GUEST: My husband's been a collector for a long time, and we've had this in our home for about 40 years. And… we were lucky enough to get tickets to come to the Roadshow, so my daughter and I decided to pick a few things from the collection, and this was one of them.
APPRAISER: Right, and what can you tell me about it?
GUEST: All we know is it's possibly a French Indian war hatchet or axe, 1850s possibly, 1860s. Other than that… came from an estate sale, and we've had it for years.
APPRAISER: An estate sale in Iowa?
GUEST: Uh, yes.
APPRAISER: Okay. I don't believe it's a war hatchet. It's sort of too short for that, okay?
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: But what I do think it is, it's from the 17th century, and it's definitely continental, and probably… Italian.
GUEST: Italian?
APPRAISER: And it's got some wonderful details upon it. Here, you'll see it's got this carved head on the end.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Quite typically Italian actually, even Venetian. It's got these chubby cheeks.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: And sort of like a putti look about it.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And then just below the blade here, it has this acanthus design.
GUEST: Oh, yeah.
APPRAISER: Also very typical from that period. The wood we believe—um, and I've asked my colleagues about this, it's not easy-- it's a fruitwood of some kind, but it's achieved a wonderful patina over the years.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: The blade seems, the head anyway, seems large for such a small object. It's obviously an axe.
GUEST: Very heavy.
APPRAISER: And usually they're very utilitarian, so they'd be outside the house. For such a wonderful object like this, with all the carving and everything that goes on, I think it was probably more for inside the house and could have been for kindling in a wealthy house. Now, the blade is interesting. I mean, it's got this small hook in here, and in larger axes sometimes, these are used with boarding axes-- when you're boarding a ship, it sort of hooks on more-- but it's not really quite right. So we're a little puzzled about this. I've asked my arms and armor colleagues and things, and they don't know either. And if you notice that the head itself is extremely substantial.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And it almost looks like an anvil like this, the way it's shaped, and it could be that when it's used, even in the kitchen for blocks of sugar or things, you know, and they would place it on it and then hit the top, because this is a really large area that could definitely accommodate something like that. What did you pay for it?
GUEST: My husband couldn't remember. During the time that we were collecting things like this and going to college on a very limited budget, so not very much, I'm sure. Possibly within $50 to $100.
APPRAISER: I think conservatively, a retail price for this would be between $4,000 and $6,000. It has so many things going for it with the color, the carving, and the age. It's something we don't get very often here on the Roadshow, so I'm thrilled that it's here.
GUEST: Great. That's very good. Thank you.
