Antiques Road Show

The best of Antiques Road Show was on the other night on local PBS, which was a series of highlights of the most expensive things they'd ever had. There were several weapons but an interesting one was a tomahawk. It was a nice piece but not overly fancy, appeared to be early 1800's, had a striped handle and a silver inlay made from a period coin. It was an anonymous hawk and no one knew who owned it. The current owner had inherited it and played with it as a child. That abuse had damaged the poll and lost a second piece of silver but the appraiser came back anyway with a current auction value of $150,000!!! I told my wife that was the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. What do y'all think - are period accessories really going for these types of prices?!? Not that I would pay it, but I figured closer to 4-5 grand at most was reasonable.

 

[2172]

Anvil, I saw the show and had the same reaction. The only explanation I can offer is that any "non firearm specific" antique shop seems to view weapons of any kind as "gold"...when I've remarked that some piece of junk was overpriced, the answer usually is "but its an old gun it must be worth that..." I thought that that was just regional stupidity when I lived in the Northeast, but I find it even here in western NC...Hank

 

[graybeard]

I believe that was the show I saw a while back (my wife watches that sort of thing) and they showed a beautiful pair of flintlock pistols. Very ornate and dating from the eighteenth century. The moderaters advised their audience that firearms such as those should be locked away so children can't get at them and really should be rendered inoperative by disabling the firing mechanism. I now leave the room when that show comes on. graybeard :no:

 

[Henry]

The old law of offer and demand .


A Charlevilles is easy to find , a " boucannier"
made only 40 years earlier , is another story
I think that there must be 6 or 7 left on this
planet today .

When the film " the longest day " was made
all accessories and uniforms were still available
as army surplus , when " private Ryan " was made
all those thing were now " antiques & collectables "
and it was cheaper to have new ones ( jeeps and trucks
includes ) made up for the occasion .

Trends are another thing , 20 years ago there
was no demand for a Hudson valley fowler , it was
just an old ugly gun ..... have you looked at the
price of a 1920 double barreled shotgun today ?

Finally , there is much more money around today
but not much brain to control it. Last week , there
were many TV programs about the Star War " collectibles "
and the prices they are supposed to be worth .

Strange society that knows the price of everything
but the value of some things .

 

[Griz]

About 1 year ago they had a Jacob Dickert rifle that was in very good condition, they guessed the date to be around 1790 + or -. Priced at $96,000.00 big ones. :shocking: :shocking:

 

[bezoar]

I agree with you Henry. Theres alot of junk with high prices that are worthless. One episode of roadshow had a badly damaged doll dress from the 1920s at 3,000 dollars, a collection of 20 matchbox cars at 5,000+. hile a near mint condition book from the 1590s with exquisite gilding and binding was only worth 1,200 dollars to the appraiser.

the value of real goods like those pistols and that book go down with current fads. bet the owner could have gotten 20 grand before the internet replaced books.

and that appraiser who said to kill the action needs to be shot.

 

[Henry]

"...and that appraiser who said to kill the action needs to be shot. .... "

Well ..., this is a bit drastic !

I am working on an old percussion shotgun of
very little value , the nipple on it , not only
of the wrong size and cross threaded is mushroomed
beyond recognition . Just un hooking the main spring
does prevent abuse and accidents , for the abuser
as well as for the gun itself .

 

[TANSTAAFL]

"...and that appraiser who said to kill the action needs to be shot. .... "

.

AKA, Call me a gun nut again and I will blow your head off. :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

 

[Gary]

When I worked in a museum, I asked the curators what they thought of the show. Many of them rolled their eyes. :shake:

Anyhow, one antique gun dealer on the show went to another state where he was shown a Late Great Unpleasantness Between States (or the Mother of American Family Feuds aka Sybil Wa-oh) period revolver. He appraised and it was sold at auction for a huge sum. Later, the FBI came in and rounded up the ususal suspects. Turns out the gun belonged to the dealer, the person who brought it in was his friend, and the two colluded to inflate the value and dupe (and indeed induce) someone to pay more than it was worth. :nono: They're at Club Fed :applause: being fed federal food paid by We The Peepul.

 

[bezoar]

Well its not as drastic as destroying the action. Its hard enough to keep them working properly, and they are fun to shoot so why should a good fucntioning fire arm be destroyed just because "little timmy" might want to hold it someday?