GUEST: This is a hand-carved walking stick that was handed down to my son through his mother's side of the family. The story goes that it was... a tramp came through the town looking for a little work, and they commissioned him to make this cane, and I think it cost him 25 cents.
APPRAISER: Wow! 25 cents!
GUEST: … wouldn't even buy the wood.
APPRAISER: What you have here in my opinion is a Union veteran's cane made to commemorate the Battle of Gettysburg. And you can see the family member's name: G-E-O-period, Sites-- S-I-T-E...
GUEST: "S."
APPRAISER: Okay, that's the family member. But what you have in here is a tremendous amount of symbolism. You have the cannon for the artillery. And you have Abraham Lincoln's name carved in the round right here. You also have the cloverleaf right here. These different things are insignia for the different units, and I think they represent the Union units that fought at the battle of Gettysburg. After the Civil War was over, there were a lot of veterans' reunions, and they would have things like this made to commemorate their service in the war. Down here, you have generals. There's General Meade. And down here, he has Robert E. Lee listed. And down here, starting right at this point, there's the "P." He even carved Pickett's name in there. I've seen a lot of carved canes commemorating Civil War service. This is the best one I've ever seen, and the value on this is $3,000 to $5,000.
GUEST: Wow! That... that'll make my son very happy.
