GUEST: This is one of my antique canes that I collect because they have snakes around it. It's a caduceus for physicians. I'm a physician so I was collecting those, and this is one of my best ones that I had. The other stuff was kind of incidental, but I realized it was pretty darn, darn good.

APPRAISER: Yeah, not so incidental. I mean, this is really a terrific rendering. It's carved from a solid piece of wood, probably maple. And we see it begins with this top figure, and usually when cane makers made a handle, it was significantly smaller. So the fact that he made this image, probably of himself, that large, is terrific sculpture. It adds a sculptural quality right off the bat. And below that, he's standing on a box that contains four heads. They might have been family members.

GUEST: They're a little bit different, too, some of them.

APPRAISER: They are, they're almost like portraiture. And I'm going to do this with the pointer. You can see there's negative space. So he really was good with the penknife and was able to carve out that negative space. Now I'm going to turn this and what it's going to reveal is, indeed, the name of our maker, and it's John Michick, maker.

GUEST: He was proud of it.

APPRAISER: He was proud of it. And we've done a little quick research and we can't find anything on the maker. So, sometimes we refer to this with cane makers as "one and done." I love the way he uses paint, not all over the cane, but just in one or two places as highlights. It brings it out from that beautiful maple wood, so it really pops off the canvas, and you could really enjoy it that much better. And the fishes, the snakes, the heads, and the figure, just a wonderful combination. Just kind of has it all.

GUEST: When do you think this was made, about?

APPRAISER: I think that this was made turn of the 20th century right up to the first quarter of the 20th century. It could be 1910, it could also be 1925. So, tell me when you bought this.

GUEST: It was about 30 years ago.

APPRAISER: About 30 years ago. And do you remember what you paid?

GUEST: I paid $120 for it.

APPRAISER: I feel very comfortable placing a retail value of $3,500 to $4,500 on this wonderful piece of American folk art.

GUEST: (laughing) That's crazy.