♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: "Antiques Roadshow" is discovering treasures brought to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.

It was with a bunch of DVDs and Tupperware.

What a find!

I almost jumped out of my skin when I saw this picture because I was so excited.

That's amazing.

♪ ♪ PEÑA: "Roadshow" has set up on the Palace Green, and all around the Governor's Palace today.

From 1710 to 1776, the original Governor's Palace was home to seven royal governors of the colony of Virginia.

These men represented the interests of Britain's king, George III.

Two notable inhabitants during the American Revolution?

Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, the first two post-Colonial governors of Virginia.

The original main house burned down in 1781.

So the building you see today was reconstructed in the 1930s with funding by Colonial Williamsburg's key benefactor, John D. Rockefeller, with the goal that the future learned from the past.

We'll explore more of the Governor's Palace and other Colonial Williamsburg highlights later on.

But right now, check out this gem, from a magical movie.

WOMAN: My grandmother worked in a very small art studio in Baltimore, Maryland.

She was very particular about the pieces of art that she had actually in her home.

This was one of the pieces that she had in her sewing room, and it hung above her sewing machine.

It was always a special piece for me because it reminded me of her, especially with sewing and the fabric.

I know that it was taken from a particular sequence in the "Mary Poppins" movie.

I didn't know exactly which sequence it was from until I actually looked on top, on the top of the, uh, the piece here, so... And so what we're, we're going to look at here is the Uncle Albert sequence that shows right there at the top.

And that is one of my favorite sequences in the film, when they go and have a tea party.

Yup.

And as they laugh, they start to levitate and float in the air.

Yes.

And of course, everything magical happens around Mary Poppins.

Yes.

We see other allusions to this in the, uh, writing that's on this, where it says "Two: one with wire, one regular, both for Julie," for Julie Andrews, and one for the double, because there would have been a stunt double for that scene.

Mm-hmm.

There's many, many, many sketches on the market.

Yeah.

Um, for every film, there would be sometimes hundreds of sketches made, depending upon the film.

Wow.

And so they're actually quite a common thing.

What really distinguishes the best ones from the least valuable ones are, what film is it from... Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

...who's the character, and how beloved is it?

Can it be identifiable?

And also, is it really a production-made sketch?

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

This one absolutely is production-made.

Wow.

And we know that because of all the information that's on it.

Mm-hmm.

You don't put these things on a sketch if it was just done to, to draw and present to someone.

Mm-hmm.

That's what we often see as later presentation drawings.

The person who designed the costume for Mary Poppins was actually Julie Andrews' husband at the time.

Oh, wow.

They were high school sweethearts.

His name was Tony Walton, and he had been doing some work in set design and for costume in the London stage.

When Julie was approached by Disney about taking the role of Mary Poppins, she also asked if her husband, Tony Walton, would do the costume designs.

Mm-hmm, okay.

Um, because he had a particular knowledge of English fashion.

And we see that right here where it says "T.W."

That's Tony Walton signing off on this... Oh, wow.

...as the final design for this dress.

We have the swatches of fabric over here.

We have some, as it's called here, a "Harvard Crimson."

And there's even a color, there's silk.

And we have charcoal wool.

And the drawing itself is accomplished with a brown ink with some charcoal.

And it looks as though there's probably a little bit of watercolor.

"Mary Poppins" came out in 1964.

So it would have been in full production in 1963, for sure.

Mm-hmm.

We can't precisely date it, 'cause he hasn't said when he did this.

Yeah.

But it was most likely done in 1963.

He was actually nominated for an Academy Award for his costume designs for this.

Mm-hmm.

He's won Tony Awards.

He's, he's a pretty well-known and very celebrated designer.

He's gone on to directing.

He is still alive.

Ah.

And what's really interesting about this when I saw it is that none of these have ever come on the market.

Hm.

They don't exist.

Yeah.

They don't even exist really in the archives at Disney, because according to Tony Walton, who gave a lecture a number of years ago, he actually said that Walt Disney gave him permission to keep all of his sketches from the film.

The only thing that's ever come up from the film were these early, brown-ink, loose kind of concept sketches of some of the designs he was thinking about for Mary Poppins.

Okay.

And those have sold in the market, one resold, they sell anywhere between $3,000, $4,500.

Mm-hmm.

This is firing on all cylinders.

Wow.

I almost jumped out of my skin when I saw this picture... (chuckles) ...because I was so excited.

Um, I think if this came up now at auction... Mm-hmm.

...I would expect conservatively anywhere between $15,000 to $20,000.

Wow.

That's crazy.

(laughs) And it just was amazing to me, because my grandmother, again, loved sewing and she loved art.

And I'm so glad that you were able to find the information.

That's great.

(laughs) And we'll never know how she got it from him.

I'll never know!

I just know that she, she matted it and framed it.

And, um, it was given to her.

The carpetbag sold in 2010 for close to $110,000.

Oh.

Wow.

MAN: I was told it's from Germany.

I kind of restore some dollhouses, and miniatures, and that type of thing.

So I thought it was very interesting.

APPRAISER: How long have you had it?

Well, I've only had this particular house since, uh, the beginning of the year.

I acquired it from a friend.

They had it in their family, from I, what I understand, for a while-- it was a gift.

They knew that I would try to bring it back to life and they were just happy that it wasn't going to be thrown away.

Well, it is a, it's a fantastic piece.

You identified it's from Germany.

Do you have any idea who made this house?

I'm going to destroy the name-- I think it was... (hesitantly): Gottschalk?

It is, it's a Gottschalk house.

(laughing): There you go.

Well done!

Moritz Gottschalk was the manufacturer of this house.

Now, these houses were, in my opinion, the finest of dollhouses ever made.

We know this is a Gottschalk house because it has all of the styling that Gottschalk is known for.

So when you look at the front of it, this whole front façade that it has going, this just screams Gottschalk.

This has all this ornate detail and finish work, glass windows-- just an architectural piece in itself.

These are really, uh, as good as it gets.

This is a larger size of a Gottschalk house.

Now, these houses would have originally had a blue roof, and they're called the Blue Roofs.

Given the level of detail that this house displays, it's probably 1885, 1886.

So we're talking about a really old house here.

Now, let's talk about the condition of the house.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Now, you received it to restore it.

Yes.

Yes.

What do you think about the condition that it's in now?

Well, I did some coloring on the front.

On the inside, I kind of kept it the way it was.

But I know when you touch something that's old, you kind of mess things up, so here we are.

Yeah, yeah, it's a...

It's a, it's a, it's a dangerous line to flirt with.

(laughing) So this white you had done.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You had done the painting on the white.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And how about on the roof?

Was this your green?

No, no, I didn't touch at all.

Okay.

It still retains some of the blue.

You might be able to take this green off and bring back the blue roof.

Oh, okay.

If you can grab that side, we'll open it up.

And I want to demonstrate one thing for you.

The exterior of the house would not have just been painted.

It would have actually been wallpapered or covered in a paper lithograph.

So the way you have shown me on the inside of the house here, this wallpaper, which looks original to me... Mm-hmm.

...the exterior of the house would have also had that.

It would have been like a brick façade.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

So what do you think this house could be worth?

Well...

I got it for a little bit of nothing.

So whatever it's worth is more than I got it for.

(laughing) So I don't know, maybe a couple of hundred dollars?

A house like this, in all original condition, in today's present market, could fetch up to something like $20,000 to $25,000.

(laughing): Okay.

But?

Now... (laughing): But?

In this current condition, I think the auction estimate that I would expect to see would be something like $6,000 to $9,000.

And I think we'd expect it to fetch something between $7,000 to $10,000.

Wow.

Wow.

Uh, if you could get the paper lithograph to match the, uh, the façade, the way it should be, bring the colors back to what they should have been original?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Uh, I think you're, you're, you're definitely looking at the $10,000 price point.

That's so amazing.

Yeah.

Nice house.

(laughing): That's so amazing.

Thank you!

Nice piece.

Thank you so much.

WOMAN: I got it from an auction sometime after 2000.

APPRAISER: May I ask how much you paid for them at the auction?

Do you remember?

(sighs) I would say they were less than $20 for both of them.

These are made by a designer named Alessandro Pianon.

And he was born in Venice in 1931.

And in 1962, '63, he designed these wonderful glass birds.

And they are called Pulcino Birds.

And pulcino means chick in Italian.

Oh, okay.

If these were to come up at auction, this one, being in the perfect shape that it's in, would be around $3,000... Oh!

...to $5,000.

(chuckling): Oh, my!

Okay.

And this one, because the, the little feet are off, I would say that would be closer to $2,500 to $4,000, so still... Oh, wow.

That's still, that's really good for my little maybe $20 purchase.

That's amazing!

(laughs) I, I think you have a good eye.

Oh, thank you.

(both laughing) MAN: I was perusing online and was looking for a glass table, and I stumbled upon this for $100.

I figured, heck, that glass is probably worth that.

So I went and picked it up.

And about what year was it?

2009 or 2010.

Right when I bought it, I'd seen a matching one online, but it was in a gallery in L.A. And then, but it got sold, like, almost immediately and was taken down.

And then I forgot to write down the artist's name.

And so I don't know anything about it.

Did the person selling it give any indication of whether or not they knew this was by a known sculptor?

Um, the only thing he said to me was that his late wife, her parents were millionaires, and it was theirs.

Do you use this in your home?

Where do you store it?

Tell me more about how you use it.

Um, I used it for about a year or two, and then I moved, and it's just been sitting in my basement for about the last ten years, I'd say.

This is by a California sculptor and furniture maker named Daniel Gluck.

Some retailers who've handled similar examples of this title it "Maze" or "The Maze."

Mm-hmm.

And I have not been able to drill down, is that a title the artist gave it, or perhaps later a dealer or gallery thought up that name.

But this is in keeping with other examples of this form by the sculptor, Daniel Gluck, working in Los Angeles as Daniel Gluck Studios.

Mm-hmm.

And this was created 1970 to 1975.

Yeah.

Certain examples have had an applied metal tag that the artist signed "Gluck."

I looked this over really thoroughly and did not see one.

It's a piece of Brutalist furniture.

And Brutalism speaks to this certain kind of austerity, or a crudeness, or almost a hostility... Mm-hmm.

...in how kind of raw and some would say unpleasant-looking.

Mm-hmm.

But obviously, to others, it is very pleasant-looking.

Yeah.

It's very much in keeping with Brutalist furniture that started in the 1950s and '60s, but was still being produced throughout the '70s.

Mm-hmm.

What I think is really interesting about Gluck is that he also worked as a set decorator in Hollywood and designed sets for two of the "Star Trek" movies.

Oh, wow!

That's so cool.

I'm a big "Star Trek" fan, so that's awesome.

This table has had a life.

Yes.

There are some broken-off elements that you actually have with you here that could be easily restored back onto the piece.

And I'm not really speaking to the condition of the glass top.

Mm-hmm.

Because pretty much any seller of this type of furniture... Yeah.

...would get rid of any glass top that came with it.

Yeah.

Because they're going to put a pristine, new... Yeah, it's... ...piece of glass on it.

This table base, in the current condition... Mm-hmm.

...I think has a retail value of around $8,500.

Wow!

That's awesome.

Heck, yeah.

So you did pretty good for... Yeah!

$100!

Can't, that's a good turnaround on that.

In better condition, examples of this can sell for as much as $12,000 to $13,000.

Okay.

Wow.

PEÑA: During the 18th century, the Governor's Palace entry hall was outfitted with an impressive and intentionally intimidating collection of muskets, swords, and pistols.

A coat of arms made plain that the power represented was that of the British crown.

♪ ♪ MAN: This was a cuff bracelet.

It came from my grandfather.

He was working in a trading post called Rough Rock on the Navajo reservation in Arizona.

This is something that was left, and he ended up keeping it after it wasn't picked up.

I actually lived in the house behind the trading post.

And I spent a lot of times in the vaults looking at all this gorgeous jewelry.

It had a, almost like a bank door on it.

And they'd intentionally pawn it for a small amount of money just so that it was not in their safekeeping, but somebody else's.

They knew it would be secure and it wouldn't get lost.

Your grandfather was living on the reservation, working in a trading post, and would exchange money, goods, and services to the Native Americans who were in need of these services through their unfortunate circumstances.

Right, it, it was truly a trading post.

They'd take their livestock, they'd take anything of value from them, and give them goods, you know, at inflated price.

Mm-hmm.

So, yeah, they did take advantage of the situation.

Yeah.

Unfortunately.

When Native Americans came in with jewelry like this, this wasn't jewelry that was ever intended to be sold to the public.

This was jewelry that they made to wear themselves.

The fact that the particular person that traded on this piece, as you had told me, never came back, it became dead pawn, which means the trading post eventually owned the bracelet.

So you have a wide cuff, sterling silver.

It's very heavy.

This bracelet is just short of seven troy ounces.

It strikes me, as a bracelet, looking at the work and the style, 1915, 1920.

But there's no way to say that it wasn't made in 1935.

What you have here is an early example where the tool could have been as simple as an old file.

They would take that and reconfigure that tool so that they could rocker it, or engrave these little lines.

I love the gold nuggets.

We have three very interesting coins.

The first one, the 1856, it's a three-dollar gold coin, was designed by Longacre.

That's the earliest coin.

We have the five-dollar Indian head designed by Pratt.

1912.

And then in the middle, we have one of the most beautiful and famous coins ever made, the U.S. $20 gold piece by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

1916.

Now, it's very unusual to find gold coins, especially of this size and this age, in early American Indian jewelry.

You just don't see it that much.

This is one of the greatest examples of a particular cuff bracelet like this that I've ever seen.

I think a bracelet like this would be worth, at auction, in the neighborhood of $7,000 to $9,000.

Oh.

Nice.

(chuckles) Yeah.

WOMAN: This is a Chinese dragon robe.

We've had it since the '70s.

We bought it at an auction.

When they opened up the bag that this was in, I just had to have it.

It was in a bag?

They opened the bag, and you said, "My goodness, I've got to have it"?

"It's mine."

(laughs) What did you end up paying for it when the hammer fell?

$90.

What you have is a Chinese dragon robe.

This is what you would have worn in the Imperial Palace, in the Summer Palace, were you to have been a Chinese nobleman in 1860 to 1890, which is when this dates to.

Wow.

If it were to come to auction, it would sell for between $5,000 and $8,000.

Pretty good, for $90!

If I were to find this in a bag today, I would be pretty pleased.

(laughing): Yeah.

I was lucky that it was me.

(laughs) MAN: This is a painting I found at a, an estate sale in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, about seven years ago.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

Do you know who the artist is?

I believe it's Fidelia Bridges.

We can see in the lower left that it is signed "F. Bridges," and that is her signature.

So it is Fidelia Bridges.

Wow.

Awesome.

Fidelia Bridges was quite a character.

She was, um, a single woman and she was one of the few women artists who actually made it.

She exhibited all the time.

She was really someone of note.

She was from Salem, Massachusetts.

And when she was around 15 years old, her parents passed away.

So she was sort of raised by her older sister until she moved to New York and became friends with someone who recommended that she go to art school in Philadelphia, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

And she studied with a, a well-known artist named William Trost Richards, who is best known for his seascapes.

But he was also known as a Pre-Raphaelite artist.

And that means that he was someone who followed the tenets of John Ruskin, who was an English philosopher who believed that artists should follow, uh, truth in nature.

And so Richards was a proponent of painting foliage, and plants, and trees in a very detailed manner.

And Fidelia learned that trait from him.

And you can see in this particular piece that she has paid a great deal of attention to the blossoms of the flowers and so on.

After her training there, she went to study in Rome for a while, and then came back.

Eventually, she moves to Canaan, Connecticut, in 1892.

And this particular piece I think was probably done after she moved to Canaan.

Stylistically, it looks like it might have been done around 1900 or so.

She was born in 1834 and died in 1923.

It is definitely a watercolor.

And then the highlights of the wildflowers is in a gouache.

And it really is stellar in terms of the subject matter, because it's exactly what she was known for doing.

This is a particularly large size for her.

What did you pay for it?

I want to say I paid about $35 to $45.

It was, um, in a five-dollar section at the estate sale.

It was with a bunch of DVDs and Tupperware.

And I ended up buying it in, like, a box lot for $45.

Wow.

Wow.

Yeah.

So... Well, that's, uh, that's really something.

The market for women artists is very, very strong right now.

And particularly because there were so few women artists of note in the 19th century, her work is, is highly coveted.

Also, the Pre-Raphaelites are very popular.

If this were being offered in a gallery, we would expect to sell it in the range of $15,000.

(laughing): Wow.

Yeah.

Incredible.

It's, it's, it's an amazing example.

Right.

Awesome.

Well, thank you very much.

Oh, you're welcome.

You're welcome.

PEÑA: Ceramics imported from China and elsewhere illustrate the complex global economy that Colonial America participated in.

Both Governors Botetourt and Dunmore had blue and white Chinese porcelain tea sets listed in their inventories.

This Chinese tea set was likely created between 1770 and 1780.

♪ ♪ I inherited it from my mother, um, who passed away in 2014.

She purchased it through a dealer that she found online.

She just always loved folk art, and so when she saw this...

So what did, what'd she pay for it?

It's my understanding she paid $5,000 for it, and... And this was when?

Probably 2005 to 2010.

Okay.

This is a molded plaster figure of Lady Liberty.

The first thing that I thought about was how amazingly colorful and striking this is.

And she looks like a Christy girl.

Howard Chandler Christy?

Have you ever heard of him?

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

He painted a lot of patriotic things back around World War I. Mm-hmm.

She's not signed anywhere.

Darn.

I talked to several people that have handled things like this, and they said they thought there was a company in Chicago that made things like this.

Well, the dealer told Mother that it came out of a school in Ohio.

Okay, well, that fits.

Yeah.

It was found up in the attic in a school in Ohio.

And then the dealer was the one that packaged it up or trucked it to Mother in Montana, so... Yeah.

We were trying to figure out if there was more of these out there.

She was probably made in a factory and she probably was molded.

But nobody I talked to has seen another one.

Ever seen one?

Nope.

She has a gorgeous face.

Not only is she beautiful, but look at, look at the pedestal that she's on.

Mm-hmm.

That's just amazing.

Mm-hmm.

And the other thing that's amazing about this is the condition.

It looks like that rim around the light might have been replaced.

I could understand that, yeah.

But the fixture in there is a ceramic fixture.

Okay.

And the wire coming up out of here, where it's not rewired... Mm-hmm.

...is covered in cloth.

Okay.

So that means I think we're in the teens or '20s.

Okay.

You have some repaint on the top, but nothing that's objectionable and not anything that you wouldn't expect from something like this.

Those little things on her crown are, are tin, and the rest of it is plaster with some wood in it.

Mm-hmm.

That's about it.

This is the complete package, in my opinion.

Oh, good.

So your mom paid five.

So have you ever given any thought to what you think it might be worth?

No, I really haven't only because I knew I would never...

I would never do anything else with her.

We just love her.

Every once in a while, I light her up, but not too often.

And it reminds me of my mom.

I say all the time that we should put things in our homes... That we love.

...that give love to us.

I think because of condition and the fact that she's such a fabulous, compact thing-- not too big, not too small... (laughing) Just right.

I think a retail value on this would be $10,000 or $15,000.

Oh, great.

That's great.

That is, that is really spectacular.

I know Mother would be, would be really happy with that.

♪ ♪ The painting belonged to my aunt and uncle.

It was always on a mantel growing up.

So I thought it was a painting until we had to take it off the mantel, and realized how heavy it was.

And that's when I finally realized that it was tiles.

Delft is a city in Holland.

It's the name of a company.

It's the name of a style.

Adolf le Comte is the artist who actually created this piece.

The sitter is his daughter Lottie.

The name was "Moonshine Sonata."

The date on this piece is about 1901.

A retail value would be about $30,000.

It's been something so special to me from the time I was little.

I used to sit by the base of a fireplace looking up at this, just amazed by it.

So I love to finally find out what it, it is.

MAN: I have brought a document, a book that was given to me by my uncle, who worked at NASA for 31 years.

He joined NASA in 1962, and quickly became a very important part of the Apollo program, in charge of the service and command modules.

And within a few years, they asked him to move on to the space shuttle program, where he was, uh, with the space shuttle program for ten years, and responsible for the orbiter.

And after that, he became a director of engineering at, at NASA, at Johnson Space Center.

And then became the director of the Johnson Space Center for six years.

Oh, my goodness.

What was your uncle's name?

Aaron Cohen.

And this is a document that was issued to him in his capacity as, uh, as one of the NASA team.

Right?

It was.

This is the Mercury project summary book to describe what transpired during the program.

The history of the program, and then sort of a summary of things learned, which gives you a direction for how to move forward.

Correct.

"Let's not make these mistakes again.

Let's do..." It's... "Let's do this."

...very technical.

Yes.

So, yeah, I have not read it.

(laughs) When did you get this piece?

My best recollection would have been sometime around mid-'70s, maybe a little later in the '70s.

It's a great piece of, of space history.

It has a publication date of October 1963.

So it would have been issued to him around that time.

It's originally issued in these blue wrappers.

You, you have had the volume bound, uh, in its time.

But inside, your uncle has collected signatures from a great deal of the early astronauts.

The first signature is James McDivitt, and he is probably the person who wrote the inscription.

And so beneath him, Frank Borman, Elliot See-- who died in 1966, so we know at least this part up is earlier than 1966.

Right.

Then Jim Lovell, Pete Conrad.

Here's Neil Armstrong.

And Frank Borman again.

Tom Stafford, Ed White, Gene Cernan.

Here's Dave Scott, Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin, and Gordon Cooper.

I wanted to know when this was signed.

I don't know that we can know for sure, right?

We know it's after the publication date of the book, and, and, at least to this point, before, uh, 1966.

It could have been a signing day.

But the fact that Frank Borman signs twice in different inks makes me think that is not what had happened.

Have you ever had this appraised?

I submitted it once to an appraisal house.

They suggested that they would start auctioning probably at around $10,000.

But I really don't know.

Space memorabilia has really exploded in the last ten years.

And you've got a really terrific combination of Group 1 and Group 2 astronauts.

The most desirable astronaut groups of signatures are generally the large-format signed photographs, right?

They're photographs of Group 1 or Group 1 and Group 2.

And if you can get all of those signed together, those can be in the range, auction-wise, they start at $10,000 to $15,000.

The book, there's a smaller market of people who collect these sorts of things.

The auction value of this, we would say $4,000 to $6,000.

But this market is very, very hot, and it certainly could do as well or better at auction.

Wonderful.

Thank you very much.

WOMAN: It belonged to my grandfather, who lived next door to us when I was growing up.

He and my grandmother had it on their mantel, and when he died in 1971, we inherited it.

I don't know where he bought it or got it from.

I've seen a lot of jade objects, but I have never seen this form.

It is something called a qilin, which is a mythical beast.

It was made in China.

The animal itself has scales, and it's got this twisted kind of a lion's head or a dragon's head.

And surrounding this, rising up or coming down, is this kind of shape that we would call a cloud shape or a lingzhi shape, which is a type of mushroom that has connotations of both good luck and longevity.

This is something that is representative of our innermost kinds of feelings and aspirations.

That's fascinating.

This is actually a stack of books, so it can be interpreted as a stack of books of knowledge or a box that's containing a treasure.

That's fascinating.

That is purposeful.

That's fascinating.

The material itself-- this color is this yellow tint.

Yellow jade is very, very rare.

And one of the clues to the age is the way the carving is done.

Now, the carving very broadly looks really beautiful, and it is beautiful, but it's not as finely done as you would see during the 18th or 17th century.

Oh.

This would date from what is called the Republic Period.

All right.

So that is pre-1949 in China, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, when there was really a huge effort to create a republican form of government in China.

Interesting.

And so part of that was creating works of art that looked back to the high point of Chinese governance and the arts, which would have been 17th, 18th century, in the Qing Dynasty.

There were other high points, but that's what this is looking back to.

Is this something you're planning on keeping, or...

Yes.

Okay.

So I'd say, for insurance purposes, somewhere around $40,000.

(gasps, laughs) All right, that's amazing.

The last time it was appraised was in 1992, for $1,800.

It has jumped.

MAN: These were my grandfather's.

He flew weather balloons, dirigibles, and I think aircraft.

And there was a story...

Supposedly, they were in a basket.

The basket broke, him and, I guess, the other person fell.

He hit a tree, but the other man did not.

And the other man died and he lived.

Whenever I'm digging in a collection and I see balloon wings or airship wings, my assumption in it is that those are reproductions.

There were not that many of those guys.

There were only a few companies that made the wings.

And so when you have a grouping like this, where it's all from one individual and it's just locked in?

That's fantastic.

You also brought a World War I-period flight helmet with a set of goggles, and we see here that he's wearing that exact helmet.

What you see here on the table would be a realistic retail value in the $14,000 to $15,000 range.

Really?

Oh, well, that's impressive.

Yeah.

That's kind of a shock, really.

WOMAN: The clock originally belonged to my great-grandfather.

He always talked about building a boat.

We don't know when or where he got this from, but it was for the boat and he never built the boat.

My parents had it for years.

I think my mother wanted to get rid of it.

You know, it was, like, a shelf-sitter, and my wife is a Army marine deck officer and drives ships, and so it was the perfect opportunity to pass it down to us.

This is a Hamilton Model 21 chronometer, a very precise timepiece.

Chronometer is actually used for navigation.

A clock that's used for navigation has to be very, very accurate, because latitude you can do fairly easily, but for longitude, you need a clock.

This particular chronometer is a very important chronometer in the history of World War II.

The Naval Observatory had the foresight to realize that we were going to go to the Second World War, and they approached a number of the American watch manufacturers.

Hamilton designed this one, and they designed it in such a way that they could mass-produce it.

And they also made it a little bit more accurate to what everybody else was building during the day.

By 1944, they were making 500 of these a month.

By the end of the war, they had supplied almost 11,000 examples of this particular model, 21, to the government.

They stopped making this clock in 1970.

This particular example was probably made somewhere in the 1950s or '60s.

This has its original box.

It's made in mahogany.

Another nice feature about it is, it has this gimbal, but this would actually lock in place for transportation.

But on a boat, you'll notice that it moves in all those different directions, and that's to help keep the instrument upright.

This is a screw bezel, number of turns to take that off, and then you rotate this bucket back so that it falls out into your hand and very carefully, you grab it by the edges... (ticking) ...and that's the jewelry of the Hamilton Model 21.

It's really a fantastic piece of machinery.

And if you look inside, all the gearing is gilded.

It looks brand-new, doesn't it?

It does.

Yeah.

If you were to buy this at auction today, in the condition it is, which is in very good condition, you would probably have to budget somewhere around the neighborhood of $1,500 for it.

This is something that you could still sail with today.

If you knew how to do those calculations, you would get to where you were going.

♪ ♪ PEÑA: Tea was an incredibly important commodity in Colonial America, and therefore the accoutrements of tea were also highly valued.

This tea table was made in the shop of Anthony Hay in Williamsburg sometime between 1760 and 1775.

When Lord Dunmore fled Williamsburg in 1775, the possessions he left behind at the palace were put up for public sale.

One might imagine that it was particularly satisfying for a Virginia patriot to acquire an item once owned by the king's representative in America.

WOMAN: These are three basket, I was told, from Papua New Guinea.

I got it in Australia in 1975.

I was told this is a baby-carrying basket.

I see.

They put the little baby in, and they carry in jungle like this.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

This one, I don't remember what, uh, they told me, but I remember this one very well.

This is a mask when, during a harvest season, they put this mask on top of a yam potato.

Correct.

And, uh, they dance around the yam potato, saying that, "I'm gonna eat you, I'm gonna eat you," because they think this is, like, their, their enemy.

So they put their fighting spirit up.

Uh, they dance and they sing and they threw this mask to the jungle and they eat a yam potato.

That's right.

As if they are eating their enemies.

Next morning, uh, missionaries, they go to jungle, they collect all these masks...

Pick the masks up.

(laughing): Pick, yes, yes.

That's... And they bring back to Australia, and that's-- they sell it.

That's great.

That's, that's what they are.

That's what I was told, I don't know.

Yes.

They were probably made about the time you got them.

Oh, really?

I don't think they have any great antiquity.

Okay.

And you're talking about a country that, quite frankly, had lived completely out of touch with the rest of the world...

Yes.

...until the 1930s.

I know this piece and this piece are from the Abelam tribe in Papua New Guinea.

Oh.

And, and this I suspect is, too.

This is a baby carrier, this is a personal carrying bag, and a yam mask.

What really strikes me about these things is, these are handmade from materials in the forest... Mm-hmm.

...that are gathered, and countless hours are spent...

Yes.

...to weave these things, and it's probably one of the earliest art forms that humans have ever produced, is basket weaving.

Yeah.

And I can't think of a culture that doesn't do it.

Mm-hmm.

I would say each one of these is worth $250 at auction.

Mm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Uh...

Possibly a little more.

Mm-hmm.

So, for all together, $750 to $900... Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

...for all of it.

Mm-hmm.

But it-- they're just truly incredible.

Thank you.

I'm so happy to hear that, and I'm glad that what I remember about 45 years ago in Australia is...

I didn't make a mistake.

(laughs) You didn't.

This has been in my family since the early 20th century.

There is also a sister urn, and those two urns...

Right.

...were in my house when I was a kid growing up.

They sat on either side of the entrance to our living room... Mm-hmm.

...and scared the life out of me.

They frightened you?

(laughing): Yes.

They were made in Japan, uh, for export, uh, probably to America or the West.

Okay, mm-hmm.

They date from the, sort of the late Meiji period into the Taisho period.

Uh, the Taisho period, uh, was from 1912 to 1926.

It's bronze and it's decorated in champlevé enamel on the bronze.

The whole thing is really alive with symbolism, beautiful motifs.

I think a fair asking price in a retail setting... Mm-hmm.

...would be around $10,000.

Okay.

This painting came into my husband's antique store in Norfolk, Virginia, about 20 years ago.

A picker found it, um, in an old house they were tearing down in Norfolk, in the Ghent area.

It was in really bad shape.

It had tears, and it was really dark, and you couldn't see any of the background or anything on it, but it fascinated him.

So he paid, um, $200 to the picker and he brought it home, and he said, "I think I can clean it."

And I said "No, no, no, no, I don't think you can."

(chuckles) So we ask around and we found an art teacher down in Suffolk, Virginia.

She also restored fine art.

So we took it down there to her, and she took a look at it and she said, "Oh, please sell me this painting.

I must have it for my private collection."

My husband, Larry, said, "No, my wife is very attached to it."

She took the girls and she kept them for a year.

My goodness.

And she completely restored them.

What was the cost of having that done?

She charged us $700 to restore it.

You picked the right person, and I think that was more than fair.

This is an oil painting on canvas, and I would date it between 1795 and as late as 1810.

The style in which they're dressed, with these high-waisted white dresses, it's indicative of what was very much in the, in fashion in that period, and we assume they're sisters.

We have decided without any doubt that the picture is of American origin, because this bow back Windsor chair that's in the background, that's an American form, not to be confused with an English Windsor chair.

I suspect that these girls grew up in a family that had some money to spend.

And oftentimes, portraits of young girls, they-- if they could afford it-- they would have their portraits painted, because there are a lot of children who never made it to adulthood.

The mortality rate for children was very high.

We might ask, "Why aren't these girls smiling?"

We will rarely see portraits of, in the late 18th, early 19th century-- throughout the 19th century-- people usually weren't painted smiling.

In this case, they look a little pensive, like they're serious-minded, well-behaved children.

The picture is further enhanced by the fact that each young lady is wearing a coral necklace, and we think that's a carnelian in a gold frame, and these necklaces were considered a sign of good luck and a, an expression of wealth or opulence.

So you might ask me, "Steve, who painted it?"

I worked at it, and I consulted with a number of people-- in fact, some people who specialize in American folk portraiture.

And they basically thought it was a terrific picture.

They said the style in which it was painted doesn't direct us towards anyone in particular, but it doesn't make it any less attractive, that's for sure.

Mm-hmm.

Valuing it, we came up with a consensus.

At auction, I would probably estimate it between $8,000 and $12,000.

I just love the girls, and so thank you so much.

Well, that makes two of us.

I really appreciate it.

(both laugh) I don't know too much about it.

It was a, uh, gift from my Uncle Tommy.

The company's called Terrot, and they were a very popular bicycle manufacturer in France.

And from making bicycles, they went on to making motorcycles, motorized scooters, and really one of the prominent French brands.

It is dated 1926.

The poster was printed in Lyon, which is a town in France.

Mm-hmm.

The artist's name is in the top right-hand corner, Georges Favre.

Favre did design a number of posters, probably 50 or 60, all told.

And his work is all marked by this sort of very pronounced Art Deco style.

Now, this poster is really quite rare.

It hasn't come up for auction in over 20 years.

If it were to come up for sale, it would sell for between $1,500 and $2,000.

(chuckling): Wow.

Okay, right on.

I brought this small chest that I was able to find at a garage sale about six months ago, of this 70-year-old gentleman who was clearing out his 99-year-old mother's house.

And I asked him what he wanted and he said $30.

And I said, "Fine," so I paid $30.

What a find!

I mean, do you know anything about it, or... Well, I asked him about it, and he said he could remember it being in his great-grandmother's house, and he told me his family was originally from Truro, from Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

And, uh, because of that, I was able to do some research on it.

I found the-- on one of the drawers is the whole history.

And so I was able to track back to the original owner, who was a lady named Ruth Dyer from Truro, who was born in 1767.

Oh, my gosh!

Well, what you brought in today is a Queen Anne child's desk.

And this was made in Massachusetts, and the date of 1767 for Ruth's birthday is pretty close to what I would date this.

If we open up the lid here, we can see this wonderful interior with pigeonholes.

It's a divided interior, and if you think about a full-size desk, this is where people would have put their correspondence, their letters.

Oftentimes, you'd find drawers down below, little short drawers.

There's indication that this may have had drawers.

Someone has gone and painted this piece at a later date.

So this would not have been painted blue, and this date here of, of 1760 is a good approximation of when this would have been made.

And it's just a wonderful small, tiny little jewel box of a piece of early American furniture.

If I look at the woods back here, looks like it's made of Eastern white pine, which is a wood that you would typically find in New England.

It was a native wood to America.

And the fact that it's not made of a mahogany or walnut might lend credence to the story that it was made in and around Truro, because if you think about the Cape, that was not an urban center, like Boston would be.

So it's, it's a really interesting piece of furniture.

I'm gonna shut the lid for a second.

And you had mentioned there was a history?

There's a history written on the drawer... Oh, let's... ...which helped me do some research.

Let's take a, take a look at it.

It would've been a great piece of child's furniture, probably from a pretty wealthy family at that point.

And there was a little piece of paper inside the drawer that had the date 1760 and said, "This is an antique," and then it was crossed out and put 1770, which fits better with her being born in 1767.

We can see that the brasses have been replaced.

The, the drawer fronts have been tommy-gunned, if you look.

(laughs) There's lots of holes here.

So that's a good indication that the brasses have been replaced.

And then the other obvious indication is, if I put the drawer back, you'll notice you've got four different sets of hardware on this piece.

We start from the top, you've got this sort of Queen Anne incised and engraved escutcheon plate.

Here we have what we call batwing escutcheons.

Here's sort of a Chippendale solid brass, and here you have an openwork brass.

It's had lots of history, uh, of different hardware, but that's not uncommon.

We know the paint's a little later, the hardware's been replaced.

But for $30, I'd say you did pretty, pretty well.

And collectors love small furniture.

If it were to come to auction, I'd probably estimate it in the $3,000 to $5,000 range.

(laughing): Really?

Yeah.

That's better than my IBM stock.

(laughing): That's for sure.

(laughs) It's just the quintessential Massachusetts Queen Anne desk, and I absolutely love it.

♪ ♪ PEÑA: When the last royal governor, Lord Dunmore, fled Virginia in June of 1775, he left much behind.

But not this diminutive teapot.

Remember that tea was very important.

And this little pot, which was made in England by a Swedish-born silversmith, made it back to Great Britain on the eve of the American Revolution, and then, surprisingly, returned to Williamsburg in 2018, when it was donated by descendants of Dunmore.

MAN: This is my grandfather's watch from World War II.

My grandfather was a flight instructor for the Tuskegee Airmen during the war.

The watch was given to me by my, my grandmother, his, his second wife.

This was back in 2012.

She was getting rid of some of his things, and I went to college for aviation and flew airplanes in, in college, and so I was very interested in, in the history of all this, and we're very proud of what he did during the war.

What can you tell me about the Tuskegee program?

Back during the war, African Americans were not allowed to serve in a, in a combat basis in, in a pilot setting.

The program was designed and created specifically for an all-African-American group.

They went down to Tuskegee and they trained, and, and my grandfather ha, happened to be one that helped teach them.

From a civil rights aspect, that was a huge stepping stone in moving our country...

Absolutely.

...beyond where, where it was.

It led to the integration in 1948 of the military.

Yeah.

Your grandfather, he was there at the beginning of the program, March 1941.

Hm.

And your grandfather was there when Eleanor Roosevelt came in the end of March.

It was March 29, 1941, she came to, uh, visit the program.

Correct.

From what I heard from my mother, when she had talked with him, he, he mentioned that he got to meet her when she visited the, the field.

She was a wonderful civil rights activist, and she took a, a special interest in the Tuskegee program.

These airmen weren't allowed to go fight in war overseas.

Right.

And I think she was a driving factor to convince her husband, the president, to, uh, send them overseas.

Right.

And as we both know, the history of the Tuskegee Airmen-- they performed really well.

Mm-hmm.

Better than their counterparts in the, uh, in the Army Air Corps.

Right.

Tuskegee is known for many things.

It was known for medical experiments that were, were done on African Americans.

And it's, it's just a painful time in our history of this country.

But that has nothing to do with this watch here.

Right.

You have some wonderful things here.

You have his pilot's logbook, his license here.

And I love the book right here.

Tell me about this book.

So, this book is basically kind of, like, the yearbook of the Tuskegee Airmen.

It catalogues the flight instructors at the time... Hm.

...the airmen, and it has them all listed in this.

So it's, it's kind of an historical record, but you would have only received this if you would have been part of the program.

And here's your grandfather right here.

Yeah.

Now, what rank was he here?

Looks like he's a lieutenant colonel here, I would say, uh, by his insignia.

Yeah, so, when he retired, he retired a lieutenant colonel.

When he left the program at Tuskegee, he, uh, left as a major.

So let's, uh, go over your watch.

It was made by the Gallet watch company.

The U.S. government procured watches from different companies, and Gallet was one of them that they used, and they were issued to men in the Tuskegee program.

They were known as the Red Tails.

They had a red tail on the planes.

Hm.

They painted them red.

And this particular model by collectors is referred to as a Red Tail, also.

The coloration of the dial, it's, it's turned dark.

It was probably much brighter, but it's all original, which, we love that.

It's hard to see, but you have, uh, a world time around it.

And you have the turning bezel here.

Case is made in stainless steel.

The bracelet, I think it's maybe been added on later.

I bet it originally had a khaki-colored canvas strap, would be non-reflective... Sure.

...for in the cockpit.

Do you know what your, uh, grandfather got this?

I don't.

When I reached out to Gallet themselves, they said it would've been a first generation, so I would assume it would've been '41, '42 timeframe.

But I don't know, honestly, for sure.

It's definitely an, an early example.

I know you've tried to research this.

There's one thing that I suggest you do that you haven't done, and that's to contact the U.S. government.

The procurement offices at that time, there should be records still to this day.

Oh, wow.

And maybe the serial number of that watch, you can find, uh, the actual order, when they ordered it.

Okay.

All these things are going to help the watch.

Let's talk about values on the watch.

The watch by itself would bring probably around $5,000 to $7,000 in auction.

With all the documentation and the Tuskegee Airmen affiliation, the sky's the limit, but I, I would say that a, an auction estimate that I would put on it preliminary would be $50,000 to $100,000.

Wow.

It could bring double that-- we don't, we don't know what it would bring.

There's no record of another one that's been for sale.

Really fabulous piece.

Wow.

Just a real important part of our history of the United States.

Yeah.

Well, I appreciate it, thank you.

of our history of the United States.

PEÑA: And now it's time for the Roadshow Feedback Booth.

Well, the surprise Mom didn't want is worth something.

It's worked out for me.

(laughing) We came to the "Roadshow" with three baskets, one of which is a mask.

They aren't worth very much, but we're taking them home with us and loving them anyway.

What I plan to do now is to get it off the, my closet shelf, where it's been sitting for the last seven years.

(chuckles) And I'm going to have it conserved and framed and hung in my house to enjoy.

Um, maybe we'll have to sell it to pay for the kids' college at some point.

(laughs): Yeah.

But right now, we're just going to enjoy it.

The fact that I could bring this piece to "Antiques Roadshow," kind of in... (voice trembling): ...memory of my mom, um, was just very, very special.

And I didn't think I would cry, but I guess I've been saving it up.

When I learned the value of our object today, I was quite flabbergasted, there's no other word for it.

I was surprised to see all the appraises in real life that I watch on television.

That was so much fun.

If in fact you have any pieces that you think may or may not be worth it, try to get on the show.

Yeah, because she throws things away.

I do, all the time.

(laughing) All the time.

But don't do that.

Because now that I've heard about the price, I'm asking for more diamonds.

(both laugh) PEÑA: Thanks for watching.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."