Windmill Salesman's Sample, ca. 1890
GUEST:
My father's cousin passed away, and she was an only child, so she didn't have a family, and she left all of her possessions to my father and his three brothers. They took turns selecting items from all of the stuff. My dad let myself and my three sisters take turns with his turn, so it took a while before I finally got my first turn. But then I went straight towards the windmill because I'm an engineer and I love mechanical things.
APPRAISER:
There are many different models and different patents and various mechanisms that were created, and they were very expensive. And in order to sell them, they would create what they call a salesman sample. And I've seen a few over the years. This is one of the more complex, not the most complex. But what is really interesting about this is that you have the original beautiful wooden case with metal corners and all this incredible paperwork. Now, I've seen windmill salesman samples this complex sell in the $6,000 to $8,000 range. The ones that go for a lot of money have big names on the side. But this one is really super, and I think at auction it would easily bring $6,000.
GUEST:
Wow, very good.
Appraisal Details
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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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