♪ ♪ NARRATOR: Major funding is provided by Alex Cooper Auctioneers, appraisers and auctioneers of fine art, jewelry, and collectibles.

Online and in-person gallery auctions every month.

Serving buyers and sellers in Maryland and around the world for over 100 years.

♪ ♪ Second Story Books, celebrating 50 years of dedicated book-selling.

LISA JONES: Coming up on "Chesapeake Collectibles."

KATHLEEN HAMILL: I think today we have a "Chesapeake Collectibles" first.

GUEST: This is an Altair 8800 computer.

It was introduced on the front cover of "Popular Electronics Magazine" in January of 1975.

LISA: So, what we actually have and what you found is a Soviet Union propaganda plate.

GUEST: What I brought was material that I've collected over years for an organization called the Order of the Carabao.

GUEST: And it was a gift to one of his friends, and she was a hostess at the Gayety Burlesque House on The Block in Baltimore.

♪ (theme music playing) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ROSS KELBAUGH: One of the things I like about being on the show, I see things I've never seen before and learn something that I previously didn't know.

What did you bring in for us?

GUEST: Well, thank you.

Always love coming to "Chesapeake Collectibles."

But what I brought was material that I've collected over years for an organization called the Order of the Carabao, and it's a fraternal military order that was created, and it's got a rather really interesting story of how it was created.

It came about in 1900 as a group of officers sitting in the officers' club in Manila in the Philippines, were standing around the bar having drinks, and another group of officers came in who had just cycled out of China, who had been fighting in the Boxer Rebellion.

And the story is that these guys were all decked out in these fancy uniforms that they had custom-made, and they had these medals that nobody had ever seen, and they got to chatting with them, and lo and behold, they found out that they had created in China for all the veterans this group that was called the Order of the Dragon.

ROSS: Mm.

GUEST: And the guys in the Philippines were so disappointed that they didn't get into the mix that later on they said, "Well, if they can create their own club in, in China, we're going to do the same thing here in the Philippines."

So it was sort of a dig; instead of doing some noble animal like a dragon, they decided they were going to select the beast of burden, the carabao, which in the Philippines is the animal that plows the fields, the rice fields and does all the heavy burden and, and wallows in the mud.

The order itself continues to this day, and in fact, I'm a member of the order.

Every year they have an annual wallow held in Washington, and the wallow is headed by a Grand Carabao who is a retired general, flag officer, admiral, or general, generally a three or four-star, and it's attended by the who's who in the military.

And all of them have a common thread in that they served in the Philippines, but you have the former heads of you know, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Chief, Chief of Naval Operations, the Director of National Intelligence, ambassadors, former presidents attend in the past.

So it's a really mixed night.

But what they're known for is not just having this fancy black-tie formal dinner, but they use it as an occasion to sort of lampoon whatever the big political things were in that given year.

And, and that's what makes the evening fun besides the bands and, and you know, the singing of old battle and camp songs throughout the night.

ROSS: What did you bring in?

GUEST: So, brought in a mixture of things that you know, are tied to it.

One is the commission.

So when you become a member of the order, in the old days, they, they gave you these beautiful printed commissions with all of this fancy artwork.

They assign you a number, and then the other thing that I brought was a, a sample of the medal.

This one dates to 1905.

That belonged to a Lieutenant Trader who was a cavalry officer, and his photo is there.

And then to the right of that is a statue that the order gives every year to the lead carabao, the head of the order for that year.

In this case, it went to a retired general who was the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs... ROSS: Okay.

GUEST: ...of Staff.

And then over here is a swagger stick.

So many of the officers who were members of the order also had swagger sticks in the Philippines, and swagger sticks served purposes of, one, you know, designating rank, but also it, it kept guys from putting their hands in their pockets.

This one has a silver top with a miniature of the carabao on top, and engraved is the owner's monogram.

And then over here are a couple of interesting letters, and one of which is a letter from Richard Nixon as vice president.

And unfortunately, when the Wallow was going to take place that year, he wasn't able to attend, so he sent him a nice letter saying, "Sorry I can't make the Wallow, but I'll look forward to next year."

And then the other letter I find even more interesting is, is a piece that I picked up in an auction.

And in 1912, there was great controversy around the order in that they lampooned President Wilson and his policies.

And not just him, but you know, the, the Republicans at the time.

And I guess the president was not that thick-skinned and didn't you know, like the joking around, and he resigned his membership in the order, and that's what this letter from President Wilson on White House stationery is saying is, "Thanks, but," you know, "I'm resigning my commission."

But he not only resigned his commission, he took it a step further.

All of the senior officers who were involved in the order that year, he put up for disciplinary action.

ROSS: Oh, wow.

What an incredible collection.

What an in, interesting story about this group, again, that I think most people never heard of.

GUEST: Most haven't, but you know, luckily it continues on.

ROSS: Amazing, quite really something.

I would put, of course, how do you place a value?

But I would, no comparables, but I would place a value on the whole collection, I would say at least $10,000... GUEST: Oh, wow.

ROSS: ...and up, being such an important part of American military history.

GUEST: Thank you, I'm surprised.

But you know, it's more than the value of the dollar amount for me.

ROSS: Yes.

GUEST: It's retaining the history and hopefully passing that tradition on to another generation that maybe is inspired by that service and sacrifice by the men and women who serve.

ROSS: Yeah, thank you for sharing.

GUEST: Thank you, appreciate it.

(cash register bell).

♪ ♪ LISA: So normally I would say thank you for coming to "Chesapeake Collectibles" with your lovely find, but you're a volunteer here, so you actually had to be here today.

So you're going to get a double thank you from me, because it is volunteers like you that help to make our show successful.

But now it's time to turn to this beautiful object.

Please tell me and the viewing audience, how did you acquire this?

Where did you find it?

GUEST: So a couple of years ago, I came across this plate on a flea market.

Unfortunately, I showed my interest way too early.

LISA: No poker face?

GUEST: No, no poker face.

LISA: Okay.

GUEST: Couldn't hold it.

This plate had so many things going for it, so I just commit a mistake of showing my interest, and end up paying for it.

LISA: So what drew you to the plate to begin with?

GUEST: The whole thing.

It just has some charm, some personality.

Never seen anything like that in my life.

LISA: Well, was there anything in your background that said, "I know exactly what this says."

Because I'm going to be very honest, one year of Russian in college, and my Cyrillic, not very good.

So please, I'm assuming you know how to read this, since you knew exactly what you were looking at.

GUEST: My mom is Russian, so... LISA: Your mother is Russian.

GUEST: Yes.

LISA: Can you please tell us, because this is in Cyrillic... GUEST: Mm-hmm.

LISA: ... can you please tell us what this says?

GUEST: "The capitalists and bourgeoisie of the world is afraid of..." in the center.

In the top says, "The power of USSR."

LISA: There it is.

So what we actually have, and what you found, is a Soviet Union propaganda plate, and this is fantastic, and you're absolutely correct.

It's from the 1920s.

And so I'm going to take a moment, and I'm going to turn it around, because the back of this, maybe not as interesting as the front, but it's going to reveal some information to us.

So I'm going to carefully remove this.

And what we see here is the name of the person who painted it.

GUEST: It says Morfin, that's the name, and 1927 is the year.

LISA: And 1927.

So there we have it.

We're in the middle of the Art Deco movement at this particular time.

But also, we can tell just from looking at it, just the strong Art Deco decoration that's coming... GUEST: Details.

LISA: ...through here.

The details.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

LISA: That's correct.

So we have the top hat, just that sort of linear quality, the expression, the red star, the hammer and sickle.

I mean, even if you don't read Cyrillic, you know that you're looking at a piece of Soviet propaganda.

It's really fantastic.

There aren't a lot of these that come on the market... GUEST: No.

LISA: ...at auction.

GUEST: I couldn't find many.

LISA: Yeah.

GUEST: I couldn't find any, basically.

LISA: Yeah.

And so that's, that's the challenge.

So would you mind sharing with us what your poker face, or lack thereof, had you pay this dealer at the flea market?

GUEST: I ended up paying 150 bucks.

LISA: $150.

GUEST: Yeah.

LISA: Recent auction records suggest, on the low end, $1,000.

On the high end, this could be $3,000 or $4,000.

So don't faint.

I don't think we have paramedics here.

GUEST: I'm going, I'm going to stop eating from that plate.

LISA: Yeah, yeah, don't eat on the plate, don't eat on the plate.

It's really fantastic.

It's not something that we see anymore, and it's, or see really at all come up for auction.

So this is a rarity, and it's really fantastic.

Thank you for showing up.

GUEST: Thank you.

LISA: Thank you for bringing it, and thank you for volunteering.

GUEST: Absolutely, thank you.

LISA: Thank you.

(cash register bell).

♪ ♪ KATHLEEN: Hi there, welcome to "Chesapeake Collectibles."

GUEST: Hi, thank you, thank you very much for having me.

KATHLEEN: So I think today we have a "Chesapeake Collectibles" first.

And not only do we have a painting to talk about, but from what you've told me, we have quite a story.

So, we have a painting, but so why don't you sort of start with the painting, and then let's get into this story that people are really going to want to hear.

GUEST: All right, thank you.

So what I have here is a painting, and it was painted by a ship captain, and his name was Harry Pfeil.

And he was a ship captain in the '30s and '40s.

I found a little bit of history about when he was a, a lookout, but we don't know exactly when he painted this, this painting.

But I know that it was painted using paints from the ship.

KATHLEEN: Right, and then you told me, and we found out that that's why the color palette is so limited.

Right?

So he was using ship paints.

GUEST: Ship paints.

KATHLEEN: Right, so we didn't have a whole lot of variety here, yeah, okay.

GUEST: And so it was a gift to one of his friends, who was, her name was Tina.

KATHLEEN: Well, it was a girlfriend kind of, right?

GUEST: Yeah, she was a girlfriend.

KATHLEEN: Yeah, okay, a girlfriend, right?

GUEST: And she was a hostess at the Gaiety Burlesque House on The Block in Baltimore.

KATHLEEN: Right, so the Gaiety, the Gaiety Burlesque Club, which is now, I believe it still exists on The Block, but that was very famous, right?

Blaze Starr was there.

And who else did we say?

GUEST: Gypsy Rose Lee.

KATHLEEN: Gypsy Rose.

GUEST: And Phil Silvers and Jackie Gleason, all the famous strippers were there.

KATHLEEN: All the famous strippers, yes.

But she was not, she was, she was the hostess.

GUEST: She was the hostess.

And this was given to me by her daughter.

KATHLEEN: Her daughter.

And so why did her daughter decide to give this to you?

GUEST: Oh, she was downsizing.

KATHLEEN: Okay.

GUEST: She was downsizing and... KATHLEEN: And you're... GUEST: She's in her 90s, yeah.

KATHLEEN: Yeah.

GUEST: And we loved it.

We loved the, the, the feel of this man with his, his faithful friend out there.

KATHLEEN: And I, I just think this is such an incredible story.

And you know, this, this painting, in and of itself, it's very evocative.

I was thinking when I saw it of Winslow Homer.

Have you seen Winslow Homer's got a very similar painting of a man and his boat just on the open water.

GUEST: Oh, okay.

KATHLEEN: So Captain Pfeil, P-F-E-I-L, was clearly you know trying to evoke something with his painting.

And then the fact that he brought it back, I would assume he was shipping out out of Fells Point, maybe, or the harbor.

GUEST: Yeah.

KATHLEEN: Somewhere in the harbor.

And then he brought it back and gave it to her.

GUEST: Yeah.

KATHLEEN: And then she kept it in her family long enough to give it to her daughter.

And didn't you tell me her daughter's 90 years old?

GUEST: Over 90, yes.

KATHLEEN: Over 90 years old.

GUEST: She would not like us to say that.

KATHLEEN: So this has been around for a really long time.

GUEST: Yeah.

KATHLEEN: It's kind of like a landmark piece of Baltimore history.

GUEST: It is truly Baltimore.

KATHLEEN: And what did her daughter have to say about it?

GUEST: Well, her daughter did not go into the burlesque house.

Her daughter lived above the burlesque house.

KATHLEEN: Above, with her mother.

GUEST: Yes, and had to go in the back entrance.

KATHLEEN: Okay.

GUEST: And was kept out.

KATHLEEN: That's responsible.

GUEST: Yeah.

KATHLEEN: Yeah, probably pretty loud there.

GUEST: Yeah.

KATHLEEN: Yeah.

GUEST: Yeah.

KATHLEEN: And then did her daughter remember having this in her house when she was little?

GUEST: Oh, yeah, yeah.

KATHLEEN: Okay.

GUEST: She had several paintings from, from Captain Pfeil.

KATHLEEN: Really?

GUEST: Yeah.

KATHLEEN: He was no great artist, right?

GUEST: No.

KATHLEEN: And so the value of the painting, it's not a lot.

GUEST: Yeah.

KATHLEEN: As you could probably imagine.

Maybe a couple hundred dollars if we're being generous.

GUEST: Beyond generous.

KATHLEEN: But when you start putting it all together with what happened, The Block, the Baltimore history, that she was there when like Blaze Starr and all those people were there, that it was handed down, that you got it from her daughter, everything that goes together with that, then I have to kind of render it priceless.

You know?

And, I think that you should just never give it to anyone.

I think that you should keep it.

GUEST: It's a family heirloom for us now.

KATHLEEN: I think it is, I think it is.

And I love the research.

You did a whole lot of research on it.

You had that whole book of notes on the whole thing.

I mean, the whole story is just so fascinating.

I'm so glad you brought it in.

So thank you very much.

GUEST: Thank you very much.

Thank you for having us.

(cash register bell).

♪ ♪ ED MORENO: Good morning.

GUEST: Morning!

ED: Thank you for coming to "Chesapeake Collectibles" with this wonderful object.

Can you tell me a little bit about it?

GUEST: Well, this piece, um, it was at my parents' house.

And they had it on the mantel, and it was just something that, after their passing, it just became part of our... ED: Of your... GUEST: ...decorative items in the home.

ED: And so you remember this at your parents' house?

GUEST: Yeah.

ED: But do you remember when they acquired it, or do you have any idea?

GUEST: I would say in the '90s.

ED: Oh.

GUEST: Pre-retirement, yeah.

ED: Now, was their house an arts and crafts type house, or...?

GUEST: I wouldn't really say; they just built it to suit their needs.

ED: To suit them.

GUEST: Yeah.

ED: And so this was one of their tastes.

GUEST: Yeah.

ED: Okay.

GUEST: It was just something they just always appreciated.

They did kind of like the Stickley, you know that kind of... ED: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

GUEST: ...arts and crafts.

ED: Right.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

ED: Well, this is part of that... GUEST: Mm-hmm.

ED: ... era, arts and crafts.

It was a very short-term era; it really lasted between 1900 and 1920, and pretty much by the end of the First World War, which was 1919, it had kind of disappeared.

They were all handmade pieces, expensive pieces.

This particular one was made by Roycroft.

Roycroft was a company that was started out as a kind of a utopian society here in the States by Elbert Hubbard.

And he designed books; he designed a lot of other stuff.

One of his main productions, however, was furniture, and also The Copper Shop.

Copper Shop was, started out in 1902, and like I said, most of this has been... most of the period ended in 19, by the 1920s.

Some of this has been done subsequently, but this mark is the mark pre, pre-1920, probably made between 1916 and 1918.

So it's a fairly old piece.

What I really like about this piece, however, is they're all patinated.

This is copper.

Underneath it is just a simple copper color, like the pennies that we used to have, that's shiny.

But to tone it down, they would patinate it.

I would say about 60% of the pieces that I come in contact with have been stripped of this patination, which is applied, and it's very, very thin.

Once you take off the patina, the value decreases rapidly.

Have you ever had this one appraised?

GUEST: No, I haven't.

ED: Okay.

GUEST: I wasn't actually sure if it was copper because of the different coloration.

ED: Okay, it doesn't look like copper, yeah.

Well, in this condition, good mark, great condition, patination is fantastic.

It's really a nice piece, and it's quintessential Roycroft, you'll see a couple of these, like I say, normally damaged; they can run anywhere from 800, but this is on the top end, probably around 16 to $1,800.

GUEST: That's fantastic.

ED: But please don't touch it with anything other than a white... GUEST: Just my hands.

ED: Just... in fact, I wouldn't do your hands.

Hands are the enemy of a patination, so wipe it down with a dry cloth every time you touch it because the oils in your skin will actually etch the patina.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

ED: So wipe it down.

If you want to clean it, if it gets dirty for any reason, just distilled water and no polish of any kind because... GUEST: I won't.

ED: ...if you touch it and the patina goes, you're not going to have this wonderful piece anymore.

So thank you for bringing it in.

It's a wonderful piece.

GUEST: Thank you.

(cash register bell).

♪ ♪ MICHAEL STANTON: I'd like to welcome you to "Chesapeake Collectibles."

GUEST: Thank you.

MICHAEL: What have you brought us today?

GUEST: This is an Altair 8800 computer.

It was introduced on the front cover of "Popular Electronics Magazine" in January of 1975.

MICHAEL: I understand this was made by a company named MITS that was founded in 1969, I believe, by two people, Ed Roberts and a Forrest Mims.

And they started in telementary rocket motor units, and then they went on to calculators, and in 1974, they created this Altair system based on the 8080 CPU by Intel.

Is that correct?

GUEST: That's right, you've got it.

MICHAEL: And what else can you tell me about what you brought in here today?

GUEST: Well, you can make a lot of arguments, and people frequently do, but it was certainly one of, if not the, first personal computer.

And one thing that you can't argue about is that Bill Gates tells the story that when he saw that magazine cover, he immediately went and found Paul Allen, who, with whom he co-founded Microsoft.

So you can credit this computer with the origin of Microsoft.

MICHAEL: So, so you can say that Bill... that this computer started Bill Gates into the Microsoft business.

GUEST: That is correct.

MICHAEL: So in 1974, they started selling this in kit form and in assembled form.

GUEST: Yes, you could get it either factory assembled or as a kit.

MICHAEL: Now, what exactly did you get in the kit form out of this?

GUEST: Originally, in 1975, all you would've gotten was this unit on the top.

MICHAEL: And that came in kit form and was about $400?

GUEST: Yes.

MICHAEL: And assembled, it was somewhere around $650?

GUEST: Something like that, yes.

MICHAEL: Okay, and then what is this bottom unit?

Is that the floppy drive?

GUEST: This is an eight-inch floppy drive.

I can pop this out quickly and show you.

Most people have not seen... MICHAEL: Look at that floppy, woo!

GUEST: That's, and a lot of people don't know from their experience why they're called floppies, but back in the eight-inch days, you can see... MICHAEL: Yes.

GUEST: ...it's floppy.

And that just goes... MICHAEL: And that was an add-on unit, correct?

GUEST: That was an add-on.

That is correct.

MICHAEL: Did it come in kit form also?

GUEST: I believe you could get it as a kit, but this one was factory assembled.

MICHAEL: Okay, and from what I understand, they sold, what, 25,000 of these?

GUEST: All totaled, that's what I understand.

MICHAEL: 25, approximately 25,000 of these.

And then you either used a teletype machine or got you this monitor, correct?

GUEST: Yes.

They call them terminals, but in the early days, they called them glass teletypes.

Because they basically do exactly the same function that a teletype does, with the exception that they don't produce any paper.

MICHAEL: And you've got this computer programmed to say what on this monitor?

GUEST: Um... It'll print some fun little messages... including, "Hello, Chesapeake Collectibles."

MICHAEL: "Hello, Chesapeake Collectibles."

So I think it's happy to be here also.

GUEST: I, I think so, and I'm very happy to be here.

MICHAEL: I'm sure you probably have some idea what the value might be of this item.

Just this top unit right here sells anywhere between $3,000 and $5,000 at this point in auction.

GUEST: Yeah.

MICHAEL: I don't know, the bottom unit probably would sell about $800 to $1,000, wouldn't you say?

GUEST: That's not a bad estimate, yeah.

MICHAEL: And if you wanted to get a monitor in this age frame to match up the whole system, you're looking at what?

$500 to $600?

GUEST: At least.

Probably closer to eight for one that's in a nice shape as this.

MICHAEL: Yeah, in that condition.

Very nice condition.

Well, I appreciate you bringing it in, thank you very much.

GUEST: Thank you very much for having me.

(cash register bell).

PATRICK REDDING: Next time on "Chesapeake Collectibles."

ED: This is truly a magnificent piece, thank you for bringing it to "Chesapeake Collectibles."

Can you tell me a little bit about this piece?

AMORY LECUYER: It's a one of a kind.

I don't think any of us have ever seen one of these in 15 or more years of doing this show.

GUEST: I have brought three sets of manumission papers, which are the papers that enslaved people received when they were freed.

ROSS: Now, anything to Kennedy autograph is always of interest, note, and of study.

PATRICK: What you brought in today is a Winchester Model 1873 Deluxe.

It also is known as the gun that won the West.

NARRATOR: Major funding was provided by Alex Cooper Auctioneers, appraisers and auctioneers of fine art, jewelry, and collectibles.

Online and in-person gallery auctions every month.

Serving buyers and sellers in Maryland and around the world for over 100 years.

♪ ♪ Second Story Books, celebrating 50 years of dedicated book selling.

GUEST: Coming out for "Chesapeake Collectibles," is one of my favorite things each and every year.

GUEST: It's been amazing, I've never been in a television studio before, I've seen so many amazing things.

And everyone has been so fun.

GUEST: This is great fun.

It's, it's really neat to see how it all works, how it all comes together.

GUEST: I had a great experience at "Chesapeake Collectibles."

I would recommend other people look in their closets.

I would absolutely recommend to anybody, to anyone, you know, who lives in the area, you know, to, to watch the show, and participate in the show because it's amazing here, you learn a lot and you have a lot of fun.

NARRATOR: Stream anytime, anywhere with the free PBS app.