Body of Work

♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: We're showing our hand...

I wanted to get something that caught everybody's attention.

Cool.

And it has.

PEÑA: ...and putting our best foot forward.

I'm gonna keep it, I'm not-- it's a great conversation piece.

Yeah, oh, I bet.

PEÑA: Heads up, it's "Antiques Roadshow: Body of Work."

♪ ♪ PEÑA: Here at "Roadshow"... What's in the box?

PEÑA: ...we like things that turn your head...

Wonderful plaster head with human hair, human eyelashes... PEÑA: ...that catch your eye... WOMAN: I love the clock.

It's entertained me since I was a little girl.

You're Candy?

PEÑA: ...or tickle your fancy.

Oh, that's awesome.

And you're fabulous and your story is fabulous... PEÑA: In this episode, we're taking a look back at our whole body of work.

Okay, nice, really nice.

(laughs) You brought in this wonderful, mysterious box.

Yes.

And I know everyone's been asking me at the table.

All I wanted to say was, "What's in the box?"

And if you could hold that for a moment.

Now, inside the box, we found this wonderful plaster head with human hair, human eyelashes, and a strangely realistic human hand.

What can you tell us about the contents of the box?

I don't know if anyone has heard of Willie Sutton.

He was a famous bank robber, well-known bank robber.

He was also well-known for breaking out of prisons.

This was his that he used in an attempted breakout.

He had made this himself, in prison.

He reportedly robbed over 100 banks.

He had escaped successfully from prison three times, and this is a dummy head and dummy hand that he used in an unsuccessful escape from prison.

Yes.

Well, and the prison was run by your grandfather.

Yes.

After he was released from the Eastern Penitentiary, they sent it up to the Camp Hill prison, where my grandfather was located.

And then he simply kept it upon his retirement, since Willie had been released long since.

Now, reportedly, what Sutton had done was, over the course of several months, possibly even years, he made this false head using hair from the barbershop-- and this is actually real human hair.

Same with the eyelashes.

We have no idea where he got the pigments.

Right, but they're very creative.

I'm sure they mixed things and made things up and everything.

As far as the plaster, I heard he went to the dentist a lot.

(laughing) He fashioned this wonderful head and left it in his bed, left the hand clutching a corner of the, the bedsheet.

Do you know what happened that night when he tried to escape?

Unfortunately, unbeknownst to him, two other inmates in another area of the prison also attempted to escape at that point, at about the same time, and that set off all the bells and whistles and alarms.

He ran back to his cell.

This escape attempt was in August of 1941.

Yes.

And it was just a few years later when he managed to finally escape for several years, and in 1950, he was actually the 11th person to be added to the FBI's most wanted list.

Willie Sutton was also known for a wonderful, wonderful quote.

Reportedly, he was asked once why he robbed banks, and he reported to have said, "Well, 'cause that's where the money is."

Well, later in life, he denied ever saying it, but he said it sounded good and he said it sounded like something he would say.

And he titled his autobiography "Where the Money Was," and talked about how he never, ever said that.

Yes.

And this is such a wonderful, wonderful piece.

Doing the research on it, there's not a lot of these things that were used by prisoners to help them escape come up for auction, and we've almost never seen anything, frankly, so well done.

I mean, this is a masterwork.

But without the box, and the provenance of the label on the box, it's just a creepy plaster head.

But if you look at pictures of Willie Sutton, it looks just like him.

Yes.

It is amazingly well done.

And after conferring with my colleagues, we're able to give it a very conservative auction estimate of $2,500 to $3,500.

Wow, that's nice.

That's very nice, that's surprising.

As far as I know, this is the first head in a box we've had on "Roadshow."

It belonged to my grandfather.

It's been in our family for 100 years, I believe.

And he may have purchased it in Europe in the 1800s.

It was in our home when I was a boy.

I grew up with it.

Well, it is a chair that was made in Venice, and I believe that it was made in the second quarter of the 19th century.

So somewhere between 1825 and 1850.

Oh!

The figures on the front are what we describe as caryatid figures.

Mm-hmm.

And they're taken from Greek architecture.

Egyptian... Oh, Greek, yeah.

Yes.

And Egyptian architecture, where you'd see a female figure holding up part of a building.

Mm-hmm.

Well, she's holding up the front of this chair, and doing a pretty good job with her wings that are coming out, and her hoof feet.

Yeah.

And then when you turn the chair around, I mean, it just gets better and better.

And you can see on the front of that griffin face, there's some wear on it, and it's because the chair, I think it's been against a wall for... Do you have it in your house against the wall?

No.

No... No, but I'm sure over the years, it got banged...

Right, right.

And pushed up against the wall... Well, it's meant to be viewed in the round.

It's an Italian piece, and of course we know the Italians are great violin makers.

Here are these scrolls on either side.

It is a wood base.

Also, we know that it's early 19th century because there are some pins, which is part of the construction that holds it together, and you can see it through the gilding here.

Mm-hmm.

And then on the other section of the leg, as well.

It's a pin construction.

Now, the whole piece is carved wood, it's probably a lighter pine, which would be easy to carve, and then it is gessoed.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, and then the gilding is laid on top of that.

Although there is much original gilding on this piece, I think at some point someone has sort of smeared the finish and, and maybe enhanced it slightly.

But for my taste, it is in great, great condition.

Over the years, especially, I mean, a 19th-century piece, you'd expect to see several upholstery changes.

Well, this has maybe not its original, but very early French mohair upholstery, done probably about 1860, probably Paris.

And it has a very Napoleonic decoration to it, all wool.

And that's why it's in such great condition.

The wool mohair wears like iron.

This is a great decorator's piece, and I bet, with the right decorator, he or she would be able to charge in the $10,000 range for a piece like this.

Oh, really.

I love this chair.

Yeah.

(laughs) MAN: The poster comes from a friend of mine who gave it to me after his mother passed, and he was getting rid of things.

The story I got from it is that this is Karlini, who is a magician, and who wasn't a very, really, really a very good magician, but he was a magician who followed around a guy by the name of Karalini.

And Karalini was a good magician, and he would always follow him and... You know, pretty much tried to steal his shine.

So, you know, one of the things that magicians do is, they thrive on misdirection and making things look different than they actually are.

True.

And part of the misdirection of Karlini was his title, "The Great Magician."

Right.

I think you got it when you said he wasn't really that great.

Right.

(chuckling) Um, I don't know the story you said about following a magician named Karalini.

Uh-huh.

And a quick look at the internet confirmed that that doesn't necessarily seem to be the case.

Oh, okay.

But there is a little bit of history behind Karlini.

He was actually a Dutch magician whose real name was Ludwig Trinka.

Oh!

Born in 1907.

He died in 1963, and he did a lot of work in Berlin before the Second World War.

Oh, okay.

During the war, it said he was arrested twice by the Nazis, and was most likely a French collaborator with the French Underground.

So he was one of the good guys.

Wow.

The imagery is very specific.

Magicians used to like to pose themselves as dealing with the arcane.

They could commune with the other world.

Really.

And you see him here with his magic wand over a brazier with very mysterious green smoke coming out of it.

He was trying to tell the people that he had some kind of supernatural power.

Oh, really?

He didn't, but that's what he was trying to tell people.

(chuckles): Oh, okay.

Oh, okay.

Now, this particular poster was printed in Vienna.

Okay.

So clearly, he not only performed in Berlin, in Germany, but he also performed in the Austrian capital, in Vienna.

Now, you got it for nothing.

Yes.

Any idea what it's worth?

Well, the guy who told me the story that obviously isn't true told me that it was worth, you know, in the price range of about $10,000.

About $10,000?

Between $8,000 to $10,000, yeah.

That's if it's real.

Exactly.

And if it's, if it's not real...

I don't, I have no clue other than what I saw on the internet a couple of days ago, where they was actually selling, like, 40, 44 bucks for these posters.

All right, for my next magic trick.

Nothing up my sleeves.

Okay, okay.

(laughs) I'd like to produce the real value for you.

Okay, great.

But the good news is, it is a real lithograph-- it's from 1930.

Wow.

No question about its authenticity.

So this is the poster that people in Vienna, in the years prior to the Second World War, would have seen on the streets advertising the show.

Really?

That's great.

Here's the bad news.

It's come up for auction several times over the past couple of years.

Right.

As recently as 2008.

Right.

And in 2008, at auction, it sold for $1,000.

Oh.

Okay.

The king of all magicians was Houdini.

Yes.

And Houdini died in 1926, but a similar poster of Houdini's would probably be worth $8,000 to $10,000, because he's considered the gold standard of all magic memorabilia.

Okay.

Okay.

And the reality is, it's going back on the wall.

I'm going to keep it, so... (laughing) All right, but thank you, so...

Fantastic.

All right, good.

What I love is, this correlates to me.

Over here is the, the venal, drunken side of me.

(laughing) Oh, wait, I'm sorry, that's my, uh, intuitive reasoning, reflective faculties, okay.

Yes.

WOMAN: I've always followed Keith Haring.

This I bought at his Pop Shop, '88 or '89.

I can't remember if it was $125 or $200.

It's color screen print, and it is printed on canvas.

It's bright, and it's colorful.

It's a classic Keith Haring image.

Retail could be $6,000, up to $9,000.

I'm very happy with that information.

WOMAN: My father bought it.

About 1962, somewhere around that timeframe.

And do you remember how much he paid for it?

I think in the realm of $50.

Maybe we'll turn it around now.

My father named it Evelyn.

This is Evelyn.

This is Evelyn.

Why did he name it Evelyn?

Because my father thought it looked like my mother, and my mother didn't appreciate that at all.

(laughs) Well, I think if she looked like this, she looked very, very good.

(laughs) It is done from the glassworks of Paolo Venini.

Okay.

He's an Italian glass maker, and he had a glass house in Murano, Italy.

They're still in production, but it has nothing to do with the family, and it's changed quite a bit.

And I think the piece was designed by Fulvio Bianconi.

Wow.

So, it's a very rare piece, very rare.

I'll be-- I'll be.

And you can also look at it beside a lovely hourglass nude.

If you look, it looks like a cat.

Two eyes and two ears.

Yes, yes.

And it has a pulled feather design.

This is an old technique.

I think you'll be happy to know that your father made a wonderful investment, and Evelyn should stay in your, your possession, because... Yeah, Evelyn's not going anywhere.

Evelyn at auction could go from $8,000 to $10,000.

Wow.

Oh, you made me get goose bumps.

(laughs) WOMAN: I brought in a clock that has been in the family for approximately, oh, 40 years or more.

My father was a clock collector, and he was stationed in Germany in the late '50s-early '60s.

And while we were over there, he purchased this clock.

He used to name his clocks, and this one he named Andreas.

It was my favorite clock and...

I had it in my room when I was a little girl.

And then when I turned 30, he gave it to me as a birthday present.

Okay, well, what you've brought in is what we call a winking-eye clock.

And this particular clock is probably of German, Black Forest origin.

Possibly Swiss, but more likely German.

And that means that it has a movement that's made out of a combination of steel and brass gearing, and then it also has a wooden frame.

Now, this particular type of construction you see a lot in cuckoo clocks and other types of clocks from that area.

The construction of the case is very interesting.

Here we have a clock that looks much like a picture frame that frames a wonderful chromolithograph picture of a, probably a Bavarian or a Swiss hunter right before he's going out for his expedition.

The colors and the condition of this thing are really outstanding.

He has this felt hat, his really nice, trimmed moustache.

Again, they made many, many clocks in that region, probably hundreds of thousands annually.

But what really makes this clock quite special, other than the fact that it's in such great condition, when this clock is running, his eyes will actually move back and forth as the pendulum swings.

And that really sets it apart.

Anytime you add automation to a clock, it changes it from just a strictly horological timepiece to something that's whimsical and fun to have.

Made about 1900.

You may notice that there's a name, Karl Lech.

That name may actually represent the person that did the coloring for the chromolithograph.

Another reason why it's in such great condition is, it has this glass to protect it overall.

If it didn't have the automation, it wouldn't be something that would be particularly valuable.

But because it has the automation feature of the clock, it makes it really desirable.

A clock like this, I could see quite easily selling in a retail shop or at a well-placed auction somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,800 to about $2,000.

Oh, my father would be thrilled.

I love the clock.

It's, it's entertained me since I was a little girl.

WOMAN: This is a Margaret Keane painting that I think was done in the mid-1960s.

APPRAISER: Right.

My mother-in-law purchased it on a trip to Hawaii, and I know she didn't pay a lot for it because she didn't have a lot of money.

So we inherited it in 1991 when she came to live with us.

But I must confess that I'm not very fond of it.

My husband loves it, so it's kind of been in the dining room, not in a place of prominence.

What can you tell me about the artist or the subject of the painting or... Well, Margaret Keane always did the large eyes, and that was her signature.

I don't know what the name of this is, if it has a name.

Well, the work of Margaret Keane has gone through considerable discussions over the years.

There was a ten-year lawsuit between Walter, her husband...

Yes.

...who claimed to be the author of the paintings, and Margaret, who claimed to be the artist.

There was a court trial in Honolulu, federal court, where they settled the matter by, Margaret Keane and Walter had to paint a painting.

I see, yes.

And Walter begged off and Margaret did one in 53 minutes.

And so she won the lawsuit.

Ah, interesting.

And resolved it-- I think it was in 1986.

Oh, that recently?

Yeah.

There is far more to the story than we'll go into here.

Sure.

But she was basically locked in a room and made to paint by her husband.

These waifs were her signature.

I see, yes.

Yeah.

Margaret Keane worked primarily with acrylics.

I see.

Which dry very quickly.

It allowed her to produce a number of paintings in a day.

So... Oh, really?

That is her medium of choice.

Okay, interesting.

And did you have a sense of what you thought Penny was worth?

I'm just guessing, and I'm going to say maybe about $4,000.

Yeah.

I have no idea.

I think it'd be a bit more than that.

They've sold at auctions in as disparate places as Maine and Japan.

And there's some affinity here to the anime images, it seems to me.

Oh, yeah, yes.

And there's a bit of a pop culture interest, and I wasn't sure whether you're aware that Tim Burton, he has got a film in the production on Margaret.

Oh!

I, I have heard of that, yes.

Yeah.

Today it might...

The auction values are $5,000 to $7,000, maybe $5,000 to $8,000.

Okay.

But you might wait-- Burton has a collection of them.

Oh!

Keane has been an interest over the years, so you might wait and see how that film turns out.

Okay, all right.

Everyone thinks that the value in art is constant, but it does change with other events.

I see.

So...

Very interesting.

Yeah, thanks very much for bringing it in.

Thank you.

What was the thought process of bringing this in today?

Well, I wanted to get something that caught everybody's attention.

Cool.

And it has.

(laughing) The parking lot was lit up.

The value in this is the look.

It's really cool, it's, it's a great conversation piece.

Go find another one, right?

Right.

So I think in a decent antique show, a dealer could ask as much as $300 to $500 for it.

Wow, that's great.

Yeah, I think it's pretty awesome.

We decorate it for Christmas, we do all kinds of things.

WOMAN: My father's mother owned the chair and she got it from family friends in Ohio.

It sat up in the attic of my parents' home for a long time, because when I was a kid, I used to go up in the attic, and it had a old cracked leather seat with horse hair falling out of it.

Yeah, I believe it.

And so I would say it's been in the family about 100 years.

All right.

I think the chair was...

It's made in America.

Made, I think, at a furniture manufactury.

We see a lot of these crazy, turn-of-the-century, so-called Victorian chairs.

But this one, I think, is way above average.

We see granny with her, literally, her granny glasses.

And she has this halo, it's a shell or a rising sun, and these outrageous finials of stalks of corn.

At some point, it probably had a dark finish.

That was removed, but in doing so, you did reveal the fact that it's made out of cherrywood, which is very beautiful wood.

Oh.

The fact that they're memorializing Grandma at the turn of the century, there's, there's a sweet, sentimental quality about this that I find very appealing.

I think it would be probably worth somewhere between $800 and $1,200.

Champion.

(laughing): Yeah.

You brought us a terrific horn today.

This is a very rare over-the-shoulder horn by John Stratton Company.

Yes.

And of the type used mostly during the Civil War and in the second half of the 19th century.

Over-the-shoulder horns are interesting because they were developed by Americans for use in American marching bands for the military.

And they're made so that you could have the band in front of the army and the army could hear the band.

Yeah.

Because you played it over the shoulder.

Like this.

And it pointed back towards the troops.

It's an American invention used from about 18, let's say the mid-1850s until about the 1880s, and then it died out.

This is an important maker, John Stratton, probably the most prolific of all the American makers.

He started off work in New York about 1859, and I would think this was made shortly thereafter.

Eventually, he moves to Germany, and makes horns there.

Using the same name, same logo.

And here you'll see his logo on the bell of almost all the instruments he made.

Mm-hmm, right.

I'm not sure whether or not the instruments made in Germany are much different than the ones made here.

I suspect that from the type of construction, this type of joint, this zigzag joint, that this is an American-made one.

This one is made out of material they called German silver.

And they called it their silver models, which probably cost twice as much as the brass horn at the time.

And this has string rotary valves, which are now inoperable because the strings, they're not working.

Correct.

So they're inoperable right now.

It just needs restrung.

But it could easily be made to work.

I think if this was set up to play again, and a little bit of repair work done on it, uh, it's the type of thing you'd find a Civil War reenactment band musician...

Yes.

...paying perhaps $3,000 for.

And it's great that it's stayed in your family.

I happen to be a music teacher, so I got all the musical instruments.

Would you like to hear some of the partials from the trombone?

Oh, yes, I'd love to hear it.

I can play some of them.

(playing notes) (chuckles softly) That was fabulous.

(cheers and applause) Thank you very much.

That was great.

WOMAN: I got it from my uncle when he passed away.

APPRAISER: And do you know where he got it from?

I don't know exactly.

He lived in New York for years and years.

He was a professor there in mathematics, and he liked beautiful objects.

And have you any idea what it is?

I just know that it's a Persian bowl and that's about it.

Well, it is Persian.

And it's from the Safavid Dynasty period, which started in 1501 and ended in 1736.

Oh.

The Safavids were a mixed dynasty.

They came from Kurdistan, I believe, and then settled in Ardabil.

They ended up being a very powerful dynasty.

They were also Sufis.

Sufism is another dimension of Islam.

This bowl dates from the latter part.

It's probably early 18th century.

Difficult to know.

Very, very typical, with the three colors.

They use the black, the green, and the cobalt blue.

And the cobalt blue is something that you see a lot in Persian art, and it's very striking.

It's really quite extraordinary.

The border comes from sort of a Chinese origin.

The bird's a real favorite image of the period.

Now, the face in the middle, it depicts the face of the sun.

Mm-hmm.

So you're looking into the bowl and it's radiating out from the bottom.

What's good about this bowl is, it's so large.

Mm-hmm.

Normally, they're sort of half the size.

Oh.

And given its size, it's remarkable it's stayed intact.

It's a stoneware bowl, and it looks like porcelain on the inside, because they're trying to copy the Chinese, which was in great demand.

But the Chinese kept a very close hold on the formulas of porcelain.

Underneath, there tends to be sort of a treacly, thick glaze.

They let it run down.

And the foot at the bottom will be unglazed, always.

A conservative estimate for this, retail, would be between $15,000 and $17,000.

Oh.

That's amazing.

♪ ♪ APPRAISER: This is a White's Physiological Manikin.

There are foldout parts to this so that you can show the patient or the medical student different veins in the body.

And you can look at where the bones run through the leg.

It goes into the muscles, and the tendons, and the ligaments.

This is very detailed and wonderful work.

Well, I would say that this one is worth somewhere in the vicinity of $1,000 to maybe as much as $1,500.

Very interesting piece.

Wow, I...

I'm just shocked.

(laughs) I'm shocked.

(stammering): I'm just shocked.

MAN: Years ago, I was vacationing in Guanajuato, Mexico, and this was in the window of a consignment shop, and I just couldn't resist it.

They had it priced at $125 in pesos, the equivalent then.

Okay, okay.

You know.

And, uh, I was able to get it for $90.

I, I negotiated with the woman.

Well done.

Let's take a little closer look at it.

We have a wonderful cocktail shaker here.

And it actually is marked on the inside.

And it is the Derby Silver Company of Connecticut.

This is probably circa 1937.

And it kind of has that feel to it.

You got the shoes, and it's just a great-looking piece, and lots of fun.

This is worth $800 to $1,200 at auction.

Wow, okay.

So I think people think it's pretty fun, and... Well, I'm going to keep it, I'm not...

It's a great conversation piece.

Yeah, oh, I bet...

I don't mix drinks in it, though.

I'm afraid it's sort of fragile.

Oh.

MAN: Well, I brought in my great-grandfather's arm.

(laughs): It's a prosthesis.

He had his arm shot off in the Civil War.

Mm-hmm, and this is the gentleman?

And this is my great-grandfather, Thomas Jefferson Crout.

He was in the Third Pennsylvania Cavalry.

Very famous regiment.

If you notice, this photograph was taken on Market Street in Philadelphia, which is basically where we're at today.

It's a nice full image of your ancestor in his uniform.

The cavalry-style shell jacket is what pattern that's called.

The gold piping on his coat denotes the cavalry branch of service.

Nice, clear, full image.

When they made that picture, it would have actually been black and white, and they hand-tinted it.

And what do we have here?

Well, this is a neckerchief holder that was carved out of a soup bone in Libby Prison.

He was taken prisoner in 1862, and one of his fellow prisoners carved this in the prison.

On this side, we have his name.

On this side, we have "Libby, 1862."

Libby Prison was a Confederate prison camp in Richmond, Virginia.

Wonderful piece of folk art and prisoner-of-war art.

Did he lose his arm before he went to prison?

No, he was actually exchanged, and then went back to fight with his outfit, and he lost his arm in the Battle of Mine Run.

It was very popular during the Civil War, in the early days, to exchange prisoners and go back into service.

If we turn it over, we actually have a Civil War patent date.

It's patented in 1863, and it says "Lincoln's patent."

Yeah, I always wondered about that.

(chuckles) Right, not Abe.

A different Lincoln.

A different Lincoln.

But it's nice to have that little mark on there.

Do you know how he came about getting this arm?

No, I didn't, I just thought that service provided that.

He was in two service hospitals.

Well, this one's actually better than what he would have gotten on Army money.

This is a real high quality.

It's hand-carved wood.

We have the enamel paint.

And it's actually maneuverable.

You have a hand that's removable.

Also, if you push the button, the arm tilts down.

And we have a leather covering over the joint.

It has vent holes on each side to let the arm breathe.

Would have had, like, a shoulder halter to go over the top.

It's a great piece.

Have you ever had these pieces appraised?

No, nobody knew anything about it.

Right.

This was kept in the closet for 100 years, maybe...

Right.

...in the same house.

Everybody was afraid of it.

Right.

(both laughing) Used it for jokes for years.

Really?

Oh, yeah.

(chuckling): On Halloween and so forth.

If we work from top to bottom, we have the image that would be probably a $400 to $600 image.

We have the carved neckerchief slide, which would be another $400 to $500.

And the arm, to a Civil War or a medical collector, would probably be somewhere in the $1,000 to $1,500 range.

Wow.

So as a group, I'm sure with it being an ancestor, it wouldn't be something you get rid of.

No.

So, for insurance purposes, you'd need to insure it between $2,500 and $3,000 as a group.

Wow, great, well, thank you very much.

You're more than welcome.

It's possible that he got a better-made one after the war.

Because if he could afford this during the war, the financial situation was only gonna get better, which could explain why he wasn't buried with this arm.

MAN: I got it in Florida, Sarasota, 1987.

Saw a garage sale.

It was left in the garden.

I was attracted to it.

I thought it was too skillful to leave behind, so I, I picked it up.

(chuckling): I've had it for 28 years.

And what do you know about the artist?

Well, he got involved with American illustration for magazines.

And this one, I believe, is for "Outdoor Life."

Gordon Stevenson is a very, very interesting American painter.

He's little-known today, but he was born in Chicago, and was something of an artistic prodigy.

At a very young age, he was actually hired to paint mural paintings in several schools in Chicago, which he did, and thankfully, which, I believe, still exist.

They were restored as part of a WPA project in the 1930s.

Wow.

He went off to Europe to study when he was still quite a young man.

And he studied in Spain with a wonderful, well-known Spanish Impressionist painter named Sorolla.

Yeah.

And, in fact, there is a painting of Mr. Stevenson by Sorolla.

He also studied, for a short time, closely with Sargent, and later in life made his living as a portrait painter.

And some of the portraits he painted are quite reminiscent of Sargent portraits.

During World War I, he was engaged in painting camouflage for the Navy.

And a lot of well-known American artists during that period were engaged in the military in various roles, and some of them in painting camouflage.

He went on to a career as an illustrator, and doing a lot of covers for "Time" magazine and portraits, and that sort of thing.

But this particular painting is fascinating to me because of the technique.

And if we look at this G.I.

Joe-type figure, with this sporting theme going on here, as it was, you say, the cover for "Outdoor Life" magazine.

What we have here is a painting that is oil on Masonite, and probably dates from 1939 or 1940, since we know it was an illustration for a magazine cover that was published in 1940.

We see how he's incorporated all of these sporting images into creating the image of this character.

And maybe you could even describe some of what's going on here.

Up here at the top... Top is salmon, salmon fishing.

There's salmon fishing.

It looks like in the Northwest.

Then it comes to a bird hunter.

And there's ducks which are going through the eye.

And then you come down to a fly fisherman with the, with the other eye, which is the pipe.

And then at, which, at the cliff of the nose is, is his fly fishing rod.

And then beneath that is a chap that's fanning the fire, which is going through his lips.

At the dimple in his chin is a frying pan.

And going off with the strap is guys that are probably down in the Everglades.

And, uh, and then you've got this deer at the, at the neck, and it ends up with the color of his shirt is this tent.

Exactly.

And the Boykin.

The Boykin being what?

For people who don't know.

South Carolina's bird dog.

Exactly.

And I understand you've been having some cleaning...

Right, yeah.

...and conservation work done on the painting.

And that you've had some of these areas cleaned.

Yeah.

And now, these white spots we see over here are small losses of pigment.

Paint, yeah.

Now, how much did you pay for it?

Well, I looked in my diary, and I paid five dollars for the frame and five dollars for the picture, so ten dollars.

Well, I think you made a great buy, because, um, first of all, it's beautiful.

But secondly, even though, um, Mr. Stevenson is not very well-known today, I think this would easily sell at auction in the between $3,000 and $5,000 range.

Wow, wow.

And possibly a great deal more than that.

Although we can't really say for sure.

Right, right-- wow.

I bought it in New York City about 20 years ago.

Over 20 years ago, probably.

And it was in a gallery, shop, what kind of...?

No, it was a dealer who sold it to me.

She was actually selling Haitian art, and she had a couple of bronze statues, and I just took to it immediately.

I thought it was so beautiful, and so statuesque, and I relate to bronze ladies.

So I thought, um, I just related to her totally.

It's really a wonderful piece.

As you know, it's signed.

It's by an artist named Ángel Botello.

He was interesting, he's sort of one of these Renaissance characters, because not only did, did he do sculpture, but he did paintings, he did watercolors.

He was born in Spain in 1913.

And he studied in Paris.

He studied architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts and he also studied painting.

And it's interesting that you said that you bought this in a gallery that specialized in Haitian art, because he lived in Haiti for a number of years.

And then, in 1953, he wound up in Puerto Rico.

He's probably the most famous sculptor in Puerto Rico.

It was probably done in the early 1980s.

So you have this lovely little seated girl.

Yes.

Seated child.

It's charming, made out of bronze.

It's very modern-looking, stylized.

She has this wonderful flat face, which I find very appealing.

And this is nice, long neck.

Right.

And then her dress has this great, great sort of pebbly, textured surface, which I think is nice.

And so what did you pay for this when you bought it?

Oh, gosh.

It's been so long, but around...

I, I know I paid $1,000.

I know it was a lot of money for me at that time 20 years ago.

I had art before, before I had furniture.

But I was just, again, so taken by it, and just thought it was so lovely, I just put the money out.

His work is very, very desirable.

The market is very, very strong for works from Puerto Rico, from artists from the Caribbean.

This is a great, great piece.

The value in a gallery is probably about $10,000.

Okay, nice.

Really nice.

(laughs) WOMAN: My husband and I bought a house in 1979.

This was left in the closet.

We had a laugh about it, he put it back in the closet, and it didn't get brought out until Friday, when... (chuckling): Really?

Yeah.

Well, as soon as I got the tickets, he says, "You're taking the whirlygig."

This is a really wonderful whirlygig.

Primarily because of the size and the condition.

These paddles, one would be typically up, and one would be down.

They're kind of frozen both in a down position and we didn't want to force it.

In a retail setting, a piece such as this, we're talking about $4,000 to $6,000.

Wow.

I am shocked.

It's 1952.

The postwar baby boom is well underway.

Soldiers came back, they got married, they bought a bungalow in L.A., and they're having kids.

They want pretty, decorative things.

They don't have any money.

So this cottage industry kicked in, where American companies were making attractive, inexpensive decorative pottery for these homes.

The Japanese saw that.

They started producing these things for a fraction of the price.

I brought a statue of Willie Mays' hands and forearms when he made The Catch in 1954 off the bat of Vic Wertz in the World Series.

Did you see The Catch on TV?

Yes, I did, and I've seen it many times on film.

Yeah.

I bought it online in an auction and it is from the estate of Bobby Bonds.

Okay.

Well, it is definitely one of the more unusual items we see.

Yes.

In fact, when you first came to the table, and we were looking down in there, we were trying to figure out, what is that?

Right.

Yeah.

Not something I've seen before.

That is great provenance that you have that it came from Bobby Bonds.

And as we did more research, we see that the company that actually made this collectible worked with the Bonds family and was lifelong friends of the Bonds family.

Right.

It's got a signed glove here.

Mm-hmm.

It's not a real glove.

It's a little, kid's glove.

Mm-hmm.

And a signed baseball with it.

Yup, okay.

Yeah, so it's an unusual collectible.

There's a picture on the front of the certificate of authenticity card, where Willie came in and actually dipped his hand into the wax to do a wax mold.

Right.

Then they recreated what his posture would have been-- what his, how his posture, fingers would have been... Mm-hmm.

...when he made the catch.

Right.

Made this collectible that's only an edition of 200.

We have the signed glove, the signed ball with it.

Mm-hmm.

Any idea what you expect it to be worth?

Well, I paid $500 for it.

Yup.

Well, we did find a couple that have come up for auction.

However, the most recent one being 2011.

Okay.

So I'm going to put a value on this one at auction... Mm-hmm.

...of $1,200 to $1,500.

Oh, great.

Great, thank you.

Obviously, you're Candy.

Yes.

Tell me about this "Playboy" costume.

Okay, well, this "Playboy" costume was the 1976 Playboy Bunny of the Year costume from Chicago.

And the trophy was the award for the international pageant that was televised on ABC and it was held in L.A. at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

I have a long history with "Playboy."

I started at the St. Louis Playboy Club, transferred to the Chicago club, lived in the mansion when Hef was in residence.

I've done eight covers for "Playboy."

And I think this is a picture of you.

This is a picture of me.

Yes, when I could fit in the costume, Laura.

This was at, uh, the Jerry Lewis telethon that I worked.

We did a lot of "Playboy" promotions and the Playmates and Bunnies always helped out.

What was it like?

It was absolutely surreal.

I was a Playmate.

I was a centerfold in '79.

And all the Playmates, the girls, were very diverse, they were all beautiful, and it was like a sorority.

I mean, there were, there were friends, there was no competition, no jealousies.

Living at the mansion with Hef was surreal.

The Rolling Stones would have parties there.

Every celebrity that was in town would come, they would die to get to the mansion.

I was in my 20s.

I guess I really kind of took it for granted.

And now, in hindsight, I think, I slap my forehead and think, "Wow, those were really heady days."

Who is the favorite person you've ever met at the mansion?

Well, I love Hefner.

I mean, he's the best.

I mean, he is the perfect gentleman.

We still go to the parties in L.A. We still see him, my husband and I.

He's always been a class act, and, and really way ahead of his time.

And of course, this is kind of a Chicago institution.

This is a Chicago, yeah, it started here.

It started in Chicago.

I've worked on a couple of auctions of "Playboy" memorabilia that were done by the Playboy Enterprises.

But they don't really have the suits, because the suits belonged to the, the Playboy Bunnies.

(laughing): Yeah, well, they're supposed to belong to the clubs, but I absconded with mine, so...

I think... You're not alone.

(laughs): Yeah.

Most of the, most of the Playboy Bunny costumes that have come up for auction have come from the Bunnies themselves.

Right.

Well, you know, the costumes were all made to fit the individual girls.

So it's not like they can reuse them anytime.

That explains a lot.

They couldn't put them back into stock...

Right, no.

...because it was fit for you.

And you even have on this one, you have my favorite part of the entire bunny... (laughing): Yeah, the tail.

You have the tail.

Mm-hmm.

Which I, I think is adorable.

Yeah.

It's a wonderful addition.

And the ears, of course, the ears.

And the ears.

I have two sets of silver ears.

What struck me the most about your, your suit is that when they do come up for auction, I've never seen one in such complete condition.

You have every piece of it.

That makes it pretty extraordinary.

(laughs) And I've never seen silver lamé.

Mm-hmm.

Most of them come up are the primary satin colors.

Right.

And the trophy, I've never seen one of the trophies.

Well, you know, this is the Bunny of the Year Pageant program.

And actually, it, there was all these celebrities that were in the audience for the international pageant, because it was the first one that was ever televised.

And the signatures are from O.J.

Simpson, who signed it "Peace," Ringo Starr, Milton Berle, Jim Brown, Steve Martin, and Hefner.

So I didn't even remember getting these signatures.

But after I pulled it out of storage and looked at it, my husband said, "My God, do you know the names that are on here?"

So it was pretty exciting.

The suit alone, in today's market, would sell at auction anywhere between $6,000 and $8,000.

(laughing): Oh, you're kidding me!

Oh, my God!

And I've never seen a trophy come up.

I think most of the women who won that, it was such a prestigious thing to win, that I would expect at auction for that to be estimated anywhere between $2,000 to $3,000.

(laughing): Oh, really?

And you also have that program over there... Yeah.

...which would be at least $200 to $300, if not more.

Mm-hmm.

So altogether here, you have at least $8,200 to $11,300 worth of stuff.

(laughing): Whoa, that's awesome!

And I actually think it's conservative, because you're fabulous, and your story is fabulous.

And you even have the cuff links on your cuffs.

You have the bow tie, you have the story.

Yeah.

You've got your name badge.

Yeah.

And it's just so wonderful to meet one in context with the person who wore it.

Oh, my God, thank you, Laura!

That is thrilling!

Are you most comfortable wearing them?

(laughing): Yeah, I'm very comfortable wearing them.

I started collecting these about 20 years ago.

I collected them one at a time.

Sometimes I was limited because of finances, and other times, I could only find one.

Many times, I bought the only one that there was.

Well, what you have collected in the last 20 years is an astounding assembly of Victorian puff hearts.

At the very late part of the 1800s, the Victorian jewelry style changed from real heavy jewelry into simple, sweet motifs.

The puff hearts have little flowers on them, and some of them even are padlocks.

They were locking their loved one's heart into their soul.

Very romantic.

Now, you have how many hearts here?

Thirty-eight.

Well, 38 includes the little Bible at the bottom.

And what is the significance of the Bible at the bottom?

I just particularly like that one.

It opens.

It has a tiny heart lock on it.

Oh, I see the lock on the side of the book there.

That's very charming.

Now, through the 20 years that you've been collecting these hearts, what do you think you've paid on average per heart?

I have paid from six dollars to $35.

I'd say on today's market, at a retail level, this piece would be worth about $3,500.

(gasps) (softly): I'm astounded.

(chuckles) I am just astounded.

That's a real thrill.

(laughing) This is a Guanyin, the goddess of mercy, and she's sitting on some lotus leaves.

This came into the family when my parents bought a house in Hawaii.

The house was fully furnished with antiques, and furniture, and whatever.

One of the things that's interesting about this is the face.

The kind of pinched, narrow face, the downcast eyes, the aquiline nose, the pursed lips.

The mouth is very small and tight.

Which is not typically characteristic of things you would find in the Ming Dynasty.

The other element that I find interesting is the, is the crown.

And you notice that this is covered with small, little jeweled ornaments-- pearls, basically.

And that those are mimicked here at the necklace on the open chest, and that is a kind of tiered pearl necklace.

And that's also something you do get in the Ming Dynasty, but you also get from a slightly earlier period.

So with sculpture, we're looking at the way the robes fall.

The very sharp lines of these robes as it falls over the body, and it kind of cascades over the hands.

You'll notice that there's an old repair here, this iron repair.

And on the front, the upright leaves of the lotus are very sharp and crisp, and they're actually overlarge.

Those are things that are kind of indicative to me that this was likely made in a more provincial area.

If you look at the face, you see the discoloration?

Yeah.

The darkness?

That is from many, many, many years of incense swirling around the head.

I see.

Once, this was brilliantly painted.

Bright colors, probably heightened with gold.

And what we're looking at is that core surface.

So we have very few pigments that are remaining.

But we do see some.

We see traces of red here, you see some green up here at the top, bits of ocher, and then the bare wood.

Now, the wood is called nanmu, and it was chosen because it's a very durable, stable wood that doesn't change shape.

And it's also resistant to decay.

It's always nice to be able to pinpoint a date.

Sometimes it's hard to do.

So this is one of those cases-- it displays characteristics, I think, of a period called the Liao Dynasty, which is 907 to 1125.

Oh.

Which precedes the Ming-- the Ming is 1368 to 1644.

And I'm inclined to believe that it could easily be from that period.

But even if it isn't, it's displaying many of those characteristics.

In terms of an insurance figure, I would feel pretty comfortable with about $20,000.

Uh-huh.

♪ ♪ PEÑA: You're watching WOMAN: It was in October 1971.

I was on my honeymoon.

And you purchased this from whom?

From the potter.

And what do you have?

I know it's a Picasso plate.

And he was the only authorized person to cast Picasso's pottery.

Correct.

When you bought this in 1971... Mm-hmm.

...you remember how much you paid for it?

Oh, I think it was about $150.

It is done at a pottery called Madoura in Vallauris.

Yes, Vallauris, yes.

In the South of France.

Picasso did several designs for vessels and for plates.

Yes.

And they were being executed at this pottery.

Yes.

And they were done directly from his own designs in editions-- in limited editions.

Correct.

Now, the names that have been given to these pieces I think are more descriptive than the actual title, so this is called, in English, "Face with a Pinched Nose," or "Visage au Nez Pincé" This edition was originally designed in 1959 and they don't make them all at the same time.

Mm-mm.

It is red earthenware and it's decorated with majolica glaze.

But what is so wonderful about this particular piece is, to me, I see an African mask, like one of the masks that he had in "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," his very famous, very large painting.

Some of them are much more folksy.

This is very Picasso.

And I also would like to show the back, because there's a couple of things on the back.

There is...

There's the mark.

Yes.

Which says that it is stamped by Picasso and where it's done.

Mm-hmm.

There's also the edition.

100 for his items is a, is a smallish edition, because they go up to 500.

So 100 is nice and small.

There's also a chip.

Correct.

Which affects the value.

This chip right here.

Yes.

They're so porous and delicate that they break easily.

So in this condition, at auction, I would think that it is probably, these days, going in the $6,000 or $7,000 range.

Really?

(laughs) In perfect condition...

Yes.

...they have been doing the $9,000 to $10,000 range.

Okay.

PEÑA: Thanks for watching.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."