Idaho Botanical Garden, Hour 3

♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: Everything's coming up roses when "Roadshow" visits the Idaho Botanical Garden.

You feel lucky?

(both laugh) Wow, that's too much.

I've never heard anybody say, "Wow, that's too much"... (chuckles) Well, it's too much of a gift!

♪ ♪ PEÑA: "Roadshow" is sowing the seeds of art and antiques appreciation at the Idaho Botanical Garden today.

In fact, thousands of items have moved through the paths of this vibrant Boise attraction.

Nurturing over 1,500 individual cultivated species, the Idaho Botanical Garden's mission is to grow their community by connecting people, plants, and nature.

As our experts explore the crowd's prized possessions, "Roadshow" is connecting people to the past.

Check it out.

MAN: It was in my great-grandma's house for many years.

My mom remembers it seeing, seeing it on the mantel when she was a little kid.

The clock was made by Seth Thomas Clock Company, and they were a prolific maker of relatively affordable clocks.

And this type of clock is called an adamantine clock.

Adamantine is this material.

It looks like wood, it looks like tiger maple.

But this is a veneer of a celluloid product.

Wow.

Yeah, I would've thought, I would've thought that was wood-- that's impressive.

The way that it looks.

Yeah.

I bought it brand-new when I was a sophomore in high school.

So this is in really beautiful condition.

1968 ES-335 Gibson.

This is gorgeous iced-tea sunburst that you only see in this era, too.

Yeah.

It's around $7,500.

Great.

And it's going to keep going up in this condition.

MAN: They're 1980 Topps basketball cards that I purchased in 1990.

Mm-hmm.

A good friend of mine talked me into purchasing.

Thought they'd be a good investment.

Well, it's so exciting, I haven't...

It's been a long time since I've seen a box of the 1980 Topps basketball unopened like that.

And, and I got to confess, like a lot of people that, that may see this appraisal is, I had the same box, and I opened the cards, and I also separated the little perforated panels.

So the 1980 Topps basketball set.

It did come with three cards per panel.

They had 88 different panels, and they were perforated.

So to see 'em that aren't s, separated apart, it becomes very rare.

The highlight of the set is that they combined Larry Bird and Magic Johnson rookie cards on the same panel.

This was mostly due to the, their fierce competition they had in college.

On the front right there, they actually show how you can separate them, although, of course, in the packs, they do come, uh, still connected.

And that's Larry Bird out there on the left.

Julius Erving, scoring leader, in the center.

Magic Johnson on the right side.

On the 88 different panels, they had Larry Bird, his card, actually on six different panels.

Magic Johnson's was actually on four different panels, but just only the one panel that had both of their, both of them on the same card.

Have you ever been compelled to open them?

No.

(chuckles) No, okay.

Well, it's a good thing that you didn't.

They're in pristine condition because of that.

How much did you pay for 'em?

I paid $1,000 for 'em.

Okay.

And where was it that you bought these?

A store.

At a hobby store.

Yeah.

And so I imagine that at that time, in 1990, uh, that was a lot of money for a box of cards.

Oh...

But that's where the market was at that time.

It was a lot of money for me.

And when this box came out in 1980, it was nine dollars, or 25 cents a pack, depending how you bought it.

Really, for any basketball card collector who's collecting '80s Hall-of-Famers, the top of everyone's want list is the Bird/Magic rookie card and a Michael Jordan rookie.

You have one of the two here that you may, uh, get when you, if you, if you were to open this box.

So in this market right now, that box at auction would bring $25,000 to $30,000.

Oh, nice.

The packs themselves will sell for no less than $1,000 each-- one individually.

Now, perhaps because a $30,000 purchase has less of a buyer pool than, than a pack for $1,000 to $1,500, it's not uncommon for the boxes still to sell at auction right now for the, between the $25,000 to $30,000.

Now, the next thing everybody asks is, why so much?

Why $25,000 to $30,000?

That gets into a really interesting part of sports card collecting.

And that's the speculative nature of, what do you get in there?

Yeah.

You have eight cards per pack.

You have 36 packs, you have 88 different panels.

Your odds of getting that rookie card with Larry Bird and Magic Johnson are pretty random.

That figure becomes a little bit of a gamble.

If you do get that rookie card and it's got good centering and it's a nine, on a scale of one to ten, then it is a $25,000 card.

Wow.

If that card has good centering and gets a ten, there's been very few that have come to market.

They've sold bef, between $500,000 and $800,000.

Whew, man, I didn't know that.

The collectors, when they do buy this, have a big decision to make.

Currently, $25,000 to $30,000 output.

What are you going to do with it?

You feel lucky?

(both laugh) 12 t, to 16 months ago, this same box would bring $75,000 or $80,000.

I was gifted this lithograph and the bottle of whiskey that goes along with it, it's from a very dear friend, as a retirement gift.

It's something I've admired on his wall every time I go to his little cabin.

When were you given these?

Actually, very recently-- last week.

When did you retire?

Today is my last day officially at work, and I'm here at the Roadshow.

(laughs) It just worked out that way.

This is the best last day at work ever.

This is the best last day, yeah.

Happy retirement.

Thank you.

You brought in your retirement gift.

It's not a lithograph.

Oh!

Uh, it's actually an engraving.

Technically, it's not a poster, right?

Technically, this is the inside of a newspaper.

Right.

And very technically, it's not any newspaper.

It is specifically the "Tobacco Whiskey... "Whiskey"... ...Pork Record."

Right.

From 1870.

Mm-hmm.

A periodical whose demise... (laughing) ...has shattered hopes and dreams of people across the country.

This was the centerfold in that newspaper.

Right.

And it's an advertisement for a whiskey brand that no longer exists.

Right.

S.T.

Suit was a whiskey baron, and he was producing whiskey for decades, uh, beginning in the 1850s.

Mm-hmm.

I think his whiskey empire ended in 1888, when he died.

He died young.

He had three wives... (chuckling) ...and, I believe, five different children.

I was reading an article in "The Washington Post" about him, and in 1873, Suit built a school for Black children on his land that he owned in Prince George, in Maryland.

And even though he was the son of a slaveholder, his wealth had allowed him to tour the world.

Hm.

And "that taught him that a man is a man, "and with this belief, he set himself to work "to make good citizens of the hitherto despised "and ignorant ex-slaves found in his immediate neighborhood and taught them how to read and write."

That's a...

So he really took his whiskey fortune... Wow.

...and put it to what, in the, in the Reconstruction years, was almost unimaginable.

Right.

This is a glorious engraving, uh, advertising a bunch of different brands under his label.

Right.

When I look at this engraving, what I see really reminds me a lot of a bank note, or perhaps a, a bond or a stock.

Mm-hmm.

An engraving, the artist takes a steel plate and literally engraves the image into a steel plate, so you can have very, like, pencil-fine detail, which you see here.

There was a collector back in the 1940s, I think, that collected a whole bunch of these and donated 'em to the Smithsonian.

And so we were able to find one image of this poster on the inventory.

It might be in a, a museum in New York now.

My research parallels yours exactly.

Okay.

There is, there is one known copy of this in the Smithsonian.

From the best of my research, this is only the second copy of this that's known.

Wow.

I'm gonna start with the jug.

So I went to my colleagues at the folk art table.

I also conferred with some of my colleagues at the collectibles table, and one thing that they both said to me was that whiskey collectibles are really hot right now.

The earthenware jug at auction we believe is worth between $500 and $700.

Oh, wow.

Nice.

Uh, very unusual.

Beautifully done.

And as far as the engraving, it's very hard to put on a value based on previous value, 'cause nothing like this has ever come up for sale.

So at best, I feel I can give you a conservative value on this.

I think at auction, it would sell for between $3,000 and $4,000.

Oh, wow, wow.

Wow, that's too much.

I've never heard anybody say, "Wow, that's too much"... (chuckles) Well, it's too much of a gift.

I, that's, that, that surprises me.

It wouldn't surprise me if, at auction, whiskey enthusiasts bid this up to $4,000 to $6,000.

PEÑA: The plants and trees here are admired from the ground up.

But what about from above?

Though not accessible to the public, the guard towers here are certainly a unique feature and act as monumental reminders of the garden's past, when it was part of the old Idaho Penitentiary.

WOMAN: This was my grandmother's and grandfather's.

They went to Hawaii in 1922.

During that time, they met the Duke Kahanamoku and all of his brothers, and they went surfing with him, and... My grandmother didn't want to leave... (laughs) ...so my grandfather married her there.

(laughs) Wow-- first of all, you just got to love the cover.

Hawaiian tapa cloth.

And then let's take a peek at some of these.

Here's Duke standing by his board.

Show me your grandmother.

My grandmother is this one, and I believe she's surfing, I don't know if it's with Duke or one of his brothers.

Got it.

And then here's Duke himself.

Correct.

And then we have... ...her s, here standing with Duke?

Yes.

And then we have, Duke actually signed a photo.

Rita would be your grandmother?

Correct.

And to Al, your grandfather.

My grandfather.

Duke Kahanamoku was really kind of initially discovered as a swimmer.

He was a five-time medalist in the Olympics, but he's known throughout the world as the father or maybe even grandfather of modern surfing.

He introduced it to America, but also New Zealand and Australia, and from all accounts, a pretty great guy.

(chuckling) Yes.

This book is at, at an early stage in his career, and right around this time, he moved to California.

It offers an insight not only to Duke early in his career, but also to your grandparents.

Mm-hmm.

Collectors like this because maybe some of these larger photos may have been seen by other folks or may have been published, but for sure, the snapshots... Mm-hmm.

...with your grandmother and kind of the candids that are out there have never been seen before.

True.

And with the rise of surfing as a sport in this country and all over the world, it has created huge fans of the Duke and of the early days of surfing.

Whenever I'd go to my grandmother's and I'd ask her tales of Hawaii-- she went often-- she would always bring out this book, as she...

So you remember seeing it as a child?

Definitely.

If you ever were to sell it-- you probably won't-- but conservatively, at auction, such a book, with all the pictures of him, your grandmother, and his family members could easily bring $10,000 to $15,000.

(gasps) Whoa.

It's pretty amazing.

Unexpected!

Wow, wow.

(laughs) That's excellent.

It's amazing.

Hm.

And I was just, uh, floored to see it.

Yes.

And it really is a special book.

Mm.

It is, it is very special.

(breathes deeply) Mm.

That's wonderful.

My grandmother'd be proud.

WOMAN: This is my dad... APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

...in the '60s, early '60s.

He decided to sell insurance.

So he was in school, and, uh, right before they graduated the class, the teacher said, "If anybody can sell Evel Knievel insurance," you know, you get, like, a big bonus, something.

I don't know what it was.

So my dad was on a mission, found Evel Knievel, and sold him the insurance.

It was from Mutual of Omaha.

They found out about it, and they were, like, "No way," they dropped him.

They're, like, "We're not gonna," you know, "insure him."

So then, like, two days later, they said, "Well, we're going to use him as an advertisement."

Yeah.

So they reinsured him.

Every part of this is amazing.

(laughs) I mean, Evel Knievel was our hero as kids.

Yeah.

(laughs) We all wanted to be him.

He jumped the Snake River.

Yes.

Or, well, tried to, anyway.

(laughs): Yeah!

He jumped the fountains at Caesar's Palace.

He did all these crazy stunt shows.

And you see Evel Knievel's little trailer right there.

Yeah.

And, you know, Evel Knievel-- and look!

With a cane.

Yup.

(laughs) Why?

Because he broke something again.

At auction, I'd put an estimate of $400 to $600 on it.

Mm-hmm.

But I can see it going a little bit higher, easily.

Yeah.

I just wanted to brag about my dad.

(laughs) Yeah, it's great.

WOMAN: It's an Alexej Jawlensky.

It was my uncle's, and my mom inherited it when he died in the mid '70s.

We're not sure exactly who he got it from.

Not his wife, but, like, a girlfriend or a housekeeper or something he had, I guess, bought it from.

We're not really sure.

But, but where was this?

In G...

In Germany.

We knew it was a good painter.

Mm-hmm.

It had been in a little shrine in the living room growing up, little shrine to my uncle.

When we cleared out my parents' house, this came to my house.

I had it authenticated back in, I think it was 2014.

It's one of those things where the authentication isn't much of a problem or even a signature.

It's, it's signed all over the piece.

Right.

Um, it is Alexej von Jawlensky, a major artist... Yeah, yeah.

...um, who was part of the, Der Blaue Reiter...

Right.

...in, in Munich, with, uh, Kandinsky and Marc... Mm-hmm.

...and, um, Gabriele Münter, and all these very famous people who sort of expanded German Expressionism.

Right, yeah.

You know, um, with their colors, and, and bright colors, and, and dramatic, you know, outlines.

But this is a little later in his, his life.

Uh-huh.

Did you, have you found out about that at all?

Yeah, I guess he did a whole series of these painti, face paintings.

When I was growing up, at first, I thought it was a cross.

(chuckles) Um... Well, y, you're right on both counts.

(laughs) It, it, it's a fact that he just got a little obsessed a, a, as he went on later in his career-- he lived from 1864 to 1941.

This is a period from about 1934 to 1937.

Right.

He did these "Meditations."

Mm.

This is very typical of his works at the time, where he really boiled down his, um, uh, faces to just the brow and the nose, almost like a cross, becomes almost a, a religious aspect.

Okay.

And he, he does these "Meditations," lots of them.

The materials, it's oil on paperboard.

With some of his works, you know, the early ones, they're one-offs, and they're fabulous, bright, colorful things.

Uh-huh.

And you never know what's going to happen at auction.

Right.

But with these, we have a whole range.

Right.

You know, uh, over the last few years, hundreds have come up of this "Meditations" series.

Mm-hmm.

This may be one of the smaller "Meditations," but it's a little bit somber in its tone.

The one, other ones I saw were brighter.

If you want to insure it, they're probably worth about $100,000 of your, for insurance.

Okay, great.

So...

There's a lot of money in a little, little package.

Yeah.

Cool, thank you.

It'll be about $50,000 to $70,000...

Right.

...at an auction.

WOMAN: The history goes back to a great-aunt that lived in Peking-- at that time it was called Peking-- with her husband, who was an Army surgeon, and they were stationed in China for, in the early 1900s, about 1910.

They became very good friends with one of the princess of dowers.

This happens to be one of them that she got.

She got a number of them.

When she gave all her Chinese things away, I chose this one.

What was the name of the person who gave this to your great-aunt?

Princess Der Ling was her name.

Lady-in-waiting for two years in the hidden city.

It is Chinese, clearly.

Mm-hmm.

It is a informal court robe.

The dragons here, of which there are three, as you see in the front... Mm-hmm.

...and there are actually five on the back... Oh.

I've never counted 'em.

...including the two, including the two on the shoulders here, okay?

Oh, okay, mm-hmm.

And then there's actually a secret dragon inside the flap of the robe here.

Oh, my gosh!

So it makes it nine in total.

Oh, I've never seen that, that is amazing.

It was probably made for a prince.

Oh, oh!

Well, she, the doweress, had a son, and he was the prince, the heir of the throne.

But because of the Boxer Rebellion, he never came to power.

Well, there were a number of princes in the imperial court.

Oh.

So there are more than one.

What do you think it's worth?

Maybe $3,000?

Well, I think a little more than that.

A little more?

Because it is most likely a prince's robe, in very good condition, you are in the vicinity of about $15,000 to $25,000... Oh, my gosh.

...at auction.

(laughing): Oh, gee, I better take good care of it, then!

You have taken brilliant care of it.

Yeah, oh.

You really have.

Thank you, wow.

That's amazing.

MAN: This is a tapestry that I got from my grandmother.

When she was with my, uh, grandpa, he did a lot of work with, uh, flu vaccines, and did work in Eastern Germany with some of the universities.

And she fell in love with Eastern European art.

And she went back several times, and would bring back art with her.

I always thought it was really beautiful.

When she was moving out and rearranging things, she went ahead and gave it to me.

Had it, uh, hanging up in my, uh, living room ever since.

It's wonderful for me to see something like this, because people keep saying, "Oh, it, it's a tapestry."

You referred to it as a tapestry.

And it's not a tapestry.

It is a technique called art protis, or art for progressive tapestry.

That's in there, but it's a very different technique.

It falls into the realm of a non-woven.

Oh, so it's not woven at all.

It is not woven.

The technique was created in 1964 in the woolen research institute in Brno, Czechoslovakia.

And it was used for monumental public works buildings, to have art for the masses, art that all, the whole public could, could enjoy.

A tapestry is an incredibly expensive and time-consuming technique.

And let me tell you how this is done.

This is wool.

Okay.

You take a wool fleece, you lay it flat.

You can then design flat where you want the f, wool to be, the colors.

You can make changes, you just lift off the wool fleece.

So it's a little bit like making felt.

You lay it all down, or you make a mistake, you lift it back up again, you lay it back down.

It then gets ironed and sort of sealed together.

And the whole thing is stitched onto a substrate.

So it's never woven.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

So it's, they actually, it's, like, the artist actually laid down exactly what he wanted it to look like.

Exactly.

Exactly, his name is Josef Nálepa, and you and I both could not find anything other than, he, he made some bronzes and some, some sculptures.

The technique immediately became popular, and in 1967, at the World's Fair in Montreal and at the World's Fair in Osaka, 1970, it was awarded a gold medal, I believe, probably for manufacturing excellence.

This is a, um, a collaboration between a manufacturer and an artist.

They would commission artists.

This is a, most likely, this is a one-of-a-kind.

(whispers): Wow.

And, and also, it would always be a one-of-a-kind, because he was always laying down something, something anew.

This is called "Fireball," and it was from 1970.

In a really well-supported auction, I'd imagine it selling for between $4,000 and $6,000.

(whispers): Wow.

And in a retail shop, somewheres closer to $10,000.

(whispers): Wow.

(aloud): That's amazing.

I had no idea that there was that much history behind it.

WOMAN: Well, my mother inherited them from a most famous lady in Idaho, Mrs. Alice Pittenger, and they've been in our family for 75 years.

And Mrs. Pittenger was a physician in Chicago and met Dr. Pittenger, and they moved to Idaho.

And she said, "One doctor in the family is enough."

And so she retired as a physician in the early 1900s.

And then she became a philanthropist in Idaho.

She donated all the land for the Girl Scout camp in McCall, 'cause she didn't like the idea that the Boy Scouts had a camp for them, and there were no camp for girls.

Mm.

She started the first children's home in Boise, Idaho.

She was a grand, grand lady.

And where do you think Mrs. Pittenger got them?

I thought they were European.

They are Art Nouveau.

Ah.

Which was 1890s to 1910.

Started, really, in Germany, but very strong in Paris.

But they're not French.

They're actually Japanese.

Oh!

Produced for the French market.

Oh, interesting.

Because everybody knew that the French loved this style.

The maker for these is the Samurai Silversmith.

And they would have been made in Japan and then exported, likely to France.

They're candlesticks, but... ...in the top... Oh!

...if we take the wax out...

I didn't do that.

(laughing) (chuckles): But if we take the wax out, we can look and see that in fact... Oh.

...there is a hole, and the hole goes all the way through to the bottom.

So they can be a lamp.

So they could be electrified if the owner so wished.

Huh.

Wow!

I have never seen Japanese Art Nouveau candlesticks that are as beautiful as these.

What do you think they're worth?

$4,000.

That's a good guess.

Oh, yeah, good.

But they're actually worth $10,000 to $15,000 if they were to come to auction.

(chuckling): Wow!

Wow.

That's wonderful.

They're priceless to us, but that's nice to know.

Wow.

PEÑA: Ghost hunters take note: considering the garden was once part of the infamous old Idaho Penitentiary, where ten executions took place, ghost stories really do come with the territory.

Most strange things reportedly happen at night, like figures appearing along the penitentiary wall in a section called the Outlaw Garden.

A friend of ours, who has now passed away at 99, his grandfather was raised by this veteran after the veteran's service in the Civil War, and it came down through his family, and then it came to us as a gift.

We discovered that, uh, this individual was a farmer in Michigan, enlisted in 1862 in the 18th Michigan Regiment, was mustered out in 1864, and immediately re-enlisted in the 114th U.S.

Colored Troops as a lieutenant, and then was subsequently promoted to captain.

And then, instead of being mustered out in 1865, they were sent to Texas for two more years.

Tell me about the photograph.

He is there, uh, with the rest of his folks that he served with, the other officers in the corps, and they're all White, as you can see.

And somebody has put a little graffiti on there and, uh, drawn an arrow.

Yeah.

Is, is that the, the individual?

Yes, that is the individual.

His name was Ludlum Drake.

Of his service in the 18th, did he rise to become an officer in there, or did he serve as an enlisted man?

No, he was, uh, he was mustered out as a private.

So the advent of the USCT, the U.S.

Colored Troops, really gave African Americans an opportunity to participate, yet again, in fighting for their own freedom and for the unification of the nation.

The Navy was integrated at this time.

There were, uh, Blacks and Whites serving side by side on U.S. warships during the American Civil War.

The Army, not so much, and there was a lot of resistance to this at the time.

Hm.

Not everybody wearing Union blue believed in emancipation.

That's correct.

Uh, a lot of them were fighting more to keep the country together.

These individuals were in Kentucky, and then over in Virginia, I believe.

Correct.

And what did they do in Virginia?

They were present at, uh, the siege at Petersburg.

They were also there at, uh, the siege of Richmond.

And in fact, he wrote a letter home the night Richmond fell.

Then they subsequently were at, uh, Appomattox and Appomattox Court House for the surrender before they were sent down to Texas.

If you put yourself in the mindset of the men that he led in particular, imagine being there when they furl those Confederate flags and stack arms, and it's over, and the Confederacy is no more.

That's right.

And they're there under arms observing this.

Mm-hmm.

That had to be tremendous.

Indeed.

So when he was a private in the 18th Michigan, he would have not had anything as fancy as what we see here today.

What you have brought us is his officer's sash, his 1850 foot officer's sword, and this wonderful officer's coat, custom-done, as a lot of officer's uniforms were, a little extra embellishment, with the velvet collar.

Mm-hmm.

And then this, uh, grosgrain trim on the front.

He's got a nice quilted lining, and by looking at the threads securing the back of the buttons, we can determine that these are original to the coat.

There were about 179,000 African Americans who served their country during the American Civil War.

About 40,000 of them perished, 10,000 from battle casualties-- and these are rough numbers-- and about 30,000 from disease.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, the same as the rest of the Army, but that's ten percent of the Union Army towards the end.

It would be more rare-- not more valuable, because of his history, but more rare-- had he kept his private's coat from the 18th Michigan... Oh, really?

...than the officer's coat.

Because when you are commissioned an officer, you have to buy your own stuff, which means you're more than likely to take it home and put it away in the chest than if you had the, the issue item.

A retail value... Mm-hmm.

...on this would be between $10,000 and $12,000.

Really?

(chuckles) (voice trembles): That is a surprise.

I had no idea.

For insurance, I would put at least $15,000 on it.

Really?

If it was anybody else in the American Civil War not associated with the USCT, you have about $4,000 to $5,000 worth of material.

Yeah.

MAN: The, uh, archaeology club dug these out of the ground.

Mm-hmm.

And the strata that they were in, they say these are well over 1,000 years old.

I don't know that.

(chuckles) I think it's well over 1,000 years old.

I think it's almost 2,000 years old.

Wow.

Because I think that this is a Roman glass vase, and probably dating to first, second century A.D.

It also has some iridescence.

That's a good thing, you know?

'Cause you can't fake that very well.

(laughs) They keep trying-- it's not good.

But to have this iridescence on there is fantastic.

I mean, it's been buried a long time.

See, now, one wouldn't ordinarily think this is a watch.

(woman laughing) Until you see the 12 numbers.

And then you know immediately that it's a watch, all right?

Fantastic.

I'm not going too fast, am I?

No?

All right.

MAN: Keep it up.

WOMAN: Still works, thank you.

APPRAISER: It's, uh, the most unusual piece that I've filmed for the "Roadshow" in, what, 20 years or so.

Oh, really?

Uh, because usually, I do paintings or drawings, and it's on an easel or whatever, but here we have a weaving.

It was purchased, uh, at an estate sale.

It was with some other fabric on a rolled tube, and that was inside of it until it got home.

That's all I knew, that it was some sort of macramé or...

I didn't know what it was.

My wife and I, we found the, uh, name and the number on the bottom, so we looked into it a little more, and found out that the guy is an artist who's done other pieces.

Right, who was the guy?

Peter Collingwood?

Peter Collingwood.

And do you know anything about him?

Did you do any further research?

Said he was British.

You're quite correct, he was British.

He was born in London in 1922.

And he was destined to be a doctor, in fact.

Hm.

But life takes strange turns, and... We know that.

(chuckling): And during his National Service, he was stationed in Jordan, and there he discovered his true passion, which was weaving.

To the extent that he used to break up deck chairs and make looms out of them, and then create scarves for the officers' wives.

But also when he was there, he was given a gift of a Bedouin tent hanging, and that became quite a talismanic piece for him, and influenced a lot of the, the work that he did after.

So he gave up on being a doctor, came back to Britain, he studied with one of the leading weavers of that time, whose name was Ethel Mairet.

(chuckling): She said-- a little unkindly, I thought-- he was the dullest man she ever met.

(laughs) But what piqued her interest was, he was a man and he was interested in weaving, and they were pretty scarce at that time.

So he was an unusual chap in that, in that regard.

He broke, really, away from traditional looms and working in looms.

And literally broke away from them, because he would, rather as he did with the deck chairs, he would break them up and then he would rebuild them.

And that allowed him to do all sorts of inno, innovative things.

And this would have been around the, the 1960s or so.

And that's when he started doing a series of these works.

And these were called macrogauzes.

I would place this around 1970.

It's what we would describe as a, as a mixed-media weaving.

He really was known as the pre-eminent weaver in Britain in the latter part of the 20th century.

I saw maybe 30 or so, 30, 40 have appeared at auction.

Hm!

But it's, it's, it's a very niche market.

Sure.

Have you given any thought as to the value of this piece?

My wife and I, we've guessed about it.

I was thinking $200 or $300.

Okay.

And you paid how much?

So it was either five or ten.

Would you be happy to hear that at auction it would probably fetch between $5,000 and $8,000?

I... would like to hear that again.

(chuckling): Really.

$5,000 to $8,000.

That's outstanding.

I do need to put that in context.

Okay.

Virtually everything that has sold by him has sold in the U.K. Oh, really?

And usually in design auctions.

And that's really where the market is.

And in fact, one of the macrogauzes sold for as much as $34,000.

Wow.

It'll hang on our wall as long as the cats don't get it.

You've got cats?

It's...

Yes.

It, it's hung high enough, they can't get it.

Keep the cats very far away from it.

(laughing): We will.

WOMAN: I was teaching in the basement of an old elementary school in Storm Lake, Iowa.

It was a pretty bad shape, the school was, and they were going to tear it down.

People would go through and, and dump the stuff that they didn't want from all the cupboards, and the closets, and things like that.

Then all the teachers would kind of walk around and, and grab what they wanted.

So these were left over.

Knowing Dick and Jane, because of our age, that's what we were taught, I just couldn't let 'em just go to the dump.

It just makes me feel so good having been with the little kids, having Dick, Jane, and Sally.

You mentioned that because of your age, you know Dick and Jane.

Right.

I know Dick and Jane, as well.

(laughs) The characters were invented by Zerna Sharp in 1930, but they actually were still used in classrooms into the 1970s.

And she was trying to come up with something, and at the time, it's the way that p, kids were taught to read, which is called the Look-Say method.

Mm-hmm.

So you look and you say it.

It was criticized, this teaching method, and so they kind of phased it out and have come up with new research and better ways to teach kids how to read.

They made these cards, we call them kind of, um, easel cards for teachers.

Mm-hmm.

They were actually just mechanical prints.

So they're prints of watercolor illustrations, um, that mirror the books that kids would have had in the classroom.

What I find fascinating about your sets is that we see a transition here in the late '50s, early '60s, and we have what is the iconic mid-century American memory of family, which was Dick, Jane, Sally, Spot, and Puff the Cat.

Yes.

(chuckles) And now we're shifting here into the early '60s, and in this set, we see that they've integrated the characters, because, 1954, Brown vs. the Board of Education, we have school integration and desegregation.

And I think one of the criticisms that the initial Dick and Jane books had was that they didn't represent anyone other than the typical mid-century White family... Mm-hmm.

...with two kids and the dog and the cat.

And so they made an effort to really try and be more inclusive once they get to the '60s.

Because they were made in an economic way, they didn't want to use a separate board for every image, so we actually have images on both sides of these boards.

What's interesting is that this has become such an iconic visual.

That now I can say, "See Laura appraise."

(laughs) Because now we have to talk about, what are they worth?

And the graphics are just one of the more iconic moments of that era.

Yes.

And they've become really popular.

They've done a lot of spoofs of them.

People now use the, the same images and graphics.

They make all sorts of T-shirts, and magnets, and people have a sense of nostalgia because generations of Americans learned how to read with these books.

The books are quite common.

First editions can still sell for decent money, um, but the posters are quite a bit more rare, just because they didn't have as many of these sets.

Only the teachers would have had them at the front of the classroom.

So when you see these come up at auction, the posters individually often sell anywhere between $50 to $100.

Individually?

Individually.

(laughing): Oh, my goodness.

We have two sets here, so we're showing the covers.

These are just the covers from each set.

(inhales) But you have 18 boards in this set and 16 boards in that set.

And so, given how many you have, it, you're looking at anywhere between $1,500 to $2,500 worth of posters.

(laughing): Oh, my gosh.

It's just... Oh, that, that is so fabulous that people really keep enjoying these.

I mean, it just gives me goosebumps, that's great.

That's super.

(sighs) I wish I had enough walls to put 'em on.

They're wonderful, wonderful pieces.

My favorite has to be Spot.

(laughing): Yes!

I'm a dog lover, so I'd be very much into Spot.

And, and actually, S, things featuring Spot and Puff the Cat... Yeah, Puff.

...would be on that upper range of price per, per board.

I'm a cat person.

You're a cat, so you would... You go for Puff, I go for Spot.

I would go for Puff, yes.

(both laugh) PEÑA: In the Lewis and Clark Plant Garden, one can find over 100 plants described by Meriwether Lewis in journals from his expedition with William Clark from Great Falls, Montana, to The Dalles, Oregon.

This plant, Lewis's Blue flax, or Linum lewisii, was named after Lewis, who noted that it would make excellent flax.

In fact, some Indigenous peoples of the time wove fishing nets, ropes, baskets, and more from the plant's tough stem fibers.

MAN: So I brought this painting that's been hanging in my house for as long as I can remember.

I think around 15 years ago, my folks purchased it from an antique shop that, that, from what I understand, it no longer exists.

They gave it to me around-- me and my sister-- around ten years ago.

I can't believe you brought it in here.

It's so, it's such a really big painting.

(both laughing) Yep.

This is an oil on canvas by André Servant.

It is signed lower right, on the checkered floor.

This is a painting depicting the death of King Henry IV, who was known as the Good King, or Henry the Great.

He was a celebrated figure in French history.

This represents him on his deathbed after a final assassination attempt which did work.

There were multiple assassination attempts on his life.

He r, uh, ruled from about 1590 to 1610, and in 1610, he was, uh, he was stabbed and then finally fatally succumbed to his injuries.

Wow.

The painting is painted in the style of Neoclassicism.

Generally, Neoclassicism started in the late 18th century and led into about 1830, but it, it did go farther into the 19th century.

It was supplanted by Romanticism.

But even here, we, there's a lot of emotion in this painting.

And the things that make it typical of a Neoclassical painting are this kind of limited palette.

There was also strong horizontals and verticals, and a lot of the subject matter was historical.

The artist lived from 1842 to 1883.

We don't know exactly when it was painted, but sometime during that period, probably after 1850.

Have you ever had it appraised?

No, I have not.

We sort of had this thing where, if we ever came on the "Roadshow," we would bring this painting.

This was our "Roadshow" painting.

The artist has limited auction records.

Mm-hmm.

So he's not one of the most famous Neoclassical artists.

But the auction records that do exist, some of them are for his Orientalist works, which were works of the Middle East.

The high auction record is about $10,000, but for a work which was, uh, much smaller than this, about 15 by 18 inches.

And even though Neoclassical painting isn't today as popular, for example, as contemporary painting...

Right.

...there are still collectors.

I would easily put an auction estimate on this painting of $20,000 to $30,000.

Wow.

(laughs) That's amazing.

That's unbelievable.

I wouldn't have ever guessed that.

I Would insure it for at least $40,000.

Yep, okay.

I will probably do that.

(laughs) WOMAN: I actually bought them from a friend of mine.

And what did you pay?

I paid $100 for them.

The first thing you notice is the profusion of small decorative figures.

Yes.

Right?

Yeah.

Finely painted.

Yes.

Surrounded by lots of gold.

The gold are dragons.

The painting is exquisitely detailed.

Yes.

So that is a feature of a particular type of ceramic that was made in Japan in the late 19th century, early 20th century.

A lot of it was made for export to the West.

There are different factories and makers.

Some of those are represented here.

You have some by Kinkozan.

You have some that is called Satsuma.

Okay.

Actually, which is this one, says Satsuma underneath.

Right.

You can they see these kind of wonderful little marks.

And some have individual makers.

Such as this.

And has this fabulous kind of flower design underneath.

Yeah.

It's just so well finished.

I think that the value at auction for the group is about $6,000 to $8,000.

For all of these?

Wow.

Whoa.

I feel guilty for paying so little.

(laughing) These are really rare.

You would have seen them in a world fair around 1900.

It was given to my grandfather.

Because he won it so many times-- his name is there, there, there-- that when Fox Hills Golf Club closed down... Mm-hmm, right.

...for whatever reason, I don't know why, they gave it to him.

Wow.

So he then gave it to my father, and my father gave it to me.

So, he's quite the golfer, then?

Yes, he is.

Because we can see here that it is the Fox Hills Golf Club championship trophy.

Yes... His name is three times.

Yes.

And what was his name?

J.C. McRoberts.

Okay.

It was first given in 1926, I can see.

And then the last time was in 1934, when he won it for the third time.

Yup.

Oftentimes with these sorts of trophies, if you win it three times, you get awarded it.

But I haven't managed to really... Because the golf club's not around anymore...

Right.

...it's difficult to be able to really tie the history together.

But it's a beautiful large trophy, and it's, it's very typical of large-scale presentation trophies of this period.

Right.

It was made by Gorham.

With the exception possibly of Tiffany, Gorham are the most famous American silver-making company.

They're based in Providence, Rhode Island.

Gorham was started in 1831.

The company went through various iterations.

Their heyday was between 1870 and 1940.

This trophy was made in 1925.

This is 20-and-a-half inches tall, uh, 'cause it says so underneath.

And it's very clean, very elegant.

It has oak leaves on the terminals of the handles here.

You see the acorns and the oak leaves.

It's got a plain back.

Wonderful foliate motifs around the rim, as well, and a laurel band around the foot, and again, a laurel band is a very sort of presentational motif, isn't it?

To wear the laurel wreath as a champion.

Any idea of value?

Honestly, n, n, none, not a clue.

Okay.

$500?

$1,000?

Well, it is sterling silver, and you're looking at something which is, is pretty sizeable.

So just the material value itself is going to be worth quite a bit.

What you said, I think that's, uh, we can definitely beat that.

I would say at auction, this would fetch somewhere between $6,000 and $8,000.

(inhales sharply): Ooh.

(laughing) If you can make a little bit more... Whoo!

...of the club or whatnot, find out if they have any existing members or anything like that, you can maybe add a little bit more.

I'm not going to sell it.

Yeah, no, well done.

For insurance purposes, I would put $10,000 on it.

Ooh.

(laughs) It's a lovely thing.

And Gorham are a fantastic maker.

It's, it's a great one.

Oh, I'm so happy.

Yeah.

Well, I call it a table chair or a chair table, which... ever.

(chuckles) But it, uh, was handed down to my husband on his maternal side.

Brooklyn, I believe, is where they first were.

And we're not sure when they came over from Denmark.

He was told that he thought a relative made it, carved it, you know, like, in wood shop or something.

(chuckling): Kind of, I mean, that was, they...

Right.

No big deal about it at all.

So what you have is, is what we often refer to as a hutch table.

And as you alluded to, you said a chair table.

If we do this, with a simple hinge, it converts from a, a table to a chair.

And this is actually what we call pyrography.

It's the art of carving and burning these designs into wood.

I would probably date it from about the 1920s.

And it's what we call the Art Nouveau style.

Oh.

This is really an ambitious piece of work.

(chuckling): Yes.

To think about it, probably hours and hours of work went into this piece, but it's, it's fabulous.

Where was your, your husband's family from?

The grandmother was from, uh, Denmark.

Do they have a, a Jensen family name attached to them at all?

Should have looked for that.

(chuckling): Um, I think there is.

Okay, 'cause the reason I ask is, 'cause believe it or not, there's a signature of Minnie G. Jensen under here.

There is?

We looked everywhere for a signature.

Really?

(chuckling): Where did you find it?

If I shut the top, what I'm just going to do is, I'm going to lift it like this.

Oh, my goodness!

And right under here we have "Minnie G.

Jensen."

Well, that's definitely one of the...

I don't know, I can't remember if it's the grandmother, I, you know, the names, but Jensen is definitely in there.

So...

I have it written down in my purse.

Really?

Well, that is probably who, who did this, this ambitious work.

I'm just going to... And so what would they do?

Get patterns?

Yeah, exactly.

They had pattern designs.

Most pyrographic work brings, you know, a couple hundred dollars.

It, no, nothing too crazy.

Mm-hmm.

But because of the, the great size, proportion, and for me, this central panel of, of the woman, it, it gets my heart beating.

I just think it's so beautiful.

If this were to come to auction, I would estimate it to sell in the $1,000 to $2,000 range.

Wow, very nice.

It's pretty special.

That it is.

You weren't kidding about a big Bible.

Uh, and then, when I pick it up, it's holy... My goodness.

WOMAN 1: I... 22 pounds.

Oh, you weighed it?

(woman 2 laughs) WOMAN 1: I did!

22 pounds!

22 pounds.

For a 19th-century Bible like this...

It's in extraordinary condition-- the clasps are still here... (stammering) (grunts) I need two hands to pick it up.

(laughing) I would, uh, ballpark this price at retail between $800 to $1,000.

Excellent.

Awesome, Karen.

Thank you.

But it's your family Bible, it's priceless.

To us.

Oh, yeah, I, it's getting given down to, yeah, passed down to others.

It's priceless to you.

The Bible is the best-selling book in the world, and we have been making 'em for five-plus centuries.

I lived in Finland for a while and I've got some Finnish family roots, and I wanted a Finnish poster that's old, that's bright, all the colors.

Uh-huh.

Yeah, it certainly is vibrant, yes.

Could you share with us how much you paid for the poster?

Uh, I believe it was about $150.

WOMAN: I brought some Spider-Man comic books that belonged to my husband, and he was a collector since age 12.

Well, so your husband bought these directly right off the newsstand.

Every week.

But he knew at that time that they were an investment, so he religiously bagged these things.

Sometimes he would buy two: one to read and one to save.

And I never had any closet space the entire time we were married, you know?

(laughing) (laughs) He's, he's now deceased, but yes.

So at any given time, we had 120 boxes in our house.

So he was a real deal collector of comics.

Absolutely.

And he grew up in New York, so he would go to comic book conventions all the time.

He met Stan Lee on a couple of occasions.

"Amazing Spider-Man"... Hm.

...is by far one of the most, if not the most, iconic character when it comes to the Marvel universe today.

I mean, just, everybody loves your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

Now, with the comics that you brought in today, we have a complete run of issues 13 through 29.

When you came up to the table, my head almost literally exploded, because when it comes to comics, condition is so important.

And these are honestly as good as it gets, 'cause you have to think about it.

These are from the '60s.

You know, '64, '65.

When it comes to the three books along the top, the reason why they're there, because out of the group of comics you have, they're your biggest key issues.

Which, a key issue is first appearance of a character, uh, new costume, maybe a title change.

So issue 13 is the nicest book in the collection.

So on a numerical scale, that would be an 8.0 to 8.5.

Wow.

Which is really, really good.

But the history of that book is that it's the first appearance of Mysterio, Quentin Beck, which, for a long time, Mysterio was not well-known to, I'd say, the general collecting audience.

But when he was finally played by Jake Gyllenhaal in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that book just went through the roof.

Also in relation to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, MCU, "Amazing Spider-Man 14," first appearance of the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn.

And again, that character so iconic since the beginning, like, the original Tobey Maguire "Spider-Man" film back in the early 2000s.

You had Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin, and he played such an iconic role.

Which leads me to my third book here, number 15, the first appearance of Kraven the Hunter.

Great antagonist throughout, uh, Spider-Man's life and series.

He is going to be also entering the Spider-Man universe.

He has a film coming out.

So all three of these books are hotter than fire in the market today.

And comics as a whole are one of the hottest things going in the market.

Now, granted, you have a bunch of other good books on the table.

Condition-wise, they all range from the lowest being about a 5.0.

Mm-hmm.

And when we give this scale, it's out of ten.

So when you have an 8.0 to an 8.5 out of a 1960s early Silver Age book, that is wicked high-grade.

And I got to say, your husband did an incredible job preserving the collection.

Are they something that you would want to keep, or are you looking to sell?

Like, do you want to insure them or is it something that you would want down the road?

I, I want to sell, 'cause I want to do some traveling.

I think your husband is going to help you with traveling today.

These all first would have to be put through the professional grading process... Mm-hmm.

...in order to maximize your value.

Comic books are not child's play today.

Yes, they're not.

(both laugh) They are serious financial investments.

So when it comes to the entire group, the 17 "Amazing Spider-Man" comics you have here today, conservatively at auction, they would be $20,000 to $25,000.

Oh, my goodness.

(laughing): That's amazing.

I just, I had no idea.

You know, I really didn't.

Really?!

Yeah.

Well, hey, now you can go on vacation.

(laughing) Absolutely.

On several, as a matter of fact.

(laughs) That's, that's terrific.

(laughs) Oh, I'm thrilled.

If you brought these in about three years ago... Mm-hmm.

...you would have actually only had about $8,000 to $12,000.

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

And we brought in this pillow that we, we did everything you're not supposed to do at Roadshow, which is cut things up and turn them into something else.

But this came from our dad, who worked on the Manhattan Project.

But this little patch right here, who Dad wasn't really supposed to take after the war, but he did, is worth about $1,500.

So that's not bad.

Today we brought a couple of fishing poles.

Had 'em appraised, they said they were from the 1920s, so the approximate price was about $200 apiece.

And so they said, if I've had a chance, to go out and use them, so if I'm not at work tomorrow, I've gone fishing.

(laughs) We brought an old hairdryer and a... Shoe polisher.

(laughs) ...shoe polisher.

We found out they're not worth much, but we've been watching "Antiques Roadshow" since we were five and nine years old, and wouldn't have missed the chance to be here today.

Drove all the way from Utah.

My great-grandfather had this vi, violin, uh, in the late 1800s, and he was offered a horse for it.

And the appraiser said he should have taken the horse.

(laughs) Our family's Victorian heather wreath... (coos) ...ended up being more disgusting than valuable.

(chuckling): So we're... We're not millionaires, but we had a lot of fun at the "Antiques Roadshow."

And the thing that the appraisers were most excited to see was this little guy right here.

PEÑA: Thanks for watching.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."