Special: Best of 20

MARK WALBERG: We're highlighting two decades of laughs... No!

I can't believe it!

WALBERG: And tears.

Wait, my turn first.

WALBERG: Right now on Antiques Roadshow, "Best of 20."

Roadshow!

WALBERG: Antiques Roadshow is celebrating 20 years of discovering America's hidden treasures.

Our appraisers have seen nearly 1.4 million objects with Roadshow making 136 tour stops.

When you walked in with this, I just about died.

WALBERG: We chose only a small sampling of some of our favorite appraisals from every season.

You remember this stand-out timepiece from our very first season?

WOMAN: The story is that Pancho Villa killed a man in Mexico City and took the watch off of him.

Then, he ended up in Alpine, Texas, where he traded this watch to Mr. Kasner for a brand-new Buick automobile.

Mr. Kasner sold it to a Dr. Middlebrook from Del Rio, Texas.

My father told the doctor, if you ever want to sell that watch, please give me first chance at it.

Dr. Middlebrook died several years later and his widow called my father and my father bought the watch, and he never would tell anybody what he'd paid for it.

Now I cannot prove any of this, and believe me, I've tried.

I understand.

Well, let's take a look at the watch and talk a little bit about what could be true about the story.

If you examine the watch on the dial, it does have the name of a jewelry store in Mexico City.

Esmeralda.

It is from the era... the story could be true, the watch is from before the turn of the century.

Esmeralda's closed up, I had a friend in Mexico City check that out.

The initials of the original owner are mounted on the case, which is 18-karat gold, and rose diamonds.

And then there's a watch fob charm in 18-karat gold that matches, it opens as a locket.

There are no pictures left in it, which is too bad.

No, Pancho Villa probably took them out.

There are diamonds all the way down the chain, which is in two colors of gold.

The case work is French or Swiss and the watch movement is a Swiss chronograph, which means it has four separate dials on the front.

It does moon phase, it counts off the days of the month.

It has a stopwatch function that works by pushing this here.

The lever here is to make it chime, which is sometimes called blind man's function.

People who couldn't see could tell the time by pushing this lever and counting the chimes.

Oh, how interesting.

Let me...

It is a separate little spring that makes it ding.

(watch chiming) Faintly, faintly hear it.

Oh, I love to hear that.

It's considered a very, very complicated watch because each dial has to have a separate part of the watch movement.

It's enhanced by the fact that the materials in it are very, very high quality, and that the chain and fob match the watch and are original to it.

Would you have a guess as to how much this watch might be worth?

No idea, that's what I'm doing here.

Somewhere between $30,000 and $50,000.

Would it be worth more if I could prove the story?

Definitely, definitely.

That's what I thought.

I've tried.

But it is possible from the serial number of the watch to find out for whom it was originally ordered and to trace the story back that way.

Well, that'll be a nice job for you, Fred.

It'll take some time.

Thank you very much for coming and showing it to us.

This is a fabulous watch.

Thank you, thank everybody.

Thank you, everybody, it was fun.

I went to a garage sale.

How long ago was this, Claire?

This was about 30 years ago.

As we moved into our new house, I needed a diminutive table and I thought, I think I know the shape and size and when I saw this out in the yard I thought this is a great thing.

It was pitch black.

It was a moldy mess.

And the lady was asking $30, so I said, "But I only have $25."

I said, "That's all I have."

She said, "You can have it for $25" and I took it.

With most pieces from the Federal period we make attributions on the basis of inlay, style, secondary woods.

But on your particular table, we're very fortunate-- you are, in fact-- to have the actual label of John Seymour and Son, Creek Square, Boston, which is where they were.

And it's a little bit deteriorated but you can still read it.

That's just extraordinary because it's so rare to find labeled pieces.

What you brought in today here is a Federal inlay mahogany demilune card table made by John and Thomas Seymour, very distinguished cabinetmakers who made some of the most distinguished and fine furniture for the very wealthiest families in Boston at the time.

Ah...

This table, everything about it, even if it didn't have the label, says "John and Thomas Seymour."

The quality is incredible.

It has this wonderful figured mahogany.

The top has these inlaid...

Egg and darts.

Almost an egg and dart with a dot and almost a seed which is sand-burnt-- they used hot sand to color that inlay to give it a three-dimensional effect.

If you come down to the edge, this edge has wonderful satinwood inlay, this figured satinwood.

It has a typical Seymour coved edge, a veneered front, and on this veneered front, tapering bellflowers-- you see how they taper from small into large and then-- and the bowknot, which is so delicately done, this satinwood bowknot.

All of these elements that we're seeing actually came out of English design books from the late 18th century of George Hepplewhite and Sheraton, their design books.

But the Seymours took it even to a higher level.

We look at this edge.

It's all satinwood decorated and then, incredibly, the legs actually have this satinwood band, which tapers down, and there are these bellflowers graduating down the leg and at the very bottom, a bellflower.

Yes!

Now, did you try to clean it at any point?

Uh, linseed oil and turpentine.

I didn't refinish it.

I wiped it off and then I saw this and then I kept going, and I thought, "Well, I'll just see."

And I took the dirt all off.

Well, Claire, luckily, you weren't a really great refinisher...

I am!

No, I'm joking.

But if you'd cleaned it a lot more you would have taken a lot off the value.

Luckily, it still has a nice old color, and even though you cleaned it... See all the dirt down at the bottom?

I love that.

That, yeah, that was up here.

I just want to say, when we first saw you, my heart started going like this.

You can feel it right now.

That's right.

Mine did, too.

Leslie looked over and said: "Leigh, is that what I think it is?"

And as we got closer, you had this upside down, and we saw that label and Les went up to the label and said, "It isn't, is it?"

And I said, "It is."

So it's really one of the most exciting moments I've ever had-- Les?

Absolutely, one of the most exciting pieces I've ever seen.

Just to be here with this.

Do you have an idea of what it's worth or have you gotten some idea?

Oh, probably $20,000, now, I just said that.

I think the estimate we're going to give you is going to top that.

I think Les and I both feel that this piece in the open marketplace on a good day, would be in the range of about $200,000 to $225,000.

Wow!

$200,000 to $225,000?

Now, I want to say that on a very good day with everything in place, it has the possibility of bringing $300,000.

I don't want to get your hopes up that much but $225,000 isn't bad, I guess, right?

It's not bad!

It's made by Francis Richardson, highly regarded Philadelphia silversmith, who made this tankard about 1710.

I was told it was in the area of $10,000 to $15,000.

Well, I think you can safely double that.

Double it?

$20,000 to $30,000, it would buy a few jelly beans.

Yes, it would!

These are from New Orleans, this is from New England, from Marblehead, Massachusetts.

In terms of value, even with the cracks, this is worth about $15,000.

Oh, my!

This one didn't fire properly-- I have goosebumps on my cheek.

This one didn't fire properly, still worth about $15,000.

Oh, my gosh, the shape was unusual.

This guy here between $15,000 and $20,000.

Oh, you-- that made my year!

I can't believe it.

$25,000 to $50,000 of pots right here.

APPRAISER: They're basically, what, little children's books?

WOMAN: They're little children's books, but someone evidently loved them and had these slip covers made for them.

These are some of the nicest slip covers.

They are.

And that makes the whole thing.

These would probably sell in the $4,000 to $5,000 range.

$4,000 to $5,000?

Well, this was from my grandmother's house and, uh, she gave it to me.

I always enjoyed it as a child.

I enjoyed looking at the details.

But I don't know where she got it.

All right, this is an artist by the name of Petrus van Schendel.

He was born in Belgium.

This is a beautiful interior and it's signed and dated on here, 1847.

I value this painting at a minimum of $25,000.

It could go as high as $40,000 to $50,000.

It's a magnificent work and you're very lucky to have it.

You look surprised.

(chuckling) Well, it's like winning the lottery as you know.

Yes.

So, at any rate, great painting.

You don't want to... (gasps) (feigns crying) Wait, wait a minute.

Wait, my turn first.

(laughing) Wait, hold it.

(continuing to laugh) Here, take two.

That's cute.

Thank you.

Hold still in your position.

Stay that way, please, sir.

Thank you.

They're going to put that on tape.

Oh, no... Oh, yeah.

I don't know an awful lot about it, except that it was given by Kit Carson, who every...

I'm sure everybody knows in his history.

Given to the foster father of my grandmother.

And do you know who made this weaving, do you know what kind of blanket it is?

It's probably a Navajo, but that's about all I know.

So you haven't had anybody look at it, or?

Nobody's ever looked at it that I'm aware of.

Well, Ted, did you notice when you showed this to me that I kind of stopped breathing a little bit?

Yeah, you did.

I'm still having a little bit of trouble breathing here, Ted.

It took you by surprise because I, you know, didn't think much about it.

Probably a chief blanket.

That's exactly what it is.

And it's not just a chief's blanket, it's the first type of chief's blanket made.

These were made in about 1840 to 1860 and it's called a Ute, first phase.

A Ute?

A Ute, first phase, wearing blanket.

A Ute, first-phase wearing blanket.

But it's Navajo made, they were made for Ute chiefs.

And they were very, very valuable at the time.

This is sort of... this is Navajo weaving in its purest form.

All of these things that we see later with diamonds and all kinds of different patterns comes much later than this.

This is just pure linear design.

This is the beginning of Navajo weaving.

Wow.

And not only that, the condition of this is unbelievable, unbelievable.

We see these... we've got a little bit of damage over there.

It's made from hand-woven wool, but it's so finely done it's like silk.

It would repel water, and this here is dyed with indigo dyes.

It was a very valuable dye at the time, and what's really interesting is right here, we have an old repair that was probably done in the 1860s.

And it's done with raveled bayetta, which is in itself a very important thing in Navajo weaving.

So all involved, it's an extraordinary piece of art.

It's extremely rare.

It is the most important thing that's come into the Roadshow that I've seen.

Do you have a sense at all of what you're looking at here in terms of value?

I haven't a clue.

Are you a wealthy man, Ted?

No!

Well, sir, I'm still a little nervous here, I have to tell you.

On a really bad day, this textile would be worth $350,000.

On a good day, it's about a half a million dollars.

Oh, my God.

You had no idea.

I had no idea.

It was laying on the back of a chair.

Well, sir, you have a national treasure.

Wow... A national treasure.

Gee!

When you walked in with this, I just about died.

Congratulations, congratulations.

I can't believe this.

Now, the value of this, that I'm giving, is not using the Kit Carson provenance.

Provenance is sometimes very difficult to ascertain.

If we could do research on this and we could prove without a reasonable doubt that Kit Carson did actually own this, the value would increase again, maybe 20%.

Wow.

I can't believe it.

My grandmother, you know, were poor farmers.

They didn't... She had... her foster father had started some gold mills and discovered gold and everything, but there was no wealth.

No wealth in the family at all.

Wow.

I can't believe it!

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Gee.

I'm amazed, I'm flabbergasted.

My grandparents picked it up.

They traveled a lot in China.

And when were they in China?

Probably the early part of the century.

Okay, where have you had this since then?

My mother's had it in her house, and then I inherited it and brought it west.

Some years ago, she knew someone who knew about Chinese art, and he looked at it, and he said it was from the Ming Dynasty, he thought, and priceless, and that's all I know.

Okay.

Well, I'll start out by saying when this came up, I could barely...

I could tell.

(voice breaking): It's fantastic.

This is truly...

Sorry, I'm all worked up.

This is among the finest examples of Chinese art that we have seen on the Roadshow.

The carving is beautiful; the workmanship is stunning.

The carver who did this was truly a master.

You can see the muscles rippling under the surface.

It's the finest quality marble you can get.

It's truly magnificent.

And as you look at this, any way you look at it, it's fantastic.

It's breathtaking.

I see little, tiny versions of these that come in for sale, but never does one see one like this.

Wow.

Now, one of the things he was wrong about is, it's not Ming Dynasty.

This dates from the Golden Period of Chinese art, which is called the Tang Dynasty, between the sixth century and the ninth century.

Wow.

Your grandparents bought something when they were on their trip that you can't get now.

(gasps) You can see examples like this in museums.

Wow.

Occasionally, they come up at auction.

It's wonderful.

Oh, I plan to pass it on.

One of the ways that I can tell you that it's what it's supposed to be, not only just from the artistic aspects of it, because that tells us clearly that this was done by a masterwork, as a master carver.

But when you look at it underneath, you can see that there's every indication of great age from the chisel work that's taken place to the sort of sandy surface, which is fantastic.

That gives you the kind of patina that you want to see.

It's something that's been handled, and it's been around for a while.

It's a great thing.

The artist didn't sign it.

No, these were never signed.

I would feel pretty confident that one could get between $120,000 and $180,000.

Wow.

Not that I'd sell it.

It's a fantastic, fantastic thing.

Now, the value I gave you is an auction estimate value.

An insurance figure on this would be somewhere between, you know, $150,000 and $250,000.

Probably toward the high end.

I would say around $250... Wow.

For insurance purposes.

I'm just really pleased.

So it was worth lugging it in here.

Yeah, it's... it's wonderful.

I purchased this quilt approximately like eight years ago at an auction down in Arkansas.

And this quilt has an African motif design on it.

The pattern here represent the Shango deity and the colors of red, white, and blue stand for protection.

So it was made by an African-American slave in the South.

But incorporating motifs and colors that come out of that culture.

Yes.

And what do you know about the provenance?

I found out that it came from the Polk estate.

I was able to get their paperwork with the quilt.

That actually is one of the most interesting aspects of this remarkable survivor, because in all of this kind of African-American material, as with all other kinds of antiques, the provenance, the history of ownership, is very key to the value and what makes this so sensational, beyond what it looks like and what it represents, is the fact that there is documentation.

An inventory that was done for Mr. Polk's estate when he died in the spring of 1864.

And in this inventory, is listed all of his worldly possessions, his slaves, and quilts.

And the quilts, right.

And also, this piece has been used in two major exhibitions.

And here you can see that it's been used for the cover and a large color illustration in the book.

So this piece is listed in Mr. Polk's inventory at the time of his death, which was 1864, but it's actually earlier.

Yes, I believe the quilt is dated between 1825, 1830.

Right.

So you put all of that interesting documentation together and you've got something which could be $40,000 or $50,000 or $60,000.

Wow!

Right.

That's amazing, wow.

But it's rare to find all of these things coming together in this way.

Wow, I'm excited, I want to fall down!

It's an amazing survivor.

Yes, it is.

MAN: This watch was handed down from my great-grandfather.

He was the owner of the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch back in 1914, when he received this watch.

And it was handed down from him to my father, and then he gave it to me.

It's manufactured by the Patek Philippe Company of Geneva, Switzerland.

This is a photocopy of the original warranty, depicting some of the complications of this watch.

The front of the watch has the hour and minute hand, and the second hand.

It also has a split chronograph, so you can time two things.

It also has a minute register for the chronograph.

Off to the side is a slide for chiming the watch.

It's called a minute repeater.

Where you lift up the slide, and it'll chime the time to the minute.

Okay.

When we flip the watch over, you have the day, the date, and the month, along with the moon phase.

It's also a perpetual calendar which adjusts for leap year.

It's a very complicated watch.

And excellent, excellent condition.

With the original box, it also has two extra main springs and an extra crystal underneath.

It has the original crystals and original 18-karat gold engine-turned case.

Have you had any appraisals, or do you have any information on it?

I had an appraisal done probably 15 years ago, and they told me at that time, it is probably worth about $6,000.

They were a little low.

Really?

Yes.

Patek Philippe is now purchasing those watches for their museum.

This watch at auction, I suspect, would bring close to a quarter million dollars.

No!

Yes.

A quarter million?

This is one incredible watch.

I've never held a watch like this in my hands.

You're kidding.

That is one incredible watch.

That can't be.

Yes.

No way!

It is an incredible watch.

I can't believe it.

It's the finest watch I've ever held in my hand.

Are you serious?

I've never seen anything like it other than photos.

Gosh, how do I get it home?

(laughing) Carefully.

Do not drop it.

That is unbelievable.

Keep it in a safe deposit box.

Well, that's where I have had it all this time, but I... oh my gosh, that is incredible.

As you know, this is Diego Rivera.

That's all I know about it, actually.

Well, in Latin American art terms, you don't get bigger than Diego Rivera.

I love Diego.

At auction, given the strains of the market just now, I would imagine it should fetch somewhere in the $12,000 to $18,000.

Oh, my God, really?

Yep.

I had no idea, unbelievable.

I bought it at a yard sale, and I paid $20 for it.

Okay, what makes it special is all this incised decoration, and the other thing you very seldom see are these coggle lines that are cut into it like this.

This is a really early piece, probably around 1800, 1825.

We feel comfortable with around $15,000.

You are kidding!

No.

Oh, my God.

Oh, well, we thought it was old.

It's a first edition of Helen Keller's journal, and that was published in 1938.

And what's really most striking about it is this inscription inside.

Which is to your mother, which says, "I send this journal because of her beautiful compliment "that I am not blind or deaf to her.

Gratefully, Helen Keller, March 11th, 1938."

It's a book that ordinarily might be a few hundred dollars, but because of that inscription and the warmth of it, we would put the value at $1,500 to $2,000.

How nice.

This was my great-grandfather's, and he played with it as a child.

He was given the toy in 1875, and then it went to my grandfather and to my mother and then to me.

This is one of the great optical toys of the late 19th century.

In this country we called it the Whirligig of Life, in France they called it the praxinoscope.

It's a pre-cinema toy.

It uses the same phenomenon called persistence of vision that makes movies work for us.

The different mirrors act just like a shutter in a movie camera, and when you stare right at one point on the mirror, as the toy is going around, you see the action.

This is a remarkable thing to see it go through so many children's grubby hands for 125 years, is absolutely astounding, so...

I think in today's market, we're probably looking at between $2,000 and $3,000.

Wow, okay.

I got that in about, I would say, in the late '70s or early '80s.

And I got it at Robinson's department store in their estate sale department.

Actually, my husband brought it home and surprised me.

It was a gift from your husband?

It was a gift.

How much did he pay for it?

It was a little over $3,000 with tax.

And it was a lot of money to us.

Tell me what you've learned about the piece since then.

Well, I know it's a signed Tiffany piece.

I know it's handmade.

At the store they told him that it was about the 1920s.

These are beautiful black opals.

The larger opal is slightly crazed.

The smaller opal is in perfect condition.

Both opals are what are known as harlequin or patchwork opals with lots of play of color, with lots of red, which is a very desirable color.

But not only is it signed "Tiffany & Co." on the bottom, looking at the workmanship here tells me that the work is by Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Really?

And his work was signed "Tiffany & Co." after 1907.

I believe it dates to the teens.

It is beautifully handmade and a very desirable piece of jewelry.

The value today is somewhere, average retail between $70,000 and $90,000.

Oh, my God.

You're kidding me.

It's a treasure.

No, I am not kidding you.

Say that again.

Between $70,000 and $90,000 average retail.

It's a spectacular piece of jewelry by Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Thank you so much for making my day.

Well, thank you for making my day.

(laughing) That's wonderful.

Thank you.

You're quite welcome.

Was that a big surprise?

(laughing) Oh, my God.

I was in an estate sale in San Francisco in February, and the man of the house was French, and he was in his 80s and he had a whole wall of them, plus a whole bunch more unframed.

And I fell in love with them, called my husband and said, "Honey, I found something I really love," and he says, "Well, go ahead and buy it.

It could be your Valentine present."

I said, "Can I buy one for Valentine's, Mother's Day, Easter, birthday, anniversary...?"

So, I bought a few.

How many did you buy?

I bought four framed and eight unframed.

And why did you choose to bring this one in today?

I couldn't find anything about it.

I finally found Dunkirk on the map of France, but it was one of my favorites and so I wanted to learn more about it.

And how much did you pay for it?

Framed, $500.

You paid $500, so it's an expensive Valentine's Day gift to yourself.

Yeah, no, it was "from" my husband.

It was an expensive Valentine's Day gift from your husband.

It is a French travel poster, advertising travel to Dunkirk in the north of France.

And it's advertising travel on the Chemins de Fer du Nord, which is the French railway of the north.

It was designed by an artist named Roger Broders, and Broders is considered to be one of the best-- and he's certainly one of the most popular-- Art Deco artists working in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s.

Now, this poster isn't dated, but through reference books we know that it was done in about 1930.

And Roger Broders is really famous for the travel posters he did for the different French railways, because they all have this sort of very exquisite Art Deco feel to them.

The majority of his work is landscapes.

But the pieces of his that really command the highest prices are the ones that depict people.

And here we have an image of a couple who, to me, really sort of bespeak everything Great Gatsby.

They're an elegant, Art Deco, refined couple with languorous limbs, beautiful clothing.

And they're shown enjoying the harbor of Dunkirk.

Now, Broders was such an exceptional artist, I've never been to Dunkirk, but knowing how good he is, I can imagine this is exactly what the skyline of the harbor of Dunkirk would look like.

And the poster was produced not only by the Chemins de Fer du Nord, but also by Syndicat D'Initiatives, which is basically the chamber of commerce.

Oh, okay.

So the local chamber of commerce, together with the railway, said, "Buy a ticket, come to our town."

So it was promotion for the railway company and it was also a promotion for the people and the businesses of Dunkirk.

Okay.

He did about 170 different posters.

This poster is one of his two rarest images.

Oh, wow.

It's so important that when they did a catalogue raisonné of all the posters he designed, this was the picture they chose for the cover of the book.

Really?

One of the ways that I can tell that it isn't a reproduction is that this is done by a process of lithography and not photography.

And if it was photography, the image would be blurry, and under a magnifying glass, you'd be able to see the photo matrix.

But this is a crisp, clean lithograph.

I did some research, and I was trying to remember what was the most valuable piece I had ever appraised on the Antiques Roadshow.

So I actually went onto the Antiques Roadshow website and I checked the appraisals that I have done over the years.

And, in fact, this poster ties for the most valuable single piece I've ever appraised.

Oh, my gosh.

And that value, at auction, I would estimate at between $15,000 and $20,000.

Oh, my God.

(laughs) I can't believe it.

I'll go home and thank him.

Honestly, nothing says "I love you" more than a $20,000 travel poster.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh, my gosh.

Thank you so much.

Happy Valentine's Day.

(laughing): I know, really.

MAN: This was given to me a few years ago by my grandfather.

It was given to him originally by a groundskeeper that worked for Ebbets Field, which was in Brooklyn, New York, where my grandfather's originally from.

They moved to Florida in the early '60s and it sat in a sock in a box in a closet for the past 50 years.

Here you can see that it's dated June 23 of 1859.

And what it is, is when they played games, they would commemorate their games and celebrate that they played a game by stamping it as such.

But here's what makes this ball interesting.

The Brooklyn Atlantics were the first champions of organized baseball, the first champions of an organized league-- the National Association of Baseball Players.

If baseball has roots, here it is.

This is it.

That's what I figured.

The Brooklyn Atlantics, no association with the Dodgers at all.

They began in, I believe, 1855 and they were done in the 1870s.

So this is a pre-Civil War heirloom; it's a treasure.

Yeah.

I daresay this is the oldest sports piece the Antiques Roadshow has ever had.

, Really?

It's got some condition defects, and that's to be expected.

Finding a baseball from the early part of the 20th century is hard enough, let alone one 50 years before that.

It's handmade, it was hand-stitched.

We see that the ball is stamped with a "29" at the end of "Atlantic."

We really don't know what that refers to.

We also see here that it shows "Time" and what appears to be "15."

It's difficult to place that in any kind of context.

What's significant here is the date.

The way to preserve this is definitely not to keep it in a sock.

Put it in a ball case, store it away somewhere dark and dry.

Yeah, yeah.

At auction, this ball has a value of $20,000-plus.

Really?

Wow.

Yeah.

Wow.

Were I to insure it, I'd go with $30,000.

Really?

MAN: I knew and met Andy Warhol in the '80s.

He was all over New York all the time, and I ask him in a nightclub if he would sign some soup cans for me.

And the guy's, like, "Sure, you bet.

Bring them by my studio tomorrow."

I'm, like, "Okay."

So you became friendly with Andy, and he gave you these great autographs.

And then you got this beautiful print.

I loved it, and I got this from Andy for $125.

Oh, wow.

And again, I went down to his studio with...

I took my mom and my sister and we all went down there and it was really great.

I mean, this guy was so friendly that there was no "No" coming out of his mouth.

He loved people and he was also very interested in your story, like where you were from, what you do.

Let's take a look at the back of this, too.

You have some other things on here.

We have some Interview magazines.

Andy was publishing this magazine called Interview at the time, and the guy had a stack of Interview magazines, so he would sign them and I got him to sign, you know, Robin Williams with a "Meow," with a cat.

And I love Molly Ringwald, he called her Molly Ringworm.

And then Richard Pryor.

Yeah.

So it's really, really funny that he would sign them and, you know, draw funny things on them.

Oh, look, I love this, "To Park, love Andy Warhol."

Yeah, I was going to point this out, which is really great.

We have the back of the print, which is properly numbered, rubber-stamped and signed, and then dedicated in pencil to you.

You know, I asked him to sign the front, and he said he would never sign the front of his pieces.

Let's flip this around.

So... Let's talk about the cans.

Again, this is something Andy did, his iconic work on the Campbell's soup can.

People began to bring cans for him to sign.

What's great about your cans, a number of them he signed twice.

Now, as far as the cans go, these have become very collectible, obviously, over the years.

And he signed a lot, but it doesn't matter because they're very, very iconic and people love them and you have a great provenance, a great story that goes behind these.

It's a fun story, yeah.

You got these directly from him.

If I were estimating these at auction, I would estimate the individual cans at $1,500 to $2,000 apiece.

Nice!

Yeah, yeah.

Nice, good.

So you've got six of them there, not bad.

It's an expensive can of soup, very nice.

Absolutely.

The Interview magazines are great, and what's really nice is that he did the little extra touches.

He signed a lot, but he didn't always do the extra touches.

I would estimate those at $1,000 to $1,500 apiece.

Shut up!

(laughs) Now, what really makes this print spectacular is the color.

It really pops.

This is actually from the late '60s, and of course you have the wonderful dedication on the back.

A conservative estimate, at auction, would probably be about $15,000 to $20,000.

No!

(laughs) So...

Mom, did you hear that?

We're going to Acapulco for the weekend.

(laughs) Oh, God!

No way.

Great investment for 125 bucks.

Hundred and twenty-five dollars.

And he had to hold my check because payday was the next week.

(both laugh) Unbelievable!

Well, we were all very excited to see it.

(both laugh) APPRAISER: It's by the great American sculptor Charles Marion Russell.

And if you look closely, you can actually see his fingerprints.

Then there's another interesting little thing.

There's this little mark over here.

Can you tell me what that is?

That's my mother's teeth.

He gave this one to my mother as a toy.

And she bit it.

Yeah.

I would think an insurance value on this would probably be about $5,000.

I will keep it forever.

As long as I live, at least.

Thank you for looking at it.

This is a very, very rare camera.

You're kidding me!

Oh, you gave me goosebumps.

I'm not kidding you.

Good, I'm glad that you're getting goosebumps!

This is a daguerreotype camera.

Now, the last time that one of these sold, it brought in in excess of $10,000.

You're kidding me!

Oh, no!

(laughs) That's amazing.

This is a two-headed llama that was produced for 20th Century Fox and was part of the Dr. Doolittle movie fame in about 1967-'68.

This is a Steiff piece, "Pushmi-Pullyu" is what it's called.

And the value on the piece at auction would be $5,000 to $8,000.

WOMAN: I don't really know a whole lot about the book.

I believe it's the first African-American beauty book.

APPRAISER: How did you acquire the book?

A friend of mine.

I'm a hairdresser, and he gave me the book.

He thought I might enjoy it.

The cover title says it's the textbook of Madam C.J.

Walker Schools of Beauty Culture.

Yes.

So, at first blush, it just seems to be a textbook and in the antiquarian book trade, we don't think a whole lot of most textbooks, but you really caught my attention when you said that this was an early hair products and hair care and styling book for African-American women.

Yes.

Did you learn anything from the book?

Actually, I did.

There are some home remedies I've tried out of the book, you know.

And then some of the product in the book you can no longer get.

Well, the book's around a hundred years old, so... Oh, really.

Not surprising.

Yeah.

Let's open the book up here to the title page.

Okay.

Here we have The Madam C.J.

Walker Beauty Manual.

First edition.

And it indeed is... the very first book published for hair styling and fashion for African-American women, which is very, very unusual.

One more page I'd like to turn to that shows some of the hair care products.

Quite a big, healthy line of different products.

Yes, it was very fascinating to me, looking at it and looking at the prices back then.

Pretty nostalgic.

Yes, yes.

You said that some of the methods and products involved in the book are still valid today?

Some are and some are not.

Okay.

You would know far more about that than I.

Yes, I am a licensed beautician.

What's interesting about this book is, Madam Walker was actually Sarah Breedlove.

She was born on a Louisiana plantation in 1867.

Really?

Her family were a slave family on a plantation and she was the first child in her family born into freedom after the Emancipation Proclamation.

I didn't know that.

And the company that bears her name is still in business to this day making hair and facial products for African-American women.

Really?

She also, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is the first American self-made millionaire female.

Are you serious?

I didn't know that, either!

I had no clue.

Pretty fascinating.

Yeah.

Do you have an idea of what the book's worth?

I'm not for sure what it's worth.

Maybe $3,000.

The book's in very good condition.

It's not a fine- condition copy, but in today's market with the interest in early and important African-American material, the first edition of this book is scarce enough that at retail, this book would sell for $10,000-plus.

(laughing): $10,000?!

Are you serious?

I am serious.

Oh, you're kidding!

No, I'm not.

$10,000?!

Yes, ma'am.

(laughing) I don't believe it!

Thank you.

(laughs) WOMAN: I brought in a collection of Civil War memorabilia that belonged to my great-great-grandfather.

I know he fought at the Battle of Shiloh and the Battle of Vicksburg.

So to me it seems like something you would keep your materials in, maybe your field notes, something like that.

Did he serve after 1863, the Battle of Vicksburg?

He was captured by the Union, and then released and paroled to go home.

So he walked home from Mississippi back to Texas, and then I think he re-enlisted back into the army.

And I think he fought until the end, but he stayed in Texas.

What part of Texas?

He's from Houston, Texas.

Well, have you ever been on Travis Street in Houston?

Downtown, yeah.

Well, during the Civil War, there were two buildings on Travis Street that were leased to the ordnance department.

Okay.

And they produced leather goods.

Okay.

They're one of the rarest of all Confederate leather goods.

Okay.

This is actually for holding cartridges.

This one is what is referred to by collectors as a Houston depot.

It is a copy of the Union cartridge boxes of the day.

There are several things that we look for that let us know it's Confederate rather than Union, if you don't have this big bold "CS" on the outside cover.

If we open up the flap, we notice on the bottom of the box, we have a finial.

And the finial's made of lead.

Okay.

Almost all of the Union finials are made of brass.

And most of the time that little leather tab that goes over it is broken off, so it's wonderful that we do have that.

Now for the elephant in the room.

We have the huge "CS" lettering.

Right.

It's the most vividly clear and beautiful stamping that they ever used.

This one's a little hazy, but that just happens because every strike isn't perfect.

Right.

In the middle, it would have said, "Texas, 1864."

Okay.

Which is why I asked you when he went home.

So that lets us know that this is the one that he used when he got released and sent back home.

Okay.

It's a fantastic box.

When I opened it up to show one of our producers, I saw a piece of paper.

It's actually a label for Enfield rifle cartridges.

And that one little bit of paper lets us know what he was using with his musket, which is interesting, because the Enfield is an English-made gun.

The musket would have been a .577 caliber.

And it's just a wonderful little addition, an unexpected surprise when we opened that up.

Okay.

If this was a standard Union cartridge box, its counterpart, it would probably be worth between $300 and $500.

Okay.

This one is a whole different critter.

Okay.

This one today would retail for about $25,000.

Oh, my gosh.

Wow.

Wow, that's amazing.

I don't think the family had any idea.

I mean, amongst all the things that we had, I don't think we understood the value of this item.

Wow.

Before today, the collectors' market knew of four of these.

Oh, my gosh.

You've got the fifth.

Oh, my gosh.

Wow.

Whew!

That is... yeah, that's amazing.

That's great.

(chuckling): Holy cow!

WOMAN: They belonged to my grandmother, and I assume my grandfather, but he was deceased at that time.

And she would let us children play with them and buy and sell them in a fake little store we had-- you know, play store.

And where was this?

This was in Liège, Belgium.

Do you know anything about the artist?

He was Portuguese, I believe.

Yes.

Painted in Paris and visited Belgium around the 1920s.

I don't know for what purpose.

Actually, he visited Belgium a little bit earlier.

Earlier.

Well, let's talk about the artist a little bit.

Okay, please tell me, yeah.

So it's Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso, and he is one of the most important Portuguese modernists of the 20th century.

He was born in 1887 and he died in 1918 of the Spanish flu, so only lived about 30 years.

Right.

But had a very productive career.

Originally, he started studying in Lisbon, but then at the age of approximately 19, he went to Paris to study.

Okay.

Right around 1910, he went to Belgium.

Okay.

Which is also interesting, because these paintings are Cubist paintings.

Right, right.

And really, right around 1910, Cubism was hot in Europe, and he started developing this style of Cubism in his own works and bringing it back to Portugal, eventually.

The medium of these paintings is oil on board.

And these paintings were created circa 1910, it's safe to assume.

He spent a little bit of time in Belgium, and then he went back to Paris.

Now, in Paris, he was friends with quite an illustrious group of artists.

This included Juan Gris, Amadeo Modigliani, and actually, speaking of Modigliani, he was very good friends with Modigliani, and Modigliani even kept his sculptures in de Souza-Cardoso's studio.

Okay.

He was very popular amongst his peers and in that group of core Cubists and important early 20th-century Modernists.

He also participated in some very seminal art shows, including the Salon des Indépendants.

And in 1913, some of his works were exhibited at the Armory Show in New York.

So they're good places to be, yes.

Very, very good places to be.

And his works were very popular.

They sold at many of those shows, and some of them are in American museums.

There was more interest in the artist until about 1925 or so.

There was even an award created for him in Portugal.

Wow.

But really, his paintings were forgotten after that.

They were somewhat rediscovered in about 1952.

Okay.

In Amarante, where he's from in Portugal.

Do you have any idea of how much they're...

I have no idea, and, you know, quite frankly, I don't particularly like them.

Okay.

I don't like the colors, I'm sorry to say.

If I were going to put these two paintings at auction, as a pair, I would put an estimate, which is a conservative estimate, of $200,000 to $300,000.

No!

I mean, that is... For the pair.

Oh, my goodness.

That is amazing.

Do you like the colors now?

Not really, but I am feeling that I'm going to have to share with my siblings when I sell them.

Amazing.

I thank you so much, because if the Roadshow had not come to Spokane and I didn't have tickets to come, I probably would have... My kids would have given them to Goodwill.

I'm here to get this picture appraised.

Tell me how you found this picture.

Well, I didn't find it.

My mother did in the dump.

She had to climb into the bin to get it.

Well, you have an early American 19th-century picture.

And that means it probably was made about 1820 to 1830.

I was fascinated by your story about the dump and finding something, because usually people come into the Roadshow and they don't know what they have, but it's been in the family.

But you actually found this piece, right?

Yeah.

Or sometimes they find it from flea markets and stuff like that.

Do you go to a lot of flea markets?

Yeah, and my mom does, me and my mom.

Is that a hobby of yours?

No, not really.

We don't really go to that much flea markets.

We like to go to the thrift store instead.

Oh, the thrift stores.

Yeah.

Right.

Most portraits that come in to the Roadshow or into auction houses or dealers, people know who painted it, and they're signed by the artist.

But we don't have that help here, do we?

There's no signature, is there?

So how do you think we'd identify the age of this picture?

Well, you would look at, like, the back, and the detail of it, and the way the person dressed, and the couch that she's sitting on, and the jewelry she has.

That's exactly right.

In fact, that's exactly the way appraisers value and date things.

I know, because I watch this show all the time.

And in fact this woman is wearing this dark dress, and she's sitting on this sofa.

That's the back rail of a sofa right there.

And that sofa has a mahogany scrolled crest, and those are sofas that were made probably about 1820.

You can actually date the picture by the furniture and her jewelry, her hairstyle here.

And you know what she's wearing right here?

No.

That's a comb.

Underneath that there's a tortoise shell comb that she's put in her hair.

And even with that little bit of information, we know that this is an American portrait, this is before they had cameras, as you know, so if you wanted a picture of your... You had to have it painted.

You had to have them painted.

I think she wasn't really that rich, because usually the rich people would have all this jewelry on them.

Right.

She may have been a middle-class citizen.

But she's great, and she has great poise, and even though we don't know who painted this picture, and given the condition that she's in, she needs a little bit of work and restoration, she probably would bring $2,000 to $3,000 at auction.

Wow.

That's a lot of money.

I thought it was worth, like, $100, $150.

Well, it is a lot of money, and it's a great find.

And keep looking for those antiques.

I will.

WALBERG: I'm Mark Walberg.

Thanks for 20 years of watching, and we'll see you next time on Antiques Roadshow.