GUEST: I got this in Pennsylvania, uh, about five years ago. I didn't know if it was ugly or beautiful, but I thought it was the most fascinating thing I'd ever seen. You know on the old freak show banners, it said, "What is it?" And I thought when I saw this, "What is it?" (laughs)
APPRAISER: It doesn't have a bad side. I mean, everywhere you look is...
GUEST: No.
APPRAISER: ...there are these fantastic figures. There's a signature on the back of this, which says here "Salvatore Pagano, Napoli, 1884." Now, you told me you had some information from the seller.
GUEST: Yes, well, they told me it was from the estate of P.T. Barnum. And I checked it out, and his... He was in Naples on this date...
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: ...looking for freaks.
APPRAISER: Oh, my gosh, for his circus.
GUEST: So... For his circus, yes.
APPRAISER: Wow-- wow. Well, this is... They're figures from the comedy dell'arte, and you've got Pierrot and you have Harlequin. He always loses the girl. He always gets the girl. And then this mischievous monkey. It's part of this fantasy furniture movement from Italy, uh, in the 19th century. I would say that this is probably a $15,000 chair. I mean, it's really pretty fantastic.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And if you can prove the P.T. Barnum provenance...
GUEST: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...that would make-- I would double it.
GUEST: I just thought, um, "Who else but P.T. Dar-, Barnum?", also. (chuckles): It figured, you know? Who else bought, he was so strange!
