Joe Strummer's Boots, ca. 1979
Watch
GUEST:
These boots belonged to Joe Strummer, who was the lead singer of the band The Clash. And my husband was starting or thinking about starting a rock and roll magazine, and a punk rock magazine. And he interviewed Joe when they were in their first U.S. tour in 1979. And during the course of the interview, my husband complimented Joe on his boots, and Joe took off his boots and gave him his boots. So we've had these boots for about 35 years. They've been in the corner of a closet, they haven't been worn in our home.
APPRAISER:
So this is your husband here, you said, interviewing Joe. And this was 1979?
GUEST:
Yeah, it was the first... the Clash's first U.S. tour, as I understand. So they played two shows in Boston, and this would have been one of the shows either at the Orpheum Theatre or in Harvard Square.
APPRAISER:
He did this interview, was it published or...
GUEST:
When my husband did the interview, he subsequently used an excerpt from the interview as part of his editorial for the opening, the launch of his magazine, which was called Take It Magazine so--
APPRAISER:
The magazine was called Take It?
GUEST:
Take It Magazine. Joe Strummer had said if you really, really want something, just go ahead and take it. If you want to be relevant, you know, take it, make something happen. I'm paraphrasing, but that appeared in the magazine.
APPRAISER:
That is so his spirit. Because at the time, I mean they really came out. They were founded in 1976 as the first wave of British punk.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
And his attitude with everything that was going on politically in England, a lot of disenfranchised industrial workers, former coal miners. His attitude was if you want something, you have to do it for yourself and take it. They were inducted in the Hall of Fame in 2003, a year after he died. He died at 50 years old of a congenital heart defect. And it's very shocking, nobody knew he was sick. So he was taken from us pretty young. One other thing I wanted to point out, we have on the bottom of the boots, which is nearly impossible to see. It's kind of a blind stamp in the leather. It says, "warranted British manufacture." So we know these are of the right materials, everything makes sense. We have the photograph of your husband interviewing him, which is really helpful. Because it establishes that he really did meet him. So at auction, with that information, I think we would expect anywhere between $5,000 and $7,000 for a pair of boots like this.
GUEST:
That's pretty amazing.
APPRAISER:
There are a lot of pictures of Joe Strummer out there, wearing very similar style boots. Now if we can find pictures from any of those shows in 1979, or any time around then and find this exact pair of boots in a picture, that would be amazing. And it's quite possible to do because I'm sure he was well-photographed during that tour.
GUEST:
I know that we have a lot of negatives from that show that I haven't developed yet. This picture was developed to bring to the ROADSHOW, so I will go home and go through those negatives.
APPRAISER:
If you do find a picture in your rolls of undeveloped film from this event, that you can clearly see these boots and we can make out the stitch lines, and there's all sorts of things we look for that we can match up pretty precisely. And hopefully we would be able to do that. At auction you could be looking at more like $8,000 to $12,000.
GUEST:
Right.
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.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.
Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.
