Swedish American Whirligig, ca. 1890
GUEST: I've had it probably 15 years or so. Came from my father's basement after he was deceased and his grandfather made it, who immigrated from Sweden into Maine with my two-year-old grandmother.
APPRAISER: When was this?
GUEST: 1888 they came to Maine.
APPRAISER: Okay.
GUEST: And they pretty much settled in Stockholm, Maine, where he started a business-- he built some boats and he had a cottage on Madawaska Lake. He eventually had a store and it was like a stagecoach stop where wayfaring travelers would stay there and maybe get a meal-- he spoke no English. He made this, I'm guessing, about 1900...
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: ...maybe a little bit before. It's a Swedish soldier. I was told it's a uniform from, like, 1865. I'm just guessing that perhaps my great-grandfather had it on his store. Maybe he was trying to reel in some customers or something like that.
APPRAISER: Yeah, that's a really good guess. As a sort of a trade figure that he had out in front of the store to attract people in. This is solid wood. The bottom of his jacket is made out of some sort of painted oil cloth. His cross belt here is probably gold foil that was pressed onto the surface. And his little medal here or his medallion here is also gold foil. The belt is leather, and someone has punched out that piece of metal to make a military style belt. It's fabulous. It looks like it was at one time...very blue, if you can see the blue color here. Everything about this just screams quality. What we all love about it is the surface. It has never been cleaned, it has never been repainted. And that's what folk art collectors just love to see. It's the original surface of the figure. You can see in the guy's face, the bumping, the little crackling from where the varnish is aged and shrunk. And same things on the paddles here. I mean, that's fabulous, that alligatoring like that...
GUEST: Right. Yeah.
APPRAISER: ...comes from age. (chuckling) There's a story that you have about this. What did you do with it?
GUEST: Family's got a place on the lake in central Maine, and I... I s-- it was really windy. That was yesterday. So I wanted to put it on the dock because I wanted to see how it behaved. He had some movement. His arms didn't go flailing or anything like that. But he twisted in the wind a little bit. And I had to keep my foot on the base because I didn't want him to take a swim.
APPRAISER: (laughs)
Um, but that was the first time really I've ever spent any time with the young man.
APPRAISER: So we all put our heads together and thought that a good auction estimate for this figure would be $8,000 to $12,000.
GUEST: Hm, interesting.
APPRAISER: If it were an American figure, we would probably have doubled that estimate. But it's, it's a great figure. It's the best whirligig that I've seen in 29 years on the "ROADSHOW."
GUEST: Oh my goodness.
APPRAISER: Don't put it out on the dock anymore. (chuckling) No... not, not...
GUEST: Nah, it was just an experiment. He twisted a little bit in the breeze-- so do I. (laughs)
$8,000 - $12,000 Auction
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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.
Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.
Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.
