1864 Bailey & Co. Silver Presentation Pitcher
GUEST: This is descended directly down through the family. This pitcher was an award to William Cannon, who was the governor of Delaware during the Civil War, and it was presented to him in December of 1864. And, unfortunately, he died in the beginning of March of 1865, so he did not see the end of the war. The picture here is of the governor and his wife before he became governor, uh, with their eldest daughter Elizabeth.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm, so who gave it to him?
GUEST: It was given to him by the ladies of the Sanitary Commission. We don't know exactly what he did to achieve this...
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: ...'cause he was a Republican governor in a Democratic state who won by a very small margin, and they would not pass anything he wanted to do. So, we don't know exactly why he or how he achieved this great honor.
APPRAISER: This pitcher was presented in 1864. The U.S. Sanitary Commission was founded in 1861 to support and tend to the Union soldiers during the Civil War. Women all over the country would be organized to raise money for it.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And so, the ladies in Delaware were raising money, and I think probably because he was an official in the state, he would be the natural person to receive this. It was really a way that women stepped forward.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: I mean, I, I liken it to, they woke up every day and thought, like, "How can I make the world a better place?"
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: So, you had Louisa May Alcott involved in it, writer of Little Women.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: Um, Dorothea Dix and, uh, Clara Barton, started the Red Cross.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: And, on top of it, you've got this spectacular sterling silver pitcher.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Which, uh, we, we know by the marks on the base, uh, were made by, uh, the Bailey & Company, and there's a little, uh, sort of "S" at the bottom, which stands for "George Sharp." He was an Irish silversmith and worked for the Bailey Company. Whatever George Sharp made it was the finest of, of their work. It's a, a water pitcher. So, this is really a spectacular piece, and the more we go around with it, the more we see its repoussé work, the Renaissance Revival details, which you'd see on buildings in the Renaissance, spectacular scroll, which looks to me like an exotic bird here at the top.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: It's really a tour de force of design work. And then wonderfully inscribed, "From the ladies, uh, to, to the governor." To insure it, I would probably place it in the $10,000 to $15,000 range.
GUEST: Oh, no!
APPRAISER: Yeah, yeah. No, it's...
GUEST: Oh, my God.
APPRAISER: It's, it's lovely. It's really lovely.
GUEST: Oh, wow. (soft chuckle) This is probably its first public outing since 1864. It's a one-off irreplaceable.
$10,000 - $15,000 Insurance
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Understanding Our Appraisals
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
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