Wags to Riches

♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: It's love at fur-sight.

I almost let out a scream because I never see them.

(chuckles) He has a very unusual mechanism that makes his head move.

Yeah.

APPRAISER: You can see the cat's not too happy.

(man laughs) PEÑA: It's "Antiques Roadshow: Wags To Riches."

♪ ♪ PEÑA: It's a parade of treasures featuring the most popular pets found in many homes around the country-- dogs and cats-- that still charm their owners today.

These fabulous fur babies have been captured in art...

He's a Great Dane, and I love the, the, the blue of the eyes here, a great, great color that, that you pick up.

And it's just somebody's dog.

PEÑA: ...and collectibles... APPRAISER: Felix the Cat was a cartoon character originally, in the 1920s, and, uh, he was actually a little bit of a naughty cat.

PEÑA: ...for generations.

APPRAISER: I mean, look at these earrings.

Yeah, the...

The cat is wonderful, yeah.

I mean, how hysterical-- really, really funny.

PEÑA: Which artwork and objects with paws and claws deserve best in show in your opinion?

Take a look.

WOMAN: I brought in a cat gumball lottery machine that was given to me by my mother a few years ago, but it actually belonged to my father.

He acquired it in the late '50s from a friend.

He traded something for it.

What did, uh, your father trade for it when he got it?

That I don't know.

Well, it's a very interesting piece.

It's a very rare piece.

It is called the Lukat.

Up until a few years ago, there was only believed to be about a half a dozen of these known.

Really?

Uh, now, a, a book came out talking about them.

There's about two dozen known, but that's still a very rare item.

This one is a nickel machine.

They also make it as a dime machine.

At the time the book came out, there was believed to only be one nickel machine in existence.

So presumably, you may only have the second.

Wow.

Can you show me how it works?

So there's a coin slot here in its ear.

You just put the nickel in and you pull its tail.

And... Push that.

Oh, and I got lucky.

I got two gumballs.

And we pull the ticket out.

Commercially, this piece was a disaster.

Mechanically, it's very complex, and oftentimes, it would break, jam up, and rather than be burdened with taking it completely apart to fix it, it got discarded.

This was produced roughly in the 1940s-1950s.

As far as where it was produced, reportedly, it was produced in San Francisco.

It's also...

I believe that they could be from the Midwest.

Can you tell me about where you put the gumballs in the machine?

Turn this around.

So the gumball go in right back here.

Okay.

And then there's a key, a skeleton key that opens a drawer to remove the coins.

Sure.

Okay.

Well, it's a very fascinating piece.

Very attractive.

Uh, very desirable.

It has a cross-collectivity.

It's a figural cat, which are very popular.

It's a gumball machine, trade stimulator, and it's also a lottery machine.

It dispenses the ticket.

Have you ever had it appraised before?

I had one gentleman offer me up to $5,000 for it.

It could possibly bring about triple that.

Uh, so an auction estimate on this piece would be roughly $10,000 to $15,000.

And it could bring more.

Wow.

Well, I'm glad I didn't take his offer, then.

(laughing) I think so.

I used to be afraid of it when I was a little girl, till I found out there was gum in it.

(chuckles) Well, these dogs have been with our family for many years, and we've always had 'em around, and I just really wanted to find out more about them.

When you first brought it up, I thought we had this great bronze dog.

(chuckles): Did you really?

Then I got closer and realized that it was carved wood.

Right.

And immediately, I said to myself, "Wow, that's just such an amazing piece of Black Forest carving."

Right.

Typical Black Forest...

Okay.

...was, it was in Germany and Switzerland, a group of primarily Swiss carvers that really started the movement in the early 19th century.

All right.

This piece should date to the latter part of the 19th, early part of the 20th century.

Okay.

Because of the subject matter, we can attribute it to a specific carver... Really?

...by the name of Walter Mader.

Really?

As you begin to analyze what brings value to a ple, piece of Black Forest carving, there's a number of factors: the quality of the carving and what I would like to think of as the character of the piece.

Okay.

I would say, without question, this is the best piece of Black Forest carving... Really?

...the show has ever seen.

Really?

Yeah.

(chuckles): Wow.

That's wonderful.

Now, there's a few things wrong with it.

Not, not a lot.

We have a couple of repairs.

Yes.

This leg came off.

Yep.

Uh, I can't tell what's going on across the face here.

Ultimately, none of it affects the character of the piece.

Okay.

Okay.

None of it affects the quality of the piece.

These come up for auction periodically.

Conservatively at auction, I would estimate this piece at $20,000 to $25,000.

(laughing) Oh, really?

Really?

That's wonderful!

That's wonderful.

That's, that's really great.

It wouldn't surprise me if a insurance value was, was north of $50,000.

$50,000?

(mouths, laughs) If, if you had to go in and find this and buy it retail, it would cost you an awful lot of money.

A lot of money, yeah.

It has just been an absolute privilege and honor to see it.

Well, that's great, I'm so happy.

Thank you so much.

WOMAN: This is Felix the Cat, and this was my grandmother's toy, and it was given to my mom by her great-aunt.

And she thought that the head was coming off, and they realized that it is a perfume bottle, and they discovered that underneath.

Right.

I know that Felix the Cat is a cartoon character that used to be on TV, but I don't even know that much about that series or anything.

Right.

Felix the Cat was a cartoon character originally, in the 1920s, and, uh, he was actually a little bit of a naughty cat.

He was always getting into trouble and little adventures and things.

And so Felix was made in a lot of different forms over the years.

And Schuco, which is the name of the company that made this piece, was out of Germany starting in about 1912.

And this piece was done in the 1930s after Felix had gained a fair amount of popularity.

And he definitely is a little perfume, and his head twists off.

You lift out the stopper, put your perfume in.

It's kind of a cross collectible.

This one, I was very impressed, because I know you said your grandmother played with it, and yet it's in wonderful condition.

It's made out of mohair, the fur, and it has a little painted wood face.

He has his nose.

That doesn't always happen.

He has his original bow.

That's fabulous.

And this one has no sign of any moth damage to it.

He's all jointed so that you can... You could seat him if you wanted to.

You can move his arms, you can switch his head around.

You can do all sorts of different things with him.

The perfumes are very rare, especially to have the original stopper.

If it were just the toy itself and not a perfume bottle, that type of a thing would probably bring around $350.

Mm.

But because he is a perfume and he is in the wonderful condition and has all of his parts, he's going to be more like $1,000.

Oh, wow.

So, you have an adorable piece.

I love it.

He's a little, uh, bundle worth a big price, too, so...

Absolutely.

You've had this painting for a fairly long time, you said.

About 20 years.

About 20 years?

Yeah.

And where did you buy it?

Uh, I bought it at a local auction here in town.

Uh-huh.

Just an estate sale?

Just, yeah, it was an, out of an estate.

Uh-huh.

Yeah.

Did you pay a lot of money for it?

Uh, at the time, uh, it was $100.

The artist is, is, is Carl Reichert, it's very clear.

It shows that it's C. Reichert.

Carl Reichert is an Austrian artist.

Um, and he's a, uh, he, a specialist, primarily in animals, and specifically dogs.

Um, most of his paintings focus around, around animals, and they're mostly that small format.

Reichert has two really distinct kinds of paintings.

One type is the anecdotal painting, and that will tell a story, or it's, it's sometimes humorous.

You'll have dogs chasing cats or parrots and, and, and the house being torn up by them.

And then there's the other type, which is what you have here, is the purebred dog portrait.

Now, the purebred dog portrait in, in the 19th century is really more of an English kind of, uh, uh, domain.

And generally in the English ones, they show the entire dog.

Right.

Because they're trying to show the confirmation, the, the, uh, the legs, the tail, the, the size and all of that-- proportions.

But Reichert focuses primarily just on the faces and the facial expressions.

Do you have a dog like this at all, or...?

No, no, no.

You don't, okay.

Well, he, he's, he's a Great Dane, um, obviously.

And I love the, the, the blue of the eyes here, the great, great color that, that you pick up.

Um, and it's just somebody's specific dog.

It was painted probably for a commission as you'd have a portrait of a family member.

But the thing that I, I really like about this painting is the collar.

This is a great illustration of a 19th-century dog collar.

These collars themselves today are collectible.

If you had that collar, it could be as much as, uh, $1,000 for just the collar.

I see.

You paid $100, you say.

Good deal.

Uh, a painting like this by Reichert, I'd probably put an estimate of about $4,000 to $6,000 on it.

♪ ♪ WOMAN: We were at a s, church sale and I grabbed it.

APPRAISER: This is a recent Chinese reproduction of a very famous Minton teapot.

One like it sold for almost $100,000 at auction.

It still looks very cute, but it is nowhere the crisp original.

What did you pay for it?

$2.50.

It's worth more than that.

I, I would say maybe $25 retail.

All right, great.

We'll look for a real one.

(laughs) WOMAN: My dog received the Dog of the Year award in 1952.

I was kidnapped, I was two years old.

I was playing in my yard and my mom came out to shake a mop, and there was a man running down the street with me.

She said, "Skippy, go get Linda."

He jumped the fence, bit the man, and the man threw me off and ran away.

So they sent us to the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

Had a big Dog of the Year banquet.

And they fed my dog on a porcelain plate, a steak dinner.

So this was his award that they gave him?

That was the award.

And this was always hanging in our house.

It is absolutely worthless object if it were sold to someone...

Yes.

(laughs) ...who didn't know the story-- it's chipped, it's cracked, it's stained.

Yeah.

But it's priceless to you and your family.

Yes.

And that's the point.

That's the value.

Yes.

Yes.

WOMAN: The sculptress is Anna Hyatt Huntington, and she's a Connecticut sculptress.

She was a friend of a relative of mine and gave my Aunt Ruth this wonderful dog.

APPRAISER: Anna Hyatt Huntington was one of the leading American sculptors of the early 20th century.

She studied with Gutzon Borglum, who was the, uh, sculptor of Mount Rushmore, and she specialized in animal sculpture.

She did things for the Bronx Zoo, in New York City, "Joan of Arc."

She was married to a philanthropist, Archer Huntington.

Now, you said this is a depiction of Anna Hyatt Huntington's dog?

Her dog, named Echo, I understand.

Echo?

Yes.

And you see how beautifully modeled it is.

The attention to detail, the clarity of the casting, the patina is wonderful.

And I think what's so great about it is, the dog really has a personality, rather than just some generalized idea of a dog.

This is an extraordinarily large-size piece and great quality.

I would put a retail value in the $20,000 to $30,000 range.

Wonderful to know.

This is Anne Jacobs and her brother Joseph Jacobs, and they lived in Wooster, Ohio, which is actually only about, uh, 50 miles southwest of here.

She was born in 1835, and I believe he was born in 1833.

So that would mean that she's probably about three there.

That's what I would imagine, yes.

So, we're talking about maybe 1838 when this painting was, was painted.

Yes.

I would say about, yes.

And this was a family painting?

The people that owned it, the, the parents died and the, the children had no room for it anymore.

And so I was able to buy it from them.

They were distant cousins.

The scale of this painting suggests that this family had some money.

Yes, I believe they owned a mill in Wooster, Ohio.

It's a wonderful Ohio painting.

There's very little body of work to talk about... Mm-hmm.

...Ohio folk art portraiture.

It's not signed, which is typical of folk art paintings.

It was probably done by an itinerant... Mm-hmm.

...who came through Wooster.

You very seldom see two children in the same painting.

What else is so great about this is that she's holding that wonderful cat.

(chuckles) You can see the cat sort of squirming there.

Not too happy.

(laughs) Not too happy.

He's holding this marvelous pull toy.

And I love the little red yarn... Mm-hmm.

...that's attached so he could pull it along.

It gives the painting just a little splash of color.

And here at the top, we have the dress and the wagon.

Right.

That certainly adds value to the painting.

Does it add 20% to the painting?

No.

But it's nice to have it all together as a package.

It's in the original frame.

Mm-hmm.

Which is great.

It's been relined-- the canvas has been laid down on a newer piece of canvas to protect it.

It's had a little bit of conservation.

And you can see here, for example... Mm-hmm.

...that there may be a little bit of inpainting there.

Mm-hmm.

I would like to have seen a little bit something in the background.

Mm-hmm.

To really sort of bring it all together.

But at the same time, the kids are sort of jumping off the, off the canvas.

What did you pay for it?

I paid a lot for it, because I really, really wanted it.

I paid $20,000 for it.

Well, you know... And it was the only time I ever asked my father to borrow money, too.

(laughs) (chuckles): Well, so you, so you paid $20,000, and how long ago was this?

About 20 years ago.

Okay.

We all agreed that it's right there at the top.

Certainly at the top for an Ohio folk art painting.

Mm-hmm.

But it's not a, just a great, great, great folk art painting.

Mm-hmm.

Because it's just missing a little, a few things.

The background... Mm-hmm.

Their faces are a little bit flat.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

But nonetheless, we all agreed $30,000 to $40,000 is an easy estimate for this.

Mm-hmm.

And there might be a lot of upside if it were to come to auction.

It's a great folk art portrait.

Probably the best that I've seen in the time that I've been selling antiques in Ohio.

Really?

And that's almost 25 years.

MAN: I got 'em from my mom, and she got them from some relative a long time ago.

They're pretty important to me because this is a first-edition Jack London, "Call of the Wild," and the letter inside it is to a fellow author, O'Hara, who Jack London was inviting to stay at his house at, in Sonoma County, and also go to the Bohemian Grove as his guest.

And I've been to the Bohemian Grove many times, so I totally related to the letter and to Jack London's place in California, and the whole thing.

Well, O'Hara is John Myers O'Hara.

And John Myers O'Hara ha, has a publication that was published in Maine.

And London talks about seeing him there and allowing him to work at the ranch.

Yeah.

Undisturbed and in quiet.

But he then goes on to mention "Call of the Wild," his greatest book, and "White Fang," his second-greatest book.

Right.

And here you are with a first edition of, uh, "Call of the Wild."

With its familiar... ...doggy title page.

Yeah.

And, uh, 1903.

It doesn't have the, uh, dust jacket, which would make it more valuable.

But it's a nice copy.

A little spine wear.

But back to the letter.

This particular letter, three pages by Jack London, is in very, very good condition.

It's completely familiar, with this penciled hand.

And I think it's really an exceptional letter, and I would value it for purposes of auction sale at about $5,000 to $7,000.

Wow.

And the book at $1,000 to $1,500.

Huh!

Uh-huh.

Finally, I'll just show you that due to this, these two little pencil annotations here, I do not believe that the letter relates specifically to this copy of the book.

Oh, I never even saw those.

I think that the original copy of the book he refers to... Mmm.

...of "Call of the Wild" was lost somewhere.

Oh, okay.

And this is a very nice replacement first edition.

Oh, huh-- great.

If the dust jacket was on it, I'd put $10,000 on the book.

WOMAN: I inherited them.

They were either my mother's or my grandmother's.

My mother told me they were her mother's, but... My m, I lost my mother when I was 12, so you don't really remember the stories clearly, and at 12, you don't pay much attention to things that are in the house-- they're not important.

But they've been in a box and I just absolutely adore them.

Okay, and where do you have them now?

How do you store them?

Well, I have to admit, they're stored in, just in a shoebox, mostly because I wanted to decorate my daughter's bedroom with them.

But she found the grin a little intimidating.

And I have to admit that I found it that same way when I was a child.

(laughs) So I understood it.

(laughs): And what exactly was her words that she s...?

"A little freakish."

(both chuckle) "A little freakish."

Your little kittens were made by a German firm called Gebrüder Heubach, and they were made around 1910.

Ah, grandmother's.

So that would fit with your grandmother's time?

Yes.

They each are around six-and-a-half-inches tall.

Mm-hmm.

And you do have all three.

Their heads are made of bisque and their bodies are made of papier-mâché.

Mm-hmm.

They even have on their original little ensembles.

Mm-hmm.

A little cotton playsuit.

A lot of detail in it.

A lot of detail.

They're just in really great, vibrant condition.

The shoes don't have little nicks on 'em.

When you started unrolling them out of your towel, I al, I almost let out a scream, because I never, hardly ever s... (laughs): I'm so surprised.

...never see them.

And then to see three all together was just such a perfect joy, um... Are they called the three little kittens that lost their mittens?

They're not?

No, uh, the... My mother always said that's what they were.

No, they're just little cats that Heubach made.

They also made a little bear.

Everything about Heubach, just all the little extra detailing to the facial features just gives them so much personality.

In a retail doll shop, the one gray cat would be worth $2,300.

And I, I have seen him before.

Oh, no.

Really?

Yes.

The little white cat is also valued at $2,300.

And sometimes, I think, I have seen him go a little bit higher.

I have seen him.

Oh, my goodness.

And then, oh, my goodness, this heartbreaker here.

This is the little black one.

I've never seen the black one.

He does have a little bit of damage to his ear, so I'd have to keep his value around $2,300, also, even with the damage.

So as a set, they're worth about $7,000.

I don't know what to say to that.

That's amazing.

Are they still freakish to you?

Uh... Well, yes, actually, they... (laughs) Maybe they're even a little more freakish... Um... ...since I wasn't expecting that at all.

And if this little guy didn't have...

The damage?

...the little bit of damage, I would probably put him a little bit higher for the set, for around $8,000.

Or even more.

Oh, my goodness.

I, you never see 'em.

MAN: It was a gift to my parents about 20 years ago, and my folks gave it to me about two years ago.

You know a few things about the dog already.

T, tell us what you know about it.

Just that it's made by Weller Pottery, and that it was originally supposed to be a lawn ornament.

Beyond that, not much.

Well, that, that, as far as it goes, it's quite accurate information.

Weller Pottery is from Zanesville, Ohio.

We know it's Weller for a couple of reasons.

Number one, on this foot over here, it is signed "Weller Pottery," which is a script mark, which not only signs the piece, but also dates it for us, sometime from the mid to late '20s to into the '30s.

Also want to point out, this color of this clay... Mm-hmm.

...even without a mark, you would know this is an Ohio piece.

We expected to see a lot of Ohio pottery, since we're in Cincinnati.

But th, that clay is typical of, of the clay deposits that were left here, I'm told, by the glaciers as they receded...

Right.

Okay.

...after the last ice age and allowed for Ohio to be one of the pottery centers of America.

So because of, uh, the timing of the piece, the Depression... Mm-hmm.

...cutting into their production, and the function of the piece, a lawn ornament, they tend to be fairly rare.

It's pottery.

It's not metal.

They get beaten up over the years.

Right.

Can you imagine one of these on a lawn, which is what they were used for?

Sure.

And Weller made a lot of different lawn ornaments.

With the lawn mowers and kids and what have you destroying them.

Right.

This is in remarkably good condition, even more so since I saw you carrying it in here without it being wrapped and setting it on the concrete floor.

Right.

(laughs) Which, I wouldn't do that again.

And it's a terrier.

I'm not a dog guy, so I don't know exactly which kind, but I've never seen this one before.

Okay.

Now, the market for Weller lawn ornaments has slipped somewhat.

Uh, they were bringing more about ten years ago, eight years ago.

Partially because the people that were collecting them have most of what they want or they're not buying anymore.

So the, the market's come down a fair amount.

This one, being so rare, may be among the few that would still be worth quite a bit of money.

So what I would say in terms of the value of the piece, conservative estimate at auction would be $3,000 to $4,000.

Wow.

This could be one of those special dogs, because it's so rare... Great.

...that could bring in in excess of $5,000.

Wonderful.

♪ ♪ Why were they dropping this dog from a, an airplane?

'Cause they could.

(inaudible) They did say they were going to have to, to do a little bit of adjustment 'cause he came down a little too fast.

But there were people down below waiting to catch him.

There is a whole collectors' market that revolves around dogs in military service.

Okay.

There's a mascot end of it, and then there's also the service dog end of it, which, of course, we're seeing an awful lot of that now with the bombs and I.E.Ds.

It does mention mascot in here somewhere.

Yeah, so this... Rather than having a specific job to do, he's a, he's a mascot who, um... (chuckles): May, maybe he hooked his... Hooked his wagon to the wrong star, if he didn't necessarily want to be an airborne dog, but... Any sort of value that I put on this is going to be kind of a wild guess, but I would expect to see something like this in the neighborhood of, of $500 to $600.

♪ ♪ I brought a porcelain Siamese cat lamp.

Uh, I'm not sure when exactly it's from.

I think, like, mid-'60s, late '50s.

It has the original green bulb in it, so when it's lit up, the eyes shine green.

(chuckles) Um, I got this bowl from my mother.

She's had it about 30 or 40 years.

She picked it up in a garage sale.

I want to say she paid about five dollars for it.

Okay.

Then, when you brought it in this morning, actually, it was, uh, fairly tarnished.

Yes, it was.

And you, as a Girl Scout, went into the ladies' room... (chuckles) ...and borrowed some toothpaste?

Yes, I did.

And, and it did a little quick polish on it, okay.

Yes.

Actually, I was told that by a Girl Scout.

Oh, okay.

And she loaned me toothpaste to clean it, yes, it's... (chuckles): Great.

It was a trophy from the Westminster Kennel club.

It was from 1883, and that's really all I know about it.

If we look here on the bottom, this is all hand-hammered.

And there's here the mark for Whiting, which is a company, an American company started in 1840, and then purchased by Gorham in 1926.

And then, we have the retailers in New York.

Now, dog and other related trophies are very desirable in the marketplace.

I think in today's market, you easily will, could be $2,500 as a retail price.

Thank you, that's awesome.

MAN: My great-grandfather worked for Standard Oil in New Jersey and was sent to Europe in some sort of official capacity.

Yeah.

And they lived in London.

And when they were there, they bought a bunch of stuff, you know?

Yup.

From furniture to painting to clocks to silver.

So I'm assuming that they bought these items when they were there.

And that was probably in the early part of the 20th century, maybe...

Early part of the 20th century.

Yeah.

Late part of the 19th century.

Great.

They're all sterling silver, made in Europe in the late 19th century.

These three here were made probably on the continent, most likely in Germany.

And this one here was made in England.

Oh.

What it really appeals to me is that they're a cohesive collection.

They're really whimsical.

Yeah.

They're very collectible today.

Particularly the jester, with the semiprecious jewels, this nautilus shell as his belly, his curled shoes coming up.

His hat.

All of it just very, very whimsical.

When we look at the cat, the same thing.

I mean, look at these earrings.

Yeah, the...

I mean, how...

The cat is... ...hysterical.

...wonderful.

Yeah, yeah.

Really, really funny.

And they're in remarkable shape.

You've taken very good care of them.

So are there any marks on any of them that you saw?

There, there are some marks on the front two pieces here.

There's a little, a European mark on the bottom, and I say, I'm pretty sure it's German.

Uh-huh.

It's really hard to tell.

And really, the manufacturer isn't as important as the fact that they are late 19th century... Oh.

...that they're silver, and that they are figural and kind of whimsical figures.

Uh-huh.

These three here, being European continental, would be 800-grade silver.

Uh-huh.

Which is 800 parts per thousand... Yeah.

...as opposed to the American and English grade, which is usually 925 parts.

Oh, oh.

And this oxen here does have an, a British hallmark.

And we can see the series of hallmarks right on the top of the neck.

So that would be sterling?

This is a sterling grade.

Sterling, uh-huh.

And the others would be an 800-grade silver, which is slightly less.

Grade, okay.

They're a little softer silver.

I think individually, the values might be somewhere between $3,000 and $4,000 each.

Wow.

But as a collection, I'd say it's probably worth $20,000, maybe even $25,000, at auction today.

(laughs) I'm... What do you say?

(both laugh) That makes you speechless.

WOMAN: I found these in Dallas at an estate sale in about 2001.

I suspected they were Meissen, but I wasn't 100% sure.

I paid about $500 for them.

APPRAISER: You are correct in your assumption that these are Meissen.

Okay.

And their, their quality is absolutely Meissen quality.

They do have Meissen, what we call a crossed- swords mark...

Yes.

...on the base.

These would date to about 1880.

Now, the one that I'm holding here I'm particularly interested in more so than, than the one on the left because of the puppy.

Right.

It's a very rare model.

Now, the market for Meissen has taken a step back, as with so many categories.

Yes.

But I think the pug market hasn't, because dog people are almost as crazy as cat people.

Yes.

We're desperately looking for pug items and willing to pay a good price for them.

At auction, I would expect these to sell in the range of $3,000 to $5,000.

Okay.

Good for your $500 investment-- is good?

Yeah.

My father was living in Santa Rosa and going to Santa Rosa Junior College in 1964, '65, and the beginning of '66, and he also was working at a museum there.

So either by taking a class from Schulz's wife, possibly, or perhaps by meeting them at the museum, somehow he met Schulz's wife, and she invited him to dinner, where he met Mr. Schulz.

And I guess they talked and, and perhaps even disagreed about politics a little.

(laughs) Uh, my dad was a real liberal and had liberal strong feelings.

But they got along real well and enjoyed each other's company.

And at the end of the night, Mr. Schulz gave him this "Peanuts" strip to take with him.

So, it got put into his trunk, and then, unfortunately, my father ended up going to Vietnam and passing away soon after that.

So it's been in a trunk 50 years.

And, um, it was recently found, and my uncle and aunt said, "Oh, you should, you should have this trunk."

And so that's how I received it and how he received it.

Oh, wonderful.

So let's see how it's marked.

1965, United Features Syndicate.

And it shows two of the main characters, Charlie Brown, obviously, and his dog, Snoopy.

And this is part of a charming little vignette where Snoopy is ice skating, and he sees his future fiancée, the beagle of his dreams.

(chuckles) And so here he is, waiting for her to come.

Sadly, uh, by Valentine's Day, they, broken up, but... (laughs) This is really a fabulous panel, and so it's signed by Charles Schulz.

We have a little, probably, water that got on the signature.

And so it's a little bit smudged, but it's still an original piece.

Do you have any idea what it's worth?

I, I really don't know.

I, I was thinking it would probably be at least $1,000?

But I, I don't know.

Especially with the water damage.

This particular one is very interesting, because you have all of this heavy ink, and the printers hated these because they couldn't saturate well on newsprint.

It really pops.

It's a real collector's piece.

In this condition, even with the little problems here, conservatively, at auction, this would bring between $15,000 and $20,000.

Oh, my gosh.

(laughs) That's amazing.

And I have to tell you, because it's so graphic... Oh, my gosh.

...it could even bring up to $30,000.

Which is what I would say... Oh, my gosh.

...you should insure it for.

That's amazing.

(exhales): I can't believe it.

(chuckles) I can't believe it, I wish my dad could have known.

(laughs) (sniffles) WOMAN: It's been in my family since I was a young child.

It hung in the bedroom of my parents' home, and then I ended up with it.

We've sort of just taken it for granted or not really paid much attention to it.

And then, last minute, I decided to bring it in today and see what you could tell me about it.

It's an interesting painting of cats, and cats are a theme that you see in art going all the way back to antiquity and right through to the present.

One of the things that's interesting about the painting is, it's signed, of course, here.

Right.

And the artist is Julius Adam.

There's a little bit of confusion, because when you look at the plaque that's put on the frame...

Right.

...it says "Kitten Symphony" is the title.

Uh-huh.

And then it says Julius Adam, 1826 to 1874.

Julius Adam is the name of two painters.

There's a father and a son.

Julius Adam, Sr.,...

Okay.

...is the artist whose dates comport with what's on the plaque.

Okay.

Julius Adam II is the artist we believe painted your picture.

And Julius Adam II, who was from Munich, Germany, was born in 1852 and died in 1913.

I don't think there was any intention to deceive.

Julius Adam the son studied under the father.

Okay.

And like his father, was a cat painter.

His father tended to paint a little bit more equestrian themes than cat-related themes.

Okay.

Somebody has put on the title "Kitten Symphony."

Right.

Which was probably added later.

The painting is an oil on canvas.

Uh-huh.

While the artist did go to Rio for a period of time, this was most likely painted in Germany in the late 1800s.

This kind of theme is very popular today.

You have auction houses that have auctions just of cat themes.

Really?

Just of dog themes.

There's a strong market for works by Adam, and if offered today at auction, your painting would be worth $8,000 to $12,000.

Wow.

Okay.

♪ ♪ This was my, at my grandmother's house.

I'm not sure if she owned it or if it was left at the house from previous owners, but I grew up with it, always staring at it.

I'm curious to see if it's worth anything today.

It's been in the family since he was new.

He's a very unusual Steiff.

He still has his tag here with the remnants of the original red stock tag, which is from the 1930s.

Oh.

But what makes this guy so unusual is, he has a very unusual mechanism in his tail that makes his head move.

Yeah.

He has a retail value of $1,500 to $1,800.

Ooh!

That's very nice.

Makes me pleased, my kids will be pleased.

(chuckles): It's great.

You brought me three little windup toys.

Yes.

How did you come by 'em?

All three belonged to my dad.

His grandparents went to a National Grange meeting, and they, uh, came back with these as a part of the gift exchange at Christmastime.

Uh, Daddy was born in 1928, and these two he got, uh, from the gift exchange, he said, when he was about ten or 11 years old.

So it'd have been about 1938, '39.

This one he thinks he got a couple of years earlier.

Mm-hmm, well, they are what we call comic character windups.

And that's a very collected category of toys.

Of course, you know, now we have movies, and everything is licensed.

This was, like, the beginning of licensing from popular, uh, uh, entertainment.

You have Charlie McCarthy, who was very big on the radio and also in the funny strips.

And, of course, Pinocchio was a movie character from Walt Disney, with a great little, cute little windup action.

He would just, uh, waddle along there.

And, of course, Minnie Mouse was, uh, Mickey's girlfriend.

And, uh, ultimately, a very famous comic character mouse.

Let me ask you this.

Which ones of these do you think is the most valuable, if you had to pick one?

I don't know, I'd go for Pinocchio, but it'd probably be the plastic one.

Well, if you did go for this one, you would have picked the right one.

Really?

See, these are what we call lithographed tin.

These are made in America in the '30s.

This is a tin toy with tin and celluloid.

The, uh, figure of Minnie Mouse and the figure of Pluto are celluloid, which is a very early and very fragile kind of plastic.

And, uh, it's very rare to survive because... Oh, okay.

...you could just crush this with your fingers like that.

As far as value is concerned, uh, these are relatively common.

You find them.

Okay.

Generally, you find them, sometimes with the original boxes.

These are in average condition.

A little bit of wear here and there.

And these would be around $150 each.

Wow.

Which isn't too bad.

Not too bad.

Now, this one is a little different story, because, as I say, it's celluloid, it's painted celluloid, it is in extraordinary condition.

And, of course, Minnie Mouse is a little rarer than Mickey Mouse.

Oh, okay.

The, uh, most recent auction value I could find on this was around $2,700.

Wow.

I picked them up at a museum benefit sale.

Uh, what museum benefit sale?

In Bloomington.

I tried to talk friends into buying the set, but no one would take them.

I decided, "I'm going to get them myself."

Well, they're wonderful illustrations by a advertising illustrator and book illustrator named Girard Goodenow.

We can see that he has, in fact, signed this piece, lower left, "Girard."

With this piece, we have the information from the magazine.

What did you pay for the pieces?

Together, $100.

They're really wonderful paintings.

It's interesting, cats have been in art since the very beginning of time.

They've been in the Egyptian tombs.

They've been in Baroque paintings.

They've been in Renaissance paintings.

Originally, cats were seen as predators.

In the Victorian period, they were seen as playful companions.

And here, we have a "Woman's Day" cover.

This is the original for this cover, from August of 1966, where the cat is protector.

This is a scene that is inside the article for the piece.

And you have all the different breeds of cats.

It does say right here that it was August 1966.

And this, I believe, was probably an alternate cover for the piece.

I think that it was a work-in-progress study that was ultimately used as a template for the cover piece.

And the cover piece is much more finished, which is gouache on paperboard.

There are, in fact, differences between the original illustration and the cover, and that's because of the type that was needed to advertise the magazine.

We have the cat upper right flipped over in the final display.

And we also have a missing kitty here that originally would have been there, which is the title of the article on the inside.

I think it's a wonderful collection.

I would appraise the collection, uh, for insurance at $3,000.

Wha... (gasps): That's... (laughs): That's unbelievable.

Oh, yes, absolutely.

Absolutely.

That's really unbelievable.

WOMAN: This is a silver soup tureen that has been in my family for several generations.

My great-grandmother was from Louisiana.

I suspect that this was maybe from her father and mother.

My great-great-grandfather's older sister married Braxton Bragg, who was a Confederate general.

So this perhaps was in that part of the family, as well?

It could be, we don't, I don't know.

What's interesting about this is, parallel with the, uh, Southern heritage, is that this is a piece of Southern coin silver.

Uh, there were a lot of silver manufacturers in the United States when this was made, before the Civil War, probably, uh, circa 1840, 1850.

And the majority of the silver manufacturers were in the Northeast, as was most of the industry in the United States.

The Southern states were primarily agrarian communities, and there were not a lot of silversmiths there.

So, by the nature of there not being a lot of silver made in the South, examples are much more rare.

Additionally, the Civil War was fought primarily in the South.

There was a lot of looting...

Yes, yeah.

Soldiers stole lots of things.

You hear stories about family silver being buried in the backyard all the time.

Mm-hmm.

And a lot of the silver that was made did not survive.

This is an unusually large piece of silver made by a New Orleans silversmith.

And if we turn it over on its side, it's very clearly marked with the maker's mark, which is Hyde & Goodrich.

And they went into business in 1816 and made very, very fine silver.

This is probably one of the best examples of, of an item that they could have made.

It is based on a traditional English form with the gadrooning borders here... Mm-hmm.

...and the cast lion handles with the ring in the mouth.

And you have this wonderful f, dog f, finial.

Okay.

Which corresponds to the hunting.

The dogs would have been used to hunt at the time.

Okay.

It's chased very nicely with this beautiful Victorian chasing, and it's quite heavy.

I weighed it before we came on camera, and it weighs about 100 ounces.

It is coin silver, which is, uh, not sterling silver.

Oh, okay.

It's a, a lesser mix of silver, uh, and a higher percentage of alloy than sterling silver.

But it's nonetheless a very, very exceptional quality.

I consulted with a few of my colleagues, and we think that if this were to come up at auction, conservatively, it would bring between $10,000 and $15,000.

(gasps): Really?

Yes.

(laughs): Wow.

MAN: Well, I bought it at a Seattle estate.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

It caught my eye because it kind of looked like a person, the face.

The photographer, Imogen Cunningham, was born in Oregon, but actually moved to Seattle, where she became a photographer after working with Edward Curtis.

Oh, wow.

So she had really excellent training and hung out a shingle as a portrait photographer.

So I think you really hit the nail on the head when you said that this really feels like a person.

This is a picture that was done very early in her career.

She was born in the late 19th century.

We would date this picture circa 1910.

Later on, she became a fine art photographer.

Do you have any sense of what it might be worth?

No, I paid five dollars.

(chuckles) Five dollars, good price.

Uh, it's a lovely platinum print, a technique that Cunningham studied very seriously.

And a value would be in the $2,000 to $3,000 range.

Wow.

That's surprising.

WOMAN: Well, I brought a portrait, a study done by Jamie Wyeth of Andy Warhol.

It was done in 1976 for a show at the Coe Kerr Gallery in New York City.

And you went to the exhibition, uh, to the opening?

I was there.

I was there.

And what else did you bring?

Photographs of Andy Warhol, Jamie Wyeth, and the final portraits that they did of each other.

And how many studies were in the exhibition, do you remember?

The study like this, this is number 12.

Maybe there were 15?

They were just charming little studies that Jamie Wyeth had done.

Right.

And how much did you pay for this?

This was in 1976.

Yeah, I think it was around $5,000.

I became friends with Jamie Wyeth through Fred Woolworth, who was the owner of the Coe Kerr Gallery.

Right.

And Andy Warhol became a friend of mine, actually... We first met when he came to New Orleans and had a show.

And I brought a can of consommé soup and asked if he would sign it.

Oh, good.

And he did, and he got such a kick out of that, we became friends.

It was a very interesting friendship between Warhol and Jamie Wyeth.

And you kind of think of them as complete opposites.

But in fact, they had quite a nice friendship and a lot of respect for each other and each other's work.

Mm.

And they decided they wanted to paint each other's portraits.

And then this exhibition came about, which took place in New York, and it traveled then to other venues.

The exhibition was in 1976.

They began doing the portraits of each other in 1975.

When Warhol painted Jamie, he made him quite glamorous.

He made him, as he put it, "very movie star-ish."

Mm-hmm.

And Jamie's comment about the portrait was that it was really a little bit too glamorous for him.

And this was maybe because Warhol had put lipstick on him and eye shadow and wasn't quite what he maybe would have preferred.

And Warhol was always pretty careful about what kind of images he allowed.

Mm.

So, this was kind of a surprise when people saw it because he was so hyperrealistic, and it showed blemishes on his face, and his hair or wig looked kind of messy.

And so it was a, kind of a new way for him to look that people weren't really used to.

So, Jamie had a few interesting comments about painting the oil portrait, which is on the right-- he said that he had to use a ton of white paint because Warhol's skin was so pale.

And he did also depict the blemishes in his skin.

And Warhol could tell that as Jamie was painting him, that he was going to do something like this, because he was using the pimple-colored paint.

Whoa.

(laughs) Warhol loved Archie, he was very important to him, and he would take him everywhere, even to Studio 54.

So, of course, he's included Archie here.

This is a mixed medium.

We have watercolor in the black, but then the white is a gouache or tempera paint, which is an opaque water-based paint.

And you can see it's really built up.

And it's such a great image.

I think if this were offered today, the retail price for this painting, the portrait of Warhol, might be around $75,000.

Wow.

Wow.

This accompanying material, which you also brought in, is very interesting, but it really doesn't have any, um, market value.

Well, that's wonderful.

WOMAN: So this is a painting by John Haberle, my great-great-grandfather.

He was born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut, and he was mostly known for his trompe l'oeil work.

Um, later in his life, he started to lose his eyesight.

So that explains the lack of precise painting.

(laughs) And this is a book of some of his sketches.

His daughter Vera started to dismantle his sketchbooks, so we put some of them in these plastic sheets.

But other than that, this has just been in our living room since, um, my mother retrieved it from his house in New Haven in the 1970s.

We do think of Haberle as an artist of trompe l'oeil pictures.

And trompe l'oeil literally means "paintings that fool the eye."

He's in a long line of the tradition of trompe l'oeil.

People think of Harnett and Peto, who are the great American trompe l'oeil painters, and he's really the generation after that.

Even though this picture is not in his very precise style, it still conveys that idea that so many of his pictures did.

It's a very humorous subject.

It's a very appealing subject.

Its value is not going to be quite the same because people, obviously, want to collect his very precise pictures.

One of the reasons that his trompe l'oeil pictures can be as costly as they can be is, as you say, he had a relatively limited output because of his declining eyesight.

But you've also brought these sketchbooks.

This is only one of several that you brought.

We see a lot of examples of figure drawings.

Again, not what he's quite so well-known for, but dated mainly in the 1880s, which was his heyday.

It was when he was doing all of his most famous work.

And his drawings do turn up on the market, as well.

It brings up the question of sketchbooks, and whether they should be intact or whether it's okay if they're taken apart.

There's a lot of controversy about that amongst the sort of art historical and art dealing world.

People who are really interested in art history would love to see them all kept together.

Okay.

And ideally, that would be the best situation.

But from a commercial point of view, people who are in trade and dealers will often take a sketchbook apart because they can sell them more easily as individual sheets.

Fortunately, you still have it, and that's the most important thing.

In terms of value, I would think, uh, an insurance value on your painting of approximately $30,000.

Okay.

And the drawings, you have quite a number of them.

They sell anywhere from $100 to about $400, depending.

If we took an average of, say, $200 apiece...

Right.

...30 would be worth approximately $6,000.

So I'd say you have at least that.

And I didn't count up all the drawings, but maybe even more than that.

(chuckles): Right.

And I, I just think you're incredibly lucky to have it.

Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

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

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."

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