Antique Roadshow Recap 3/24-3/30

This weeks Antique Roadshow was shot in San Antonio, Texas, and originally aired this Tuesday. As I’ve said in previous blogs, I’m partial to the shows shot here in Texas, so I was pretty excited about this one.

The first item I wanted to talk about today was a painted candy box from 1910. I selected this item because it was so interesting to me that it was made of China. Of course antique china is fairly common. I’ve seen so many antique collectibles made of china, I can hardly count them, but never a candy box. Suzanne Perrault valued the professionally hand painted candy box at up to $600 dollars. I thought it was such an interesting item, because the original owner’s uncle had her childhood portrait painted on it for her as a gift. Apparently, professional portraits on china are rare from that time period. What a sweet story and sentimental item. Out of all the antique appraisals this week, this one was by far the lowest valued item on the show but I thought it was one of the most touching.

The next item on the show I thought I should talk about was a 1943 Ernie Lombardi “Giants” practice jersey. It isn’t very often that I see sports memorabilia from this era, so of course it is exciting. This item had another sweet story to go along with it. The owner had received the jersey as a child in Meeker, Oklahoma. The town’s doctor had asked professional baseball player, Carl Hubbell, to donate some jersey’s for the town’s baseball team to use. Since Meeker was Hubbell’s hometown, he happily sent Giant’s practice jerseys to the team. The lucky owner received a jersey formerly owned by Ernie Lombardi, a hall-of-famer. Simeon Lipman, the appraiser valued this item at up to $15,000, but I can’t imagine the owner would ever sell it, from the look on his face as he told the story.

This week’s show was sentimental and touching as could be, I got a warm fuzzy feeling watching all the people tell the stories of their prized possessions. Whether it’s antique furniture, or antique bottles, these items mean so much to the people who collect them.I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of watching this show!

By Jamie.

No Need to Check Your Antique Price Guide to Find Worlds Most Valuable Coin

If you want to find the world’s most valuable coin, an antique price guide isn’t the place to look. You don’t even need to go on Antiques Roadshow, I’ve got the info for you right here. The 1933 Double Eagle is an extremely rare gold coin, and it holds the distinction of being the World’s most valuable coin. Few antique collectibles can hold a candle to its interesting past.

Over 400,000 of the coins were minted but none made it into circulation. Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6102 in 1933 to end the 1930s general bank crisis by making it illegal to use gold coins as legal tender.

It was originally thought that only three of the coins survived, but apparently 20 coins were stolen and circulated among collectors, including ten coins that were discovered in 2005. Two of the original three went to museums, the third was stolen and later ended up in a private collection. It was sold at auction in New York in 2002 for 7.59 million dollars.

Regardless of the number of coins in existence today, chances are slim you will end up with one. Except for the coin sold at auction, it is illegal to own the Double Eagle as they all belong to the United States Government. If you buy one, make sure it is a reproduction and if it isn’t you’ll want to keep it under your hat or the Secret Service will be along to collect it.

Coin values are often determined by rarity, but I’d be more interested in collecting coins that are legal to own and not so much trouble to come by.

By Jamie.

Historic Town and Antique Collectibles For Sale

The ultimate antique collectible will soon be auctioned, an entire historic town. The town of Garryowen, Montana is located across the Little Bighorn River from the National Park Service’s Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.

Garryowen is home to the Custer Battlefield Museum. The sale of the town includes a 4,000 square foot home, a trading post, the museum, an office complex, a bed and breakfast, a post office, a gas station, a restaurant and an archive of Elizabeth Custer’s papers. The starting bid at the auction will be $6.5 million dollars.

The town’s owner, Chris Kortlander has owned Garryowen since 1993, and is selling the town in the hopes that someone with more resources will buy the town and build a museum and research facility for Elizabeth Custer’s archive. If you value antiques, you’ll love the archive, it contains photographs, correspondence, drawings, notes, book drafts, invitations and even a card from her and George Custer’s 1864 wedding.

I’m not sure exactly what the Custer Battlefield Museum holds, but I doubt you could find most of it from your local antique dealer. The Battle of Little Bighorn is one of the most famous battles in all of the Indian Wars. The value of antiques found on that battlefield must be more than I can imagine.

Hopefully, the person who ends up with this town will put all the historical items to good use. I’d hate to see our Nation’s history used by a corporation to make money.

By Jamie.

Antique Roadshow Recap #5

This week’s Antique Roadshow was the third in a row shot in Tampa. Like the two previous, it originally aired in 2006. Tampa has been fun to watch, next week will be from a new city and possibly even not previously aired. As usual there were lots of interesting items this week, but I think I picked the best two.

The first item I’m going to talk about was given the highest value of all of the antique appraisals just like last week. I don’t know why but the most valuable items always have the best stories. The item is a marine painting by James E. Butterworth. This item is particularly interesting since two weeks ago on Tampa hour #1 there was a painting misidentified as a Butterworth. I imagine the antique appraisers double checked this one before telling the owner.

James E. Butterworth was a celebrated painter who took boats out on the water to paint marine scenes in the 1800s. Nan Chisholm, the antique appraiser, valued the painting at around $90,000. The owner of the painting inherited it from her mother who had it hanging in her trailer near the bathroom. I could tell by her entertaining reaction that she had no idea the painting was worth anything. As you can see in the photo the painting is beautiful, but it was nothing compared to the owners reaction when she was told the antiques value. If you didn’t see this appraisal you should really go to Antique Roadshow’s official site and check out the video.

The next item I chose was a collection of Chinese snuff bottles. I thought these antique collectibles would be perfect for my blog. Not only are they antique bottles, but also Asian antiques, two of the most popular categories on iTaggit.com. The owner of the bottles had been collecting them for three years. He paid as low as $12 dollars and as much as $250 dollars for the bottles. I could tell he was very passionate about his impressive collection as he listened to appraiser Marvin Sokolow describe each bottle. He must have been so pleased to hear that it was worth up to $15,000 dollars.

Well, that was the show, as always feel free to comment and let me know what you thought of the items I covered.

By Jamie.

Postcards, The New Antique Collectible

I was looking around on iTaggit last night and I came across a really cool collection of postcards owned by Stoney. Postcards aren’t exactly the first thing that comes to mind when I think about an antique collectible, but if you think about it they are one of the best. They are easy to find and easy to display. They can be very inexpensive and they give us a wonderful snapshot into all areas of the past, from specific locations to important people or even just fashions and products of the time.

I liked all of Stoney’s vintage postcards a lot but my favorite would have to be the postcard for Gaidos Restaurant in Galveston Texas. I’ve been to the restaurant many times, so it was really cool to see how it looked a long time ago. Another interesting card Stoney has is of Balanced Rock which has been written on. I love how that adds a human touch to the card. The person dated it 1908. What an amazing piece for any collection.

After seeing all the cool postcards on itaggit I decided to do some research. Apparently the study and collection of postcards is called deltiology. If you are thinking about starting your own collection, you should know that it can be difficult to determine the value of antiques like postcards because their production is not heavily regulated. Before you start buying you’ll probably want to pick up an antique price guide or check out a few antique appraisals.

Antique Roadshow Recap #4

Antique Roadshow this week was pretty good. The show was shot in Tampa and like last weeks show, I’m afraid it was a a rerun. The show originally aired in 2006, which was before I really got into watching so again, like last week’s show, it is new to me. I’m not really a history buff, but the historical items on this weeks show were so interesting to me.

The first item I selected was given the highest value of all the antique appraisals this week. I imagine the antique appraisers were pretty excited when they saw what the owner had brought them. It was a Lahcotah Dictionary and Other Native American Artifacts all from the 1800s. Being part Native American myself, I was particularly interested in this item and I wasn’t disappointed at all. Apparently, the owner’s great-great-uncle was one of the authors of the Sioux language dictionary and this copy had his penciled in notes and corrections in the margins. The idea that the author of the book wrote extra little bits of information in the margins is so exciting to me. Wouldn’t you love to see what changes he made? As much as that would affect the antiques value, that is nothing compared to the fact that this was the first book printed in Wyoming. Can you imagine owning an antique collectible with such historical relevance? The lucky owner has two other copies at home of a book that has only been auctioned once in the past thirty years. What an amazing find!

The Native American artifacts that accompanied the book were jewelry pieces owned by two important Sioux Tribe members, worth up to 12,000 each and brought the total lot’s worth up to $150,000. If I were the owner I might have to sell. Even with the sentimental value, that is quite a lot of money for an item you have more than one copy of. You can see how plain the book and jewelry look in the picture from Antique Roadshow’s official site. I guess you really can’t judge a book by its cover.

The next item I chose because it reminded me of a really cool scrimshaw collection on iTaggit owned by ScrimCollector. The collection up for valuation on the show consisted of five Chinese paintings and one Scrimshaw. The value of antiques like scrimshaws can vary based on the condition, and I noticed that the scrimshaw on the show had some sort of red stain on it. The appraiser didn’t address it so I’m not sure if it affected the antiques value or not. The items featured in the segment were valued at up to $18,000 which is a lot of money. I’ve made a mental note to buy any scrimshaw I find at affordable prices at my local antique dealer.

So that was my take on the show this week, if I missed anything let me know!

By Jamie.

Antique Roadshow Recap Tampa Hour One

What a great Antique Roadshow this week! The city featured this time was Tampa, which seems to be a rerun. Luckily, I had never seen this one so it was new to me. There were too many interesting antique appraisals to choose just two, but I think I picked the best ones.

The first piece was easy to choose, after all what Texan wouldn’t select an artifact from a hero from the Battle of the Alamo? Of all the antique appraisers, Francis Wahlgren was the lucky one who got to value David Crockett’s Unexecuted Marriage License. He didn’t have much work to do since the owner of the document knew the interesting story behind it. Apparently Crockett was supposed to be married when he was 19 years old, but his bride ran away and eloped with another man. Years later, the courthouse was going to throw the document away but a man there was a fan of Crockett’s so he kept it and passed it down in his family until the current owner finally inherited it. Even with all the information the owner had, this seems like such a difficult piece to value. If I were Wahlgren, I would have kept asking myself “how do I value antiques that are one of a kind and can never be replaced?” He seemed to have managed fine though, and determined the antiques value is between $30,000 and $50,000. Check out a picture of the amazing document from Antique Roadshow’s official site.



The next item was a beautiful collection of Lenox China Sample Plates appraised by David Lackey who is a Houstonian like me. Now antique china is something that most everyone I know has gathering dust in a cabinet somewhere, so I always pay special attention when it is featured. The Owner’s father had rescued the plates from the trash when he worked at Lenox fifty years ago. Lackey explained that the plates were hand-painted treasures worth up to $6,000 for only 7 plates. I’m sure the owner was thanking her lucky stars, since she had even more plates than were displayed in this picture from Antique Roadshow’s official site.



I guess what we should learn from this is to learn the value of antiques before tossing them out. These two people should feel very lucky that their treasured items were rescued instead of ending up at the dump.

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The True Value of Antiques

Lately I’ve found myself wondering “How do I value antiques?” Should the value be based on the age? Maybe the condition should determine the value antiques have, but the more I thought about it, the more it seems to me that the true value of antiques comes from their history and the stories they can tell us.

When I look at an antique or vintage item, I can’t help but wonder who bought it brand new? Who used it every day to give it the wonderful patina it now has? Who loved it before I did? I’m sure I’m not the only person who feels this way. Antiques are so interesting to us because they’ve been around longer than we have. They’ve managed to survive so many years and so many things that we can’t even imagine.

Shows like Antique Roadshow are fun to watch not only because we learn antiques value, but also because we learn the history of the item. This can be even more special and interesting if the item was handed down from family member to family member. In my Fiance’s family an antique sword with their family named etched on it has been handed down for years and in my family the granddaughters inherit jewelry and figurines. So many families have traditions like these, which makes me think that we all feel the same way about antiques. If your family has an interesting item or too that gets passed down through the generations let me know!

By Jamie.

Justice League Now on DVD

DC Comic's Justice League: The New Frontier has been released on DVD. For those of you who aren't familiar with The New Frontier, it is an animated movie based on the graphic novels by Darwyn Cook, Michael Goguen and Bruce Timm. I recently learned that a comic book having a successful movie increases its value. So once this movie hits it big, take your Justice League comics in for new comic book appraisals.

David Borneanaz, or Angel as we know him, and Neil Patrick Harris of Doogie Howser fame are among the interesting voice cast. I might get the movie just to see how those two along with Brooke Shields work in one film. Seriously though, the Justice League alone has enough big names to sell the movie. Who is bigger than Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman?

I think it is pretty smart that the Justice League movie is being released on Blu-Ray. They are also releasing it on HD DVD in March, but since Toshiba has abandoned the format, that probably isn't a really wise move. Check out this video about the end of HD DVD.



All of these format changes are making it hard for me to organize collections of movies at my house. I can't believe DVD's are becoming obsolete. I guess I should start posting some of mine as items for sale or trade on iTaggit. From iTaggit's site www.itaggit.com, users can sell or trade items to other users, post them on eBay, Amazon, or craigslist all from one spot. This makes the process a lot easir. I guess I'll have to sell off most of my DVD collection to be able to afford one of those expensive Blu-Ray players. Most people I know, are just buying a PS3, it plays both Blu-Ray and DVD formatted discs.

By Jamie.

New Antique Price Guide for Mickey

Nearly everyone at one time or another has owned a piece of Mickey Mouse Memorabilia. My most memorable piece was a wonderful Mickey Mouse sweat-shirt. Mickey was positioned on the shirt so that if I put my hands in the pocket it looked like I had Mickey gloves on. I wore it to my 5th birthday party and I'll never forget it. Take a look at me in all my early 80s glory.


Unfortunately, I lost track of my favorite Mickey shirt before I could write in cursive. If you somehow managed to keep all your Mickey Mouse memorabilia you might want to check out the new Official Price Guide to Mickey Mouse Collectibles. Unlike a normal antiques price guide, the Mickey guide has both antiques and newer items. As long as it is a Mickey collectible it should be in there.

Of course newer items are usually easy to price based on retail prices. The problem is finding accurate value of antiques. An antique price guide can be a good reference for collectibles, but in my opinion the best way to go is always antique appraisals. An appraisal allows your specific item to get looked at by an expert. If you really think your item is valueable, it's worth the money to get the item appraised. If you collect or are looking to collect Mickey Mouse memorabilia you should really browse through the book. You can find it from Geppi Entertainment Publishing.

By Jamie.

Art Auction Price Stuns Antique Appraisers

If you are asking yourself how do I value antiques? you are not alone. A 14th century painting by Allegretto Nuzi, an Italian artist, was valued at less than $150,000. Imagine the antique appraisers surprise when it sold for over $290,000 at a multi-estate auction by Philip Weiss Auctions earlier this month. The painting, which was once thought to be lost, depicts the beheading of Saint Blaise, a Catholic martyr.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate antique art, and art in general, but there aren't many places I could see myself hanging a painting of a beheading scene. I mean, really, a beheading painting? That can't make the guests feel too welcome. I guess everyone interprets art differently. I'm more of a landscape girl.

Nuzi's painting is proof that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Sometimes history, just as much as beauty can affect the value antiques hold. The age, and the religious depiction and the fact that it was once lost all contribute to this antiques value.

Philip Weiss, from the company that auctioned the painting, was surprised by the high prices because of the slow economy we're dealing with. The event grossed nearly $900,000 even though they were expecting only $300,000 from the auction! Antiques and art can be a guessing game, but the more information you have on your piece and similar pieces, the more accurate your valuation will be. As I've covered in a past blog, art prices continue to rise because they are usually a safe investment despite the economy. I know I can't wait until I can start buying a few paintings here and there. My personal dream painting would be Mark by Chuck Close. I doubt I'll ever own it though since it is hanging at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as you can see in the photo.



Weiss' event grossed nearly $900,000 even though they were expecting only $300,000 from the auction. Antiques and art can be a guessing game, but the more information you have on your piece and similar pieces, the more accurate your valuation will be.

By Jamie.