Modern Mirrored Bar, ca. 1940
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GUEST:
This belonged to my father. We know that he got it in Aspen, Colorado, in 2001, and there was a receipt with it, but it has no name, no company, nothing. He liked bright and shiny things, and this was his favorite thing in the world, so that's all I know about it.
APPRAISER:
Well, if you like bright and shiny things, this was a great thing to own, that's for sure.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
This just screams Chicago to me. When I looked, I thought, "Oh, it's so fantastic." It's got everything you'd ever want. Kind of commands your attention, it really does. It's a fantastic piece. From a historical perspective, it's also very interesting. On the ROADSHOW, we don't do very much Art Deco furniture at all. It doesn't come in very often. And what's fascinating to me anyway, is that Art Deco's a very important component of American 20th century design, which has become very popular, especially amongst younger collectors. The French, the Germans, the Europeans in general started doing Modern about 1900, 1901. They were up and running. They were doing all kinds of interesting things. And we, the Americans, didn't come to Modern until really the late 1920s or the early 1930s. And how we discovered Modern was through Art Deco. Things with wild shapes and colors, mirrored things, things that no one would have ever thought about doing before. And I think this piece says, "Look at me."
GUEST:
Yeah, it sat right in the sun, so it would just explode in my dad's house, because he had it right at the door.
APPRAISER:
I'm sure. The Modern movement over the last 20 or 25 years of collecting has become kind of stilted. We worry about who made things. "Is this the first model, is this the second model," all these ridiculous things. With great Art Deco like this piece, you don't have to worry about any of it; you just look at it and say, "Ah, that piece is fantastic."
GUEST:
Yeah, I like it a lot.
APPRAISER:
I do too. If we open this up, it lights up, it's all mirrored. I can see myself having a martini after the show, just standing here with a couple of friends. It's perfect. We don't know who made it. I'm sure this was built in America, and just sort of an American signature style. It was probably made in the mid-part of the 20th century, probably made in the 1940s, probably after the war or right before the war. It's well built. It was certainly an expensive piece. Do you have any idea of its value?
GUEST:
I know that he paid $3,000 for it.
APPRAISER:
And he paid $3,000 in Aspen, Colorado?
GUEST:
In Aspen in September of 2001.
APPRAISER:
Right, well, one interesting thing is the Deco market has kind of declined a little bit over the years, and also I think antique buying in Aspen is probably more expensive than buying it almost anywhere else in the world.
GUEST:
Yes, well, I thought he overpaid for it. I don't know what it was, but we'll see.
APPRAISER:
He was very close.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
At auction today, this piece would probably bring $2,500 to $4,500.
GUEST:
Okay, cool.
Appraisal Details
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.
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