GUEST: I inherited these from an aunt that lived in Cleveland, Ohio. They've been in our dining room on a hutch for probably 25 years, and never really paid much attention to them.
APPRAISER: These are Shaker boxes, and I think they were made in Ohio, and I think they're probably from sometime in the late 19th century. Maybe 1875 to 1900.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: It's kind of hard to be sure about age, but these, these finger joints here, are very distinctive. The other thing that's usually a giveaway is the copper rivets. They were used for spices and flour and sugar and things like that. And they put them in these so that the bugs wouldn't get in them. And the Shakers were so good at simple things. They believed that life should be simple and all of the objects that they made were very unadorned. And I think this is the original finish. The boxes in New England were painted, the boxes in Ohio weren't. I love the visual effect of seeing these all out, and seeing those overlapping joints. And the thing that makes these valuable is the fact that they are a set. You would see these retail, probably, for around $3,500.
GUEST: Wow. Amazing, wow. Surprised. Very.
APPRAISER: The ones from New England that are painted different colors, some of those can be as much as $30,000 or $40,000 for a set.
GUEST: My goodness.
APPRAISER: That's a mind-blower, isn't it?
GUEST: Amazing, amazing.