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.

RICHARD HARRISON: Coming up next, on "Chesapeake Collectibles".

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 from 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 Louis Icart.

GUEST: I'm not an art historian.

P. RAAB: No, you, you've cover-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.

GUEST: I have.

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

(theme music plays).

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Hey, welcome to, uh, "Chesapeake Collectibles".

What did you bring us?

GUEST: Oh, thanks for having me.

I brought some, um, issues of "The Journal of Negro History" edited by Carter G. Woodson.

ALLAN: And where did you get these?

GUEST: They belonged to my great-uncle, he was a college professor.

And, um, once he and his wife passed away my family moved into their house, so we got to keep everything that everybody else didn't take.

ALLAN: So, where did your, um, where did your family members teach, what schools?

GUEST: You know what?

I'm not, I really do not know what school he taught at because he, he passed away before I was born.

Um, my aunt was a music teacher, but she taught music out of her house.

And, um, my mother would bring us when we were babies up to take care of her.

She would, um, cook for her and clean her house.

So... ALLAN: So, you just kind of inherited it?

GUEST: Yeah, mm-hmm.

ALLAN: Well, what you have, Carter G. Woodson, was the most important African-American historian.

He was the only doctorate of, of, of a family who's parents were enslaved, um, prior to the Civil War.

He created the Association for the Study of African Life and History, which evolved into the journal, the, um, "The Journal of Negro History".

In 1916 he created, or he started to publish the journal and you have the first six issues, which went on for decades.

Carter Woodson was remarkable because he was the first person to study the African diaspora and who was also the creator of Afrocentrism, which kind of contradicted his other position was he believed in education and professional business should be integrated so we could decrease racism in the country.

So, he was incorporating African American individuality as a way to increase the decrease in racism.

GUEST: Mmm-hmm.

ALLAN: The journal is extraordinary.

Um, it has probably the majority of the art, of articles by African American and White writers who were not given privilege to write in other magazines.

He also created the "American Negro Week" which we now know as Black History Month.

GUEST: Mmm-hmm.

ALLAN: He is the most influential African-American educator and historian of the 20th century.

Have you ever had these appraised?

GUEST: No.

ALLAN: Okay.

Well, the majority of the later editions here are worth between $35 and $50.

GUEST: Okay.

ALLAN: But the first four years of the magazine are worth about $500 a volume.

GUEST: What?

ALLAN: Right, so right here...

GUEST: Okay.

ALLAN: And I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'll qualify this though.

Right here you have, potentially, $3,000 of publications, but because of the condition, I would have to lower the price because I have to take that into consideration.

In its entirety, based on the condition, I would appraise the entire collection for about $3,000.

GUEST: Okay.

ALLAN: Great.

GUEST: All right.

ALLAN: Thank you very much for coming.

GUEST: Thank you.

ALLAN: Thank you.

♪ ♪ FRANK: Thanks so much for coming today and, uh, I love what you brought.

Uh, we have two rugs to talk about.

So, uh, so tell me a little bit about this top rug that we're looking at right now.

GUEST: Sure.

I first got interested in rugs when a brother of mine lived in Bahrain and he gave me some rugs and then I started buying some Persian rugs.

FRANK: Yeah.

GUEST: But I always had a thing about these, this style rug, which is, as you know, a Caucasian rug.

So, I ended up having this made at a place called Azerbaijan.

FRANK: Azerbaijan is one of the countries in the Caucasus region.

GUEST: Yes, that's correct.

FRANK: Uh-huh.

GUEST: And this, um, I got this rug about ten years ago and, um, it has some interesting features to it besides the design being, what's known as... FRANK: The cloudband Kazak.

GUEST: Cloudband, right.

And as you can see it has all kinds of scorpions and horses and other animals and, and, and dealing with the maker of the rug in Azerbaijan, I asked him, I had a size I wanted to have, uh, and he accommodated me, so that was a plus.

FRANK: After a lot of convincing.

GUEST: We had to talk about it and it was all through email... FRANK: Yeah.

GUEST: Which was very nice, uh, good thing we have all this technology, so... And then I asked would it be possible to date it and to put my name on it and he said, "Yeah, sure."

FRANK: And so, your name is right over, where'd it go?

Right there.

GUEST: Yes.

FRANK: Right down there.

GUEST: Yes, uh-huh.

FRANK: And that's interesting that his name is in it.

Um, so a couple things stand out when you talk to me about it.

And, first of all, this whole thing, I talk about people that start buying oriental rugs and they get the fever.

And it sounded like you got the fever.

GUEST: I have.

FRANK: And just all of a sudden then, all of a sudden it's like, "I know what I like, I know what I want."

And it's real extraordinary because this is known as a cloudband Kazak and these are the clouds, um, and they, you know, they're just stylized clouds and they're generally either usually two or three medallions, this one has three medallions, this medallion, this one, and one down there.

And, uh, so, it's hand woven in Azerbaijan which is part of the Caucasus' and this is just a wonderful example.

So, 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."

And because this is just a great example and, um, so there's not that many people that, uh, make the new rugs that are copies of the old ones and identically, everything about it, including I, I was gonna point this out including the, uh, these weft threads, which are red weft threads, normally nobody would take the time to think about that but in the old ones they used red-dyed cotton as the warp threads and weft threads and, or, not, just the weft threads and so that's in this rug too.

But what really got, well, and by the way, I wanted to just point out.

So, we brought a couple of pictures, uh, this is the loom, he-he sent these to you?

GUEST: Yes, yes.

FRANK: So, that one?

GUEST: He sent me and I thought it would be interesting for people to see it on the loom and, um, so yes.

FRANK: And then this one, this is known as a "Cartoon" which is basically a graph, and it, if you were to zoom in very, very tightly it shows every single knot that's in the rug and a rug-like this there's probably 150 knots per square inch.

GUEST: Yes.

FRANK: And, so, they lay the whole thing out on what's known as a cartoon or a graph and that's what they start with.

But what I really wanna show you is what I think is interesting, let's do this together, we rehearsed this, so it should work all right.

GUEST: Yes.

FRANK: But what I want to show you is this rug.

Cause this is what this one is a copy of.

This is an original, um, cloudband Kazak from, around, 1890.

So, tell us a little bit about this piece.

GUEST: Yes, um, I purchased this about five years after I had this rug and I didn't spend a lot of money on it because you can see there's some holes... FRANK: Holes.

GUEST: I got it at a gallery auction.

FRANK: Over there, down at the bottom.

GUEST: But because it's so similar to this one, I thought it would be a nice collector item to have and pass on to my grandchildren.

FRANK: Right, and, and this is what we, what we call a cloudband Kazak, but the truth is it's not from Kazak, it's from another small village called Karabakh.

So, this is a Karabakh, but it's always called a cloudband Kazak.

Now, one of the reasons I wanted to show this rug, not just because it's a very exciting rug to me, but we can talk about the value of it.

First, let's refer to this one and the value of this.

These rugs, the new copies of Caucasian rugs, the real good ones that are done well sell for around $80 per square foot.

And this being 4x8, it's probably about $3,200 is what the retail value of that would be.

GUEST: Uh-huh, yeah.

FRANK: Did you do okay?

GUEST: I did okay, yes.

FRANK: Okay, good.

GUEST: I'll tell you what I paid for it if you... FRANK: What'd you pay for it?

GUEST: $1,600.

FRANK: Oh, there you go, so you got it for about half of the value and that's a, that's, that's a good price that you paid for it.

Now this piece, because it's 1890, I know you're thinking, "Well it's so worn out and everything" and it is!

And, in fact, if we were to put this up on auction, with this kind of stuff, if you were to put this in auction today, it'd probably sell for $400-$500.

However, a piece like this, because it's such an important piece, you could send this overseas, mostly, we send most rugs to Afghanistan.

We have weavers that reweave things like this.

And you see the holes here and all of this, they would probably it would cost him about $2,500 to have this rug completely rewoven and restored so that you couldn't even tell the repairs were there.

And what that would do for it is it would make it about a $10,000 rug.

GUEST: Wow, wow.

FRANK: So, and how much did you pay for this?

GUEST: It was less than $100.

FRANK: Okay, so if you add $100 to $2,500, $2,600 then you'll have a $10,000 rug.

This is a great cloudband Kazak.

This is the classic, uh, "Crab" border.

Uh, the ivory background is so unique, and of course the clouds in the design.

And it even has some nice, beautiful yellow color in it which is very rare to find in old pieces because it was very hard to dye the yellow color.

GUEST: And vegetable dyes, you think?

FRANK: All vegetable dyes, yep.

GUEST: Okay.

FRANK: So...

GUEST: Well, very good.

FRANK: You've got a couple great pieces.

I love this one.

It's unusual that it's so long, you had it made longer.

And this is more typical of the size, 4x6, but it's a great piece, they're both great pieces.

Thanks so much for coming on the show today.

GUEST: I certainly appreciate the information.

FRANK: Okay.

GUEST: Thank you.

♪ ♪ RICHARD: Welcome to "Chesapeake Collectibles".

Um, you have something really interesting today.

Why don't you tell us what you brought in?

GUEST: I've brought in what I think is a Black Forest-carved cigar box.

RICHARD: Okay, and how did you acquire it?

GUEST: I acquired it at a antique shop just outside of Rehobeth, Delaware.

RICHARD: Okay.

GUEST: I, uh, have a large collection of animal pieces.

Either they're painting or sculptures and I have a bunch of friends who smoke cigars.

So, I saw this, that met both of those needs, and frankly, I'm from the architectural world and real estate world and I have a huge affinity for hand carved and craftsmanship.

RICHARD: Yeah, well you have the best.

Uh, Black Forest carvings, very popular in the late 19th century, uh, specifically around 1880-1885.

Got their start in Switzerland, parts of Germany.

Tourist bought them up for the same reasons.

They really enjoyed animals, they enjoyed the exquisite dramatic craftsmanship and I think this little humidor has it all.

Now, when you first look at it doesn't really look like a humidor.

Um, we have this nice carving, the birds on top, uh, very detailed, all hand-done as you know.

There's carving and stippling on the top of the little chest, there's carving on the side with a very typical Victorian motif of the grape leaf and grape clusters and there's even carving on the base and we have this little drawer on the bottom deeply carved and then two doors on the front.

And when you open these little guys, you have the really interesting part of what you own here.

Each one is a tray individually carved for cigars.

So, did you know it was a humidor when you first saw it?

GUEST: I did only because of the carved shelves, right?

RICHARD: Ah, okay, yeah, exactly.

GUEST: Gave it away.

RICHARD: So, that's exactly right.

GUEST: And a little aroma in there too.

RICHARD: Good and, and it should be used, it could have been used and these all done in solid, made of walnut and then it has a little latch where the doors are shut and a little lock.

Interestingly, and we've talked about this before, on the back, there's even additional carving.

So, if we turn this around you'll be able to see something that you seldom see in, in full-scale models of furniture, carving on the back because the cabinet makers just didn't do that.

GUEST: Right.

RICHARD: People weren't gonna see it, so they didn't bother to spend the time or the effort to do it.

This is a really, really nice piece.

And how long have you owned it?

GUEST: About eight years.

RICHARD: Okay, all right, so relatively new.

Um, have you ever had it appraised before, do you know the value?

GUEST: Never have, just bought it out of the shop and put it on the shelf at home.

RICHARD: Black Forest is, Black Forest pieces have gone up and down in value.

Um, recently we've started to see a little bit of an upsurge.

If this were to come on the market today, I think you'd see it sell for between $350 and $450.

GUEST: Great.

RICHARD: So, won't retire on it, but really a great piece and really nice added to your collection, I think.

GUEST: Love it, thank you.

RICHARD: Thanks for bringing it in, I really appreciate looking at it.

GUEST: Excellent.

RICHARD: Thank you.

(overlapping chatter).

P. RAAB: Wow, so thank you for coming here today and sharing with us your, your objects.

I see it's a beautiful painting you have here.

Can, can you tell us a bit about it?

GUEST: Yeah, it's our pleasure to be here.

Um, I watch your show all the time.

P. RAAB: Good, that's good, I like hearing that.

GUEST: So, this was a painting that caught my eye in a gallery in Philadelphia many years ago, um, by Louis Icart and he was a pretty famous French illustrator, uh, in the early part of the 20th century.

He started out doing fashion and then did some scenes related to World War I and eventually became famous for his etchings of women who are in carefree kinds of, um, uh poses.

And, so this caught my eye because number one, it's an oil painting, which my understanding is he didn't do very many paintings, and, um, I just love the colors, the palette, the simplicity, the brush strokes, um, and so when I saw this with my wife, we fell in love and decided to buy it and then every time Debbie comes to the house... DEBBIE: I love the painting, the colors are so soothing and to me, it's oozing elegance.

It's just ladies at a tea and it's just magnificent.

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

GUEST: I'm not an art historian.

P. RAAB: Well, you've cover, covered all the bases.

He was born in 1880 in Toulouse, France, in Toulouse, France.

Died in 1950 and yes he was the symbol of the Art Deco movement really and he painted, as we know and as you've said, sophisticated ladies lounging or in relaxed poses, whatever as you see here.

This is what he was known for.

What's interesting is that he particularly liked courtesan's and dogs and there was a great deal of humor.

Some were clothed and some were scantily clothed and some were not clothed at all!

So, uh, he became really a symbol of the Art Deco movement and in fact, he married, uh, a woman named Volmer, her last name Volmer who was one of the models and he fell in love with her and she really became a muse, so, for him, so many of the paintings that he painted included her in them.

Now, I don't know which ones are which.

But nonetheless, he died peacefully in 1950, in France.

He did fight, he was a fighter pilot in World War I. DEBBIE: Oh, interesting.

P. RAAB: Right.

His father never, uh, never gave him trouble about painting.

He always loved the female form, he always was interested in, in their clothing and accoutrements, whatever.

So, he really is, I was gonna say that as Americans if we thought of Mae West, you know.

DEBBIE: Ah, yes.

P. RAAB: That's kind of, that sort of... DEBBIE: Era.

P. RAAB: Yeah, souciance, you know, this, I think it was from the 20s through the 40s and that, sort of, humorous, sexy, sensuous, portrayal of femininity.

DEBBIE: Well, you can tell he has a clear eye for design, fashion.

P. RAAB: Yes, yes, yes.

DEBBIE: Look how the ladies are dressed, it's just beautiful.

P. RAAB: And of course, as you said, he did not do many, many oil paintings.

Uh, he did mostly, uh, uh, prints and there are many, many of them and they can go for decent money, they really can.

Couple thousand bucks if it's the right one.

Uh, but anyway, the oil paintings, have you had this appraised before?

GUEST: No, we never had it appraised.

That's why we're here.

P. RAAB: Oh, okay, okay, good.

Well, the oil paintings are less, we don't see them on the market as much at all.

They're really rather rare.

Now, some of the oil paintings are larger, as we discussed earlier.

We're larger and some had more colorful or more intricate designs in them.

We saw ladies in Paris strolling along and just more complicated one.

But this is particularly charming and rather intimate if you, if you see it.

GUEST: I like the simplicity.

P. RAAB: Yeah.

GUEST: Yeah.

P. RAAB: And it's signed here on the right-hand side and you can see the little tea, the little tea cups, and accoutrements and always the umbrellas.

He loved the umbrellas, they added this certain, uh, air of sophistication of some sort.

DEBBIE: It's the color palette that's just striking.

P. RAAB: Yeah.

DEBBIE: It's so soothing and calming.

P. RAAB: It is very soothing, it is, right?

DEBBIE: I really like it.

P. RAAB: So, uh, in looking up values for you, there were some larger ones that, that had more money, and some in earlier days had more money.

Uh, the market is, I guess, stable but maybe not quite as robust as it had been in earlier days.

I think that a sale value for you at auction would be about $5,000 to $6,000, somewhere in that range.

Now, an insurance evaluation would double or triple that.

So, you see that sometimes if you looked online and saw what people are trying to sell things for, that's always a high retail value, that as a seller you wouldn't be able to, to achieve.

But I would think $5,000 to $6,000 as a sale, as an idea of sale value, and then double or triple that would be for an insurance evaluation.

GUEST: Well, this is a keeper.

(laughter).

We're not gonna sell it, but uh, it's good to know.

P. RAAB: All right.

GUEST: And I appreciate everything you've told us about it.

P. RAAB: Well, good.

Thank you for bringing it in.

DEBBIE: Thank you, it was so nice to meet you and to be on the show.

Thank you.

P. RAAB: You too.

(overlapping chatter).

MICHAEL STANTON: Welcome to "Chesapeake Collectibles".

What have you brought into us today?

GUEST: Hi.

I bought a gold record from Sly and the Family Stone.

It's a 45 and, um, was thrifting one day... MICHAEL: You were thrifting?

GUEST: Thrifting.

MICHAEL: And you found this at the thrift store?

GUEST: Thrift store find!

MICHAEL: Thrift store find for...

GUEST: So, I'm not real sure.

I'm thinking, you know, it was in the thrift store bin for $10.

MICHAEL: $10 you paid for this!

GUEST: Yeah, must be... MICHAEL: That means that hunting is good in the thrift store.

GUEST: It can be.

MICHAEL: It can be?

Well, it is certified by the RIAA.

It is a gold record that Sly did in 1973.

He got this, it was one of his last big hits, "Stay".

The real name is, "If You Want Me to Stay".

GUEST: Yes.

MICHAEL: All right.

Quickly, it was a cool find.

The current market for these runs anywhere from $300 to $500.

What do you think of that, for ten bucks?

GUEST: Wow, for ten bucks?

MICHAEL: Yeah.

GUEST: Wow!

MICHAEL: I mean, it pays off sometimes to go thrifting.

GUEST: Yeah, yes.

So, when my husband criticize, criticizes me for bringing so much stuff home... MICHAEL: Oh, he does?

GUEST: I'll have to make sure he watches this program.

MICHAEL: Okay, great.

Well, thank you for bringing it in.

GUEST: Thank you.

♪ SLY: If you want me to stay I'll be around today ♪ ♪ to be available for you to see.

♪ ♪ I'm about to go ♪♪ MICHAEL: Next time on "Chesapeake Collectibles" ROSS KELBAUGH: You have brought in a very interesting and historic grouping.

GUEST: What I brought you is, it looks like a 19th-century oil painting that I found at a Habitat for Humanity store in east Baltimore.

G. ARMORY LeCUYER: It's it's just an iconic piece.

I mean, you would see this in the most modern of households.

ED MORINO: This is a really interesting piece because it's one of the few bronzes that are actually made and cast, and designed by a First Nation person.

DENNIS HARTER: Tell me about your collection, that was actually created by Japanese Americans.

GUEST: Yes, this is, uh, internment camp era, post World War II.

Japanese American wooden bird pins.

P. RAAB: You said you haven't had it appraised and you bought it for $25, I think you did well.

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: Oh, we were very surprised about everything that we learned.

GUEST: So, I learned about, I didn't know it was a fake or not, so I was really pleasantly surprised to find that it's legit.

Happy about that.

And then happy to know that's its more than doubled in value over the past six years that I've owned it.

GUEST: I was surprised that its value was a little lower than I expected.

But, I'm very happy that it has the value it does.

And it doesn't matter cause we're not selling.

GUEST: I was surprised that the journals had had monetary value.

GUEST: I think I'm going to go ahead and spend the money and have that 1890 rug repaired.

GUEST: Well, uh, I'm gonna take this home and put it in a more prominent station.

As it is, I just had it literally had cigars in it because all my friends smoke cigars.

I had to match them, so I bought this, and now I've got to take good care of it.