Do any of these antiques make you want to hit the road and travel the world?

We bring back snow globes now.

They brought back wonderful replicas of important paintings.

This is actually considered to be one of the great American maps.

Holy Toledo!

Woo-hoo!

Before you catch the next train out of town, stick around for this special episode, Antiques Roadshow: "Treasures on the Move."

Welcome to Antiques Roadshow: "Treasures on the Move."

Hi, I'm Mark Walberg.

Avid Roadshow fans know that the objects we appraise often turn up far from their places of origin.

In the spirit of cross-country exploration, we've put together this collection of items related to modes of transportation and travel.

Your Roadshow trip is about to begin, so sit back, relax, and take in the sights of Antiques Roadshow: "Treasures on the Move."

WOMAN: This is my treasure box.

I came upon it 25 years ago.

Relatives of mine, who have a Gilded Age mansion in Newport, Rhode Island.

The grandmother had died, and the estate had invited relatives to come in and take what they wanted from the estate.

I ran upstairs to the attic, and I found, in a corner, a box, a very dusty, sort of unassuming box.

And when I opened it... well, I couldn't believe my eyes.

You have a very interesting item.

It is French, and it's primarily comprised of silver gilt and mother-of-pearl pieces.

And when I say silver gilt, it's a French silver that's been dipped with a gilt service, or a vermeil wash, as you sometimes hear.

It's made by a firm called Aucoc.

Oh.

It was actually a dynasty of silversmiths and then eventually jewelers.

And what's interesting about this is the case and all of the objects inside are made by Aucoc.

You have in the middle the Aucoc hallmark.

French silver is a little hard to date, but we feel it's between about 1820 and 1840.

Oh, that old?

That's when this set comes from, yeah.

That's a surprise.

Aucoc was one of the most important and most well-known travel accessories makers in the French period of 1820 to 1840.

So this would be for a ship or train travel?

Exactly, primarily for a lady.

What is truly magnificent about this set is that all of my colleagues and I have never seen a set so complete.

Really?

There's always something missing.

You've got some wonderful dressing accessories here.

Some of these items for sort of grooming one's self.

And then here we have some sewing accessories as well.

We even have a small service for eating.

Also one of my favorite parts is the porcelain teacup and saucer, which was made in Paris around about 1830.

Wow.

Do you know what this is for?

I have no idea, and it's very odd-looking, like you'd almost put an egg on top of it.

It's called an eye rinse, and you'd actually rinse your eyes out if you'd been exposed to some dust.

Right.

You have the inkpots here, you have a pen rest.

What's fabulous is that it all fits neatly right in here.

Yes, it's just like a puzzle.

It's wonderful.

The case has brass inlay, which is called boule inlay, which is this wonderful brass inlay into what we consider quite a rare cut of maple burl, and if we close the case, you can see here the quality of the timber, also, is just exceptional.

I would put an auction estimate of between about $10,000 and $15,000.

(laughs) Yeah.

Well, you've made my day.

Well, you've made my day, too.

It's a really exceptional item.

Well, it's always been special, but now I have to say it's a little more special to me.

Oh, I could just cry, I'm so happy!

It's a really, really cool set.

My father, when he graduated high school in 1937, got a scholarship to go to Paris to study art.

And he collected these posters when he was there in Paris.

And then the Germans invaded, and he was forced to flee the country and went to Denmark, where he got put in prison because he had no money.

However, the jailer and his wife took pity on him, and he kept his belongings for him, fed him and his friend.

He got money wired to him from my grandfather, and they got on board a ship to head back to the United States, and it was torpedoed on the way to the United States and had to limp into New Orleans.

And the posters made it back to Oklahoma City and were stored in my grandfather's house until my grandfather died, and then they were moved to the house where my parents lived.

And they were stored there until about three months ago, when I found them upon going through the house on my mother's death.

And these are only a sampling of all the posters.

How many were there altogether?

We counted approximately 65 to 70.

65 to 70 posters that had been to debtor's prison, that had been torpedoed, made it back to America, wound up in your grandfather's closet and wound up in your possession.

Right.

And I have chosen from among the 65 or 70, by and large, posters that have to do with ships.

Now, I've also included one airplane poster to show that the collection is multifaceted.

It's not just ships; it's also airlines and Air France.

When I look at these, what I see is a rather interesting collection of Art Deco travel images, really from the golden age of travel.

They're mostly from 1938 and 1937.

And within the poster world, one of the things that collectors look for are powerful Art Deco images, and that's what we have here.

Some of these I have sold before at auction.

Okay.

Some of them I have never seen before.

That makes two of us.

And I am familiar with the artists.

They're all signed.

Some of the artists are more famous than others.

They're not all in great condition.

No, they're not.

Something else: two of these posters actually have a swastika on them-- the Bremen poster here, and then by you, the Patria poster.

The swastika was the German flag.

These posters do predate the Second World War, but people don't like posters that have swastikas on them because of all the negative connotations.

So should I give you the good news or should I give you the bad news?

Oh, give me the bad news first.

Well, the bad news is the posters really, by and large, are in the kind of shape where it will take maybe $10,000 to $15,000 to restore the whole collection.

Now, on the other hand, the posters that we have hanging here, these eight posters-- I've tallied them up in my mind, and I estimate conservatively, at auction, these posters alone would be worth somewhere between $18,000 and $22,000.

$18,000 and $22,000!

Just these eight?!

And for the rest of the collection, again conservatively, once restored...

Right.

A total of $40,000 to $60,000.

Wow!

That's amazing.

$40,000 to $60,000.

It's a good thing I don't faint.

MAN: I brought a marine chronometer that I believe was built by a Thomas Earnshaw.

A friend of mine had it and we decided to buy it from him.

I like clocks.

I made a grandfather clock in high school.

And I know it was for ships to tell time, but that's about all I know about it.

Well, this is a pretty important marine chronometer, probably made sometime around 1815.

It was made by Thomas Earnshaw, who was a London maker.

He was born in 1749 and he died in 1829.

What he's really well known for is he invented the patent spring detent escapement, which is an escapement that compensates for changes in temperature.

Two metals working against each other, and as a result, it's a much more accurate way of keeping time.

Now, that's very important when you're measuring longitude, because if you're sailing across the ocean, you need to know your fixed position in terms of minutes so that you can sail to the point in which you want to arrive at.

If you're off a couple of minutes, you could be on a shoal of rocks or you could be in another port.

During that early period of maritime sailing, the English government put out a prize for that, which was won by John Harrison.

He actually invented the chronometer.

This particular maker improved it.

And his improvements were used universally after that time period.

He won a prize from the Board of Longitude.

He became known as the father of the chronometer.

And you can see that it is a chain fusee.

It gets its power from the spring here, and the original chain is still there.

This is actually supported in a very protective case.

This fits into this brass cylinder here and it has a porcelain dial.

It's very easy to read.

And when we screw on this bezel, it's locked into place.

Now, it's set in a gimbal so that if the boat's rocking, it compensates for that.

It does have a hairline crack in the dial.

It's fitted in a box that helps protect it from the elements.

Can you tell me what you bought this clock for?

Uh, I paid $125 for it.

How long ago did you purchase this clock?

Um, within the last year.

This particular clock would probably have an auction estimate of somewhere between $6,500 and $8,500.

Whoa.

That's a pretty good investment of $125.

Pretty good investment.

Hi guys, thanks an awful lot for bringing your airplane into the Roadshow today.

You're welcome.

After the war, the Japanese developed a very nice toy industry, and they made an awful lot of battery toys, which is what your plane is powered by.

So you've tried it out, does it run okay?

It runs perfect.

It was your dad's?

It was my dad's when he was a little boy.

Well, he took pretty good care of it.

Let's take a look here.

I want to show you where the company name was.

That stands for a toy company, the name was Yone, Y-O-N-E.

These are called tin toys, and battery operated, like I said.

And your airplane does all kinds of stuff, so it's actually got three batteries in here.

Three batteries, right.

So your typical airplane would be probably half the size of this, much less in the way of detailing and everything like that.

Those kind of airplanes from the same time period, oh, it'd probably be $50 to $100.

But you've got the super-duper model, which does all kinds of things, which we're gonna see in a second.

So really, this airplane's about a $300 airplane today in real nice shape.

All right, why don't we see what this does?

Turn the switch on.

Yes, see what it does there, William.

Here goes the stewardess.

All right, ready for take-off.

Closing the door.

Closing the door.

There go our lights, there go our propellers.

It's going the wrong way!

There they go, all four of them.

All four of them are going.

Okay, there we go.

It goes even faster, probably, if it wouldn't be on the rug.

Pretty nice toy, take good care of it.

Thank you.

Thanks for bringing it in.

WOMAN: They belonged to my father's grandfather, and he was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and then grew up in Atlanta before he came west in the early 1900s.

Each piece is so remarkable.

The canes are really intricate, interesting, dated, signed.

This cane on the end has so much intricate work.

We call it a puzzle cane because it's got so many interesting moving pieces.

The other canes are equally detailed, and I love that it tells the journey of his trail out west.

This carving is especially interesting, given where we are, because he ends up in Tucson, Arizona in 1938.

As a group, we would estimate them at auction for $12,000 to $14,000.

You're kidding.

My goodness.

Oh, my gosh!

I can't...

They just stand in the corner, and we pull them out on holidays and look at them.

We never... We never think of them as anything other than that.

They're excellent, they're great.

Thank you so much.

You're welcome, thanks for coming.

Oh, thank you.

(laughing) Oh, don't cry.

Oh, you've got to be kidding.

I'm not kidding.

We were dropping them outside!

They lasted this long, they're great!

This painting was given to my father from my great-uncle.

My great-uncle was a missionary in China from 1922 into the '50s.

When do you think he bought the painting?

You know, I'm not really sure.

It had to have been probably before 1937, I would think.

Okay.

To begin with, I think you know it's Chinese.

Yes.

And it's what we call an export painting.

Ah.

Most export paintings display some physical characteristic that identifies where it is.

And the three major port cities in China were Canton, which today is called Guangzhou...

Okay.

...Hong Kong, and Shanghai.

This, I believe, is Canton.

On most views of Canton, what you see right here in the center are trading centers, which they call hongs, that will fly flags indicating the country, the nationality of the trading that took place.

In this picture, there are no flags in the center.

However, if you look on the far right, what you see here is a French flag.

And you see a series of Western trading ships.

In addition, if you move back over this way, you see this sort of brown structure?

Yes.

This is one of two Western-built defensive forts.

Okay.

This is not the original frame.

And if you look right around the edge, you see this sort of line?

That's because this picture was originally in a smaller frame... Really?

and that frame would have been black lacquered with gold trim around the edge.

We know it dates, from the presence of the flag on the far right and the general handling of the paint, to sometime around the mid 19th century.

Okay.

There's a whole host of different studios that painted these for Westerners who were stationed in these trading centers.

They would be there from one to three years.

And they didn't bring photographs back; they brought back paintings to show their family and friends as mementos of where they were.

Any ideas on what the value is?

I know you had it appraised.

Yes.

My father actually had it cleaned back in 1978.

And at that time, he had it insured for $4,500.

$4,500.

Well, I think at auction, you could expect to get somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 for this picture.

Wow, that's pretty amazing.

What you see here is a collection of items from Roald Amundsen's ship, the Gjoa.

It was Norwegian, and he was the first person to transverse the Northwest Passage, and landed in Nome, Alaska in 1906.

Then he somehow hooked up with my great-grandfather, who was also Norwegian, and my great-grandfather ended up with these items.

Well, you've got a photograph here that shows the souvenirs of Amundsen on display when he was there in Nome.

And this shelf and this brandy bottle or liquor bottle are illustrated in the photograph, along with the flag.

This photograph is signed "B.B.

Dobbs."

Right.

Beverly Dobbs was the premier photographer in Nome.

In addition, you've got I think the captain of the ship, an autographed photograph of him, and then here's Amundsen himself, and he's autographed this.

My favorite piece, though, is this.

This is a menu for the banquet that the city of Nome threw for Roald Amundsen in 1906 when he traversed the Northwest Passage.

The first guy to go from the Atlantic to the Pacific via the polar ice pack.

And it took him three years to do this in a very, very small seal vessel.

So, an amazing accomplishment.

Amundsen, of course, was one of the giants of the Heroic Age of Arctic exploration.

Yes.

And he disappeared in 1928 flying in an airplane over the Arctic, looking for a comrade who had been trying to be the first person to fly over the Arctic.

And so Amundsen was gone in 1928.

I talked to a couple people here, and the feeling we all have is this is really exceptional.

The menu is really rare.

I would guess this may be the only one that exists.

You're kidding.

In the right auction, this group of material, I think that you could expect this to bring $5,000 to $7,000 easy.

And there's a great chance, a great possibility, because of what it is, it could go for more than $10,000.

But I think just to be conservative, say $5,000 to $7,000.

It's just a remarkable group of material.

Take it back home and hang it on the wall.

Absolutely, I think that's a great thing to do.

WOMAN: Well, this belonged to my father and I came into possession of it ten years ago when he passed away.

He was a military submariner for 30 years, very proud to be in the Navy, and he collected this over time, and there's a total of 120 lighters.

They have military insignias with all the different submarines, about two dozen that he served on.

Well, he amassed quite a collection of Penguin lighters and as you say, they do have the ship's mascot, if you will, or what the ship's name is.

They're in really remarkable condition.

That was the first thing that impressed me so much is they're all in the original boxes with the original tissue paper.

I believe they're dated 1964, so they'd be just at the beginning of the Vietnam War over 40 years ago.

They look like they were just made yesterday.

They get very heavily stained from the lighter fluid, from the fire, but these are in mint, mint condition.

And of special interest, the ones that I really liked were some of the local Hawaiian ones.

This one here was the, uh... Cameja Meja.

Yeah, but just an incredible group of lighters.

These are becoming very, very popular amongst collectors over the past ten or 15 years.

Do you have any idea what these might be worth?

I have no idea, but I know a Zippo is about five bucks.

Well, a modern Zippo.

If these were vintage Zippos from this period, they'd be considerably more than that, but even Penguins, which are not quite as valuable as Zippos, are still valuable.

Most of these lighters, if they were sold individually, would retail at anywhere between $35 and $150 apiece.

So you've got total excess of $10,000 worth of lighters.

You're kidding.

No, I'm not.

It's a very valuable collection, yes.

I'm flabbergasted.

Wow.

So my inheritance paid off.

(laughs) WOMAN: This is my father's pocket watch, and he wore it every day that I can possibly remember, and has this little leather thong on it.

He was a cattle rancher down out of Ritzville, and he wore it on his belt loop, in his pocket, and he didn't wear a regular watch because he worked so hard that he would break a regular watch, like, in three or four days, so he wore it always when he was, like, baling hay or driving tractor or throwing calves.

Let me tell you about the watch a little bit.

It's made by Waltham Watch Company in Waltham, Massachusetts.

They started in Roxbury, but they soon after set up shop in Waltham.

They went into business in the mid-1800s.

They went out of business in 1957.

Really?

So this is old?

Yeah, sure.

Now, at the end of production, they made approximately 35 million pocket watches.

So there's a lot of them out there.

Yes, it is.

Let me tell you about yours.

It's a railroad watch.

It has these large Arabic numerals.

Down below, you have a subsidiary second hand.

But did you ever notice the other dial up on top of the watch?

Yeah.

Do you know what it's for?

No.

What it is, it's a wind indicator.

When you wind the watch, it tells him how much power is left in the winding mechanism so that it wouldn't run out accidentally.

Huh!

It's an added feature.

It's the kind of thing you don't see on every railroad watch.

Now what we want to do is we want to turn it around.

Okay.

What we're going to do is talk about what makes this watch a little better than the average open-face railroad watch.

In the center, over here, is a diamond end stone.

Usually, they're synthetic rubies, but they use the diamond end stone.

Is it a real diamond?

It's a real diamond, yes.

We see over here it's a Waltham Vanguard.

Okay.

And then we travel over here, and it tells us that it's 23 jewels.

23 jewels is a nice option; a lot of them are 21.

And then we go up here and we see that it's six-position.

A lot of them came five positions.

So these are just... All those little bells and whistles...

Wonderful.

...that add up and tell us that it's a quality watch.

Great.

Let's turn it around.

Isn't that something, that a rancher would have a railroad watch?

Yeah, and a very high-end one.

Yeah.

If you have to go out and buy this watch again today, I feel you would have to pay somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000.

Holy Toledo!

Woo-hoo!

That's wonderful.

You're kidding?

I'm not kidding you, no.

I mean, he banged this thing around every single day on this thong, just tied to his...

This is wonderful, thank you!

I'm so glad you're happy.

Oh, I love it.

Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

This is a 1953 Hudson Hornet.

The Hudson Motor Car Company was an independent automobile manufacturer that was in operation from 1909 to 1954.

She's 60 years old and still rides like a dream.

Roadshow stopped at the Ypsilanti Automotive Heritage Museum, where I met up with appraiser Noel Barrett to take a look at some very cool, vintage model cars.

Noel, these car models we see here, they're not toys, are they?

No, they're not toys, although I must say, I see things like this at toy shows.

They are actually used in the design studios of the car maker, in this case, Hudson.

And they would use these to come up with different kinds of color schemes.

WALBERG: So this is more a tool than a toy.

They would actually use this to paint on, and then you could see how it was going to look?

BARRETT: Yes, they might paint the roof a different color, different contrast and see what it was going to look like.

WALBERG: And these were never supposed to leave, but somehow they wandered out and a few of them are in existence.

BARRETT: Somehow over the years, they have turned up.

WALBERG: If you were to find one of these, what would you expect to pay for something like this?

BARRETT: They're generally priced at around $1,200 to $1,400.

Maybe a little more, of course, depending on condition.

WALBERG: So there are a few of them in the market.

BARRETT: They do turn up.

WALBERG: Tell me about this much larger model you have here.

BARRETT: This is a quarter scale model, and these were made for display at the 1932 New York Auto Show, and then they were later on display at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.

They were hand-made in the Hudson Factory of die-cast aluminum, and they are amazing scale models.

The hood ornament, the latches, everything is exact.

As far as we know, I think only five have turned up, although there's rumors of others.

The most recent that sold at auction was a sedan, and it was totally restored and it was just in the last few months, and it sold for $34,000.

I think that this is a much more desirable model.

Most collectors love this kind of small coupe, rumble seat style.

It just has a great feel to it.

And so if the sedan went for auction about $34,000, we can assume that a model like this would go for much more.

BARRETT: I'm not so sure about much more, because that's already a lot of money, but I would think it would definitely bring more.

It could bring $40,000, $45,000, who knows.

But this one ain't going anywhere.

That's for sure.

Thank you very much, Noel, it's been fun talking to you.

WOMAN: This painting was purchased from a Russian antique dealer in Chicago many, many years ago.

It's been hanging in a back bedroom, and when the Antiques Roadshow was coming to town, we thought maybe it was time to dust it off and have somebody take a look at it.

APPRAISER: All right.

It's a portrait in the style of the 17th century Flemish painters.

We have this wonderful label here that says it's by Pourbus, Frans Pourbus, who was a member of the Flemish Pourbus family in the 16th and 17th century.

Wow.

We also have the name of the sitter, The Portrait of Henrietta, of France.

Henrietta later became the wife of Charles I of England.

So that's what we can tell from the front.

But the back is where our portrait really gets interesting.

From the back of the painting we can tell first that it is not a 17th century frame.

It's rather a 19th century frame in the style of the 17th century.

The same is true with the stretcher that the painting itself is on.

And then we get even more information.

Here we have Francesco Pourbus, and it's in Italian because the painting, as identified on the front, is actually in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, yes?

Okay.

And here we have a seal from one of the supervisors of the studio at the Uffizi, the copyists' studio at the Uffizi, saying that this is in fact an authorized copy of a Pourbus painting.

It went on to Rome to be sold and eventually came to the United States.

During the years between 1840 and roughly 1940, people were visiting Europe, and when they would come back they would bring back wonderful souvenirs of their trips.

We bring back snowglobes now, they brought back wonderful replicas of important paintings, and what's what you have here.

The unfortunate news is that an original Pourbus painting could be in excess of $100,000.

Some of them are very, very valuable.

But this is a lovely 19th century copy.

Given the condition of this piece-- little losses that you have-- this piece at auction I would value at between $1,500 and $2,500.

Wow.

Thank you.

Yes, much better than a snowglobe.

Much better than a snowglobe.

(laughter) Thanks for coming.

Thank you.

WOMAN: It's a family piece.

It belongs to my father.

And the history behind it goes is that his great-grandfather was Captain Eli of the Rebecca Clyde.

It was a merchant ship, clipper ship out of Baltimore Harbor and it sailed down the eastern seaboard towards the Caribbean and down to Rio to pick up goods.

And somewhere along the journey, it was lost at sea and they sent out a fleet of recovery ships.

And what they found was the mast and some fragments of the boat.

And one of the carpenters of the recovery ship was commissioned to make this out of the fragments found and the mast was sent back to Baltimore for insurance purposes.

This is the best of American folk art because there are so many things that are pulling together here.

First of all, there's the family history, which is really important to you.

Second of all, it's a document of the history of the merchant marine in Baltimore, which is a phase of history that has really passed.

Baltimore had the fastest clipper ships that were afloat.

And then, it's... it's a beautiful object made from the remains of this boat that came to a terrible end.

It fits into a tradition of these sort of shadowbox dioramas that were very popular in the 19th century.

But this one has such a strong family history and social history connected to it that the value is going to be even greater than the ordinary run-of-the-mill pieces.

With all of that going for it, I think that this piece would be valued somewhere in the range of $10,000 to $15,000.

That's great, my father will be pleased.

I'm so glad to have seen it.

MAN: It's a carriage clock, I believe.

It's made by Tiffany.

We acquired it from a house sale in Denver, Colorado.

I was a collector of antique woodworking tools, went over to find out a woodworking tool, found out their tool wasn't very good, but I saw this clock, and we like all good antiques and thought it was worth more than we paid for it.

Great.

As you say, it's a carriage clock.

It's the first type of travel clock.

And you can see it's housed in this original leather protective case.

And if we take a look inside, we see that the carriage clock is in there.

And it was designed to travel.

If you wanted to be able to see the time, you could travel with it like this, or completely enclosed, or you could take it out altogether.

And before I take it out, I just want to point out this one feature that it has, which is a repeat button right here on the outside of the cover.

If you press on that, that in turn presses this, which repeats the previous hour so you can tell what time it is, even if it's dark.

It's a very nice example of a carriage clock.

This is a time and strike movement, and it has some features that are better than what we usually see.

For example, these columns on the front are a nice feature.

The sunken dial with this filigree work is very, very nice, as is the garland engraving here on the dial mat.

So it's a more attractive example than what we usually see.

But probably the most important feature is this name on the dial.

It says Tiffany & Co. Tiffany didn't make the clock, though.

It was made in France.

They often imported clocks and put their own name on them.

It also has a monogram on the top-- the owner-- and the date that it was manufactured, 1892, or the date that it was presented.

Can you polish it?

Yes, it could be professionally restored and the movement could be overhauled.

It would look beautiful polished and lacquered.

What did you pay for it?

About $300.

About 30 years ago.

In a retail clock shop, this clock would sell for about $4,000.

Well, that's a nice profit.

It would probably be $500 to $1,000 less without the carrying case.

MAN: We have a autographed basketball from the 1956 Olympics.

My father was the trainer, and these are some of the stuff he brought back with him.

APPRAISER: Your father was the trainer for the '56 Olympics.

Yeah.

A great team.

A gold medal-winning team Oh, yes.

led by Bill Russell and K.C.

Jones.

Here we have an original photograph of the team.

Here's Bill Russell, and here's K.C.

Jones.

Oh, that's K.C.?

Yep.

And here's your dad right here-- the trainer.

And this is pre-Celtic dynasty, before Russell joined the Celtics and created perhaps the greatest dynasty in all of sports.

Here we have the original scorebook from Melbourne, Australia, 1956.

Here we have it turned to the gold medal-winning game... Yeah, the final game.

...of the U.S. vs. USSR.

Now, this team outscored their opponents by at least 30 points in every, single game they played.

This is unheard of.

They cruised to the gold medal, and we very, very rarely ever see scorebooks from the Olympics.

How did this come into your dad's possession?

Well, there was one of the gentlemen that was involved in the team-- I think he was the assistant coach-- mailed it to him, and sent him a letter, and said, "Add this to your collection.

"And thanks for all your help in making a successful Olympics."

Sort of a souvenir.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I know we also have your dad's participation medal from the Olympics.

Yes, I think that's what this is.

And that's also a great piece, but the gem of the whole thing is this basketball.

It looks brand-new.

Yeah.

Well, it's been sitting in a closet in a plastic bag for 50 years.

It's amazing because, generally, when you see a basketball this age, it's crackling and, certainly if it's been autographed, the signatures are kind of worn off, but this looks like it was signed yesterday.

And, of course, we have Bill Russell's signature here-- Right there at the top.

a very rare signature.

He didn't like to sign, but, obviously, he... he liked your dad, I guess.

and he signed a big, bold signature there.

And then we have K.C.

's signature here and your dad's signature right there.

The whole team.

What an amazing ensemble.

Very, very rare to find basketball memorabilia of this era.

You've got Olympic collectors who would just go crazy for it.

And, of course, basketball collectors.

And then you've got the Celtic guys.

As far as a collection, I would sell it as such.

In an auction, I would estimate it at least $8,000 to $10,000.

Wow.

That's a pretty good price, but it's never going there.

And you're talking about condition here with the ball, you're talking about rarity with the scorebook.

If you were to insure it, I wouldn't insure it for anything less than $15,000.

Yeah.

It's impossible to replace this.

Great stuff.

Thank you.

WOMAN: I brought my Beatle collection, it's the Beatles' first trip to the United States.

I've had it since I was eight years old.

I have a Beatle bag.

There's only ten of them that were made.

(sighing): And I have managed to hold onto this for 50 years.

(laughs) Now what... at eight years old you weren't going to their concerts, obviously.

No.

No, I was watching them on Ed Sullivan and crying in front of the TV and screaming like a little girl.

(laughs) Our neighbor was a captain with TWA and he actually flew the Beatles from England to the United States and back, and I was crazy about the Beatles, they didn't have kids and they spoiled me and he brought this back to me.

Now obviously your bag had a little bit of use over the years.

My mom, bless her heart, let me use it for slumber parties, schoolbooks.

Well, what you have here is a collection of 24 photographs from actually their second American tour in 1965.

In 1964 they flew over with Pan Am.

One of the PR guys for the Beatles, Bill Liss, when he saw pictures of them coming down from the Pan Am airplane with their Pan Am bags immediately decided this was a great marketing idea.

We've got a great picture of George Harrison with Ringo holding one of the wonderful bags.

And there in the background there's another one of these bags.

Now, there are probably more than ten of these bags made.

They were provided to the... to the group, of course, personalized with their own name.

And there were several more bags made for the crew, VIPs, so they're not particularly rare, but they're still, it's an absolutely amazing, amazing bag.

At auction, we estimate it would go for between $800 to $1,200 in its current condition.

Okay.

Now, each of these wonderful black-and-white photographs were provided by TWA and given out as promotional items.

Each of these photographs at auction is between $80 and $100 apiece.

So overall total of what we're looking at here is about $2,720 and $3,600 at auction.

Okay, great.

MAN: My father had given this to me when I was a boy.

I'd always loved trains, railroads, et cetera.

And there was a fire in our family in the '60s, and not much came out of it, and I suspect maybe this did.

My great-grandfather had surveyed the Canadian Pacific Railway across Canada, and perhaps it might have come from his collection or something along those lines.

Well, one of the things I first noticed when you brought it in was the word "Ackermann."

Ackermann was a very famous English publisher of colorplate books.

And colorplate books are those books that are usually hand-colored views of topography, city views, travel.

And this is indeed one of their colorplate productions.

The interesting thing about it is-- and it ties in with your great-grandfather's role in the railway survey-- is that this is actually views from the construction of the first railway in England that was tied to timetables and that carried passengers.

So you could actually look at a schedule, see what time the train was coming, be able to catch it, which was completely unusual at the time.

And when you turn the pages, you see... these are the color views that were produced by Ackermann to document the railway production.

There are six plates in the book.

Each one of these are hand-colored from engravings.

And the wonderful thing about this is the condition, that a lot of times you see these books that have foxing, there's some water damage.

But this one has survived in remarkably good shape.

It's also in the original binding.

I's really a pleasure to see it.

It's a little something unusual to turn up here in that it's a British railway book, but it just proves that anything can be anywhere.

For an auction estimate, I'd feel pretty comfortable putting it in the region of $5,000 to $7,000.

You don't say.

Well, well, well, that'll do all right.

Got me there.

MAN: It belonged to my uncle, and my cousin got it.

Then my cousin died and his wife asked me if I'd like to have it.

Now you're a train buff?

Not until this one.

Do you know much about Lionel Company?

I know they've been in business a long time, but, uh... Well, we'll fill in a few blanks for you.

Okay.

First of all, Lionel was actually the middle name of Joshua Lionel Cowan, earlier Cohen but later Cowan.

He came over to the States and in the late 1800s, he developed the flash powder that photographers use.

And it was so successful, the the Navy contracted to use this flash powder for mine detonation.

This is how he got his stake and he could start the Lionel Train Company, which he thought of when he saw a small fan and he tried to figure out how to use it.

And he figured he'd put in a little motor and that's when he started with the toy trains.

He's the one who invented this size, which is called standard gauge.

And what he endeavored to do with standard gauge was to make the most beautiful, luxurious trains for kids possible.

And this is what he did.

And this is considered to be one of his greatest accomplishments, the Blue Comet.

It came out in the early 1930s, about 1930 to 1938.

This was actually based after a real train.

Oh, is it?

1929 to 1941, there's a train called the Blue Comet that ran a New Jersey central line down to Atlantic City and the Jersey shore.

It was called the seashore's finest train.

And it was competing with Pennsylvania Railroad.

It was painted blue because of the Jersey seashore.

And guess what?

The Blue Comet, the Fey, the Westfall and the Tempel here, all named after comets.

No kidding.

The train was so beautiful that people would actually wait for it to come down the tracks so they could watch it go by.

Three hours from door to door, that's what they advertised.

And they advertised the finest in luxury.

And when Joshua Lionel Cowan created this train, that's what he wanted to do as well.

Let's take a look.

The actual train had triple-cushion mohair seats.

They even show a bathroom and a commode.

There was a smoking room for the gentlemen.

There was an observation deck which you see in the back of this train, and they had all the luxuries for that time.

For a Lionel train, this is unheard of.

You could never take the top off, and of course it had the spectacular electric light.

All the little details were thought of to make this like the actual-size Blue Comet.

Now let's talk a little bit about value.

Okay.

What do you think this might be worth?

Between $2,000 and $4,000, possibly.

Okay, that's a good guess.

I'll tell you something.

At the time this was sold, $70 to buy this in the 1930s, at the height of the Depression.

You could buy a three-piece bedroom suite or you could buy a used Model T for that kind of money.

Oh, my.

For auction, I would put this at estimate $8,000 to $10,000.

Oh, my.

It's sold as much as $11,500.

Good heavens.

That makes me want to treasure it even more.

MAN: As a young boy, I used to see it on my grandmother's shelf in her house and I asked her where it came from and she said her father gave it to her, and it's been an object of some mystery ever since.

What do you know about it?

What I know is it is a bank of sorts.

There is one tiny hole in one side into which if you shine a light and you look on the inside of it, you can see what might be the inside of a husk of some kind.

Any idea where it might be from?

I have no idea and I'm hoping you do.

(laughing) It's a very nice object.

It is in fact a carved coconut.

Okay.

It's a great bank.

These were done in Mexico throughout the 19th century.

And we have a very classic motif there.

Another motif here.

It's carved on both ends.

And we have a series of carved faces and heads on this side.

And one of the reasons we know it's Mexican is right here, we see this bird and the snake.

Okay.

And that is part of the seal of Mexico.

That was the Mexican seal used between 1823 and 1916 off and on.

So we know that it's Mexico, we know these carved coconuts were actually made in Mexico throughout the 19th century.

Some of them actually go back as early as the 18th century.

We believe this particular piece was carved probably about the third quarter of the 19th century.

It's hard to tell, and there's not a lot of conventional wisdom over who did these or when they did them.

There's theories that they were sailors on ships or prisoners in the Veracruz prison.

You don't see a lot of the banks survive because kids use them.

And of course, it's hard to get the money out.

If you sold it at auction, summer of 2013, market's beginning to come back a little bit, I think it would be reasonable to expect an auction estimate of $1,500 to $2,500.

All right, thank you very much.

Thank you.

WOMAN: These are a set of photo albums that were souvenirs given to the members of the Harriman Expedition.

My great-grandfather, De Alton Saunders, was one of the scientists on the expedition.

But of interest in this case is the photographer for the expedition was Edward Curtis.

APPRAISER: Well, you've brought in the two-volume set known as "The Harriman Expedition."

Curtis had just started his career as a photographer in the Northwest, in the Seattle area, and was invited to become a member of this important expedition, so it was his first major assignment.

The Harriman Expedition was, as you said, a scientific, a naturalist, an environmental expedition.

Harriman was interested in mapping the topography of Alaska and having scientists engage in different experiments.

Now, Dr. Saunders was a specialist in...

He was a botanist.

Hid nickname on this particular expedition was Seaweed Saunders.

Seaweed Saunders.

Well, as we can see in this first photograph, the images are topographic, they're each captioned.

In the lower left corner we can see an inventory number.

The images also focused on Native people.

The Harriman Expedition was a very well populated expedition.

(chuckling): Yes.

Harriman not only invited scientists, but his entire extended family, to go on this adventure.

What's interesting about books like these is that you wouldn't expect them to contain original photographic prints, but these were presentation albums given by Harriman to members of the expedition, your relative being one of them.

So these are actually original silver prints.

You're kidding.

Original silver prints with Curtis's signature down here in the negative.

Almost half of the images in the albums are attributed, are credited to Edward Curtis.

Okay.

An auction estimate for the pair of albums would be $30,000 to $40,000.

It's a very desirable, fantastic chronicle of Edward Curtis's first photographic assignment.

Thank you so much for bringing them in.

Oh, wow.

Thank you.

Oh, boy.

Carry them gently, gently back to the house.

(both laughing) This is, as it very nicely says here, a map of Lewis and Clark's track across the western portion of North America, from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean.

Now, you're from the Portland area, but I understand you got this originally from Philadelphia.

Where did it come from?

Yes, my family lived there, and they were collectors.

And that's how we inherited this.

But I am concerned about the signature that's on there.

The ballpoint pen, I mean, you tell me.

The signature and the date concern me-- that they would write on this print.

It's a map of the Lewis and Clark expedition, which Jefferson sent them off, and they went off in 1804 to 1806, and they started and went up the Missouri River... and then across the mountains, across here-- again, their track is actually on here-- and then down the Columbia River right near here.

They got back to Philadelphia, and of course they came out of Philadelphia and it took them a while, but in 1814, they issued the official narrative, or history, of the expedition, and this was the official statement of what happened and all the discoveries.

Included in that history was this map.

So this is, in fact, the official map of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

It was based on William Clark's own manuscript map, which he used the sightings and surveys that he and Meriwether Lewis made.

And he had it drawn up by a man named Samuel Lewis, and you can see Samuel Lewis's name is down here.

And this was printed in 1814.

It was earth-shattering when it came out, because, of course, Jefferson-- he had had the Louisiana Purchase, and one of the things they were interested in was getting to the Pacific Ocean.

They thought, well, if you take the Missouri River and you go up, it'll be easy to kind of hop over to a river running to the west, and maybe they could just have a short portage or build a canal.

Well, of course, they got up there, and as it shows here, there's a long, long way of mountains across.

And it destroyed every hope that they had and shocked people.

Once this map was published, every map of the American West had to be redrawn.

This is actually considered to be one of the great American maps-- one of the great maps of the 19th century.

It's a fabulous map, which makes it very sad then that somebody wrote in ink down here.

Now, they put "printed in 1814," which is absolutely true.

This is a signature probably of an owner, who, in ink, wrote on this map.

Terrible thing.

It's a print, I mean, so how many are out there?

It was from a copper engraving, and they issued hundreds of them, because it was the official report, and so it was sent out to members of Congress and people who were interested.

This map is really about the hottest map on the market right now.

Now you inherited this so you don't have anything invested in it.

So I really don't-- no, I don't.

If it was in perfect shape, it would be worth about $50,000.

(chuckling) You're kidding.

Yes.

Oh my gosh.

$50.000.

Even with the signature?

No, that's in perfect shape.

Oh, perfect, oh okay, okay.

Now how much should the signature take off?

That's very hard to say.

It might knock off maybe $5,000 to $10,000.

However, they are getting good at getting ink off.

Wow, yes.

This is modern ink and modern ink is a little easier to get off than some of the earlier ones.

Oh, okay.

Well worth doing it.

If you could get it off and so it's you can't really see it, then you've got a $50,000 map.

With it on, $45,000 maybe, like that, but it's still a fabulous map.

(chuckling): Well, that's better than I expected.

I'm Mark Walberg.

Thanks for watching.

See you next time on Antiques Roadshow.