1937 Hindenburg Archive
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GUEST:
I brought a display of Hindenburg artifacts. I inherited them from my father. He was a career naval officer. Just happened to be stationed in Lakehurst, New Jersey, on the infamous May 6, 1937, when the crash occurred. He was on the ground landing crew that day running for his life trying to get away from the heat and the crash site. He was, uh, very proud of the fact that he was there and able to help the survivors, and, uh, these are, uh, some of the artifacts that he had collected after the crash. And it meant a lot to him in his life.
APPRAISER:
Right, like so many of the crew, he ended up, um, going from, uh, landing crew, helping with the mooring lines, to, uh, recovery and, and trying to clean up the, the disaster.
GUEST:
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. These are, uh, his personal commendations...
APPRAISER:
Yeah.
GUEST:
...from the governor of New Jersey, um, the U.S. Department of Navy, and from, uh, the government of Germany, uh, in, in Berlin.
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
Personally directed to him, thanking him for his, uh, heroic duty. Because he was instrumental in carrying off survivors that were still injured and...
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
And, and just below it is, um, a picture of the Hindenburg signed by all the surviving crew members of the Hindenburg as a memento of their appreciation. The whole the body of the Hindenburg was covered in a special material.
APPRAISER:
Right, the skin, yeah.
GUEST:
Skin. And that's the, um, surviving piece of skin. This here, folded underneath, is a piece of the burnt flag off the Hindenburg. And this was, uh, as you can see, fairly well scorched up.
APPRAISER:
So there were a lot of members of the crew there that day that grabbed artifacts. And so we see on the market today bits of the superstructure, smaller pieces. Um, there are sometimes spoons and forks melted together from the dining room. But you've got a really great grouping here, um, one of the best I've ever seen of Hindenburg artifacts. With this collection, there are, um, a lot of buyers out there.
GUEST:
Hm.
APPRAISER:
And it's very collectible. So, at auction, I would put an estimate of $10,000 to $15,000 on it. And I think it would do better than that. Um, if you get a couple of the players out there, I think this would skyrocket. A small piece of the, of the structure can bring a few hundred dollars. So with this complete collection, I think that $10,000 to $15,000 as an auction estimate would be, would be a nice conservative one. Great to start with. Well... Yeah.
GUEST:
Great to start with, but I'm, I'm surprised, I, uh... I really had no idea, but it's wonderful.
APPRAISER:
Yeah. Yeah. Now, if I was to put an insurance value on this, um, I would probably put a $20,000, $25,000...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
…um, uh, value on it.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
Um... I've never seen one this diverse. All of these pieces together are, are fantastic. Thanks for bringing it in today.
GUEST:
My pleasure.
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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