Nez Perce Beaded Child's Vest, ca. 1900
GUEST: My grandfather actually won this vest in a poker game. He was a colonel in the Air Force, and he was stationed in Gallup, New Mexico. In 1944, not yet a colonel, he went off base to play a game of poker. The gentleman lost to my grandfather and he didn't have enough money to cover the debt. So he gave my grandfather this vest and told him that it was once worn by a child of Sitting Bull. And this man was Native American himself, and that's all I know. It's been passed down in our family ever since.
APPRAISER: So you don't know what the debt was?
GUEST: I don't know what the debt was. That'd be interesting. I don't think my grandfather was a huge gambler, so I don't think it was a huge debt. But he was a young man, so it could have been different then.
APPRAISER: He wanted to get off post.
GUEST: (laughing): Right, probably.
APPRAISER: Right. This is a child's vest, a young boy's. I think the name Sitting Bull was used because people are going to know Sitting Bull, Geronimo, Cochise, Natchez...I mean, there's a group that were publicly known figures. It's none of that.
GUEST: Oh!
APPRAISER: This vest was probably made a long time before he got it.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: I would say no later than the first ten or 15 years of the 20th century.
GUEST: Wow!
APPRAISER: And, and no earlier than about 1895. It's all thread-sewn. Any earlier than that, it would have been sinew-sewn with dried animal sinews. The reason we know it's not Lakota, which, Sitting Bull was Lakota, is, is this stitching style is something that you see more in the Northern Plains and the Northwestern Plains. And we had a little discussion about it, and because of all the horses, we think it's probably Nez Perce.
GUEST: Oh!
APPRAISER: And they were in Western Montana, in northern Idaho, that area. Uh, and were one of the last major tribes who fought in the Indian Wars against the U.S. government and the cavalry. The materials, it looks like it's all canvas, and it's been beaded on that canvas. It's fairly stiff and it's lined with cloth. The beads are glass beads, probably from Murano, Italy, or from Eastern Europe. And this took a long time to make. And the horses are the classic. And a lot of people don't know that horses were an invasive species like cattle. They were brought by the Spanish and they exploded in population. And if you turn it around, there are more horses.
GUEST: (chuckling) Yes, there are.
APPRAISER: And they're beautiful. And these have brands. It would take a lot of research to find out what those brands are, and, and we might not ever. The flags appear to be cavalry guidons that a flag carrier would have on a staff. Those triangle flags.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: It all relates. This child was probably the son of someone who had a lot of horses. If this were for sale in a retail situation, say a gallery, it would be $3,000 to $5,000.
GUEST: Oh, wow!
APPRAISER: Uh, as is. And I wouldn't bother to have it repaired. There's a few areas of bead loss. I wouldn't worry about it. It's just part of the history of the piece.
GUEST: Right.
$3,000 - $5,000 Retail
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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."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
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