♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: "Antiques Roadshow" is delighted to see the treasures of the Green Mountain State at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont.

When I saw that sapphire, my eyes lit up.

It's almost too good to be true.

No.

You're kidding.

♪ ♪ PEÑA: From above, the Shelburne Museum looks a little like one of the antique crazy quilts in its large collection of historic textiles.

Out of the cedar chest, off the bed, and on display for all to admire.

That was where the museum's founder, Electra Havemeyer Webb, felt her quilt collection belonged, and the museum was among the first in the country to exhibit quilts as works of art, from dazzling pieced quilts to incredible appliqué quilts and those of the crazy variety.

The incredible designs and intricate construction of these textiles transcend their original function to provide warmth and are unique works of art.

We've pieced together a fantastic group of treasures to share with you from Vermont.

Take a look.

So this is the original weather vane, uh, from atop the Stowe Community Church.

The church was built in 1863, so we believe that this was put up there in 1863, as well.

I have it in my house, above my mantel.

On the wall.

I had to pay $1,500 for this.

We just picked it up at an estate sale the other day.

We were, like... We, we don't know anything about it.

Ex, except for, it's a harpoon.

MAN: Have you ever used it?

(laughs) (laughing): Just to get my husband.

Paid $45.

APPRAISER: Team-signed Celtics photo, team-signed Celtics basketball.

How did you get them?

Well, they came into the family through my husband's side of the family.

His grandfather worked for the I.R.S., and he did taxes, and he met Red Auerbach, and they became very good friends.

And he used to do Red's taxes every year.

And then when the first grandchild was born, which was my husband, Red had given these things to the grandfather.

Red Auerbach is one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time.

Hall of Famer who was the Celtics coach from 1950 to 1966.

But as or even more importantly, he also served to diversify the NBA in the '50s and the '60s, which was a critical junction...

Right.

...of civil rights in this country.

Right.

After Red joined the Celtics in 1950, he drafted Chuck Cooper, who was the first African American player to be drafted into the NBA.

Oh.

He adds to the team Bob Cousy, probably the most dynamic player in the NBA.

And he also added Bill Sharman, who, together with Cousy, became one of the great backcourt duos in the NBA.

Well, instantly the record turned around.

They started getting into the playoffs every year, season after season, but they would choke in the playoffs.

Well, now we fast-forward to 1956.

Red just wanted to win, and he wanted the best players possible on the court.

He was able to trade two players for Bill Russell.

And Bill Russell was the toughest player on the court.

He could rebound, he could pass, he was unselfish, and he led the team in playing tenacious defense, and that became their new identity under Red Auerbach.

That's when they won their first championship.

Oh, wow.

This photo is the birth of the Celtics dynasty.

But Auerbach was really the architect of that.

Yeah.

So this photo is '56-'57.

This ball was signed '57-'58.

Okay.

And the next years, heading up to 1966, when Auerbach retired as head coach, he won nine championships with the Celtics.

Mm.

So we're talking about how he diversified, too, the NBA.

In 1964, he had the first all-Black starting lineup.

'66, Red retires after a phenomenal, phenomenal career.

Who does he name his head coach for the Celtics?

Bill Russell.

Bill Russell became the first Black head coach in the NBA.

Generally, at the top of the hierarchy in sports memorabilia are going to be game-used pieces, but signed pieces have a very strong demand.

In an auction, I'd put each one of these at $10,000 to $15,000.

No.

You're kidding-- Each of them, separately?

Oh, my gosh.

If I were going to insure them, I would not insure them for any less than $50,000 for the pair.

Wow.

(laughing): That's a big surprise.

That will be a big surprise to my husband, too, when he finds out.

Yeah.

Very nice, but definitely a shock.

This came to me from my mother.

I inherited it from her.

I was the one sailor in the family.

I sailed professionally for five years.

Mm-hmm.

And, and so I was fortunate enough to, to receive it.

It certainly speaks to me as a sailor and, and somebody who loves being outdoors.

Wow.

The sky and the water.

The two crew members are le, leaning out, hiking, trying to help keep the boat level.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

You can see the, the shoreline here, I imagine they're running to the harbor here.

Right.

And when did you acquire it?

About 20, uh, 20.

Eric Sloane, the American painter... Mm.

...who was born in 1905 and died in 1985, was very much known for painting New England barns and rustic scenes and footbridges and that sort of thing.

He did, however, have a whole body of paintings dedicated to sky and seas.

Mm-hmm.

He was born in New York.

He worked on the East Coast, but he also had a home near Santa Fe.

This is an original oil-on-Masonite painting.

This would have come to your family around what year?

My mother was visiting my great-grandfather in Greenwich, Connecticut, I believe.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and it would have been in 1952, I believe, when she was 16 years old.

And Eric Sloane must have known my great-grandfather, who was an executive in, in New York.

I see.

Um, and he came to visit my great-grandfather, and said, "I want to go out west skiing at Sun Valley, Idaho."

Mm-hmm.

"Could I interest you in a painting?"

And my mother happened to be there, and he, my grand, my great-grandfather, turned to her and said, "Julia, pick out, which one do you like?

And this is the one she picked out.

Eric Sloane was very prolific, said to have painted about 15,000 works... Wow.

...in his lifetime, which is pretty incredible.

Yeah.

Started out as an early sign painter.

Mm.

Traveling the country.

Ultimately comes back to New York and is enrolled in the Art Students League.

Mm.

And one of his teachers was John Sloan, the well-known American Ashcan painter.

And he was advised to change his name.

His name was not originally Eric Sloane.

Oh, I didn't know that.

The "Sloane" came from John Sloan.

Mm-hmm.

The "Eric" came from America.

And this painting, while not dated, is very clearly signed.

Yeah.

On the lower right.

Yep.

And it's titled, and the title, "Sea and Sky-- Squall Line."

The painting bears the initials of what was Eric Sloane's actual proper name.

Wow.

Before he became Eric Sloane: Everard Jean Hinrichs.

E-J-H, above the name Sloane.

The painting, I think, probably dates to about 1945 or 1950.

Has the painting ever been appraised, or do we know what it was first...

The, the cost when it was first acquired?

Enough to get s, get to Sun Valley, Idaho, to go skiing.

(laughs) Okay, well, this... (laughing): I don't know what that would've been back then.

Okay.

I think the auction estimate would be in the range of $15,000 to $20,000.

Mm-hmm.

I would look to a figure of around $35,000 for insurance purposes.

Mm-hmm.

PEÑA: Duck, duck, duck, goose.

These painted wooden decoys were more than folk art fowl when they were made over a century ago.

Hunters used them to lure birds to within shooting distance.

The craftsmen who created these hunting tools are lauded now for their carving skills and aesthetic choices.

Among the oldest decoys in the museum's collection are those by Captain Charles Christopher Osgood, who created these Canada geese replicas in the mid-1800s.

♪ ♪ WOMAN: This is my father's yearbook, although not for the year that he graduated.

So he was a sophomore, um, in this yearbook.

And it is a yearbook from Topaz Camp in, uh, Delta, Utah, which is one of the Japanese American concentration camps from World War II.

So my father was in camp from age 13 to age 16.

So this is the, I believe, the book of the last year before they were released.

How did all of that come about for his family, and...

They were living, um, in Northern California, in Berkeley, when, um, the executive order came.

They were, uh, evacuated with what they could carry.

And so they went first to Tanf, uh, to Tanforan, which was a, formerly a racetrack.

The families were put in the horse stables for temporary while the camps in, inside, like Topaz, was built.

And then, um, they went by train to Topaz in Delta.

It looks like your typical high school yearbook, and it's so much different than that.

It looks very normal.

I think one of the tragedies of this is, it looks so normal and typical.

On the endpapers, you see what the camp looked like.

What are all the signatures?

These were, uh, uh, friends, classmates, that were wishing him luck and good wishes, and just...

Probably what your high school yearbook looks like, too, I... (chuckles) (laughing): What my high school yearbook looks like.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Only not with that picture.

Tell me what this page is.

This is my dad, here.

This is the sophomore class page.

And my father was class president.

From what I heard of what he was like when he was in high school, I mean, he was a leader, clearly.

He was also a bit of a, a firecracker.

He's told me a story of, like, leading a, a walkout, actually, from the high school at, in Topaz because of the way they were teaching history.

We've pu, picked out one other, uh, pamphlet, and, because you felt that there was some in there that sort of typified what the real feeling about this was.

Read in, in the, the paragraph that we're talking about.

"In recognition of the fact that many alien-born evacuees "are prevented from being loyal American citizens "by legal technicalities, and that some individuals "who legally are American citizens "actually are sympathetic to Japan in the present war, "the process of segregation will be conducted without regard for citizenship."

I find somewhat ironic the part that says, "Some individuals who legally are American citizens actually are sympathetic to Japan," because there, there's no evidence in, in history that, of any Japanese Americans being traitorous in any way.

During the war, you, you could, um, leave camp before the war ended if you were sponsored east.

And so, my, um, aunt and uncles were sponsored to Cincinnati to go to, um, college and university.

And so when the war ended, my father, who was 16, and his-- the, the parents and the remainder of his family were still in camp-- went to Cincinnati.

He completed high school in Cincinnati, and he became a mathematician.

I think, also, and my dad talked about it, that camp had a real effect on him.

That he came out of camp, and... And he didn't... Like, the way he talked about it is, he didn't really know how to interact with people, um, in a...

In a wider society, because of the effect.

And so I'd never thought of him as, like, a really social person or even, like, a protest leader.

Items from those camps do show up on occasion.

Really?

Uh, but I've never seen a yearbook, uh, from it.

I've never seen that pamphlet.

Putting these two together, I would say a value of $500 to $1,000 retail.

Oh.

I mean, where are you going to get another yearbook like this?

It, you touch it, and you can almost feel the emotion.

Mm-hmm, yeah.

I mean...

I really didn't think it was going to be worth anything, really.

It's worth a lot to me, but, um...

But it's really the story.

In some ways, it's kind of nice to know that maybe other people will feel that story, too, and, and that that's reflected in the value.

I know lots of people say this, but it's priceless to us, and so it'll just pass in the family.

It's something that we should all learn and know more about, and this sort of leads you into it.

Thank you.

MAN: I purchased this group at an antique shop in Winter Park, Florida.

The dealer apparently didn't know anything about them.

He told me that he had purchased them from a woman who claimed Native American ancestry on both sides.

Right.

Said she was Cherokee and Potawatomi.

He thought these pieces were either Cherokee or Seminole.

The minute I saw them, I knew that was wrong, that they had to be Northern Plains.

But I don't know what tribe they are or what their age is or what their value is, and I'm very interested in finding out.

The piece nearest you is quite common.

It's a pipe bag, and this is from the Sioux in the Plains.

It's quite typical, except that we, we usually have, you know, the bottom band of beadwork here and the top.

Yeah.

And this is usually more empty.

But this is heavily beaded, so it's r, rather unusual for the, the pattern.

It is, and it's... And it's beaded on both sides.

Right.

And you have sort of the tin cones here with some horsehair that's dyed.

And it's probably from about 1880, or, l, like, the fourth quarter of the 19th century.

This here is from about 1880, and it's Southern Plains.

Okay.

And it's Comanche Kiowa.

Oh, no kidding.

Yes.

And it's an awl case, which would contain the awl, which they would use in their... Making of their clothing and things like this.

Right.

They, they'd pierce the deer skins, which would help the, with the stitching.

It's very sort of delicate work.

Very tiny beads, probably from Venice.

Yeah.

And these are glass tubular beads here.

Okay.

The earlier ones would have probably been, uh, bird bone, leg bone, or something like that.

Yes.

With the usual sort of brass bits on the end.

Mm.

For me, this is the piece that I really, really love here.

This is... Me, too.

This is a strike-a-light.

And as you probably know, a strike-a-light is used to contain the steel and the flint to make fires.

This is also Southern Plains.

Oh, wow.

Comanche Kiowa.

Wow.

The beads are brass and they're probably from France.

The beads here will probably be from Venice.

Mm-hmm.

Now, the back is also quite interesting.

This is commercial leather.

It's oak-tanned.

It's probably from saddle leather of some kind.

And this design is classical Comanche design here.

Oh, wow.

Very nice.

This is about 1860, so this is pre-reservation.

No kidding.

And really super-desirable.

All three of the pieces, they've used sinew to hold the pieces together and to put the beads on, on the pieces.

What did you pay for the group?

Uh, the dealer was asking $1,800.

Uh-huh.

And I gave him $1,500.

For the three pieces?

For the three, yes.

When did you buy them?

I, I'd say it's about ten years ago.

So let's start with that.

Any idea?

I don't know, I've seen pipe bags sell for $4,000.

Right.

I think you're sort of on the money there.

Um, given the condition problems, I'd say, I'd say probably $3,500 to $4,000.

Okay.

That's a retail price.

Yeah.

This, which is a real favorite of mine, which is so sweet, they don't make a lot, probably $800 to $1,000.

I think on a good day, that could easily do maybe $1,500, 'cause it's, it is so delicate and so sweet.

And it's all there.

Yeah.

This, of course, is the real beauty on here.

And these quite often don't do that much.

But this, I'd be quite comfortable in valuing it probably $6,000 to $8,000.

No kidding.

That's terrific.

♪ ♪ This one was actually a family teapot, and they used it every Sunday.

And we just saw this one in a market, and we just said, "Oh," you know, "that, that's similar to that.

Is one a copy or is one not?"

Uh... What's the better piece?

Well, that's the great question.

Yeah.

They're obviously very, very similar.

This was probably made five years after this was made.

Oh, okay.

This one is marked "Made in Japan."

Right.

Earthenware, you used it for tea.

The moisture leaches through the bottom and stains brown.

Okay.

That's how you know it's earthenware.

Uh, '30s mark.

Okay.

Typical Japanese piece from between the wars.

Yeah.

This is the English piece, the precedent, this is probably from the '20s.

Okay.

Oh, okay, yeah.

And the Japanese were really good at copying things.

Yeah.

And they could make this for a fraction of what this maker charged, so they can go back to the English market or any market with the same piece and offer it for half-price.

Interesting about this piece, though, is, this is genuine Staffordshire, hand-painted, England.

But they were copying, too.

You have an English copy of an English piece, and a Japanese copy of an English copy of an English piece.

Yeah.

You answered a, like, a family mystery, for us.

Okay.

WOMAN: This is a tea set... Mm-hmm.

...that my grandmother bought in Japan, I'd say probably in the '60s... Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

...at some point.

It's been a favorite.

Did you use them?

I've never used them... Mm-hmm.

...um, for tea.

Mm-hmm.

I've always kept them polished on the shelf in my living room.

All right, all polished, yes.

What I love about these in particular are the feet on the bottom.

Oh, okay.

I love these feet.

Right, yes.

And, and they're on all of them.

Yes.

Which make them really unusual, I think.

It's wonderful, wonderful work.

Because they're, they're so well-finished.

You can see, yes.

Um, on the bottom as well as the top.

So you knew he was a really good art, right?

Yes.

Good artist.

So this is a tea set for Western... (chuckling): Western tea set.

This is for hot water and this is for cream.

And this is for sugar, I would say.

So, Japanese, and it was done probably around late 19th century.

Okay.

About-- up, up to maybe 1900s, yes.

And the artist's name-- I know the artist.

Oh, really?

Yes.

I know... Wow, you can tell from the hallmarks.

I mean, not personally.

Oh.

He's too old, but, uh... Oh, my goodness.

His name is Shigemitsu.

Which is written as a hallmark.

Right.

And it's, uh, pure silver.

Shigemitsu is a known Japanese artist, worked in silver all the time, and it's always wonderful work.

The birds are very common in Japanese art.

These are quails, usually depicted with a, with a millet.

This handle is, um, a millet.

You have seen, that's grain.

At the auction... You probably would like to know the prices, right?

I would love to know what you think.

Yeah, okay, at the auction, I think it should go to $6,000 to $9,000.

That's fabulous, yeah, yeah.

Maybe a bit more, yes.

Thank you.

All right.

That's really wonderful.

Yeah, yeah.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

I don't think I want to get rid of them.

(laughing): No, you shouldn't.

GIRL: These are two autobiographies of Eleanor Roosevelt.

Um, this one is "This I Remember" and "On My Own," and they're both signed, because my great-grandmother had a, written a letter to her for an essay she was submitting for a c, a contest about democracy.

And Eleanor Roosevelt wrote back, and they became friends.

Mm-hmm.

And then these are some newspaper articles about when my great-grandmother Emmaline went to visit her with her children at Hyde Park.

That is my great-grandmother Emmaline.

And that's the first letter Eleanor wrote back to her after she submitted her essay.

Wow, this is an amazing group of items.

The time range for, for the items, from the first letter that your great-grandmother received from Eleanor Roosevelt, dated July 10, 1948, and then it goes all the way to the publication of "On My Own," which was published in 1958.

The letter is to your great-grandmother.

I have a hard time reading it from here.

Would you mind, um, taking a crack at, at the first paragraph?

So the letter, I think, says, "My dear Mrs. Dunne, I read your article with interest.

"I am afraid, however, "that it will not be easy to get it published, "not because you are not well-known, "but because it is an article "which I understand perfectly, "but which I am not sure would mean a great deal to people who do not have a considerable amount of education."

At the very bottom, she says that, "If you're ever in New York "or in my neighborhood, call on me and we should get together."

And the little manuscript notation up above is in a different hand by someone just explaining what the letter is about and, uh, mentioning the visit in 1949.

These articles are published, I think, August, uh, 1949, and they come and visit, right?

You also have the two autobiographies.

"This I Remember" is about the time while she was in the White House, and "On My Own" is her memoir of the time after being in the White House.

That one is signed, and this one has the presentation inscription that says, "With good wishes."

Part of their correspondence is actually in the Library of Congress in the Department of Women's Studies.

And here we have a letter with great content and her signature-- but it's a typed letter-- and you have the two books.

And unfortunately, the letter has some water staining on the side, and the books are not in the best condition.

As an archive, as a group, I would estimate the collection at about $1,500.

Mm.

For insurance, insurance purposes.

Thank you very much for bringing this in, you know.

Thank you.

It was quite a treat.

PEÑA: The covered bridge is a beloved symbol of Vermont.

This one was once the entrance to Shelburne Museum.

It originally covered the expanse of the Lamoille River in Cambridge, Vermont, and was one of two covered bridges offered to Mrs. Webb by the state.

The chalk numbers on the beams helped keep track of the pieces when it was moved, indicating how the bridge should be reconstructed.

This rare two-lane covered bridge, once used by horse-drawn wagons, and later cars, is now solely for pedestrians.

MAN: My wife's dad found this in a barn, an old barn in New Hampshire, about 80 years ago, and must have known it was of some value-- had it framed.

We have researched it before, and, um, we've come up with different, you know, Buffalo Bill, Wild West of the Rough Riders posters before, but not this particular "Attack on the Stage Coach."

Buffalo Bill was the most famous showman in the world from the 1880s through about 1915, when he ended his show business career.

And he was originally a plainsman.

He was actually a frontiersman who'd be out on the Plains.

He was a buffalo hunter, that's where his name comes from.

He fought in several battles during the Civil War.

While he was a showman, his origins were 100% authentic.

And in the years following the Civil War, the American East became very fascinated with the American West.

And Buffalo Bill took that fascination and augmented on that fascination by putting together the show "Buffalo Bill's Wild West," which he began in 1883.

Mm-hmm.

Now, here we see, as it says, an "Attack on the Stage Coach."

We see "The Original Deadwood Coach, most famous vehicle in history."

Made by the Abbot-Downing Company in Concord, New Hampshire, 1868.

The Deadwood Coach was incredibly famous.

It made the run, the Overland mail run, to Deadwood, which was a territory in South Dakota.

It would also run back from Deadwood to the mines ladened with gold.

The expression "riding shotgun" was the man next to the driver on a stagecoach, sitting in what would be the passenger seat in a car, right?

Holding a shotgun, protecting the passengers, the mail, and whatever else was being transported by the stagecoach.

As I said, Buffalo Bill began his Wild West shows in 1883, and then in 1893, he changed the name to "Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World."

So this poster dates to what we would say circa 1893.

Okay.

And what it depicts is a classic imagined Wild West scene.

You see mounted Native Americans attacking the stagecoach.

And as the Native Americans are attacking, as in all the classic sort of Western stories, the cavalry comes over the hill, led by Buffalo Bill himself with his signature goatee and on his white horse, coming to save the stagecoach from the Native American attack.

The Wild West show is a thing of the past, and, and arguably, well it should be, with all of its sort of stereotypical depictions of the First Peoples.

Yes.

But Buffalo Bill's fame somehow endures.

Historically, the stagecoach, I've read, was attacked more by road agents... Hm.

...than by First Peoples.

And these were circuses, basically.

These were shows.

And in doing research, I was actually a little bit pleased to read Buffalo Bill was so friendly with the First Peoples that the performers on his show were paid equally with the other performers.

They were allowed to wear their traditional dress, speak their traditional languages.

They were allowed to travel with their families, all freedoms that they weren't actually allowed on the reservations to which their tribes had been assigned to.

Mm-hmm.

I've also seen different variations of this poster with different texts.

So this is probably one of four or five different promotional posters.

It was printed by one of the masters of the lithographic craft here in America, A. Hoen Company in Baltimore.

They were printed lithographically on these giant stones.

We think somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 of these could have been printed before the stones wore out.

And of those that were printed, most of them were put up.

So we don't know how many were printed, we certainly don't know how many survived.

So I also was unable to find a comparable of this particular poster at auction.

So I would say that it counts as very rare.

I think, at auction today, a realistic price for this would be between $10,000 and $15,000.

Wow.

Wow.

I, I'm surprised.

This is a scissor chair; it's from Italy, I think.

Opens up like this.

And then the back slides on.

We went to a small auction in Pennsylvania, and I bought this chair for $80.

Today I brought my little, um, traveling drug kit from a doctor in, apparently in New Jersey at some point.

It is a traveling drug or traveling pharmaceutical kit.

This would be from the late Victorian era, right around the turn of the century.

So what I mean by that, I'm saying 1875 to 1900.

Okay.

And the really interesting fact that I think is mind-blowing, being in 2022, is that we have this one particular vial named cannabis, which, uh, you know...

Which I have not opened.

(laughs) Which you have not opened and experimented with.

Much more than I paid for it, I can just tell you that.

Positive investments, that's what we hope for.

All right.

(laughs) It's a musical instrument.

(plucks major scale) MAN: My mom gave it to me in the early '90s, and it was from her father, Matthew Scott Sloan.

It was from the Reifsteiner Auction in the '20s.

He was at the auction and he bid on it, and he got up-bidded.

His friend Henry Ford was apparently in the back of the audience.

Several weeks after the auction, a courier brought a box, and it was a presentation from Henry Ford, his good friend, to Matthew Scott Sloan.

For her to give it to me was, was an honor and a, and a, and a pleasure and a big, big, a, big, big, big grin.

Because this is...

This is my honey.

I've known about this clock for over 45 years.

I just didn't know who owned it.

Wow.

I've been tracking it, and the first mention of it that I find, it was on display in the Pennsylvania Museum of Art, which is now the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in 1924.

Five years later, it was sold in New York City in an auction of the Howard Reifsnyder collection.

Yeah.

Reifsnyder was one of the important very early collectors of Americana.

In 1950, this clock was illustrated in "Timepieces Quarterly," and then in 1973, it was illustrated and discussed again in the "Bulletin of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors."

(chuckles) And those discussions primarily revolved around who this maker might be, Daniel Frost from Reading... Was it Massachusetts?

Was it, uh, Pennsylvania?

Looking at this object, it's almost too good to be true-- I mean, is it, uh... (whispers): Yeah!

(chuckles): Is this truly a great 18th-century object, or is it something that was cobbled together in the late 19th or early 20th century by a craftsman?

Some areas of it are a difficult read, but I came to the conclusion that this is a period and original, uh, clock, and it dates to circa 1795 to 1800.

Originally, it would have had a return that looked something like that, which makes it more finished and looks much better.

It has been sort of aggressively restored at some point, but the basic unit is correct and it's original to the period.

And if we turn the, the clock around, we have the plaque that commemorates what you mentioned, that this was given to your grandfather by Henry Ford.

On the plaque it mentions that the wood is mahogany.

It's actually walnut, and the secondary wood is pine.

If we turn it further, we can see that it has the, the proper age.

If we look at the dial, the dial does not have the cracks in the paint that you would expect.

This paint is perfectly smooth.

The moon disc, however, we can actually see the cracking in the paint.

So this is original.

This paint has been redone.

It also explains why it says "Daniel Frost."

This dial was obviously deteriorated at some point.

It probably had some paint loss around the name, and this was conjecture, it's the best that they could do to come up with what name should be there.

It should really say "Daniel Rose, Reading, Pennsylvania."

That's who made this clock.

There's another example that's very similar, that's known, by Daniel Rose.

And in fact, this dial is a copy, it's a repaint, of the dials that were made in Reading, Pennsylvania.

And one of the earmarks of those dials is this, what they call the Reading Eagle.

This dial was probably painted by Benjamin Witman, a dial painter from Reading, Pennsylvania.

I think a collector would pay, in a retail situation, in the vicinity of $50,000 for this clock today.

Wow.

(laughs) Awesome!

(laughs) "Wow" is right.

If this clock were perfect, and the dial were not repainted, I would put an insurance value of $250,000 on the clock.

That's how special it is.

Multiple wows.

You can... (chuckles) For insurance purposes, you'd probably appraise it for $75,000.

If you needed to replace it, you couldn't.

My grandfather had this probably about 130 years ago.

He came out of Sorel, Canada, and they moved to Massachusetts.

And from there, he vacationed a lot in Upstate New York, Upstate Vermont, and revisited Canada.

I have no idea where this came from.

Originally, I thought it was a salesman sample, but somebody, I don't believe, would have gone through this kind of effort if it, that's all it was.

Have you ever had it appraised?

I had it at Sotheby's down here just about, what, ten, 15 years ago, and they guessed-- and that's estimated-- $3,000 to $4,000.

I see-- it's not a salesman sample.

It is a model canoe.

Mm-hmm.

It's meticulously made to scale.

Mm-hmm.

It originated in Maine.

Really?

It's either made by the Penobscot... Yeah.

...or Mi'kmaq Indians...

Okay.

...between 1870 and 1890.

Mm-hmm.

And my sense is that it's Penobscot.

All right.

Uh, both are Algonquin people.

Yeah.

In relationship to their material culture, the biggest things they ever made were their lodges and then their canoes.

Okay.

For which they were famous.

This is a really large example of the form.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, more typically a quarter to a third this size.

This is about five-and-a-half feet long.

Okay-- oh, yeah.

This, it's a fab, fabulous size.

The canoe is made of birch bark.

Mm-hmm.

The surface epidermis of the birch bark is scratched away, and you get these remarkable designs.

This is a traditional design.

MAN: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And it has spiritual implications.

On the front, you have a star.

MAN: Right.

APPRAISER: But it also suggests the four sacred directions.

MAN: Okay.

APPRAISER: Very, very important to Native cosmology.

In addition, you have this curved element.

It's called a single volute.

It may reflect, in the forest, a fiddle fern coming up out of the soil.

MAN: Oh, really?

APPRAISER: Right in the middle... Yeah?

...there is a miniature canoe scratched away.

And there's a double volute... No kidding.

...coming up out of the canoe.

Yeah?

It suggests the tree of life.

The canoe is empowered spiritually...

Okay.

...by the iconography.

It's not typical to see, uh, the accoutrements.

So you have two paddles, they're made to scale.

They're probably made of poplar wood.

But interestingly, you've got campsite accoutrements.

Yeah.

You've got a hatchet and you have a fish.

Typically, men were going out on their hunting and fishing...

Right.

...sojourns, and they would come back...

Yes.

...roast fish... Yeah.

...chop wood.

Mm-hmm.

The canoe by itself would have, I think, a retail value of, easily, $4,500.

Mm-hmm.

The fact that we have the two paddles, the field hatchet, and the little, uh, fish... Yeah.

...enhances the value overall to perhaps $5,000.

Nice.

And then, should you wish to insure this... Mm-hmm.

...we would increase that about 25%.

Yeah.

I'd bring the value up to about $6,500.

Okay.

This was a treasure in its day.

It, it, it's a treasure now.

It is to me, I'll tell you that.

PEÑA: This lighthouse was moved to the museum grounds from Colchester Reef on Lake Champlain and opened to the public in 1956.

Made of wood and granite in 1871, when it was operating, it served as the home and workplace for 11 consecutive lighthouse keepers and their families.

WOMAN: It's from my grandparents' house.

It's something that I've always admired.

And when my grandmother died in 2008, my mother sort of had to fight my aunts for me to get this.

I know it's a Picasso.

They got it in 1965, I believe.

Okay.

And paid $650 for it.

They had it appraised in 1983 for $5,000.

I believe that the title is "Jacqueline."

Well, I do believe that this is indeed Jacqueline Roque, his second wife, the woman that he married in 1961 and was with until he died in 1973.

I believe the actual title of this is "Petit Buste de Femme," a, a s, a s...

Okay.

A small bust of a woman.

He would have done, in this style, also as an edition, about seven of these plaques.

Some are of her... Mm-hmm.

...who was his number-one muse, and some of, of other scenes.

The date of the design on that... Mm-hmm.

...is 1964.

Okay.

So it may very well have been made in '65.

And the technique for the tile is pressing this terra-cotta, or earthenware, into a mold that was a plaster mold, and those molds were done from linoleum carvings.

Okay.

And I would like to flip that now to show you how it is marked and how small the edition is.

The Madoura works that we see that come up on the market are often in editions of 500.

Mm-hmm.

Or 250.

This is a very small edition of 100, and this particular one is number 16.

Wow.

But that is the stamp that you look for.

The market for Picasso and his editions that he did in Madoura during the last 25 years of his life... Mm-hmm.

...when he sort of moved down there and worked on doing the originals, and then other people pretty much did the editions, that market, for the last ten to 15 years, has been steadily creeping up.

When these started out, it would have been a couple of thousand dollars.

Mm-hmm.

When they started coming out on the secondary market.

These, for the last ten years or so, have been bringing at least, hammer price at auction, $20,000.

Hm.

(softly): Nice.

(aloud): Great.

So with the buyer's premium, that is often $25,000.

That is what someone would have to pay.

Okay.

Should you wish to do a replacement value... Mm-hmm, okay.

...you could certainly do $30,000 or $35,000.

Well, the biggest challenge was getting it out of the house and into the car.

(laughs) And then out of the car and up here.

Okay.

My parents actually, uh, bought it when they were traveling in, in Ireland back in the '60s.

So you, do you remember when they brought it back?

Oh, yeah.

Okay, so you were a kid at the time.

(both chuckle) Well, I...

I was younger than I am now, yeah.

Okay.

It was a conversation piece, and my wife and I, in our house, uh, we continue to ask guests, "What do you think this is?"

I got probably one of the most interesting ones this morning.

And the lady came up and she said, "That looks like that belongs in a doctor's office."

Okay.

Before you go in to see the doctor, you know, they weigh you?

So that's getting uth, us closer, right?

Yeah.

Because the, the reality is that it's a jockey scale.

Yes.

This is an English-made, uh, scale.

It's, uh, it's lovely in its design, right?

It's just a beautiful object, isn't it?

It would have been from the late 19th century.

The maker, we can see here, is W.T.

Avery.

They've been around since the 18th century.

That was the maker of the chair or the maker of the scale?

You know, that's a good point, and I would suggest that they worked in conjunction with, uh, another company in order to do that, so the balance, they were making balances for many, many different purposes.

They probably had a partnership with a firm that helped them construct the rest of this, because, as you, as you can see, it's basically a piece of furniture with a scale attached to it.

And the furniture itself would be typical of a late Victorian armchair.

And then, oh, what do we have here?

So inside is a little receipt from Marshall's Antiques, 18 South King Street, Dublin.

And in September 21 of 1968, they paid 100 Irish pounds to...

Probably more in freight to get it back here.

(laughs): Right.

Right, and then they had to get it home, right?

(laughs): Right.

Because it, it wasn't coming home in your suitcase.

I love the button-topped upholstered back with this kind of burgundy leather.

Now, it looks a bit new.

Is it, or...

It is.

When it came back, the leather was old and cracked.

So we had it refinished with the same leather, same buttons.

If the original leather was perfect, it'd be a shame to replace it.

Right.

But if it was falling apart, then it's a valid conservation move.

And then the mechanism is fun, too.

It's cast iron, this little, kind of fluted column base.

Right.

And all this stencil design.

In the Victorian era, there was an attempt to make machines look beautiful.

Right.

And so this is a kind of wonderful black and gilt design.

Can we try it?

Sure, let's go for it.

All right, let's go for it.

(scale clicks) All right, I'm in.

Okay.

Twelve.

12 stone, times 14, about 168.

That sounds good.

(laughs) Okay, that's not bad.

Yeah.

Then I got-- I don't have any gear on.

No, no saddles or anything.

Okay, okay.

All right, that's wonderful.

So these have an appeal because of their look and because of the interest in horse racing.

I've seen prices kind of ebb and flow.

But for this oak model with a reconditioned seat, I think we're talking about, at auction, conservatively, somewhere in the $6,000 to $9,000.

Is that right?

Huh.

It's, uh...

It's a significant number.

(both laugh) Significantly more than my father paid for it.

Right.

Yeah.

Right, so not a bad purchase from 1968.

Yeah, yup.

So this was my great-grandmother's.

She got it from her husband as a wedding gift.

And she got married in 1933.

Okay.

So here, we have, I'm gonna open it up, and we want to pull this out.

Okay.

Because this piece was used to protect your hats when you were traveling.

Oh!

And this is a Louis Vuitton hat trunk.

Okay.

Okay?

And we know that it dates to the 1930s.

Mm-hmm.

Sometime around her, her wedding.

Yeah.

It does have her monogram down here under the handle.

Yes.

It's number three of her set of, I think you said six pieces.

Yeah, something like that.

Okay.

I'm not entirely sure.

Yeah.

I would put a retail value on this between $3,500 and $4,500.

Wow.

(laughs) It's a, it's a lovely piece.

Wow, that's really exciting!

(laughs): I had no idea.

Yeah.

And now you know what it is.

Yeah!

(chuckles) I've never known, but I've always wondered, 'cause it's a weird shape.

Yeah.

MAN: Back in 1972, in the summer, for reasons I don't remember, I was really into chess.

The 1972 chess championship with Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, I was really into it, and I wanted to let Bobby Fischer know that he had some guy in the States pulling for him.

Yeah.

I wrote a letter, uh, just saying, uh, big fan, you know, good luck.

I addressed the letter, "Bobby Fischer, Reykjavík, Iceland."

(laughs) That's it-- put a stamp on it.

A few weeks later, I get a, a manila envelope in the mail.

I pull it out and this was in it.

And it came from Reykjavík.

Came from R, came from Reykjavík.

We don't do a lot of chess memorabilia on the show.

Mm-hmm.

But, uh, if we were, it's going to be, you know, something like this.

Mm-hmm.

And, uh, what's just wonderful about this is the fact that this was signed during the Match of the Century.

And this was huge news at the time.

Of course, uh, Fischer won.

Mm-hmm.

And he was the first American to do so.

It was a huge deal.

Now, Bobby Fischer is an exceedingly rare signature.

To get him prime time-- this is the most important match... Mm-hmm.

...one of the most important matches in the history of chess-- on this official postcard from the event is amazing.

If I were to put this in an auction, I wouldn't be surprised if it sold for somewhere in between $1,000 to $1,500.

Oh, cool.

Yeah.

He's a, he's a really tough autograph, so, uh... Yeah, more than I thought.

I've never had anybody look at it in the 50 years I've had it.

Oh, wow.

MAN: Well, I've been collecting Christmas collectibles for quite a long time.

And I went to a little flea market last fall, and this was out on a table, pretty dirty and beat up.

Took it home and got it running.

How much did you pay for it?

About ten dollars.

I've never seen this piece or anything like it.

So the only thing I can imagine is that it either would have been maybe on display at the Santa photo booth... Uh-huh.

...or it could have been in a department store.

I would expect this to sell at auction for about $250.

My, that's not bad, makes me happy.

The fact that they went through that work to do this in plaster of Paris and put the working lights in it, it makes it a really neat plaque.

This was my great-great-grandfather's sword.

He was in the Civil War, he was a first lieutenant, and he led Company K of the Colored Troops.

I also have his journal and field diaries from his experiences in the war.

WOMAN: It belonged to my great-great-grandmother.

I don't think it was an engagement ring, because I think back in those days-- and she died in 1912-- that they weren't given engagement rings.

I've seen-- I have a portrait of her, and she has her wedding ring on, but this ring is not there.

So what we have here is a platinum, diamond, and sapphire ring.

I would characterize it to be from the Edwardian period.

Mm-hmm.

So that's, I would say, in this instance, knowing that your great-great-grandmother passed away in 1912, my guess is, this, this was purchased right around 1900, around the turn of the century.

Yeah.

We have a beautiful platinum setting characterized by millegrain accents, which are the fine little platinum dots that give the setting an extra bit of sparkle.

Mm-hmm.

Surrounded by diamonds centering a beautiful oval-cut sapphire.

The sapphire is flanked by two old-European-cut diamonds, which is the exact cut of diamond you would expect to see during the Edwardian period.

The featured aspect of this ring is, of course, the sapphire.

And when I saw that sapphire, my eyes lit up.

(laughs) Much like that sapphire appears to light up in the setting.

When we're appraising sapphires, we're most concerned and interested in their origin.

So from where they were mined.

At this period, most sapphires we see came from the Burmese region.

Mm-hmm.

So Myanmar or Kashmir, which is the northernmost region of India.

Yeah.

Kashmir sapphires are considered to be the most beautiful, perfect standard sapphire that you could have in a piece of jewelry.

In 1880, there was a landslide in the Kashmir region of India, and that landslide revealed sapphire deposits.

Ooh.

The sapphires that were coming out of this area were the most beautiful in their color and their depth and their quality.

Mm-hmm.

So the maharaja of India at the time very quickly claimed that region for himself.

(chuckles) And from a period of 1882 to 1887, so in a five-year period, that mine in that region was completely depleted of sapphires.

Oh!

So every Kashmir sapphire that we see today came out of the ground in the Kashmir region of India in that five-year period.

So they are very rare and spectacular in their quality.

The only way to really determined the origin of a sapphire is to have it tested at a gem lab.

Mm-hmm.

Here, at beautiful Shelburne, Vermont, we do not have a gem lab.

(chuckles): No.

But we do have a handful of appraisers and, and our collective expertise, and I really do feel it is a Kashmir sapphire.

Oh.

If it is not a Kashmir sapphire, it, it would be a Burmese sapphire, which is also a very beautiful stone.

Just doesn't have the exact quality and, um, rarity of a Kashmir sapphire.

Mm-hmm.

If it is just a Burmese sapphire... Mm-hmm, right.

...I would say that the value for this at auction today would be somewhere between $40,000 to $60,000.

(laughs): Okay.

It kind of shocks me.

And if it is indeed a Kashmir sapphire, which I feel pretty confident it is, at auction, I think we're looking at somewhere between $100,000 and $150,000.

Oh, wow, okay.

(clears throat) (voice trembling): That's quite something.

Thank you so much, I don't know what else to say.

I just, I'm... Well, I think we have your great-great-grandmother...

I'm surprised!

...to thank for her... Yeah, absolutely.

...exquisite taste... Yeah.

...and eye in, in this really beautiful, beautiful piece of jewelry, and I'm so grateful to have seen it and for you to have brought it here today, because it's not something that we see...

I can count on one hand the number of Kashmir sapphires...

I almost did not bring it!

You know?

So...

...I have seen in my career.

I hope that you do continue to wear it, because a sapphire like this really does deserve to be seen.

Yes, it does.

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

We traveled all the way from South Carolina to be here at the Antiques Roadshow here in Vermont.

We're having a wonderful time.

We made new friends in line, and in honor of my mother, brought a few things we found together.

And this wooden bowl is by an artist who's in the Smithsonian, and it's worth $750.

(laughing) We came all the way to see if this Serena painting from my great-aunt is worth anything.

Um, it was appraised for $1,200 in the '70s, and we were hoping that it was upward value, but instead we found out it's $200 to $300, so... Wah-wah!

(chuckles) (laughs) Kind of sad, but we had a great time at Antiques Roadshow.

(imitates deflation) So it's all worth it.

And I've been watching the show for 20 years, and for my 50th birthday, this was my gift, so whoo-hoo!

I, um, have this fam, family heirloom from Germany.

My great-grandfather was a painter.

I didn't know much about it before today, and, uh, I was told to go get it restored.

Don't wash it off with Windex.

(laughs) It's worth about $5,000 to $10,000.

And we brought a copperplate engraving, and I thought that it would be worth a lot of money.

We have about-- I've got about 300 different plates, and what the appraiser told us was that because it's not a known artist, and because copperplates are hard to display, they don't have a lot of monetary value.

(laughing): So she said that copper is at an all-time high, and it's probably worth more melted down.

PEÑA: Thanks for watching.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."