GUEST: It was given as a gift to my father's brother for his ninth birthday in 1914. There was quite a difference in age, ten years between my father and his brother. My dad was the baby. And the two of them had great memories of playing with this boat as they grew up in the Chicago area.
APPRAISER: Now, you used it actually in the water?
GUEST: I have great memories of this floating in my swimming pool in the backyard when I was growing up.
APPRAISER: I love toys that come in with stories from the original owners. It really adds to the luster of the item. Did you figure out who made this?
GUEST: I know there's a mark on the rudder, but my magnifying glass at home was not strong enough to read it. And I know it was a gift from a great-uncle, and I thought he lived in Europe at the time.
APPRAISER: If you look real carefully-- and I can recognize this without a magnifying glass because I've seen it a few times-- it actually says "G.M.", which means Gebruder Ma rklin.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: So Marklin is the manufacturer of this boat, which is a German company. They first went into business in 1859. Originally, they just made dollhouses and dollhouse furniture and things like that, but they really came into their own right after 1900. Around 1904, they started making trains and boats. That was when they became the gold standard of toys of their day. They were very expensive in their day, and they're relatively expensive today. This is a tin boat. It has a clockwork motor, which operates this propeller. And it's beautifully outfitted with a chain. It had lifeboats, which you say you lost, but they can be made. And you see it's named the Puritan. The Puritan was a very famous boat. The Puritan was on the Fall River line, which went from Boston to New York City from around 1889 to around 1908. It was such a famous boat, it was used in a lot of toys. There are cast-iron American Puritan boats, there are McLoughlin lithograph puzzle boats, there are several other using that name. They made a few changes. The original boat had a side wheel. This is probably made 1908, 1910, somewhere in there. The last one of these I know at auction had an auction estimate of $12,000.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: Which is quite a sum.
GUEST: Amazing.
APPRAISER: But it sold for $20,000.
GUEST: All right. (laughing)
APPRAISER: And there's no reason this one couldn't do the same.
GUEST: My goodness.
APPRAISER: So don't put it in the water anymore.
GUEST: I promise I won't, and it hasn't been in the water for over 50 years.
