GUEST: This was made by my great- grandfather George Burden in Sandusky, Ohio, which is a port city on Lake Erie. And this diorama is of the American Eagle, which, my great-grandfather worked on this steamer, one of many that ran along Lake Erie. In 1894, he carved this. I got this from my grandmother in 1988. (laughs) And it's stayed in the same place ever since. This steamer was designed to be an icebreaker on Lake Erie, and would break up up to 24 inches of ice. It was also a passenger boat. It ran passengers to ports along Lake Erie that are Vacationland, in, uh, Marblehead and Lakeside and Sandusky. As you see, in this photograph, there are people riding their bikes on the ice. That photograph is from the Great Lakes Historical Society.
APPRAISER: Okay.
GUEST: It's made out of a half a butter bowl.
APPRAISER: That's what I was going to say-- look at the shape of it. What you call a butter bowl I call a dough bowl.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And then the mixed media I would cover with, it's got paint, it's got carved wood. The ice that is broken up here are pieces of glass that have some kind of frosting on the top of them.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: I love the steam coming out of the stack there. That's l, what is that, like a ball of cotton or somethin'?
GUEST: It, I think so, yes.
APPRAISER: You had it in the box, and I saw that eagle and those flags stickin' up on there, and my eyeballs kind of went, you know?
GUEST: (laughs)
APPRAISER: My glasses started shaking on my nose. And then I saw the eagles on either side. I love the scene, but to me, one of the best things about it are the eagles.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: As a folk art person. And this is a very unusual diorama scene. Most dioramas just have a ship on a swelling sea with a couple of birds flyin' in the background. This photograph is fabulous. I'm so glad you brought that. As you said, it's, it's a copy of one that's at the museum. Its value is more important to document the fact that this ship existed, and you had...
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: You had it out there workin', breakin' the ice.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: We talked a lot at the folk art table about the visual presence of this, and the fact that it's such a, an important regional thing. And we
feel like a good retail price on this would be in the $3,000 to $4,000 range.
GUEST: Mm-hmm. Okay, very good.
APPRAISER: Probably priceless for your family.
GUEST: Yes, yes, definitely.
