GUEST: It belonged to my great-aunt. She got it around 1915 to 1920, I believe. And my great-grandfather, who was her father, paid $100 for it. I just know that she was on the radio. She said she broadcasted her music.
APPRAISER: These instruments were popular for Hawaiian music. In fact, this was made by the Weissenborn company in California, and Weissenborn was active from about 1920 into about 1937. It was played with a slide.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: That's why it doesn't have raised frets. It has these individual wood inlaid markers. This is made out of flamy Hawaiian koa wood. I think he was the tastiest, the cleanest of the makers of this type of guitar. A lot of people were reproducing this sort of guitar in those days, but this guy made the most beautiful ones.
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: And I think, also, they used the nicest wood selection, which even today is expensive to buy. This is a grade four, which is the highest grade they made. They made one, two, three, and four. The one would have been very plain koa wood with none of these rope bindings. And these are individual alternating wood pieces, dark and light. And you'll see it goes all the way around the top, and also around the back, up the finger board, around the head, and that's what makes it grade four. I imagine they went up in grade from maybe $25 to $40 to $75. In this case, perhaps $100.
GUEST: $100.
APPRAISER: The Hawaiian craze was at its height in the mid-1920s. Everybody is producing Hawaiian instruments. Unfortunately, shortly after he made these... I don't know if you've ever seen the metal resonator guitars.
GUEST: I have.
APPRAISER: Made by National and Dobro companies.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Well, they really replaced these guitars. So after a while, Weissenborn couldn't sell them. At some point, it would have had a metal slide with it.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: And in order to play it, you'd have to sit down, and either put it in your lap or put it on a table. (strumming)
GUEST: That's beautiful.
APPRAISER: Well, it's a little out of tune right now. I think this one is worth about $4,500. Because the condition is so good, because the wood selection is so nice and flamy. Because the oil varnish is in such beautiful condition, with a little bit of this wonderful craquelure.
GUEST: That's, that's great.
APPRIASER: So somewhere in that $4,000 range.
