HOST: The Saarinen House, located at the heart of the Cranbrook Academy of Art, is an Art Deco masterpiece inside and out conceived entirely by Finnish architect and designer Eliel Saarinen. Roadshow appraiser Eric Silver joined me for a tour of this amazing historic home. Eric, Eliel Saarinen was born in Finland but was part of the first generation of industrial designers in America. How did he end up at Cranbrook Academy?

APPRAISER: He was invited in 1925 by George Booth, who was a Detroit philanthropist-- he was a newspaper baron-- and he was invited to design the campus of the Cranbrook educational community, which included the Cranbrook Academy of Art. He joins the faculty and he becomes head of the Cranbrook Academy in 1932.

HOST: And this is where he raised his family.

APPRAISER: That's right, he lived in this house. He designed most of the furniture. He and his wife collaborated on the carpets and textiles, and his son Eero Saarinen also designed some of the furniture here. And his son was prominent in his own right: he designed the St. Louis Arch as well as the TWA Terminal at JFK Airport in New York City.

HOST: We have a coffee urn here, which is a beautiful design, and this is one of Eliel Saarinen's designs, correct?

APPRAISER: That's right. It's probably one of the greatest examples of American 20th century design. It's a coffee pot on a stand, and it has this wonderful matching tray. And what really makes it such a great example of either Art Deco or Machine Age design is the simplicity of the form. It has this wonderful elongated lobed handle, which I think adds a certain amount of elegance to the piece. The spigot here is a stylized bird, and the bird is a motif that we see throughout the house. It was made by the Wilcox Company around 1933 or 1934. It's very, very rare. It's silver plated. It was meant to be mass produced, but it wasn't. It's thought that the design was just too advanced for contemporary American taste. I only found about a half a dozen examples, and they're all in museums.

HOST: How do we get a ballpark of what this might be valued at?

APPRAISER: What we try for is what's called comparable values. I did find a candy dish from this set that sold a couple of years ago for $67,000 at auction. I think it would be easily a multiple of that amount.

HOST: Thanks so much, Eric.

APPRAISER: Thank you.