GUEST: I bought it about 20... 30 years ago. I was looking for a large wall unit, and someone told me this was for sale. The owner had inherited it, had no place to keep it. I found it on the front porch of a trailer out in the woods. The guy was keeping his tools in it. (chuckles) And bought it for, I think, a few hundred dollars. I really don't remember the exact price. We had one house where we designed the house and then had to lower the living room floor six inches to get it in. And every place we've lived we've had to design our living space around it. We've always thought it a beautiful piece. And I really had no idea of any value. It's just a piece that we like.
APPRAISER: It's a prime example of Arts and Crafts Mission style by Gustav Stickley. Mostly we associate Mission furniture with being massive, very substantial, to say the least. Clearly having a presence. Your wood is immensely thick, it's over an inch thick. It's solid oak throughout the entire piece. Butt jointed, six legs, good span. All the elements that you would be looking for in Arts and Crafts furniture. Construction, you have pegging, you have exposed tenons, exposed dowels, hand-crafted copper hardware, hand-hammered. All are hallmarks of the Arts and Crafts period. It has a paper label on the back on... small paper label in the back corner. But it's also additionally signed in the drawer here.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: And sometimes this is known as the red decal mark. And this helps date it, the mark changes slightly over the years. This one would date it to 1905, 1906. Which is exact in keeping with the label on the back. In the early '80s, one sold for approximately a third of a million dollars.
GUEST: Good heavens.
APPRAISER: Shortly after that, about five years, another one sold for approximately in the neighborhood of $600,000. Unfortunately, the original finish is gone on this. The hardware has been shined and polished. Hopefully that's not you-- we won't ask. But all of those detract from the value substantially. This particular piece would probably be valued at somewhere in the neighborhood of $75,000 to $110,000.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: Which is a pretty good investment for a porch purchase in Upstate New York.
GUEST: It sure is. (chuckles)
