Junk in the Trunk 14 | Full Episode | ANTIQUES ROADSHOW || PBS

Antiques Roadshow is back. I made a u-turn. I said we gotta get that sign now. It's not something we see very often at all. Okay, wow. With another treasure-packed episode of Junk in the Trunk. This episode of Antiques Roadshow is made possible by these sponsors. Harvesting even more of the great treasures we saw on our Season 29 tour, the Denver Botanic Garden Chatfield Farms was blooming and beautiful as the backdrop for our stop in Colorado. Story is it came across the United States on a covered wagon. As always, our guests had questions about their treasures and our experts weighed in to help set the record straight. This is a Goodyear tire sign that I found in 1981 in Highland Park, Illinois in somebody's garbage. And so it was a cold winter day. We're on our way to church and I saw this and I made a u-turn. I said we gotta get that sign now before anybody else does. That's crazy. So we had a Chevette and it barely fit inside the Chevette and it's been in every garage that we've had since then. That is the definition of a one man's trash is another man's treasure. Yeah. It is clear as day. This is a Goodyear tires sign formerly known as the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. They were founded in 1898 in Akron, Ohio. And before they became the powerhouse of road tires that we know today, they started out with bicycle and carriage tires. The sign is enameled iron and it is double sided on the side of the back. Identical image trade term of the initials DSP simply means double sided porcelain sign. It was really utilized in the 1880s and they phased out enameled on iron signs once again to the late 40s into the 50s because with World War II metal shortages, it really wasn't an economical way to produce advertising. The enameling process, what happens is they take powdered glass known as frit, mix it with an oxide and compound and water creates it into a liquefied compound. Then they put the stencil on, fill in the liquefied frit, put it in high temperature. Bam, you got yourself an enameled sign. In terms of condition, we do have some wear on the edge. There is some minor oxidation rust, but overall, the general image, great gloss, great color. It's an eight out of 10. It's really beautiful. It's a great sign. We look at the bottom left, we see property, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. I mean, it has all the marks that let us know this is as right as it gets, right as rain. You ever have an idea of what it was worth based on watching Antiques Roadshow and other car shows? I think a thousand dollars. You would probably watch a little bit of an older episode because conservatively at auction, I would say the sign would easily bring between $2,000 and $3,000. That's great. And the lesson is, if you see something in the trash and you want it, just take it. Don't worry about what people think. I like that. That's great advice. Don't be afraid to jump in the trash. Now, the people who make Antiques Roadshow possible. On an American Cruise Lines journey, you can explore the mighty Mississippi. American Cruise Lines, proud sponsor of Antiques Roadshow. It's an F1 poster, Monaco. My husband and I bought it for our anniversary maybe five years ago. Have you ever been to a race before? We have in Miami. It was really hot, really hot in Miami. And where did you get this? I think it was Aspen. How much did you pay for it? I think it was $1,200. You have to be like a really big Formula One fan. Yes, to pay that much. But we love it. And so we were willing to spend it. The Monaco Grand Prix is the Grand Prix of Grand Prixs. Began in 1929. Every year that the race was run, there was a poster advertising the race. And beginning in 1964 to 1970, Michael Turner designed those posters for the race. Michael Turner is a very accomplished and very famous automobile artist. He's actually done posters for a number of different racing events. He designed something for the Sebring race, for the Deutscher Grand Prix, the German Grand Prix, and also for the United States Grand Prix, which was run in Watkins Glen up in New York State. But perhaps his most endearing series were the posters that he did for the Monaco Grand Prix. They depicted the beautiful Monaco scenery. So this is the Prince's Palace up there in the port of Monaco. And it should be said, for those people who don't know about F1 racing, and I'm one of those people, so I had to do a little research to figure out something about F1 racing. It's not like the Indy 500, where the cars go round and round the track. This goes through downtown Monaco, through the streets. Super exciting, a little bit dangerous. What's interesting about the 1966 race, from a race history point of view, the race was won by Jackie Stewart. And they actually filmed footage from the race to make the movie Grand Prix. So there's some footage there. They're so popular, a lot of them were reproduced. And a lot of the reproductions are on the market, and they're available quite inexpensively. It's very hard to tell which are the reproductions and which are the originals. This one is original. Really? And I believe it's original because when you look at the text on the bottom, where it says Monaco 24th Grand Prix, when you look at that on the reproduction, it actually looks a little fuzzy. It looks a little pixelated. And the rest of the image is also a little fuzzier. So this one is really clear. And so I would consider it the real McCoy. If this were to come up for auction now, I'd estimate it between $2,500 and $3,500. Okay, wow. Nice, nice. Wow. And I said I wouldn't say wow, like everyone else, I wouldn't say wow. Fantastic. Thank you so much. It's really, wow, amazing. It's from my husband's family from the Civil War. It's from Joseph Matlock. He was a sergeant with the Union Army. And it's been passed down from generation to generation of the oldest male. So this was from seven generations ago, my family from Mariah Banks. Mariah was 23 years old and made this in 1845 in Meigs County, Ohio. And it was the only thing that she took with her on a covered wagon when she and her husband moved to Iowa. Came here today to see what it's worth. This has been handed down for generations. There's a picture of my great-grandfather that's on it. I acquired it in 79. Is this him right here in the vest? Yes. Do you know how he got it? I do not. I know that he was Sioux. I know that he was in Rosebud and Pine Ridge at the time in 1906 when this picture was taken. My dad, when he had this framed, made that plaque. The burning breast is something that he's always in the family called it. It is Sioux. It's from the Eastern Band, the Santeeth by the Minnesota border. The beads are hand-stitched on to what we call brain tan deer skin. The vest is not a tribal design. It's something that was picked up from non-Indians in the 1840s, 1850s. But after 1870, everybody wanted a vest, Indian and non-Indian, and they wanted them beaded. These are abstracted spring prairie flowers. That's the reason I know it's Santeeth. It's very particular to what they do. You see it on a lot of their beadwork. The flags, a lot of that was to recognize there was a dominating culture that they had to deal with. And you had a lot of military stations throughout those areas. So it was a good market. The beadwork is one of the reasons we can date it fairly close. These beads here, they're made out of metal. They're faceted beads. And they became popular in the late 1880s and pretty much died out because of the supply after 1900. If this was in a gallery, $6,000 to $8,000. All right, yeah. And it's great that your family kept it so well. Yeah, that's great to know. My husband and I love this painting. We love the artist and we loved everything about the color in it. How long ago did you acquire the painting? It would have been about 40 years ago in the 80s from a gallery in Denver. What do you know about the artist? Well, I just simply know that he was very prolific in Western art and particularly in Colorado. Well, his name is Charles Partridge Adams. Yes. And he was born in 1858 in Massachusetts and moved to Colorado when he was 18. His sister, I believe, had tuberculosis, so you know how you would go to the mountains. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. And he started working at a bookstore called Chain and Hardy. And the wife of one of the owners had actually studied with George Ennis. And when she realized that he had artistic talent, she very much encouraged him and supported him in his quest to become an artist. He had his first exhibition in Denver in 1886 and established his first studio in Denver in 1893. He also started spending the summers in Esses Park and painting there. And one thing he figured out when he did establish a studio was that if he painted in watercolor, those paintings tended to sell a little bit faster because they were less expensive. So he was very clever. He moved to Los Angeles around 1920 and basically lived there until he died in the 40s. But he, again, being clever, he figured out that the Colorado subjects that he liked to paint didn't really sell so well in California, so he started to paint coastal scenes. But he would still paint Colorado subjects from memory and send them back to Colorado for sale. So he was quite entrepreneurial. Very prolific and very popular. Yes. This is a very good example of the artist's work. Circa date might be 1900 to 1920. The medium is oil on canvas. What I particularly love about the painting, like you, is the color, but I also just love looking at the surface where you can see the texture of the paint and the mark of the brush. I know we talked about maybe how much you paid for it. I just can't really remember, but I'm guessing $20,000 to $25,000. Well, that would make sense because in the late 80s, the Western market was very, very strong, and there were very good prices then. If we were to offer this in a retail gallery now, the asking price might be around $50,000. Well, that's always encouraging and nice to hear, but I love having it in my own house. I love showing something as beautiful as that because I adore Colorado. Las Vegas was a hotspot for great stuff when more than a couple thousand collectors brought their art and heirlooms to Springs Preserve. Some treasures had our experts a bit puzzled. It's a pretty wild piece. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to answer your mystery, though. We've been in this business a long time and haven't seen one of these before, so that's one of the fun things about it. You guys get the prize! While other antique gems were easy to identify. Mickey Moto was the most popular pearl retailer from Japan, and so this takes after Mickey Moto. They're not as good quality as a Mickey Moto. What else did Rochu find in this desert oasis? Check it out. I got her when I was 10 years old. It belonged to my great aunt, and she said that a relative of hers was a lady-in-waiting from Louis 11th or Louis 14th. I never knew for sure, and that it was handed down in the generations through her family. So at 10 years old, were you allowed to play with her? No. What happened to her? My mother wrapped her up and put her in the attic. Oh, the dreaded attic. And I didn't get her back until my mother passed a few years ago. Your doll was made by Francois Gaultier in the southern part of Paris in France, and it's a bisque swivel head. That means that it's in a shoulder plate, and you can actually turn the head back and forth so you can pose her in her beautiful gown. And then she's got a kid leather body. Right. I believe you told me that your aunt made the gown in France. Oh, yeah. Can you tell me about the wig? Well, I was 10 years old. I thought I would be playing with her. And my grandmother says, well, let's put some hair on her. And we dropped her off in New York, and this guy put hair on her and offered me $150 for her. And that's probably why my mother took her away. Okay. Original wigs, even in just horrid condition, always are better. The little part of the story that's not matching up is this doll was made in 1870s. So that doesn't match up with Louis XIV. This is a very popular doll, and they sell between today's market about $1,200 to $1,800 retail. Ah, okay. All right. I don't think I'll be selling her. If she had the original wig, we probably could add another $200 to her value. Yeah. I acquired them from my grandparents through my father. I've had them for about 15 years now. These were purchased by my grandmother in the 1930s as antiques. Okay. She was an antique collector. What you have brought in today is a pair of Persian Kashan rugs. Kashan is a weaving center in central Persia. It's been actively weaving rugs since the 16th century. These examples were woven around 1925 to 1930. So when your grandmother purchased them, they were close to being new. Earlier Kashan rugs used a different type of wool. They used Manchester wool. It has a different feel than the Persian wool which followed it, which has got a little bit of a slightly rougher feel. Kashans from this period, the 1930s, have these central pendant medallions, complementary spandrels, and floral borders. Do you have any idea what the value would be of these rugs? I don't. Probably a couple hundred dollars each. For these two Kashan rugs in auction, you could expect to get a value of $2,500 and $3,500. I got it five years ago. My daughter and I were driving around. We came across this yard sale. It caught my attention because of the size. This is the Lady of Liberty. And how much did you pay for it? I paid $200. Her official title is Liberty Enlightening the World. And it was a gift from the French people to the United States. And the French gave the sculpture, and the Americans had to raise the money to build the platform. And it was meant for the centennial of the United States. Over here it says July 4, 1776. So the original one, the big one in New York City, is made out of sheets of hammered copper. And the structure that supports all of these sheets was designed by Gustav Eiffel. He's the one who did the Eiffel Tower. This is supposed to be Rays of the Sun. You're missing one here. There's supposed to be seven. Yeah, I know. Yeah, so there's supposed to be seven. And also they think the seven could represent the seven seas or the seven continents. Oh, okay. Which is very appropriate for immigrants coming to the United States. They were originally made in the 19th century, and they came in different sizes. It's inscribed here, registered in Washington, 31 August, 1876. Bartaldi, number 99396, 1875. So it was registered in the United States Copyright Office. It's a bronze. The original ones were made in zinc. So somebody made a cast from one of these zinc ones and made it in bronze. When you do that, some of the detail gets lost. And that's how I know that it's not an older one because the details are not as sharp and as crisp as the original one. I don't know how old it is. It looks like it could be 50, 60 years old. I've went wrong. They're the company that made the one in zinc. And we know that they didn't make this one because they didn't make bronzes. It's still very nicely cast. The details are good. So this would have a retail value of about $5,000. $5,000. Okay, that's good. Great. I got it in a state sale, and I went for a Selmer saxophone. It was already sold. So I ended up with a Martin Imperial trumpet from the 1930s. I have no idea what it's worth, and I can't play the trumpet. So here I am. This is a Pension Revolutionary War Certificate to William Knapp, who's a great, great, great grandfather of my husband. It was signed by John C. Calhoun. And this is how much he's going to get paid for being in the war. $8 per month. I studied banjo all through high school. When I got out of high school, I ran away to be a musician. And I came across this banjo in about 1979, 1980. I just loved the sound of this banjo. The neck, I wasn't so sure about. I'm still not so sure about as far as being original. But I just loved the sound. And I played it hard for a good 10 or 12, 13 years at Bluegrass Festival.