GUEST: This flag came from my great-grandparents' hotel that they owned in West Sayville, New York, that's on Long Island.
APPRAISER: The thing that tells us right off the bat that it's not the early flag that we all would love for it to be are the grommets. The size of the grommets tells us we're looking at a flag that's from about the 1860s onward. The fact that it's still hand-sewn precludes it from being too much after that. This is a flag that would date from the 1860s to the 1870s.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: This is a U.S. Navy small-craft ensign. Essentially, it's a boat flag. It became more difficult to add the stars to the field without making them smaller and smaller, and at some point, it gets a little muddy when viewed from a distance. And so they simply went with 13 stars to honor the original 13 colonies. Now, in the retail market today, this would be between $1,000 and $1,500.
GUEST: Okay, all right, great.
