit with these polished lenses of glass with these concave areas in them.

Mm-hmm.

And they became known as magiscopes.

And the magiscope became his trademark piece for the rest of his career.

The purpose of the piece is not to make reality more clear, it's to distort reality, to see things in a different way.

You can see his name here, inscribed in the glass, followed by the date, 1978.

On the base here, we see the inscription "To...," someone's initials, Mexico, and then the date.

In this case, it may have been a gift from him to someone which he had inscribed.

In terms of how his pieces present, this one is much more finished, much more polished.

Oh.

The other ones have a more raw, kind of industrial feel.

But they always have this finished, very refined lens piece.

And this is a small piece.

This would be for a desk or a tabletop.

Mm-hmm.

He made pieces that are human-scale in terms of size.

He really hasn't gotten his due as an artist.

Although this is sculpture and fine art and collected as such, he's still considered more of a craftsman than an artist.

How much did you pay for it?

I want to say six dollars, no more than ten.

Any idea at all what a piece like this might be worth?

No, I think I was guessing maybe $100.

He must have made this in a series.

I wasn't able to find information about how many in the series.

Oh, okay.

But an identical piece is being offered in a retail setting right now for $3,000.

So, it's a pretty, pretty great purchase.

(laughs): Yes.

From, from the thrift store.

Yes.

Yeah, I think as time goes on, his pieces are going to increase in value.

♪ ♪ APPRAISER: The fact that the head moves is brilliant.

The material here is Australian.

This is boulder opal.

This is where the opal, at the bottom, attaches to the boulder.

And then a little extra touch with the diamonds down below.

Yeah.

This is just one of the nicest stick pins I've seen in a long time.

Well, thank you.

WOMAN: I paid probably a dollar or two dollars.

It was in a box of things.

APPRAISER: This is a World War I war loan poster printed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire asking citizens to subscribe to the war loan.

This is printed in the Croatian language.

When this poster appears in German, or when this poster appears in Czech, it tends to sell for $700 to $1,000.

Okay.

I think because this poster is in, really, the scarcest of all the languages, in Croatian, that at auction, I would estimate it between $800 and $1,200.

Awesome.

WOMAN: These are wood carvings that my great-uncle Sam carved back, well, 100 years ago or more.

Sam was one of the typical bachelor farmers in North Dakota.

He was just a wonderful guy.

These carvings are just charming.

And the skill set to accomplish these works is actually quite high.

So here he is, he's a farmer.

You have these long winters here in Fargo.

Yeah, yeah.

And he's carving, he's making these objects, he's painting them.

And in terms of the folk art spectrum, they are wonderful.

The one that is right over there, is that the family homestead?

Yep, that's their house, the farm.

There's different levels of valuation for pieces like these.

Yep.

Because they're family pieces, and they're not going to be sold, we tend to put insurance values on these.

But if they were lost, you really can't replace them.

Yeah.

So for today's purposes, I'm going to actually put retail values on them.

Okay.

I think the one of the family homestead would probably be in the $400 to $500 range.

The small one over here would probably be $200 to $300.

But these two plaques are pretty major.

And I feel that these would quite easily achieve in the area of $2,000 each in the folk art marketplace.

(exhales) Yeah, yeah.

(chuckles) (stammering) Boy, he really knew what he was doing.

Yeah, they're wonderful.

MAN: I brought in a sword that was given to me by my dad, and my dad said it was from Great-Grandpa.

I guess Great-Grandpa loved to collect a lot of Civil War items.

Yeah, yeah.

So Dad ended up with it.

And Dad then gave it to me.

It's a Confederate cavalry sword made by Louis Froelich from Kenansville, North Carolina.

And we can tell that for a few things.

This little mark right here, it's called an assembly mark.

Ah.

You see the Roman numerals right on the brass here?

Oh, okay.

And we can also tell by the crudeness of the blade, 'cause the blades were all hand-hammered, so they were custom-fit into each of the brass pieces in the scabbard.

So, this piece, this throat right here is not numbered, but we know that it went to this sword because of its fit with the blade.

What they normally would do is, they would mark with Roman numerals here and here so that they knew that those two pieces fit together.

Ah, that's the way... Because of the fact that they were handmade.

They were made separate, kind of?

Yeah, they were handmade.

So they fitted them and then marked them.

If we look at the pommel over here, it's really crudely cast and filed.

It also has signs of being Confederate by the crudeness.

The grip would have originally been all leather-wrapped with iron wire wrapped around the outside-- that's missing.

And you're missing the bottom part of the scabbard with the brass drag.

Obviously, the leather is not going to stand up, and they only did this for a short amount of time.

Then they went to a steel scabbard, because it would stand up more to heavy use on horseback.

So this is an earlier one?

This is probably an early one, because it's got the leather scabbard.

It's one of the rarer of enlisted swords.

Officers' swords are a little more abundant.

We would put an auction estimate, even in this condition, at $2,000 to $4,000.

Oh, wow.

It's a pretty good amount.

Pretty good amount.

Yes, it is.

You know, normally, you'd look at a sword in this condition and think it's worth about $50, but... Sure.

Because it's Confederate, it's, uh, it's got a lot more value in the market today.

Wow, that's fantastic.

Yeah.

They said it's not...

It's not Sticky.

Stickley.

Stickley.

They pointed out that the seat was made out of three pieces.

Three pieces, yeah.

And an authentic one would have had one solid part for the seat.

But I bought it because I liked it.

APPRAISER: You have a set of ten lithographs by Marcel Marceau, the famous mime.

And this edition, ten prints, each signed.

At auction, it sold for between the range of $700 and $1,000.

Oh, that's, that's great.

They're handsome prints.

MAN: These candlesticks were given to me from my grandmother when she passed.

And that was about seven years ago.

And they've been in the closet since then.

I don't really know anything about them, except, she always told me that they were her grandmother's and that they were very special.

Where was she from?

She's from England, originally.

Okay.

They are French.

Oh.

And that makes them a little bit more interesting than if they were English.

French silver is, by its nature, is rarer than English silver, due to in some part, I mean, wars.

And that sort of turbulence led to silver being monetized and melted down more readily than it was in England, for example.

We can date them because of a mark that's on them called the Minerva mark.

The Minerva mark is the French silver guarantee mark, the fineness mark.

The Minerva mark on these dates from around 1838 to 1840.

You also have a maker's mark on them, as well.

Jean-François Veyrat was the maker.

He was active in Paris between 1832 and 1840.

You did mention to me, tell us about some of the history of them.

Well, this one is a little damaged at the bottom.

My grandmother, when she was cleaning them one time, she dropped it.

It looks a little bit sort of twisted.

You can definitely see there is some damage to this one here.

Yeah.

Which obviously does affect the value of them.

Yeah.

There are various grades of, of silver fineness...

Okay.

...that were used in French silver.

These are 950, so, in parts per thousand.

Okay.

So the sterling standard is 925 parts per thousand.

These are actually higher than sterling.

Okay.

At auction, I would imagine the value of them to be somewhere in the region-- noting the damage... (laughs) Of $800 to $1,200.

Wow!

Wow!

If they were in perfect condition, I think you would get somewhere in the region of $1,500 to $2,000 for them.

Okay.

But you've got to knock off a few points, I think, for the damage.

For the damage.

Sadly, yeah.

That's okay-- wow.

But I hope that you use them and enjoy them.

Yeah, I probably should take them out of the closet, then, and... use them.

Absolutely.

Thank you very much for bringing them in.

Thank you so much.

PEÑA: In addition to historical buildings, Bonanzaville features several museums, including one dedicated to the agricultural machines of the region; the telecommunications that connected the Midwest; and the history, equipment, and uniforms of law and order in North Dakota.

♪ ♪ MAN: This is a portrait of my grandfather that was done in 1947.

My aunt at that time was taking painting lessons at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

And she came up with the idea of having a portrait done of my grandfather.

Mm-hmm.

So she asked her painting instructor if he'd be willing to do it.

Unfortunately, he was willing to do it, but for $250, which was way out of what my aunt could afford.

She brought my mother in on the project, and asked the, her painting instructor if perhaps he knew somebody else who could do it for less of a fee.

He suggested a gentleman who he knew from the Lower East Side of New York, who they met the following week.

Mm-hmm.

That gentleman was Franz Kline, and he agreed to do the portrait for $75.

So my grandfather had three sittings in Kline's studio, and reported that the studio was pretty much like a debris field, with pieces of the yellow pages torn out and painted on.

But at the end of the three sittings, we had this portrait, which has been in our family ever since.

So the portrait cost... $75.

$75.

It's an original oil on canvas.

It's by Franz Kline, executed in 1947.

Yes.

And you know about Franz Kline as a painter?

I know that he's one of the giants of Abstract Expressionism.

Mm-hmm, absolutely.

He started out, actually, working in a more representational style.

He was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in 1910.

He studied art in Boston.

He also went on to study in London.

He returns to the United States in 1939, ultimately sets up in New York, in Greenwich Village, and in around the 1940s, starts to establish this style of Abstract Expressionism.

And by about 1950, really hits his stride in his mature style of Abstract Expressionism.

And it's during that same year that he has his first solo show.

The painting is fascinating, because when we think of an artist who is primarily an Abstract Expressionist, we don't think of an artist doing portrait paintings.

Is it a good likeness of your grandfather?

It looks exactly as I remember him.

Did he ever have a chance to tell you about what Kline was like as a person, as an artist?

We know that, as my grandfather finished the three sittings... Mm-hmm.

He turned to my aunt, and he said, "I wouldn't give you ten bucks for everything in the entire studio."

(chuckles) We kind of wish he had.

Right, right.

What's great about this is, the provenance is so ironclad, really helps to establish authenticity.

It is atypical, so that has some bearing in today's market.

If the painting were offered at auction today, we would value it at $3,000 to $5,000.

Wow, that's excellent.

It's a type of tapestry that's called a jacquard velvet tapestry.

Oh, okay.

APPRAISER: The jacquard was a machine-woven, but it was made to imitate handwoven tapestries.

Oh.

But hard to tell exactly where they're from, because all the countries have the same machinery and the same pattern cards.

But this coloration is typically Czechoslovakian.

Where do you think this was made?

I have no idea, we can't read the marking on the bottom.

This is actually made by a company called Smith Brothers.

Smith?

Hmm.

Yeah, and they were from the East Coast.

Okay.

And, and actually the trick, right in here, you see an "SB," that's "Smith Brothers."

Okay, okay.

In today's world, it would be worth about $600.

Wow.

A few years ago, it might have been double that.

Wow.

But $600's okay.

It's okay, we're not going to sell it.

MAN: It was my aunt's clock.

It comes from England.

She told me that it was given to her on her 21st birthday, and that would have been in 1941.

It lived on my grandmother's mantelpiece, and I remember it fondly.

It's a functional clock.

It sits in our dining room.

I've had it for approximately five years.

I've never seen a clock like it.

Well, it is a very unusual shape, isn't it, being dome-shaped?

Yeah, and it's very heavy.

It's very heavy.

Do you know what it's made out of?

Well, I, uh... An old geologist friend of mine told me that it was onyx.

Alabaster is a little easier to carve or shape.

Right.

And as a result, from a production standpoint, it would make sense for it to be alabaster.

Very unusual to have this type of what we call an annular clock to be in this format.

Typically, they are in a vase form, or sometimes, the very simple ones are more of a flat, horizontal platform.

I'm particularly taken by the coloring of it.

The veins in the stone actually look like clouds in the sky.

It also displays the time in an interesting manner.

This clock, as you know, you might want to tell the people how it actually operates.

Well, it rotates like this.

And I remember as a child never really understanding what time it was, but it was explained to me.

And the markers between the numerals are in 15-minute intervals.

Right.

And it actually, even today, it, it keeps reasonable, reasonable good time.

Yep, one of the interesting things I'd like to point out is the way that this clock winds.

It winds with a key.

And, of course, not having a standard face, you actually wind this clock from the top.

And you would simply just turn it this way.

And when it's fully wound, it would run for a full cycle of eight days.

In terms of value, a clock like this would have a retail value of somewhere between $550 and $650.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

I'm, I'm very surprised at that.

The standard version of this, the common version of this that most people see, is a clock that's a $50 clock.

So, you really have a wonderful example.

I'll take it home, and we'll continue to enjoy it.

Fantastic.

APPRAISER: I see you've got a ball here presented to Babe Ruth, 1919 Boston Red Sox.

And this great little tiny silver bat with 29 home runs.

Tell me about this and tell me how you got it.

Sure.

I found it on an online auction, I like esoteric things and unusual.

And this one struck my eye as Babe Ruth, but Boston, not New York.

And the 29th home run, it took a little bit of work to look and see what was that related to.

Mm-hmm.

And it's the year he hit 29 home runs and broke the record.

There you go.

When was the auction?

Two weeks ago.

Did you recognize it immediately?

I recognized the name.

Mm-hmm.

But not what it was.

And then it took a little bit more work.

And then looking at 1919, it's, like, well, that's the last year he was a Red Sock.

Right.

Right?

And then he was sold to the Yankees, and the curse began.

Yes, yes, it did.

But fortunately that-- for Red Sox fans, not for the rest of the world-- it did end.

What did you pay for it?

I paid $1,900.

We do a lot of segments on the "Roadshow" about Babe Ruth, because he is one of the greatest sportsmen of all time and considered to be the greatest baseball player.

And one of the reasons he is one... considered to be the greatest baseball player of all time is that he had what probably would have been a Hall of Fame career as a pitcher if he had not become a slugger.

And this piece is the history of the transition from him going from being a great pitcher to an other-worldly slugger, where, not only he became the greatest slugger of all time, he changed the sport.

Babe Ruth joined the Red Sox in 1914 as a pitcher.

That was the dead-ball era.

And, in fact, with his pitching career, he won 20 games two years.

But what they found is, he would hit very, very well, far beyond what an average pitcher would hit.

So they realized that he was as much or more value to the Red Sox by putting him in the outfield.

In 1918, which was his first year that he kind of switched over, and the year the Red Sox won the World Series, he pitched, he had a 13-7 record, but he led the league that year in home runs with a grand total of 11.

In 1919, was the first year they put him in the outfield full time and had him as a pitcher part time.

He didn't just break the home-run record.

He smashed the home-run record, 29 home runs.

The next closest to him-- Gavvy Cravath, who had 12 home runs.

So, they presented this to him.

And this, to me, not only shows the transition of him becoming a slugger, but it's the transition of him from going from Boston to New York, because, as you mentioned, after this season, with a salary dispute, the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees.

He became a full-time hitter for the Yankees in 1920, and he hit his 30th home run, breaking his own record, on July 19, 1920.

Wow.

In 1927, he set the record of 60 home runs that was not broken until Roger Maris in 1961.

Just a phenomenal slugging career, and changed the complexion of baseball forever, from going from a dead-ball era to a live-ball era.

Obviously, this was specially made for him in appreciation, and most likely given to him either by the Red Sox or possibly by the Royal Rooters, one of their fan bases.

We don't know who for sure.

But if you look at this, now, this looks like a tiny cue ball, doesn't it?

Yes, it does.

And you flip it over.

This is interesting, because this is made of marine ivory, and it's most likely walrus.

Hmm.

Now, that's very different from elephant ivory.

It does not have the restrictions that elephant ivory has.

This is silver, and on here, we have engraved, "29 Home Runs."

And you flip it over and you see here, "Babe Ruth."

Yes.

Looking at all of this, I'd put an auction estimate of $10,000 to $15,000.

Wow, terrific.

This is wonderful.

A home run.

It is a home run.

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

I brought this map that was hanging in my childhood home.

And I found out that it's worth about $350.

And the other... only other known copy is in the Library of Congress.

This item was supposedly an heirloom in my husband's family from Romania.

But apparently it's from California, and it's not an heirloom.

I've done a 2,000-mile trip on my motorcycle to get my dad's antique Japanese vase evaluated.

I found out two things.

It's an early, early-20th-century vase, and it's worth double what he paid for it in 1970.

Instead of ten bucks, it's worth 20 bucks.

I brought in this beautiful cape that was made by my ancestor in the 1890s.

And they said that she very likely handmade it for herself.

And they valued it at about $200.

And they, they said, the inside of it, that's likely why it was made, because he said it was a sassy color.

So, not only did we learn the history of these objects, but I learned that sassy does in fact run in the family.

(chuckling) This is the Beatles poster my mom here got at a local theater, Enderlin, North Dakota, back in 1964, when the Beatles movie "A Hard Day's Night" played.

And about 35 years ago, Mom gave me the poster, and we found out that it's worth roughly $2,000.

Boy did Mom goof.

Thanks, Mom.

Trip's on you.

You're welcome, Jimmy.

PEÑA: Thanks for watching.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."