- Well, obviously, all we got
here is a chair. JERRY: It's a chair. One of the most famous
chairs you'll ever see. Oh, really? JERRY: Abraham Lincoln
sat on it while he was in the White House. OK. I'm sure he sat in
a lot of chairs. JERRY: It comes from a set of
chairs that was in the White House while he was president. I'm asking $2,000
for the chair, that's the lowest amount
of money and I'm willing to take for the chair. MAN: That is really neat. This was in the White House? JERRY: It was in the
formal dining room. MAN: OK. That's pretty interesting. I mean, you don't
think about it now, but the furniture was
a big deal back then. It was really, really expensive. JERRY: It was. MAN: The things people-- you know, well off people did--
they spent money on furniture and silverware and luxury
items around the house because there was
no TV at night, so people entertained
every night. So those things
were very important. JERRY: Right. MAN: Presidential memorabilia
sells for good money. But Abraham Lincoln,
that's some money. So if we can actually tie
this chair to Abraham Lincoln, there is value here-- serious value. You've got
documentation for this? JERRY: Yes, sir.
MAN: What do you have? JERRY: One letter is from
the White House telling the individuals that
they didn't want the chairs there because
they had too much furniture. But then I have the original
newspaper clipping where Robert Todd Lincoln
donated them to a girls' school up in Vermont. MAN: OK. Do you have any other
proof that it's his or-- No. MAN: OK. How much were were you
looking to get out of it? $2,000. MAN: $2,000? Doesn't sound out of the
realm of possibility. But my problem is
your paperwork. Do you mind if I call someone
to take a look at them? He runs the Clark County
Museum system here. He's an amazing historian. And he could probably tell
me everything about them. JERRY: I have no
problem with that. I'm welcoming the
fact for somebody to come and look at the chair. Any expert that they want
to bring in, bring them on. MAN: I really want this to
be Abraham Lincoln's chair, but I'm a little concerned
over his paperwork. So I called him my friend
Mark to look at this thing. There's a possibility
that Abraham Lincoln's butt touched this thing. [laughter] MARK: There are high points in
every chair's life, I guess. When you're dealing
with presidents of the United States,
nobody has a bigger name than Abraham Lincoln. Anything related to Abraham
Lincoln is hugely popular. So do you have any paperwork
that goes along with this? JERRY: Yes. I have this over here. Let's take a look here. Oh, OK. That's a well-known photograph. This is one of Matthew Brady's
photographs of Lincoln. It shows this decorative
element right here on the side. And so when you look at this,
you see this decorative element is not the same as this one. So obviously, this
chair isn't this chair. Now, the interesting
thing is the chair that's in this photo is one
that Matthew Brady owned, not one that Lincoln owned. Had this been a
match to this, it would have been highly unlikely
it was ever in the White House. Now, I tried to pull up
every interior either drawing or photograph from the
Lincoln period that I can find and I didn't find this
chair in any of them. What I couldn't find is
any photographic proof or drawing proof. As I read this, we don't
have anything from Lincoln or from the White House. The time period is
right on the chairs, but there's not enough for me
to say that these are ones that were used in the White House. - Thanks.
- Sorry about that. Thanks, man. And thank you, and
very interesting to see. Thanks a lot.
- Thank you. Appreciate it. MARK: You need to have
something that actually shows ownership by Abraham Lincoln. It's not going to be easy. But if he can do that, he's
got a really wonderful piece. MAN: Well, if I buy
something off a customer, I got to resell it. When I resell it, it's got to be
beyond a reasonable doubt what I'm selling is what I'm selling. It's just the way I do business. But this point, I can't
make you an offer. So thanks for coming in,
but I just can't do it. Thanks for looking at it. No problem. JERRY: You expect these things. Everything can't be
what you want it to be. But I believe I brought
in enough evidence here to prove that this chair
is from the White House.
