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.

MICHAEL STANTON: Coming up next on "Chesapeake Collectibles".

G. AMORY LeCUYER: I, I felt a little bit like you know, the kid on Christmas morning as the, as Santa Claus opens up his bag.

ALLAN STYPECK: This is a beautiful collection and really should be in an institution like the uh, Air and Space Museum or the Langley Archive.

GUEST: It was in "rolled-up" condition, when I tried to straighten it out, it broke.

MICHAEL: You have a very good collection of early 1922 to 30s cast iron vehicles.

DENNIS HARTER: It is a marvelous representation of a particular art style, from China.

GUEST: This is history.

G. AMORY: It really is.

(theme music plays).

♪ ♪ (inaudible studio chatter).

DENNIS: Welcome to "Chesapeake Collectibles" thank you for coming today, you've got...

GUEST: Thank you.

DENNIS: A magnificent piece here that looks very unusual, what can you tell me about it?

GUEST: It belonged to my grandmother and apparently, she got it in the early, like the 1930s, she bought a house and it just was part of the furnishings and it's been around through my childhood and we, the family jokes about it, we say it's the "Stanley Ming" because my grandmother said, "Oh it's very old, it's the, it's a Ming vase," and we were like, "No."

I think, I don't think Nana knows what it really is.

DENNIS: Did grandma let you ah, you know, handle it or point out any of the things to you on it?

GUEST: No.

She wouldn't let us touch anything in her home.

But, when she would, she would turn it and I didn't like the way it was turned, when she wasn't looking I would try to turn it because I wanted to try to see the crabs.

DENNIS: Right over here on the front.

GUEST: The crabs in the... DENNIS: I can see it here, there's a bit of a net and there are two crabs trapped inside the net and one looks like he's maybe gonna be able to get out.

GUEST: Uh-oh, yea.

DENNIS: So uh, I can see why that as a child would interest you very, very much at that time.

The piece is really quite dramatic, uh, it is Chinese.

Uh, it is not Ming as you thought, uh, and your grandmother insisted.

But it does have something on the bottom of it, which was etched into the bottom and that is indeed the fact that it has the name of a Ming Dynasty emperor, as the year and the reign it was made in.

It is apocryphal, it is not really from the Ming Dynasty.

But it is a genuine Chinese piece, and what it has on it is appliqued porcelain pieces of different things that would be associated with a Chinese household, whether they're decorative or practical.

You've got a pair of scissors on here, you have on this particular side, a jardiniere with a miniature tree in it, sitting on a Chinese stool.

Uh, there are Chinese peaches, there are cucumbers, there are other pieces down here which represent floral growth or rock designs, again on a Chinese planter.

You have teapots, you have teapots that are on a burner.

You have moon flask with the delicate painting of floral design inside it.

You have what would be a gourd shaped wine jar with what looks like spirits pouring out the side of it.

GUEST: We called that the "drumstick" we thought it looked like a chic, you know a chicken leg.

DENNIS: Okay, and there's another gourd over on the other side which is actually, showing a gourd, this particular vase almost reminds me of the stories of Aladdin's lamp because it looks like there's a bit of smoke coming out of the top of the, of vase that is sitting on an elevated stand.

There are other decorations on here, where again you have a small stool, you have chopsticks, you have small vases, large vases, you have settings of display items that would be part of a, a family of things in a Chinese household.

Um, individual vases what are just not colored, but are decorated.

All of this would have been appliqued and added on and then painted after the subject was done.

What I thought as really interesting too, is the fact that there is underneath the glaze and before all the applique work was done, is that there are etchings of scroll work, like ferns inside all of the base of the, of the porcelain.

GUEST: And I'd never noticed that.

DENNIS: And you never noticed it.

GUEST: No.

DENNIS: Okay, well, that's again something that you can pick up as you go along and look at the different things that are on it.

To me again, oh, I'll also mention it's got a design up here of, of cranes around the top edge which are symbols of longevity in China and also in Japan.

This scroll design that's inside the, uh, the yellow base color of the porcelain is something that was very popular from the middle of the 19th century.

And so, I would say that this vase is probably from the mid to late 19th century, perhaps in the very early period of the 20th century.

And, have you ever looked at it in terms of an appraisal of value or anything else of that sort?

GUEST: No, nobody.

DENNIS: No, nobody's looked at it at all?

Well I must say, I personally have never seen a piece of this variety, of this size, or of this quality.

In spite of the fact that your grandmother had this, and you had it in the family for that amount of time, from the 1930s, there isn't any significant damage to it.

There were no cracks, there are no losses of paint, there's no damage to the entire piece itself and it is a marvelous representation of a particular art style from China.

It's probably 35 or 45, 40 pounds in weight.

So it's a, it's a heavily potted piece and I would say if you had this on an auction here in the United States, you could easily get $1500-$2,000 for it, simply because it is unique, it is large, it is decorative and for a lot of people this would be fun, just as it was for you as a child looking at the individual pieces around it, and learning more about it as you go along.

GUEST: Yeah.

DENNIS: Thank you very much for bringing it in.

GUEST: Thank you very much, I've learned so much today.

♪ ♪ (inaudible studio chatter).

G. AMORY: I want to thank you both for coming down to "Chesapeake Collectibles" today and, and I'm just, when you came up with your bag and opened it up, it was like a treasure trove.

I, I felt a little bit like you know the kid on Christmas morning as the, as Santa Claus opens up his bag.

Um, tell me a little bit first about where these objects came from.

GUEST: Okay, my grandmother's niece.

G. AMORY: Okay.

GUEST: Had them in her basement.

G. AMORY: In her basement, okay.

GUEST: Yes, and some relative of hers, prior to her generation.

G. AMORY: Okay.

GUEST: Used them in ship building down at Fells Point.

G. AMORY: Fells Point.

Well you know, Fells Point, um, now, now occupies a historic district.

GUEST 2: Mm-hm.

G. AMORY: Because of its intricate uh, it, it involved life in the maritime trade for all of Baltimore.

Um, it's a fascinating history and a lot of ship yards and ship repair places were, were down in Fells Point.

The, the juxtaposition to the Chesapeake Bay, the easy access to water, it made it natural, geographically to build up that way.

GUEST 2: Mm-hm.

G. AMORY: Um, so it does, it's not unusual to see shipwrights tools come out.

But we have some really special ships, shipwrights tools.

Um, this is uh, as I understand it, a handmade plane.

GUEST 2: Mm-hm.

GUEST: Yes.

G. AMORY: Um, we have, you know what would be the uh, the bung tap to put, put in pegs and different things because we're talking about wooden ships, and I think you said to me earlier that this was the, these were involved in the last wooden ship produced out of Fells Point.

GUEST 2: Mm-hm.

G. AMORY: You know, we've got a hand pulled plane, now these are not necessarily objects that are foreign to a woodworker, but they are in the, the sense of how they relate to um, ship's tools and the building of ships, particularly these pieces over here.

Um, why don't you explain for, to me a little bit about what, what we've got up here.

GUEST 2: Okay, this is a one of the original kind of adjustable wrenches.

G. AMORY: Okay.

GUEST 2: Um, you can, this is spring loaded, and if you snap it on something and then crank, it grabs, you know, like a vice grip from 100 years ago.

G. AMORY: I could, I could really have used that last weekend.

GUEST 2: Yes.

G. AMORY: How about the next piece?

GUEST 2: Well these are small, this one is a small um, bit and they would use those bits to run um, like signal ropes and things like that through.

G. AMORY: Okay.

GUEST 2: Through a big member, you know, uh, down in the hall or from the captain down.

G. AMORY: Well you know in, in, in, we're not talking about a drill bit that's going to go into a electric drill, these were hand done.

GUEST 2: Yes.

G. AMORY: Um, and so you're boring into a major piece of wood.

GUEST 2: Yep, yep.

G. AMORY: To run various types of twine, rope, all the way up to the, the, the some of the pegs themselves that would hold the ship together.

GUEST 2: Yep, yep.

G. AMORY: Go on.

GUEST 2: Well this is another version of this, uh, this one however is a large one of course, that would be used for the pegs or the, or the wooden nails as they called them which hold two members together.

G. AMORY: Well and when those wooden pegs would go in, they already have bored the hole.

GUEST 2: Yes.

G. AMORY: They've got the wooden pegs that they're going to cut to fit.

GUEST 2: Mm-hm.

G. AMORY: And then, talk about what happens when it goes in the water.

GUEST 2: Okay, well they would heat the wood uh, get it down to approximately the right diameter, then heat the wood drive out the moisture.

G. AMORY: Then they're going to come in with this puppy...

GUEST 2: Yeah, yeah.

G. AMORY: And get it into that hole.

GUEST 2: And pound it in.

But then once it, it starts absorbing water, I mean, you know from the air, then it swells, so you would have to drill it out, I mean it's gonna stay in there to hold the two members together because you know, it just pinches.

G. AMORY: You know, from a financial standpoint, they're not terribly unusual, the, the purpose is that they are equally in um, in the last several years we've seen a return to being, to handmade um, but particularly in, in housing in small and tiny homes that are being built.

I've seen a lot of people who are utilizing the same techniques that the shipwright would have used.

GUEST: Wow.

G. AMORY: For building a small log cabin or something like that.

Um, just watched a video where that piece was used so he could put his pegs in for his roofline with that mallet.

GUEST 2: Mm-hm, mm-hm.

G. AMORY: And so it, it reminds us that, that these are not merely tools, but they're almost artisan tools.

GUEST 2: Mm-hm.

G. AMORY: And how they were brought about and, and what they created because we get so involved in the, in the electrics of today, which are terribly helpful.

GUEST 2: Mm-hm.

G. AMORY: But you had to find another way to do it before all of that was available.

GUEST 2: Mm-hm.

GUEST: This is history.

G. AMORY: It really is and it, and it dovetails so nicely with the history of Fells Point, thank you both for coming out today, this has been just a jewel of a presentation.

GUEST 2: Thank you so much.

GUEST: Thank you, we enjoyed it too.

GUEST 2: We appreciate it, thank you.

GUEST: Thank you.

GUEST 2: Bye-bye.

G. AMORY: Bye.

GUEST 2: Thanks a lot.

(inaudible studio chatter).

MICHAEL: Uh, welcome to "Chesapeake Collectibles" what have...

GUEST: Well thank you.

MICHAEL: What have you brought in for us today.

GUEST: Well, it's a collection of uh, toy cars they are cast iron toys, I've always had the uh interest in the toys and um, my uh, mother-in-law she knew about that and uh, she got these at an auction and showed them to me and I, under my stewardship I wanna take care of them and uh, and preserve them.

MICHAEL: Right, well you have a very good collection of early you know 1922-30s cast iron vehicles.

Primarily made by two separate companies.

One was the Arcade company out of Free, Freemont, Freeport I think it is, Illinois and the other's the Hubley Company out of um, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

They both manufacture these cars in about the same timeframe.

Arcade started in business in 1880s, somewhere around there and they started manufacturing the vehicles in around 1921.

Their big one was an orange taxi and it did so well they decided to make more and they decided to make them a little bit better than the normal, more realistic, and their logo was "The Real Thing."

GUEST: Mm-hm.

MICHAEL: Your Arcade pieces are this one, this one, this one and this one.

GUEST: That one.

MICHAEL: This one in particularly is pretty much close to near mint.

Okay, it still has the Arcade sticker on it.

It was probably made somewhere around 1921-23, it's model number 220.

It would retail somewhere around $400-$500.

GUEST: Oh my, that's, that's amazing.

MICHAEL: Okay?

GUEST: Yeah.

MICHAEL: Yeah, the other three are also made by Arcade during the timeframe and you can tell the dates definitely by the wheel's assemblies.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

MICHAEL: The uh, they run anywhere from, in that condition, because I've not seen Arcade from the '20s in such nice condition, they usually have a lot of rust, they've been played with hard, um, and these would probably run you, in the old days when they were really hot, it was a lot more than what they are now.

GUEST: YEAH.

MICHAEL: They've come down a little bit, I'd say 150-250 for each one of those.

GUEST: Mm-hm, well that's uh, surprising.

MICHAEL: Hubley on the other side, they're major production deal in Lancaster, P.A., they like to make motorcycles, this is called the "Crash Car" based on the Harley motorcycle, that was their mainstay were motorcycles.

They also did a lot of branding.

As you can see, this is the Bell Telephone Company.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

MICHAEL: And they did the mailbox for the U.S. Mail.

Then you have the Rumble Seat car with the driver.

GUEST: Mm-hm.

MICHAEL: Okay?

GUEST: Alright.

MICHAEL: The least expensive is the mailbox, it runs $40-$60 in today's market.

Your other items, this one being probably the most expensive, followed by your Rumble Seat, your Crash Car runs anywhere from, in this condition, probably 350-400.

GUEST: Wow.

MICHAEL: The other cars are in the $200 range.

GUEST: Mm-hm.

MICHAEL: Okay?

GUEST: Alright, well that's uh.

MICHAEL: And then, the last piece you have here, is made by a company called Britains, out of England, they made toy soldiers and they also made a bunch of um, playground equipment type things, for doll houses and things.

GUEST: Mm-hm.

MICHAEL: This was a dog house with the bull dog and it would sell in today's market somewhere around $60.

GUEST: 60.

Well that's quite a collection then.

MICHAEL: It's a very, very nice collection you have here in very excellent condition.

GUEST: I'll continue to take good care of them.

MICHAEL: Okay?

GUEST: I promise you that.

MICHAEL: Thanks for coming.

GUEST: Thank you for having me, I've, thank you.

(inaudible studio chatter).

GENICE LEE: Welcome to the show.

GUEST: Thank you.

GENICE: And what did you bring in for us today?

GUEST: I brought a World War II picture of the uh, of a Port Company, 297 Port Company and it's an all Afro-American company as you can see.

And uh, it was rare, I think.

And I was just roaming around and I stopped in a place, 'cause there's some guys I know who sell things, you know?

And then, uh, that was there.

And uh, I looked at it and thought it might be of importance.

GENICE: Now my understanding from us chatting a little bit is that you're a military man yourself.

GUEST: Yes.

GENICE: So tell us a little bit about the significance of this company of, of men.

GUEST: Well this, this company here uh, Afro-Americans were always put in the port and they did the supply.

My father was in World War II, he was in the supply company and uh, for example, they would be the ones shuttling off the utility shells and things like that.

I tried to look this company up but all it showed was uh, other companies, it didn't show any port companies whatsoever and uh, it was all infantry and other things like that, I couldn't find it at all.

GENICE: Okay, so would these men have seen battle?

GUEST: I don't know, uh, it depends on if they were kept in the background.

I know a lot of African Americans fought on the French side and they have awards and all kinds of things, and when they came back home, they were awarded uh, I have, I haven't gotten any deeper into this, but I don't know.

GENICE: Okay, so what we loved about when we saw this um, at our table, was this size of this, panoramic photograph, and as you said, African Americans serving during World War II, and that you had explained to me that there were some condition issues with the piece when you first obtained it, tell us a little bit about that.

GUEST: Well when I obtained it, it was in a rolled-up condition and when I tried to straighten it out, it broke.

So I had it in a couple of different pieces, but I took it to someone and had it restored.

She did an excellent job and uh, now it looks beautiful and uh, I'm going to put it up with my uncles, I have an uncle who were, who was in, he got out of the service in 1919 and my father and my uncles, I'm gonna put all of that, I have their flags and everything, I'm going to put them all together.

GENICE: Okay.

So um, one of the things we like to take a moment to do on the show is to educate people about condition and a lot of times condition does play a role in the value, however, there's also something else that plays a role in value and that is rarity.

And so it's not often that we see images of this size of African Americans serving in the military and so that helps to kind of offset the um, value issue, and then it's also important for people to understand that to preserve things like photographs and paper, that it is good, that when there's that damage, to get that damage addressed to preserve the piece.

And so, again, this lovely panoramic view, uh, photograph, great size and so I would say that if we were to see it out in the market that the value would be anywhere from $900-$1,700 for this particular photograph.

GUEST: Wow, wow.

GENICE: And so we just really thank you for uh, again, spotlighting the service of African Americans in our military and bringing this into the show and sharing with us today.

GUEST: It actually cost half of that to have it restored.

GENICE: Okay.

GUEST: $500, yes.

Thank you so much.

It's gonna be proudly displayed.

GENICE: Thank you.

GUEST: Okay.

(inaudible studio chatter).

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

GUEST: I brought archival information from the early flying um, in military and the post office.

My grandfather was an Early Bird who trained Early Birds, he flew for the military in 1917 and for the post office in 1918.

ALLAN: Right, what was your grandfather's name?

GUEST: Christopher C. Cole.

ALLAN: And he is being memorialized in this article over here?

GUEST: Yes.

ALLAN: Can you tell us something about the memorial article?

GUEST: The article was written on the 30th anniversary of the um, postal service.

ALLAN: Right, was your grandfather the initial pilot for the U.S.

Postal Service Airmail?

GUEST: No, no he flew some of the earliest flights.

ALLAN: Right, do you have a record of his flights in addition to the original records we have showing here?

GUEST: No, I don't have that.

ALLAN: So this is the archive of your grandfather's participation during the first world war and right after the first world war as a U.S. air pilot who only flew in the United States but he was, he was doing post office mail deliveries as his priority um in the air, on the Air Corps?

GUEST: Um, he went to the postal service after he left the military.

When he was training pilots in the military, one of the planes went down and it put a strut through his lung which disabled him from military service.

ALLAN: This being the struts?

GUEST: That's material from the struts.

ALLAN: From the strut.

GUEST: Mm-hm.

ALLAN: Now, did he have his students, did any of his students ever make name recognition as pilots or important people?

GUEST: Billy Mitchell, Jimmy Doolittle, yes, yeah.

ALLAN: So, do we have any artifacts or any indication of his um, training either Billy Mitchell or Jimmy Doolittle?

GUEST: I don't have records of it, I have postcards in there um, from them.

I have a picture of my father with one of the pilots.

ALLAN: Right.

GUEST: That he trained Daugherty, Earl Daugherty.

ALLAN: Earl Daugherty up here.

GUEST: Yep.

ALLAN: And we have postcards in here from Jimmy Mitchell.

GUEST: Mm-hm.

ALLAN: Uh, excuse me from uh, Billy Mitchell and with Jimmy Doolittle.

GUEST: Right.

ALLAN: Alright, well that's fantastic um, have you ever had this material appraised?

GUEST: No I haven't.

ALLAN: Wow, this is a beautiful collection and really should be in an institution like the uh, Air and Space Museum or the Langley Archive...

GUEST: Okay!

ALLAN: ...in Langley Park, uh the history behind this is so important to the Army Air Corps.

I would probably appraise this collection, with the Mitchell material, with the Doolittle material and the photographs for about $7,500.

GUEST: Wow!

ALLAN: It's great.

GUEST: Wow.

ALLAN: Thanks so much for coming, we appreciate it.

GUEST: Thank you.

KATHLEEN HAMILL: Next time, on "Chesapeake Collectibles"... G. AMORY: When you opened up your guitar case I, I got really excited because this was, this is just absolutely beautiful.

ROSS KELBAUGH: Now some of you might recognize these sneakers, particularly you sneaker-heads out there.

Yes, these are Air Jordan number ones.

ALLAN: You played catch with a Babe Ruth signed baseball with your father?

KATHLEEN: So what we are looking at here is a perfect example of Dutch portraiture from the 17th century.

GUEST: I brought you a rocking horse that I bought about 35 to 40 years ago at an auction in Catonsville.

ROSS: You brought in an incredible collection of which this is just a small portion of, that really documents such an important part of Maryland history.

ALLAN: There's a rule of thumb, "Thou shall not throw a baseball signed by a hall of famer," okay?

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.

GUEST: This is the third time I've been to here, been here.

The second time I've been on the show and I tell everyone, I enjoy it, everyone is nice here and I will be back again.

GUEST: She wants to keep them for sure.

GUEST 2: We're debating on that one.

GUEST: I have no plans to um, sell them, put them on the market, uh, they'll probably, as long as I'm the steward, they'll be taken care of and then I can pass them on.

GUEST: It's about 50 pounds worth of metal and wood so uh, that's, it's not something you can haul around in a briefcase but uh, they'll sit somewhere probably.

GUEST: I'm going to get back with the person that appraised, talked to me about it and um, talk to a museum, he seems to feel there would be a lot of interest in these items, I would like to donate them.