The Gen X Years

MARK WALBERG: Get stoked.

"Antiques Roadshow" is showing off some sweet treasures.

So here I brought you dessert.

Wow, very cool.

It's amazing!

It's awesome!

Oh, wow.

WALBERG: Ready to see more awesome stuff?

Great, because this is "Antiques Roadshow: The Gen X Years."

♪ ♪ WALBERG: "Antiques Roadshow" is shining the spotlight on Generation X and the art and objects that were created when Gen X was created.

That means cool vintage stuff, and exemplary artwork from the mid-1960s through the early 1980s.

So sit back and chill out as we explore treasures that take us back to the earliest days of Generation X.

WOMAN: I got it from my sister, who worked in New York City, and she collected a lot of modern art.

She liked modern art.

APPRAISER: Okay.

And she would drag me, when we would go to different cities, to modern art galleries.

Okay.

Which I knew very little about.

This is one of several that she has-- not by this artist-- but several paintings that she has and, and different lithographs.

I tried to look him up on the Internet and couldn't read his name, the artist's name.

It was the... ugliest one she had.

(laughs) There was-- you thought it was the ugliest one she had.

I did.

But she probably didn't think that.

No, she liked these a lot.

Okay.

It is a little bit difficult to read down here.

The signature is in pencil and it's Roy Lichtenstein.

So you have a lithograph and a screen print.

It's a combined technique by one of the best-known Pop artists.

Roy Lichtenstein rolls off the tongue when you speak of, of Pop art just as quickly as Andy Warhol.

They're sort of in the same tier, okay?

(laughs) You can see here the edition number, 81 of 200, and it's dated 1975.

Right.

This is known as the "Bicentennial Print" by Roy Lichtenstein, and it was done to celebrate America's bicentennial in 1976.

And you can get some of that imagery in the print.

First of all, there's the... the red, white, and blue.

There's a wheel here, which might suggest industry, the cornice of a building, sturdiness, various imagery here that leads to the strength and endurance of America.

Now, Lichtenstein is probably best known, going back to the 1960s, for his use of cartoon images in prints.

This is a mid-career work by Lichtenstein, when his, his style was becoming looser and more abstract.

You have a very good condition in this print, for the most part.

What we're mostly concerned about with contemporary prints in color is how the colors are holding up.

The colors are really, really strong.

In some of the yellows, which is more susceptible to fading... Oh, I see it.

...it does get a little bit lighter.

You see that?

I see it right around here.

Exactly.

We would like those to be more yellow.

So the slight fading here is a bit of a problem, but doesn't terribly affect the value, because they're not really, really faded.

On a scale of 10 being the best colors, this print is in about a seven and a half to eight.

So it needs to stay out of the sun?

It definitely needs to stay out of the sun.

The signature is very strong, if somewhat illegible.

(both laughing) And all in all, you've got what is a beautiful mid-career print by arguably one of the most famous contemporary artists of America.

(laughs): Up until now, a mystery to you.

Amazing-- yes, very much so.

I'm so glad I brought it.

So did you have any idea, just looking at it, thinking it was the ugliest thing you, you could... you could imagine, what something like this might be worth?

I don't know, probably a couple of thousand dollars if...

I probably would have sold it, when I was selling things, for $1,000, easily.

Okay.

I, I would say a replacement value on this-- taking into mind the slight fading of the colors-- would be in the neighborhood of about $15,000 to $20,000.

(laughing): Amazing.

So... (laughs) Good for you.

I actually probably would have sold it cheaper than that.

Well...

Isn't that amazing?

I'm, I'm happy you brought it in.

I'm happy I could give you more information about it.

Thank you, I'm so glad you were able to tell me about it.

That's wonderful.

Thanks again.

She would be pleased.

So now I like it better.

Exactly.

(laughs) When you see the-- it's better, right?

Definitely, I like it.

So maybe I'll, maybe I'll keep this now.

MAN: My oldest brother coached Little League up in Connecticut about 30 years ago, and one of the kids on his team, his father was the public relations director for "Sports Illustrated."

Well, around that time, my brother opened up a sporting goods store, and the kid's father, out of appreciation for my brother's coaching efforts with his son, gave my brother a bunch of sports memorabilia to hang on the walls of the sporting goods store.

The sporting goods store didn't last but a few years, and when my brother moved down south, he brought all the sports memorabilia with him.

And I've been a lifelong Chicago Bears fan, so he gave me the jersey that we have here.

And this jersey belonged to Gale Sayers.

Gale Sayers.

And it was one of his away game jerseys.

And Gale Sayers was one of my heroes when I was a little boy.

The Kansas Comet.

That's right.

One of the greatest and most exciting players of all time in NFL history.

He was.

And one of the most tragic careers, cut short by a knee injury.

Yeah, he did.

And actually, he was the youngest man ever elected to the Hall of Fame.

Oh, wow.

Here we have this jersey.

It's been in your possession for over 30 years.

Over, over 30 years, yes.

What have you been doing with it?

(laughs) It's been folded up inside a box in, in my closet at my parents' house.

When I opened it up and my wife saw it, she was, like, "Is that your high school football jersey?"

And I of course told her no, and she was, like, "We just need to turn that into a rag and, uh, use it to wipe down some of the furniture."

But I persisted and told her, "No, no, no, it's a famous football player's jersey."

And, uh, she just was kind of, like, "Yeah, whatever."

(laughs) And then I put it back in the box and it's been probably sitting in that box now, well, about 16 years.

16 years.

I'm glad she didn't turn it into a rag, you know.

(laughs) It's...

I am, too.

What you have here is, is, as you said, it's a Chicago Bears jersey.

It's from around 1969, 1970.

Okay.

Which were prime years for Gale Sayers.

Right.

It's picture-perfect as far as tagging.

Tagging is very important when you're identifying jerseys and authenticating jerseys.

Okay.

Right down here, we have "King O'Shea."

This was the manufacturer.

Right.

And King O'Shea manufactured the jerseys for the Chicago Bears during that time period.

You also have the size, 46.

That was Gale Sayers' size.

Wow.

Now, another thing.

You look to see how much use a jersey has.

Now, as you can see, this jersey's pretty dirty.

Right There's a lot of sweat.

There's a lot of blood.

There's a lot of repairs.

Team repairs.

Right.

This jersey's been torn apart.

Right.

It's been through war.

(laughs) Battles-- more than one.

Oh, yeah-- sure.

This jersey's gone through game after game after game.

Right.

It's not like today, where a football player gets a new jersey every game.

Let me show you another one back here.

Big patch on the back.

You can see.

Look at this-- that... Somebody tore that.

Right.

(both laughing) I mean, this has just been torn apart and fixed.

Right.

And he wore it again.

Sure.

And again and again and again.

Now, it does have some issues, okay?

The zero on this sleeve right here is missing, okay?

Okay.

That probably got torn off, too.

But that makes it better.

All these tears and rips and blood and sweat.

That's what collectors want.

That's what everybody wants.

Yeah?

That's the history.

That's the NFL, it's all those... That's the NFL.

That's it.

That's it.

And it's all here.

Wow.

(chuckling) (laughing): I mean, when you pulled this out, I almost lost it!

(chuckles) Now, the fact that you have the provenance you do, this jersey, I would estimate at at least $20,000 to $30,000, Roger.

(laughing): Oh, my-- oh, my gosh!

I'm glad my wife didn't turn it into a rag.

(laughing) Us, too, man!

Man...

It's amazing!

It's awesome.

Oh, wow!

(laughing): Oh, wow!

(laughing) Wow.

(laughs) $20,000 to $30,000.

Yeah.

Is that at auction or is that... Yeah.

Man... WOMAN: My sister was a artist-- or is an artist, actually, still, but at the time, she was living up in northern California, and she became friends with another artist named David Gilhooly and his wife, Camille, and he used to come over for, for dinner, and instead of bringing a bottle of wine, or a cheese tray or something, he would bring one of his little pieces of art that he had made.

And I was visiting one time, and I thought they were kind of fun, so she gave me a couple of them.

So here I brought you dessert.

Dessert, that's right.

I brought you a chocolate-covered frog on top of a cupcake, or a chocolate-covered beaver.

Mm-hmm.

It's so clever.

David Gilhooly is such an interesting character.

He passed away about four years ago, and he was part of the original California Funk movement.

And he was, in the 1960s, at U.C.

Davis, the assistant to the very, very famous Robert Arneson.

And Robert Arneson was a sculptor and a potter, and-- along with some others-- decided to kind of rebel against what was believed to be the fine art, which was by then very non-representational.

Mm-hmm.

So things that were so abstract for so long, and so well-regarded, and so posh-- they wanted none of that.

They wanted to go back to figural sculpting, but not just figural sculpting, goofy figural sculpting.

And then, once it was goofy, it became very sophisticated again.

Gilhooly would do things like a lot of food, for example, and he would adapt food and make it kind of crazy and give it these really bright glazes.

And then he went on to frogs, which always reminds me of Monty Python.

He's got all these little "crunchy frogs."

And so like this, he would cover them, in chocolate sometimes, and other times, only with really bright glazes.

Mm-hmm.

So even though these really look like chocolate, they are indeed glazed ceramic.

This Funk movement is this reaction against what has been established.

It's also political, it's also a little bit angry.

So with these frogs, or other animals, Gilhooly made a lot of statements.

I would like to show how they're signed here.

It's a very easy signature to read.

It's just scratched in, and these two are signed the same, and they're dated 1977.

I would think that at auction, these would probably have a pre-auction estimate each of about $1,000 to $1,500.

(laughs softly) For a chocolate frog.

(laughing): Okay.

You think my sister is going to want them back?

♪ ♪ WOMAN: Well, it was in one of our sons' bedroom years ago, so when we moved, we...

I took it down, and for some crazy reason, saved it.

♪ ♪ WOMAN: I collect bud vases and I picked this one up at, I think, a church bazaar.

Did you pay much money for it?

No.

I'm guessing it was about five dollars.

(laughing): I would...

I don't pay much for any of the bud vases I buy.

Okay.

I know nothing about this guy.

He actually was a California artist working in Mendocino, California.

Um, she's from the mid-1960s.

Uh-huh.

Blond hair, blue eyes.

And then in here, you also have... Ken.

Ken.

And he's got his doctor shirt on.

WOMAN: Well, in the mid-'80s, I lived in Los Angeles, and I worked with Matt Groening and his girlfriend, Deborah Caplan, marketing his first cartoon strip called "Life in Hell."

APPRAISER: Wow.

WOMAN: And we, um, published books and had merchandise that we marketed.

APPRAISER: Well, this is very early on, obviously.

Yes.

This is pre-"The Simpsons" that we all were introduced to on "The Tracey Ullman Show," that then went on for decades and decades.

"The Simpsons" still continues today, but it's, I think, one of the most famous American cartoon characters at this point-- the entire Simpsons family.

And it's wonderful that you were kind of a part of the very beginning of, of his story.

WOMAN: It was very exciting.

Well, I guess the main piece I want to talk about here is the "Life in Hell."

This is the first issue of his self-created comic book.

WOMAN: I think it is.

I moved to Texas after I had worked with him.

And so years later, I was looking through my things, and I found that.

And I looked at the date, and it said, "1977, number one."

I think that is his original first issue.

APPRAISER: And he signed it for you here.

WOMAN: And he signed it for me.

APPRAISER: Which is really cool.

And then the other pieces we have are actually original pieces of artwork that he also signed and dated.

WOMAN: When I had my baby, that was a card that Deborah brought to my baby shower that Matt had done especially for me.

APPRAISER: Very cool.

Well, they're obviously very special to you because you had a personal relationship with the family.

So looking at the market for them and what they might sell for today, we have to kind of take apart all of the personal connection.

And if they were on the market, it's a kind of a developing market.

Obviously, he's hugely popular, but the show is still running, so things continue to go up in price.

Right now, sketches of his routinely sell in the $300 to $500 range at auction, However, these are particularly early.

So the original artworks that you have here on either side, I would say are more in the $600 to $800 range, if not more, at auction.

And for insurance, I wouldn't put anything less than at least $1,000 to $1,500 apiece on them.

Okay.

APPRAISER: For the original comic, it's difficult because there are very few that have come up for sale.

WOMAN: I haven't seen them at all.

APPRAISER: They're, they're rare-- he didn't make that many.

He was making them himself.

They're, they're Xeroxed copies, but he did sign it.

Some of them that we've found that are later issues sell in the $100 range.

So this one being the first, it's really difficult to say.

I think being conservative, we'd say at least $200 to $300 at auction.

But who knows what would happen on the day?

Because so few have ever come up, and he signed it, which is really great.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Me and my dad went to an estate sale in Atlanta, Georgia.

And, uh, we got this one for $10, and these two each for five dollars, because they thought they were prints.

Uh-huh.

We kind of looked at it, and they kind of looked like paintings.

Right.

And, uh, "Popular Mechanics" sold these two copies as posters for people's houses.

And this is the cover of the "Popular Mechanics" book.

Do you know... Do you know the artist of these?

Uh, it says it in the book, and it's, like, Ed... Valenscheri?

It's, uh, Ed Valigursky.

Yeah, yeah, interesting guy.

He just died a couple of years ago.

He was born in 1926 and died in 2009.

Did you look up anything about him at all?

We saw some of his paintings-- one had just sold in an auction, and it went for, I think, $9,000 or $12,000?

Yeah, okay.

He's a illustrator.

He did a lot of illustration for science fiction magazines and articles, and books, for authors like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and people like that.

Now, these are a little different.

And, and you're right, these were done for, um, in "Popular Mechanics."

Now, you can actually see these, uh, this advertisement, how they were marketed.

You can see, "You can own these paintings."

When you get down to reading about it, you see you can get a lithograph for $1.95.

And there are your paintings-- U.S. planes in Vietnam, then U.S. helicopters in Vietnam, right here.

And these are your, your works right above us.

And then this one down here is the cover for a "Popular Mechanics" issue.

And you can see right here, it's called "'Tiger Sharks' of the Vietnam Swamps."

You see here the piece on the cover of this November 1967 issue, and there it is, right next to the... the original watercolor and gouache.

These are all the different planes used in, in Vietnam, but the reason they're so busy and there are so many planes is that they're trying to get all of them in there and trying to give a almost encyclopedic look of what was in the air.

It's hard to say, because the Vietnam War, there's still a lot of deep feelings about it, but I think these are really important things for a collector.

There were probably hundreds, if not thousands, of the lithographs made, but only one of the original artwork here, which you have.

I would probably put a conservative estimate on these at auction of about $4,000 to $6,000 apiece.

Nice.

Okay.

So do you think, as a group, they would sell more?

I would actually separate them off because you have different buyers for different things.

Okay, thank you.

My husband, about 30 years ago, was working for Wendell Castle in his woodworking studio.

And then my husband and his cousin broke off and started their own company.

Yes.

And it was called Fibertech.

And what they did is fiberglass work.

And then Wendell approached him to make the chairs for him.

So he did all the manufacturing of Wendell's chairs.

Terrific.

We don't see that much modern furniture at the Roadshow.

They're certainly wonderful examples of 20th-century design, and very interesting in Wendell Castle's work.

As you know, Wendell Castle is one of the pre-eminent American wood furniture craftsmen.

But we might say that that doesn't quite do him justice, in that he's really taken it to a new level of artistry.

And as you mentioned, he's, he's best known for his wood furniture.

These were something made for a very short period of time, isn't that correct?

Yes, mm-hmm.

When was your husband and Wendell working together?

About 1969, 1970.

Mm-hmm.

Considering that they are a factory-produced item, I don't think a huge amount were made.

So there is, uh... a pretty good market for these today.

And there is increased interest in postwar design in the marketplace.

I'm particularly fond of this chair.

This chair is called the Molar chair.

It's got this wonderful molar-like shape, and then this yellow example is called the Castle.

And I think it would be interesting to point out this rubber gasket along the bottom, which is an original detail.

There were some knockoffs made in the '80s, and there may even be some illegally made now.

Oh, really.

But since you acquired these directly from the maker, we know that these are original.

I would say colorful examples are probably about $1,200 to $1,800.

The black one, maybe a little bit less.

Wow.

WOMAN: I just love jewelry and went down south to the Galeria Capistrano with my friend one day, and saw the small bracelet, and loved it, so I bought it.

And I really loved this one, but I had to bring my husband back to insist that I buy it, and he did.

(laughs) So you acquired them at the same time?

About a week apart, yes.

And that was in what year?

1981.

Had you ever met the artist that made these bracelets?

He was having a show.

So he was actually in the...

He was there.

...in the gallery.

For that show.

And so you met him?

Yes.

And purchased these at that time?

Well, he had this in silver.

And I wanted it in gold, so they made it in gold for me.

Did anything remain with you about the artist himself?

Well, he was very Hollywood, you know, with the big ponytail and all.

He made bracelets for all the movie stars.

He was... he'd gone Hollywood.

(laughs) He'd gone Hollywood.

The artist we're talking about is Charles Loloma.

And he was a remarkable personality, and he looked like a rock star.

He was.

He was a beautiful young man.

He was, uh, Hopi ancestry.

He was from the Third Mesa.

He was born in 1921.

He passed early in 1991.

But he was working between 1950 and the mid-'80s.

And when he initially started making jewelry, he tried to enter it into the intertribal ceremonial art shows.

He was turned away three times, because they said his work was very nice, but it was not Indian.

Yeah, too ornate.

Because he was stepping away from the traditional in a way that's just breathtaking.

Have you ever had these appraised?

No.

What was your decision to bring them here today?

Because I knew he was famous, and he'd passed away, and they'd probably appreciated.

(laughs): And they were small-- I had to bring them.

There you go, there's a good reason.

Because of Charles Loloma's popularity and the prices that he achieves, there's a lot of counterfeits on the market.

People have to have the knowledge.

These speak very loudly as originals, even if you did not have the receipts.

These pieces on today's marketplace, in a auction setting-- for this particular one, the smaller one, I think we're conservative in saying it would sell for about $28,000 on today's market.

Wow-- oh, my goodness.

And the other piece, probably in the $40,000 marketplace.

Oh, that's interesting.

I know that pieces have sold in retail shops for as much as $80,000.

(laughs) WOMAN: I skated with an ice show, and we played Nashville, Tennessee, right after Elvis came out of the service, and we invited him to the show.

In return, he invited us to his house for a party.

So when he came to Las Vegas, at the International Hotel, uh, two of my girlfriends and I went to see his show.

And we met one of his bodyguards, Sonny West, and he took us down to say hello to Elvis, because we had met him at the party.

I came back about three nights later to see the show again, and ran into Sonny, and he took me back down to the dressing room again.

And I was kidding around with Elvis, and asking him about his macrame belts, if he made them himself.

And of course, he said no-- he was teasing me.

He said he'd stayed up all night long, making them.

Well, when he went in to get dressed to go up to the stage, he came back out and he had the macrame belt in his hand, and just kind of pitched it to me.

That's great.

And gave it to me.

So I've had it ever since then.

This was in the '70s.

Okay, and the record album?

And the record album, he gave me about three nights later, when I went down, he gave me a record album, and had signed it for me.

It's a great story.

Aw, thank you.

It's pretty good to be able to meet a celebrity like that.

Oh, he was wonderful.

He was such a wonderful man to talk to, and very handsome, very handsome man.

Well, the record album's interesting, because Elvis did sign quite a bit of things.

I see, very often, scraps of paper, letters, things of that nature.

Not very often on, on record albums.

Not unheard-of and not super-rare by any means, but it's really nice.

And I'm going to give you estimates based on what I think they would sell for at auction.

On the album, you can see it's actually inscribed to you.

It's to Freddie, and it's signed by Elvis Presley.

I think a fair auction estimate for that would be $1,200 to $1,800.

Okay.

Okay, that's for the record album.

Yeah.

Now let's take a little step up a bit, and we'll talk about the belt.

You're talking about something that's personal memorabilia that was actually worn by a world-famous celebrity.

A piece like this, at auction, I'd put a fairly conservative estimate at $6,000 to $8,000.

Oh, okay.

So as a package, both pieces together-- again, fairly conservative auction estimate-- maybe $7,500 to $9,500 on the pair.

It's just great stuff, but if you're gonna put an insurance value on it, you'd probably want to insure it for a little bit higher, maybe $10,000 for the two pieces.

Okay.

I'm glad you brought it down and you made Vegas what it's supposed to be-- a place where Elvis is remembered.

♪ ♪ WOMAN: One of my really close friends, her mother passed away, and she had an estate sale.

APPRAISER: Okay.

She had a price of $25 on it.

Okay.

And I loved crystal.

Okay.

So I paid the $25.

So this was not recent, though, this was... No.

Okay.

This was probably somewhere around 24, maybe 23 years ago.

Okay.

This is an Orrefors piece.

Swedish piece.

They started in business in 1726 and they're still in business today.

APPRAISER: This is so exciting to see.

You have a real icon of modern space age design.

This is a Weltron 2001 AM/FM eight-track radio, designed in about 1970.

And what makes this really unusual is how pristine it is.

And this one's in perfect condition.

WOMAN: When my children were young, I couldn't find figurines that looked like me.

APPRAISER: Okay.

Or that would look like them.

And so I just began a massive hunt to find stuff that looked like us.

I don't know how we ended up with these.

(laughs) My mother loved these, and...

I ended up with them.

These are both pieces made by a company called Lladró.

Large, very fine examples from the middle 1970s.

In a retail environment, they would probably be about $1,000 apiece.

MAN: It's a photograph I got from my uncle.

He collected old photographs.

Since passed away, we inherited it.

All I know is that it's by Diane Arbus, from 1963, and it's called "Woman in a Rooming House Parlor."

This is a photograph by Diane Arbus.

She was very interested in photographing people that were a little bit different than the norm, and she sought people who had struggles with their life.

Diane Arbus was a very important photographer, considered one of the giants of photography in the 20th century.

Oh, really?

Um, she had a major show at the Metropolitan Museum a few years ago, also a show at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Her books have been in print continuously since the early '70s, and is probably one of the most famous photographers in the world.

Wow.

This photograph has a stamp on the back, which tells us quite a bit about it.

The title: "Lady in a Rooming House," as you said.

Yep.

Albion, New York, 1963.

This print was made by Neil Selkirk.

Okay.

It was not made by Diane Arbus.

The signature is Diane Arbus's daughter, Doon Arbus.

Oh, okay.

She's the executor of the estate.

Okay.

Diane Arbus committed suicide at the age of 48 in 1971.

And Neil Selkirk printed this photograph after her death.

Okay.

Do you have any idea what value this has?

When we, uh, when we saw what the name was, we looked it up a little bit.

We were seeing there, people were asking for, like, $10,000, $15,000, $16,000 online.

So I, I mean, I don't know what they were selling for, though.

The price of this at auction would be estimated at between $15,000 and $20,000.

(chuckling): Wow.

Uh, a few years ago, the price would have been much higher.

During the period of her exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, there was tremendous excitement about her photography.

It might have been $30,000 or $40,000.

(chuckling): What?

MAN: Well, my father gave it to me for graduating high school.

His father gave him one.

It's been my everyday watch.

I wear it all the time.

And what year did you graduate high school?

1984.

Was the watch new at the time?

New in a box.

The watch is called a Rolex Explorer II.

Rolex is one of the finest watches in the world.

It's made in Switzerland.

The model is the 1655, and it started out as a watch with a 24-hour hand.

And that's it right there.

Right.

It also glowed, so that spelunkers and cave explorers could use that watch when they were down for two, three days at a time in a cave, they'd be able to tell whether it was day or nighttime with the 24-hour hand.

Your watch was probably made right in the year of 1980.

Okay.

What's really interesting and nice about yours is, from 1980 until today, the dial, the bezel, the hands, are all original.

So many times when these went into service, Rolex themselves would actually change for new parts.

Really.

From a collector value, everybody would rather have a watch that was absolutely original.

From a value standpoint, any idea?

I, I have no idea other than seeing what a Explorer II goes for on the market today, which is what-- $2,000?

Well, this particular watch, it's, it's very collectible today, and it's a pretty desirable model.

Really?

So at an antique show, this watch would probably sell in the retail level for somewhere between $12,000 to $14,000.

Really?

Right.

Wow, that's amazing.

And you're just wearing it as the everyday, beat-around watch?

I, I dove with it.

I've been in caves.

Oh, you have?

Yes.

Now, do you still have the box and the papers?

I...

I believe I do.

Okay.

I believe I do.

And that adds a little bit of extra value from a collector's standpoint.

So if you do, go home and dig them out.

Okay, great, great-- I will.

(laughs) MAN: I was just out antiquing one day, and I went to a shop, and it caught my eye.

It wasn't marked yet.

I'm into old lamps from the '60s, '50s, '70s.

APPRAISER: And where was the shop?

Mid Bismarck, on Main.

So a local shop.

Mm-hmm.

And how much did you pay for it?

$35.

$35.

So it's a great example of a chromed lamp from the 1970s.

The label on the back says Torino Lamp Company, which is an Italian company.

Other than that information, there's not a lot out there about the manufacturer.

Okay.

I have seen this in various other forms.

A woman, a shorter figure, a dog.

Okay.

I've seen a policeman, as well.

But other than those items that have sold or are selling, there's really no information about the manufacturer.

I did find a Montgomery Ward catalogue from 1979, online... Really?

...that has the original retail price for the piece.

Okay.

At $129.99.

Wow.

So you're ahead of the game already.

(chuckling): Yeah.

Despite the fact that we don't have information about the company, the modern market has exploded in the last ten years.

So anything that has a great look, which this does, is going to do well in the marketplace.

Okay.

Condition-wise, it's almost perfect for a piece of this age.

Wouldn't be uncommon to see either pitting or rust coming through.

You don't see that at all on this.

It has the original light bulb.

Mm-hmm.

On the top.

These are replacements here on the sides.

I love this on and off switch, which is his nose, controlling the lights.

All three on.

I love the illumination and the light in the eyes.

Right.

Which is fantastic.

Well, I talked with some of my colleagues backstage, and this does have a lot of wow factor.

I think in today's marketplace, at auction, we'd be looking at $1,500 to $2,500.

Wow, very cool.

WOMAN: My mother originally made the leathers, and after the jump that Evel Knievel made at Caesars Palace... APPRAISER: Uh-huh.

...he brought them in to her to repair, and she repaired them.

But he never picked them up or paid for the repairs.

Really?

Wow.

And so here is a picture right here of Evel at one of the jumps.

As you see here, everything is all crisp and fresh and looking good.

This Caesars Palace jump here was December 1967.

I can't confirm that this was in the famous Caesars jump where you see him tumble end over end over end.

I mean, that, that video is so hard to watch just because of the outcome.

I think it is, 'cause wherever there he tumbled, there's something on the leather that indicates he fell there, but okay, I hear you.

There are tumble marks.

I hear you.

I just haven't been able to confirm it.

Okay.

Evel Knievel was born in Butte, Montana, and I actually knew Evel.

He told me that when he was a kid, he knew he was going to do something great.

And so he bought a pickup truck in Butte, Montana, painted his name on the side, drove to California, but he didn't know what he was gonna do.

(gasps) And it took him a little while to do that.

He got into the motorcycle daredevil business, and he kept jumping more and more and more cars, and buses and compacted cars.

When we look at this, the condition, this has obviously been in a wreck.

We look here on the back of the elbow.

There's a blow-out there.

There's lots of road rash there.

There's an over-patch here, which, I believe, there's a puncture on the back side of that.

You look down here, and, and the knee is all scuffed up, and not quite blown through.

Marks here.

And then you go around to the back and looks like he did a huge skid on his behind.

You can see where it's worn through the leathers, or, actually, you can see perforations in there.

So that suit had been used quite a bit, you can tell.

What he did throughout his career is, he did so many jumps and he had such a wild life, that he kind of became... on, on the talk circuit, he became a celebrity in his own right without the jumping.

There's lots of great tapes where he's on Johnny Carson.

He would do entertainment around the country.

Do you have any idea of value on this?

Not really.

Yeah.

We were offered something for them about eight years ago, but we didn't... my sister and I didn't really know anything about that, so...

Right.

How much was that?

$10,000.

$10,000, wow.

Mm-hmm.

I believe that these leathers, at auction, would be $40,000 to $60,000.

Really?

That's kind of amazing.

It's kind of amazing.

I know!

Well, he's a famous guy and a lot of people followed his career and love him now that he's gone.

He died in 2007.

Oh, he did, I didn't know that.

Yeah.

If we could confirm that this was used in that Caesars Palace jump with the video where he tumbles down... Mm-hmm.

...um, the value would increase quite a lot.

I think that the value on these would be over $100,000 at auction.

Oh, my goodness!

I'd better be careful, aren't I, when I do... or should be when I travel or go with them somewhere.

$50 to $100.

So it's...

I guess I played with it too much as a child.

(chuckles) WOMAN: We went to the estate sale in the city here.

These glasses were available for sale, and we bought them.

What did you pay for them when you bought them?

Do you remember?

$20 or $25.

That's pretty good.

Would you like to try them on for us?

(chuckling): Okay.

Let's see.

They're fabulous!

They really are.

WOMAN: It belongs to my husband.

Um, he got it back right out of high school, 1977.

He made you schlep this guitar down from where?

He made me schlep it from Peoria, Illinois.

He loves to play this guitar, um, when he gets a chance.

Yeah.

Not very often.

They're fabulous.

Rickenbacker, Adolph Rickenbacker, is responsible for inventing and producing probably one of the first electric guitars, which was a Hawaiian.

And this is the style 331, made in 1971.

And what's very interesting about it, it's called the Light Show guitar.

Mm!

And what I'm loving about it is, it, it has this, you know, great sort of light mechanism inside that when you play it... (picking and strumming) ...it lights up.

Right.

Now, what's rare about these is that the generator that runs these lights is still effective.

Mm-hmm.

Because often they're burned out and they don't, they don't work anymore.

Mm-hmm.

They're great.

You know, I think of this 1971 guitar that has a light show in it.

I'm thinking of me in 1971 at the Fillmore East.

(laughing): Yeah.

Uh, ever have it appraised or...?

No.

Um, all I know is that he bought it from another gentleman for $250.

I spoke to a colleague of mine today.

He sold one, actually, just about a year ago, a black one, to, of all people, Roger McGuinn, who made these so famous.

Oh, my gosh.

Right, insurance value on this guitar: Mm-hmm.

$20,000.

(crowd murmuring) You're kidding me!

Oh, my gosh!

MAN: So when I was a kid, growing up in our house, we had a large photograph of the Spiral Jetty hanging in our house for as long as I can remember.

It was a photo that my dad loved and that my mom didn't love quite so much.

And it wasn't until I went to college, and I was in an art history class, and opened my art history textbook and saw the photo that was hanging in our family room for years and years and years... Yeah.

...that I went to my dad and said, "This is kind of a big deal, Dad."

And when I showed him that, he went into his closet, and took out a folder full of materials like this.

Apparently, four or five different contractors passed on the job because they didn't want to take their equipment out to the Great Salt Lake for fear of damaging it.

He was the first one who accepted the job from Robert Smithson.

He worked in construction for decades and built practical things-- roads, gas lines, things like that.

But for whatever reason, I think this was special enough to him, or weird enough to him, that he kept everything.

What we have here is the contract that your father had with Smithson, and there was some additional work...?

Yeah, originally, as you can see on some of the sketches here, it was like a big J with an island in the middle.

And after the project was completed, Smithson came back to my dad and said, "It's not quite right.

It needs to be changed."

And so he requested that it be turned into more of a spiral.

So they did an additional change order for that that was $3,000 additional.

The thing about Spiral Jetty is, soon after it was made, the water levels had risen.

You couldn't see it until the early 2000s...

Right.

...when a drought lowered the lake, and now it's become a pilgrimage spot for land artists and Utahns.

It's kind of become a symbol of Utah, hasn't it?

Yeah, absolutely.

It's definitely a very special place.

Smithson was born in 1938 and he died in 1973 in a plane crash while surveying Amarillo Ramp-- only three years later.

Right.

So what you have here are a variety of drawings with a variety of different detail.

This one is a more general piece, and this is the second version of the Spiral Jetty, I would take it.

Correct, yeah.

This work has more of the landscape surrounding it.

This one has some red pencil, as well.

The red is my dad doing drawings and diagrams to sort of explain how things could actually be built.

So the importance of having the proposal, and having the photograph that was autographed to your father, is that it authenticates the drawings, because the drawings themselves are unsigned.

There are records of drawings of Spiral Jetty coming up and selling.

There's a wide range.

So this work and the work in the center here I would value at about $15,000 each, conservatively, in a retail gallery.

I would think that this would be more like $10,000 in a retail gallery, and this one, which I... shows the first version and the second version, I would say, would probably be about $7,500.

Wow.

So the collection altogether is $47,500.

That's... pretty staggering.

I mean, that, that really would have delighted my dad.

He passed away just earlier this year.

And I... he probably... he would have been delighted just to have the work shown.

MAN: I was born in La Jolla in San Diego, and when I was very young, Dr. Seuss used to, uh, read books to children at a local bookstore, and that's the first time I actually got the chance to meet him.

I've tried to collect and find him at any estate sales I go to, and bookstores.

And I found these at an estate sale in Long Beach.

The person who I bought them from said that she had purchased them from someone in Texas from a person who had worked at a lunch box company, and that Seuss did the artwork for some of the lunch boxes, and that's all I know about it.

What you have here is some original artwork for the "World of Dr. Seuss" lunchbox.

This lunchbox was created by Aladdin in 1970.

And what I love about this overview that you have here is, you have the original stamps from it, and Dr. Seuss was extremely meticulous about controlling his art.

If you've seen the lunch box, which sells in great condition for about $400, you'll know that you have the back panel.

The back panel has Horton and some of the other wonderful characters, and this is the exact colors that were used in the back of the lunch box.

The front panel of the lunch box is actually the Cat in the Hat.

Wow.

And that's blue, so there's another panel that you're missing.

Oh, I... You have also what are the sides.

It has the Sneetches on it, and another example of a side.

So we have wonderful original art done by Dr. Seuss.

You are, again, missing the Cat in the Hat, which is almost the most iconic figure.

Yeah.

But nonetheless, I feel that something like this would easily bring between $10,000 and $15,000 at auction.

Oh, my God, really?

Yeah!

(laughing): That's amazing.

WOMAN: We inherited this table from my husband's grandparents.

They purchased it in the early 1960s in New York.

We think it's a Paul Evans... Mm-hmm.

...Cityscape line table, but we're not sure.

It is a Paul Evans table, and it is Cityscape.

Paul Evans did a myriad of, of different styles of furniture.

He started in the mid-1950s in New Hope, Pennsylvania.

And you're a little bit off on the timeframe.

This is from the mid-1970s, actually.

Oh, really?

He started about 1957 making furniture, and he ended up in the 1980s, and he actually passed away as a very young man.

He died at 55 years old, which at my age seems very young.

(laughs) This was the last big line of furniture he made.

He really started off as a studio craftsman, a very small shed, almost a garage, in New Hope.

And he kept building, and people loved his furniture, and they kept buying it.

This piece, I really think, demonstrates a lot of the Cityscape qualities quite well.

It's very geometric.

I love the cantilevered end.

And Cityscape was meant to look like buildings, and so it's very shiny and very geometric.

(chuckles) Almost all Paul Evans furniture is geometric in some way or another.

He started off as a jeweler, so everything is very tight, and it's very well organized.

As far as the damage on this piece, Cityscape furniture was sort of fragile.

It's made with chrome, and some pieces have bronze in them, and it was attached to a plywood frame.

And it really is fragile.

This piece has a few dings and bangs in it.

How'd they get there?

Well, some of the dings can be attributed to my husband when he was a toddler.

Yeah.

Um, he stood up to this table, and used his uncle's calculator to bang on the table.

Nice!

(both laughing) The problem with Cityscape, it's extremely difficult to, to restore.

Once it's dented, you almost have to replace the pieces.

Mm-hmm.

And again, the pieces will be very, very difficult to put together.

Okay.

It's very rare to find a piece of Cityscape that doesn't have some kind of character marks that were put there from years of use.

Yeah.

So do you know what, what your grandparents paid for this piece?

My husband's grandmother said she paid about $1,000 for this table, actually.

Right.

Paul Evans furniture was very expensive.

At auction today, this table's probably worth $6,000 to $9,000.

Get out!

Really?

I... absolutely, absolutely.

Wow!

MAN: I inherited it from my deceased partner.

That was about 20 years ago.

And when he lived in New York, he was in the subway with one of his friends telling him about Keith Haring.

And this was all relatively new, I guess, in the early '80s.

He was telling him about it, and he said, "You know what?

I'm gonna take that for posterity's sake," and whipped out his little pocketknife, and cut it out.

And it was already torn a little bit up there.

Uh-huh.

And I didn't know anything about it at the time.

I've since learned about him, and that in the subways, this black paper was put up in between ad space.

He got this idea of using chalk on this, and started doing, I guess it's graffiti.

Keith Haring was such an interesting character who died much too young in 1990.

He was born in Pennsylvania and came to New York City in 1978.

New York embraced him and he embraced them.

He was a superstar very early on, but along with that title, he was also very much of an artist of the people, and believed that art should belong to everyone.

He was influenced by the graffiti movement and just thought it was great.

He thought that people on the subways should enjoy the performance of him being there, and that it just should be a joyous art experience.

Not in the museums or the galleries, but just everywhere.

And the idea that he would go down to the subways, and paint over these pieces, people would come up and say, "What do they mean?"

It was a happening.

That's what he absolutely loved about it.

He did these subway drawings primarily between 1980 and 1985, when he was already becoming famous.

So your partner wasn't alone in tearing these off the subway walls.

(chuckles) Haring was very prolific with them.

Sometimes he would do 40 a day.

There, there were hundreds of them.

I mean, it was just this joyful underground movement of contemporary, interesting, energized art.

And really at the forefront of graffiti art and street art.

He was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988 and began his foundation then, and the foundation was to promote art and also to promote the work of children, and also to help with AIDS issues.

Right.

So he wasn't long with us, but he, he left doing some pretty remarkable things.

That's interesting, the connection, because my partner died of AIDS 20 years ago.

Yes.

So it's, uh...

It's something that I'll always keep and have, and that connection.

Well...

It's a lovely piece, in, in good condition, and framed under glass.

At auction, I would estimate it between $30,000 and $50,000.

You're kidding!

No.

(laughs) Oh, my God.

(laughing): Oh, my!

Yes, they're very rare now.

Wow.

They're important.

And for insurance, probably around $50,000.

(laughing): Oh, my God!

WALBERG: From Pop Art to a pop culture relic You came in this morning, and I saw you walking up to the table, and with a, a hunk of wood in your hand.

(laughs) And then you flipped it over, and I realized you brought in an original printing block.

Where'd you get this?

Interestingly enough, I got it at an online auction.

Once in a while, I'll pore through the listings, trying to see something, a knickknack or something from this movie that might be interesting enough to have on my shelf, and this really sung to me.

From what I can gather, in around 1976, the 20th Century Fox made up a whole bunch of advertisements to put in trade publications to get theater owners and fans interested in this new science fiction movie that was coming out.

And it, I was interested in this not only because it was the piece that made those advertisements, but it used the old logo, which they changed before the introduction of the movie in 1977.

"Star Wars" is a huge collectible.

People collect the figurines, the posters, anything to do with it.

And I'm gonna have you read it in a second here for fun.

But what's great about it, it has the new technology.

Dolby Digital Sound.

(laughing): Six-track.

Stereo, six-track.

Here, I'll have you read it.

What does it say there?

Okay, I'll do my best.

"20th Century Fox is proud to announce "that its forthcoming production, 'Star Wars,' "will be released with Dolby-encoded prints "in 70-millimeter, six-track stereo "in selected theaters, "and in 35-millimeter stereo optical nationally."

Well, I mean doesn't get cooler than that.

(laughing): Pretty, pretty fantastic.

"Star Wars" collectibles, as you know, they're still making today.

Oh, yeah.

Okay?

And they're still selling them.

And what did you pay for it?

(laughs): It was no more than $20.

It was $20.

$20.

Something like that.

You probably have made a little bit of a profit on it.

(laughing): Okay.

I would say-- now, I'm gonna be very conservative on this, because there's not a lot of these floating around to compare other prices of other ones that have sold-- I'm going to say $300 to $400 range, and that's being extremely conservative at auction.

WALBERG: Thanks for watching this special episode of "Antiques Roadshow."

Follow @RoadshowPBS and watch us anytime at pbs.org/antiques or on the PBS video app.

I'm Mark Walberg.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."