Women's Gold Pocket Watch & Family Album
GUEST:
What I brought here is a family history that my grandfather created in Berlin. He was a Supreme Court judge and was forcibly retired when Hitler came to power. And so he set out to write the family story, so it would be known. And he gave this to my father when he left on a boat at age 14, to never see his parents again.
APPRAISER:
So your family was a prominent Jewish family...
GUEST:
Correct.
APPRAISER:
In Germany.
GUEST:
In Berlin.
APPRAISER:
The picture, here in the book, the photograph, is your...
GUSET: Great-grandfather meeting the Kaiser on the steps of the synagogue.
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST:
And the story goes that he's not sure whether to tip his hat or shake his hand.
APPRAISER:
And in the book, there are photographs of wonderful treasures that the family owned-- artwork, clocks, objects, yeah.
GUEST:
And many of them were taken, as happened to so many Jewish families. And the story goes that Göring actually came to the house before they were deported and "bought things." But they never got paid. And they were going to try and buy their freedom.
APPRAISER:
Like so many families at that time, the things were just confiscated-- they were just taken.
GUEST:
They were just taken. But thank God for finding this book, because through the benefits of this book, we can actually locate some of the things and get them back.
APPRAISER:
And if I'm right in understanding, these are the only two items... When they left the country, they basically left with the shirts on their backs.
GUEST:
That's it.
APPRAISER:
Smuggled the book, and smuggled the watch.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
Let's talk about the watch. It is a really beautiful, solid gold watch. It's a lady's watch. I would date this watch to right around 1875. And that is Grandpa?
GUEST:
Great-great-great grandfather.
APPRAISER:
He is the gentleman that purchased this watch.
GUEST:
He was known for buying luxury gifts for his wife, because at that time he was one of the wealthiest men in Berlin.
APPRAISER:
This is called a demi-hunter, because you can see the hands without actually having to open the whole cover.
GUEST:
Oh, neat.
APPRAISER:
And you have the numbers in gold on the outside. Let's take a look inside the back of the watch. This is something that I've rarely ever seen-- a hand-engraved portrait of the great-great-great...
GUEST:
Great-grandfather.
APPRAISER:
It's really quite amazing, the craftsmanship. They did a phenomenal job of engraving his likeness perfectly. In terms of a value, here on the watch, and here on the book, you might see something like this having a value of $2,000.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
These are important historic things, and they're really phenomenal.
Appraisal Details
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