GUEST: I acquired it recently at a country auction about 125 miles from Jacksonville. Actually, the auction was only three weeks ago.

APPRAISER: Three weeks ago?

GUEST: Yes. I purchased it for $375, which was lower than what I anticipated it would go.

APPRAISER: Did anyone bid against you?

GUEST: Oh, the bidding started at $50.

APPRAISER: $50?

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: You thought you were going to get it for $50 at first, or what?

GUEST: Oh, no, I thought that people would like it as much as I did, but apparently they didn't. I generally write on the auction sheet how much I'll go to so I don't go over. I put "$800." As I kept thinking about it, I put "$1,000."

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: And then I changed it one more time to "$1,100." But I didn't have to.

APPRAISER: I've been doing the ROADSHOW for years, and this is the nicest example of pyrography, or pyrographic art, that we've seen.

GUEST: Yes!

APPRAISER: All those years. I'm going to tell you right out, it is. It is so, so nice to see, I'll tell you. I love the fact that right in the middle, you have on this piece the American flag burned in with this hot poker, surrounded with these trees, these naturalistic trees that are three-dimensional. That's one thing I love about it also. This is burnt in, but these trees are very carved. They're not just burnt, but they're hand-carved. And they have a real three-dimensional feel. This was made in the early 20th century when the Art Nouveau period was very popular, so it flows like the Art Nouveau period as well.

GUEST: I see.

APPRAISER: Over on your side, we have the Liberty Bell and Uncle Sam holding up the American flag. So talk about patriotism. It's gorgeous. And if you come over to the other side, you'll see the Chinese flag, a wonderful dragon with the symbol, with the red dot. And above it, we see the Korean flag and the Japanese flag up here. And there are several flags, but centered by the American flag. It's 46 stars, which shows that it was made between 1908 and 1912. We had that flag for four years. So that's really great in dating the piece.

GUEST: That is great!

APPRAISER: It nails it right down, and it's perfect for the period. And it also was colored, so you have some dye that's seeped into the wood, and that's all original. And you also see some gilding...

GUEST: It's still left.

APPRAISER: ...used on the stars. So it's all original and it's so great that you didn't clean it, which I know you'd never do. Let me tell you what I think the value would be. Because this has everything going on that you really want in a pyrographic work of art, a retail value on this, if someone were to present it at a show as a patriotic piece of Americana, would be about $6,000.

GUEST: Oh, really?

APPRAISER: You did pretty well.

GUEST: For a $375 investment.

APPRAISER: Not bad, you did pretty well.