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(man chanting, drumming) narrator: native america is alive. ♪ ♪ its roots stretch back more than 13,000 years... (conch horn trumpets) ...to america's original explorers. (fte music playing) new people who create a new world. (flute music continues, birds chirping) from north to south america, distant peoples share one common belief--

a deep connection to earth, sky, water, and all living things. teresa ryan: we are a part of this forest as much as the forest is a part of us. (hammering) beau dick: all of our ceremonies illustrate that one notion of connectedness, not only with our fellow beings, the animals and other creatures, but with all of creation. narrator: from this deep respect for nature, people create great nations. alan hunt: there is a certain pressure in knowing that you're going to become chief. (fires crackling) narrator: they grapple with war and peace... (creature howling) ken maracle: we were covered in darkness, so the peacemaker was sent by the creator to stop this. (birds chirping) narrator: ...and develop governments from dictatorships to a democracy that will inspire the united states constitution.

this is the birthplace of democracy. ♪ ♪ narrator: how do native americans go from ancient explorers to the founders of america's first democracy? ♪ ♪ (birds chirping) (flute playing) at the intersection of modern scholarship and native knowledge is a new vision of america and the people who built it. this is "native america." announcer: native america was made possible in part by a grant from anne ray foundation and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. (birds chirping)

narrator: this is the birthplace of american democracy. (man speaking native language) not boston, philadelphia, or washington, dc, but here, at onondaga lake in syracuse, new york. (man continues speaking) ♪ ♪ on these shores, native americans build villages of longhouses. ♪ ♪ in one great longhouse, five tribes come together to put an end to war. ♪ ♪ around the year 1150, 600 years before the declaration of independence, they form america's first democracy. their government will inspire the revolutionaries who create the united states. thomas jefferson and benjamin franklin had no idea of what democracy is

till they came here. narrator: in the 1740s, benjamin franklin prints speeches from one of their leaders, canassatego, who encourages democracy for the colonists. their chiefs advise the founding fathers at one of their first meetings. and the newly independent united states adopts a 13-arrow bundle into its official seal, echoing the native americans' five arrows that symbolize strength through unity. (men chanting) their descendants still live in upstate new york as a sovereign nation, with their own passports and government. ♪ ♪ they are the world's oldest continuous democracy. sid hill: so we try to educate people who we are. narrator: sid hill is their chief of chiefs. his people are commonly known as the iroquois,

but that's a french name. hill: the name that we call ourselves is the haudenosaunee, people of the longhouse. narrator: the haudenosaunee story of creating the first american democracy is encoded in this, a tapestry of sacred shell beads called a wampum belt. hill: if you look at the structure of it, it's very basic, it's very plain. it represents our way of keeping records. it's our history book. narrator: this one is known as the hiawatha belt. since 1900, it has been in the hands of the state of new york. the tribe fought to get it back, and today, for the first time in over a hundred years, it returns to onondaga lake. ♪ ♪ porter: if you hold it like this, you see how heavy.

see? oh, heavy. ♪ ♪ whenever you touch this belt, you're greeting your ancestors. narrator: tom porter is a mohawk spiritual leader. our great-great-grandfather and great-great-grandmother made this belt, and they made it so that we won't never forget what they did, the law they made. (woman singing in native language) narrator: the hiawatha belt tells the story of a prophet of peace who arrives in a white stone canoe: a grieving warrior named hiawatha, who has to choose between bloody vengeance or a message of peace... (woman singing in native language) and a powerful clan mother who must overcome an evil warlord. (fire crackling)

together, they establish america's first democracy. ♪ ♪ haudenosaunee democracy grows out of a long history of people living on this land. ♪ ♪ more than 13,000 years ago, small groups of hunter-gatherers spread out quickly across the virgin continent. (wind whipping) they develop both a scientific understanding of the cycles of the earth, sun, and stars and a spiritual connection to nature-- earth, sky, water, and all living things. (birds chirping) ♪ ♪ by the time europeans arrive in 1492,

native americans number a hundred million people. they live in diverse societies... (chanting) ...from nomadic tribes to monumental kingdoms, from dictatorships to democracies. ♪ ♪ how do native americans draw inspiration from the natural world to create great nations? ♪ ♪ a continent away from onondaga lake, in the andes mountains of northern peru, thousands of people take part in a revolutionary social experiment. ♪ ♪ this is chavin de huantar,

one of native america's very first nations. john rick: the temple constructions of chavin is what i would call the building of a whole new world. narrator: chavin has one of america's first monumental structures built of stone, dating back to 1300 bce. chavin is only about the size of two football fields, but projects influence over an area the size of california. rick: okay. narrator: archaeologist john rick sees this community as a tipping point in america's history. rick: they're using new technologies. cut stone is particularly prominent at chavin. people are working granite in ways that people haven't before this time period. ♪ ♪ narrator: at the center of chavin is a flat-topped pyramid temple.

the rituals performed here would draw in tens of thousands of people from across the andes. how can this temple lay the foundation of one of america's first nations? la vista es magnifico. narrator: part of the answer lies beneath the temple in a mysterious maze of tunnels. ♪ ♪ down here, priests would conduct rituals evoking the supernatural. rick: chavin has this emphasis on underground space. the tunnels have multiple-level staircases leading between them and channels that lead from the interior space to the outside world.

narrator: along the walls are channels leading to the surface. they bring air in, but they also carry something out. (flute begins playing) music. (flute continues) tito la rossa is an indigenous andean musician and master of ancient instruments. he's working with john to test the acoustics in the tunnels. tito has bught instruments similar to those excavated at chavin-- flutes carved from bone. (plays notes) whistles carved from stone. (plays notes) and a conch shell trumpet.

(trumpets loudly) (conversing in spanish) (trumpeting) la rossa: narrator: the sound of the conch shell is central to one of chavin's most important rituals. at the heart of the underground maze stands a carved statue called the lanzon. it is a representation of chavin's supreme deity, part human, part jaguar. (trumpet plays loudly) the sound of the conch shell mimics its call.

rick: the lanzon figure is a transformed human being or a deity. it's human with power animals. they're saying, "we're built of this. "we're descended from it. "we're intrinsically related to it, and we're going to remind you of it all the time." narrator: only a few prileged people can fit in the underground lanzon chamber to see the deity. but above ground, thousands of worshippers may have been able to hear it in a large circular plaza. rick: okay, so we probably want to come up to this step. yeah, then get it aimed right... rick: the lanzon is directly in line with the circular plaza. that's not arbitra. narrator: john wants to see if the channels can carry the sound of the conch shell from deep below, in the lanzon chamber, to the temple's exterior plaza.

okay, tito, let it blast. (trumpets loudly) rick: wow. that's coming through, coming through. yeah, it's really... it's real clear. (trumpet continues) woman: the way it spreads all around the plaza is incredible. it's very strong. narrator: the conch shell can be heard clearly in the courtyard. (trumpeting begins again) and it comes through twice as loud as any other sounds. rick: we don't hear any of the voices. all we hear is the sound of the trumpet. narrator: this temple is a 3,000-year-old noise-cancelling, surround-sound amplifier. it allows masses of people to share in chavin's rituals.

rick: it wasn't all or nothing-- you either got into the lanzon chamber or you didn't-- but rather there are these different levels of distance that people might have been at from the lanzon. narrator: distance from the lanzon creates a hierarchy of power. the elite prsts are in the chamber. everyone else is outside. ♪ ♪ but through sound, they all participate in shared rituals. rick: chavin is part of something that's going on throughout many areas of the new world, this development of sociocultural complexity, of leadership and authority. people saying, "we are not all created equal." they are establishing common ideas about what differentiates humans beings

and why some are more in a position to command than others. narrator: the priests of chavin create a shared experience ceered on powerful sounds and symbols from the natural world. ♪ ♪ it transforms priests into leaders and people into citizens. chavin isn't just the architecture of a temple, it's the foundation of a government. ♪ ♪ (grunting) (chanting) (exhales sharply) across the americas, rituals based on symbols from the natural world

bind communities and have the power to unite people into nations. (drumming and chanting) for the haudenosaunee in northeast america, that symbol is the shell of the wampum belt. maracle: what you're going to do is add three, put on the other purple. narrator: ken maracle, a haudenosaunee wampum belt maker, is passing on the tradition. here you go. (clears throat) maracle: we all have gifts. we're not put here for nothing. some day you'll find that. when you start growing, you'll find things. it's like the light turns on. narrator: ken and his protégés are making a replica of an ancient belt. maracle: just keep on pulling it right through. yeah, like that. wampum beads are very delicate. they'll break easy. and you may get frustrated.

♪ ♪ but when you put them together, they're strong. they all support one and other. just like when we put all our people and all our nations together, they're strong. narrator: they're using glass beads, but the original is made from shells. the word "wampum" means "white shell beads." they weave together rows of the strung beads on a loom. the patterns create meaning. maracle: wampum is a way of portraying words that we put into the wampum. there is a story behind that. it's part of our history is right in there. narrator: the hiawatha belt tells the story of the haudenosaunee's legendary founding and wampum's power to heal.

♪ ♪ before the haudenosaunee create their democracy, they were five warring tribes living in an area of what is now upstate new york-- the seneca, cayuga, onondaga, oneida, and mohawk. maracle: we were in turmoil. we were covered in darkness, so the peacemaker was sent by the creator to stop this. ♪ ♪ narrator: the color of the wampum beads in the hiawatha belt represents this period of war. g. peter jemison: the purple represents the time period of loss and of grief when this warfare was taking place constantly within our confederacy. narrator: the story recorded in this belt begins in the midst of these wars. (woman singing in native language) tells of a warrior named hiawatha

who meets a prophet known as the peacemaker. (wind blows, woman singing) man (speaking native language): (fires crackling) (distant echoing) (waves crashing, birds calling) ♪ ♪ jemison: the story goes that he came up with a way of helping a person who is in grief by using this wampum to clear their eyes,

open their ears, clear their throat so they could speak clearly. ♪ ♪ narrator: usg the purity of shells to bring a person to a clear state of mind is called the condolence ceremony. ♪ ♪ it was invented by hiawatha, and the haudenosaunee still practice it today. hill: those wampum beads are very sacred, very spiritual. they're alive, and you treat them as such. and that's what gives them that power of importance to our people. ♪ ♪ narrator: that pow also comes from the origin of the beads, how they are collected and shaped by human hands. ♪ ♪ marcus hendricks makes wampum beads. he is a member of the mashpee wampanoag.

♪ ♪ the haudenosaunee acquired wampum beads from his people and other atlantic coastal communities. wampanoag means "people of the first light" or "people of the dawn." they witness the first horizon of the sun coming up. ♪ ♪ narrator: the first step to making wampu is gathering shellfish in his ancestral waters off cape cod. hendricks: when i come out onto the water, there's a connection to my ancestors... a relationship that goes through my blood and my veins. narrator: the shells of quahog are the raw material for wampum. ♪ ♪

hendricks: you want to look for a good thickness in a quahog. ♪ ♪ narrator: the fire is both the first step in a gratitude offering and prepares the quahog to be opened. hendricks: i was taught really young to take the time to give thas and say a few prayers to the creator. we do that any time we're harvesting anything from mother earth. narrator: marcus uses traditional methods to transform the shell into wpum beads, refining raw shell until it can be strung together into a wampum belt. (tapping) hendricks: each bead took a lot of hours and a lot of manpower. each strand probably would have taken a year to make.

narrator: when strung into a belt, wampum empowers the person holding it as a representative of their people. (woman singing in native language) hendricks: they were made for ceremonies to depict stories and treaties between tribes. (woman singing in native language) so if i was to go visit another nation, i would bring the belt tohow that there's a close bond between... between the nations. ♪ ♪ narrator: the wampum belt acts as a treaty. the wampanoag, haudenosaunee, and other native peoples of the northeast use wampum to hold memories and create bonds between nations. ♪ ♪

in the pacific northwest, memories and ties that bind are embodied in one of native america's most iconic structures: totem poles. (distant humming) like wampum belts, totem poles record the history of war, kinship, and leaders. (man singing in native language) but totem les are often misunderstood. alan hunt: you know, the saying "low man on the totem pole" doesn't really equate at all. they're just about all as equally as important as the next guy, and, you know, the guy on the bottom is supporting everything else above him, so it actuallyeems a little backwards. ♪ ♪ narrator: the power of the pole comes from the cedar tree. cedar is central to the lives of the native peoples

of the northwest. it is used to make clothing, storage chests, and ceremonial masks. ♪ ♪ for kwakwaka'wakw carvers alan hunt and beau dick, cedar is a portal to the past. dick: there is a certain relationship that our people have with the cedar tree. (hammering) it reconnects us with our ancestors, with our story, with our identity, and it's just really sacred to us. (scraping wood) each grain is a year, and you become sensitized to it the more you work it. you feel it cutting through each year in time. my grandfather did that.

my great-grandfather did that. my great-great-great-grandfather did that. they all did it. i'm following their footsteps. and that's really personal. and we share that. we're following what was provided by our ancestors and the relationship that they had with the creator. (sanding) narrator: alan and beau are carving a moon mask. it's one of the many important figures in the kwakwaka'wakw origin story. dick: our history goes back to the beginning of time when raven first brought light to the world. (scraping wood) narrator: cedar also immortalizes the legacy of leaders. and, one day, artists may carve images that represent alan hunt, for he is about to become a chief.

(drumming) final preparations are being made in the fort rupert big house on vancouver island. kwakwaka'wakw chiefs are named through either the mother or the father's line. alan will replace his grandfather as chief in a ceremony called a potlatch. (men singing in native language) alan hunt: all of my mentor chiefs kept telling me, you know, "take a deep breath, we've all been through it. it's going to come together." and now here it is, it's coming together, and it's going to be all right and i'm breathing deeply here. (drumming, singing) it's just a wonderful moment for us as a family to witness. (drummg, singing) narrator: for centuries, potlatches have honored births,

deaths, weddings, and new chiefs. ♪ ♪ alan hunt: this is the way that we kept history, you know, is the passing of names and dances and all the stories from the beginning of time. narrator: the potlatch ceremony is like a living totem pole, illustrating the nation's heritage. (drumming, singing) it starts with a series of sacred dances depicting ancestral stories. (drumming, singing) (drumming, singing) ♪ ♪ everyone in the room receives a cedar crown.

(people talking quietly) ryan: the reason that we wear them at the feast is to protect us as guests and also the host from evil spirits so that everything goes well. (people talking quietly) (fire crackling) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ (man speaking native language) narrator: alan's uncle places a cedar headpiece on him, anointing alan a new chief.

(man speaking native language) alan hunt: there's a certain pressure in knowing that you're going to become chief. i am taking on the responsibility of holding up my tribe and to provide for them, and make sure that our culture doesn't die. ♪ ♪ terena hunt: i'm honored-- (crying): sorry-- to be his mom. and i'm proud. (man speaking in native language) (drumming and chanting) ♪ ♪ dick: there's something really magical that comes into play when the host is humble and not pinned to this idea of chieftainship as being prestige.

and it's not an easy thing. it's a hea load. (drumming and chanting) alan hunt: from the moment that they put the cedar ring on me, it was an electric moment, to feel so connected with such an old history. you know, the baton's been passed to me and now it's my job to carry it well and pass it on to my children. (drumming and chanting) ♪ ♪ narrator: cedar-- in ceremonies and carvings-- documents the past, celebrates leadership, and provides a path to the future by passing on ancient traditions to a new generation. ♪ ♪ dick: without the ability to create masks, to perform in our ceremonies...

without that, our people can't survive. so much of our survival came from this tree and our connection to the forest. (birds calling) through that one tree. ♪ ♪ narrator: kwakwaka'wakw history is rooted in the majestic cedar. (corn stalks rustling) for the haudenosaunee, ideals of government are embodied in a tiny plant: corn. (husk cracking) today, the haudenosaunee are beginning their harvest. the crew is led by angie ferguson. she's on a mission to keep the food of her ancestors alive and the health of her nation strong. ferguson: through colonization, we grew away from eating what our bodies were accustomed to, and not only are those foods

part of our health and nutrition, but those are part of our spiritualntities that keep us who we are. narrator: angie is returning to traditional seeds and farming methods developed over thousands of years. ferguson: in a lot of our teachings, food is at the basis of the entire haudenosaunee community. ♪ ♪ narrator: for the haudenosaunee, corn is more than a crop. it's a teacher. roger cook was taught one of its most important lessons by his grandfather: when making decisions, always look to the seventh generation. cook: all the things that we do in the garden, we're always thinking about that seventh generation. it's a lot of hard work to put into the corn so that our children that we don't even know yet,

our grandchildren, will have this. that's how far ahead we have to look. narrator: haudenosaunee ancestors didn't simply focus on feeding themselves and their children. they planned centuries ahead. ♪ ♪ it's a strategy that changed the world. 10,000 years ago, there was no corn-- only a tiny weed called teosinte. over hundreds of generations of careful observation and seed selection, it was developed into corn. and that's only the beginning. native americans feed a population of 100 million people by developing new foods from wild plants. (digging) the potato, the tomato, peanuts, chocolate,

and dozens of varieties of beans and squash. today, these crops provide 60 percent of the world's grown food. but for native america, corn is king. ♪ ♪ it's the power behind one of the ancient world's most advanced societies: the maya. from 250 to 900, maya city-states thrive across what is now southern mexico, guatemala, and honduras. ♪ ♪ the maya invent their own system of writing, which records the emergence of a new kind of leader: a divine king. one maya king ranks among the longest-reigning monarchs in the world:

king pakal, who ruled for 68 years. ♪ ♪ art historian mary miller has come to his capital city in search of the key to his success. this is palenque, in what is now chiapas, mexico. miller: architects and artists came here and made things of extraordinary wonder and imagination, and we wonder at them today, as well. (crickets chirping) it was a kind of magical place. narrator: palenque is surrounded by some of the best soil in the region. the corn, or maize, thatrows here brings prosperity to the city.

buto king pakal, maize brings much more: immortality. pakal uses his riches to construct the temple of the inscriptions, a monumental tomb. miller: pakal created the most remarkable funerary monument to himself that any maya king ever built. ♪ ♪ when he died, he was placed into a sarcophagus and royally dressed in jades. narrator: steps within the temple lead down to pakal's final resting place. perfectly intact for over a thousand years, inside is the largest maya sarcophagus ever found. the lid is carved with images connecting king pakal to the maize god.

miller: we see the great king depicted as the maize god being reborn. in his death, maize will eternally return to palenque. narrator: pakal associates his own birth and death to corn's cycles of planting and harvesting. he assures his people that as the maize god, he will return in a never-ending cycle of birth, death, and resurrection, and with each cycle, provide sustenance for his nation. pakal takes a simple crop and elevates it to a religion. miller: at the hea, the most fundamental notion is that man is maize, and as the maize plant flourishes each year, so too does humanity. (insects and birds chirping)

narrator: corn has the power to build a kingdom for the maya. for the haudenosaunee, corn will build a democracy. ♪ ♪ the inspiration is an ancient farming method called dioheka, or the three sisters. ferguson: our three sisters, the corn, beans, and the squash, are all meant to grow together to help each other out. narrator: planted together, the three sisters are a farming miracle. corn strips soil of nitrogen, but bean roots balance this by replenishing nitrogen. and the broad prickly leaves of the squash plant reduce weeds and deter pests. when consumed together, corn, beans, and squash

provide all the essential nutrients for a healthy diet. ♪ ♪ the three sisters is a model for community organizing. (corn rustling) ferguson: in our communities, you need people that can stand tall like the corn, and they need people to assist and hold them up, like the beans. and you have your squash that's laying down to protect everything. ♪ ♪ it's something that's opening our eyes to see what our ancestor was trying to show us. naator: the haudenosaunee adopt the three sisters' cooperative approach in nature to a cooperative approach in governance. (birds calling) this principle is expressed in the structure that defines their very identity: the longhouse.

pete jemison ian elder from the seneca people. jemison: the haudenosaunee, what that translates to is that our people built an extended house, and when we're talking about this house that they built, it's not just the longhouse that we actually live in. it is the idea that each of the nations take up the issues that are confronting the community, and they try to come up with solutions. ♪ ♪ narrator: leaders from the warring tribes come together in a longhouse and form the grand council of chiefs. ♪ ♪ it is america's first democratic legislature. inspired by hiawatha and the peacemaker, the council votes to end war among their nations. man (speaking native language):

(waterfall churning) (men fighting and yelling) ♪ ♪ (fire crackling) (moaning and roaring) ♪ ♪ porter: he was a sorcerer. he had supernatural powers. he could communicate with the birds and rattlesnakes and wolves and the animal world, and they would help him. he was a mean, mean man. his name was tadodaho. ♪ ♪

narrator: to convince tadodaho to join the new confederacy, hiawatha and the peacemaker seek a powerful ally. a woman named jigonhsasee. virginia abrams: jigonhsasee was the first clan mother. she helped bring peace to the iroquois, to the haudenosaunee. narrator: virginia abrams is a clan mother, a title first established by jigonhsasee. (corn rustling) like palenque's king pakal, jigonhsasee's influence comes from corn. abrams: when the nations were warring against each other, she would take them in and feed them. and she kind of kept the war going on, so the peacemaker came to her and asked her

to refrain from keeping this warring goi on between our people. narrator: jigonhsasee's stockpile of corn perpetuates the bloodshed by feeding the warriors. the peacemaker strikes a deal with her. (roaring) if she can stop the war, she can choose the chiefs. (fire crackling) man (speaking native language): ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ narrator: jigonhsasee transforms tadodaho's mind

and he abandons war. because of jigonhsasee, clan mothers hold the power to appoint or dismiss chiefs. jemison: she earned for our women the rights, the responsibilities, and the privileges that they have until this day. (fire crackling) narrator: and tadodaho, in exchange for accepting peace, is appointed the keeper of the central fire and chief of chiefs, the most powerful leader. ♪ ♪ his name becomes a title that is handed down to this day. when our longhouses come together, these are the fires he's talking about. narrator: sid hill is now tadodaho. he sees an important lesson in memorializing the name of this once-vicious warlord. hill: people can change with help if they're going down the wrong path. there's always hope through people helping them and showing them

there's better things you can do with your life than being destructive and evil and negative. narrator: with the final obstacle overcome, the peacemaker assembles representatives of each nation. man (speaking native language): (fire crackling) narrator: from the time of the peacemaker to today, the tradition of making wampum belts lives on. a new generation is being entrusted with the story of democracy encoded in the hiawatha belt. maracle: your thoughts and energy, that's the strength of that belt. porter: one day, you're going to get old and then you're the one that's going to have to transmit

all of this knowledge, what it means, to your grandkids. maracle: at the beginning of the confederacy, the peacemaker made the symbol. it's our connection to each other. when i hold this hiawatha belt, what it means to me is that we're a united nation. ♪ ♪ narrator: under a total eclipse of the sun, the peacemaker holds the newly woven hiawatha belt, and with the nations gathered beneath the tree of peace, he speaks the law of peace for the first time. man (speaking native language): (roots pulling loose) ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ narrator: the reading of the great law anthe weaving of the hiawatha belt establish the haudenosaunee confederacy. it's a form of government that doesn't rule people, but rather serves people. it's this principle that inspires benjamin franklin and other framers of the constitution to create their own government of the people, by the people, and for the people. in 1988, the u.s. senate passed a special resolution recognizing the influence of the haudenosaunee democracy

on the u.s. constitution. the council of chiefs meeting in the longhouse is similar to congress. tadodaho parallels the presidency. and the clan mothers are like justices on the supreme court. they, too, serve for life, but have an additional power. clan mothers can choose and impeach the chiefs. it is a three-branch system of government that looks strikingly familiar. 600 years before the united states, the haudenosaunee independently establish the first democracy in america. ♪ ♪ woman: hi! good to see you.

(people talking indistinctly) narrator: today, the haudenosaunee gather on the shore of lake onondaga, the place where their journey from war to peace began. all the leaders would work together to come up with a solution. narrator: they build their confederacy based onrofound lessons and symbols from nature. mother earth never lacked nothing. they had a perfect world. narrator: but like a treaty between nations, they believe they owe nature something in return, to take care of all living things. porter: water and air and all the natural things that make the world that we live in is held sacred by all indigenous people, and every human being comes from an indigenous people. (man speaking native language) narrator: this ceremony is an appeal to honor that responsibility to nature. for onondaga lake, the birthplace of democracy in america,

is among the world's most polluted. hill: everybody's concerned these days about the condition of the waters, the condition of mother earth. it's a concern throughout the world. that was put there for everybody to use and nobody has the right to take that away from anybody. porter: it's not just the water. it's not just made out of chemical elements. it's real. it's our lifeblood. narrator: over 200 years ago, the framers of the u.s. constitution learn lessons of governance from the haudenosaunee. but the founding fathers leave out a core principle: people have a responsibility to take care of the earth. (quacking) native america's profound respect for nature is relevant now as much as eve porter: creator,

we who are your children says thank you for this miraculous gathering and this beautiful day that you gave us today. creator, with love, we say thank you. and our mind is agreed. ♪ ♪ narrator: the first nations of the americas have their foundation in sacred natural symbols. (conch horn trumpets) in chavin, priests use the jaguar to gather people into a nation. ♪ ♪ in central america, corn builds vast kingdoms. ♪ ♪ in the atlantic northeast, shell wampum unites nations. and in the pacific northwest, cedar tablishes and maintains a national identity. (drums and chanting) building on lessons from nature, native americans create some of the greatest nations on earth.

♪ ♪ native america is available on dvd to order visit shop.pbs.org or call 1-800-play-pbs also available for download on itunes. announcer: native america was made possible in part by a grant from anne ray foundation and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪♪ you're watching pbs. ♪♪

it's not been rubbed or worn. these can be somewhat confusing. often, patinated bronze figures that have been highly polished resemble this glowing, illuminating tone. so at times, one can misidentify a gilt-bronze as one that's been overly cleaned or polished. but the gilding's in very good condition. this is from a school of 33 multi-armed deities. and these represent the bodhisattva of compassion. the plethora, or multitude of arms, originate in indian buddhism,

but were incorporated by the chinese. at times, these buddhas are referred to as the thousand-armed buddhas. and the multitude of arms are to represent the many ways that this buddha of compassion will direct, assist, and attempt to guide humanity towards enlightenment. this is from the 17th century. wow. circa 1650. it's in wonderful condition for a bronze from the 17th century. we are missing a few attributes. you're usually missing a few fingers. they usually exhibit some wear. this is a deity, so this would have been ised on a lotus base, likely double lotus base. so it's fit securely into the base. more than 50% of these multi-armed bodhisattvas that are sold in the marketplace are missing the lotus base. the lotus base does add a lot of value for that reason. this is a wonderful object, wonderful casting. the quality is wonderful. the eyes are strong.

the nose is strong. the polychrome to the mouth is still present. there are red lips. the quality of the hands... when you look at a bronze, chinese bronze, the hands tell you a great deal. so this is a very, very good bronze. the work to the jeweled chest, these are jewels to a chest, and this is wonderful lotus banding to the robe. very good quality. i'll turn the bronze around, and we'll see the back. there is a corrosive pigment, because there's discoloration in the recesses. someone may have cleaned it at some point. you also see cleaning solution and/or corrosive pigment to the front. and you should have that cleaned and stabilized. speaking to value in a retail setting, this would be $40,000. wow. i had no idea. absolutely no idea. that is fabulous. if this did have the original double lotus base, it would probably have a value of about $150,000. appraiser: a few years ago, yocould buy this, and it was, you could afford to restore them.

what's that? what would it be worth restored? restored? it would cost $1,000 to restore it, or $1,200, and it'd be worth about $1,000, as well, probably. oh, okay, so you're not... 30 years ago, he used to come to toy shows, and i'd meet the real buddy "l." appraiser: nice, stylized painting, mid-century, sort of a modernist view. but in all likelihood, it's probably not an artist that we're going to have any biographical information about, or probably not somebody that would have exhibited much that we'll drum up any information about. it might have been more of a hobbyist, but i like it for the look of it. where did you get this great vase? i got it from my great-great-great-aunt. she lived all over the world and would bring home beautiful things like this. i've always been told that it was a chinese chippendale vase. but i really wanted to know, so... okay, sure. i have two-- i have a pair. oh, you have a pair, okay. i have another one just like this. sure, sure. they're not... a pair is better.

well, i didn't want-- in that sack? too heavy to bring both of them, huh? yeah. yeah. well, actually, it's not chinese. it's actually made in france. mid-1800s. but it certainly has these wonderful hand-painted chinese figures and the chinese butterfly and so forth on it. at one time, everyone called this old paris porcelain, or paris porcelain. yes, i'm familiar with that. which is a misnomer, actually, because this type of thing, much of it was actually made in the city of limoges, and in that area. right. now, it might have been made in limoges, and then shipped to paris to be hand-painted. we don't know. a single might sell in the $500-$600 range. but a pair is better. so if you have a pair in the same condition, probably between $1,200 and $1,800. right. because of the wonderful hand-painting, the great color-- it's all about the color... yes. and the decorative appeal. right. and when this was new, in the mid-1800s, it was a very expensive luxury item. right. only affluent, wealthy people could have afforded to buy something like this, of this quality.

walberg: in 1896, the length of the kentucky derby was shortened from one-and-a-half-miles to one-and-a-quarter-miles long to get better performances from the three-year-old horses racing in the cool spring weather. ben brush, a colt, was the first to race the new distance and win, and the first to receive a garland of roses. the rose is the official flower of churchill downs. the box is inscribed to rose mary woods, "with appreciation, 1964," and the signature's from dick nixon. uh-huh. she was famous for missing tape in the watergate investigation. she was personal secretary to richard nixon through his entire career. he had been in an election in 1952, and it was, eisenhower and nixon ran and eisenhower won from 1952 through one term and the second term, then ike was out of office, and so he ran against john f. kennedy in another election. what's great about rose mary woods is that he hired her in 1951.

fast-forward, he loseso kennedy and she sticks with him. he idles until 1968 and he wins the presidency. so she's the presidential secretary. that goes well for a few years, and then watergate hits. 1972 to 1973 is when that all kind of came down on the country. richard nixon had the tapes from his office, and supposedly during this investigation, she testified that she had accidentally recorded over five minutes of the tape. her claim was that she hit a foot pedal on the recording machine and it recorded over. some people claim that her foot-- that would be quite a long stretch to reach out and hold that for five minutes. and it's got a silver hallmark on the bottom. it's a very finely crafted silver box. not quite sure if it's a cigarette box or, you know, a keepsake box of some sort. have you ever had anybody authenticate it? well, all i can tell you is i bought it from an antique shop here in louisville. mm-hmm. and when i first saw it,

i thought it might be a reproduction. but what changed my mind was when the owner of the antique shop took me to his back room and showed me a mink stole that had her name in it. it convinced me that yes, this was an authentic item. how much did you pay for it? i paid $400. okay, i believe it's worth from $6,000 to $8,000 at auction. wow, that's great. mm-hmm. woman: back in 1995, we cleaned my aunt's house out and i found it buried amongst other items. uh-huh. old box. very surprised to find a fle inside. no one i know of in the family ever played it. and it just was very interesting to me. so i held on to it i wonder if at one point, she had some boarders that were there, like exchange students. uh-huh. and maybe it was belonging to one of them. and where was this? it's in antioch, tennessee. it's a haynes flute. haynes is one of the top-of-the-line

flute manufacturing companies. and this is a silver flute. it has what we call a c foot, and it's also what we call a closed-hole. so where you put your fingers down... mm-hmm. some of them were what weall open-hole and some are closed-hole. and from the serial number, we can ascertain that this was made in 1922. ooh! these were made in boston. this was a professional-quality flute, and they are still professional-quality flutes today. this is the brand of flute that jean-pierre rampal would play. to make this in good playable condition, again, it would need to be reconditioned. it's fairly mple to do, and many people send them back to the factory. the factory's still making instruments today. just because it needs to be reconditioned, and this type of flute, and with this age flute, would have a current retail value as is... mm-hmm. around $1,500. that's not b! (chuckles) no. if this flute were in reconditioned condition, ready to play, it would have a retail value of $2,000.

three little kittens lost their mittens. this one got all the milk. (laughs) you're looking at 1950s. some are a little bit later. this here is a very typical sapphire diamond line bracelet, 1925, 1930. this bracelet's, you know, it's got a little bit more going on, it's fancier. whose ring is this? it was my mother-in-law's. i have it now, so... oh, it's yours now. yeah. all right. woman: this is a letter from my husband's great-great-great grandfather to his wife at the end of the civil war. and it's come down through the family. that's great. and it's a good one to keep, because he is about 35 miles from lynchburg, viinia, on april 9, 1865, which is the day that general lee surrendered the army of northern virginia. obviously, the war goes on for a little while longer, but for him, this is the end of the war.

i would say at auction, i would put an estimate of $300 to $500 on it. okay! it's a great letter. i'm glad we kept it. i'm glad you did, too. yes. woman: it belonged to my great-grandmother, and she lived in north brookfield, and attended the event with my grandmother, and kept everything. and i thought, "well, this is special." and i thought, "this is what i'll bring to the roadshow." and you did, and you've got the program, and you've got the tickets here. and we have a bonus. yeah. if you flip this over, you see the signatures of connie mack and the hard-to-read signature here of george m. cohan. right, right. so what did they remember from the day? just that north brookfield is a very small, little village town, and it became 6,000-strong. everybody came from all around.

they had a band. they had parades. and just the red, white, and blue banners everywhere, and it was so festive. and why were they celebrating connie mack that day? because of the fact that they all played baseball on that small field as young boys. and he's so famous in, in all of new england, but especially living in and born in east brookfield, but coming to play ball. and getting george m. cohan-- they called him "little georgie"-- to come on the field and play, yeah. (laughs) well, you know, i find it fascinating, seeing the signatures here, that we think about entertainers and sports figures being friends today. you see that a lot. but they've had a huge history of that. and george m. cohan and connie mack are, are no different than that. connie mack, of course, one of the greatest baseball managers of all time. yes. he grew up in east brookfield. (laughs) and then you have george m. cohan, who was best known as one of the greatest entertainers and composers on broadway. correct, yeah. he created "yankee doodle dandy." yeah.

made famous by james cagney, exactly. jimmy-- yeah. who won the oscar for that performance. yes, yes, yup. both: ♪ i'm a yankee doodle dandy ♪ exactly. so george m. cohan loved the part of east brookfield where he used to spend his summers. do you know what it was called? podunk. (laughing): oh, of course, podunk, yes. it was a small village. yeah, yes. he loved it. and i can't emphasize this enough, he loved podunk, but he also called the folks at podunk hayseed hicks. (laughing) and when he went to broadway, and he was producing and being in vaudeville and producing his plays, he would often use characters that came from "podunk..." podunk. and that's where they were. and these entertainers picked up on it, and podunk went into the vernacular as a small, dull town. oh, yeah. yup. we all use "podunk." everybody, and my cousin actually lives on podunk road in east brookfield. (laughs) so do they say they're from podunk? yes, very proudly!

well, so, we have this fantastic program. we have this wonderful history, and the value of the two of them together signing this program for connie mack's day, and the tickets on there, look, i would tell you, i would probably insure it for around $1,500. wow, that's exciting, thank you. fantastic! (laughs) well, and i gotta tell you, that's no podunk value. no, it isn't, it isn't. that's very exciting. (people talking in background) i don't believe this would be signed. you know, it's the type of painting that's an old master painting, which invariably aren't signed, so, but... it's a decent work. but it's just suffered too much through all the years. okay. what is that? woman: i don't know. i mean, i think it's, like, an old musical instrument of some kind, but i don't really know. okay. well, we have a couple

of old musical instrument people here, so they should know about that stuff, okay? great. man: so my grandmother, who came here from portugal, gave it to my mother, and my mother gave it to me before she passed about ten years or so ago. appraiser: all right. so it's been in the family for at least 60, 70 years. now, there's a name on there, "fall river." is that where your family was from? fall river, yeah. we settled into fall river back in the 1910 era. well, there's a lot of history between massachusetts and tea. (laughs): oh, yeah, there is. and it kind of goes back to england, where this teapot comes from. oh, okay. it's what we call bargeware, and bargeware is very distinctive. it typically has this rich, brown, chocolaty rockingham glaze, we call it. and then it's punctuated with these very colorful applied, mostly flowers, and other things. and bargeware is very typically either dated or inscribed with the name of someone. it's called bargeware

because it was popular with people who lived on and operated narrow boats, the barges that operated the canals. and much of it was made in the county of leicestershire in england, near a little town called measham. so it's sometimes called meashamware. if you didn't know that fall river was in massachusetts, you might think it was somewhere in the british isles. but here it tells us "north america." and i spoke to some of my colleagues-- none of us had ever seen a piece of bargeware with a north american reference before. if it wasn't of north american interest, it might be worth $150 or $200. mm-hmm. but it isn't. it's got that twist to it. so, again, we thought about it. and i'm going to give you a value that i think is fair for replacement or insurance. okay. that's $2,000. wow. great thing.

wow. well, that's great news. thank you very much for that insight on it ♪ ♪ walberg: in the racetrack's infancy, it would have been indecent for a woman to attend a race without a hat. now, it's a tradition and spectacle. with over 100,000 guests attending the race on any given kentucky derby day, that's a lot of fancy hats. ♪ ♪ man: my great-great-grandmother lived in mineral point, wisconsin, in the late 1800s. they moved to chicago, and they were a pretty well-to-do family. then they lost everything they had in the great depression. they didn't lose this. no. and you don't know at all how the damage occurred over all those years. no, i don't. so this is a tiffany chamber stick. the bronze is a little bit as is, but not enough to really hurt the value. so we want to talk about what hurts the value.

the shades are tiffany opalescent glass. so one of them is chipped, and one isn't. what i'd like to do, if you could help me, is to unscrew the screws. sure. and take these shades out so we can see the perfect one and see the damaged one. and they just lift out. and i, i-- i have-- i'm the winner. i have the damaged one. (chuckles) so this is your fitter rim. okay. and yours should be perfect. we're going to turn this over, and we have the tiffany studios mark right here with the number 5640. and that's a pattern number. these are circa 1905. circa... now, if we'll put this back down. great. and if you could carefully put your little end in. you've done this a few times, i know. sure. and even though we're missing one screw on the one i'm doing,

it still holds it tight enough, but you definitely want to replace the screw. okay. the bottom parts are bobeches. and they hold blown tiffany glass in there. so when we get talking about damage on important pieces, we have to get down to the nitty-gritty of damage. you can see that this particular bobeche has cracks and chunks out of it. right. it happens to be one of the most difficult restorations you can find on a piece. okay. about all you could do is find a new bobeche. not an easy task. what happens to value when these things occur? in the condition that this is in, in a fine retail establishment, you would find this in a range of $3,000 to $4,000.

wow, that's, that's... that's pretty good for all that damage. that's very good. yes, it is. if it's possible to find a bobeche, now your piece would be worth $12,000. it's just pretty. woman: it's pretty? tell me again what it is. corner clock shelf, but he told us it was just a corner shelf. woman: corner shelf. how much is it worth? $150-ish. (quietly): i paid $100 for it. and we had great fun. woman: i've frequented the thrift stores over the years, and back in what i think was the mid to late '80s... (laughing): i went to the fine arts department at the thrift store. okay. and i found this piece. and i've always loved it and have just kind of taken it from house to house. okay. now the big question: what did you pay for it? $2.52. $2.50. okay. and do you know who it's by? no.

i've never been able to read the signature. so i've always just enjoyed it. the signature is up here, it's a little indistinct. uh-huh. but this is by an artist called earl kerkam. k-e-r-k-a-m. now, he was a very successful, well-paid commercial artist who gave it all up to become a fine artist. uh-huh. and he studied in new york at the art students league, amongst other places. went to paris, exhibited with andré derain, who was one of the leading fauves, came back in the 1930s, and really committed himself to becoming a painter. this is unusual for him. he didn't do too many still-lifes. he tended to do more self-portraits and figurative paintings. oh, uh-huh. it's oil on board. but when we look at these lines, these are actually drawn in with crayon, on top of the oil paint. in terms of when it was painted, my guess would be around about the '40-'50s. now, although he knew people like de kooning and pollock, and worked with them in the wpa program... really! he didn't make that big leap into abstract expressionism that ty did.

he was pretty much a disciple of cézanne and cubism. so he wasn't a radical as such. he passed away in 1965. and a letter was written to the directors of the museum of modern art in new york, saying-- and i think this is verbatim-- "in our eyes, one of our finest artists to come out of america." the signatories of that letter included willem de kooning... oh, my goodness... hans hofmann... oh, my goodness... philip guston... mm-hmm. and mark rothko. mm-hmm. amongst others. so there you have the heavy hitters of abstract expressionism... my gosh, yes. saying this guy deserves a memorial exhibition in the museum of modern art. now, the market hasn't been perhaps as kind to him, but i think this is a lovely little painting. and in auction terms, i would expect you to get somewhere around about $1,500 to $2,500. okay. so two bucks and 50 well spent. (laughs) thank you. thank you. man: i got it at a cal auction near our home. appraiser: what did you pay for it? i paid about $150 for it.

did the auctioneer give you any information? he thought it was a moroccan sword, and after i purchased it, he said he thought we got a pretty good deal on the thing. all right, well, let's see if you did. first of all, this is from niger. it's tuareg, and this particular kind of sword is called takouba. and a tuareg warrior would have carried and as fine and as fancy as this is, a sword like this and a lance. this also would have been a stat symbol. it would have indicated how important he was as a warrior. and i want you to look at the silver area that's inscribed, the beautiful leather work. this is really an extraordinary thing, and this... by the way, these stones are carnelian stones. oh! so it's a great example. probably dates to the early 20th century, and at a good auction, i would expect this to be $800 to $1,200.

not bad! not bad at all. congratulations. well, thank you very much. ♪ ♪ woman: i brought my antique curly maple highboy. my husband and i collected antiques f a long time. and we had a friend who was in the business, sort of, and he got it for us. oh, really-- excellent. yeah. and what did he tell you about it? that if you collect antiques, you ought to have a highboy. well, he's certainly right. it's the cornerstone for any collection. now, did he give you any sense of how old it is or where it's from? no. but i got the feeling it was from... new england and connecticut. well, excellent. and what gave you that feeling? because that's where he got most of his antiques. most of his antiques? do you remember when you bought this? well, it was before 1964.

oh, really. yeah. any idea what you paid for it? no, i don't remember what we paid for it, but it was substantial. several thousand dollars, i'm sure of that. several thousand. when we look at a piece of furniture, we look at the form. right. did the form exist in the 18th century? and the answer is, absolutely. this relates to the queen anne period, which is something that would have been made between about 1740 to 1760. that's old. absolutely. the next question we look at is, what's it made of? was this something that would have been used in the period? it's called figured maple or tiger maple, and that is absolutely a native wood to america that's found in new england. so you are right. this is something that would have been made in new england. you've got this fabulous figured maple that draws the eye up. but there's also another element on here that's a neat decorative feature, which is this fan. yes. well, when i look at the fan, i say, "is that something that i would see

in the period?" it looks like a handheld fan, something you'd cool yourself with. and during the period, we would have expected to see a demilune fan, a semicircle with a flat bottom that runs parallel to the edge of the drawer. and the other feature about this that is a little unusual is the shape of this foot. this is what we call a trifed foot. and it's really unusual to find a trifed foot on a new england piece of furniture. so a little bit of alarm bells are starting to go off. you'd expect to see a pad foot. if i pull this drawer out, and i pull this drawer out, i want to compare the top and bottom to each other. right. and if we look at the dovetails, you'll see on the bottom drawer, there's one large dovetail. right. and up top, they're smaller. that to me says we've got an issue. it should be uniform construction throughout the case. what i think you have here is a high chest that's been married.

which cuts its value. it does cut its value. have you ever had it appraised? oh, in the early '90s, we had someone look at it for a fine arts insurance. and do you rememr what they appraised it for? no, not really. maybe $9,000, something like that. well, $9,000 would have been a pretty significant figure. but if you have what we call a married or an assembled chest, the marketplace sort of views it as just a decorative object now. right. so if i were to appraise it for insurance purposes in 1990, i probably wouldn't have put more than $1,500 to $2,000. if this were to come up at auction today, i would place a conservative auction estimate of $500 to $1,000 on it. is that all? that's it. uh-oh. well, i hope i didn't ruin your day. no, you didn't. you didn't ruin my day at all. but... you know... it's been a lovely day.

and my wife had it from her mother, and she had had themon display. we have them on display in our bookcases. they just look nice. and i was trying to find something to bring. (laughs) it's just pure looks, and that's it. they look good in our bookcase. so, yeah, frankenstrat, and it probably plays good. it does, it sounds really good. but it takes a real man to hang this on... pretty heavy. it seems this is the only strat we've seen today. you're kidding. we usually see a lot of them. well, yeah... man: well, what little i know about them. i probably purchased them about, oh, 30, 35 years ago. and i either got them at an auction or a yard sale. i prably gave them around $20 for them apiece. and as far as the age, i don't know the age or don't know what... i've never had them appraised or nothing. okay. that's about the extent of what i know of them. all right. well, these jugs tell a long story for me. when i very first got in the antiques business,

one of the first places i went was to an attic in a barn, or a loft, and the family had been there in that house since back in the 19th century. and upstairs was a moonshine still and about 50 jugs like this. yeah. so from that day on, i always called them moonshine jugs. yeah. and what they are is, they're factory-made stoneware pottery. and usually when you see them like this, when the sides are straight like that, that tells you that it's, like, up around 1900. and usually when you see the brown, and the tan on the bottom, that tells me that it's later in the 19th century, early 20th century. but your jugs have an even better story to tell, and we can drop the moniker of moonshine and add bourbon. because here we are in, in the... right. bourbon country. we are in the middle of bourbon country. and back then, if you wanted to buy whiskey,ry. you could buy a whole jug of it.

you might go to the bar to do it, or the drugstore. right,es. i guess if you felt bad, you went to the drugstore to get it.

if you wanted to feel good, you went to the... it's made out of three pieces of holly wood. frederick kaiffer was a noted designer. he was a wood carver who carved a lot of altars for churches. he carved the original pattern for the jockey, the cast-iron jockey. he operated out of new york city. he was married to my great-aunt, and he must have been quite a bit older than her, because he died in circa 1915, and i remember meeting her when i was a young boy in the '50s. okay. so she lived for 40 or 45 years after he passed away.

so what you have here is a truly spectacular tour de force of frederick kaiffer's work. it has this lovely plaque, likely carved by him, as well. it says, "this basket was carved, 1861, by f. kaiffer." and as you had noted, it's made of holly wood in three pieces. and that information is on the piece of document listed closest to you. and then we also have the medal, as well, which he was awarded, which is inscribed with his name, with the date of 1865. i was able to do some research on him. and based upon new york state assembly documents, he received a diploma award for a spectacular wood carving specimen, and that was printed in 1864. surpsingly, as an illustrious career as he's had, we have little to no auction records or sales records for his works, and that's most likely

because he chose not to sign the pieces. what's really lovely about this is, he was clearly of german descent, because this really resembles black forest carving, which, where we see these wonderful carved birds here over the nest with the eggs, surrounded within this wonderful floral bouquet. so you say it's an operating sewing box. is it possible you could open it for us? sure. wow, look at that. okay, so this is really lovely to see inside. and i've never seen the inside of it. really? i knew it was a functional sewing basket, but i just thought it was void in there. we've got the first level here, which is this wonderful removable insert. i can see it's removable, and it's paper-lined. and then you have down to a second tier, as well, again, paper-lined and divided. and there's two screws. oh, yeah. in the bottom. so it can't come off. so it can't come off, so it won't fall off, which is actually very good. so as you can see, lovely fitted interior for sewing. i'm going to go ahead and put this back on. and if i could ask you to very carefully put the lid back on again, that would be wonderful.

every time i look at the lid, i see something new. is-- is there any finish on it, or do you think this is just raw wood? this is completely raw wood. raw wood-- no finish at all. there's no finish at all. what's interesting about this is, the color hasn't changed hardly at all, because... i see that, yeah. wood changes color by oxidization, by aging with the exposure to oxygen. and this is kept under a glass dome, so the color is almost as it would have been the day he carved it, which is truly wonderful. it is an exceptional piece. if you were to have this piece insured, i would recommend an insurance value of somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000. okay. ♪ ♪ the quality is there. it's just, it's not 400 years old, right? okay. i mean, we have to just deal with the... we'll settle, we'll settle for 200 years. yeah, just 200. okay.

woman: when i would come home from college when i was in my 20s, i noticethis new addition to the living room, and i thought it was pretty. but i was really busy and i didn't pay a lot of attention to it. but then as my mother got older, one day i found it in my bedroom. and i realized that she wanted me to have it. and upon her passing, it came to me. and i've had it ever since. we never talked about it. i just admired it and said, "oh, it's a pretty piece." okay, you know it's moorcroft. yes, i looked on the bottom. and what i've noticed, it's just such a pretty color. that it's... it's, it's a very unusual color. it's a cornflower design, which is one that you see in quite a bit moorcroft. but the glaze is called powder blue. and it's a blue on blue. it's a really beautiful glaze. it has the speckling in it. that's very typical of the powder blue glaze. dates from around 1935. and you see the raised areas where the flowerare?

yes. that's done with tube lining. it's like squeezing toothpaste out of a tube, but a thin line. and they would tube line the design on here, and then women would come in and put the colors on. wow. so it's a two-step process. then the glaze would be put on it, and it would be fired. and it'seally a beautiful shape, beautiful form, and nice glaze there. well, thank you. i've-- it's in a prized place in my home, and i've always enjoyed it. and i have lots of cats and dogs running around. so i do have it in a secure place. have you thought about value? well, yes, actually, i have. and... i don't know. my mother never said a thing about value. we didn't talk about stuff like that. but i would say $300, maybe? well, let's bump that up a little bit. in today's market, it's probably, at auction,

would bring somewhere between $1,200 and $1,700. wow! so, yeah, wow. (exhales) it's a beautiful piece. it's big, has a lot going for it, and in pristine condition, so... thank you so much. i'm, i'm stunned. well, good. i'm going to put it in an even safer place. yeah, keep the cats and dogs away, and... i'll do my best. it's nice, it's sweet. this is a collection of baseball schedules, i hope from 1898. i got these as a gift from one of my dad's friends and co-workers when i was really young, five or six years old. i don't know much about them. i was not able to find any information about them online. i do know that in 1898, there were 12 professional baseball teams. okay. and there's 12 schedules here. other than that, that's about all i know. i've never seen a complete set of the playing card schedules like this. it's all 12 teams in the 1898 national league, including, we have to start with st. louis, baseball club. then we have the boston bean eaters.

the new york giants. and then what i'm most excited to see today is the louisville colonels. so, of course, the louisville colonels were only the louisville colonels from 1885 to 1899. but then when the owner bought a part-interest in the pirates, the team folded, and louisville colonels memorabilia is very scarce. these were inserted in playing cards. and what's interesting, none of these came from the same deck. so somebody had to put this collection together one at a time to do the complete set of 12, had them riveted so you could fan them out, keep them together. and it's really incredible to see a complete set like this. i've never seen or heard of one in existence. wow. i would put this group at auction of a value of $2,500 to $3,000. that's outstanding. i never expected that. ♪ ♪

(people talking in background) i found them at a yard sale. i got about 30 of them for somewhere around $20. i wanted to know a little bit more about them. some of them are signed, so i wanted to know a little bit about the artists. so $20 for 30 posters. yes. and how long ago did you buy them? 12... years, 15 years? and since then, what have you been doing with them? they've been in picture frames in my house. it's not inexpensive to frame 30 posters. no. i actually paid a lot more for the frames than i did for the posters themselves, and got in a bit of trouble with my husband for it. paid around $2,000 for the picture frames for all of them. and i got yelled at quite a bit until he happened to see an old "antiques roadshow" episode. fascinating.

so this could be one of the very first examples where the roadshow comes to solve or cure... saved me. ...a family issue. of the 30, i pulled out four, and these four all have several things in common. one that is fairly obvious is, they're all for pan am airlines, pan american airlines. the other thing, obvious but not quite as obvious, is that they're all by the same artist, amspoker. thirdly, they are all silkscreens. that's the process by which they were printed. and the final thing, which is probably the most esoteric, is that it was unusual at the time for these posters to not feature images of the aircraft. these posters are all from the 1950s. we see the pacific and new zealand. we see europe. we see asia. we see south america. so it really is, like, a broad sampling of the entire network that pan am had to off. and we're also greeted with the slogan "the world's most experienced airline." these posters are popular with collectors for several reasons.

you sometimes hear about real estate, that the most impoant thing in real estate is location, location, location. a similar observation can be made about travel posters-- destination, destination, destination. oftentimes, the more popular or the more exotic a destination is, and the better the imagery from that exotic destination, the more valuable the poster i the other thing that makes these posters collectible is that there is a whole subset of collectors who really are passionate about pan am. people collect these not just for the imagery, not just for the destinations, but also because they are pan am-iana. these are all by the same artist, done in the 1950s. unusually, there is very little biographical information about this artist available. there are some artists who became famous, but amspoker really never amounted to more than this set, and he did about 20 different posters for pan am, and the series ended in 1959. of his work, only one of these has come up for auction before,

and that's the new zealand piece. and based on the price that it and several other of his images have sold for at auction, i would estimate each one of these between $600 and $900, right? so the group of just these four would be between $2,400 and $3,600. and the thing is, at one point in 2007, so 11 years ago-- which was the high-water mark, right before the big crash of 2008-- in 2007, the high-water mark for the new zealand poster was $1,600. so it's really possible... people always ask me, "should i hold on to them? might they be more valuable later?" and i rarely say yes, because we don't really know. but in this case, it sort of seems like the market is coming back, and it might be worth holding on to them for a few more years. okay. and are they more valuable as a collection or separately? they are more valuable separately. wow. really a major sculptor. we don't see much of his work in this country. i mean, it's a really powerful piece,

the way this figure is formed. sort of has a real expressionist look to it. it's really... quite a wonderful piece. this is an 1862 civil war rifle that's been retrofitted with a side breech. it wasn't used in the military because of a flaw. if you half-cock it, then this opens up. (laughing): and you're going to lose your cartridge, so... in the first year of disneyland's opening, there was a contest in the "detroit times," and it was in the comics section, and you were to name a monkey. and there was a caption of it, "as much fun as a barrel full of monkeys." so we called him "phillip mcfun barrel," and it won. (laughing) and we won a trip to disneyland in its first year of opening. and the studios, lunch with the mouseketeers, and meeting mr. disney.

and, of course, the park. it was a great fun time. well, now you have this great photograph of you and all these other winners. now, which one are you? i'm the one laughing at the end. so over on the very end is you. now, were all these other, like, children winners? yes. they were from maryland and wisconsin and massachusetts, and one from texas. now, did they all have to name the monkey, also? they named him different names. who had the best name? i think i did. (laughing) well, you brought in this wonderful autograph book. and in the autograph book, you have the mouseketeers. you have various voice actors from the disney studios. but you have one in particular. yes. walt disney. yes. that's the best of all. he helped in the tour of the studios. and we got to go in and see the animators. and, of course, at that time, it was something you never even knew about, how they made the cartoons. just really amazing. when i look back at it,

it was one of those things you're not quite sure was real. so this was a really amazing moment in the history of the disney company. they had just opened an amazing theme park. they were putting out such amazing films.ny. and in this autograph book, you have a lot of different signatures, but the most valuable one is walt disney's autograph. and for an authentic walt disney, an insurance value on that would be around $1,500 to $2,000. and the rest of the signatures are around $500 to $1,000. great, just wonderful. oh, that's so nice. that's really nice to hear. and it has such great memories with it, thank you. i have a bell... ...that's very old. (laughs) and it rings. (clicks) (ringing) that's very old. (laughs) woman: we went to a yard sale and we picked it out. appraiser: lovely. how much did you pay for it? a couple of bucks, like, o dollars.

man: my mother purchased it probably in the early '60s. appraiser: it's a great design. yeah. this cabinetmaker knew how to make it dance, if you will. oh, really. and in spite of being a country stand, i mean, there was some effort to make it look more like a city piece of furniture. that inlaid panel, okay, with that chevron banding? the post itself is fairly delicate. this table has lift. it's very nice. those legs taper to the point of where they really look delicate. it's kind of amazing it survived. yeah. and when you set it back in that position, you continue to see just how lovely it is. and we can highlight this checkered banding on the top. so have you had it appraised in the past? never. all right. so i think this stand, in light of those positive attributes that we've, we've ticked down here... yeah, yeah. i would estimate it, you know, for auction purposes, being quite sure that it's from new hampshire,

and it's a much better quality than many stands, probably $1,000 to $1,500. so... really? and when-- how old is that? you say it's... this, this would be a federal stand. probably made, i would say, about 1800, 1810. is that right? yeah. ♪ ♪ woman: that is my grandmother. she was from kazan, russia, and i understand that nicolai fechin was from kazan, russia, as well. they both ended up immigrating to the united states, i believe some time in the 1920s or so. and she ended up taking art lessons from him in new york city. appraiser: they're two immigrants. after the bolshevik revolution, and also the war, the situation in russia was, was very problematic. so fechin moved to the united states in 1923,

and lived in new york city. and during that period, he was painting portraits for which he was very well known, and also teaching. and that, i suspect, is where your grandmother... my understanding was that she took painting lessons from him in greenwich village. how wonderful. that's what my mother told me, anyway. well, mothers never lie. that's right. that is correct. in 1926, he moved to taos. he had tuberculosis. and in taos, he really came into his own, and some of his really famous paintings come from the taos period. but this painting has everything fechin ever thought of. it's very personal. during a phase of his career, he would often paint the background first. oh, wo and then allow the features of the figure to come out in a very evocative way. and that's what i was referring to earlier when i said that she seems to emanate from the background.

he had a very distinctive style. he painted with a palette knife and his thumb. he was a very hands-on painter, and has become one of the most important american 20th-century portraitists. wow. it's a beautiful portrait. it is... thank you-- i've always loved it. she looks like quite a character, and he was able to catch that very beautifully. so we're dating it probably around the '20s. it's oil on canvas. beautiful condition. at auction, i would estimate it between $60,000 and $80,000. whoa! (laughs) and for insurance, about $150,000. well, that's a nice little piece to have on the wall, i guess. walberg: you're watching "antiques roadshow" from churchill downs racetrack in louisville, kentucky.

can't get enough "roadshow"? find us at pbs.org/antiques and on the pbs video app, and follow us for exclusive content, updates, and special features. don't go away. the feedback booth is right after this. now, the people who make antiques roadshow possible. i want my kids to know they come from people who were brave, and took risks-- big risks. announcer: your family history brought to life. ♪ ♪ announcer: on an american cruise lines journey along the legendary mississippi river, travelers explore classic antebellum homes, civil war battlefields, and historic american towns. aboard our fleet of modern riverboats, you can experience local culture and cuisine and relive american history. american cruise lines-- proud sponsor of "antiques roadshow.

announcer: for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no-contract wireless plans designed to help people do more of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. walberg: and now it's time for the roadshow feedback booth. today i brought a plate and a plane which i thought were antiques. it turns out that i'm older than they are, so i guess i'm the antique and they're not. but they were worth way more than i thought. so it's been a great day at "antiques roadshow." and my-- our picture-- i got a picture, and if i get it to the u.k., i can get almost $500 out of it. (chuckles) all right, thanks. this is supposed tbe 600 years old. as it turns out, it's about 600 days old.

and i brought my husband's 69-year-old superman watch, which i thought was a piece of junk. i learned that it's worth between $150 and $200. and it doesn't even work. and today i brought my chinese ritualistic wine vessel, and these were used about 3,000 years ago, from what i found out today, and, unfortunately, mine is made post-1980 and only worth about $30 or $40. so i think i'll just drink out of mine. and this is the perfect appliance for dispensing toothpicks at the table. a little spring-loaded woodpecker. and i've had a ball today, and thanks to kentucky educational television, i'm an "antiques roadshow" fanatic. so thank you guys. and that's all. walberg: i'm mark walberg. thanks for watching. see you next time on "antiques roadshow."

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