GUEST: We've been told that it might be a marriage.
APPRAISER: Right.
GUEST: We don't know. The chest was purchased by my husband's great-uncle...
APPRAISER: Okay.
GUEST: And it's been in the family ever since. That was in the late 1800s.
APPRAISER: Now you've had two different people say different things. One person said this section was added to this section. The other one said, "No, absolutely not," right?
GUEST: Correct.
APPRAISER: What we do is look at whether or not everything on top goes with everything on bottom. And first of all, what you have here is an early 18th century, Anne, 1720s, in really what was known as, really, the George I style walnut-veneered chest-on-chest. Did you know it was…
GUEST: No, no.
APPRAISER: You didn't know it was early 18th century English?
GUEST: No, we had no idea of the age, no.
APPRAISER: But you've always been curious, right?
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: And this was really known as the age of walnut because English cabinetmakers were using walnut veneers, these wonderful walnut veneers, and the secondary woods inside were oak, also a local wood. And later on, they'd use all sorts of imported woods, but during this period, the 1720s, it was all local woods. So if you look at this piece, first of all, Anne, you look at it, we have these wonderful flitches of walnut, and they all match-- look. It's almost like a Rorschach test, you know, when they have a matched...
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: …matched designs. These are all matched with light wood stringing and this herringbone inlay. Do you see that? And it has these fluted corners, and the thing that's really wonderful about it is this inlaid compass fan. It's really--it has all the bells and whistles of the George I style.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: So, let's quickly pull out a drawer and say, "How do they go together?" First of all, we know all the woods match on the front. If we take out a drawer... Let's put this one here from the top section and this from the bottom section, and…the dovetails all match. Look-- identical dovetails. All the drawer sides are oak, which is typical of early 18th century English furniture, and even the backs, even the same worms, Anne... (chuckling) had their lunch or dinner and maybe breakfast on the backs of these drawers. Same exact worms. So, the piece does go together. It's always been together. Even though lots of other pieces are marriages, this has always been together. I'll tell you, value-wise, because it's not a marriage, Anne, because it's always been together, it would be... retail here in America probably at around $15,000 to $18,000, maybe. Retail-- $18,000.
GUEST: Uh-huh.
APPRAISER: And, um, the ironic thing is that this type of piece, Anne, inspired a whole group of American pieces that were made in Boston and other areas in the early 18th century. And there's one at the MFA in Boston-- the Museum of Fine Arts-- that has this exact same fan, and that piece is probably worth about $200,000 to $250,000, so multiples because it's American. But isn't it ironic that this is the prototype, but it's worth $15,000 to $18,000, and the copy made in America in the 1740s is 15 times that. Well, thanks.
GUEST: Well, that's wonderful to know.
APPRAISER: Are you happy, then?
GUEST: Oh, yes, very. Love to know about the history.
