GUEST: It belonged to my grandparents uh Fred and Maude Harvey, who came from New England.

APPRAISER: Okay, uh-huh.

GUEST: It was in the family before I was... I was raised by them.

APPRAISER: Right.

GUEST: And, um, it sat in our house and had linens in the bottom, and, and writing paper.

I don't remember anybody ever using it really... APPRAISER: Nobody ever... GUEST: ...to write with.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: It's a little high.

And I don't know much about it.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: We used to have an antique shop.

My grandfather had what he called the big clock museum.

And I can remember having open houses and, and people coming by when I was a little kid... APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: ...saying how beautiful it was, and it was a curly maple, da-da-da-da-da, I don't remember.

APPRAISER: Right, right.

'Cause it has it has pizzazz, right, right.

GUEST: Yeah, and I didn't remember any of it.

APPRAISER: Well, this would've been this would've been kind of the 18th-century, uh, Rolodex or Filofax a gentleman would've kept, or a lady.

There's things in here.

Their inkwell with some papers and, uh... quills inside.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And your desk was made in New England, probably New Hampshire.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Uh, between probably 1750 and 1785 or 1790.

GUEST: That old!

Okay.

APPRAISER: Yep.

It's a Chippendale, uh, slant-front desk, is what we call it.

GUEST: Chippendale slant-front, okay.

APPRAISER: Front slant-front desk.

And this tiger maple makes it especially wonderful, 'cause you have this vivid, contrasting, uh, tigering that, that brings your eye up the front, up the lid.

You have this contrasting tiger maple here, and even on the top... And the sides, because tiger maple was really special.

The sides are fairly, fairly plain, as you can see.

GUEST: Right, right.

APPRAISER: And, it... condition-wise, 'cause it's a wonderful desk condition-wise, it has some problems.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Somebody, because they probably revered it so much, they refinished it.

So they took all the original surface off.

And so you have this it's all it's what we call in the business "skinned."

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: It's been skinned, because it's really been cleaned off.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: They've also replaced the brasses.

These are not period brasses.

They're copies of 18th century brasses.

GUEST: Ah, okay.

APPRAISER: And you can see that by looking inside, and you see the a, a hole, which is one good way of telling that the brass is replaced.

You can see the hole... GUEST: The original hole.

Okay.

APPRAISER: ...where the original width was.

They put a replace set that didn't have the same width on it, and put them in.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: But they do the trick.

And most importantly, the entire base, Fritzie, is new.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And... GUEST: How new?

APPRAISER: It's probably I guess it's probably made it was done within 30 or 40 years, but, it's... it may be even 45 years.

They didn't try to fake it up... It has see how sharp and crisp it is?

You can almost cut yourself here.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: It's it's just a new base in the Chippendale style.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: And it's a little bit out of whack.

This scroll is a little too close to this bracket to look authentic.

So they didn't quite get you know, capture the GUEST: Okay, okay.

APPRAISER: What would have been there originally.

But this is fairly good.

This nice drop pendant, that's done fairly well.

I like this break on here, I don't was that always, has that always been on here?

GUEST: Uh, I have that piece, at home... APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: ...because I didn't want it to get lost.

APPRAISER: Well, it's nice 'cause it shows the dovetail, uh, on the side.

You can see how it was made.

The front slides onto the side and makes this wonderful dovetail.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: Fritzie, if this had its original finish, its original brasses, and its original feet... GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: ...it would be worth in the range of about... (clears throat) $15,000 to $17,000.

GUEST: Okay, original with everything, okay.

APPRAISER: Everything original.

As it is... GUEST ; Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...because it's been refinished, because the brasses are replaced, and most importantly, because the feet are new, it's worth about $1,200.

GUEST: $1,200.

Okay.

APPRAISER: $1,200.

Big difference.

Now, you might in a shop, get somebody to... somebody might mark it $1,500, but in that range is what it's worth.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: About a tenth of what it would have been worth.

GUEST: Okay.