GUEST: It was a gift for my husband. We happened to wander into a gallery. It was $750. So this was the early '70s.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: That was two months of take-home pay for me. Although my husband and I both loved it, we had to pass on it. Yeah. However, driving home that day, I kept thinking, "This would be a wonderful surprise, because I, I just know he would love it as a birthday surprise." So I called the owner of the gallery, and I proposed to him that I would pay it out on a monthly basis if he would allow me to buy it, and it would take me six months. He agreed.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: And at the end of the six months, I drove back to the gallery, handed him the check, when he turned to me and gave me a surprise, and said, "I'd like to buy this back from you for $1,100." Well, I was stunned. Did a quick debate in my mind. I decided I would keep it and surprise my husband on his birthday with a good story to go along with it.
APPRAISER: Did you know who the artist was? Or he told you...
GUEST: He told us who the artist was.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: But I never had heard of him before.
APPRAISER: Uh-huh, so, Harry Bertoia was born in Italy. He came here as a young man, and he wound up studying at the Cranbrook Academy. He eventually became the head of the metalworking department. He was invited to California to work for Charles and Ray Eames manufacturing furniture, and then he worked for Florence and Hans Knoll in Pennsylvania, designing furniture for them. The Knolls were the premier makers of furniture in the 1950s and onward. And he designed a wire mesh chair, which is still in production.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And is one of the iconic examples of mid, what we call mid-century modern furniture. He made these starting in the 1960s. It's made out of beryllium copper. These are called sonambient sculptures, and they were made to produce sounds. And he made them in hundreds of different variations. So this is sort of the simplest, with just plain rods, beautifully constructed. I've seen them ten feet high. Many of them have cattails, they have cylinders at the top, different lengths, they can be narrow, they can be wide. He set them up in a barn and he used to hold concerts, and he made recordings, and you can go online.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And you can hear some of these pieces as he sort of performed. It moves, so it's sort of a kinetic sculpture, which was popular at the time.
GUEST: My favorite thing to do is just take one of these... (rods clanging) And it just reverberates. And I love to hear it. It takes a while to stop.
APPRAISER: I never would have done one.
APPRAISER & GUEST: (both laugh)
GUEST: I'm, I'm simple, I'm just a simple person.
APPRAISER: I'm sorry, I would have, I would do this. (laughing) (rods clanging) It has a great sound.
GUEST: It does, I agree.
APPRAISER: And it's beautifully made, it's just so simple, and you can see how, how it's joined at the base, very, very simply done. His son Val Bertoia also made these later on, and they're very, very similar. So sometimes his works get mixed in with Harry's work. And you bought it a long time ago, enough that it would not have been made by the son. His work is very, very desirable now. And of course it all depends on the size and the...
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And, and all of that. But this work in, in a gallery would be between $20,000 and $30,000.
GUEST: (exhales) Mr. Langman, $1,100.
APPRAISER: Ah.
GUEST: It was a, it was a profit at the time.
APPRAISER: Yeah, yeah.
GUEST: But I'm glad I kept it. I also feel lucky. And thank you, thank you, thank you.
APPRAISER: This is one of the most exciting things I've had come in to "Antiques Roadshow." What can you tell us about it?
GUEST: Um, it's six foot tall, I'm six-three. It's only about 40 pounds. I acquired it in 2007 in Montreal.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
GUEST: The, uh, border crossing was not easy. (chuckles) They did, uh, X-ray the lion to make sure it's not full of, uh, contraband.
APPRAISER: (laughs)
GUEST: I was told that it was brought to Montreal for the 1976 Olympics.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm. I've been trying to find any pictures of this on the German Olympic Village site, but I can't. But that squares with the style of construction and the likely date of it. It's in spectacular condition. It has a few little bits of wear, but there's no real damage to it. And I'd have no problem putting insurance estimate of $3,000 to $5,000 on it.
GUEST: Great, thank you.
