Meadow Brook Hall, Hour 2

MARK WALBERG: "Antiques Roadshow" is going the extra mile to discover America's treasures at Meadow Brook Hall in Michigan.

APPRAISER: If these just showed up at a yard sale, most people wouldn't know what they were.

Really?

(chuckling) I had no idea.

♪ ♪ WALBERG: About 30 miles north of Detroit, "Antiques Roadshow" set up at the magnificent Meadow Brook Hall, built on the land once owned by John F. Dodge.

John and his brother Horace were automotive pioneers, and their cars were among the first to have all-steel bodies.

This is one of their cars-- a 1919 Dodge sedan that was the last automobile owned and driven by John before his death in 1920.

What treasures would Michigan history have pulled up to Meadow Brook Hall today?

Let's take a look.

♪ ♪ I don't think the center stone is a real emerald, because I'm looking at the facets, the way it's cut.

They're not sharp, they're rounded.

And in a real stone, they wouldn't be rounded.

APPRAISER: It's made for purely decorative purposes in an older style.

WOMAN: So you don't think people sat on it?

APPRAISER: I don't think they dined on it.

But I think if offered at auction, it would probably bring somewhere in the neighborhood of $250 to $350.

Yeah.

Not overly valuable, but a great looking piece of furniture.

WOMAN: For sure.

This particular example, with the fishing nets here laid out to dry, is a subject that she did a number of times.

Her later work is much more stylized.

Works like this that are earlier are selling at auction right now for about $800 to $1,200.

When is a work shirt a work of art?

(chuckles) When Keith Haring meets you and wants to draw on it.

Exactly.

So please tell me about this wonderful collection of Keith Haring material.

Well, first of all, I'm not hip enough to collect Keith Haring by myself.

My daughter, who was a teenager at the time, had a Keith Haring Swatch watch, and she encouraged me to get interested, and I did.

He came to Cranbrook in '87, and he stayed about ten days.

He was working with the children there.

And I was interested, so I should shoot some pictures, so I took my camera and I went.

He's an amazing person.

He was very generous with the kids.

The room that they painted was about 30 feet high by 50 feet by 50 feet.

And they kept murals up-- that's what these are.

A month later, they painted over it.

Oh, no!

I think everybody regrets that by now, no more so than Keith Haring.

He loved the piece.

Well, it's a wonderful photograph that you took.

His foundation is deeply involved in an AIDS cure, as well as taking care of children and educating children.

He believed that art should be everywhere, and art should work for a good cause.

It's great to see the children in the front row appreciating Keith Haring, because he appreciated children so much.

He did.

He thought that we forgot an awful lot when we grew up.

Yeah.

And he was also very democratic in that he thought that art was nothing unless it reached every segment of the population.

Right.

Keith Haring did a series of subway drawings in the subways of Manhattan.

And he did, as you said, watches, and he did small objects that he sold.

In addition to these books, you have some wonderful original drawings by Haring.

This was a photograph that he added an original drawing to, signed and dated.

He was very generous with his autograph and his drawings.

Like, for instance, the children, if they had a denim jacket, he would do a drawing on the back, a graphic, and sign it.

And everybody had a graphic on, like this.

This is all I had, so I just had him do it.

Well, that's terrific.

This book, which was published in an edition size of 2,000, was from his solo exhibit in New York, at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery.

And here, again, he augmented his wonderful portrait of himself.

So the books themselves are... this book, perhaps $100.

This is more rare.

The book itself would be, perhaps, $500.

But the drawings, the drawings are wonderful.

This drawing would be, at auction, between $3,000 and $5,000.

That's good.

This drawing as well, between $3,000 and $5,000.

And you put this good work shirt to work.

It is a wonderful piece of Keith Haring's art.

And that, too, would be between $3,000 and $5,000.

Wow.

The collection together I would value at between $12,000 and $18,000.

Wow, that's great.

I'll never sell it though, so I'll pass it on to my daughter.

WOMAN: I bought it at a sale, and as I was approaching the sale, there were many things, and this caught my eye.

And the young lady had told me that her grandfather had given her some things to sell, and he was from Hawaii.

And that made it even more interesting.

And how much did you pay for it?

I paid $10 for it.

Well, you're right about it being from Hawaii.

But what's really special about it is the age.

I think this bowl is probably even late 18th century.

Oh!

The bowl is handmade.

It's a long process.

They take the wood, and then they quite often key it.

They put it in a swamp so it stays the right shape.

Then they sometimes will put hot coals on the top and scrape it all out.

This one is very sensitive.

It has some nice sort of small swelling, which is barely perceptible, in the bowl.

We have a repair here, which is metal, which is really unusual, because they're usually wood.

But it's hand wrought.

There are some more repairs on the side here.

They're not done with the same wood, and there's some fill there, which is a previous generation, again.

Not fabulous repairs.

Right.

But they've done whatever they can to sort of preserve this bowl.

I'm not sure of the wood.

It's not koa wood-- it might be milo.

But it's really rare to find early bowls like this.

The really early bowls always have this dull matte surface on them.

And you can see the age in the rim.

It's really an old, old bowl.

I think a retail price for this would be about $5,500.

Oh, wow!

Okay.

All right, fantastic.

That's great.

I knew it was special.

I didn't know it was $5,000 special.

Right.

WALBERG: Two outdoor sculptures by Avard Fairbanks grace the gardens around Meadow Brook Hall.

Colt Pegasus presides over the octagonal pool and evergreen garden, and the Golden Fleece is on display in the breakfast garden.

♪ ♪ Fairbanks also designed the original hood ornament for the now-iconic Dodge Ram.

WOMAN: I brought a sculpture.

He's, um, Japanese.

And he's a little man who's chasing his hat in the wind.

(chuckles) MAN: What do you think it's worth?

I have no idea.

(laughs) When I was a teenager, I saw this man at my godmother's house.

She said, "One day, I'm going to put this in my will and it'll be yours."

Recently she just gave it to me.

He's just something that's I've always treasured because he's different.

What captured your attention?

I like the fact that his hat is missing, it's gone, but he's trying to get to it.

And I like the movement that's in his clothes.

So this fellow was working, and then the hat blows away, and it's blowing away on a wave.

Oh!

This is water.

You can see it's kind of breaking and frothing and so on.

And it's shallow, but it's water.

Yes.

He is in a rice field.

Oh!

On his back, this is where he would put the hoe, and here he is just leaping forward, just this spontaneous reaction.

That's what that sculptor wanted to do.

And that is characteristic of a particular school of artisans who were working in the late 19th century in Tokyo.

It's made of bronze.

Okay.

And it was in response to a change in Japan during the Meiji period, where there was a real effort to industrialize Japan and move it forward to become part of the world of nations, to become part of international commerce.

And so they were creating things that could be sold to a foreign audience, and they would be displayed in world's fairs, in places like St. Louis and Philadelphia and Chicago.

So we know it was made in the late 19th century stylistically.

But, also, right here is a little square mark.

And it says a number of things, but what's important is that it says "Kaneda."

And that is the name of the sculptor.

And we know that Kaneda worked in the late 19th century.

Okay.

1885, 1895.

That kind of time frame.

This happens to be one of the very best examples that we know of by this particular artist.

Oh, wow.

You can see the detail on the clothing and on the waves that are cresting, the face, the features.

This is a wizened old man who's gone through a whole lifetime of work.

From a technical standpoint, creating a figure that's supported by one leg is hard.

Yes.

You've got to balance the weight.

And this is a fairly heavy object.

So one of the ways that is achieved, by the base extending so far.

Okay.

So that's also part of the scene.

But, also, look what the figure does.

It extends far as well.

And there's enough weight that's balanced by this, and I'm going to pull it out.

You can see that it's got this fairly substantial block Yes.

attached to the end of the foot, so that this is not going to move.

That's right.

And all that was calculated by the sculptor when he came up with this idea.

Do you know how your godmother got it?

She's in her 90s now, and I've asked her recently, and she doesn't remember.

For retail replacement purposes, I think a figure of $12,000 would be about right.

(laughs) Really?

I had no idea.

(laughs) Oh!

That's wonderful.

(laughs tearfully) Oh, my gosh.

Thank you.

(laughs tearfully) (sighs) Wow.

(sighs) That's really something.

I had no idea.

I got it at an estate sale that was being held in Petoskey, Michigan.

And it was just there, and no one seemed to have much interest in it.

And, oh, that was about the 1960s.

What do you think it is?

Well, the mark is Meissen, but I have no idea if it's real Meissen.

Well, let's look at the mark.

I'm going to turn him over.

There's a mark that's a famous mark.

It's actually two Ls interlaced.

The mark of Meissen is two swords that cross.

Now, it looks a lot like the Meissen mark, but it's not.

But it is the mark of a famous porcelain maker in France called Sèvres.

However, like a lot of marks on porcelain, it's put there, I'm afraid, to deceive you.

So as you...

I was afraid of that.

Well, this happens.

But we see... at "Antiques Roadshow," most of the porcelain we see with marks, I'm going to say, especially if it's Sèvres marks or Meissen marks, are not made by those factories.

So don't feel too bad about it.

When you bought it, it was probably new in the '60s.

I think it was made in France.

Now, how much did you pay for it back then?

$12.

$12.

Well, I think you did just fine.

You needn't worry.

I think if you tried to sell it today in a little antique shop, it would certainly be priced at about $200.

Okay.

You know, even though it's...

Better than 12.

A lot better than 12.

WOMAN: This is a watch.

I don't know the brand, but it is a very important piece for our family.

My husband's family, and mine as well, we were second generation automotive industry here in Detroit.

My father-in-law was an executive for General Motors.

He started working in 1940, and he rose up the ranks to a finance executive position in a division that no longer exists.

It was called GM Overseas Operation.

He was honored with this watch when he hit the 25-year mark, which was in 1965.

And he received it in their division in Brazil.

A lot of folks around here grew up in this environment, where they traveled all internationally.

So he had a ten-year stint in São Paulo, Brazil.

The brand is Patek Philippe.

Have you ever heard of that?

No, I think our family thought it was Phillips Paddock or something... we didn't have the information right.

Patek Philippe is one of the finest Swiss watch brands in the world, bar none.

There's a lot of good other brands, but by nature of market placement and branding, it's really at the pinnacle Wow.

of dress watches in this time period.

It's made in Switzerland.

It's all in 18-karat yellow gold.

Usually, when you have a watch like this, a lot of times it came on a strap, whether it was plain calf or alligator or something like that.

This particular one has a gold bracelet.

Now, usually when Patek would supply the bracelet, the bracelet would be marked.

And on a watch like this, they wouldn't have left this open space in here by the lugs.

They would have curved the bracelet so everything fit in.

So I would say that this watch bracelet is after market.

Okay.

The first thing we notice that's a little unusual is a lot of watches, the dial is white or silver or a rather light shade.

This one is black.

You didn't see a lot of black-dialed watches.

They kind of came out of the military, because they wanted something that was non-glare.

But guys like a black watch.

But what's interesting is, along with the batons and the subsidiary seconds, you'll notice all the numbers have a gold tone.

So it's actually what we call a gilt finish, underneath the lacquer on the watch dial.

Oh.

All right.

Now we're going to flip it over, and then we come back here, and you see the GMC G... new logo, and it has his initials, and it has the years of service, 1940 to 1965.

What I'm going to do now is we're going to pull the back off.

Now every Patek Philippe has a reference number.

This one happens to be reference 1578.

But if you notice, after it, there's two initials, GM.

So what this tells me is that this is a contract watch.

Oh.

That GM used to order enough watches from Patek Philippe that they made up these watches especially for them.

Oh.

And they even would stamp it with the GM logo.

Down below it, you'll see a serial number, just as you'll see serial numbers and a lot of information on the movement that tells you it's 18 jewels.

It will tell you it's adjusted to five positions, hot and cold.

If you look up the number, it's made in 1964 to 1965.

At auction, this watch would be $12,000 to $18,000.

Oh... oh, boy.

Wow.

I'm...

I'm...

It's too bad I had it in a Ziploc bag earlier today.

(laughter) Okay, we'll note that.

I thought you were going to say $2,500.

(laughter) MAN: I bought it at an estate sale in Grand Rapids, Michigan, about four years ago.

I know it's Newcomb College from the distinctive mark, but that's about it.

Do you remember what you paid for it?

$18.

This particular piece of Newcomb is quite striking for many reasons.

Among the top reasons is the fact that they most often have a floral pattern on them.

Very, very seldom do they have anything figural or animal.

Okay.

So having a band of alligators like this, this is only the second time I think I've seen that.

Wow.

The artist is one of my very favorite artists at Newcomb College.

Her name was Marie de Hoa LeBlanc.

And her signature is over here.

And she really did a lot of the very best of the Newcomb pieces.

She was with them from the very beginning, from the 1890s, and she went to Newcomb College at 16, and she started as a china painter.

This piece is in a style that is not the very earliest style.

The very early ones are not carved.

It's just flat painted, and they look English, and they're wonderful.

However, I personally prefer the ones that have a little bit of texture with them.

The date on this is easy to find out, because there is a chart.

The chart will show you that this date is 1906.

Okay.

So that's quite early.

This particular piece at auction today would be $5,000 to $7,000.

Wow.

Wonderful.

Wonderful.

♪ ♪ WALBERG: Horace Dodge owned this 1919 Dodge coupe.

It's all original.

It even has its original license plate.

A restored 1919 Dodge coupe might be valued at $15,000 to $20,000.

Add at least $50,000 to those figures for a car owned by one of the Dodge brothers.

♪ ♪ I found out that this identical lamp sold in New York for $3,200.

I wanted to see what it might be worth, so here I am.

The slipper's great.

It looks right for a woman of what, 7'2", I believe it was?

Well, there's different reports from 8'4" to 7'6".

Yeah.

So you don't know.

Well, here's the difficulty with most artifacts belonging to sideshow and circus characters of that period-- how do we know something actually belonged to them?

Oh, okay.

This documentation is, frankly, about as good as you can get.

Okay.

WOMAN: This was my grandfather's.

He was a doctor.

The story goes that it was payment for medical services.

It's extraordinary how many doctors seem to have good art collections.

I think it's often because artists are so poor, and they barter their goods.

Mm-hmm.

Now, do you know who did the painting?

Do you know anything about it?

It's done by Sepeshy.

It's Great Lakes freighters.

There's two of them in the picture.

And sand dunes.

And the most I know is that he just wasn't known for doing water paintings.

So we think this is Lake Michigan, then?

Mm-hmm.

You have these dunes there.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

So that's very characteristic of the landscape there.

Sepeshy is absolutely right.

Zoltan Sepeshy.

And as the name would indicate, of Hungarian birth, a very privileged, aristocratic, even, birth, a wealthy background.

Mm-hmm, okay.

His family used to take him hunting and fishing, and he had private tutors and did a lot of traveling.

But art was always a part of his life.

And so he studied in both Budapest and Vienna when he was a young man.

His father suggested that he go to the United States in 1921.

So off he went.

He would have been in his early 20s at that point.

And lived first in New York, and then moved to Detroit.

And that's the city, really, that he's most associated with.

As he put it himself, it was like a Horatio Alger story in reverse.

So rather than rags to riches, it was riches to rags.

Having come from a very privileged background, he found himself taking any number of menial jobs just to support himself.

So he's stacking lumber, he was whitewashing walls, he was selling books, all this sort of stuff.

But he was clearly a man of great determination and energy.

And all this while he was painting, and he would take his paintings to downtown Detroit in a suitcase and sell them, usually to professional gentlemen, doctors and lawyers and such like.

So this was all happening in the 20s.

So it's possible even it may have been a barter.

Maybe your grandfather bought it directly from him.

So, the energy, the determination paid off, and led to him receiving prizes.

He started to exhibit regularly with galleries, and he had a bit of a good reputation as an artist.

And became the instructor of painting at Cranbrook.

And then in 1947, he became the director there.

Now, Cranbrook is one of the great art education institutions in the United States and the world.

And the alumni includes people like Charles Eames, a furniture designer, Harry Bertoia, the sculptor.

And Eero Saarinen was there as well.

And, in fact, he succeeded Saarinen's father as the director of Cranbrook.

Very privileged background, very talented artist, great success in the States.

So riches to rags to riches again.

And he spent the rest of his life, really, at Cranbrook until he retired there, and really guided the school through many years.

But coming back to the painting, it's oil on canvas, and I would think this was probably done in the 1930s when he was Okay.

really under the influence of the American scene painters.

And have you given any thought to the value of it?

Oh, it's... to me it's priceless, but we've always wondered if it's worth anything.

Well, priceless is a big figure.

But at auction I would say around about $3,000 to $5,000.

Very nice, yeah.

It's something that I don't want to ever part with.

It's-it's absolutely beautiful to me.

There was an estate sale right down the street from where I live, happened to like the frame, thought my friend might like the map, and so I bought it.

All right.

And what did you pay for it?

$100, because I thought the frame was definitely worth $100.

The publishing information is right up here.

1835, by John Farmer.

And John Farmer came out to Michigan with the opening of the Erie Canal.

He thought that the Erie Canal would bring a lot of people to the Midwest, which, of course, it did.

And he thought this was a good opportunity.

And he started map publishing and map making in Michigan.

He did some very, very important maps, including this seminal map of Detroit.

It is original.

There actually are under ten known copies of this map.

Oh, my goodness.

And the condition of this kind of shows you why.

It's a large map.

It was printed on four sheets.

And you could buy them separately, but they were generally joined together, and this one was joined together and mounted on linen.

Up in here, it's starting to flake away, and you can see the linen underneath.

And that's why this one survived, because the linen is what protected it.

These things were made to be used.

The fact that it's a very early map of Detroit by the important John Farmer and that it's so rare gives it quite a bit of value.

Now, you paid $100, but you said it was for the frame.

Right.

What do you think it's worth?

What would you guess?

Well, if it's one of ten, maybe, like, $1,000?

Even in this condition, which is not in good condition, if it was being sold by a retail shop, they'd probably be asking about $5,000 for it.

Oh, that's a little more.

Yeah, it is a little... (laughter) Oh, my, okay, that's good.

♪ ♪ WALBERG: Matilda Dodge Wilson, the lady of the Manor House, became Michigan's first female lieutenant governor in 1940.

♪ ♪ WOMAN: Well, this is a sign that was found in my home in Urbana, Ohio, back in, like, 1970s, when I was a kid.

And it was behind an upstairs wall, like a knee wall space.

After some research, I do know that there was a Dr. Jacob Leonard that lived in my home in the 1800s, and he had a daughter by the name of Sarah, and she married a John Dupler, and she might have been a doctor.

That's all I can tell.

This is a very, very rare American trade sign.

It's made of one piece of wood with a beautiful deep dish surround molding.

The lettering is gilt, which is gold, and all around the sign is this sparkly substance.

People call these sand signs.

But they're really smalt, S-M-A-L-T. And smalt is crushed glass.

And they would actually glue that to the wood to these early trade signs, which made the wood almost impervious to the weather.

And that's one of the reasons this sign is in such wonderful condition.

The bracket is all original early iron.

Probably dates to about 1830, 1840.

And, obviously, a woman physician, pretty rare.

The sign would have hung perpendicular to the street.

And on the other side of the sign it says, "Mrs. S. Dupler," and it used the word "doctress."

And a doctress is a female physician.

However, in the early 19th century, the term doctress was also applied to someone that had magical healing powers.

Ooh!

So she's putting the word out there that possibly she's doing a little avant-garde medicine.

This is a very, very rare trade sign.

And we're going to put an insurance value on the sign of $2,500 to $3,500.

Okay, great.

WOMAN: I've brought what I believe to be a ewer presentation from the Accessory Transit Company of Nicaragua, which is a company opened by Cornelius Vanderbilt.

And it was presented to Captain Peter Lefevre for his successful placement of the SS Central America on Lake Nicaragua.

My husband's uncle was somebody who loved to go to auctions and flea markets.

He was a bachelor, didn't have any children, so he would gift us things.

It's a coined silver presentation pitcher, or ewer, made by Ball, Tompkins and Black, which is a New York silversmith.

It was originally called Marquand and Company, and the mark is under here on the base.

You mentioned the Accessory Transit Company, which was a company owned by Cornelius Vanderbilt.

Mm-hmm.

He started the company because 1848, everyone was going to San Francisco for the gold rush.

As we know, he was the great railroad and shipping magnate.

And so he came up with a way to get to San Francisco from the east coast faster.

So he formed this company, and he had some dealings with the Nicaraguan government to have rights to their land.

So they would go to the Caribbean, They would cut across Nicaragua, and then take a steamship up to San Francisco.

So this Captain Lefevre, obviously, captain of the steamship, and we have a picture, this little crest here, it says "The Accessory Transit Company of Nicaragua."

It has the paddle steamer here with the palm trees and mountains.

And the inscription was the paraphrase.

They presented it to Captain Lefevre for his ability in assisting... placed the steamship Central America on Lake Nicaragua.

And this is all inscribed right here.

And it gives the date, December 2, 1851.

Then it has his monogram on this side.

It's silver.

It's got the Vanderbilt connection.

It has the gold rush connection.

So all that said, for auction value, we would probably put $3,000 to $5,000 on it.

Nice, great, great.

Thank you-- that's awesome.

♪ ♪ (chattering) This is a Louisville Slugger guitar neck.

And some people... some people like that.

But, I mean, it's a... it's about 25% bulkier than most guitar necks that you would find today, if not... if not more.

But they have their fans, and it's a popular model.

Big family Bibles, they look impressive.

They look like they should be valuable, but they're really... there're too many.

My guess is today we'll see at least ten or 20 of these.

So the real value is the priceless sentimental value.

We don't see a whole lot of speedboat racing items.

It's solid bronze.

The craftsmanship is really nice.

Probably about $250, $300 for that.

Okay.

His dad kept it in his workshop piled with cigarette butts.

(laughs) WOMAN: My dad led a group of businessmen.

They were first group to go into Cuba in 1977 to explore trade with the Cubans.

And he was invited into Fidel Castro's office.

Wow.

In the palace.

And he was given these cigars by Fidel Castro.

This is my dad right there.

Okay.

And this is, of course, Fidel.

In 1977, Mondale and Carter were just looking at kind of working with the 1960 trade embargos.

And so your fathers group, it was from Minnesota?

Yeah.

So your father spent how long in the room with him?

Four hours.

Wow, that's quite a meeting.

Yeah.

One of the things my dad talked about was he said he had a certain impression that he was oppressive, mean-- you know, all the horrible things we heard that he did to people.

Right.

And he said he couldn't ever understand how anybody followed him.

And then he said he met with him and he said he was so charismatic.

He said, "I finally understood how he got those people to follow him and get this revolution," and so on and so...

Right.

He was razor smart, too.

So right here, a great photo.

It's of Fidel, and then your father's companion in the room that day, and your father.

What it is, it's a later enlargement of the original.

And then the business card, it adds to the cigars.

I think that, at auction, this group could bring $2,000 to $3,000.

That's exciting.

Of course, we'd never sell them, but, really, it's such a meaningful thing for our family.

Yeah.

Very, very cool-- well, thank you.

You're welcome.

MAN: 15 years ago, I was at a local show, and I found it in a booth.

I paid $250 for it.

The lady said that it was her father's, that it was in the basement, and that she brought it out to sell at that particular show.

What part of the country?

Livonia, Michigan.

First, let me tell you a little bit about banks.

Cast iron is a material for toys and banks that's almost unique to America.

And so we had the mechanical banks made of cast iron, and all the toys made of cast iron, beginning in the late 19th century.

We've seen the mechanical banks on the shows.

And then these are what we call still banks.

There are quite a few still banks, various varieties.

One of the most common forms for a still bank was, surprise, a safe.

So there's lots of safe banks out there.

This is really a nice one.

This was made for the Colombian Exposition, which celebrated the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America.

And it was in Chicago in 1893.

It has three portraits on the sides.

If we spin this, we see Grover Cleveland, who was president at the time.

This is sort of a copper-plated inset showing him.

Then on the back we have Columbus.

Of course, he was the hero of the fair.

And what I think is really fun is this is T.W.

Palmer, who was the chairman of the fair.

I think it's very funny that he decided he should be on a par with the president and Columbus.

It says on the bottom "Patent applied for," which means it really was never granted.

Of course, when you think about it, it takes a few years to grant it, so maybe it never really got granted, because after the fair, they weren't selling many of these, which is, again, probably why it's rare.

What's interesting is we do not know who made this bank.

The history has not come down.

Safe banks are fairly common.

This is really one of the rarer safe banks.

It's nickel-plated cast iron, as I say, with some copper inserts.

This is considered by bank collectors probably the holy grail of safe banks-- the one that you really have to have in your collection.

It's in basically pretty decent shape.

It's got some wear up here.

By the way, this is the Northern Hemisphere, which, of course, is where Columbus did his discovery.

At auction I would put an estimate on this of $10,000 to $12,000.

Oh, wow.

And I wouldn't be surprised to see it go for... get close to $20,000.

(exhales in disbelief) That was a lucky day!

I would say so.

That's money in the bank.

Yes, it is.

My great-uncle collected clocks over the years, and when he passed away, my great-aunt told me I could choose one of the clocks from his collection as a memento of him.

It's called a beehive clock.

Okay.

For obvious reasons.

Right.

The form of the clock is in a beehive, But what I like most about it is it has this beehive glass.

A lot of people refer to that as beehive, but it's called a skep, which is a manmade beehive.

This clock was made by the New Haven Clock Company, and they were in business from 1853 to 1946.

And this clock would have been made circa 1870.

Wow.

It's a mahogany case.

And if you open the door here, you have access to remnants of the original label, but it has the original dial.

What it doesn't have is that this was originally an alarm clock.

And it would have an alarm mechanism mounted right here.

And there would be a disk right here that you would rotate the numbers, and it would ring, and it would sort of shake the house, because it's like a fire alarm.

Yeah.

It doesn't stop until that spring loses all its tension.

But, honestly, that's not a big deal in terms of it not having its alarm.

Okay.

A lot of these clocks don't, and they're pretty accessible to get, so it's really not that big of a deal.

But one of my favorite things about this clock is a mouse lived in this clock for a while, and it's kind of neat that it could get in and out of the clock without the door being open.

And you can't see it from the front, so I don't really think it hurts the value of it at all.

It is a mass-produced clock, but it is a great example, in my opinion, because of the glass.

Okay.

And a clock like this in a retail situation would sell for around $600.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

Great.

♪ ♪ WALBERG: Alfred Wilson, who married Matilda Dodge in 1925, had craftsmen create a frieze in his study that depicts moments of his life.

This panel shows the wedding of a very tall Alfred and the much shorter Matilda.

I used to be a wall stenciler back in the '80s and '90s, along with a friend.

And we traveled around Michigan and did stenciling, so I became very interested in stenciling.

And when I saw this table, I really wanted to own it.

And so we bought it in Ohio at an auction.

And we have lived with it ever since.

This table presents some clues as to where it was specifically made.

We're not sure, but we seem to have a certain consensus that it resembles closely the work of two cabinet makers, Alexander Kinnan and States Mead.

And they were in New York on Broadway, and they operated as a partnership in the 1820s.

We found this exact stencil border on a piece of furniture that was sold Really?

several years ago.

Uh-huh.

Also, there were some other aspects that made us think that we could at least make the attribution to that partnership.

I found an example of a chamber stand that had a sort of loosely carved acanthus leaf panel.

And on the base you can see there's this banded border.

That's kind of a New York thing.

Really surprised that the top was in such great condition.

So somebody, I suspect, for decades must have had a cloth or something on this.

Maybe.

Because it's protected.

If we look at the back of the piece, this has non-working drawers.

They wanted this piece to be placed in the middle of a room to be admired from every angle.

Okay.

And in all likelihood it was used by a woman who was proficient with, say, needlework or embroidery.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

She probably kept her supplies in here.

How long ago did you buy it?

Probably about four years ago.

And what did it cost you then?

We paid $2,000.

So I don't know if that was too much or not.

No, I think it wasn't too much.

I think it's a fair price.

The furniture market has been affected rather significantly.

Yes.

A lot of young folks don't particularly find any interest in these things.

Yes.

So I think the piece of furniture is definitely worth what you paid for it.

And it might be worth a little bit more because of the condition.

Mm-hmm.

And let's-let's... you know, let's add at least $500 for passion, right?

Okay, sounds good.

♪ ♪ (chattering) It's a nice set.

Not the first edition, but in the generation of.

Condition is everything in a big way and they're in very nice condition.

I would put $100 to $150 for these at auction.

Might need a clean.

I see a little bit of discoloration here in through the clouds.

But it's a decorative picture by an artist who's not known, probably something done post-1950.

And how much did you pay for it?

30 bucks.

$30.

I expect it would probably be closer to something like $75 to $100 at an antique shop.

Okay, great.

So I think you did well.

Thank you very much.

Yeah, thank you.

The individual shown here in the picture is my grandfather.

And that's his brother, Jack.

They joined the marines together for World War I.

If we can take a look at the uniform here, We know that he's in the Marine Corps because it's a 1917 pattern forest green wool Marine Corps service coat.

He's got Marine Corps eagle, globe, and anchor collar insignias, which they did not all have.

We know by the shape of his shoulder sleeve insignia that he's in the 6th Marines.

And we know by the color of the felt background that he's in supply company, 6th Marines.

His VFW hat has his World War I victory medal, and that's his World War I Marine Corps good conduct medal.

The helmet, it's actually a British helmet.

If we turn this upside down, we see that the chin strap lugs are attached with these split rivets.

That tells you right off the bat that it's a British helmet.

After experimenting around with a bunch of different things, we ended up settling on just adopting the British-style helmet.

We made ours here, but we also bought a slug of them from the British.

We see that the Marine Corps eagle, globe, and anchor insignia has been attached through a hole that's actually punched through the front of the helmet.

One of the things that you look for on these helmets is the method of attachment for that eagle, globe, and anchor insignia.

The reproductions, they tend to be very careful with the helmet, and they'll drill that hole and insert the insignia and attach it.

The Marines in World War I simply took a punch, slapped it with a hammer, and put it on.

So that's one of the first things that you look for.

The front is painted with the supply company 6th Marines insignia.

It's got the EGA on it.

It's a wonderful set.

Marine Corps items are among the most hotly collected of all World War I American military.

We Marine families are very proud.

It never goes away, does it?

And even though you have a uniform that has some mothing issues, it's still a wonderful coat.

It's a nice complete archive of his service.

You've got his I.D.

tags, his discharge documents.

Most World War I uniforms aren't worth very much.

We had approximately four million men in service.

About two million got overseas.

They all had multiple uniforms.

There's a lot of it out there in the world.

So your average World War I army uniform is $50 or $60 on its happiest day without insignia.

Marine Corps stuff is always better than Army stuff.

The set that you have here today would retail for between $2,500 to $3,000.

Wow, that's very exciting, thank you.

(chuckles) We bought this at a garage sale probably about four years ago.

The people used to own an antique shop in Holly.

They were starting to downsize stuff, and getting rid of a few things, and just kind of caught our eye.

And how much did you pay for it?

$150.

And what do you know about it?

That you fall asleep real quick when you lay in it.

(laughs) And it was made in Detroit.

Okay.

You know, Detroit Furniture Country.

I think we would call this a cantilevered chaise longue.

It's this really unusual form.

My colleagues and I have never actually seen this design before.

And it's definitely made for industrial or commercial use, simply because the way it's constructed, it's a full steel frame.

You can see this wonderful scroll at the bottom.

But then the entire frame comes up, and you can even see the steel sticking out at the back here.

And then it's wrapped in wicker.

Our estimation of age is around 1890 to 1900, 1910.

Okay.

We believe that the seat is original.

And it's got this kind of faded color right now, but if you peel it back, you can see this wonderful emerald green color.

Yeah, yes, yeah.

That was the original color in there, which is great.

And the way it's constructed is just absolutely lovely.

We believe that it probably came from a sanitarium or a retreat.

Really?

Somewhere in the area.

Okay.

It does have a label of the Comfort Furniture Company, Detroit.

I did some research and completely struck out.

I did too.

That's not to say that we wouldn't be able to find out, but most likely that was a small manufacturer here in Detroit that was providing this commercial furniture for retreats and sanitariums and spas.

The largest and most well-known sanitarium was the Battle Creek Sanitarium right here in Michigan.

Another reason we know that it's commercial or industrial design is this frame-- each foot has a hole in it.

And that was for it to be bolted.

It's certainly an unusual object, which is good and bad.

But people really do love wicker.

There's a little bit of fraying, but the condition otherwise, is very, very good.

So value on this, we have... all of my colleagues and I got together, and if we saw this in a good antiques show I would expect the retail price to be around about $3,000.

Okay, nice.

♪ ♪ WALBERG: There are 50 stained glass medallions and panels throughout Meadow Brook Hall.

Most of the windows were designed by G. Owen Bonawit, who produced the pieces for Tiffany Studios.

♪ ♪ MAN: I've got two oil paintings that I purchased approximately six weeks ago at an estate auction.

At this particular estate sale, I purchased three oil paintings, and I paid under $600 for the three.

But the third painting is not by Chaffee.

One thing I read about the artist was... a great quote was that he was modern before modernism was popular.

This painting is dated 1915, a great early date.

This painting is only signed, but I would assume it's from a similar time period.

I think it would be interesting to show the back of this painting, because there's some information on here.

I was only able to find an image of him in later life, so I wasn't sure if this could be a self portrait or a portrait of the artist by someone else.

But I did find out something very interesting.

I looked up this name, which I think is Mottet, M-O-T-T-E-T. And there was a painter, a woman painter by the name of Jeanie Gallup Mottet, who worked in Provincetown.

And if you look here in the foreground, you see a painter with an easel and a model.

So this is Mrs. Mottet and her model.

So that's the title of this painting on the reverse.

Now we can pretty much establish that this is a Provincetown landscape.

The other one is likely also.

He was influential and important, but it seems to me that that reputation was largely within Provincetown.

I think because modernism is so favored in the market, that people are now taking a look at the lesser artists that are not as well known, and I think this is a great moment for Chaffee to come up into the market into his own.

So I would say in a retail gallery, this might sell in the range of about $10,000, and this one for about $15,000.

I love them, and I'm really so happy that you brought them in today.

I'm extremely happy I brought them.

That's amazing-- I had no idea.

WOMAN: Harry Bertoia made those pins, and I think they were some of the very first that he made.

My sister worked in the dorms where he stayed at Cranbrook.

He gave her one, and then he knew that she had two sisters, so three of us got the brooches, and I have those, too.

Do you remember about what year this was that you received them?

Oh, dear, I must have been in my teens.

I bet I must have been about 16 years old.

Okay.

Late '30s, I would say.

I understand your family had an interesting association with Cranbrook as well.

Correct.

Mr. Booth owned Cranbrook.

When he first married Ellen Scripps, they lived in Detroit.

Then he came to Bloomfield Hills and bought Cranbrook and built his home.

It was a dairy farm when he bought it, and then he had to have it landscaped, and that's when my dad went to work for him.

And, actually, our family was the first family that had children that grew on Cranbrook.

Who grew up on Cranbrook.

So we were known as the second family of Cranbrook.

Oh, wonderful.

Yes.

Well, a little bit about the brooches.

They are by Bertoia.

He was born in 1915.

He came here to the United States when he was 15 years old and came to Detroit.

He enrolled in school in Detroit, and that's where he first started to learn metalsmithing.

And his early work, he was making jewelry.

He was awarded a scholarship in 1937, and that's when he came to Cranbrook.

And in 1939, he opened up the metal studio at Cranbrook.

When we look at the work that he made, everything is handmade.

There's no solder.

Everything is done by either rivets or pins or tension fitting.

And this is very much in keeping with the aesthetic of what we call modernist jewelry from this period.

And, also, when we look at the design motifs that these pieces have, the forged wire, the spiral motifs, this speaks very much of Bertoia's aesthetic that we will see him develop later on in the sculpture and in the furniture that he later designs.

And so these pieces are very early.

He only made jewelry for a few years before going into other areas.

During the war years, metal was being rationed, so the metal studio actually was not open very long once World War II happened.

And so he then got into graphic design, and then he went into sculpture after the war.

So his jewelry work is really quite rare and highly, highly collectible by people who like Bertoia's sculptures and design work.

I would suggest writing down the family history and provenance of the pieces, since they're not signed.

If these just showed up in a box of jewelry at a yard sale, most people wouldn't know what they were.

If these were to come up in an auction house that has maybe modernist furniture, Bertoia's sculpture, these as an addition to a Bertoia collection, each of these pieces alone would bring somewhere between $20,000 to $30,000.

Wow.

So we have a total of $40,000 to $60,000 as an auction estimate.

And now that you've said there's a third one out there, I would probably say it's around the same value as well.

Oh, my God.

That's how rare these are and how collectible.

Well, hallelujah.

It was worth the trip.

It was so nice meeting you, Peter.

Likewise.

I can't believe that these came in, Oh, my God.

and such a wonderful story.

I really appreciate your sharing that with us, Rose.

Well, hallelujah.

What a joy.

Wait until I tell my other daughter-in-law about that other one.

Oh, my God.

Hey, I'm going to go home and celebrate.

There, you should.

Thank you, dear heart-- I appreciate it.

You're very welcome-- thank you for coming.

Oh, my goodness.

Never, never did I dream that.

And do you know how many years I had these in a drawer?

Oh, I'm sure.

And you know when they were buying silver, I was going to sell them for silver, and then I thought... thought again, and I kept them.

Hallelujah, am I glad I did.

Good day.

Thank you, thank you, Jesus.

I tell you, I did the right thing.

You did the right thing.

Oh, Peter, you made my day!

Well, I'm glad, I'm glad.

WALBERG: This is "Antiques Roadshow" WALBERG: And now, it's time for the Roadshow Feedback Booth.

I found out that I have a Navajo owl kachina.

And it's made by Orville Manygoats.

Manygoats.

And I love it.

This is the ugly picture, my sister calls it.

I just love it, and it's worth a couple hundred dollars.

It's still an ugly picture.

Abe here, he's on our wall of flea market presidents at home, and he was worth about $50, which is good, because if he was worth any more than that, then he wouldn't really deserve to be on the flea market president's wall.

No.

And mine are binoculars that my mother said were from the Civil War, but they weren't.

And they're only worth 20 bucks if I can find somebody to buy them.

(chuckles) Well, the ancient Chinese tea pot my husband thought was going to be valuable was actually only $30, about 30 years old.

However, our George Nelson curtains, called the China Shop Print, were worth about $1,200.

This diamond ring was supposed to have been a gift from the last emperor of China, but it turned out to be made in New Jersey.

I have a potato masher that I paid ten dollars for, and it is worth $30.

Woo-hoo!

I've been to seven county fairs, five state fairs, two world fairs, and a goat loving contest, and I've never seen anything as nice as this.

WALBERG: I'm Mark Wahlberg.

Thanks for watching.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."