Whale Eardrums, ca. 1935

Appraisal: Whale Eardrums, ca. 1935

Transcript

GUEST: My father-in-law was a physician for a whaling company in the '30s. And he acquired these, we're not quite sure how.

APPRAISER: I got to say, this is a "ROADSHOW" first. And you know what they are.

GUEST: They're whale eardrums.

APPRAISER: They're such wonderful, sculptural things. It's just where nature transcends what we can imagine.

GUEST: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: These have developed over millions of years of evolution. Back in the '20s and '30s, when they were still harvesting whales, it was legal to do that, and the sailors and the people working on the ships, I guess they would take anything they could find for a souvenir.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And whoever did this, they thought they were really special, because they even mounted them on whalebone.

GUEST: Yeah, yeah.

APPRAISER: Even though they're super-rare, their value is pretty modest.

GUEST: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: They would sell retail for about $300 apiece.

GUEST: Uh-huh, uh-huh. Thank you so much.