♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ The color of this stone is the color that all sapphires want to be.

And very few of them achieve.

Oh!

Wow!

Didn't expect that!

It's, it's really special.

(laughs) ♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: Back in 2009, "Roadshow" visited San Jose, California, the capital of Silicon Valley, where we found treasures trending in the antique market.

APPRAISER: This is a piece that collectors would really respond well to.

This is one of those things that's so gorgeous, that it would be a shame not to conserve it.

I think it's well worth spending some money.

PEÑA: 15 years later, are these objects still worth investing in?

Let's see if they've gone up, down or stayed the same, in this fresh look at San Jose.

GUEST: My husband inherited it from his aunt.

I had brought it to a jeweler in Saratoga.

And he told me that the chain is platinum and he wasn't sure what it was worth, but he thought it was very nice.

And he said about $10,000.

APPRAISER: $10,000.

And I-I had no idea if that was high or low or if he was just being nice.

Well, it's a family piece; you weren't looking to sell it.

But you want to know what you inherited.

No-- yes.

Could I wear it to work, bicycling, or only for special days?

There's a few carats of diamonds, but I would assume that he was basing some of the value on that blue stone in the middle.

I think so.

And do you know what stone that is?

Sapphire.

That's right.

It's a very special sapphire.

This sapphire is Kashmir.

Kashmir.

From the West Himalayas.

Okay.

In about 1879, they discovered a sapphire mine in Kashmir.

Okay.

And the sapphires that came out of the Kashmir mines were the most famous, the rarest and the most beautiful sapphires in the world.

The color of this stone is the color that all sapphires want to be and very few of them achieve.

Ooh...

It is the definition of what a perfect sapphire blue should look like.

Oh!

That's fabulous.

It has some purple, it has some red, but it's the depth of the blue.

And it's what's described as a soft blue.

The mining there only lasted about eight years, and that mine dried up.

The Maharaja of Kashmir went to the British government and said, "Can you give me some support and get me some geologists and maybe we can find some more of these Kashmirs?"

And, in the 1930s, they brought out more Kashmir sapphires, but the specimens were smaller.

Now, judging from the size of your sapphire, which is about four carats, this is from the second generation of the Kashmir mines in the 1930s.

Oh, right.

A piece from 1870 would have been constructed differently and in a different style.

Oh, right, I see.

There's only a few gem labs in the world that have experts that can give you documents that tell you that the stone comes from Kashmir.

We're very confident that it does.

All of us are just floored with the depth and intensity of the color.

It's beautiful.

At retail, in a fine jewelry store, a stone this size in its setting will bring between $40,000 and $50,000.

Oh, that's lovely.

Between $40,000 and $50,000?

$40,000 to $50,000.

Yes, I think I'll take very good care of it.

I'm sure you will.

It's lovely.

GUEST: This is Hewlett-Packard's, uh, first product.

It's a 200 audio oscillator.

The first ones went to Walt Disney and he used them to set the sound levels in the movie "Fantasia."

So the different orchestras and music would all be at the same level.

Now, how did you come by this?

About a year after their 50th anniversary, where there were a lot of pictures of this... Mm-hmm.

...and Bill and Dave in the garage where they started and all of that stuff, I was at the Santa Cruz flea market... Mm-hmm.

(chuckling): ...and I spotted this and I knew what it was, so I bought it and came back and I called Bill Hewlett, got his secretary, and I told her what I was up to.

I said, "I'd like them "to sign this oscillator.

What do you think they would think?"

And she said, "Well, Bill is here right now, so hang on a second."

And she left and she came back and she said, "He would be happy to sign it.

"Uh, he's here right now if you want to come up, "and Packard is out of town but will be back on Monday, "so if you could leave it with me, I will have him sign it and then I'll call you on Monday and you can come and get it."

And I did, and it was thrilling.

(chuckling): It was thrilling.

Well, I mean, you-you can look at it, you can see the signature is right here for Packard... Mm-hmm.

That's David.

Mm-hmm.

...and Hewlett.

Mm-hmm.

Hm.

Hewlett-Packard founding their company in 1939 in, uh, the garage in Palo Alto, now the birthplace of, uh, Silicon Valley.

Hewlett-Packard have become one of the largest computer retailers in the world.

How were you able to, you know, just call up their office and just walk in?

I mean... Um, I worked for Hewlett-Packard.

I started in 1977 as an electrician.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

And I was a supervisor at the time at the Sunnyvale site.

Mm-hmm.

And they had an inside HP phone directory, and they had their phone numbers in there.

(laughs) And you-you got a secretary, of course, but, uh, but you could call 'em.

When did you get this signed?

It was in 1990 or '91.

Right here you've got this, the "Model, uh, 200D."

The Model 200 was one of their earliest models.

It was released in '39.

And in '42, they changed to the logo that they use today.

Mm-hmm.

And so I know that it's that period.

The Model 200 originally sold for $54.50, which was almost a quarter of the price of any other comparable product by any other company.

How much did you pay for it?

Twenty-five.

Things like these are-are... they're difficult to price.

As far as I know, these don't come up at all at auction.

There's not a whole lot of records behind 'em.

There are a few, but they're kind of hard to come by.

Without the signatures, you're looking at about $1,700 to $2,000.

With the signatures, with the history behind it, for insurance purposes, I'd value it between $7,000 and $9,000.

Wow.

Nice.

Very nice.

GUEST: Well, they came to me through a, a great-aunt.

Who did a lot of travelling in South America.

And your wife loves these?

I mean, is that what you said?

My wife can't stand them.

(laughing) She... she thinks they're a little too gory for the house.

So most of these are in storage but she likes this one, there's no blood and guts.

Well, the one you're holding is definitely from Mexico.

Okay.

Probably from Western Mexico around the area of Zacatecas.

Uh, it's a painting on metal, it's in the original Mexican tin frame which is nice.

Probably $400 to $600 in a shop.

Mm-hmm.

This one could be South American.

It's got so much gold on it, I tend to think maybe Peru or Bolivia, A very nice painting, the black makes it stand out really nicely.

And if you went in a shop and found this in the U.S., probably $800 to $1,200.

Wow, that's... that's pretty good, 'cause, it's not in very good shape, I don't think, but.

Hey, it's in pretty good shape.

It was probably painted between 1800 and 1850.

Wow.

That's pretty...

I mean, you know, it's not, like, brand new.

Yeah.

GUEST: It was my mom's and she grew up in Waikiki, in the '20s and '30s.

Her memory is that she got a ukulele for Christmas.

Well, this is an exceedingly rare and very early ukulele.

An example like this is-is probably from 1905 at the latest and it could easily be earlier.

A ship came from the island of Madeira with Portuguese settlers to work in the cane fields.

But along with the settlers to work in the cane fields, there were some cabinetmakers.

And one was named Dias.

Mm-hmm.

And the label tells us that he's the guy who-who made these.

Another one was Santo, and then Nunes, who's the one who kept doing it and then later claimed to have invented it.

But it's really hard to find a Dias instrument with a paper label intact.

There's probably only about two dozen of them known... Wow.

...and of those, maybe a half dozen, maybe ten have an intact paper label.

Wow.

It's very thin, very small.

An ukulele is a small instrument, but this is... ...this is like a shirt pocket ukulele.

(chuckling): Yeah.

Yeah.

But that's the Portuguese instrument that was brought over.

And, of course, the Hawaiians fell in love with it, and they called it "ukulele," which meant "dancing flea."

Right.

It's got a few little cosmetic problems and one crack on the side, but it's really in very good condition.

And to a collector of early ukuleles, it, it could easily sell for as much as $15,000.

Oh, you're kidding me.

(chuckling): Wow!

"Mahalo."

(laughs) (laughing): Yeah, right!

GUEST: This is a map of California.

My great-grandfather, who was a farmer in Ohio, decided that he would come out here and look for gold.

To become a 49er, basically.

That's right.

Most of the maps that were created in those first years were promotional, produced sometimes in the East Coast, but sometimes here.

But they didn't have a great deal of knowledge about the actual parameters of what became the state of California.

Uh-huh.

This map was produced by Britton & Rey, who were two very early lithographers in the city of San Francisco.

And this map is one of their earliest renditions of the state.

It was highly prized because it provided one of the first and most accurate maps of the border region here... Uh-huh.

...with what they call Utah at the time...

Right.

...before it was Nevada.

Not all the details are accurate, of course.

What is now Lake Tahoe they call Pyramid Lake and it seems like it's a little farther north than to where it normally would be.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Now, because this map was created practically for miners in San Francisco... Uh-huh.

...very, very few of them survived.

They were taken up in this small pocket into the Sierra and there would be issues like you have already here, with some tearing and ripping.

When it's folded up, of course, the paper starts to fray and break along these lines.

As a result, very, very few of these maps have survived.

In fact, no examples of this map have come for sale in over 30 years at auction.

I see.

And only a handful exist in institutions.

I would say that a map of this stature would probably have an auction value of $10,000 to $15,000 and could well sell for a great deal more.

GUEST: My wife found it in a, in a little antique shop in the village where she grew up, which is not far from Newmarket, which is a big racecourse in England.

Okay.

And this actually sat in the Newmarket jockey club for several years.

Part of the connection was that my grandfather worked for W & T Avery.

Worked for the company?

Until about 1922 or '23.

Don't know how old it is-- probably a hundred years, I don't know.

It's a toy in our family room, basically.

Guests come and they decide they want to weigh themselves.

Unfortunately, it's painfully accurate.

(laughs) (stammering): So, you know, it doesn't lie, so... Well, this is a jockey chair scale.

It's incredibly rare.

Yeah.

You don't really see them that much.

And, uh, during the time period of the late 19th century when this was made, about 1895 to 1900, the W & T Avery Company produced these chairs with leather seats, walnut primary wood, and, uh, secondary wood-- we see English oak.

We've got these spindles, all in the Edwardian style.

The base has these wonderful moldings.

And then this incredible cast-iron scales, with beautiful gilt decoration, all original.

And of course, then, these weights.

And when the jockey sat in this chair, it was a serious thing, it was very serious.

Yep.

If a jockey didn't make his weight, he could not feed his family.

Right.

These were chairs sat in by men who were incredibly strong, agile.

I think this chair is absolutely fascinating.

Yes.

I love the fact that it has its original leather.

So all this wear we know is probably mostly from jockeys over the years.

Yeah.

Well, I think this... most of this damage has come from grandchildren.

Would you mind sitting in the chair?

Oh, you want me-- Yeah.

Do you want to like take for a weight?

I'm a bit big for a jockey.

(laughing) So there we go.

Let's see, I'm gonna give this a try.

Now, this is eight stones.

Eight stones.

So one stone equals... 14 pounds.

14 pounds.

Right.

Now, this is the... 16 stone.

16 stone.

I mean, I can't imagine a jockey would ever be 16 stones, but there we go.

Okay, now, there's a fine adjustment here.

Now set this.

That's another four pounds.

There it is, right about... 16 stone... About there, a little bit less.

16 stone, half a pound.

Just right there-- so 16 stones, half-pound.

And that translates... To about 225 pounds.

Now, may I ask you, do you know what this is worth?

Have you ever had it appraised?

No, as I say, it's a novelty at home, so we use it more as a toy than anything else.

I paid about, by the time we got it here from the village in England...

Yes?

...about $1,500.

$1,500 U.S. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay, well, one recently sold at an auction down south for $12,500 U.S. (chuckling): Oh, you're kidding.

(laughing) And that one had replaced leather.

And I don't know whether it had the original weights, which is so amazing these have survived.

Oh yeah, that's right, yeah.

And all the original paint.

I would estimate this at auction between $10,000 and $15,000.

Oh, my goodness.

Well, I think the grandchildren will stay off it from now on.

(both laughing) GUEST: I got it from my maternal grandmother who lived in Boston most of her adult life.

And I know very little about it except she told me that either her parents or her grandparents had bought it on their honeymoon trip to Europe.

And you said you were able to read some of what was written down here.

I can make out a first name of "Carl" and "Munich" in German, and that's about it.

I can't make out the last name.

Well, the missing link down here is the last name, and the last name is Herpfer, which is not necessarily a name that you would automatically think of, but he is a major German genre painter.

He was born in 1836, and he died in 1897 in Munich.

He did study in Paris, but he never exhibited in Paris.

He did exhibit solely in Munich from about 1868 to 1888.

And what this is, is a perfect example of a genre painting.

And it's everything you would want in a Herpfer.

And by genre painting, we mean a painting that tells a story.

Here we see a mother who's recovering from the recent birth of a child, and the nurse is taking care of the child.

The two children are looking a little anxious and perhaps unhappy about the new sibling.

But besides the fact that you have this wonderful story you have all this incredible detail and little bits and pieces that show the life of an upper-class German family in the 19th century.

And Herpfer was really a genius at painting fabrics.

You can see he's got this wonderful embroidered blanket here, this dress, the beautiful lace touches.

Here you see this lovely satin stripe on the nurse's dress.

You can see this porcelain vase with the flowers, and here, I think, just to get some more extra folds in the painting, he's pushed the tablecloth back.

And I love the little bell that she's got here so she can ring for the servant.

I'd never noticed that before.

It's a visual feast.

There are so many things to look at, and every time you look at it, you see something new.

I do.

It's in very good condition.

It's a beautiful oil on canvas.

I think if this were to be offered in a retail gallery, the price might be around $80,000.

Oh my gosh, you're kidding.

(laughing): Oh... wow!

Because the economy is the way it is... Mm-hmm.

...it's probably not worth now what it would have been a few years ago.

Ah, it's staying in the family.

It's been in the family for generations... Yeah.

...so I just love it.

GUEST: I don't know too much about it-- it was my grandparents'.

But other than that, it's been sitting in a box for a long time.

Oh, well, I'm so glad it got to come out of the box and come on to the "Roadshow."

What you have here is the 19th century version of a toolbelt for a lady.

The lady of the house would have these items, known as a chatelaine.

And they would be worn around the waist.

This has a clip here at the top, that affixes to the waist.

It's a chatelaine for sewing-- you see the long cylindrical cases, those are for darning needles, You have little notions boxes for buttons, for threads, and the piece that's open, well, that's for your little scissors.

I think in a wonderful, fun antique store, this would have a retail value of about $1,200 to $1,500.

Oh, great!

I know, I just love the things, they tell such a story.

Toolbelt for a lady.

That's great!

GUEST: I believe it's a Sudek, a Czech photographer.

Um, that's pretty much what I know about it.

And when did you acquire it?

I would say between three and five years ago.

And what did you pay for it?

Somewhere around $100, at an auction in Czech currency, so.

It was in Czech currency for $100.

Yes.

Yes.

Well, this is a Josef Sudek photograph, and Josef Sudek is the preeminent Czech photographer of the 20th century.

This photograph was done in 1942.

It's obviously a paramour.

Uh, given the seductive look on her face, the very beautiful way in which she's rendered, you know, Sudek never married.

Ah.

So this picture really has an intimacy and a sense of his love of women, and indeed, he's not known for his portraits, they are rather rare in the body of work that he created over a 30-year period.

He's known for his still-lifes, and landscapes.

We see his signature in the lower right, in the margin.

At auction, a conservative estimate would be $4,000 to $8,000.

(chuckling): Wow.

Wow, that's, that's amazing.

GUEST: The table I bought in, I think, about 1968.

It's from a designer store here in Santa Clara.

And, unfortunately, I don't know who designed it.

I just love the table.

I wanted to bring it here to find out something.

I'm an online researcher and I teach, I teach online research.

I haven't been able to find any words online or offline.

This petal motif here is not the most obvious-looking flower, but to me it's definitely a representation of flower petals, and the base has a kind of a mushroom-look base.

The table was made here in California and the tops were supplied by a man named Frank Rohloff.

And Frank Rohloff was interested in combining new and old materials.

And here you have walnut and a plastic resin.

And the plastic resin would be set with the walnut pieces on top and then it would be polished.

Frank Rohloff produced a number of different accessories.

He did wall murals, he did a number of very famous maps for a few Los Angeles-based interiors.

He also did a number of coffee tables and side tables, all with this particular black resin base inset with walnut shapes.

It was done in a very simple, modern style.

But the lasting images that the market is interested in today are these kind of flower petal shaped... ...things that are really evocative of the late, late '60s.

Hm.

The flower petals are not placed exactly on a perfect scale.

Some of the petals are slightly larger and also they have slightly larger spaces in between them.

And that shows that these things were done in a fairly small production run.

Mm-hmm.

And, which also fits in why there's not a lot of information about him.

The base is made out of a, an-an oiled walnut, which is probably exactly the same type of wood as the top.

The wood on the top has faded a little bit.

Probably it's been getting a little bit more sunlight.

Do you remember how much you originally paid for it?

I'm not sure, but I think it was $110, which was a lot for the late 1960s.

That sounds like a lot of money in the 1960s, yeah.

Yeah.

Frank Rohloff's work is just starting to emerge as a collectible in the market of 20th century design.

And I've seen a number of his larger, uh, tables come up, uh, recently, but I've never seen one with this kind of beautiful original flower imagery.

Neither have I.

And I would put a value of about $1,500 on this at auction.

Wow.

Very good.

GUEST: It was given to my husband's grandparents as a wedding gift.

Um, in around the early 1930s and has been passed through the family since.

And they were from which region?

They're from Ohio, I believe Akron.

Since we watch "Antiques Roadshow," we know a lot of ceramics come out of Ohio, so we kind of suspect maybe this is a piece from one of the artists in Ohio.

The Arts & Crafts movement in this country started in the 1890s or so and went on until the early '20s.

And it's done in that period.

Really?

So it could indeed have been given as a wedding gift... Mm-hmm.

...but it would have been old then.

It's made somewhere between 1905 and 1915 or so.

Really?

This was made by the Grueby Pottery of Boston, Massachusetts.

Oh!

Well, that's a surprise.

It's one of the great potteries of this country.

The quality was wonderful.

And they really epitomized the Arts & Crafts movement because what they made was so organic looking... Mm-hmm.

...that it's been said it was like picking something out of a garden.

Like a cucumber or a squash.

Right, uh-huh.

They were looking to have a really vegetal glaze to most of their pieces.

Uh-huh.

Now, there's a few other glazes that they would use, like brown or blue-gray, for example, but the green is what they made most of, and that is the most collectible.

Mm-hmm.

Very pretty, too.

It's all hand-thrown.

Mm-hmm.

The leaves, which you see here, full-height leaves, were all rolled as little pieces of clay and put one at a time.

Oh.

Is that so?

And what makes this piece rare is that it has these little buds in between.

Uh-huh.

You don't see many of those.

And that these particular buds are not green, they're not yellow-- they're ivory.

Mm-hmm.

If you collect this, this is very good.

Good!

So the glaze is great, the shape is great, it's a nice, big size.

What is too bad about this is that it has several small chips on it.

But it's still wonderful.

Mm-hmm.

At auction, I would estimate that, conservatively... Mm-hmm.

...these days...

Yes?

...at $4,500 to $6,500.

Oh, wonderful.

It's been very informative.

I never would have known that.

GUEST: They used to belong to my brothers' wife.

APPRAISER: Uh-huh.

They both passed away-- they passed away, uh, prematurely, because probably, they were a-- lived in the fast lane.

Uh-huh.

She was the violinist...

I see.

...and her dad was a music teacher.

And her dad came from Czechoslovakia, and all I know about these, I think they're from Czechoslovakia, I'm not sure.

And so she turned out to be a professional violinist?

Yes.

Well, these are both Czech violins.

And these are two of the best Czech makers, now that Czech makers are not as well-known as the Italians or the French or some of the English.

But the Czech makers were very fine craftsman-- this violin, is Ferdinandus Homolka.

It's dated 1873, and he was known as the Stradivarius of Prague.

Oh, yes.

So he has very high reputation.

It's a beautiful violin and it's in great condition.

This violin is not a... familiar name, Julius Hubicka.

The label is actually from Spidlen, which was his teacher.

And then he wrote on top of it, that he was a disciple of Spidlen, and then underneath it he signed it, so it was kind of an homage to his teacher.

Uh-huh.

This violin is dated 1927.

Tell us about the bows, do you know anything about those?

All I know is that any violinist who came to, uh, play with the Calgary Philharmonic, wanted to try her... her bows.

Her bows.

Uh-huh.

And her violin.

And she had one bow, I don't know which it was, and it was exceptionally good.

Uh-huh.

That's all I know.

This top bow was made by a very famous English maker, is one of the most famous English makers named James Tubbs.

I would say it's from around 1880.

These violins haven't been touched for 25 years.

Would they be better if they were played?

Yes, as they get played, they will loosen up, they will play better if they're played again.

And that will keep them in their top condition, to play them once in a while.

Today, a Homolka like this, as a retail price, between $20,000 and $25,000.

Whoa!

The Hubicka, around $12,000.

Well...

The Tubbs bow, the button is not original, it detracts a little bit from this price, but even at that, would have a retail value around $13,000.

Whoo!

This next bow is a, a good quality German bow, around $1,500.

This bow right here, the Hill bow, unfortunately it's not original in all its parts.

The frog has been replaced on it.

So that cuts the value in half-- also, we can't see it on this side, but there's a repair to the head of the bow, so it-it greatly affects the value of the bow, but even at that, would have a value of around $1,500.

The other bows are inconsequential, $100 or so each.

So you have quite a collection.

Wow.

(chuckles) Wow!

(both laughing) That's really good!

That's great!

Wow!

GUEST: We bought that a few years ago from an elderly gentleman whose wife had died, and he was moving to Arizona and to live with his daughter, and he was getting rid of a lot of his things.

And we collect mostly glass, so we don't really know a lot about all the pottery.

I know it's amphora, and it's an Art Nouveau piece.

Well, let's take a look at the marks.

We have two sets of marks; you have the printed mark, which tells you Turn-Teplitz, which is very important, this is actually one of the premier manufacturers of this type of amphora.

Amphora was made by a number of manufacturers.

And this is an Austrian example, very, very nicely done.

And then there's a second mark that doesn't show up very, very well, but it's right up at the top there, and that's that impressed mark that actually says "amphora."

Oh, okay, I didn't know what it said.

Beautifully decorated, really what pops off the page to me is this wonderful butterfly that was here.

Right.

And beautifully designed with this; it's all reticulated, and pierced to give an impression that you really do have an Art Nouveau style tree.

Now, do you recall what you paid for it?

Um, yes, $375.

How many years ago was that?

Oh, about five years ago.

I can see, in a well-advertised auction, that this would sell somewhere in the range of about $2,000 to $3,000.

That good?

Well, I'm not-- that's very good.

I'm not selling it, but that's very good.

Excellent.

(chuckles) GUEST: This was a gift from my ex... uh, father-in-law and mother-in-law.

And it belonged to my father-in-law's aunt, who lived in Berkely.

This is a commemorative edition of "The Sierra Nevada John Muir Trail."

With photographs by Ansel Adams.

This is an early Ansel Adams book and it's one of his most beautiful art books that he produced in 1938.

What I like about your copy is, in addition to the book, you have this publisher's prospectus.

This is a piece of ephemera that is usually thrown out.

Oh yeah?

And today, most publishers don't produce this in the first place, so it's very nice to have not just the book, but the original piece of information that announced the publication.

Right.

This was issued in an issue of 500 numbered and signed copies.

And if we turn to the back of your book, Here's the colophon-- and you have issue number 132, signed here, by Ansel Adams.

What's important about this book is not only is it a beautiful book, with photographic plates of Ansel Adams, very, uh, iconic images of California and the West, this book also helped Sierra Club get parts of California dedicated as a national park.

Have you ever had this book appraised?

No.

Never?

No.

Never looked it up?

It's been on a bookshelf.

(laughs) It's been on a bookshelf?

Well, in today's market, the book, plus the prospectus, I would estimate this, at auction, for $5,000 to $7,000.

Wow.

Yeah, so it's really nice, it's incredibly beautiful, look at these gorgeous prints, and thank you so much for bringing it in.

Thank you, great.

Thank you.

GUEST: I had gone to a leftover estate sale, I looked around and didn't see anything, and I said that, "You don't have any jewelry around?"

And she said, "Oh, well, yeah."

And she said that there's a shoebox in there.

So she brought the shoebox out, and I started looking through it, and I said, "How much do you want for this?"

And she said, "How about ten cents apiece?"

So I think I spent $1.60.

(chuckles) (chuckling): A $1.60, okay, for a num... for 16 pieces, basically.

Yes, but this was really the only good piece in it.

And about how long ago was this?

About 32 years ago.

About 32 years ago.

(laughS) Okay, it is gold, first off, and it's composed of elements that involve these small swallows, which are enamel.

You also have these flowers with turquoise.

Mm-hmm.

And then down here, these are carved coral.

They're carved in the shape of grape clusters.

Right.

Now, there are no hallmarks on the piece, but based on the style of the enameling, we can assume that this is probably a Swiss enamel necklace.

In the 19th century, the Swiss were known to make beautiful pieces similar to this.

This piece was made between 1850 and 1860.

Oh, my.

So it's quite old.

And what I also love about the piece is that it's sort of filled with Victorian romanticism.

We've got the bird motif, which represents swallows.

Oh!

And as we know, swallows return to Capistrano every year.

Right.

And this was probably a gift given to somebody who was going away, but it was a reminder that they would also return.

Isn't that nice?

Isn't that lovely?

It's a great sentiment.

Oh gosh.

Yes.

And then the grape clusters, many times this refers to bountifulness, fulfillment of a relationship or a great bounty.

So it's-it's filled with a great deal of Victorian romanticism, sentimentality.

It's actually in extremely good condition.

These pieces are very delicate.

So it's unusual to find them in this good condition.

And because of that, this is a piece that collectors would really respond well to.

And so if this item came to auction, I would put a value on this of between $6,000 and $8,000.

You're kidding!

No, I'm not kidding.

Oh, my goodness gracious me!

(laughing) Isn't that great?

Oh, I'm rich and didn't know it.

(laughing) It's a great investment on your original ten cents.

A lot better than my IRA.

(both laugh) APPRAISER: Tell me about your great-grandfather, the great Walter Grothe.

GUEST: Well, he was a race car driver.

He raced steam engine cars for the White Steam Car Company, which originally was a sewing machine company.

And apparently he was pretty good because he won a lot of trophies.

(laughs) (laughing): He won... he won a... Well, in particular this one.

Yeah.

It says "Walter Grothe," here, "November 7, 1903."

Mm-hmm.

What happened here?

Well, I... that was the trophy that he won for beating...

...I believe it's the picture right there.

Where-- That is the picture.

Barney Oldfield, right?

Right.

Barney Oldfield, who was the great racer of the time.

And, in fact, if you look at the trophy, it says "first prize."

Right.

So he had quite the career.

This is his automobile permit.

Right.

And I love this because they have his height, his weight.

They have him as "clean shaven."

Yeah.

And they've given restrictions on when he can be in the park with the car... Mm-hmm.

...and no, uh, no frightening the horses.

Another thing about your great-grandfather, which you may not know-- he raced at Ingleside Park, which was a short-lived racetrack; 1895 to 1906.

It was destroyed by the earthquake.

They originally were a horseracing track, but he did the first automobile race there in 1900.

Really?

Huh.

And he won; he was the only car to finish.

He did it out of eight cars, a minute and 22 seconds.

Wow.

But three years later, this was his crowning glory, it was beating Barney Oldfield because Barney Oldfield was the preeminent racer of the early 1900s.

He was discovered by Henry Ford.

He also raced for Winton, and he was the first racer to hit 60 miles an hour.

Can you imagine 60 miles an hour?

That's the slow lane today on the highway.

(chuckling): Right.

And yet your great-grandfather beat him.

Yeah.

In the early 1900s, gas cars, steam cars and electric cars were all vying for the market.

Right.

And everyone's heard of Stanley Steamer, but White Steam Car, which had these great catalogs, also promoted itself very heavily and produced 9,122 steam cars.

But what happened to the White Steam Company was in 1908, Henry Ford came out with the Model T. These cars-- if you can see here this touring car-- this originally sold between $2,500 and $3,700 in an era where people were lucky to make five or ten dollars a week.

Yeah.

That's a lot of money.

We have this great archive.

You have a lot more other pieces that we're not showing here, including White brochures.

We have a lot of different memorabilia that we haven't even brought in here.

Mm-hmm.

So I'm going to give you what I think an insurance value would be on all of this, because I don't think you have any intention of selling it.

No.

The trophy, of course, is the most valuable.

I would put $2,000 on the trophy alone, maybe even $2,500.

Wow.

For the entire grouping, I'd probably insure it-- with everything else that you brought with you-- for about $8,000.

Wow, that's nice.

GUEST: My grandmother gave it to me, probably about 15 or 20 years ago, and it was a gift to my grandfather, uh, who was a publisher in New York.

He collaborated with Mondadori Publishing and Printing in Italy.

They did all of his printing.

And the guy from Mondadori gave it to my grandfather as a gift.

APPRAISER: And that was about how many years ago?

The gift was given maybe in the '50s or '60s.

Okay.

And then my grandmother gave it to me after my grandfather had-had passed away.

Okay, your family received this from someone in Italy.

Mm-hmm.

I actually believe that this is probably French.

Uh-huh.

And this is a late 18th-, early 19th-century fan.

And there's a number of things that make this really nice-- one, it has 18 sticks.

Uh-huh.

They're all pierce decorated with a floral decoration throughout.

Right.

All of the silver that you see also has gold on it, so it's silver and gold overlay over top of the bone.

Could be whale bone, more than likely, but it's hard to say exactly.

Uh-huh.

Right.

You've got this guard that's absolutely wonderful.

Nicely decorated, incredible to find them not broken, especially being 200 years old.

Right.

Then you look at all of the painting.

This is all painting on silk.

Uh-huh.

And it's all hand-done.

And the color on it... Yeah.

...is absolutely incredible.

The color is cute.

Everything about it just adds up to one of the best fans I think I've ever seen.

Wow!

I would tell you to probably insure this for somewhere between $3,000 and $4,000.

Wow.

(laughs) It is absolutely beautiful and I can't thank you enough for bringing it in.

Oh, that's so exciting, thank you!

GUEST: My grandmother bought it at auction about 1929.

It's been in the family ever since; so 80 years, in the family.

Many years ago I thought I saw "Handel" on something that had been on the base.

But you weren't sure about that.

No.

Now there's another little part of this story that we don't know in looking at it from this angle.

Well, yes-- the Loma Prieta earthquake 20 years ago damaged this.

It fell on the floor and I'm amazed there isn't more damage to it.

It's got an irregular shape to begin with, an ovoid shape, and it's been made a little bit more ovoid by the fall, and it's missing a few pieces of glass.

Okay, so it didn't really bounce well.

No.

(laughs) Okay, let me turn this around a little bit to just show people what's going on here.

We have some splitting and then some minor glass loss here.

Yeah.

And do you have the pieces at home?

I'm not sure that we do.

I think that the-the fall also caused a couple of cracks in the glass, right?

Okay.

Yes, there are a few very minor ones, yeah.

Okay, well, it is not a Handel lamp.

It is of the same period as the Handel lamp and Tiffany lamps... Yeah.

...but it is made by a company, Duffner & Kimberly.

And they were-- Oh, I did see that on the stem, yeah.

Okay.

They were of... in New York, so you saw here the little Duffner & Kimberly label.

Yes.

This is a beautiful leaded glass shade.

Very, very well done.

It's a great form.

And you have a gilt bronze base that, to me, is just drop-dead gorgeous.

Yeah.

Duffner & Kimberly were never quite as innovative as Louis Comfort Tiffany or Tiffany Studios, but they were extraordinary makers of good, quality glass in the early part of the 20th century.

As I recall, they started 1905, went bankrupt in 1913.

Now, this can be fixed.

And there are very competent people that would be able to touch up the base and fix the shade.

Uh-huh.

And I think, when it's fixed, the diminution in value won't be that great.

I think a conservative estimate would be, auction, $12,000 to $16,000 if it were in good shape.

Uh-huh.

But if you didn't get it fixed, it would kind of drop way down in value.

I don't imagine that it would be worth more than $3,000 to $5,000 in this cu-current condition.

Uh-huh.

This is one of those things that's so gorgeous that it would be a shame not to conserve it.

It's not cheap to get these things done, but I think it's well worth spending some money.

Thank you, I'm very excited.

Oh, good.

I'm happy to know something about it.

It's a pleasure to see it.

Well, I believe these are Tiffany candlesticks.

And they've been in my family since I was a little, tiny kid.

Yeah... And I believe that my mother probably got them as a wedding present.

And about when would that have been?

That would've been about 1926.

Well, you're absolutely right, these are Tiffany candlesticks.

They were made by Tiffany Studios in New York, And that date of about 1926 sounds just about right.

I think a conservative auction estimate for them would be about $2,000 to $3,000.

Okay.

Not so bad for candlesticks, right?

Not so bad.

GUEST: My family purchased this sometime in the mid-'60s.

They told my parents that this was Korean, but I suspect it's Chinese.

Well, it is Korean.

Is it?

And it's 18th century.

Oh, is it?

And it's a hunting screen, which makes it extremely desirable to own.

Right.

The action sequences are really stunning... Yeah.

...throughout the piece.

At auction, it's worth about $10,000 to $15,000.

(chuckling): Oh, wow.

GUEST: I got it from the estate of my father-in-law.

I came to the family in '66, so it was existing in '66, and I assume it's been there a long time in his home.

Now it's in my home, and I've loved it all these years.

What would you like to know about the piece?

Well, everything, because I don't know anything.

It's a piece of Rookwood pottery, which is fairly famous.

We've done it a number of times on the show.

We have a picture on the front, which is underglaze slip decorated, a painting of a gentleman drinking spirits, or liquor.

In addition to that, this beautiful silver overlay also has either...

I can't tell if it's a young man or a young woman drinking liquor.

So to have that reinforced all the way around, it's a spirit jug.

The silver is by Gorham Manufacturing...

Yes.

...from Providence, Rhode Island, and they do a great job.

But what happens with these Rookwood overlay pieces is that the artist who painted the work and the artist who did the silver are usually competing with each other, and I've seen so many pieces where, if the work happens to be complementary to the piece, the silver goes over it... Oh... ...over the artwork, over the painting, and this is a piece where they actually frame the decoration with silver.

So a rare occasion where the person who did the silver after the piece was painted respected the artwork.

Respected it.

This little netting is also an indication of Gorham's work, the highest order of silver overlay.

We'll talk about the markings here.

This is the famous Rookwood flame mark, dating it to 1892.

1892!

That's right.

Oh, my gosh.

The artist is Harriet Wilcox, who tended to paint a lot of little nymphs and spirits and odd creatures on the side of jugs.

And then at the bottom is the Gorham registry mark, which is how you know it's a Gorham piece.

Because Rookwood did these overlays for a number of years.

Mm-hmm.

And they stopped using Gorham after a while.

Perhaps it was too expensive.

Maybe they... their demands were too exacting.

But this is an early-period Gorham piece, so that also, uh, adds to its quality.

There's no crazing on this piece, and crazing is what happens when the glaze cools faster than the pot itself... Mm-hmm.

...and it crackles it.

There's none of that, which means it fired perfectly, which is very important on silver overlay, because when people clean the silver over the years, the solvent gets into the crazing and darkens it like a spider webbing.

This has none of that; it's completely clear.

So that's a good thing.

Yeah.

The only negative I can give you is this tight hairline in the body.

You can feel it with your fingernail in the glazing.

So that does detract from the value a little bit.

In spite of that, in terms of auction value, I would have to think that a piece this rare would be somewhere between $3,000 and $4,000 You're kidding!

No, no.

Oh my gosh.

And were it not for the tight hairline, I would have said $4,000 to $6,000.

I am amazed.

GUEST: My wife and I bought it about 30 years ago from a antique dealer in the local area.

She didn't give us any information about it.

It was just a painting that we liked.

Well, it's always good to buy what you like.

And this is actually a very interesting painting, and we were able today to find a signature.

And the signature reads "P. Lacroix," for Paul Lacroix.

Now, Paul Lacroix was of French-Swiss descent.

He was born in 1827 and he comes to the United States in the late 1840s.

And he shows up in New York, actively painting between 1858 and 1869.

So he really is more considered an American painter rather than a European one since he did most of his work here.

He's most associated with an artist named Severin Roesen, who was of German descent.

And Roesen worked in New York, and it's believed that Lacroix worked with him because their paintings are very, very similar.

After Roesen moves to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Lacroix emerges as an artist on his own.

He also was an artist who exhibited at the National Academy of Design, which was very prestigious, as well as the Brooklyn Art Association.

Hm.

Now, this particular painting was probably done around 1850, or in the early 1850s, so his midcareer.

He died in 1869.

The piece is oil on canvas.

And the frame is also original to the painting.

It's quite a wonderful package when you have the frame and the painting match one another.

You bought it how many years ago did you say?

About 30 years ago.

And what did you pay for it then?

Well, it wasn't more than $50.

Really?

Yes.

A painting like this, if it were sold in a New York or East Coast gallery, today would sell in the range of $15,000.

(chuckling): What a surprise.

(laughs) What a surprise!

That is amazing.

Thank you very much.

(chuckles) Oh, you're welcome!

GUEST: I inherited these items and they came down to me from my great-great-grandfather.

He spent some time in the Sitka area of Alaska in the spring of 1877, as part of a scientific expedition, and he spent a lot of time when he was there with the Native people, interviewing them and observing their customs.

And I don't know specifically if he was given these or if he may have bartered something.

I was told that they were probably Tlingit and also that they are from the Chilkat region... That's correct.

I was told that this is a grease bowl.

Yes.

And that they used the grease as a condiment.

And then this is just a, a spoon, and it's a big one, and I was told it was made out of horn.

Mountain sheep horn.

Mountain sheep?

Mountain sheep horn.

Oh!

Cool.

And this would have been a huge mountain sheep.

Yeah, I would imagine.

Very, very large.

These would have been considered family heirlooms of the Tlingit people.

Oh, wow.

That's obviously not the shape of an original horn.

Yeah, I wondered, is it carved out?

Boiled, until the, uh, the horn... Oh... ...uh, fabric is soft and malleable, and then pressed into a mold... Oh!

...tied down and left to, uh, dry, and then it retains that shape.

Right in the middle, there are little cracks and what we might call staples.

Uh-huh.

Although the material is not metallic, it's baleen, from a whale's mouth.

And then, so where it began to split, we see a Native repair.

That's cool.

These are clan figures.

Uh-huh.

And these would be protective spirits to help the person, the family, the tribe with their daily and religious pursuits.

These objects are alive in the Native consciousness.

They are empowered, they're spiritual.

It's an animistic religion that Native peoples practice.

Everything has a spirit.

This bowl, I think, is a bit older than the ladle.

This may be late 18th century, 1780, 1790.

Oh, wow.

Perhaps up to the 1820s.

Wow.

We see a raven with a human head at the back.

Uh-huh.

This would have been part of some mythology where the raven took a human on a spiritual flight.

This bowl would be filled with eulachon oil.

And the oil is, as you mentioned, might be, uh, seen as a condiment.

It was also, I think, eaten in quantity and used for purging and purifying.

The mountain sheep horn ladle at auction would sell in the range of about $75,000.

Wow!

It's-it's really special.

I didn't expect that!

This little bowl, it's earlier.

The-the carving is more sublime.

Yeah.

It's as rare as can be.

It's a Native American masterpiece.

Wow.

I think at auction this bowl would realize easily in the $175,000 to $225,000 range.

Wow!

My goodness.

They're-they're spectacular.

And the-the tongue-- (laughing): As the raven would say!

The tongue is important on-on this little fellow.

There is a spiritual significance coming out of the bird, empowering those who use the bowl.

Wow!

So the tongue is a very important element.

Thank you so much.

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

This one's the real deal, 1905 Steiff bear $3,000, wahoo!

And I found out that my meerschaum pipe from 1880s is worth about $1,000.

And I brought in this 1930s hobnail glass.

It isn't worth as much as we paid for it, but we still love drinking gin and tonics out of it.

This painting that I bought for $25 turned out to be worth about $1,500.

So it's moving from the bathroom out into the dining room.

And we brought our great-great-great- great-great-great-great- grandmother's photos and all that stuff and it's worth not much.

But we think there's a strong family resemblance.

What do you think?

And I brought some demitasse cups that didn't turn out to be much, but I brought my friend who had better stuff.

(laughs) He's not worth too much, maybe $150.

What do you think, Mitch?

Is he scary?

Do we keep him?

Or sell him?

I say throw him away.

No way!

These are my antique poker dice that I've been keeping in a safe.

Family heirloom, my grandfather was a conductor on the railroad.

Confiscated these, all 52 cards-- $75.

But hey, what are you gonna do?

My father owns a small collection of obscene salt and pepper shakers.

I'm not sure if you can show it on TV, so I've covered up the naughty bits.

Thanks for coming to San Jose!

PEÑA: Thanks for watching!

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."