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.

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.

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.

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.