Shelburne Museum, Hour 2

♪ ♪ CORAL PEÑA: "Antiques Roadshow" is steaming ahead with our search for America's treasures, this time at Shelburne Museum in Vermont.

When we saw it, our eyes sort of popped.

(chuckles) Wow, I thought it would be $1,000.

(laughing) APPRAISER: Each link is $1,000.

Yeah, right.

♪ ♪ PEÑA: It's been said that it would take many days to see everything Shelburne Museum has to offer.

There are 39 buildings and over 100,000 treasures throughout the property.

Perhaps one of the most prominent marvels at the museum is the steamship Ticonderoga, a National Historic Landmark built in Shelburne in 1906.

The 892-ton vessel was moved to the museum in the winter of 1955, when the ground was frozen and could support the big ship's weight.

Come aboard and see how passengers of another era traveled Lake Champlain for almost 50 years without any fear of getting seasick.

♪ ♪ Our guests today are on board to find out new things they didn't know about their old treasures.

♪ ♪ Better condition with a back?

Way more, yeah.

$2,500.

This has been in my family for four generations.

My grandfather got it from his father.

My mother gave it to me.

But the person I associate most with this is my grandfather.

He was a big water person.

He was a swimming coach, a lifeguard, and then he was in the Navy.

This is his favorite piece.

It's a great piece of folk art.

It isn't by any known maker, but that's the nature of folk art.

This is what's called a shadow box picture.

And what it is depicting is the America's Cup race, which is an enormously prestigious race, initially between the United States and Great Britain.

And the fact that an American ship could beat the British at their own game was like the Revolutionary War all over again.

The first victory of the Americans over the British was in 1851, and it was won by the ship America.

This was a victory that happened in 1885, where the Puritan triumphed over the British.

Now, the Puritan has an association to Boston because it was owned by John Forbes.

Not the New Jersey Forbes of "Forbes Magazine," but enormously wealthy, very successful Bostonians.

This became a subject of legend and something that motivated folk artists to memorialize.

This was made probably pretty close to the actual event.

It could have been anywhere from 1885 to 1900.

The background is probably artist board.

The sails are made from paper that's been sort of sewn and appliquéd onto the mast and the sails.

And there are these figures on the deck, and they're just adorable.

And they're probably paper cutouts that have been painted and sprinkled with mica so they sparkle.

And the neat thing is the sea, which is this sort of crinkled paper or composition that has been manipulated in such a way that when it's painted, it looks like the choppy seas that the Puritan would have been traveling in.

Beyond that, you have the legend here, "Winner of the American Cup."

Should be "the America's...

Yes.

...Cup."

And I can only tell you that the guy who did this was so enthusiastic about doing it that his enthusiasm overtook his dictionary.

So it's just a really charming, vibrant, exciting piece.

And the consensus is that something in the range to, of $4,000 to $6,000... Oh, my gosh.

...would be an auction estimate.

That's fantastic.

This is a poster advertising the Woodstock Festival.

I got it in a junk shop for 50 cents.

It's what I'm assuming is a, uh, reproduction, but hoping it isn't.

I did not go, but a couple of my friends did, and they still talk about it.

I was at the M.I.T.

Furniture Exchange in Cambridge, Mass., and I saw this in the corner and I was, like, "Well, what is that?"

And nobody knew.

And I said, "Well, it looks kind of interesting.

I'll buy it."

I don't remember what I paid for it, five dollars or something.

What do people do in every culture worldwide?

They eat.

They eat.

(chuckles) Right.

This is for food.

Uh-huh.

There's a bottom part... Mm-hmm.

...that's a big round stump, with a pit in the top.

Uh.

And it's for cracking grain.

Uh-huh.

And these are used from Africa to Mexico, throughout the Southeastern United States for corn.

I mean, it's, like, this universal thing.

And you can tell it's been used a lot.

Mm-hmm, awesome, right.

And it looks 75 or 100 years old.

I think it's got to be worth $25 to $50.

Really?

Oh, wow.

But, you know, on a good day.

What a cool thing.

But it's a hard way to make your bread.

(both laugh) WOMAN: I brought a notebook that's full of letters from the Wyeths.

A lot of them are from N.C. Wyeth, some are from other members of the family, mostly to my aunt.

Some, um, to my family, that my, I'm... My father's family were, they were all cousins of the Wyeths.

So they're a collection of family letters... Yeah.

...that you think your, your aunt put together... Yeah.

...that she received, and we're talking about N.C. Wyeth.

Yes.

Newell Convers Wyeth.

That's right.

The very important illustrator and painter.

Mm-hmm.

How did you happen to find this... (chuckles) ...volume of, of correspondence?

So, after my aunt passed away, my mom got this big wooden trunk that was the original trunk that my grandfather came to Boston with.

It was in our attic, filled with diaries and things like that.

And my husband was cleaning things up and took a look in the trunk, and he found this.

So before that, you had no idea that you were in possession of... No, I mean... ...of letters written by N. C. Wyeth.

I heard stories from my family over the years.

When I was really little, we would go and meet the, some of the other Wyeths for meals at restaurants.

And I remember doing that, but I no, had no idea that I had these letters.

Yeah, it's, it's a wonderful find.

Yeah.

And of course, this is why we live!

That's right.

(chuckles) What is the symbol of "Antiques Roadshow"... (laughs): That's right.

...but a trunk containing treasure?

(laughs): That's right, who knew?

So, it's perfect.

So have you spent any time reading the letters or digging into...

I've, I've spent some time.

I mean, there's some pretty cool ones in there.

The first letter in there is when he was 11 years old, which is pretty, yeah.

Which is amazing.

He was born in Needham, Mass., in 1882.

Yeah.

He was lucky enough to be able to pursue his interest in art, and he was lucky enough to study with Howard Pyle... Mm-hmm.

...the great illustrator.

But what's interesting is how Wyeth departed and had different ideas.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Letters are always interesting and valuable.

They're unique if they're written by somebody important.

What makes the value is the time period and the content.

N.C. Wyeth, in 1903, got his first big commission.

Ooh.

He got a cover of a "Saturday Evening Post," and he did a bucking bronco.

Uh-huh.

And there's a lot about horse riding in here.

There is, yeah.

Which is very interesting.

But these letters are written just before and just at the time... Yeah.

...that he went out West, and his career just took off from there.

But because we're talking at, there's a very interesting moment.

The one I have open is from 1903.

He's writing home about his experiences with Pyle.

And in this letter, he talks about being an illustrator of the American story, and American art, and Pyle was an advocate for, "Be international."

Yeah.

"Be all over the place."

And Wyeth states, at the ripe old age of, I think he's about 20, 21?

Yeah, yeah.

He states in this letter that he wants to be an American painter and that there is enough in America to keep him busy his entire career.

There are nine letters in here, and drawings-- I'm going to show a drawing of a seated rider writing to his cousins, telling them about the perfect way to set up your saddle and the perfect seat.

Which is, again, extraordinary.

Yeah.

There's a letter back here that I know you read that's about a special party.

(chuckles): Yes, should I read that one?

Do you want to... Do you remember what you, like...

Yes.

(chuckles) So that he wrote this really detailed letter about a special party they had for Pyle's, I think it was his 50th birthday, where they arranged that all the students would dress in costumes from some of the illustrations that Pyle had done.

It's so dramatic.

(laughs): Yes.

And it's so dramatically told.

Yes.

And Wyeth is a writer, too.

Yeah.

Just to give a context of the date range... Mm-hmm.

...of the nine letters that you have in this collection, the earliest one is 1901, and they go up to 1904.

Mm-hmm.

Your letters, just the two I talked about, I would say would be at least $8,000 to $10,000.

Wow, wow.

There's an importance in keeping the whole thing together.

Mm-hmm.

Because you have an artifact.

There are also letters of other family members.

Mmm.

It, it creates the context.

If I were estimating it at auction, I would have to say $30,000 to $50,000.

Wow.

For the group.

It's not unreasonable to insure it for $80,000.

(gasps, chuckles) Okay, yeah.

Yeah.

All right, that's good to know.

Yeah.

(both laugh) See?

Call your agent.

Yes!

(both laugh) ♪ ♪ PEÑA: Shelburne Museum's founder, Electra Havemeyer Webb, had a fascination with early American art and objects.

She was one of the first wealthy collectors in the country to amass a large holding of 18th- and 19th-century Americana folk art, textiles, vehicles, and buildings.

She had a great appreciation for color, pattern, whimsy, and scale, and once described the Shelburne Museum as an educational project, varied and alive.

♪ ♪ What did you bring with you to the Roadshow today?

Uh, a small painting that I inherited from a friend.

How long have you had it?

Uh, about seven or eight years now.

Did they tell you anything about how they acquired it?

No, it was one of those items.

I had seen it in the house and I always admired it.

And when he passed, he left it to us.

Oh.

Well, that's a very nice gift.

(both chuckle) This is a trompe l'oeil still life painting by Robert Spear Dunning.

He was born in 1829 in Maine, and he spent most of his life in Fall River, Massachusetts.

So he studied at the National Academy of Design portrait painting, landscape painting.

But he ultimately finalized on, he was going to be a trompe l'oeil still life painter, and he is one of the best from the 19th century.

Fall River was a very wealthy mill town.

Still life painting was very popular there because it kind of expressed the opulence of the Victorian era, and the residents there really liked the idea of hanging one of his lovely still lifes on the wall.

He ended up founding the Fall River Evening Drawing School in 1870, which became a place where he could help other artists learn how to paint, as well.

That town of Fall River probably is the best-known town for still life painting from the 19th century.

Wow.

We do have a signature here in the lower right.

It's a little hard to read.

Mmm.

"R.S.

Dunning."

There's also a signature on the back, which is much more clear and easy to read, as well as a date of 1878.

It is an oil on canvas painting.

The condition is fair.

It has some craquelure, which is not uncommon for a painting from the 19th century, and it has some surface dirt, but a cleaning could easily solve that.

If we were estimating this painting for auction today, in the current condition, the auction estimate would be $5,000 to $10,000.

Wonderful.

What, can't, can't beat that, that's amazing.

With a little bit of a cleaning on this-- it might cost you about $500 to $800 to have it cleaned-- that would change the estimate to probably $8,000 to $12,000, because the painting would really pop and it would, it would look even more luscious and ready to eat those peaches.

(chuckles): Terrific.

This weaving was in a camp that we purchased in, uh, Northern Maine, a wilderness camp.

It was on a daybed, folded.

As far as I know, it'd been there since the 1930s, or when the camp was built in the 1830s.

I don't know anything about it.

When did you acquire the cabin?

30 years ago.

And you bought it furnished?

Yes, basically they left what they didn't want.

It's a lovely weaving.

It's a Moki serape.

Um... Oh, it is?

It is Navajo, but it's designed after the Spanish serape.

They were influenced by it.

Mm-hmm.

It was worn over the shoulders on the horizontal.

Moki is the name that the Spaniards gave it.

It's a derivative of Hopi.

This pattern started showing up in the American Southwest in the late 1700s.

And we really didn't see anything woven after 1900.

The most identifying features are the banded stripes of brown and blue.

The blue is an indigo dye.

There's a vibrant mix of fibers in this weaving.

I believe this particular weaving is probably from 1878 to probably 1890.

This was a item worn by the Indigenous people.

It was not made for the trade.

It has glorious form and color.

The condition's remarkable.

At auction, they've been showing up at $18,000 to $22,000.

(chuckles) It's a... And I have several more!

It's an exquisite weaving.

Yay!

(giggles) WOMAN: Okay, very nice-- congratulations.

Stay right where you are.

No, I can't, I got to move!

(all laugh) MAN: When I was younger, I would wind it up and watch the girl skip rope.

Unfortunately, one day, I think I overwound it.

Okay.

And I heard the spring break.

So, she doesn't skip.

What we have here is a circa 1890 mechanical bank made by J. and E. Stevens.

Mechanical banks were produced to incentivize children to save money.

(laughs softly) The bank's official title is the "Girl Skipping Rope."

Could you demonstrate how it would work if we could wind it right now?

If you would put the coin in here and it was wound, the rope would just go around and the little girl would go up and down.

The paint is authentic on this piece, which is really coveted by collectors.

Mm-hmm.

At auction, the estimate on this bank would be about $10,000 to $15,000.

I would not be surprised if it brought more.

Well, that's great.

I do think it would be worthwhile to have a professional disassemble and repair the inner workings.

An internal repair like that would be a matter of a few hundred dollars.

I think it would increase the value a few thousand dollars.

MAN: These were passed down in my family since they were painted, probably sometime in the 1800s.

And I recently got them, maybe two years ago, from my grandfather.

We were downsizing, and I kind of took over a lot of the, uh, larger family pieces like these, and they're now hanging in our dining room.

She was stored in my parents' attic for a little bit, whereas he wasn't.

So she's got a little more damage to the frame.

And what do you know about the pictures?

This is my sixth- great-grandfather James Darrach and his wife, Elizabeth Bradford.

And, uh, she is the granddaughter of William Bradford, the colonial printer in Philadelphia.

Fascinating.

There was some familial connections that I'd heard that they lived near the Peale family.

And the family lore has always been that these were painted by Charles Willson Peale.

Sometime in the 1920s, I believe, they had been appraised, but nothing came of it because they couldn't really prove that one was Charles Willson Peale or not.

So it was tough for them to really make a determination.

So, so the, so the appraisal... That's a long time ago.

Yeah.

(chuckles) And then you said they were cleaned and relined, I notice, in the 1960s.

Yep.

I looked at them with a black light, and they're in remarkably good condition.

So, I think they were relined as a means of preserving them.

We believe the pictures were painted sometime, I think, in the early 1820s.

And they do appear, as far as I can tell, to be in the original frames.

I think they're painted with great sensitivity.

The quality of the work is rather extraordinary.

Hands are extremely hard to paint, and these are beautifully painted.

The detail in his collar and the ruffled area.

She has very beautiful eyes, and the delicacy that's shown in the painting of the lace and her dress and the skin tones, all of these things are very difficult to achieve successfully.

It's difficult, the attribution to Charles Willson Peale.

These require further scholarship and research, and there's a lot of it out there.

Charles Willson Peale was one of the most renowned and accomplished painters in the city of Philadelphia.

And, uh, many of his pictures are of people who were significant participants in the years of the Revolutionary War.

There were a number... (clears throat) ...obviously, Peale family artists, and there were a number of other artists working in Philadelphia at that time, people with great talent.

As a matter of, uh, their being very high-quality pictures and, I think, particularly well painted, I think they really are quite valuable.

What were they, what were they they appraised for in 1920, do you remember?

I want to say they were around $7,000.

I think that's what one of my family members had paid for them, within the family.

The market for portraiture in general seems to be a little bit soft, but there are exceptions.

And I would say to you that these, in my opinion, would be an exception.

So I think at this point, I'm comfortable saying, we'll say the school of Charles Willson Peale.

And as such, um, I would estimate the value of the pair of pictures, for auction, perhaps between $30,000 and $50,000.

Wow.

I think all in all, they're in extraordinary condition and true treasures.

Thank you, yeah, it's great to hear.

♪ ♪ PEÑA: Electra Havemeyer Webb's parents, Henry and Louisine Havemeyer, instilled their love of art into their youngest child.

The couple had the most important collection of Impressionist paintings in America in their day, and today, 13 of those artworks hang here: Impressionist masterworks by Monet, Manet, Degas, and the woman Louisine Havemeyer called the fairy godmother of her exceptional collection, Mary Cassatt, who was instrumental in guiding the Havemeyers to notable artists.

In fact, this double portrait by Cassatt is of Louisine and Electra, a pastel on paper created in 1895.

♪ ♪ As far as I know, it's a carriage clock.

My uncle bought it in around 1956, '58, in Sturbridge, Mass., at a antique shop.

It's designed to be portable, and this is a very unusual example.

The vast majority of carriage clocks that were manufactured were manufactured in and around the 1885, 1880s, up until about 1900, 1910.

Okay.

The vast majority of those, overwhelmingly so, are of French origin.

This clock was made by Tiffany Makers in... Tiffany Makers?

In New York City.

You're kidding!

No, no.

(whispers): Oh, my God.

Tiffany and Company Makers was a division of Tiffany and Company.

Uh, Tiffany and Company started in 1837 by Charles Tiffany.

And at, at first, they were buying a lot of European products and selling them under their own name.

And as business evolved, and they built a reputation, they started to bring a lot of the manufacturing in-house.

And it wasn't until 1879 that they started a clock division.

They started to make their own clocks.

It was headed by Joseph Lindauer, who was a master clock maker.

This clock was made in that firm, and it was made by a Mr. Wagner, and it was completed on March 29, 1889.

Is that somewhere in here?

It's not.

(laughing): Okay.

There's a clue to that, because the Tiffany records ex, actually exist.

And if you turn this clock around and open the back, there's a number here.

Okay.

And that number coincides with the records that are at the New York Historical Society.

Really?

And it tells us the date that it was manufactured, the type of clock that was made, which matches this clock.

Yeah.

And it also tells us what it originally cost them to produce it for Tiffany and Company.

Tiffany Makers made 829 clocks.

Of exactly this one.

No.

829 clocks in total.

Oh, okay.

Okay?

Wow, that's not many clocks.

They only made 91 what we call carriage clocks.

Mm-hmm.

And this is one of 91.

(whispers): Wow.

Very wealthy people would take these on trips with them, and it was not only a useful item where they would tell the time while they were traveling, but it was also something that showed a level of status.

And this has the alarm function.

Mm-hmm.

This dial down here is an alarm.

Yeah.

And you can use it as an alarm clock.

Another clue that it does something special, that it has this button on top, which is a repeat button.

And when we turn it back around, we start to see that there is a number of things in here, including the three hammers, one for the alarm, two for the striking mechanism, and it strikes all on gongs.

And if we turn it on its back, we can see it has this lever with three positions.

That tells us that it's a grande sonnerie example, which is one of the more complicated versions that they made.

This clock not only strikes the hour, but it also strikes the quarter-hour, and, if you press the repeat button, it will strike the last hour and the last quarter-hour, so that you don't have to light a candle in the middle of the night to know what time it is.

Okay.

That's very...

So it's very, very complicated.

The case is wonderfully designed.

It has these wonderful spiral columns.

It's brass and it has been fire-gilt.

Tiffany Makers charged Tiffany and Company $107.13 to make this.

(chuckles) In 1889.

Do you have any idea on how much your uncle paid for this clock?

My uncle told me he paid $400 for it.

My father, his brother, told him he spent too much on it.

(chuckles): Do you have any estimate on what the value of this might be?

(sighs): $3,000, maybe?

Well, $3,000 would be a good guess for something that was French-made grande sonnerie.

Fairly standard, $3,000, $3,500.

I feel really confident to tell you that conservatively, this clock probably has a value, in the retail marketplace, along with its case, of in the $10,000 price range.

(laughing): You're kidding me!

Oh, my God!

Holy cow, I guess it was worth carrying around all day.

(both laugh) Not only a workout, but worth the value.

Wow!

Holy cow!

Never dreamed that, never.

(ticking) (chiming) You, like, put it on your shoulders so that you could carry buckets and stuff.

MAN: My wife bought it for ten dollars.

Do you want to show 'em how to do it?

Yeah, so... Just, like, put it on like this, and then you could, like, hang all the stuff on here.

My father-in-law gave them to my mother-in-law in the late 1940s or early 1950s.

I've had them for the last 20 years.

We did have them appraised at one point, and the appraiser thought they were worth $900 each.

You have a pair of Roseville blue pine cone tall pitchers.

The pine cone pattern came in three different colors, brown, green, and blue.

And of all three, the blue is the most collected.

If you had been here the first year we did "Antiques Roadshow," the value would have been different, and perhaps at $900 apiece.

(chuckles) These days, um, at auction, probably $750 to $1,000 for the pair.

Thank you.

That's great.

(chuckles) ♪ ♪ MAN: It belonged to my grandfather, who lived in Brooklyn, New York, and I think after the Second World War, had some money and he began to buy art.

He had a few Old Master prints and some ceramics, and he died.

And then my grandmother, I think, gave things that were more special to the Brooklyn Museum.

Do you know when she gave things to the museum?

I would say 1962 to 1967, somewhere in there.

When did you inherit this piece?

I think just 2010.

And it's been sitting on a shelf, hidden out of the way, because it didn't fit with the rest of the things on the shelf, but also, it felt safer there, in, in a way.

(laughs) Well, this is a Chinese porcelain bowl, and what captured my eye was, first of all, the brilliant copper-red glaze and the perfect pulling of the white on the rim, which is so beautifully controlled during the firing.

It also bears a collector's label.

Do you see that 275 that's there?

Mm-hmm, yup, yup, yup, yup.

Which indicates that it came from an old collection.

Then, when you turn it over, you see that there's a reign mark on the underside.

The reign mark reads, "Da Qing Kangxi Nian Zhi."

"Made in the Qing Dynasty during the reign of the Emperor Kangxi."

Kangxi reigned between 1662 and 1722.

Mmm.

Often, the reign marks on vessels and ceramics are an indication of something that is made in the style of a period.

But this piece, on very close examination, was made at the Imperial Kilns in Jingdezhen.

So it is what we would call a mark and period piece, which adds significant value to it, because it's not a copy.

Mm-hmm.

It's the real thing.

It was made for the emperor's use, or the family's use, in the Imperial Court.

All of these factors, together with the fact, and what really makes it very interesting to us, is that the shape is exceedingly rare.

Most of the copper-red dishes that you see in this period have a flared rim.

Mm-hmm.

Or they're a flat sort of saucer dish.

We think that this rare form was probably used in some kind of ritual... Mm-hmm.

...during the Kangxi period, but we don't really know what kind of ritual it would be.

This is often called sacrificial red, this glaze.

Just so even in color, and so absolutely beautiful.

So when we saw it, our eyes sort of popped.

(chuckles) And in looking at the examples that we found, we found only two or three that have come up recently.

So if this went up for auction, it would carry a presale estimate of $30,000 to $50,000.

(laughing): Oh, dear goodness!

I w, we didn't have any idea.

(laughs) I assumed it was somewhat valuable, but I had no, no idea in the world.

A few years before Secretariat won the Triple Crown, we met Penny, her own, his owner, at Saratoga.

As my fortune would have it, as an 18-year-old, I answered fan mail for him.

Anything that came that was too much for the New York office to handle, they sent up to Saratoga at the big mansion, and I worked in the mansion, answering fan mail by hand.

Secretariat's fan mail?

Secretariat's fan mail.

This was given to Penny after he won the Triple Crown, Secretariat won the Triple Crown.

And those are her colors over there.

Those are her silks, Secretariat's name is down here.

It says "Roots" in the bottom corner.

Significance of that?

Um, I believe it's the maker of the blanket.

I, I...

I think you're 100% right-- so you mentioned the Triple Crown races, which consists of the... Kentucky Derby.

Kentucky Derby.

Preakness, and Belmont, right.

Preakness, and Belmont Stakes.

And he won all three of those in 1973.

And she also became very good friends with my whole family, especially my mother.

When our mother was in the nursing home, a few months before, unfortunately, she passed, Penny sent her this in the mail.

Ju, a gift.

So she knew that my mother and the rest of us family would enjoy it.

You were super-fortunate to happen to meet Penny Tweedy the way you did.

Extremely.

And there's a picture here in Saratoga.

That's my sis, little sister Simone.

My mother, our mother.

There's me in the red dress, and next to me is Penny Tweedy, in the green dress.

And she owned Secretariat.

When we talk about Secretariat, people say, "Oh, he's a great race horse," but horses are athletes.

Yes, they are.

They're, they're probably the greatest athletes around.

Yep.

And when you look at Secretariat, especially, Secretariat only had a 16-month career.

Ran in 21 races... Yep.

...and was first, second, or third in 20 of those races.

He only finished out of the money on his maiden race.

Yup.

It's a wonderful piece of horse race history.

And, and you're talking about a horse that was ranked number two in the 100 greatest horses of the past century.

Man o'War was one, Secretariat two.

In the Triple Crown races, Secretariat broke all the track records.

Oh, yes, he did.

And if you remember the Belmont Stakes, an incredible win at 31 lengths.

I was there.

So to me, Secretariat's the Babe Ruth of horse racing, as far as I'm concerned.

Oh, extremely.

It's the greatest horse I've ever seen run, and I don't think I'll ever see anyone as great.

Me, too.

It's a cool down blanket.

Mm-hmm.

Which they would put on the horse after the race.

Mm-hmm.

And if you notice the white line across the middle, that's basically the center point where...

Right.

...they would drape it over...

Yes.

...Secretariat's back.

I'm not quite sure if they ever really put it on the horse, 'cause it looks quite fresh.

But again, Secretariat's career was quite short.

Conservatively, I would probably tell you to insure it for $15,000.

If I was doing an auction estimate on a, on a blanket, and I was sure that Secretariat had it on him at one point or another, I would have estimated probably $15,000 to $25,000.

Maybe even $20,000 to $30,000, because Secretariat memorabilia, when it sells, sells for an enormous amount of money.

Horseshoes themselves go for thousands of dollars.

Oh, my goodness.

♪ ♪ PEÑA: The Horseshoe Barn was one of the earliest buildings to be constructed for Mrs. Webb's treasures.

In 1946, Mrs. Webb was given 28 antique horse-drawn vehicles by her in-laws, and she needed a place to keep them.

She purchased land in the center of Shelburne, and voilà, the Horseshoe Barn was built.

Today, there are more than 200 vehicles in the collection.

This fine example is called a Park Drag, and was made by Brewster and Company around 1891.

I brought a painting that I bought the summer of 2019 at an auction.

This family had occupied this property since 1860.

Oh, my!

So we knew there was going to be some old stuff.

It was kind of a stormy day, and I think they didn't have as many people show up, maybe, as they wanted.

Mm-hmm.

I saw this and it just, I just really liked it.

Yeah.

And I lived in Switzerland for a short time, and it reminded me of my time there.

Yes.

And I had the perfect spot for it in my center hall of my home.

The auctioneer started the bidding at five dollars, and no one bid.

And so he lowered it to $2.50.

So I bid, and then that was it.

Nobody else bid after $2.50.

Nobody else bid.

Oh, my goodness.

Do you know who the artist is?

No-- I, I mean, I saw the letters on the bottom.

Yep.

But I just never investigated it.

Yeah, well, it's a little hard to read, but it's by an artist named Edgar Payne, P-A-Y-N-E. Edgar Payne was born in 1883 and died in 1947.

California artist.

Oh!

And he was a leading member of the California Impressionist artists of the early 20th century.

Very significant group of painters who broke away from New York, uh, Pennsylvania, East Coast, and went out to California.

And California, 100 years ago, you can imagine, it's pretty remote.

(chuckles) Yeah.

And they painted pretty much outdoors.

They painted en plein air.

This is probably the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

It's an oil painting, and painted on Masonite.

And as we can look very closely, you can see some of the Masonite still exposed.

It looks like brown highlights in the painting.

In fact, it's the Masonite that's just, comes right through.

Very thick impasto.

I mean, can you see the paint on it?

My goodness, it's like ice cream, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's just beautiful.

And what's particularly nice about this is that it has a lake in front of it, and they've got the reflection off the lake.

And Edgar Payne painted so often in the Sierra Nevadas that they named a lake after him.

Oh!

So this may be Payne Lake-- I don't know that for certain.

I think that compositionally, the way you have the horizon line here of the lake blending into the beginning of the mountain, you go up to the mountain, you have this wonderful skyline, the blue in the sky is just spectacular, robin's egg blue.

The gradations of the white from the snow to the different blues and grays.

And even in the forest down here, you get to see some yellows in the trees.

So top to bottom, I think it's a really spectacular little gem.

Do you have an idea of what the value might be?

No.

When I first looked at it, I noticed that the frame kind of reminded me of something from the '20s.

Mm-hmm?

And no, I really don't know the value.

Probably it's painted in the '20s, is my guess.

That's when he was really in his heyday.

A painting of this size today, at auction, would be worth somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000.

Ooh, nice.

(chuckles) So that was a good investment.

For $2.50, I think so.

(laughs) I think you better keep hitting these auctions, by all means.

Yeah.

He did larger, monumental paintings.

Uh-huh.

And his bigger paintings can bring six figures.

Well, we brought in a sampler that's been in our family for a long time.

It's got some kind of creepy imagery, this black crow on top of the house, and we just want to find out what it's worth.

I believe my great-aunt probably purchased it in the early '40s.

It's a little Tru-Vuer, and there are little film strips that date from the 1930s.

And the automobiles and the folks' clothing is a, a slice of time now 80-some years in the past.

WOMAN: We had gone to Europe in 1958 to visit places that my father had known when he was a child, and we were shopping in Geneva, in Switzerland.

And we saw this watch in the window of a watch shop.

We all admired it, and then we left.

And my father secretly went back and bought the watch and gave it to my mother for Christmas.

It was a nice surprise.

Wow.

And we all recognized it.

We all said, "Oh, that beautiful watch!"

(chuckles) I don't wear it very much, because I'm just not used to dressing up with jewelry a lot.

But my mother was, and I can picture it on her arm.

It's simple, but it's beautiful.

And that was 1958?

'58 or '59.

Uh-huh.

We were there both summers, in Europe.

The watch, at first glance, looks like a golden diamond bracelet.

The most interesting part is that the watch was made by Rolex.

Mm-hmm.

So Rolex has always been noted as, as a waterproof watch, a diver's watch, the Oyster Perpetuals.

But Rolex did, especially in the '50s and '60s... Ah!

...they did-- mainly for distribution in Europe, not so much the United States-- they made, and had contracted to be made, lots of very wild and really designer and just great-looking ladies' fashion pieces.

I'll show you how-- of course, you know how it works.

When you open it up here and here, there is a manual wind Rolex watch in the center.

And when we measured it, it's six-and-a-half inches.

Standard is about six-and-three-quarter to seven.

So it's possible that one link had been taken out.

But it seems to have, uh, fit you fine, and it seems to fit most people.

Yes.

The watch then, also, it's on a hinge, and it comes back up.

It made it easier to wind, wind it.

To be able to wind it.

Yeah, 'cause I...

Otherwise you'd never be able to wind.

Yes, exactly.

So that was for the winding, and then that cover.

So it just becomes a absolutely beautiful piece of jewelry that could be worn as a watch or just as a bracelet.

Yes.

The engraving is all completely done by hand.

It's some type of stylized leaves.

It's all 18-karat.

Rolex always used the highest quality of material in all of their watches.

Mm-hmm.

So the diamonds by today's standards would probably be a F to G in color and a VVS in clarity.

And there's approximately two-thirds of a carat of diamonds in the top of the bracelet.

Okay.

The 18-karat gold is very thick, it has a very good gauge to it.

Rolex was noted for that small movement.

Oh, was it, really?

That, that was the movement that they did in a lot of their fashion pieces.

I think that when you look at it, you think, "Oh, my gosh, that's so expensive."

But when we were in Switzerland in 1958, gold was $32 an ounce.

(laughs) An ounce!

I mean, it wasn't anything-- I don't, I don't even know what gold is worth now, but it's...

Right now, it's $1,740 an ounce.

Wow, and so the difference between that for...

It's a big difference, yes.

Yeah.

Do you have any idea what your dad paid for it back in '58 or '59?

I was maybe 13 or 14 years old, and money wasn't... You didn't care.

(both laughing) ...my main interest.

Generally speaking, it probably would have been somewhere in the $500 to $700 price range.

In 2022, in the retail market, this watch would probably be priced somewhere between $12,000 and $15,000.

Wow!

I thought it would be $1,000.

Something like that!

(both laugh) I don't buy jewelry.

Each link's $1,000.

(laughing): Yeah, right.

Wow!

(laughs) It was brought into, uh, the United States from China.

It's hand-carved, ebony wood.

This is a display cabinet, and I believe this was created late 19th century, post-Civil War, and it was exported from China for a Western audience.

The type of wood you had mentioned first, that you thought it was ebony-- it's not ebony.

Oh, it's not?

Ebony is not a...

It is a tropical hardwood, but generically, people refer to this wood as either blackwood or hongmu.

This is better than most.

It's unusual, it's in great shape, and I'd say for retail replacement value purposes, somewhere in the range of about $15,000.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

How do you make it lighter?

(both laughing) As you can attest, it's very heavy.

Very heavy!

WOMAN: I brought Barbie, and when I was a kid, I had three other girlfriends, and we used to get together, like, every day after school and play with our Barbies.

I haven't pulled her out of the trunk until the other day for about probably 50 years.

Oh, goodness!

(both chuckle) Are you still tempted to play with her a little bit?

Oh, I did, all last week.

(both laugh) Yeah, they're really fun.

They are.

If you love fashion, Barbie's your girl.

What you have is a very special Barbie.

This is the American Girl Barbie, and she was made in 1965 by Mattel.

And how do we know that she's American Girl?

Well, Mattel used the same mold for Barbie from number one all the way through several models.

All they did was change the makeup and change the hair.

And of course, they updated the clothes.

Yeah.

So the original Barbie had a ponytail with curly bangs, and as you can see, American Girl Barbie, oh, wow!

(chuckles) I mean, platinum blonde.

Yeah.

Bob hairdo.

'Cause before this, women wore their hair long.

So we're reflecting the fashion.

Number one had this really harsh, sharp, upside-down V eyebrows.

Now we can see they're nice and soft and modern.

You've got your blue eyeshadow on, because who's a '60s girl without their blue eyeshadow?

(laughs) It came in several hair colors, but one that everybody really loves is the lighter blonde.

And she's got on her original bathing suit.

And then you also have your trunk.

She's got the little pillbox hat.

You're really getting the influence of fashion from that time.

And then look at the outfits we have, and they are all tagged with the Barbie tag.

You've got the original stand.

She retailed for under five dollars.

And this doll, with her clothes and her case-- and her case, by the way, is full of other goodies-- would retail between $600 and $850.

Great.

But I'll never give her up.

(chuckles) PEÑA: Mrs. Webb loved dolls and doll paraphernalia.

ZaSu Pitts, an American actress who found fame in silent films, was a close friend of Mrs. Webb.

Pitts gave this circa-1900 commercially manufactured French dollhouse to Mrs. Webb in the late 1940s.

Mrs. Webb and museum staff altered the mini manse to replicate the stage set of the 1944 play "Ramshackle Inn," in which Pitts had starred.

Today I brought a surgeon's medicinal chest that belonged to Dr. Nathan Blunt, who was in the 11th Regiment of the Maine Volunteers.

I acquired this, oh, approximately 25 years ago.

I was in an antique shop in a little town near me, Seekonk, in Seekonk, Massachusetts, and I saw this in there, and I fell in love with it.

So I purchased it.

Why don't you show us some of the, uh, more interesting bottles of "medications"... (chuckles) ...for lack of a better term, that are included in this set?

Well, Tim, most of 'em are labeled.

This one is creosotum.

This one is a medication called cinchona, which I believe is related to quinine.

Exactly-- that, uh, to my knowledge, was derived from a bark in Peru.

It was an early way of dealing with malaria.

And one that, uh, amazes me that it's in a m, medicinal box is bottle of strychnine.

And I'm not exactly sure what medical use that would have.

No, but I assume they would mix up certain potions to treat certain illnesses.

Absolutely.

Well, in and of itself, it's a really wonderful grouping of items, where you've got all the different containers that had the medicines or the compounds to make medicines.

You would weigh things out, use your mortar and pestle.

Mm-hmm.

And you're, not only you're a doctor, you were a pharmacist, as well.

Right.

(chuckles) To me, the really special part is that we know who this belonged to.

We have this lovely engraved plaque on the face of the lid that says "Dr. Nathan F. Blunt, 11th Maine Regiment, U.S." Dr. Blunt was sort of an interesting person.

He was born in 1820 in Bingham, Maine.

Mm-hmm.

And was the town doctor and the town surgeon for basically his entire adult life.

And the guy was incredibly beloved.

He died when he was 51 years old, in 1871.

The local G.A.R.

post wasn't established until roughly a decade later, and they named it for him.

And I found that the town historical society, they have some more of his letters.

Oh.

Including another one with a note from his daughter, very similar to this one's.

Yeah, that one has a l, little note from his daughter in it.

So that's really interesting.

They've got some of his items, and there was an interesting little blurb.

They said that when he came home from the war, his body was essentially, been destroyed by his military service.

The 11th Maine also has some interesting history.

They were a, a longtime regiment.

They fought through almost the entire war, basically from the Peninsula campaign all the way through to Appomattox.

They were at the Siege of Petersburg, and they don't even get mustered out until 1866.

Mm-hmm.

So they're doing some level of, uh, occupation duty in Virginia, as well, after the war is over.

While there were actual issue surgical kits, in general, I seem to believe that most of the surgeons were bringing their own items to war with them.

And you said you paid... About $200 at the time.

About $200.

If this was just the set, without the name plaque, we don't know who it belonged to, we don't have the letter that concretely ties all of this together, then this is probably an $800 to $1,200 item.

But we know who it belongs to.

As a result, I think a much more reasonable auction estimate for this set would be somewhere in the $2,000 to $2,500 range.

Mm, that's great to know.

So even after 25 years, that's still a pretty good return on investment.

(chuckles) I don't intend to sell it.

I brought a tapestry that, uh, my grandmother gave me in 1989.

It's such a mystery because my grandmother traveled a lot, and her family was the fancy family.

She was raised by Ogden Mills, secretary of Treasury, and she had extended-family Vanderbilts and Livingstons.

And so a lot, lots of fancy people.

So we don't know if this was in her fancy family for all those years... Mm-hmm.

...or if this was something she acquired.

What you brought today is a large-scale schoolgirl pictorial embroidery.

It is American.

Okay.

It dates to roughly about 1740.

(exhales) And I say large-scale, it measures 18-and-a-half by 31 inches.

A sampler is basically the first thing that a young girl would have done.

Seven, eight, nine, ten years old.

And a sampler is what we think about as sort of ABC, the one, two, three things.

Yes.

And when she basically graduated, she'd have gotten harder things to do.

She might have been 16 to 19 years old or so.

Okay.

Her teacher would have drawn the elements.

Oftentimes, we find these elements in pattern books.

We have an absolutely wonderful, mythical, exotic landscape.

Okay.

The piece is visually split in half by the sort of centerpiece, which is a fruit tree.

Mm-hmm.

It's on linen, it's a natural linen background.

And it's silk floss, which is floss that hasn't been twisted.

Right.

So it lays flat and it's shinier, and wool, as well.

Okay.

We look at the overall appeal.

Is there a visual appeal to this?

And I think everybody is going to say, "Absolutely."

(chuckles) It is well-balanced, the colors are balanced-- the left to the right.

The pinks are scattered all over, the blues are scattered.

There is enough space between the elements.

It's wonderfully anchored at the bottom by this beautiful scenery.

It is charming beyond belief.

We do not know who it's by.

That's the part that's so, such a mystery.

Yeah.

And there are very few embroidery teachers that would have been at this level.

So with research, I do believe that we could probably pinpoint it down to maybe the school it came from, maybe the girl?

The condition is extraordinary.

Okay.

Uh... Because I worried a little, 'cause there are a few spots where I could see, you know, little things.

It's 280 years old.

Right.

So I think we need to be a little more gentle with it.

(laughs): Yes.

It is e, the colors are extraordinary, and that is one of the first things that go.

They look like the year that they were bought.

Okay.

The father of this young woman would have been billed for all of the materials, and it's certainly a calling card for the family.

Okay.

"Not only can we afford to send our daughter to school, she is this good."

I'd say.

Yeah.

And ambitious.

(laughing) Yeah, and ambitious.

Well, she had, she had some time on her hands, maybe.

Right.

I believe that a, a very conservative auction estimate would be $50,000 to $75,000.

Oh, my.

(chuckles) I was going to say, like, maybe $5,000?

So... Hm, you'd have to bring a little bit more money for the...

I think so!

Yeah.

(laughs) For insurance purposes, which is a replacement value... Mm-hmm.

...I would put insurance, um, at $125,000... Oh, my.

...to replace this.

Oh, my.

Well, my grandmother would be just thrilled, 'cause she gave me a very special gift.

(chuckles) Well, yeah.

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

We brought a Bible, a lock, and a vase.

We thought they'd be worth millions...

But that's not the case.

(chuckles) Wah-wah!

We both brought in prints today.

This one's a Rosenquist.

This one is a female artist, not very well-known.

And they say it's not about judgment, but it is a competition, and mine is worth more, so I guess I won.

It's true, I'll give him this one today.

(both laugh) I brought my second-great- grandmother's undies, and they're worth $500!

We drove eight hours to come here and learn about our pottery pieces.

Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.

And we learned some cool stuff about 'em.

And also we just wanted to embarrass our daughter Janae and say, "Hi, Janae!"

That's right, hello, Janae!

Hi, Daddy's dancing for you!

I brought my mother's jewelry.

I brought a cameo pin that I thought was worth a fortune, and it is plastic.

And I brought her scarab bracelet, which I wear every single day 'cause it reminds her of, me of her.

And I thought it was worth a fortune-- or I thought it was worthless, and it's worth $1,500!

Whoo-hoo!

I found out today that my painting, oh, it's worth only about $350.

Um, it's not, like, a genuine, um, painting or anything like that.

So we drove five-and-a-half hours from Brooklyn, New York, to get such a disappointment.

(groans) (chuckles) Cut!

(laughs) (man laughs) PEÑA: Thanks for watching.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."