NARRATOR: Major funding is provided by, Alex Cooper Auctioneers, since 1924 has been serving the Mid-Atlantic states, featuring monthly gallery antique auction sales, our staff can assist clients with the disposition of their valued possessions.

Alex Cooper Auctioneers.

GENICE LEE: Coming up on "Chesapeake Collectibles"...

GUEST: The members of the village come up and they spin one of these... DENNIS HARTER: Right.

GUEST: For how they thought of the person as they speak.

And if you thought of the person as maybe a bit devilish, you would show the devil here.

GUEST: Starting at the bottom is Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Willie McCovey, Ernie Banks, Eddie Matthews, Reggie Jackson, Mike Schmidt, Carmen Killebrew, Frank Robinson, Willie Mays, and number one is Hank Aaron.

ALLAN STYPECK: Hank number one.

GUEST: So this is a, uh, Civil War pistol that my father got from his father, Christmas in 1945.

MICHAEL STANTON: Uh, the last one that I saw on the auction market sold for $1,600.

GUEST: What?

GUEST: I brought discharge papers from my great-granddad and my great-uncle's service in the U.S.

Colored Troops.

They served with the U.S.

Colored Troops in regiment 58 from 1864 until 1867.

G AMORY LECUYER: It's absolutely spectacular, and the fact that it came out of a dumpster I think is even more important.

You just never know what you're gonna find when you dive a good dumpster, you know?

GUEST: That's right.

(theme music plays).

♪ ♪ (studio chatter) DENNIS: Welcome to "Chesapeake Collectibles", I see you got an interesting piece of carved wood here, uh, that looks like it's been out in the weather for a while.

What can you, what can you tell us about it?

GUEST: Well, this comes from Sulawesi and it is used in their ornate funerals that they have there.

My wife and I were in Indonesia because we were educators.

And I was teaching economics and my wife was a school counselor and an English teacher, and we lived there for three years.

And I love old things, I'm a history teacher and economics teacher... DENNIS: Right.

GUEST: So our driver would go to all the different antique places, and have them look for special things for me.

And I had one antique shop that I used over and over again, over the years I lived there, and he found this for me, from Sulawesi and he held it for me, because he knew I'd really want it.

DENNIS: Okay and, can you tell us a little bit about the, the funeral service and the ceremonies that were attached to this particular type of artifact?

GUEST: Well Sulawesi is pretty unusual for Indonesia... DENNIS: Right, I agree.

GUEST: Because it's Christian, as opposed to Muslim.

DENNIS: Correct.

GUEST: And they have these huge funerals, that they save years of their life in order to have this funeral.

DENNIS: Right.

GUEST: And they do a lot of slaughtering of animals, and all of these rites, and at it, the members of the village come up and they spin one of these... DENNIS: Right.

GUEST: For how they thought of the person, as they speak.

And if you thought of the person as maybe a bit devilish, you would show the devil here.

Or if you thought of them more as a heavenly soul, and then usually the ceremony would end with everybody talking about the good things and turning it towards the heaven, at least that's the one that I was able to go to.

DENNIS: Right.

Well I also was in Indonesia in the 1980s and I served at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta and did a lot of traveling in Indonesia, though I did not get to Sulawesi, and I didn't get to see one of the ceremonies, but I know from being in Indonesia how important these ceremonies were to the people of Sulawesi, and so, as you said, they saved up money after, long after the death of the the person in addition to whatever savings they had before, to pay for the cost of the slaughtering of the water buffaloes and things of that sort, that were main lifestyle animals, to beast of burden, plowing the fields, everything in their society, and having this as part of your collection is really unique, in and of itself.

Uh, in terms of what its history is and what it was used for and it's clearly something, based on the way it's carved, based on the way it's, it's aged here, that it's a piece that was in use, that it was not something that was just created, uh, for a tourist sale or purchase.

GUEST: Oh, I'm so glad.

DENNIS: When you, when you purchased this, did you talk to them about overall value of the, of the piece, or age, or anything of that sort?

GUEST: He did tell me he thought it was at least 100 years old.

Uh, when I purchased it, and that was in 2010, when I was living in Indonesia, 2011.

DENNIS: Okay.

GUEST: And the price, we haggled for about three weeks, and eventually I think I got it for about $180 U.S. that was about 1.8 million uh, uh, rupiah.

DENNIS: Rupiah.

Okay, well, again as you likely know, the market for something of this sort is... narrow to people who are collectors of, of primitives, of things that are related to tribal groups in Africa and Asia, the islands of the Pacific, things of that sort.

And so it's very difficult to estimate what this might be in terms of the sale value.

Historically, the story that you know and is associated with this type of product, is the main drive for what this item is worth because they are so, such infrequent sales and things that are focused on this, in spite of the fact that you would not have a great range of buyers for it, I suspect that because of the quality of this, and the way that the story is associated with this kind of piece, you would be dealing with something that is easily five to six times what you paid for it.

GUEST: Thank you so much, that's so gratifying.

DENNIS: And it's, and it's an absolutely terrific piece.

I was never able, as I said to get there, and I did get some things from some of the other islands, that were also primitive pieces, so I know that this is uh, a really great find and a great opportunity for you to have in your own collection.

GUEST: So take it off the front porch?

DENNIS: Absolutely, get it inside, because the weather outside isn't going to do it any good.

It's totally different in climate in the United States than it is in Sulawesi, plus the fact that you have other kinds of wear and tear from the chemicals that are in the air and everything else.

So enjoy it in the interior, once you've taken care of making sure that it's well preserved.

GUEST: Thank you very much.

DENNIS: Thank you.

And thank you for bringing it to Chesapeake Collectibles .

GUEST: This was really exciting.

(studio chatter).

ALLAN: Thanks for coming to "Chesapeake Collectibles", what did you bring us?

GUEST: Pete Rose's marketing did a show in Atlantic City, um, and they did all the living 500 home run hitters, uh, event.

And as you can see, these are all the 500, living 500 home run hitters at the time.

Uh, Ron Lewis, the artist actually signed the uh, print and also here's the newspaper article, uh, describing it.

ALLAN: It's very interesting, so you have 11 living 500 homers in 1988, you want to read off the, the, the, great 11?

GUEST: Absolutely.

Starting at the bottom is Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Willie McCovey, Ernie Banks, Eddie Matthews, Reggie Jackson, Mike Schmidt, Carmen Killebrew, Frank Robinson, Willie Mays, and number one is Hank Aaron.

ALLAN STYPECK: Hank number one.

Of those, four are, I believe, deceased now.

GUEST: Yes.

ALLAN: And there's still six living, yet there's a 7th 500 Homer now, you don't have Rafael Palmeiro.

GUEST: No, no.

ALLAN: Right, which I think you should add to it in trivia, right?

GUEST: Well, I was thinking about actually adding another section down below that for it, because Barry Bonds hit, no matter how much we dislike that they think of an issue, he still hit the home runs.

So I would like to actually add that ball, anybody that's hit 500 or better.

ALLAN: I definitely would do that for completeness sake.

GUEST: Yeah, yeah.

ALLAN: So, having said what you've said, who got these balls signed?

GUEST: Well, a gentleman that used to work for me was an avid collector... ALLAN: Mm-hm.

GUEST: Uh, and actually went to the show, and he was there when the, he had the artist sign the print, uh, Mickey Mantle also signed this poster.

ALLAN: Mm-hm.

GUEST: As well as, he was there when all 11 baseballs were signed.

ALLAN: He was there, but did he have them signed in his presence?

GUEST: Uh, I'm 99% sure yes.

ALLAN: Mm-hm.

GUEST: But not 100%.

ALLAN: Okay.

GUEST: And the reason for that, is because uh, he told me that he did, but... ALLAN: Okay.

So we're going on the premise that we have a 99% chance that these were all signed in the presence of your ex-employee.

GUEST: Yes.

ALLAN: And they were all, all signed in, on a clean ball have you ever had these ball graded?

GUEST: No.

ALLAN: Okay, so you have what are described as souvenir balls they're not game balls, they're not balls that were given out during Hall of Fame games, which would have an extra cache.

GUEST: Got it.

ALLAN: So in the general value assessment, they are balls which are of the lowest value for a signer of a 500 uh, homer hitter, but that doesn't mean they don't have any market value.

GUEST: Gotcha.

ALLAN: So since 1988 we have lost a portion of the players, and we also have name recognition like Willie Mays, who is always going to be a high point autograph.

GUEST: Sure.

ALLAN: Plus we have the, with the um, addition of the Mickey Mantle signature, in the, in the, um, poster, so if we took an average value, we would probably be in the vicinity of 6 to $7500, $6,000 to $7,500.

GUEST: Wow, that's awesome.

ALLAN: Because some of the signatures are still very common but the players that have either been deceased or, or are well-known are of a higher value.

So I'm appraising this as a group collection, not as individual, so I'm going to price it at that point.

GUEST: That is fantastic, thank you so much.

ALLAN: Thank you for coming, I appreciate it.

GUEST: Yes.

(studio chatter) PATRICK: Hello, and welcome to "Chesapeake Collectibles".

What have you brought us in today to share with us?

GUEST: So this is uh, a Civil War pistol that my father got from his father Christmas of 1945.

So it's been in the family for, what, going on 80 years.

My dad was a real avid Civil War person, he joined a group that did shooting of Civil War guns.

So as a kid I spent a lot of time going to these Civil War reenactments and shoots.

So that's the, the backdrop to it.

PATRICK: When we were discussing the firearm earlier you were telling me about how it got into your family in the case.

GUEST: Right, so my dad was in the Navy during World War II, and he was stationed down in Corpus Christi, and after he got the gun at Christmas of '45, he went back down to Corpus and that there were a number of German prisoner of war and one was a carpenter.

And so my dad had the uh, German prisoner of war make the case for him.

PATRICK: Oh, very nice.

We can tell it's very well fitted.

GUEST: It, it's perfect, I mean... bullets, and, you know there's room for everything.

The note here is what my dad gave this to me about 15 years ago, before he passed.

Given that background and then, you know, he really wanted it to be, stay in the family.

PATRICK: And that's the provenance that takes it, and keeps it in the family.

GUEST: Yeah.

PATRICK: Well, what you have here is a Remington Model 1858 Army.

Okay, it's in 44 caliber, and it was a very widely used gun in the Civil War.

There was about 120,000 of them manufactured.

GUEST: Okay.

PATRICK: And yours is in the 56,000 serial number range, which gives it right there around that 1862-63.

So it dates right into the Civil War.

What makes it really interesting in the fact of that we have a pretty much a Civil War era weapon in the condition that you have it in.

When you see a gun like this that has all the bluing and has a great barrel dress on top of it, it's very, not common by any means.

And what's even better than that is the gun is martially marked right here on the grip and that had, that's an inspector's stamp from the military meeting their approval that, you know, it met their criteria to me and to the war.

So, what you have here is a very unique gun in great condition, has a strong barrel address and a 44 caliber that dates right into the Civil War.

Have you ever had this weapon evaluated?

GUEST: No, no.

PATRICK: You haven't.

GUEST: No.

PATRICK: Well in today's market with what we're seeing, with a gun in this condition, you're looking in that between $3500 and $4,000 range.

GUEST: Oh, that's very good.

Very good.

I didn't have any idea, so that's nice to know.

PATRICK: It's a great family heirloom, and it's great that you have the story with the note, it gives it provenance, and uh, hopefully it stays in the family for a long time to come.

GUEST: Very good, appreciate it.

PATRICK: I appreciate you coming in today.

GUEST: Alright, thanks.

PATRICK: Thank you.

(studio chatter) MICHAEL: Welcome to "Chesapeake Collectibles" What brought you here today?

GUEST: Well, I have this toy that I've been carrying around for about 20 years, it was uh, my great-aunt and uncle's.

Uh, at some point we were cleaning out their house, and it was very broken, but I liked it so I've kept it all these years and um, I'd like to know more about it.

MICHAEL: Okay well it was made by a Japanese company called Masudaya, for the British market, and it was under permission from Walt Disney World in the 1930s.

GUEST: Okay.

MICHAEL: Um, it's called The Paradise Novelty Company.

Back then they called it just 'Donald' wasn't 'Donald Duck'.

GUEST: Oh.

MICHAEL: Made out of celluloid, it's a wind-up toy.

Uh, the only problem with yours is it's missing one part...

GUEST: I know, it's very broken.

MICHAEL: And it's got some got some little issues here and there but in the head is in great condition, it, the mechanisms still winds up, but it's missing the Union Jack on the backside, they had a little flag back here, that...

GUEST: Okay.

Oh, I see it... MICHAEL: Yeah, you can see it in the, in the picture there.

Do you have any idea what it's worth?

GUEST: I really have no idea.

I don't know, $100?

MICHAEL: If it was in awesome condition, It's a scarce piece, pretty rare.

GUEST: Oh!

MICHAEL: If it was in great condition, and the box was not as torn, and you do have the box, which is good.

Uh, last one that I saw on the auction market sold for $1,600.

GUEST: What?

MICHAEL: So in your condition...

GUEST: You mean in mint condition.

MICHAEL: In mint condition.

GUEST: Okay.

MICHAEL: Pretty much mint condition.

GUEST: Oh, I'm amazed.

MICHAEL: Yes, yours has got some issues.

GUEST: Yeah.

MICHAEL: But I would still give it a value in the collector markets, of somewhere, because it is rare, around $200 to $400.

GUEST: Wow.

Thank you.

MICHAEL: It's a pretty nice piece.

GUEST: Yeah, thank you very much.

MICHAEL: Thank you for coming.

(studio chatter) GENICE: Hello, and welcome to "Chesapeake Collectibles".

When you first appeared at my table and showed me these documents I got really excited.

Let me tell you why.

I love legacy, and I love family legacy, and you brought in some items today that really embody the understanding of family legacy.

Can you share with us what you brought in today?

GUEST: I brought discharge papers from my great-granddad and my great-uncle's service in the U.S.

Colored Troops.

They served with the U.S.

Colored Troops in regiment 58 from 1864 until 1867.

Um, both of them were in the same regiment, they enlisted in Virginia and they were mustered out of Texas, in Viola, Texas in 1867. so these are the documents that I've brought, plus I have a picture of my great-grandfather.

GENICE: Okay, so let's take a look at that distinguished-looking gentleman in the photograph, and who is that beside him?

GUEST: My great-grandmother.

So, these are my great-grandparents.

Um, Daniel was the um, service person in the U.S.

Colored troops, and his wife Patsy.

GENICE: Okay, and have you ever had these documents looked at before?

GUEST: No, I have, we haven't.

GENICE: And how did you become the keeper of these family documents?

GUEST: Well, we were cleaning out and closing out my grandparent's home, and my sister and I opened the drawer, and there was an envelope in the drawer, just a number 10 U.S.

Postal Service white envelope in the drawer, and the writing said "Grandpa's discharge, discharge papers".

And when we open them this is what we found.

GENICE: Well, you bring up an important part uh, important point about uh, documentation and families creating legacy, which is why I got so excited when I saw you begin to share with me the story about your family.

Is that unfortunately a lot of times when people pass away, these documents get lost and often times are thrown out.

One of the things that's so amazing about these pieces that you brought in today is that a lot of African-American documentation is not, we are unable to keep up with it.

So the fact that your family kept up with it, that you were the keeper of the grail, that um, you have taken such good care of it.

We're so excited that you are able to bring it on the show, and let us take a look at it.

Um, is is there anything else about your, your family that you would like to share with us about these documents?

GUEST: Well we also found an original deed from 1867 of the land that my great-grandfather uh, Daniel purchased right out of the Civil War.

So we have that original deed of 20 acres for a purchase price of $300.

GENICE: Okay, so awesome.

So again documentation of things that, when we hear Civil War, when we hear the ability of Blacks to move around, and to do things, we don't have the documentation that reflects that.

So we're so excited that you brought these in.

I'm going to speak a little bit about the value of these two documents, and then I just wanted to bring some attention to the fact that again, your family has served this country faithfully in the military and that this documentation belongs to your father, correct?

GUEST: Yes, yes.

He was in World War II.

GENICE: In World War II.

Okay so we've got some different time frames for African American soldiers in the military.

I'm going to speak specifically to these two, um, amazing that you have these, they're in good condition, you're taking good care of them, remember we want to make sure that you're not having foxing, you don't want um, to place them in on surfaces that would change the color, you want to make sure that they stay acid-free and so when we're looking at these documents in our market today, we're looking at a value of $200 to $400 on each one.

GUEST: Wonderful.

GENICE: So, specifically these two older pieces.

GUEST: Yes.

GENICE: And so, I just want to thank you for bringing them into the show, sharing with us, sharing your family's legacy, and please continue to do the good work of not only keeping up the grail, but passing the family legacy down.

GUEST: I certainly will.

Thank you so much.

GENICE: Thank you.

(studio chatter) G AMORY: Welcome to "Chesapeake Collectibles".

I got a piece of luggage here, tell me a little something about where this came from.

GUEST: Well when I was in college a long time ago, was about 43 years ago.

G AMORY: Okay.

GUEST: I looked into a dumpster looking for other things I could maybe use... G AMORY: Dumpster diving!

GUEST: You know, didn't have any money and this was uh, sitting there I looked at it realized it was something kind of special.

G AMORY: Okay.

GUEST: And I kind of set, rescued it, mainly just to keep it from getting thrown away.

G AMORY: Well let's show uh, everybody what you rescued.

GUEST: Mm-hm.

G AMORY: If we may.

I'm gonna open this, and then I'm going to ask your assistance to open these sides.

What we have here is a 1920s travel case.

Um, it is a lady's travel case, it's absolutely beautiful, it is got all the accoutrements that you would, um, that you would need to go overnight, we even have the bottom of the case here can open up, and you would be able to keep a few pieces of clothing.

This would not be for long journeys, although it could also accompany a long journey, but you would have other luggage.

But what really makes it outstanding, are pieces like this, and the enamel work, uh, that has been done on the backs and tops of all of the containers.

GUEST: Mm-hm.

G AMORY: Frequently we see this done where it's done in sterling silver and this is more of a brass-type product, but nevertheless um, not only is that, is the enamel work being uh sort of in a lavender but the lavender is matching the color of the case, it's absolutely spectacular.

And I have, the fact that it came out of a dumpster, I think, is even more important.

Um, you just never know what you're going to find when you dive a good dumpster, you know.

GUEST: That's right.

G AMORY: Um, have you ever had anybody who's looked at it for you and...

GUEST: No, not at all.

G AMORY: Uh, put a value to it?

GUEST: No.

G AMORY: You don't see these come up very often, certainly not in this, in this condition.

We, we have some of the silk that's on the inside, it's, it's seen a better day.

Um, we have one or two pieces that are are missing such as the comb, where all the teeth fell out of the comb, that's not an unusual uh, an unusual system.

Um, but if this were to come up at market today, given the, the overall condition of the enamel, you know, $300 to $500...

GUEST: Mm-hm.

G AMORY: For the case would be not unexpected, and it could do quite a bit more.

It's absolutely icon of uh, travel, and a far better day.

Uh, today we put everything in a ziplock bag for TSA.

TSA would have a fit over this...

GUEST: Mm-hm, right.

G AMORY: And um, and it's just beautiful.

Thank you for bringing it in.

GUEST: Thank you very much, appreciate it.

G AMORY: Right.

DENNIS: Next time on "Chesapeake Collectibles".

ROBERT HARRISON: Welcome to "Chesapeake Collectibles", you have something really interesting today, why don't you tell us what you brought in?

FRANK SHAIA: I'm sitting at my desk and I see him walking up and I'm actually talking to someone else about another rug and the whole time I'm going, "what is that rug?

I love that rug".

GUEST: I brought a gold record, Sly and the Family Stone, it's a 45.

P RAAB CHRISTHILF: Well you've pretty much stolen my thunder, as far as anything left to say about the...

GUEST: I'm not an art historian.

P RAAB: Oh no you, you've covered all the bases.

FRANK: I talk about people that start buying oriental rugs, and they get the fever.

And it sounded like you got the fever.

ALLAN: What you have, Carter G. Woodson, he is the most influential African-American educator and historian of the 20th century.

NARRATOR: Major funding was provided by... Alex Cooper Auctioneers, since 1924 has been serving the Mid-Atlantic states, featuring monthly gallery antique auction sales, our staff can assist clients with the disposition of their valued possessions.

Alex Cooper Auctioneers.

GUEST: I love "Chesapeake Collectibles"!

And I am totally coming back next year.

GUEST: I certainly encourage everybody to come down.

You're going to learn a lot, everybody's very friendly, and you walk away with a lot of knowledge.

GUEST: I'm going to protect that piece from Sulawesi a little bit better, I was told to stick it in bug spray because there were some ants in it.

GUEST: What I enjoyed the most about the experience is the professionalism of the whole crew.

GUEST: I'd like to track down some descendants of the person whose initials are on it, uh, it has their initials, and the city in Virginia where they came from, if I get an age I can look up their, uh, try and look up their ancestors in Census records and maybe track them down.