GUEST: It's been in my family for five generations and I got it... this would have been my grandparents'. It came to me through my parents.
APPRAISER: So, in the article, it talks about what the cane is.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: But it mentions the materials that the cane is made from, and the main material that it mentions is ivory.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Which, traditionally, has been a sought-after material for decorative art objects.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: Currently, ivory is not a sought-after object, because of our protection of elephants and other endangered species.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: And the interesting aspect about this cane is it does date from the late 19th century, mid to late 19th century. It does have a whaling history to it because of the material it's made from, which is not ivory, it's whalebone.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: So, the shaft is whalebone, the handle is whale tooth.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: And this would have been a sailor-made object, and a lot of the materials within the cane can sort of tell the story about the travels of the sailor who constructed it.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: So we have abalone and mother of pearl. We have-- this is ebony in here, which is an African wood.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: So, these would-be materials that the sailor would have picked up along the way, including whalebone on an active whaler, and this type of thing would've been constructed in those down hours, of which there were many, between whales and between harvesting and things like that. In the condition that it's in right now, I think at auction we're looking at a $3,000 to $5,000 value.
GUEST: Oh, very nice.
