GUEST: My great-great-grandmother Granny Smith used to sit on the porch and play the dulcimer and chew chewing tobacco. So you just get that Appalachian image.
APPRAISER: Folk art craftspeople, they see a real instrument, then they go home and they reproduce it. And this craftsman here wanted to make f-holes like on a violin, and what he's done is, he's used an auger and he's drilled this sort of s/f shape. It's wonderfully ingenious, and what I really loved was, the back is very interesting because... I think it's a drawer bottom from an old cabinet.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And you can see the rippling lines here from a planer. I'm dating this around 1880. You could string it up and, and, and use it today. This is a rare early piece. I think the market for it is very thinly focused to an institution. For retail, I would value it between the $3,000 and $5,000 range.
GUEST: Wow, I never expected that.
