Palm Springs, Hour 2

MARK WALBERG: Antiques Roadshow is uncovering treasures in the desert in Palm Springs, California.

You realize that space nerds everywhere are going crazy right now.

(laughing): Oh, my God.

That's incredible.

WALBERG: The Coachella Valley has been home to the Cahuilla people for thousands of years.

An important tradition to Cahuilla Indians-- basket weaving.

These coiled or twined baskets were created by women, and some were woven so tightly they could carry water.

Back at the Roadshow, many of our guests are carrying treasures to our antiques and art oasis.

Check it out.

I know that my grandfather, my mother's father, gave it to her as a gift, I want to say maybe 15 years ago or so.

He fixed clocks, and he was a jeweler.

And he wanted to make sure that each of his five children had a really cool clock piece of some sort, and this is the one that my mom got.

I know it's from France, that's about all I know.

So... Yeah?

Not much else.

But your plan is to keep it and own it and to pass it on to your daughter.

Yeah, now it's mine.

Exactly.

So it's a family heirloom.

Yes, it is.

Well, it's a beautiful one, and just as you say, it is from France.

It's in the neighborhood of 1890, 1910 as far as its age is concerned.

Oh, wow, okay.

And there's a possibility it was once a part of a three-piece set.

Very often, the French would create what they call a garniture.

Okay.

And there would be a decorative urnlike object on either side, strictly for garnishing the clock.

Okay.

It's a china clock, and it has a very Louis XV style to it.

It's a vague Rococo motif, if you want to call it that.

It even includes the famous fleur-de-lis here at the very top, so that makes it very French.

And I want to point out this beautiful gold work that's on the side here.

This is all applied gold work that was done after the blue was added, and that was done by an artist, and very painstakingly built up.

So that's a wonderful feature to it.

But the main feature to this clock is the artwork in the very center.

And the brush that was used to put those little tiny brushstrokes in there, you can barely see.

I mean, it's a very painstaking process.

And it's unusual, but in this case, the artist was allowed to sign it, which is really cool.

They allowed that person to get recognition for their hours of work.

The clock is an eight-day clock.

They tell good time.

The dial is an enamel dial.

And these hands are the original hands.

This also reflects a fleur-de-lis on the hour hand.

A nice bezel that has a beveled glass in the center.

And it's just an amazing clock.

You're very wise to remove the pendulum from the clock, because it's hooked up to one of the more fragile portions of the clock, called the escapement.

So when a clock comes in with this thing banging around inside, it is not good.

I would estimate the value of a clock like this to be, retail, between $1,200 and $1,500.

Nice, we like that.

Good.

It's beautiful.

Thank you very much for bringing it in.

Thank you so much, Dean, for all the info.

This is great.

MAN: I inherited it from my late husband.

He was working, doing landscaping and landscape design out on Shelter Island, New York.

He was designing a gate for one of his clients.

He became friendly with the gentleman, and he invited him in to show him some of his art, because they had talked about art.

He showed him this, and Peter loved it, and he offered him $80 for it.

And when was this, did you say?

This was, like, the late '80s, early '90s.

Okay, did he know who the artist was?

Was he a collector at all?

Well, I think he was familiar with the name Lichtenstein.

Okay.

He thought it was a valuable piece of art, and he also liked the iridescent effect.

I mean, it's kind of interesting.

I looked up Lichtenstein, and I saw that he did a lot of, like, very large posters type of stuff.

But I couldn't find anything on this particular piece.

It's unusual.

This is a screen print, printed in black, that Lichtenstein made on mirrored colored Rowlux, which is a type of layered plastic with indentations in it.

If you feel the surface of the print, you can feel some texture on it.

Yeah.

And what that does is, it gives it this optical effect, and the mirror gives it the reflecting.

So there's various layers of color in that plastic.

And the only part that's printed on it is the black seascape here.

It's really amazing.

And it was made by Lichtenstein in 1966.

And it was an edition print, meaning he made more than one of them.

Right.

Yet when the catalogue raisonné for his prints was being published in the 1980s, they could only find one other example of this image.

Wow.

And it was something that Lichtenstein himself published.

He self-published this in 1966.

He had come to be very well-known for his work, starting in the early '60s, and the Ben-Day dots he was using to reproduce comic book scenes.

And that's what he's very well-known for today.

That's what brought him his fame.

Right.

He was starting to become famous at the time he made this, and he was also being criticized, at the same time that he was being renowned for his appropriation of comic book scenes, for copying and appropriating the works of other artists.

It was only a few years into that fame that he was getting that, I think... My suspicion is that he went out and tried to do something very original, which is what you have in this print.

It's signed in felt tip pen, and numbered from an edition of 70.

And as I was saying, there's only one other example known of this when they published the catalogue raisonné, and yours is the only one I've ever seen outside of that.

He had made two other screen prints like this on Rowlux for his gallerist Leo Castelli in New York in 1964 and 1965, and this smaller one he took on as a project by himself.

And it's assumed that it was more or less a failure, that he wasn't able to sell as many as he thought he was going to out of the edition of 70.

And perhaps only a few survived.

Holy moly.

And my suspicion is that the fellow on Long Island might have gotten it from the artist himself, who, in 1970, had moved out to Southampton and probably had a number of these impressions with him.

Because it wasn't for sale publicly.

So you have a very scarce, colorful, optically fun, wild print on plastic.

If I had to put a replacement value on it today, I would say you need to insure this for around $20,000.

(laughing in disbelief): Oh, my God.

That's incredible.

I had no idea.

It's a beautiful thing, and...

It really is.

Peter would be overjoyed.

He would be absolutely overjoyed.

MAN: So did you fly this in?

We drove it in.

Do you hang it in your home?

Yes, above our mantel.

That's wonderful.

MAN: It does have a signature, but I don't know if it's an original signature.

APPRAISER: This is a printed facsimile signature that would be in every copy.

MAN: Every copy, okay.

A retail value would be $25.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

$25, okay.

It's nice to know, but I was hoping for more.

The Art Nouveau period in France, even though this was 1921, a little late.

Porcelain, made at the very good factory Sèvres, just south of Paris.

About $1,500.

Ooh-la-la.

Magnifique.

Fantastic.

WOMAN: They were my former spouse's mother's.

He was given the jewelry upon her death, and in turn, he gave them to me during marriage.

Oh, nice.

And when we divorced, he wanted me to keep them, because he thought that there was no one else that he would rather have have them but me.

They're Cartier, which is just an excellent maker of jewelry, and they're also Art Deco.

They're a matched pair of lapel clips.

They're made of coral and single-cut diamonds, and they're inset in platinum.

And they're really in exquisite shape.

I think a nice auction estimate would be about $10,000 to $15,000 for the... Really?

Yeah.

Really?

Oh, wow.

That's wonderful, that's just wonderful.

Well, I owned it for quite a few years before I realized I saw it in a design magazine-- I'm a designer.

It's a Vladimir Kagan, mid-century.

More than anything, this table and tables like this have come to be the emblem of mid-century modern.

Mid-century modern has become this buzzword, and also sometimes referred to as the Atomic Age.

This kind of kidney bean-shaped glass top, an asymmetrical base, with these kind of soaring cantilevered arms are very emblematic of the entire period.

I've got some good news and some bad news.

Okay.

First the bad news.

The bad news is this is not by Vladimir Kagan.

Oh, wow!

Although, I showed a table like this to Vladimir Kagan a few years ago, and ever the gentleman, he said, "It's not by me, but I wish it was."

(gasps): Wow.

Which is high praise.

Kagan's work was hand-crafted and sold in small numbers.

This table was designed by Adrian Pearsall for a company called Craft Associates.

And for every one Kagan table that you see out there, there's probably 150 of these.

Oh.

And I think what Vladimir Kagan was saying to me was that he wished he had designed it, because it was much more successful.

And, if anything, this table sort of out-Kaganed Kagan.

And Adrian Pearsall was a great designer in his own right.

He was a contemporary of Vladimir Kagan.

He started this company in 1952, and was taking elements of different designers.

And he had an uncanny knack for what the market wanted and what would sell.

When it was originally designed, it was such a bestseller for the company that he put it on his letterhead.

So on his letterhead, where it says, "Craft Associates, from the desk of Adrian Pearsall" on his letterhead, there's a little small logo in the corner, of this table.

Now, the good news is that Adrian Pearsall's work is becoming very popular.

And there's a lot of collectors who are just starting to seek it out.

So it's on the rise, it's going up in value.

Craft Associates was producing this type of table between the mid-1950s and the mid-1960s.

This example is in fantastic condition.

The solid walnut base is nicely oiled, hasn't been refinished or repainted, really is a great survivor.

How have you used it all these years?

I have used it in my own house.

I found it in a thrift shop in the '80s.

I saw the base, the glass was sitting over to the side, and I said, "Oh, I'll take the glass, too."

I think it was... $25, or $20, I think.

Oh, that's great.

Do you have any idea of its value?

No, because I took it to a store once here in Palm Springs, and he thought it was a Kagan, and he looked it up online, and he thought 1,600 at the time.

That was a few years ago.

Several of these have shown up recently at well-publicized mid-century modern auctions, and they tend to sell between $900 and $1,200 at auction.

Good.

Retail, if you went to any of these shops that specialize in this period, you could easy see them priced at about $1,600 retail.

Great.

If this was a work by Vladimir Kagan, it would be worth between $5,000 and $6,000 at auction.

WOMAN: It belonged to my grandparents.

My dad was born in Phoenix, Arizona.

He remembers it being in the house.

His mom collected Native American artifacts and bowls and rugs and stuff like that.

I do not know where it came from.

She never really told us.

He didn't know.

My parents, after they acquired it, tried to research it and couldn't get any information on it, and then it passed down to me, and I just really wanted to come to the Roadshow for my mom's sake to find out what the heck it is, and what it's used for, and, you know, how old it is.

Because to me, it looks like it's really old.

It does have age, it is quite old.

It's 19th-century.

I think perhaps circa 1880 would be a reasonably accurate guess.

That's a good period for Native American pottery.

Do you know what pueblo it's from?

I do not know, no.

Okay, it's from the Zuni tribe.

Oh, Zuni.

This is a piece of pottery made for the tribe, not made to be sold.

It's made from the coil method, where they roll the pottery into long coils, turn it around, squish it down with a stone or a rag, and create the pot.

In this case, they molded these frogs on top of that coiled jar.

Rather amazing.

Yes.

It's called a frog bowl, a kiva bowl.

Frogs are kind of magical, mysterious creatures.

A little puddle might develop on the pueblo, suddenly there are tadpoles mysteriously appearing.

Right, right.

And within a very short time, these tadpoles turn into frogs.

Okay.

This is rather mysterious and magical.

Yes, it is.

And the native people absolutely paid attention to this.

Oh, that's interesting.

So this has to do with regeneration.

It's, water and rainfall is critical amongst the pueblos.

Oh, it would be.

So this would be a pot made to cause rainfall.

You notice how each of the frogs has a little bit of red pigment in the mouth?

Yes, I did, uh-huh.

That's an envivifying color.

Brings the pot to life.

Yes, it does.

Red is a color associated with the upper world.

And that's where the rainfall comes from.

Native religions are animistic.

That means everything has a soul.

Yeah.

So this pot, in a sense, is a living entity.

Right.

It has a soul.

Yeah.

And it may have been fed with things like cornmeal.

So it was something that was maintained and kept alive.

Okay.

A typical frog pot maybe has three to four frogs.

Here we have six.

Wow, okay.

That, I'm sure, intensified its power.

Yes, that's a powerful little bowl.

Do you notice along the bottom there are deer?

Yes, I noticed that.

And then there's a red arrow that points to the deer's heart.

Those are called heartlines.

And that's the center of energy of the deer, a very spiritual place.

Right.

So you have frogs that are sort of magically emerging from the mud.

Right.

And then deer that occupy the middle terrain.

It's a really nice pot, and very desirable.

I would value this on a retail basis about $5,000.

Okay, wow.

And whoever got it would be quite thrilled to own it.

Yes, yes, very thrilled.

Thank you so much.

My mother would be so pleased.

APPRAISER: That pattern's called daisy and button.

These are pressed glass, both from, like, the late 19th century.

They're pretty affordable in this day and age.

APPRAISER: The style of the dress dates about 1908, 1910.

We get a lot of cigar silk ensembles, but they're always made for men.

This is the first time I've seen a woman's.

WOMAN: It is a really cool old trunk that we picked up at an estate sale in Montecito, California.

I think we paid, like, $25 for it.

We bought it because we saw the little plaques on it, and they say "Hermès" on it.

We haven't done a whole lot of research on it.

We had it cleaned, but other than that, it's basically how we found it.

And you're right, it is by Hermès Frères, which is Hermès Paris, between 1902 and 1919.

And it's a steamer trunk.

People would take it on transatlantic cruises.

This side, with all the hangers, would be for your hanging clothes.

There's bags on the bottom for your shoes.

You have all the drawers here for all your shirts and ties.

This is the first Hermès trunk I've ever seen, so it's quite rare.

I think it could be cleaned even more.

All of these chrome pieces, these will shine up really well.

Polish the brass hardware.

But I think in this condition, a good retail price for this trunk would probably be between $15,000 and $20,000.

Wow.

And if you cleaned it up, it would probably go closer to $25,000.

Wow.

And I think that's a very good return on your investment.

I think so.

WOMAN: Well, it was my mother's, one of her favorite pieces.

And when she died, I took claim of it.

And I love it, and I wore it until I had too many chins and couldn't wear it anymore.

So now it's up for grabs among the grandchildren, or whoever I think should get it.

The maker is?

I believe it's Van Cleef & Arpels for the necklace.

I never found a mark on the brooch.

Well, you're right, it is Van Cleef & Arpels.

And Van Cleef & Arpels was founded in Paris in 1896.

And they have locations now all over the world.

They are world-renowned designers.

The Duchess of Windsor had some of her favorite pieces known by Van Cleef & Arpels.

But this one is not from Paris.

This is Van Cleef & Arpels New York.

This is from the 1940s.

Now, in the 1940s, they had a couple of innovations.

One thing was, they used thinner gold, so they could make heavier-looking pieces, but they were lightweight.

So what we have here, this is called a snake chain.

Right.

It's also called gas pipe or mouse tail.

It has a flexibility, and it's very comfortable to wear.

It also has an innovative clasp which has a lock on the back of it.

And that's where the signature is found, so I'm going to show you that.

It says "Van Cleef & Arpels NY," which stands for New York.

The brooch is not signed.

But indeed, it is a Van Cleef & Arpels, also.

It is 14-karat yellow gold.

The brooch has rubies and diamonds.

And there's a cool feature on this.

It's a double-prong, called "fur clip," brooch.

And it slides... out of the necklace.

So it's easily worn as a brooch, or as a necklace.

You can wear it either way.

I have.

At a good retail location, this would sell for between $8,000 and $12,000.

(slowly): Okay... oh!

MAN: I started out at North American Aviation as an inspector, and I worked myself up to engineer.

I started collecting the photos after Apollo 1 burned up.

When I went to the Cape, and the launch team, they sold us these jackets.

We didn't have to buy them, but we just all wanted to wear them, so we all bought these jackets.

Do you remember what you paid for the jacket?

Yeah, I think it was 40 bucks, which was a lot of money in '60.

Mm-hmm.

You know, so...

But it was worth every penny.

What was your role with...

I was in quality control.

I was the...

I tested everything before the astronauts would come in the spacecraft.

And that's what I'm doing in that one picture there-- I'm firing these rockets right here on the service module.

This is the command module, this is the service module, and I'm firing these little 100-pound thruster engines.

If we pick this up, it should-- it's in a couple of pieces-- but we can see that that's the...

Yes.

So you're in the command module.

I'm in the command module.

Firing that.

This is the Apollo without the first- and second-stage rocket.

How did you acquire this particular model?

Oh, it was given to me years ago.

I just earned it, like, and then so I just started getting all the astronauts to sign it.

You've captured 15 astronauts' signatures on the capsule portion of this.

Right.

So you were friends with them all, and...

I was good friends with them.

I met them in the early '60s.

We had to go to classes together, so I got to know them on a personal basis.

And they're crazy guys, so we had a lot of fun.

Okay, and then this was a North American Aviation Apollo spacecraft model.

It's the Executive model, is what it's referred to as.

Talk about the North American Aviation Group relative to NASA, and how did those two organizations work together?

Well, they gave us the contract, and we interpreted the contract, and then get the approval for the design and everything, and then we built it to their specifications.

Okay, now, let's talk about this burnt-up sticker.

What happens is, when the spacecraft would come back to Downey, we would strip them all down, take all this stuff off of them, and make them pretty.

And so this arrow, which is right here, they were scraping all this stuff off, they were throwing it away in a big pile.

So they just gave it to me.

This label was... Another guy gave that to me, and he gave it to me because I was the final person to stamp it, saying, "Hey, we've got a good product."

This is the serial number, 107.

So we called it 107, and then when it went to the Cape, it became Apollo 11, in this case.

So that's the serial number sticker...

Yes.

...off of the Apollo 11 command module.

Yes.

You realize that space nerds everywhere are going crazy right now.

Well, I hope so.

Have you ever had it appraised, or do you have any clue as to what these things might be worth?

None at all.

Space stuff is hot.

So the first thing I want to talk about is the jacket.

So that was your jacket, you paid $40 for it.

Yes.

You just don't see these.

If I estimated at auction today, I would guess it would sell for between $3,000 and $5,000.

Really?

(laughing): Okay.

This model is the Executive model.

They have come up at auction before.

They have not come up with the signatures that you have.

We see...

There's Walt Cunningham, there's Buzz Aldrin.

Right up here, ever so faint, is Neil Armstrong.

Yes.

We see Alan Shepard.

Alan's one of the most well-known astronauts, but his signature's not worth that much, because he signed so much stuff.

It's fantastic.

So if we estimated this at auction today, I think conservatively it would carry an estimate between $20,000 and $30,000.

(laughing): Okay.

I don't know if I really wanted to know that.

Because it just sits in my man cave.

(chuckling) Well, it's a nice thing to have in the man cave.

Yes, yes.

We have the rescue sticker, and then this was the serial number label off the inside of the capsule door.

If we offered the two stickers together, you would see those with an estimate of between $30,000 and $50,000.

Okay.

I'm donating this to my niece, so she'll be happy to hear that.

The total here would be between $53,000 and $85,000.

That's amazing.

You've brought us this great letter dated July 20, 1933, from one of the greatest athletes of all time, the legendary Jim Thorpe.

1933-- I'm assuming he didn't send it to you, so how did you get it?

We do have good genes in the family, but not that good.

My grandparents lived next door to Jim Thorpe in Hawthorne, California.

It was pretty much agricultural area there, and they raised dogs.

And my grandfather took care of Jim Thorpe's dogs when Jim was out touring, whatever he did in those years.

He wrote back quite a few letters to see how the dogs were doing.

Ah, so this was one of several letters that you have.

Yes.

This came down from your mom, your parents?

My mother gave them to us, and she always had some stories, because she grew up with Jim's children.

She said that because they were out in the countryside, they pretty much ran free, and they would get in all kinds of trouble.

But when Mr. Thorpe was home, he was very family-oriented, and he was just a nice guy.

He was always playing tricks on the kids.

My mom tells a story, he came outside and asked them if they wanted some chocolate and gave them a handful of chocolate, and they ate it, and then he was just laughing uproariously, and said that it was chocolate Ex-Lax.

(laughing) So, whew!

Maybe you don't want to eat dinner over there, I guess.

So what did you find fascinating about this particular letter?

Well, I like that his dog was named "Jeronomo."

I mean, it's perfect.

We see right here, he asks, "I'm glad to know that all the dogs are going good.

"How is Jeronomo doing?

Can he still run, or has the old hurt bothered him?"

But he also mentions here that he's being owed money.

Yes, yes.

And he's waiting for that.

To get paid.

My mom did say that it seemed like, when she was growing up, that they did live hand-to-mouth.

And that to me is what gives this letter its poignancy, is that here you have Jim Thorpe, who in 1912 won the Olympic decathlon and the Olympic pentathlon, and was called by King Gustav V at the time, "You are the greatest athlete in the world."

And Thorpe went on to play professional football, professional baseball, was known as one of the greatest football players of all time, was inducted into the first football class of the Hall of Fame.

I didn't know that.

But unfortunately, what has happened, and it's happened to athletes and entertainers over the years, that just because they are the greatest at what they do, doesn't mean that, A, they aren't human, and B, they don't fall on hard times.

And you see from this letter, this is dated in 1933, this is the heart of the Depression.

And in the '30s, he was scrambling.

He was an American Indian, half of his heritage, and he had to face an enormous amount of discrimination.

In the '30s, he played bit parts in over 60 movies.

And over half of them, he would play a stereotypical American Indian.

But he did what he had to do to make money, and occasionally he would also coach, which is where we think this money came in.

We're not sure.

It says here, "If only I get it... "I have 1,250 bucks coming now in this year, but it seems rather hard to get it from the owner."

And, I mean, he faced what a lot of folks did in the Depression.

And you see this last page is also slightly heartbreaking.

"Mrs. Thorpe has not written me very much."

They did not have a great marriage and ended up getting divorced.

"Wish you would write and tell me what's going on.

"Are the boys in good health?

"How is your family?

"Have sent money to Mrs. Thorpe now and then, but was up against it for a while."

The great thing about Thorpe you see in this letter, things may not have been great, but he still was fighting as hard as he could.

And it sounds like he's very optimistic, even.

Exactly.

One of the saddest things about Jim Thorpe is that he won the Olympic medals in 1912, but he had played baseball briefly for money, because he had no money in the early 1910s, teens.

And the Olympic Committee took away his medals.

They basically stripped him of his medals.

And he did spend a good chunk of his life trying to get those medals back.

When he passed away in 1953, they had still not given them to him.

And 30 years later, they reinstated his medals to him.

Because of Jim Thorpe's stature as a great athlete, both in the Olympics and a professional athlete, and you also have the envelope here, and this is a six-page handwritten letter, I would say, if you were putting this out at auction, that it would sell for probably in the range of $5,000.

Oh, wow.

And if I were going to insure it, I'd insure it for $10,000.

Wow, cool!

APPRAISER: This is about 1870s, what we call archaeological revival.

It's really lovely.

It's a great piece.

APPRAISER: It's a floor rug.

Okay.

And it's... and it was... it's just a revival style.

Okay.

Kind of dirty-- needs a little cleaning.

Yeah.

Probably $400 to $600 in this condition.

APPRAISER: Hardwood chess set, made in Italy by ANRI, and they're extraordinary.

This last one I know of sold for 1,300 bucks.

Pretty neat.

WOMAN: I brought in a wing that used to belong to my great-uncle.

I just know that he was in World War I, and that he was on the aero squad in the balloon company, 19th Balloon Company.

And he was the youngest pilot at the time that he passed away.

Under what circumstance did he lose his life?

It was in service.

It was at Langley Field.

And he was parachuting at the same time that they were dropping bombs.

And unfortunately, when he landed in the water, they didn't know if it was a bomb or a person, because the wind blew him off-course, and it was a canvas parachute, so he drowned underneath the parachute before they could row out to pick him up.

When did that happen?

1921.

There were not that many individuals who were authorized to wear balloon wings.

And the whole point of that is to get elevated above the battlefield, figure out what's going on, and then direct artillery fire and get other information back to command.

This particular pattern wing, some people call it "a balloon pilot wing."

I believe the technical term, it's a military aeronaut wing.

It was introduced in 1919.

These were only around until 1921.

And on the back here, there's even more information.

That marking is indicative of the very first batch of those that was made at the Philadelphia Mint.

The rumor around the campfire is that there were about 100 of them made, but we really don't know.

Such a small little sliver of time and such a very limited number of them that were manufactured conspire to make it very rare and rather valuable.

It's our feeling that a solid retail figure on this today would be between $2,500 and $3,000.

Oh, my God, are you kidding me?

WOMAN: It's a drawing that I bought when I finished college in Chicago.

I had a little money left, saw them, and I bought for $280 this Paul Klee ink drawing.

Well, you brought with you today two other objects with the drawing.

Yes.

And the first is this catalogue, which came with the exhibition.

And we'll just carefully open this up, because it goes with the drawing.

And it looks like it's number 13.

Yes.

The title of the work is Leichter Verfall, or "Slight Deterioration," 1927, ink, and as you point out, $280 was the price.

Actually, a lot of money back then.

Oh, yeah.

So Paul Klee is the artist, as you said.

Paul Klee was a Swiss artist who lived from 1879 to 1940.

It's a pen-and-ink drawing.

The drawing is signed in the upper right corner here.

And on the mount, Klee has, as he always does, put a line, put the title, Leichter Verfall, the date, and then his work inventory number.

I think the drawing is great, because it's such a nice example of his work, what we think of when we think of Paul Klee.

What else did you bring with you today here?

I brought a book that I found a copy of my painting in.

And there it is, indeed.

And the book is entitled "Five Essays on Klee."

Paul Klee was somebody who we think of as not only being an artist who has an association with Expressionism, has an association with Cubism, a little bit of an association with Surrealism, a little bit hard to peg.

Typically worked on a small scale, very delicate, very fine work.

Got a kind of a childlike, almost meditative quality to it.

"Hieroglyph" is one of the words that people use to describe his work.

Not only is it "Slight Deterioration" as the title, but as we see here in the upper right and then just below, we've got a little bit of damage, which is not irreparable.

If this was taken to a good professional paper restorer, I think it's something that could be brought back to life rather easily.

I didn't know that.

Klee is so well-known.

There's a lot of interest in his work today, and there are a lot of collectors looking to acquire his works.

Right.

Ultimately, it's worth emphasizing that there is a Paul Klee Foundation.

The foundation really would need to see it so that we can be 100% certain that it is genuine.

If offered at auction as is, we estimate the work to be valued between $25,000 to $40,000.

Wow.

That's...

Pretty good price.

Now, if these tears were mended, we would raise the value.

Probably around $50,000 is where you might think about insuring it.

Oh, wow-- all right.

Thank you.

MAN: Well, I've got a sailing trophy that was my grandfather's from the 1930 Hawaii race, Los Angeles to Hawaii.

He made it in, what, 12 days and some-odd hours and so many minutes.

And the trophy was presented by Sir Thomas Lipton, who...

I happened to find amongst the family stuff an old portrait of Lipton from 1925 with his signature on it.

So tell me about your grandfather and this particular race.

I think it's run every four years or so, or used to be.

I'm not sure it still is.

He had the Enchantress, which won the race in '30.

He had it for many years.

He had a lot of boats, but that was his favorite, I think.

It was a 132-foot schooner.

Well, the Transpacific Yacht Club actually sponsored this race.

The trophy was presented, as you said, by Sir Thomas Lipton.

And the race still does go on.

It's held every two years.

First came about in 1906, and it is one of the longest-continuing running yachting race for long distance still in existence.

This was won in 1930.

It was made in 1929 by a company in London called Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Company.

It's hallmarked very clearly, just to the left of the shield.

A lot of yachting trophies and presentation trophies in general are very ordinary.

They're just basic silver cups.

But this one was truly a specifically commissioned piece of silver.

It has this great boat finial with the sail on it.

It's got these incredible mermaids blowing shell-shaped trumpets.

It's got scales all over it.

It additionally has the god of the sea head here, in addition to these very fanciful creatures with mermaid tails.

Dolphins on the base, and some really wonderful shells and even scales that look like fish scales around the base.

But a little more information about Sir Thomas Lipton.

He was a really interesting character.

He came to the United States in 1865, just at the end of the Civil War, and he stayed here for about five years.

And he actually was known for his tea, which, of course, we all have heard of Lipton tea, and that's how he made his fortune.

He was a true yachtsman.

He was actually very interested in yachting.

If this were to come to the public market, I would estimate it for auction at $20,000 to $30,000.

Mm-hmm, wow, wow, that's... That's a lot.

When did he do these?

They're all dated.

I think these were from '87.

That is so unusual.

That is great.

It's a 1920s German Stainer model.

And actually the varnish is fairly nice, the condition is really nice.

It'd bring between $200 and $300.

APPRAISER: It's a collotype print.

This whole presentation is part of the print, with the frame and the glass, with the etching of putti on it.

As a decorative object, if I went into a shop and saw it hanging on the wall for something like, maybe $85, $95, I'd think that's about right.

Okay.

All righty?

Thank you so much.

My pleasure-- thanks for coming in.

WOMAN: This was from my Great-Great-Aunt Gertrude.

What you have here is an American mechanical toy doll.

It appeals to doll collectors and it also appeals to toy collectors.

It was made in about 1870.

The name of the man that created the doll was Brown, and it was a Goodwin patent that he used.

And I don't think you brought the key, but when you wind it up, its little legs will move, and it pushes the carriage forward.

The doll head is made of papier mâché, and it's in really nice condition.

The clothing on the doll is not original, although it's appropriately dressed.

Usually the skirt was a little bit shorter than this.

You wouldn't want your skirt caught in the wheel as you're pushing it along.

That's true.

It would probably retail for $1,200 to $1,500 on the market today.

Wow, that's great.

That is, that's good!

Good.

WOMAN: This was my late father-in-law's.

And we don't know where he got it, or how long he had it.

We figure he probably got it in the '60s.

He seemed to have a special affinity for Asian art, and this was one of the things that was in this apartment.

APPRAISER: Do you have any idea what it is?

We believe it's Tibetan.

We don't know what it is-- possibly a prayer screen or a painting.

Other than that, not a clue.

Well, it's actually Nepalese.

Oh, okay.

Now, a lot of Nepali artists and artisans worked in Tibet.

Right.

This is a 19th century shrine.

It's a votive shrine that would have been in someone's house.

Oh, okay.

Probably the latter part of the 19th century.

It normally depicts the god Vishnu, who is the protector, one of the Hindu gods.

He normally has four arms.

Right.

Here the divinity has two, and it's probably Avalokitesvara, who is the Buddhist god of compassion.

Oh, that's nice.

Surrounded by supportive divinities and what they call apsaras, which are flying bodhisattvas at the top.

The detail work, here you have dragons, makara dragons, all throughout the outside framed edge.

And you have associate divinities all around the sides.

This is a copper repoussé plaque.

Essentially the whole piece of this is made of copper that has been either wire overlaid or punched out in high relief.

Nepalese craftsmen were known for their great repoussé work, their stonecutting work, and their filigree work.

So you will see all sorts of semiprecious stones here, you will see rock crystal, you will see tourmaline, you will see malachite, coral, and you will also see bone inlay here as part of the pillars.

This is really master craftsmen at work.

Probably one to do the inlays, and one to do the repoussé work, which would have maybe taken two or three months.

At auction, it would bring somewhere in the vicinity, even with a little bit of restoration work down here, it would bring between $15,000 and $25,000.

You're kidding.

No.

That's wonderful.

MAN: This is a sword that's been in my family apparently for many years, from my great-great-great- granduncle, something like that.

Apparently he was quite a proverbial hero in several battles in the Civil War with this Company C that became the 48th Regiment, I believe, in the Civil War.

The number was about 40 battles, and then ended up sort of the last part of the Civil War with General Sherman in Atlanta.

And that's when he was killed.

Correct, yes, yeah.

He was killed in battle when he was all of 22 years old, so it's been in my family ever since.

I'm pretty proud to be part of the history where this guy is my great-great-granduncle.

And this a Union sword.

Your ancestor fought for the 48th Illinois.

And your ancestor uttered a rather famous quote that's been preserved right before he was shot.

Are you familiar with his quote?

To paraphrase, he was told by the rebels that, "Look, you're outnumbered, you're beaten," and he basically said, "Beat, hell, the fight has just begun."

Oh, that's great.

This sword is a very high grade presentation sword.

And it was a dress sword.

It wasn't a combat sword.

The inscription here indicates that it was presented to Colonel Greathouse by the men and the officers of his command.

That indicates that he was well thought of.

And the fact that they spent a great deal of money at the time for this sword speaks very well of him.

The sword itself, it was produced by Clauberg, which was a manufacturer of swords for export from Germany to the United States.

The guard, with this rather elaborate design here of a figure, which is an American Indian, this sort of design was pioneered by Schuyler, Hartley, and Graham.

They were, in 1860, the Cadillac of American arms.

Schuyler, Hartley, and Graham's designs were copied by other makers, and this is one of those instances where another company unknown copied Schuyler, Hartley, and Graham's beautiful hilt.

The guard here, this was... all this was brass, but this was silver plated.

And of course, it's got numerous stones throughout, even in the eye here of the dragon.

Those are all garnets, which, while they're not really expensive stones, it was a lot better than paste or glass, which you saw on a lot of products of that day.

One other aspect of this that we should address is the fact that through rather rough treatment through its successive years, the blade here has suffered tremendously from moisture.

That's why all of this rust and pitting is visible.

This was gold plated in relief on the surface.

You can still see traces of it, but by and large, it's gone.

What kind of idea of value would you have on this?

Oh, man, I would have no idea.

$500.

Oh, well, you may be pleased to know that, in its current condition, I would estimate a retail value in the neighborhood of $12,000.

Oh, wow.

With a little bit of restoration, it can go even higher.

Wow, fantastic.

MAN: Well, I was in Manhattan, in New York, visiting some friends, and I'd been going to different antique stores.

I happened in Lillian Nassau's, saw this nice mosaic sitting on the floor with a "no for sale" sign on it.

So I asked her if she would be willing to sell it, and she didn't sound like she would be interested in selling it.

So I looked around a while, and then went on somewhere else and came back two days later and asked her again.

So after the...

I think it was the fourth time, she had decided that she'd sell it.

And so I bought it.

What year was that?

That was in 1980.

It was in January.

She had come out of the store...

I had almost got to the stoplight at the end of the block, and she kept running down there, "Oh, you forgot your papers, you forgot your papers."

I stopped and turned around, I says, "Oh, my gosh."

And then everybody from the store was behind her, saying, "Oh, Lillian, you shouldn't be out here, you've got to get back to the store."

And so I went back with her, and she gave me the papers that I'd forgotten.

That's great.

Well, you know, at that time she was 80 years old.

Oh, is that right?

Yes.

I actually started working for Lillian probably around the time when you bought this.

Oh.

However, I wasn't there for that, because I would have remembered running after her if I had done something like that.

Okay, if you were in the store.

But I worked at the store for many years, and now it is actually my store.

And what did you pay?

I paid $15,000 for this.

Did you have to negotiate with her?

Oh, yeah.

She was adamant she didn't want to sell it.

Right.

So... but when she did, I was just really pleased.

It was something I loved very much, and still do.

And what is it?

It's a mosaic with an iridized frog and two fantastic poppies.

Okay.

By...?

Tiffany.

Tiffany Studios.

Yes.

What's unusual about it is most mosaics are either built into a wall, like in a church or in a public building, in banks that Tiffany decorated, or private homes.

But there are a few of the mosaic compositions, single mosaic compositions, that exist.

But they're actually pretty rare.

$15,000 at the time, that was a very strong retail price.

Lillian was the kind of person, she used to put those "NFS" stickers, the "Not for Sale" stickers on things, but she would part with something for what she believed was a top retail price.

Mm-hmm.

And maybe you probably... you probably charmed her, too.

Oh.

I think it was the four dates.

Could be.

This was made in about 1905.

Oh.

There are some things that are familiar to me.

For example, this wonderful depiction of the frog with these teeny-tiny pieces.

They look very much like some of the work that Tiffany did in Marshall Fields.

There were a series of mosaics depicting the signs of the zodiacs, and each animal or sign was fashioned in much the same way as this frog.

And then you have the fabulous poppies, which figure into lamps.

You see them in the Oriental poppy lamps.

These are wonderfully depicted in two different vantage points.

And even the centers are so very, very complex.

It's just not sticking a yellow center in something.

Many little pieces to comprise that.

The big thing about Tiffany when they started to make these mosaics is that he used opalescent and translucent glass.

And prior to that, in the 19th century, mosaics were usually made in an opaque glass.

So by using translucent and opalescent glass, you have much more of a sense of depth.

Mmm.

And the coloration is very beautiful.

It enabled you to use lots of different colors.

And I was looking at it closely before, because I was...

I saw a lot of these black outlines through here and around here, and I wasn't sure what those were.

But it looks as though there were pieces of glass that were acid washed, so that they were not reflective.

And the outlines make the figures a little more pronounced.

And this was one of those tricks that you would see Tiffany use.

This is also unusual just in the fact that it's a secular subject matter, it's not religious, and it's not a sample panel.

Because a lot of times we see little sample panels, and they're just little fragments of things.

But this is a full composition, very charming, with the frog.

In fact, I'm not sure I've seen another frog depicted in a mosaic.

Now, it's in a bronze frame, not signed.

But that's typical.

You paid a pretty strong...

I know-- I'm curious if I overpaid.

Well, at the time it was a strong retail price, but in today's market, this could sell, in a retail venue, for between $100,000 and $150,000.

(sighs) Flabbergasted.

Unbelievable.

Speechless.

Phew.

Wow.

Incredible.

I don't know what to say.

Thank you.

To see something like this made my heart go pitter-patter.

Me, too.

WALBERG: You're watching Antiques Roadshow from Palm Springs, California.

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

I've got stirrups from South America that my aunt told me were 400 years old.

Turns out they're from the 1950s, and they're worth about $50.

Thanks, Aunt Peggy.

My mom thought it was so ugly it had to be worth money.

Turns out it's just ugly.

Found out that the hot rod jacket is worth a fortune, but Mom's the real antique, and she's priceless.

This one did pretty well.

It was around... what was it, $500?

$500, but we laminated it, so it's not worth anything.

Waa.

And what I found out today, after carrying this picture around for 15 years, that it's actually a copy of a graveyard rub, and it's great for my next garage sale.

We had James French appraise our rug, and he suggested that we get it professionally cleaned.

And then Nicholas Lowry laid down on our rug in his beautiful plaid suit.

And then Gigi laid down on the rug with him.

I'm never going to wash this rug.

I guess we can't sell it.

Nick actually tweeted...

He retweeted it.

He tweeted the picture.

And sent it out.

And our smarty bird here that my wife has had for 50 years turned out to be pretty smart-- he's worth $200.

Whoo-hoo.

(talking for bird): Thanks, Antiques Roadshow!

WALBERG: I'm Mark Walberg.

Thanks for watching.

See you next time on Antiques Roadshow.