Whiting Silver Billiards Trophy & Illustration
GUEST: My great-grandfather was a amateur pocket billiard champion in the early 1900s. This is a trophy from one of his championships and then this is a sketch done by a cartoonist in Cleveland of my great-grandfather, uh J. Howard Shoemaker.
APPRAISER: How many of the amateur national championships did he win?
GUEST: He won 17. My understanding was his first tournament that he won was in 1913...
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: ...and he was active all the way through 1937.
APPRAISER: The trophy is identified as the amateur pocket billiard champion.
GUEST: Exactly.
APPRAISER: Dated 1912. At this time, it was more commonly called pocket billiards. We now call it a game of pool. This particular trophy is sterling. The trophy is created by the Whiting Manufacturing Company and they were in New York at this time. It has the Whiting hallmark and the sterling hallmark underneath the lid. It's also marked on the base as well. What really puts it over the edge for me is the actual pool table that's on the top.
GUEST: That's my favorite part of the trophy.
APPRAISER: It's just unbelievable craftsmanship. With how expensive it would have been to have this trophy made, it shows how respected and how popular this tournament was, even being an amateur tournament. We see that it's awarded to another gentleman in 1912, and then your great-grandfather won the tournament in 1913. And then it shows there was no tournament in 1914. And then he came back the next year and won it for a second time.
GUEST: Because he won the second championship, they actually gave him the trophy. He had to play the other player...
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: ...before he could have the trophy to keep for... as a personal property.
APPRAISER: And with all those wins he had as an amateur, what's become of the rest of the trophies?
GUEST: My grandfather, when silver prices were quite high, he melted down most of the trophies.
APPRAISER: Mm. That was not uncommon at that time when we had that spike with silver. I believe it was in the 1980s.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And there were people that were melting silver as fine as Tiffany silver and things like that.
GUEST: Oh, my.
APPRAISER: And you brought the drawing, which is an original newspaper art...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...illustration of him at the pool table, done by an artist named R. Grove of Cleveland. The newspaper illustration is a great complement to this, that would sell at auction for $200 to $400 for the illustration.
GUEST: (gasps) Oh, my. Okay!
APPRAISER: The trophy itself is fantastic. For them to commission to Whiting a sterling trophy of this magnitude is not something we see very often at all.
GUEST: Really?
APPRAISER: Yeah. This trophy, at auction, would sell for $12,000, up to $16,000.
GUEST: (chuckling): Oh, my goodness. Wow! That's amazing. Oh, wow.
$12,200 - $16,400 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."
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