Sands Point Preserve, Hour 3

♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: "Antiques Roadshow" has struck gold on the coast of Long Island at the Sands Point Preserve.

It is beautiful.

Ooh!

How fun!

(laughing): I'm amazed.

That's very surprising.

I had no idea.

I don't know what to say.

♪ ♪ PEÑA: What do you get the son who has everything when he's about to get married?

How about 90 acres of prime waterfront property on the famed Gold Coast of Long Island?

This was Daniel Guggenheim's gift to his son Harry F. Guggenheim and new daughter-in-law Caroline Morton in 1923.

The couple built this French Norman-style house atop the bluffs overlooking the Long Island Sound and called it Falaise, meaning "cliff" in French.

And doesn't everything sound fancier if you say it in French?

Nearby, at Hempstead House at the Sands Point Preserve, "Roadshow" is finding some very fancy items and hearing some fanciful stories.

MAN: I inherited these lamps from my parents.

They were teachers living in New York City.

In the summer of 1951, they drove from New York to Mexico, and they brought back some interesting objects, including these.

Now, they weren't lamps when they acquired them.

They were just these statues.

I think it was in 1967, we moved to a new apartment, and my mother hired a decorator, and it was the decorator's idea to have them become lamps.

I love that your parents took such a great journey to go and get these figures.

What's interesting is that these figures took a journey of their own, because they're not actually Mexican.

Ah.

They're actually Chinese.

And they actually date to the 17th century, the Ming Dynasty.

Wow, I can't believe that.

Which was 1368 to 1644.

Chinese, that's amazing.

Traditionally, in Asia, these would never have been displayed together.

Oh.

Because this fellow... Mm-hmm.

...is Buddhist.

Oh.

And this figure is Taoist.

Ah, we have a conflict going.

(laughing): We have a conflict.

I'm surprised that they're still in one piece, you know, yeah.

Yes, well, they're bronze, which is a pretty hardy material.

You can see some traces of the polychroming, and there's some gilding on this one around the foot.

And originally, both of them would have been beautifully painted.

This figure is part of a pair called the He-He Er Xian.

And they would be displayed together, a boy and another little boy, both pleasantly plump, and they were to help the family have a boy.

Oh!

Commonly those would have been given as gifts at a wedding ceremony or displayed at something like that to bring good fortune to the new couple.

And this one is one of the eight Chinese Immortals, Lü Dongbin.

And you can tell there are traces of the pigments throughout, but in some areas, there's a little bit of gilding showing through, which would have covered the majority of the surface of this figure originally.

And that was because it would have been displayed in a area that was dark.

Huh.

There was no electricity, so everything was covered in gold or silver.

It has lots of symbols throughout the entire surface that speak to its importance.

The figure is standing on a pedestal that has mountains rising with waves lapping over them, a dragon diving in, which is the imperial animal.

Yeah.

It's very common for bronzes and for porcelain objects to be turned into lamps.

They did a wonderful job putting the rod on the backside, so it's... Oh, good.

So it didn't, didn't destroy the value.

It's good.

I would expect at auction, and they would be offered separately, that this one would achieve a price of between $5,000 and $8,000.

Oh, great.

And that the He-He Er Xian would be likely to sell for around $4,000 to $6,000.

Oh, wonderful, fantastic.

I'm amazed by all this information.

I had no idea that...

I, I thought they were, uh, Mexican gods or something like that.

MAN: This is the original official scorecard from the Shot Heard 'Round the World, the Bobby Thomson home run, in the third game of the playoffs of the Subway Series between the Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1951.

My dad had been a member of the press corps, and he was in the press booth when the game was being called and announced, when "all bedlam broke out," as he described it.

Somehow he ended up with the official scorecard.

He actually got, had both of them.

One he donated back to the Dodgers, and this one he kept because Thomson's at-bat was never filled in, because all bedlam broke out in the booth.

(chuckling) Tell us what happened in the bottom of the ninth, as shown in this photo that culminates all the action.

It's the bottom of the ninth and the winner of this takes it all.

So the score now is New York Dodgers four, New York Giants two.

Bobby Thomson gets up.

Second pitch, high and inside.

But Thomson takes it anyway and whacks it right into the left field lower l... bleachers, hitting a, a three-run homer, bringing himself, the winning run, home.

It's for the Giants to win the pennant.

And the most famous moment was, the announcers, all of the announcers, are all screaming, "The Giants win the pennant.

The Giants win the pennant.

The Giants win the pennant."

So this shot shows Thomson actually hitting the home run off of Ralph Branca.

What you've brought in represents one of the greatest moments in sports history.

In fact, ESPN has ranked this game as number two on the all-time great games of the 20th century.

We've got the Giants and the Dodgers.

They're the pure crosstown rivals.

And it's one of the greatest rivalries in sports.

There are a number of important signatures on this score card, including several of the Giants team that played that day.

We have the Hall-of-Famer Monte Irvin, the great outfielder.

Then, of course, Bobby Thomson, who hit the Shot Heard Around the World.

And then we've got Wes Westrum, was the catcher that day, but then we have Willie Mays, who was just a rookie that year.

We have two major broadcasters who are famous for that day.

We have Ernie Harwell, and down here, we have Russ Hodges.

His call is the best-known because it's the only one that's ever survived.

Part of it has, is charm because we understand why it was never filled out.

On the other hand, you'd like to see an official scorecard completely filled out.

But looking at the provenance, I'm overlooking that.

There's two that exist: one is in the Dodgers Hall of Fame, correct?

In the Dodgers Museum.

This is the only other official that exists, and I believe this is the only one that's signed by all these folks, or was the...

So the other one was not signed.

No, they, they were not signed.

I would put an insurance value, at least $20,000 to $25,000.

Okay, cool.

Dad would be shocked and thrilled.

My wife is going to say, "We can pay tuition with that!"

That's not happening.

(both laughing) ♪ ♪ PEÑA: For their honeymoon, Harry and Caroline Guggenheim spent a year in Europe with their architect in tow, buying art, furnishings, architectural elements, and more-- things that would become a part of Falaise.

This grand staircase came from France.

As did this formidable mantelpiece surrounding the fireplace.

These bricks?

They're from the Netherlands.

WOMAN: It has been in my family since, like, the early 1900s.

Maybe even a little bit before.

My father's great-great-aunt, so my great-great-great-aunt, they were wealthy.

They had a import-export business of bananas.

She loved to shop.

So she was dear friends with, uh, Mrs. Statler of the hotel fame, and they would just go shopping all the time.

Unfortunately, when she passed away in the early '70s-- I think it was 1970 or maybe '71-- my father wanted to buy it from the estate for $20,000, and his mom had said, "Don't buy it.

"You can't wear that anywhere.

It's an invitation to murder."

(laughs) So my dad bought it anyway because he was that guy, and my mom wore it one time to a costume party.

What was her costume?

I think that she was, like, a flapper.

Oh.

With the dresses.

And so she wore the choker... Mm-hmm.

...not as bracelets, and that was it.

Well... And it's been away since then.

Totally fitting that she wore it as a flapper, because it firmly dates to the mid-1920s.

Yeah?

I'd say about 1925.

So this is a beautiful Art Deco platinum and diamond convertible necklace that converts into two bracelets.

And jewelry from this period is a signifier of wealth, but it's still really versatile.

It has multiple purposes.

Obviously, you could wear it as a more discreet bracelet with the smaller diamond, or you could put it all together here and wear it as a choker, with the central stone being the prominent feature.

So that central stone is five-and-a-half carats.

Oh, my gosh!

Yeah.

There's about 15 carats in the rest of the two bracelets, and when they come together as a necklace.

Yeah.

And then there's another diamond in the back...

It's, like, a smaller little round one.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So the pattern repeats, again, in the back with, oh, about...

It's about a carat and three-quarters.

Altogether, it's about 23 carats of diamonds.

In the early part of the 20th century, there was a huge influx of wealth, and at the same time, there was a huge influx of diamonds.

There was a diamond that was discovered in the Cape Colony of South Africa around 1867, which really increased the diamond output in the world 20-fold.

What had been sort of a rare thing was much more accessible.

It would be controlled.

But if you were an early-20th-century industrialist, socialite lady who loved to shop... (laughs) Shop, yes!

...you could go and get a wowza necklace like this.

It was very, very in fashion.

It's not signed, which is the only thing that would really add any more to its value.

It is in a fitted box, which I believe to be original, that is also unsigned.

So no real clues about exactly who made it.

But I would put my money on the fact that it was probably made right here in New York.

New York was a huge jewelry manufacturing hub at that time.

The stones are certainly from that, those Cape mines that I mentioned.

They're what the trade refers to as Cape Color, and that means they normally have some yellow tints.

So you can see, especially in the larger stone, that it has flashes of some yellow in the L, M, N range for diamond grading.

But it's very clean, it's very lively, and it's what we refer to as an old European-cut.

And it has these sort of big, wide facets that really make it sparkle in low-light situations.

So if you're here at a Gatsby-esque party, you know...

Which is perfect for it.

Perfect for where we are.

We're ready, we're ready.

It, you would see it from across the room.

Conservatively, I would give it an auction estimate of $60,000 to $90,000.

(gasping): Wow!

And I would not be surprised by any means if it performed at the high end of that range.

Oh, my goodness.

Thank you.

It is beautiful.

Ooh!

How fun!

If this were a signed piece of jewelry, you could triple that number.

APPRAISER: This is an Abstract Expressionist painting by Robert Natkin, a noted American Modernist.

This is one of his early, early works.

This painting on the back is dated May 1950.

So he's a young man, 20 years old, practicing his craft before becoming famous, really.

This is painted on cardboard.

These kind of, uh, materials tend to disintegrate with time.

It was signed by Rodin.

My mother actually picked it up at a garage sale.

It was a promotional piece for a, uh, benefit.

And this was cast in 1916, and he produced something for sale to benefit other artists.

It is signed down here on the bottom.

These sort of two entwined figures are actually, uh, a reduction from, um, "The Gates of Hell," uh, in Paris.

Who knew you could own a Rodin for $1,500 to $2,500 that was real?

Exactly.

MAN: I was given this from my aunt, who went to this show back in 1964, to the Beatles show.

She didn't even realize she had these items.

She was moving and she found them in the bottom of a drawer.

She knew I was a huge Beatles fan.

So she was, like, "Would you want these?"

I'm, like, "Sure."

It was 1964.

The program represents a Carnegie Hall visit.

The Beatles made two shows that night.

Uh, this was during their first visit to America when they were doing the famous "Ed Sullivan Show."

The Beatles were actually in Washington, D.C., before this show.

They took a train back to New York, and because it was Presidents' Day, a lot of people are off.

According to the records, over 10,000 people met them at Penn Station... Hm!

... as they got off the train to go to Carnegie Hall.

The fascinating thing about this is that there were very few tickets.

But they did two shows for 5,800 people.

Mm-hmm.

Well, they went on and came back to America and did Shea Stadium at 55,000 people.

Beatles fans love collecting ticket stubs.

The one thing I'd point out about the performance itself, I think it was John Lennon, said that he felt like he was an animal in a cage being petted... Yeah.

...because they had fans up on the stage with them.

Each of the pieces have sold in the past at around $1,500 apiece at auction.

Mm-hmm.

If I was gonna place this as a set up at auction, I would estimate it somewhere between $3,000 and $4,000.

Wow, that's great.

Yeah.

That's pretty cool.

You know, she had mentioned that, you know, the one thing that she, she found annoying was everyone just screaming the whole time.

She could barely hear the, the sound.

She could barely hear them singing, because it was everyone just going crazy and screaming.

She actually went on a blind date.

And I think that was the last date, though.

That's great.

There, there was no second date, but she got to see the Beatles.

But she got the Beatles out of him.

(laughing): Yeah.

That's awesome.

PEÑA: Aviator Charles Lindbergh was a frequent guest of Harry Guggenheim's at Falaise.

Leading up to the United States' involvement in World War II, Charles's hero status was diminished after he made several anti-Semitic public statements.

He denied that he favored Nazi racial policies to Harry, who was Jewish, and Harry defended his friend by saying that Charles was politically naive.

The relationship cooled during the war, but was revived afterwards.

MAN: I inherited this from my mother, who passed away in '87.

She got it from a lady in Niagara Falls.

My mom is from an old Niagara Falls family that goes back to the early 1800s.

We all called her Cousin May.

I don't know her relationship, really, to our family.

We used to go and visit her, and I think that's why she gave the, the painting to Mom.

Well, the painting is by Albert Bierstadt.

Right.

You can see there, in the lower right corner, that it is initialed "A.B."

in kind of a maroon-y red color.

Mm-hmm.

It's oil on a paperboard.

On the back of the painting, there's that label, "Eliza Bierstadt."

That's Bierstadt's sister and she lived in Niagara Falls.

Niagara Falls, yeah.

So hence the connection there.

So this is, uh, Mount Hood, actually.

Oh!

So Bierstadt is arguably one of the most famous of our 19th-century American painters, and he made a number of trips west, but he only made one trip to Mount Hood.

Hm!

And that was in 1863.

He went there with a very curious fellow named Fitz Hugh Ludlow, who was a writer, a friend of his, and the two of them were going to put together a book.

And obviously, Bierstadt was going to do the paintings.

They traveled from San Francisco up to Mount Hood.

Ludlow was with Bierstadt the whole time, and he was immediately fascinated by Mount Hood.

We know he stopped at multiple points and spent days painting Mount Hood.

They're not necessarily topographically accurate.

Mm-hmm.

Because Bierstadt was one for drama and feeling maybe being more important.

Fitz Hugh Ludlow thought that Bierstadt did some of his best work on this trip.

Now, that may have just been for the book, but... (laughing) (laughing): ...it sounds good, right?

Sounds good.

Bierstadt ended up marrying his wife... Uh-huh.

...Ludlow's wife, three years after this trip.

So...

I'll be darned.

Yeah, there was a lot of infidelity on both sides of that marriage.

The Indians in the foreground are definitely something that we see quite often from Bierstadt's depictions of Mount Hood.

The frame, I think, is probably original, but has been repainted at some point.

So not, uh, at this point a large part of the value of the picture.

If you follow his market, there was a point during his life where it really crashed, frankly.

Mm-hmm.

He went from the tippy-top, one of the most expensive artists in the market, to being very out of fashion.

And then in our lifetime, he's come back... Oh.

...to, um, not the same level of prominence he had.

He did multiple versions of this painting at a much larger scale.

I think, even though it's a small-scale work, you're probably realistically looking at an auction estimate of $40,000 to $60,000.

Boy, oh, boy.

Hm.

That's impressive.

(laughs) A lot of money for a little picture.

Yes, yeah... We had no idea.

Now, I would say there's an important caveat.

Uh, there, there is an expert working on the catalogue raisonné, which is like a complete body of work for the artist.

It's part of the art market that if you have that going on... Mm-hmm.

...you got to check with them.

Okay.

I'm sure she'd be thrilled to see it, because Mount Hood is not a typical subject matter, uh, but it would need to be authenticated formally.

This was a map that has been in our family for over a century.

It's been in my mom's house for over 50 years in the frame.

It's what we would call in the trade a roller map.

So when it was made, it was meant to hang on wooden dowels, and it would have been exposed to the light, and it has a little bit of varnish on it from that time.

But that's to be expected with a wall map.

There are very few institutional examples of this map.

Perhaps because it was a wall map, not many survived.

What you have is, you have the second edition.

And we know that because it's dated in two places.

It's dated in the lower, where it's copyrighted 1836.

Mm-hmm.

It was published by Colton.

Your map was published in 1844.

Another method for dating it is the progress of the Long Island Railroad.

Mm-hmm.

I think the 1836, the railroad only went to Mid-Island, as they call it, to Hicksville.

Yes.

Just a few years after that, which is the second issue, they made it all the way out to Greenport.

So that speaks to the importance of the Long Island Railroad, which is one of the oldest railroads in the United States, and also of the development of Long Island.

It shows the spine of Long Island, and it was formed by a glacier.

Mm-hmm.

So it's what's known as a terminal moraine.

The North Shore of Long Island, or the Gold Coast, as you would call it... (chuckling) ...is hilly...

Yes.

...and, and quite forested here.

There's a lot of detail with elevations, swamps, marshes, and trees.

So it's looking at nature and culture.

And then you see lower, the South Shore is quite flat.

It also has five insets here... Mm-hmm.

...which show the commercial connections between Long Island and other ports.

There's New Haven, Connecticut... Mm-hmm.

...and there's two references to Staten Island.

I'm assuming for wha, the whaling industry.

And then there's, uh, Newark, New Jersey, and then a wonderful inset of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Brooklyn...

So it's early for Long Island.

There's a lot of Indigenous names-- Matinecock Point, and then got Shinnecock.

And then also the Dutch connection, when they attempted to settle the Manhattan area back in the 17th century.

The publisher made four editions of this map, and each edition showed the improvements of the Long Island Railroad.

Mm-hmm.

You referred to Matinecock, and the Matinecock Indians named that area Sint Sink, which was our first name of our peninsula.

The Matinecock were able to sell off land to the English colonists and the Dutch, which is a part of our family.

It was published in New York, and the surveyor was, uh, Calvin Smith, and it was actually printed in Lower Manhattan.

It's one of the best maps of Long Island at the time.

Great.

It was our great-grandfather's, and apparently it was hanging in his office as a pull-down map, and it has a couple water stains because of the fire that was in the house in the early '60s.

All the coloring is original color with watercolor... Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

...and that's still intact.

In a retail setting, I would estimate this to sell for between $5,000 and $6,000.

Wow, that's very nice.

It's a beautiful piece.

Yes, but it is priceless.

(laughs) WOMAN: So this is a caricature of my father, Herb Trimpe, as the Phantom Eagle.

This is a piece that was given to my parents as a wedding gift.

My father drew for Marvel Comics.

He's best known for the Hulk.

Herb Trimpe drew the Phantom Eagle as a freelancer, and it's a cartoon about a World War I ace.

WOMAN: This is a medallion that was made by Victor Brenner, who is the designer of the Lincoln penny, and it belonged to my husband's grandparents.

Victor Brenner was a friend of the family, and when my husband's aunt was born, he engraved it, and gave it to them as a gift for the baby.

On the back, we actually see the inscription.

It gives that connection to Brenner.

But on the other hand, for collectors, they don't... Oh, they don't want that.

(laughs) They don't want something that's inscribed to somebody else.

I could see that.

MAN: This is my grandfather's flight jacket.

He was a bomber pilot in World War II.

His name was Reuben.

I knew him well.

He passed away just a few years ago.

It's just been passed down in the family from my grandfather to my father, and now to me.

Why did Reuben enlist in World War II?

I think it was just the time.

I think everybody was getting involved.

He was born in this country, but his parents were recent immigrants.

So I think he felt strongly about this country and, and that he needed to serve it because of all the things that it was providing for him.

Most of the stories he told me were a little bit less detail-oriented, so it wasn't a lot about what squadron he was in or anything like that.

He signed up to be a pilot, and everyone was signing up because they wanted to be the pilots.

They chose him because he had never driven a car before.

Everyone who was applying was saying, "I'm good at driving cars," and I guess that's kind of counterintuitive to flying planes, so they picked him because he wasn't a driver.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

We've started out with the jacket backwards, because this is mostly what you want to see, is the artwork that's painted on the back.

They did not come this way.

This is something that you had to do yourself or hire done.

Typically, in a squadron or a group, there would be one or two individuals who were known for painting jackets.

I did not find any aircraft by that name.

We always assume that the name that's on the back of your jacket is the name of your aircraft.

Right.

And in many cases that's true, but not always.

There were a lot of aircraft that had no names at all, and you would simply pick something that had meaning to you.

The, um, aircraft that we see here is a B-17.

The interesting features of that are these red markings that you see on the wing and on that leading edge to the, uh, vertical stabilizer.

And the other part of the iconography that, of course, jumps out and grabs you is that it's stabbing a dagger right into the heart of that swastika representing the Third Reich.

If we move this around to the front, there is more to the story.

It's an A-2 flight jacket, and in this case, it was made by Star Sportswear.

The contract number tells us that that was the batch of jackets that they were contracted to do in May of 1942.

And they were in Lynn, Massachusetts, just north of Boston.

The Eighth Air Force insignia on the sleeve is very prominent.

Right here in front, this is the insignia of the 391st Bomb Squadron.

They were part of the 34th Bomb Group.

They arrived in England just before D-Day.

One of the things that I wanted to check was on the interior of this.

To see that stitching, that has always been the insignia that was on that coat.

Okay.

When you stitch another insignia on it, there are going to be ghosts of holes.

And I was kind of thinking we might see something like that on this jacket.

And the reason why I say that that's a little weird... ...is, when we go back to the back here, the red on the surfaces there... Yeah.

...tells a different story.

That's a different bomb squadron.

Got it.

Still in the 34th Bomb Group, but a different squadron.

The 391st would have had green and the 18th had red.

Whether he maybe transferred from one to the other, whether he perhaps bought a jacket that had been made for somebody in, uh, the other squadron, there's more to that story there that we're never going to know.

I found him.

Oh, okay.

He is in the 391st.

Oh, okay.

Found a photograph of him in a particular aircraft when I was searching for that name... Hm.

...to see what aircraft he was assigned.

The next, very next mission after his crew got home with that particular ship... Mm.

...it was lost to a mid-air with another squadron.

The 34th was kind of an anomalous group.

Part of their job in the air in World War II for the Eighth Air Force was to keep the bombers together in a box formation or group, in a formation that allowed the aircraft to have mutual protection.

The 34th was a little weird in that they really did not follow that paradigm.

It was a job that required a tremendous amount of skill.

If you ever want to get a sense just for what his job was... Yeah.

...imagine driving a vehicle that does not have power steering...

Right.

...going down the highway, trying to maintain a certain interval from the vehicles in front and behind you, and then put that in three-dimensions.

Right.

And do it at 30,000 feet, with people shooting at you, for eight or ten hours.

The aircraft that are in front of you are putting off prop wash, and as you slip around in that formation, you could very easily get yourself bounced in a position where it, it's hard to control the aircraft.

So he's clearly worn the jacket a lot.

You see a lot of wear to the finish here, and that's normal.

That's what we want to see.

A conservative retail value for this today would be right around that $5,000 to $6,000 range.

That's great.

That's amazing.

And it's a great story.

PEÑA: During World War II, in 1940, the furnishings of Hempstead House were auctioned off, and Florence Guggenheim reopened the house for 75 British refugee children who were awaiting placement in foster homes.

Two years later, Florence donated 162 acres of the estate, including Hempstead House and Castle Gould, to the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences.

In 1946, the U.S. Navy bought that property for a naval training device center.

WOMAN: My husband bought it in 1998.

I had worked with the fire marshal in Columbia, South Carolina, and he had been contacted by an antiques dealer from Boston.

The fire marshal received a circular about this pitcher and requests that he consider buying it.

The fire marshal called me to see if I had any ideas about how he could raise money to purchase the pitcher for his museum.

But when I looked at it, with the presentation to G. Monteith, I knew that that was someone in my husband's family.

And that is Galloway Monteith, who was my husband's great-great-grandfather.

He was head of the volunteer company of Black firefighters in the 1840s in Columbia.

The inscription says, "For his steadfastness during a fire," with the date of, uh, September 22, 1846.

So I did a little bit of researching and went back to the old-fashioned way, and I picked up the telephone and I called about eight or nine different historical societies and archives and museums and libraries in the Columbia and Charleston and general South Carolina area.

Three of them had little bits of information that adds to the story.

Amazing!

So... Of the various volunteer fire departments at that time, all of them but one allowed for members to be Black, either-- and of course, slavery was still going on... Mm-hmm.

...so they were either freed Black men or slaves who were able to become members of the volunteer fire company.

There is a building engraved on it, which is on fire.

Yes.

And we can surmise that that building is actually a hotel owned by a man named William Maybin that was burned and set on fire by an arsonist on that date.

Really?

The hotel did not actually burn, but all of the buildings behind it did.

So it's most likely that this was presented in great appreciation by the insurance company, on, who, whose name, Aetna, is on the front of the pitcher in appreciation for having saved the hotel, so they didn't have to pay an insurance claim on it.

Yes, that sounds like a great story.

(laughing) It is, uh, Southern coin silver.

So, do you know the maker of the, of the piece?

Uh, I think it says on the bottom "Gail and Hayden."

It actually says "Gregg and Hayden," but, but... Oh, Gregg.

But Gregg and Hayden was a South Carolina silversmith, actually, in, in Charleston, South Carolina.

It's a really wonderful engraving.

The building, which is on fire with the smoke coming out of it, and then below it, here on the right, we have the fire engine, which is a horse-drawn fire engine.

At that time period, the supervisors of the fire departments were all white.

Mm-hmm.

But many of the people who worked on the fire department were actually African American.

They were highly sought-after to be drivers of these horse-drawn fire engines because of their previous experience.

Mm-hmm.

A lot of them had been driving these heavy horse-drawn vehicles at very high speeds, which was required, and a lot of their white counterparts did not have that skill.

Columbia at the time was a town of, uh, roughly 4,000 people, give or take, in the 1840s, mid-1840s.

And it was a rather bawdy town.

(laughs) A lot of... A lot of crime reports for back then.

One reason that I had a, such difficulty, uh, finding anything as far as records go is that so many records from that time period were destroyed by fire, because fire was so prevalent, and those records just don't exist.

If this were made in England or if it was made in New England, those are more common, and so the values are modest.

A pitcher like this would probably be worth in the neighborhood of $400 to $600.

Being Southern, and being by a major Southern silversmith, the value goes up exponentially.

If it didn't have all of this engraving and all of this history on it, you would be talking $1,500 to $2,000.

However, because it is historical in interest and importance, related to Black firefighters and a historical fire that happened in Columbia, I would think that the value of it would be somewhere between $5,000 and $8,000 if it came up for auction.

(gasps) Oh, that's wonderful news.

(chuckling): Great, well... Oh, I'm so pleased to hear that.

And you said your husband bought it.

Yes.

Do you know what he paid for it?

Do you know what, when he bought it...

He paid $2,500 for it.

Okay, well, that's a pretty good appreciation, I would think.

Yes, it is.

MAN: So a six-foot Louisville Slugger.

I picked it up in Think Big in Manhattan in the early '80s, so I've been collecting Hall of Fame autographs and putting them on there as I went.

I always brought my children with me, my three boys, and it was a great time.

So, you know, a lot of family memories.

APPRAISER: And how many signatures are on your bat?

80 signatures, 78 are Hall-of-Famers now.

Two of them I had put on there, Pete Rose and Tommy John, thinking that they'd, you know, by now they'd be Hall-of-Famers.

Yeah.

You know, about 30 years later, still not, but I still think they will be eventually.

Sometimes I had to choose guys to put on there if I met them before the, you know... Yeah.

...they even got into the Hall of Fame.

Mm-hmm.

Just to take a chance.

What did people say when they saw you hauling around this big bat?

Well, it did stick out.

Yeah.

It did stick out, when I walked around with it, showing it, they said, "Oh, you think you can hit with that bat?

You think you can?"

And then at one time, some of the players stopped signing bats.

So my last big name I had to get was Ted Williams.

I drove up to Albany with my three boys, and as I'm going up there, they're saying, "You know, he's not gonna sign that.

It's a bat, it's a bat."

And I got to the last spot, we're just before him, and Ted Williams looks at it, he says, "I'll sign that for him."

He was very nice.

What I appreciate about it so much is that you said you got them all one at a time.

As far as authenticity, and we talk about provenance and authenticity all the time...

Right.

...not only were you personally witnessing the signatures... Oh, yeah.

...but then you also took photographs like you brought and shared with us today.

Oh, I got photographs for pretty much every one, every one of the players at some point...

Signing it.

You know, signing it.

And here's the photo of Willie Mays.

Right.

My son and me.

(chuckles) And then, and then here's the signature of Willie Mays right here.

And what's also interesting that I love about this particular photo is, look how few signatures are on the bat at this time.

That was early.

I don't see any others on there.

I forget who the first one, it might've been Joe, Joe DiMaggio.

Here's Joe DiMaggio right there.

Right.

Well, I certainly have seen bats that are the 500 home run club.

Right.

Seen some Hall of Fame bats, but probably just because the sheer size of the bat, as well... (chuckles) Right.

...I don't think I've seen 78 Hall of Fame signatures on a bat that displays as well as this.

Right.

Yeah, this is autograph success here.

Just your dedication and passion to making this happen.

(chuckles) What's really unique about it is the fact that you did put this together starting with a blank bat.

Right, right, yes, yes.

And to me, that's just one of the biggest appeals of it.

Of course, the prices, the signing costs probably varied.

A lot of them, like, like, I was able to get for free, and, at certain events... At, uh, certain events.

In those, when I started doing it, you know, these guys were charging, like, ten dollars.

You know, maybe $500 in auto, in autograph costs.

In, yeah.

At auction, I'd expect it to sell for at least $4,000 to 6,000.

Okay.

Okay.

Very nice.

A multi-signed piece like this doesn't always translate to what you would think as far as when you look at the...

The value.

...the value of their autographs.

I'm kind of hoping it's gonna be belonging to Marie Antoinette, but... (inhales) We'll see.

It's not Marie Antoinette, sadly.

Okay.

It is simply, it's a pastiche... Mm-hmm.

...of the work that was being done in England in the 18th century.

They were painting very, very wealthy, rich people... Mm-hmm.

...and this was the sort of portrait that, that you would see.

♪ ♪ We called it the monster.

(chuckling): Okay.

There are two cultures in the area.

One is the Diquís from Costa Rica, and there's Veraguas from Panama.

But there's quite a blending between the cultures, and so archaeologists tend to refer to them as the Chiriquí Greater Area.

It's a feline of some kind, but this one seems to have horns on the top, so it's probably some mythical animal.

MAN: I brought you a fort, some soldiers, some cannons.

It was given to me by my father.

He got it from his grandfather, so it was my great-grandfather.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

He brought it over from Germany, where he worked in a toy factory.

My dad and my uncle, they played with this.

They shot the cannons, they knocked down the fort.

I got it about 20 years ago when my, uh, parents moved out of, uh, my childhood home and they, uh, gave it to me.

These are German and made for the German market.

Both of these date from around 1890 to 1910.

There are three major high- quality German manufacturers represented here.

This is made by Gottschalk.

Gottschalk was mostly famous for its dollhouses, but they also made a large number of forts.

Very seldom to see one this ornate.

These guns were made by Märklin.

They're one of the greatest toy makers of Germany.

And the soldiers were made by a company called Heyde.

Dresden was the home of Heyde.

They were in busin, business right up until World War II.

Okay.

And when Dresden was leveled, Heyde was over.

Yeah.

You have here two different sizes.

One of things Heyde did, they made all kinds of different soldiers.

They made them different uniforms for different countries.

These are pretty much German figures.

This would be your heavy cavalry.

And these are, these little guys, slightly smaller, the hussars.

And of course, your foot soldiers over there.

They're hand-painted, solid-cast lead.

They're mixed conditions.

It was a toy to be played with, and obviously, they played with it.

(chuckles) All these cannons function, and you pull back this and with a, some sort of a bullet in there, and lead, it would shoot.

It would knock all the paints off the figures, which is why a lot of these are, the paint is distressed, which hurts the value somewhat.

And sometimes, it would knock the castle down.

All these various components are hinged to go back down.

Great toy, great manufacturers.

The dollhouses are really, really strong, and, um, and much more desired, but when you get into the castle like this, which is so beautifully constructed, all painted wood, with this wonderful tree bark here.

In an auction setting, my sense of this would be in the $3,000 to $5,000 range.

Just the fort.

Just the fort.

Okay.

Now, I've analyzed the soldiers.

They're different sizes, and the wagons, and the cannons-- three different makers.

I think when you analyze all these in terms of condition, I would say about $5,000.

Okay.

Slightly better condition, a little better paint, I could see another $2,000, maybe a little more.

Really great paint, it's almost hard to say.

Mm-hmm.

It's, it's just unheard-of.

Right.

When you find something really great, the sky's the limit.

Yeah.

So, we're looking at $8,000 to $10,000.

Okay.

That's terrific.

I don't think, uh, you know, I'd be ever interested in selling it.

It's just been in the family too long, and, you know, keep passing it down.

PEÑA: The origin of the Sands Point Preserve and its mission to be a place for public recreation goes back over 50 years.

Nassau County acquired 127 acres from the U.S. Navy in 1971 that included Castle Gould and Hempstead House, plus property deeded by Harry Guggenheim after his death.

Harry stipulated that his beloved Falaise should become a historic house and remains fully furnished with the Guggenheims' possessions.

WOMAN: I brought a signed and written letter to Abraham Lincoln and a letter from Abraham Lincoln responding to the letter.

The letter was written to him by someone from Philadelphia, from the Custom House... Mm-hmm.

...in the 1860s, 1864.

He's requesting a letter, like, of reference to...

He was trying to get somebody a job.

My parents, when we moved to our home back in the early '70s, bought this.

I don't know exactly where they bought it.

When my parents got divorced, my father took it, and I remember my mother was, you know, upset that he took it.

And when my father passed away after my mother had already passed away, this was the first thing that I wanted.

Do you have any idea what they may have spent on it?

I don't, but today, as I was bringing it here, I noticed on the back that, what loo, what appears to be $1,850.

Ah!

That seems like a lot of money for your parents to, to spend on it.

So did, were they big history buffs?

My father was a bit of a history buff.

Obviously, Abraham Lincoln made so many contributions to history, and so his, uh, autograph has been collected back, way, all the way back to when he was president.

People would write a letter, send him a card, and, and just ask for his autograph.

Mm-hmm.

And also, you see autograph books from the 1860s, where people have gone around, gone down to D.C., visited the president if they could, because he did see people publicly.

Those are kind of the lowest level for value for any, anybody, any president, just because there's no real content.

And the spectrum goes from that up until, there are handwritten copies of the Gettysburg Address.

There are, uh, letters that he wrote that were mission-critical to the Civil War, and those are going to be higher in value.

We do see documents like this.

I mean, it's, it's really a letter, it's a note.

He had written the letter to this person, this Thomas, but it's on a letterhead of someone else.

It's not Abraham Lincoln at the top of the letterhead.

So it's almost like, I, I don't...

I never understood that.

He may have enclosed that, because I think that is the letter writer, because William...

I see that now, right, okay.

... B. Thomas was the man who wrote.

Right, right, right, okay, did it, right.

Thomas was a Republican.

He was one of the founders of the Republican Party in Philadelphia, and he served in the Civil War.

He was a customs agent.

He was the first Republican to be given the job of customs agent.

He was actually given that job by President Lincoln, so they had a direct connection.

The thing I found a little hard to understand was that it seems to be addressed to Salmon Chase... Yeah.

...who's the secretary of Treasury Department.

And somehow it got to Lincoln.

Right.

When we're trying to figure out whether something is authentic, his erratic handwriting...

Right.

...that's obviously key, and you have that, a wonderful example of the erratic handwriting.

Also, the fact that he is responding to Thomas on Thomas's paper kind of cements that connection and makes it feel like it's a definite, authentic thing.

Right.

If you ever take it out of the frame, you can often see, because you think, you know, he's writing with a nib pen, it scratches the surface of the paper.

Mm-hmm.

And that's a great indication for authenticity.

Other really important signs are, you can see that we have all sorts of different-colored inks.

Yeah.

Different handwriting.

The printing is different.

A reference that is out there, a key reference that is out there for us to consult, is something called The Lincoln Log, and someone has gone through and recorded where Abraham Lincoln was every day of his life that they can find.

This letter was written on July 29?

July 29, 19... 1864.

And that was a Friday, and he was in D.C. And there are two letters that he wrote on that day.

He wrote a quick note to U.S. Grant and he wrote a letter to a woman in Scotland.

So we know he was in D.C., he was looking at his correspondence, he was writing letters.

I wish I could tell you whether Mr. Van Allen, who is the subject of this recommendation, got a job.

Job, yeah, I know.

I cannot find anything of Mr. Van Allen nor his fate.

It would be good to have it out of the frame and take it to a framer, who will do an archival frame.

They're cutting them now so that they're big, so you can see all the edges of the document... Oh, okay.

Right, right.

...which is kinda cool.

Sometimes they, you can do one where there's glass on both sides.

There might be other information on the other side.

Right, right.

So it might be good to take a look at it.

To, yeah.

At auction, I would say that, that your letter, I would estimate it at $8,000 to $10,000.

Okay.

So definitely worth getting it conserved, so that you can keep it and pass it along to your children.

Wonderful.

Yeah.

It's amazing.

WOMAN: I have brought a piece of glasswork that was given to my mother by Dale Chihuly I think back in about 1965.

I was raised in Madison, Wisconsin, and my sister was a student at the University of Wisconsin in the art department, and Dale was, I think, a teaching assistant.

She met him through an art class, and she invited him and another friend out to Sunday dinner, and they came out to Sunday dinner several times at our house.

As a thank you gift, he gave this to my mother.

Well, he's very charismatic, and he was a major force.

When he would come out for dinner, we would just all be blown over.

And I remember my mother saying, "That young man will go far."

So it was-- and she was not mistaken.

At that time, he was just setting up the glass-blowing facility in Madison, and we actually got to go down and see where they were building it, and we got to see them blow glass.

I don't think I saw this exact piece, uh, being worked on, but...

It's not signed.

I don't have any documentation on it.

My mother's passed away, my sister's passed away, and I just would kind of like to know how I would go about authenticating it.

Oh, my gosh, I'm so excited you brought this today.

(laughing): Yeah, it's... ...thrilling.

This is what I've been waiting for.

Yes, okay.

It's amazing.

Dale Chihuly introduced a lot of people to art glass and art glass collecting...

Yes.

...and has become one of the hugest names right now.

Yes, yes.

But this is an early piece.

Yes.

This is an early piece he actually blew.

Yes, oh...

Uh, he had an accident, you know?

And so he lost an eye.

And he also had another accident where he hurt his shoulder.

Yes, ah.

And, as you could see when they were blowing glass, that's a really heavy-duty, with lots of heat, and got to be very strong to do that.

Yes.

So afterwards, he started working with a team.

Mm-hmm.

And so now he designs.

Think of him more as, like, the choreographer...

Exactly, yes.

...and the glass-blowers are the dancers, um, to all the glass today.

Yes.

What I like about early works by modern masters is that it really shows their process, and you can see how they blew it in this kind of asymmetrical piece, and they're working out what they're doing, and they have the trails and the pinching.

But it's interesting that this is very typical of the style of the period, too.

So, about circa 1965.

It is not signed; that's not unusual.

It was probably an experimental piece at the time.

Yes, yes.

And a lot of those got chunked out.

At auction today, I would estimate it at $2,000 to $3,000.

(chuckling): I'm amazed.

That's very surprising.

I would write to his studio.

Okay.

And just kind of introduce yourself, confirming, you, "Do you remember me?

Do you remember this piece?"

Send a picture of the piece and see if his studio will confirm the piece.

Ah, okay.

Everybody else will know, and keep that piece of paper with it.

(chuckling): For always.

Okay, sounds really good.

PEÑA: One of the most unforgettable scenes in movie history was shot here, in the dining room at Falaise.

Filming for "The Godfather" in 1971, the space was made to look like a bedroom, where the character Jack Woltz wakes up to find a horse's head in his bed.

Quite a terrifying scene in a room that had provided hospitality for the Guggenheims' family and friends.

MAN: Well, this watch was given to me by my extended family, and I've had it for almost a decade.

Are you familiar with the company?

Yes, Patek Philippe, sure.

It happens to be one of the greatest watch companies...

Yes.

...that still makes watches today.

The case of the watch, it's made in silver, and it's what we would call coin silver.

There's a hand on the top there.

It's a power reserve indicator.

That would tell you, when the watch is wound all the way up, how many hours it would take until it runs down.

So basically, on a full wind, it would run about 36 hours.

We know it's not in working condition right now.

It could be made to work again.

Right.

So when it is running, that constant second hand is constantly turning on the watch.

This particular model is referred to as a deck watch.

They typically had three of them all set the same time, so you had redundancy... Mm-hmm.

...in case one didn't work, two didn't work, stopped working, you still had a, a third one that was working.

The ones that I have seen in the past, on the back of the case on the outside, are usually marked "U.S.

Navy."

Your particular one is not marked that way.

Okay.

So I don't know who it was made for.

The serial number, that is the serial number of the mechanism, of the movement of the watch.

The case has a different serial number.

I have one personally in my collection right now that is 141 numbers from yours.

Mine was made in 1911, and it was sold, according to the extract, January 30, 1915.

So I think yours falls right into that category.

Probably manufactured in 1911 and sold around 1915.

So, generally, the ones for the U.S. Navy are engraved on the back, "U.S. Navy," right here.

Okay.

There's nothing removed, but because of the production numbers are very close... Mm-hmm.

I think this was sold to the, the U.S. government.

Wow.

There's the inner dust cover, which also has that movement number on there, and it's signed Patek Philippe.

And I want to open up, up the inside.

Let's study the mechanism of it.

These movements are just really phenomenal.

Highly jeweled.

There's the serial number right there.

"Watch"...

Right.

And I saw it matches the face in the front.

That is correct.

This particular watch has a very special balance on it.

The balance is this wheel right here that, that spins back and forth.

It's known as a Guillaume balance.

Okay.

It was invented, invented by Charles Édouard Guillaume.

In 1920, he won the Nobel Prize for Physics.

Okay.

These watches were the most accurate watches of the era, and they had special people in the factory that only regulated these watches.

These watches were all sent to the timing trials in Geneva, Switzerland, at the observatory there, and it was made for heat and cold.

Because when they did those timing trials, they were done under the extremest conditions.

Manufacturers wanted to prove that they made the most accurate timepieces.

So they submitted pieces to these trials.

This one here is marked "extra."

This watch was sent to the observatory timing trials.

Now, we didn't have enough time today, but it is possible to still check the records of the observatory.

The extract will tell you what award it won, if it won an award.

But it won't be able to find out... No.

...the name of who bought it, right?

What we, what we want to see... Let me-- no, they never release... Patek Philippe will never release that.

They may bid on it and buy it at auction, and then once in, it's in their museum, they say it belonged to this person, but they, they will not give you that information.

Your dial is made out of enamel, porcelain.

It's white enamel.

Every one that I've ever seen and every one that I could research on this, the dials were made out of silver.

Your watch has an enamel dial.

So...

I have no idea why it has an enamel dial, but that had to be a special order.

All the printing on it is exactly the same as a silver dial.

Really?

Hm.

Wow You have something very special here.

It's good.

It could be one of a kind, possibly?

It's very possible.

What did you think the value of this is?

I looked through, like, some of the records and some websites maybe five years ago, and I saw maybe, uh, $2,000.

I saw one was $3,000.

But I couldn't find this specific one.

Maybe $4,000?

I don't know what the recent market is now.

The market has gone up and down on these.

I've seen them in the past bring around $10,000, years ago.

That's very nice.

They went up, they went up extremely high... Oh, yeah.

...and they've come back down.

Okay.

I've been describing the ones that I've handled and I've seen, today's market are about $20,000 to $25,000.

Wow, very impressive.

That's, that's amazing.

I didn't think it was worth that much.

I have to be really careful with this.

Well, you're gonna have to be more careful.

(chuckles) Because now we have that dial, and all those had silver dials on them.

Really?

Now, it's hard to place a value on something that there is no record of a sale of it.

Okay.

But based on expertise and seeing other unique pieces selling... Mm-hmm.

...I think in auction today, this watch would sell, probably, at, in the least amount, $50,000.

Really?

(chuckling) But I think you have the potential of a $100,000 timepiece here.

It's very impressive, really.

I had no idea.

I don't know what to say.

(chuckles) Very excited.

And I thought it was only worth a, a couple thousand.

I had no idea it could go up to $100,000.

I had no idea.

No.

It's so rare that if it was sold at auction, not working or working, it's still going to bring you the same price.

PEÑA: You're watching "Antiques Roadshow" PEÑA: And now it's time for the Roadshow Feedback Booth.

I had no idea what the value was going to be.

I thought they could be fakes for the tourist trade, and it was great finding out that they're, they're worth quite a bit.

Thank you so much, "Antiques Roadshow."

I brought my Beatles ticket from 1964, Carnegie Hall.

Pretty awesome, got it from my Aunt Beverly.

Thank you so much.

(blows kiss) Yeah, that was my sister.

I didn't even know she went.

(chuckles).

But we had a great time.

Oh, I love the Roadshow, I love Sands Point.

My youngest son got engaged over here, so I'd just like to shout out to Gerard, Jason, and Brandon, who helped me get all these autographs.

We love "Roadshow."

Especially the Feedback Booth, and we're looking to get an Emmy for them this year.

(laughs) We drove seven hours to get here, had a great time, would do it all again if I had the chance.

I knew in my heart it was authentic.

I was certain that it was, but I had no way of knowing that for sure, and that she was certain that it is authentic, and that she gave me all this information and that it's got a value, and, and I appreciated that she appreciated how special I feel it is.

This is not something I'm looking to find the value to sell.

It's something I want to keep in my family.

My mother is a "Roadshow" enthusiast.

She never misses an episode, so this is really kind of in her honor that I did this.

I was pleased that there's a number attached to it, but doesn't really matter.

PEÑA: Thanks for watching.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."