♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA:
"Antiques Roadshow" has
just what the doctor ordered. APPRAISER:
It's ghastly. (laughing):
It is. But your grandfather was a doctor,
so it's appropriate. He was, yeah, he's
a physician. And I got chills
when you told me what you had in that box. PEÑA:
It's "Antiques Roadshow:
Treasure Fever." ♪ ♪ So we have
a whole drawer there, and even this drawer--
my goodness, look at all that. PEÑA:
"Antiques Roadshow"
wants to know, how are you feeling about an hour
full of treasures related to physical and
mental health and well-being? The salesman could carry this
around from town to town and show the doctor
exactly what he had. PEÑA:
Illness, aches, and pains are part of life, but the stuff connected
to healing the human body can bring
a lot of pleasure and pride. From medical quackery... APPRAISER:
Back then, electricity
all of a sudden became the magic cure
for everything. PEÑA:
...to conventional
health equipment... APPRAISER:
It's really like a snapshot
of what a doctor would have in the field
back in the 19th century. PEÑA:
...to items that are part
of the history of medicine. APPRAISER:
All of these, as it's called,
a Kreuterbuch, were for herbalist purposes--
remedies, nutrition, that sort of thing. PEÑA:
We've got a healthy collection of wellness-related stuff
to show you. Take a look. MAN:
We live in the Black Hills
in South Dakota. My parents ran a private museum
in a Wild West show, and my dad was born
in Deadwood, South Dakota. Apparently some
Lakota Native American ancestry on his mother's side. A lot of the Native people
would bring him pieces that they wanted preserved, that they were afraid
would be lost in their family and things like that,
and so... To the best of my knowledge,
that's where this came from. APPRAISER:
This is a Lakota bag, and it is a doctor's bag. And as you can see,
it's beaded on all sides. Yeah. What's a bit unusual is, a lot of the bags
are white background, and this is
a blue background. I want to show
how this opens, and... As you can see,
it has a trade cloth lining on the inside. Now, there are
a couple of ways that we can date this. Yeah. If you look right here
in the center, these are metal-cut beads. Now, metal cut beads
really date into the 1890s. Ah. So this bag is 1885, 1890. Really? And it's not thread,
it's sinew. Again,
that's one of the ways that we date
Native American material. I see. One other thing
that is an issue of condition. Do you see this area here? Yeah, I think there's
another little small spot near the bottom,
a couple of beads. Exactly. You have a few areas that,
that need to be repaired. Now, that does impact
on value. Uh-huh. A lot of collectors
would look at this and, because it has
this blue background, and because it's basically
in great shape... Yeah. It would be
highly desirable for them. And you have almost this
transition from Native American into the early settlers
in the West. Yeah. And you have the blending
of those two cultures... Yeah, it's fascinating. Right in this bag. Juxtaposition. What I want to do is, I want to
give you a realistic value. And I think you can
use this for insurance. Okay. In a gallery,
I think you would expect to see this sell
between $5,000 and $7,000. I'm... I'm flabbergasted. For a thing that was just commonplace to me growing up, it was just a family item. That, that's quite a shock. ANNOUNCER:
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of "Antiques Roadshow." MAN:
Well, it belonged
to my great-grandfather. He was a doctor. I know it was
a salesman's sample that he kept in his office. When my parents passed away, I inherited it. My mother
sent pictures of it to an appraiser
in San Francisco in, I believe, '79 or '80, and they sent her back a note saying it was worth
around $1,500. Well, it is
a salesman sample. A lot of people wonder what's the difference between a salesman sample
and a miniature, and the keynote of
a really good salesman sample is that it has functionality. Because the whole object
of the piece was to demonstrate the item. The salesman could carry this
around from town to town and show the doctor exactly what he had. And of all
the salesman samples I've dealt with over the years,
this is probably the most amazingly functional
item I've ever seen. It's a doctor's
examination table, and it's a multifunction
examination table. The patient could lie down here
and be examined with a pillow. If he had to have
his height adjusted, this could be adjusted here. The legs would come up
like this. They could even... Do one leg at a time. Hold them together. It's absolutely astounding. This is a little accessory. It would go on the side if he had to examine an arm,
or maybe... That's what I thought,
for the arm. ...draw blood. And it could, of course, go on either side. The table would
rock to one side. I'm not exactly sure
what that was for, but it could go either way. This whole leg assembly
comes off. Oh, I didn't know that. So that another feature
of the table could be in place, where it becomes a gynecological
examination table with the installation
of these stirrups. Other features... This bends down. So it has all this
incredible functionality. Another thing that elevates
this salesman sample to the next level is if we can identify the maker. Now, right here, on this upholstered
foot rest, we see "Allison." I did some research. There was a company called
W.D. Allison in 1905, 1900,
in Indianapolis that made all manner of medical equipment. Uh-huh. Nothing they made in that period
that I've seen online was as amazing as this table. But I think this table
was made pre-1900. Amazing detail. Amazing condition. Complete in all respects. Uh-huh. And I would estimate it
in an auction at $15,000
to $18,000. You're kidding. I am not kidding. Wow. This is absolutely one of the
finest salesman samples I have ever seen. MAN:
I was living in Brazil, and I saw this
at an antique show, and it was presented to me as being some kind of
a Chinese game or something. When I looked at it, I thought,
"That can't be a Chinese game. It has all these different
gems inside." I said, "It must be like a,
like an energy battery." There are many people
that believe you can use crystals
to do healing and curing, and I really felt
that that's what it was. So I purchased the thing,
$500. And I took it home and
I started examining it, and I discovered
a tiny, tiny signature that it was made
in Boucheron in Paris, 1884. Several years later,
we were in Paris, and I went to Boucheron,
and I showed them the piece, and they thought it
was beautiful, but they said, "We don't have
the ledger on it." So it was probably
a special order. The date absolutely
fits Boucheron being formed in 1858. Boucheron, a French jeweler
of renowned name. Right. He was certainly
one of the innovators of different types
of motifs and styles. And you have
these little florets. Then over here,
you'll see a peony, and then we have a fan. (chuckling):
Right. And then, if,
if we roll it over... There's even
a little teapot. There's... Exactly, a little teapot. Again, here's
that repeating pattern. We have some ferns
around the edge, there's some bamboo. So there's a lot of different loosely interpreted Asian motifs
going on. Now, this metal
is sterling silver, and what's happened is,
it's nicely oxidized to this nice hue. And this is all hand-pierced. They lay it out and they engrave it lightly. And then they'll sit down and pierce
all these sections out, and then after
they're done piercing it, they go back and
engrave everything. This is very typical of the work that Boucheron
would have done on a woman's nécessaire. I think this is
a healing nécessaire. Now, we have to open it up. We're gonna push this in. The stones that are here,
I looked up. Amethyst is
a very calming effect. People use it for meditation. Crystal can remove
bad or negative energy. Once you put these all
back in here... And you would
put the cover back on... If you go to the other side, this side doesn't let them
go down into the cylinder. You put the crystal
or the stone of your choice-- let's say right now
you want to be calm. You put the amethyst here. You flip the cover... That's right. And now you can hold... The device. You know, that's something that I hadn't thought about. To show everybody
where it's signed, because it is very tiny. Very tiny. You can see on the rims
over here, it's signed
"Boucheron, Paris." And my feeling
is also with you on that this was most definitely
a special order. At auction today, something like this
could be $10,000 to
$12,000. Good, good. That sounds great--
that's great. It's a piece of quack medicine
from the 1920s. Back then, electricity
all of a sudden became the magic cure
for everything. And this is an elaborate kit. A kit in this complete shape would sell in the
$400 to $500 range. Oh, really! It's not an original
Norman Rockwell. Okay, okay. It's a photographic reproduction
of one of his famous paintings. Oh, okay. If we could get
the magnifying glass right onto the print,
you'd be able to see... Uh-huh. the little
photographic pixels... Okay. But as a reproduction,
it's probably worth about $40. Okay, okay. $60, in that range. But a really,
really smooth image. Okay, I like it. (chuckling):
I can see why. (laughs) What you have here actually
is a mix of things. This is from
the First World War. This is a... an officer's
medical syringe kit. The rest of this is medicine
and cures and treatment, and that sort of thing
that you would have during the Civil War. Value-wise, for the lot,
you'd be looking at, retail, around
$350 to $400. MAN:
Okay, very good. WOMAN:
Well, my husband's
great-grandfather was a pioneer physician, and I live in the house
that he built in 1853, and his implements
and things that he used in his pioneer physician days are in my possession now. He made the rounds
with these saddlebags and delivered babies. This is an OB kit,
which frightens me. I always said I wanna hold my legs together
when I see that. So he did a little bit
of everything. Oh yes,
oh, he just, yeah. Country doctor had to know
just about everything. Absolutely. And so he also did
some dental work, too? Yes, he did. He pulled teeth, and I don't
know why, but he kept the teeth. I keep them in my kitchen. I think it's an appropriate
place to keep them. Absolutely, where else
would you put them? (laughing):
That's right. It's really like a snapshot of what a doctor
would have in the field back in the 19th century. What we see here is that,
with the wooden handle, that's before
we understood bacteria. Yes. And so that was later replaced,
it became all stainless steel. So we see that
that's probably circa 1850s, 1860s. And then the saddlebag, which would have
some medicines in it that he would carry around,
again, right around that kind of
mid-19th-century timeframe. And the picture shows
the Dr. Arnold, and then who are the other folks
in the picture? They're the two other
Dr. Arnolds. So it's a family of doctors. It's a... three, three
generations there. To the right collector,
retail value, adding everything up,
I think we have at least $1,000 worth of items here,
so... Really. It's been in my family
for only about 30 years. It was given to my grandmother by a gentleman who apparently had an uncle who was a doctor... Mm-hmm. And he was going
to throw out all the tins and use the box
as storage. This is a student's
cabinet made by
the Park Davis Company... Mm-hmm. Who's still in business today. Probably made around
the turn of the century: 1890, 1900. And it is,
going by the list here, little sample tins-- and they're
handsome little tins-- of various medical roots,
medical herbs, and all kinds of
natural remedies. And then there are
more in the drawers, correct? Yep. So we have
a whole drawer there. And then, this drawer's full,
and even this drawer... My goodness,
look at all that. And they... They get bigger
as they go down. And it's a graduated set. And the fact that it survived
is amazing. I've seen these tins
from time to time at flea markets,
in boxes, in medical bags, and they're worth, on their own, five dollars, ten dollars,
$20 each. Depends upon the condition. I've never seen--
how many of them? 288. All in very good condition,
with a few exceptions. And they're mostly full,
aren't they? Except for three. Except for three. And what ones are missing,
do you remember? I don't know of the other two, but I know that
one was cannabis sativa, which my older brother got to. Your brother
got to the cannabis. We won't go there. (chuckles) They smell beautiful. I feel like I'm in
an exotic spice shop. (chuckles) Because it's complete, excellent condition, I would give
a rough guesstimate of $5,000 to $7,000 for the whole kit
and caboodle. Cool. Great thing to find
in the trash. Yes. MAN:
I brought to you a painting
by Zelda Fitzgerald. She painted this while
she was a patient in Johns Hopkins Hospital
in the 1930s. And she painted this for a doctor
who was the psychiatrist in charge of the
John Hopkins Hospital. I inherited it
from the doctor. APPRAISER:
Everyone knows the story
of Zelda, the beautiful young
Southern belle who married F. Scott Fitzgerald, the rising artist, in 1920, and they became
the quintessential sort of golden couple
of the Jazz Age, of the '20s. They knew everyone
who was everyone in Europe. Zelda encountered
many of the Modernist painters and was influenced by them, and their storybook life began
to come to a rather bad end when Zelda eventually succumbed
to mental illness. She was in various
mental institutions during the course
of the '30s and the '40s, first in Europe
and then in America. She died tragically in a fire
in 1948 in a mental institution, and part of her therapy
was painting. She became
a very accomplished painter. We're looking at oil on canvas in what is probably a frame
from around that period, and it appears to be in
reasonably good condition. Now, the rarity
of these pictures does raise
the question of authenticity. I don't have
an authenticity question about this picture because you brought us some very
compelling documentary evidence supporting the provenance. And this rather wonderful
painting of nasturtiums also is convincing in
its own right as her work. But it would require
consultation with some Fitzgerald scholars
and experts in order to absolutely
confirm the authenticity without any question. The one picture which I have tracked down,
from 15 years ago, sold for $4,000 at an auction
in New York City. In today's market, a conservative auction estimate
on this painting would be between
$10,000 and $15,000. And I think for you
to insure it, you should be thinking
about perhaps $20,000. Well, that's... very nice,
thank you. Well, thank you. I'm very excited. I got chills
when you told me what you-- what you had
in that box. WOMAN:
My father found it in a dump
in Cincinnati, Ohio, when I was
a year and a half old. When my sister and I
was ready to leave home, well, Daddy told us he wanted
the oldest one to take it. And my sister is a year
and a half older than I am, and she said,
"I don't want that ugly thing." (chuckles) I said, "I'll take it
any day." Okay. So he told me to take it that day. Well, it's a very interesting
and unusual clock. It's called an optic clock,
or an optic eye clock. Uh-huh. It was made by the William L. Gilbert
Clock Company about 1910. These clocks were actually
made for opticians' shops. Uh-huh. Where they would use it
for advertising. And it's one of those
interesting crossover pieces that
appeals to different segments of the antique and,
and collecting market. This type of clock would appeal
to clock collectors, as well as people
that collect advertising pieces and folk art. They've made reproductions
of this form, and, in fact, I've never seen
an original one in person. I've only seen
the reproductions. Okay. And it has the paper label
on the back from the Gilbert Clock Company that helps to identify it
as an original. Now, it's not perfect. It does have
some condition issues. The paint is flaking
on the top here, and the pendulum rod
has been repainted. And also,
the pendulum bob here, someone has put
their monogram on it, where originally, this had another eye similar
to that one. Okay. And it's very faint, but you can see the paint
sort of peeking through. The condition does keep
the price down a little bit, but it's so rare to see an
original version of one of these that it's still an interesting
and valuable clock. In today's market, in a retail store, you would expect to pay about
$4,500 to $5,000 for this clock. Okay. Now, I'm aware of an original
one in perfect condition that sold a few years ago
for $15,000. So condition is very important. Oh, yeah. Well, thank you
for bringing it in. It's a wonderful piece. You're entirely welcome. I said it'll stay in my house
as long as I'm living. WOMAN:
It is a book from
my father's family. It has been in the family,
I believe, since his grandfather. We believe it's dated 1586... APPRAISER:
Well, it certainly is. It's right here on the cover. And his grandfather
was a pharmacist... And it was brought with
a group of books from Europe? Yes. When was that? We brought them over only about
two or three years ago... Right. But they have been in the family
for a very long time. It's notable, particularly
because of its binding with the date of publication
squarely stamped on the blind-tooled
pigskin cover, which is over... (knocks):
Solid wooden boards. Unfortunately,
the front board has split. And the book is
a very popular text. It's by Mattioli, who was born in Siena
in 1501 and died in 1577. Oh. Okay. And he was a herbalist. His text was widely published,
first of all, in Italy. This is a German edition
edited by a Nuremberg physician called Joachim Camerarius. You see here,
Nuremberg medicine, published
in Frankfurt am Main... Mm-hmm. In 1586. And the beauty of this book is that it's among
the earliest series of botanical illustrations using a woodcut technique... Oh, okay. But making the illustrations from life specimens. Okay. From the plants themselves. All of these, as it's
called, a Kreuterbuch... Mm-hmm. Were for herbalist
purposes. Remedies, nutrition, that sort of thing. Is it done on
the Gutenberg press? This is nearly
150 years post-Gutenberg. Okay. This is a perfectly respectable
printing outfit in Frankfurt. Back here,
we'll see the printer's mark. Okay. It's Frankfurt am Main, and it's printed
by Sigmund Feyerabend. Okay. And there's the printer's
device. Okay. And there's the date
of the printing. And it's seen some wear. It's got some wormholes, it lacks its tabs and clasps. But it's the
most beautiful, nice, original old object. Value-wise, Mattioli's works
have been bringing quite a lot of money
recently. And I would value this at $25,000 for
insurance purposes. (gasps): Wow. Wow-- that's great.
(laughs) WOMAN:
This piece was my grandfather's. It's ghastly... (laughing):
It is. But your grandfather
was a doctor, so... He was, yeah--
he's a physician, so. It's appropriate. Andy Anderson is
a self-taught carver. He was born in 1893,
started carving in earnest in the late '20s, and got a job
at Knott's Berry Farm in the early '30s. He had a booth there, and he would carve all day long
and make these, essentially,
tourist gifts for, for visitors
at Knott's Berry Farm. Oh, okay. And there is
a collector's market out there. APPRAISER:
This is a "White's Physiological
Manikin." There are fold-out parts
to this, so that you can show the patient
or the medical student different veins in the body. You can look at where
the bones run through the leg. It goes into the muscles
and the tendons and the ligaments. This is very detailed
and wonderful work. I would say that this one is worth somewhere
in the vicinity of $1,000 to maybe as much as $1,500. Very interesting piece. Wow, I... I'm just shocked. (laughs) I'm shocked. MAN:
Well, I've got
our family heirloom that my father received on his
tenth birthday from his father. APPRAISER:
It's officially known as the Model 1840
U.S. Medical Officer's sword. On the cross guard, we actually have the "M.S."
for medical service... Oh. Or medical staff. And we also have, on the blade,
the "U.S.M.S." Very pretty etched blade. Original scabbard,
original grip. And medical pieces,
in many areas of collecting, bring more than regular pieces. Because it's a medical sword and because it's in
very pretty shape, it's a piece that would
retail for about $2,500. Very nice,
very nice. Thank you. Very exciting. WOMAN:
My husband's Aunt Bernice was an art student
at Ohio University. She had read an article
about Nijinsky having an art show of
the paintings that he did when he was having
a mental breakdown, and she, being an art student,
was going to write about some mentally ill artwork. She wrote to Carl Jung
and Sigmund Freud and received a reply
from both of them. After Aunt Bernice passed away, I picked up one of her books
to take home-- "The Writings
of Sigmund Freud--" and inside the book
was an envelope with these letters
and the article inside of them. It was kind of fun to find
the surprise inside the book. APPRAISER:
The first thing you brought sort of sets the stage
for the rest of it. It's this news article
called "The Mad Nijinsky," and basically
it's a press release. I mean, he was, of course,
the greatest dancer, and he had a tremendous career, but he always had
some mental problems. And then, in around 1917, he had just about
a complete breakdown and stopped dancing
to a large degree. Part of his recuperation
was to do artwork. Now, a few of the critics say his artwork started out
with birds and insects, and then got
darker and darker and darker. What was happening here
in this article is, there was
a Leggett Gallery in New York at the Waldorf Astoria, and they were exhibiting
some of his paintings. They obviously wanted
to sell the paintings. Well, within it, they said these were
so important that Freud and Jung
had made comments and appreciated the paintings. So your aunt, fact-checking, wrote to Freud, wrote to Jung, and said, "What's the story? "Did you see them? Did you like them?" And Freud writes back, "I never saw Nijinsky. "He was never a patient of mine. I've never seen his artwork." This is the original letter. It's in German. But someone in 1933,
when these were written, translated it into English,
and basically, he's saying, "You can never believe
what you see in the press." Jung, on the other hand, said that he believes that he saw Nijinsky
as a patient during the war. Now, of course, he was referring
to World War I, which would have been
the right date. And he says
he was schizophrenic. He was essentially catatonic,
and there was no way that he could even
have a conversation. And he never saw his artwork,
so he has no comment to make. But he's saying Van Gogh
was a much better example, and maybe you wanted
to study that. So here are two letters--
Freud and Jung. They wrote back,
which is really wonderful, but they're talking about one of the greatest
dancers of the time. I would say a fairly
conservative retail estimate would be, for the two letters, $15,000 to $20,000. (no audio) Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness, I... Oh, my, that's wonderful. I think I'm going to have to preserve these
a little bit better than just leaving them
folded in the envelopes. WOMAN:
This is a sign that
was found in my home in Urbana, Ohio,
back in, like, 1970s, when I was a kid. And it was
behind an upstairs wall, like, a knee wall space. Well, after some research, I do know that there was
a Dr. Jacob Leonard that lived in my home
in the 1800s. And he had a daughter
by the name of Sarah, and she married a John Dupler. And she might have
been a doctor. That's all I can tell. This is a very, very rare
American trade sign. It's made of one piece of wood with a beautiful
deep dish surround molding. The lettering is gilt, and all around the sign
is this sparkly substance. People call these sand signs... Okay. But they're really smalt--
S-M-A-L-T. And smalt is crushed glass. And they would actually
glue that to the wood for these early trade signs, which made the wood almost
impervious to the weather. And that's one of the reasons
this sign, this is in such
wonderful condition. The bracket is all original,
early iron. Probably dates
to about 1830, 1840. And a woman physician? Pretty rare. The sign would have hung
perpendicular to the street. And on the other side
of the sign, it says, "Mrs. S. Dupler,"
and uses the word "doctress." And a doctress
is a female physician. However, in the early
19th century, the term doctress was
also applied to someone that had magical healing powers. Ooh. This is a very,
very rare trade sign, and we're gonna put
an insurance value on the sign of $2,500 to $3,500. Okay. WOMAN:
It's been in my family. My great-aunt owned it, and she lived in
Palm Springs-L.A. area. What I've been told about it is that her daughter was ill
and in the hospital, and that her doctor gave her this photograph as a gift. And then I was
at a floral shop and I saw some greeting cards, and I saw the image
on a greeting card. So I bought the greeting card,
took it home, and looked at the back
of the greeting card, and it mentioned a gallery. On the internet,
I found a book that was pictures from the showing
that was at the gallery, and this photograph
was in the book. And it's actually
on the cover of the book. Yes. The name of the photographer
is Dain Tasker. He was a physician,
a radiologist, at the Wilshire Hospital
in Los Angeles. Mm-hmm. He became interested in
photography in the 1920s. And so here he is
in his day job, using X-rays, and he has
a kind of ah-hah moment, that "I'm going to
look at flowers "as the subject matter,
as the content of my pictures." He'd already been photographing
for about ten years. And so the X-ray
becomes his art form. Mm-hmm. Apparently, Dr. Tasker
enjoyed gifting his photographs to nurses, to patients,
to other physicians. Mm. And then he met
a photographer in L.A. whose name was Will Connell. And Will Connell was
25 years younger than Tasker, a very prominent fine art
photographer, and he encourages the doctor to look at his work
more seriously. And he crosses over from
being an amateur photographer to a professional. At today's Roadshow,
I've seen many other examples of X-rays of flowers. Really? Wow. By photographers who apparently
were local photographers, but who didn't have
gallery exposure. Oh. And who didn't have their work
reproduced in magazines and seen in salons. So the value of their pictures would be a few hundred dollars. Oh. At auction today, a preliminary estimate
for this photograph would be $6,000
to $9,000. Oh, wow,
that's great. MAN:
This is my third or fourth
great-grandfather, William Perry, who sailed as surgeon's mate
with Captain Cook in the Endeavour on his first voyage
around the world, from 1768 to 1771. Their mission was
to sail to Tahiti and to observe the transit
of Venus across the sun. Then they were to sail on
and verify the existence of the Australian
continent. So you can see here that the Endeavour
is in the background. Now-- but there's more to
this story about Perry, correct? He was the surgeon's mate,
but what happened? Well, the surgeon,
Mr. Monkhouse, died, and William became
the, the surgeon. So he, he took over
towards the end of the voyage. 1770, I think,
Monkhouse died, correct? That's right. Yeah. That's correct. So, what I find remarkable
about this is that your great-great-great-
grandfather was part of one of the
first long-distance voyages where scurvy
was not a problem. Scurvy was
a terrible vitamin deficiency that afflicted sailors at sea. Cook apparently was
a big believer in feeding people fresh food, and he was involved with this,
keeping the crew healthy. The painting itself, I think,
is also interesting, because it bears
many semblances to the work of
an early Chinese artist. Now, we don't know much
about this particular artist-- his name was Spoilum--
but he was known as the first Chinese artist
in Canton to paint European subjects
on canvas. This particular painting is on wood, but this is very much in the
style of Spoilum's paintings. Of course, he wasn't in China
on the Endeavour expedition, but he sailed on
to four or five other ships and I would bet
that he, he was in Canton at some point
on one of those voyages. You assume that
to be the Endeavour because he sailed
on the Endeavour. But it could be
one of his other four or five ships
that he was on. True. The other thing
that we have here are these great pistols
by William Bond. And you can see "Bond,"
with his London address, is stamped on the tops
of the barrels of these pistols. Bond is about as good as you can
get for a British pistol maker. Very desirable. We assume that these are the pistols
that he carried with him. Yes. You also brought this little powder flask; it contained shot and wadding
and that sort of thing. So it's a nice package. Let's start with the painting. In that present condition,
it's probably an $8,000 to $10,000
painting. The frame has been repainted. That's hurt it. My mother decided that
it would look a lot better if she spray-painted it... Right. ...with gold spray paint.
(laughs) The pistols themselves are worth
about $2,500 to $3,500. But since they're associated
with this individual, we can, I think, bump the estimate up
a little bit, to maybe $5,000. So we're looking
at a value of somewhere between $13,000 and $15,000
for an auction estimate for the package here. It's a great story. Thank you, I'm--
I'm very glad to know that. WOMAN:
My great-grandparents
immigrated from Norway and settled in Wisconsin. It's not from Wisconsin. It's not? It's from Arizona. Arizona? And it's made by
the Apache Indians. This is a medicine pouch,
a very, very special bag. It also happens to be
very large. I think it would sell
for about $3,500. Okay. WOMAN:
It's been in our family
for so long. I mean, generation
after generation, and it's been
at all of our drug stores that our family's owned,
so... 1690,
in this condition, you're probably talking
in the $500 range. Oh! Okay. Although probably half the
medicines would kill you. (laughs) BOY:
It's for-- in case you get,
like, a snakebite or something. APPRAISER:
Yeah, and who did it belong to? My great-grandfather. You know what's good
about this kit? Is that it's really
complete. It's even got the original
directions on how to use it. These are medical
collectibles and they've become
very, very popular. Will you be surprised
if I tell you it's worth about $100? I don't know that. No? Isn't that great? Yeah. When I was younger,
I used to always have an eye for looking
for collectibles. Mm-hmm. And I, I saw
these posters, and I knew that
they were something. And I didn't know
what they were-- I didn't know the movie,
I didn't know the actors-- but I knew that they were
African-American movies. So, that's the reason
why I kept them. I've never seen the movie. I don't know anything
about the actors. Years back, I checked to see if the movie existed. Mm-hmm. And I probably had it framed
about 25 years ago. And so everybody
just looks at it, and it's just like
a piece of the furniture. Mm-hmm. So, you know, hardly anybody asks
any questions. If someone new
comes to the house, they, they're curious. And... but, you know,
I haven't been able to tell them a whole lot, except they see that,
you know, "all colored cast," and that says a lot. So, this is from a very... a very interesting
sub-genre of movies-- we'll just call them
race films. And they were specifically
films that were created for an African-American
audience, and they were popular between about 1915
to about 1950 or so. As a poster,
it's interesting, but the art in it
isn't terribly great. It's only printed
in two colors. Whereas, for most other
popular films of the time, they'd be full-color posters
with fantastic art. But these films were created
on a very modest budget, and advertising
is probably where they spent the least
amount of money. Right. This is from the 1940 movie
"Am I Guilty?", which was re-released
by Toddy Pictures as "Racket Doctor." Yeah. It's about a young
African-American man who goes to, tries to
start a clinic in Harlem. Well, this is actually
one of the few cases where the star
was actually a star. This fellow, Ralph Cooper, was the original emcee
at the Apollo Theater. Oh, see?
I didn't know that. Toddy Pictures bought up
a lot of the rights to a lot of these race films and re-released them
under different names... Ah, I see. To try to make a few
extra nickels out of it... All right, okay. Without spending
any more money on actors. Okay. And the collectibility
of posters and items related to these films has gone up dramatically
in the last few years. And right now,
in this condition, we would estimate
at auction, this would be
a $400 to $600 poster. Ah, okay, okay, okay. I had no idea. It's just been sitting on
my wall in a frame, and... So, I probably should get
the other one framed, as well. Yes, you should. (laughs) WOMAN:
My husband and I were in the liquor business
many years ago, and one of his customers
came in one day and said that her uncle
had passed away, and he was an MD... Mm-hmm. And that he had liquor
at an estate sale that was from Prohibition. So I went over, and among other things,
purchased this liquor. And for years,
it has been put away, and it's never been opened. How many bottles did you buy
at the estate sale? At the time,
I think I had about 18. Wow. Yes. And do you still have
the others, as well? I do, yeah. And are they all different
brands, as these are here? Um, the ones I have now are the same brands. Uh-huh. I just bought--
I brought you one of each. And how much
did you pay for these? I don't recall exactly,
but it couldn't have been more than maybe ten or $20
for all of them. What a great find. I mean, I'd be thrilled if I went to an estate sale
and I ran into these. in the basement, yeah. Well, this was probably
at least 35 years ago. Right. We all know
about the Prohibition. It was a long dry spell
for America. Right. It went from the year 1920
to 1933. And there were
a few select makers that were allowed to continue
the production of liquor throughout Prohibition. Oh, I didn't
know that. And first of all, you have
the words "Bottled in Bond," which means that
they were bottled according to the U.S.
government standards. Right. But then also
on some of these, you see where they're made
for medicinal use, it says. Right. In the Prohibition era, you could go in
to your physician, and it usually cost you
about three dollars. You could have bronchitis, or you could say
you had bronchitis. (chuckles) Right here, we have
the Tom Hardy Whiskey Company. Here, we have
the Frankfort Distillery. Over here, you have
the Old Thompson by the H. Barton Company. And then on the end, we have the special
Old Reserve. That's got to be
the good stuff there. And then back here,
this wonderful red and green, which is from Old Taylor,
which is a renowned brand that went back
into the 19th century. This one, in... for instance,
has the original label on it. It says 1917
is when it was made, and then 1933
is when it was bottled. It has evaporated
a little bit. Right, I noticed that. Yeah, and what it is is, there's not a super-tight
seal on the cap. These are very, very rare. I've been in the business
since I was 11... Really? And I've never seen any. And recently, there was
a write-up on some bottles which sold at auction which had all this Prohibition
"for medicinal use" on them. Initially, I was thinking
a lower value, but in talking to experts who have read
some of these reports that have come out
in the market lately, I believe a retail
value on them would be $3,000 to $4,000
in today's market. For the five of them? For the five. Yeah. And you have 18? Yeah. Wow. I am very,
very surprised. (both laughing) And pleased--
thank you. WOMAN:
It was bequeathed to me
by a friend. I believe it's a tansu,
based on the design. But what I love
about this chest is all its secret
compartments. And I design and build
contemporary furniture and contemporary tansu, and I build secret compartments
into everything that I build. The card that came with it said it was a 1740s
Queen Anne apothecary chest, purported to be used
for nobility. One can pull out
one of these and see that you've got this terrific little box, but it's really
a visual pun. Yes, it is. Because most of these are not,
in fact, drawers; they are other things. They are other things. They're sliding doors, or they are drawers designed
to look like four small drawers, but in fact, they're
broken up into compartments that have all kinds
of other things going on. Right. And that's because
this was made for someone
who was a pharmacist. What this does,
it actually hinges together and forms a box, and you've got
this wonderful plate here on the front, and the corners are reinforced
with these metal plates that have this
silvered surface. These are in a Baroque,
kind of Rococo design, which is a European design. We're going to just look
at the whole exterior, and what do we see? The side that looks like
it's one solid panel in fact... slides open. You had said tansu, which is a type of furniture
used in Japan and Korea. This actually is made of a wood
that is not teak, not padauk. It's a wood called huanghuali. Huanghuali was a wood that was used
in Chinese cabinetry work. Oh, okay. From an early period of time during the Ming dynasty
and the Qing dynasty up into the 18th century. It wasn't really used
by any other cultures in Asia. Okay. That and this hinged box
form is a Chinese form. This was made
by a Chinese cabinetmaker probably between
1720 and 1750. This was made for somebody
who was a well-to-do individual. This was likely made
in Southern China, probably in
what was then called Canton. Okay. And it was made for someone
who was working there or brought it back
from there to Europe. And stylistically, I think that individual
is likely Dutch. Really? And I base that
on the style of these mounts. What a terrific object. Wow, thank you. This is so, so fun. And the fact
that it's miniaturized really makes it appealing,
because it's portable and small. Right, right, right. It's worth, I think,
conservatively, $8,000 to $12,000
at auction. Oh, wow. Wow. (chuckles) That's amazing. (voice breaking):
I can't believe,
such a gift! If they were Chinese mounts,
not these European mounts, this would be worth $50,000
to $70,000 at auction. Oh, wow. I actually moved here
from Philadelphia, where I grew up, and this painting
came into my family through my grandparents. My grandfather was
a surgeon in Philadelphia, and one of his patients was
named Fern Coppedge, and I believe
that this painting was something that Fern
gave my grandfather in, in gratitude for the surgery
that he performed on her. Then my parents
had it for some time, and then it came to me. Hm. So here we are. You know, I have a theory that doctors actually have
the best art collections, because so many
impoverished artists end up paying their bills
with paintings. (chuckles) Do you know much about
Fern Coppedge? Have you... Not a lot. We have another Fern Coppedge
that my sister has. It's much smaller. The only thing that I know
about this painting that my parents told me was that it was a scene in
Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, near where I grew up. And that it was called
"Goat Hill." Well, Fern Coppedge is, she was
originally from Illinois, and then studied in Chicago, and then moved to Philadelphia,
where she had a studio. She's best known, though, for her work done
around New Hope, where she moved in 1920. And she's associated
with a group of artists known as the Pennsylvania
Impressionists. And of that group,
she's probably the best known of the women artists. She studied with Daniel Garber, who was probably
the best known of them, along with Edward Redfield. She was an en plein air
painter-- she worked outside,
out of doors. She wasn't studio-bound. Mm-hmm. And she could be seen
in New Hope, in the area, in the back of her car
with her easel, sitting, doing these
wonderful winter landscapes. That whole market
is very much in demand, and has been for some time. Really? She was very much someone
who plowed her own furrow. She was her own woman, and I really admire her
for that. Her sense of color
was just extraordinary. She was basically
a Fauve painter, and very adventurous in
the way that she chose to work and to portray the area. Quite variable
in terms of her output. And I think this is
an absolute gem. The other thing that's
interesting about it are the dimensions. It's actually 30 by 36,
which is unusual for her. Really? She often did 18 by 18,
or she did 20 by 24. The largest I've seen
is 38 by 40. And sometimes she'd work
as small as 12 by 12. I've never actually handled
a 30-by-36 painting. I have to ask you
about the frame. This doesn't quite
go with the panting, in my view. No. I replaced the frame
years ago. The frame that was on it
had pieces that were glued on, and many of them had broken off, and so I didn't think
it was suitable to keep a damaged frame with it, and I don't know if that
affected the value in any way, but... Well, it may well have originally had a frame
by either Harer or Badura, who were the two leading
frame makers in that area, and she often used those
for her works. It's maybe not the frame
I would've chosen, but it looks after the painting
and it presents it well. The other thing
I wanted to mention is the composition itself. It really does
lead your eye in here, with the road,
and then over this bridge, and then up the hill. I've seen her
using this device before. And it's very charming;
it's... It's just a wonderful
compositional way of pulling the viewer
into the painting. Now, I've handled
a lot of work by this artist. And as I mentioned earlier, I think this is
a particularly good example. At auction, I'd feel very comfortable
with an estimate of $120,000
to $180,000. (gasps) How much?! What did... And actually... $120,000 to $180,000. Oh, my goodness. (chuckles) I could actually easily see it
making over $200,000. You're taking my breath away. You seem surprised. I'm stunned,
I'm totally stunned. (stammering):
I... I didn't even think
about bringing this. This was a last-minute... "Oh, well, why don't we
take this one, too?" You chose well. Oh, thank you so much. Not at all. Thank you so much. MAN:
The cane was passed down to me after my grandfather
passed away. APPRAISER: Yeah. It was given to him
by his mother, and it was given to, I believe,
my great-great-grandfather... Mm-hmm. From Dr. Mudd. Dr. Mudd set Booth's leg after he assassinated Lincoln. Yeah. And what's the connection
between Mudd and your family? He gave it to his cousin,
I believe. Yeah. It's Sarah Mudd. Mm-hmm. Who would have been... I'm not sure how far back
to the grandparents' side... That's all right. But our family, I guess, is somewhere linked
to the Mudd family. Henry Clark, who is, I believe,
my great-great-grandfather, he did some legal work
for Dr. Mudd after he was incarcerated, and that was given
in appreciation for it. Because he set his leg, therefore he aided
and abetted a criminal. Right. And was tried in military court,
and was sent to prison. Yes. And that was actually mentioned on this here. It says to Henry A. Clark
from Dr. S.A. Mudd. And this says Dry Tortugas, which is where the prison,
Fort Jefferson, was. Right. Which is on,
off the coast of Florida, and the date is 1869. While he was imprisoned
for aiding and abetting Booth, he was in a carpentry shop. Oh, okay. He spent a lot of time,
in addition to being a doctor, carving and turning
wooden objects. And he gave some of them
to his guards. Mm-hmm. And he gave them
to other people as a gesture of thanks. And when there was
a huge yellow fever epidemic in the prison, the prison doctor died. And because he was a doctor,
he volunteered his services to help and save
so many people's lives. Mm-hmm. And actually,
some of the soldiers wrote letters
to the president... Wow. To say, "You really should
pardon this person, he's done wonderful things." And he was pardoned
by President Johnson in 1869, which is the date on
the edge of the cane. (chuckles) Interesting. Now, if I just saw
this cane, which was a very typical gift
in the 19th century-- it's, you know,
lovely tropical hardwood-- you'd probably be looking
at maybe $150. Okay. But with the Booth connection,
with the Mudd connection, you've got this
fantastic artifact of a time for someone who had such an important role and still an enduring sort
of question in U.S. history. Value-wise, you're probably looking
at $5,000 to $7,000. Wow. It could easily fetch
$10,000, perhaps, at auction because of the Lincoln
connection. Okay. And it's really--
this is a case where the story makes,
gives it the value. PEÑA:
Thanks for watching
this special episode of "Antiques Roadshow." Follow @RoadshowPBS
and watch us anytime at pbs.org/antiques
or on the PBS video app. See you next time
on "Antiques Roadshow."
