When the PBS series “Antiques Roadshow” visited Baltimore in June, it was a blistering, 90-degree day at the Maryland Zoo, where producers of the iconic TV show set up to appraise items brought by family, friends and fans.
But turns out, the temperatures were not nearly as high as the estimates that some lucky collectors received for their treasures, including paintings, a sample safe and a jacket made from tanned deer hide.
The episodes filmed in Baltimore have been airing in April on PBS, with the last of three hourlong shows airing Monday at 8 p.m.
Here are five of the priciest finds in Baltimore so far.
Métis Cree Frock Cost, ca. 1840
Appraisal: $30,000-$40,000
Appraiser: Ted Trotta, Trotta-Bono LTD (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
“I had not actually ever taken it out of the box before I looked at it and seen how beautiful it was, and didn’t want to hurt it or disturb it. So it’s been in a box,” a woman says about a coat she inherited from her father.
Trotta says the garment dates to the 1800s and is from Canada. The material is tanned deer hide with porcupine quill ornamentation and Venetian glass beads.
“The folks who made this are called the Red River Cree, the Métis Cree,” he says. “This was tailored by an Indigenous woman, a First Nation woman of Canada, but in a Western style.”
“Wow. It’s just fabulous, beautiful.”
York Salesman’s Sample Safe, ca. 1916
Appraisal: $30,000-$50,000
Appraiser: Gary Piattoni (Evanston, Illinois)
The sample safe is a family relic for a man whose grandfather was a salesman for the York Safe & Lock Company in York, Pennsylvania.
“It’s my understanding that he used to lug this model around to prospective customers trying to sell them full-size vaults and safes,” he says. “It’s so heavy; my mom was afraid to put it up on the shelf.”
Piattoni points out that it’s a working model with a patent date of July 31, 1906. “It’s so highly detailed; it’s meant to represent the full-scale model,” he says. It’s also made of manganese steel, which was nonmagnetic and also used during the war for soldiers helmets so it wouldn’t interfere with compasses.
After the appraisal, the owner says, “I might actually build a shelf for it now.”
1976 Ed Clark Abstract Expressionist Artwork
Appraisal: $50,000-$65,000
Appraiser: Myrtis Bedolla, Galerie Myrtis (Baltimore)
“My wife passed away in 2019, and she was a collector of all kinds of art but particularly African American artists,” the owner tells the appraiser about the painting by Ed Clark, which has a handwritten inscription dating it to April 1976.
“Ed Clark was a very important African American artist. He reached a level of prominence later in his career,” says Bedolla, sharing a history of the New Orleans-born artist, whose work has been shown in institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“Something that is indicative of his work are the bands of color that is signature to his style,” Bedolla says, adding that the artist’s work has become highly sought after in recent years.
“You have a really beautiful piece here by Clark, and it’s quite a gem.”
1967 Ram Kumar Oil Painting
Appraisal: $180,000
Appraiser: Robin Starr, Bonhams Skinner (Boston)
“My parents lived in India in the ’60s. My dad had gotten a Fulbright scholarship, and so they traveled there,” a woman says, explaining that it was on a second trip to India, for her father’s research, that her parents were introduced to an artist in a park in New Delhi.
“He invited them back to his studio, and they bought this beautiful painting, and it’s been in my family since I was a kid,” she says.
Starr says the artist, Ram Kumar, was part of the first generation of post-Colonial Indian painters, so it was important to the artist “to make sure his style stayed Indian.”
“It’s an oil on canvas, it’s signed, and it’s also dated 1967, and this is really when he started to go more abstract,” Starr says. “This is right at the moment that he’s really just mastering abstraction.”
The painting is in terrific condition, he says, but offers some advice: Put it in a frame.
1959 & 1961 Lynne Drexler Oil Paintings
Appraisal: $350,000-$570,000
Appraiser: Aaron Payne, Aaron Payne Fine Art (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
The owner has brought two paintings for appraisal, inherited from a relative who once lived in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and who worked with a renowned painter.
“My great aunt was an artist, and she studied under Hans Hofmann and wound up becoming friends with several of the other artists that studied along with him, and one of them was a woman named Lynne Drexler,” she says. “I’ve always loved them.”
Drexler, who died in 1999, was considered an abstract expressionist, Payne says.
“These are great examples of her work,” he says about the oils paintings on canvas, which are both signed and dated on the back.
Payne notes that a lot of artists from this time have been overlooked, particularly the women.
“But in recent years, there have been several books written, and there been several exhibitions really focusing on the women abstract artists of that period,” he says.
The market for Drexler’s paintings “has really shifted,” Payne says.
After hearing the estimated value of up to $570,000 for both pieces, the owner appears stunned.
“Oh, my goodness, I’m speechless. … I would have never imagined. That’s fantastic.”
‘Antiques Roadshow,’ Maryland Zoo, Hour 3 airs April 28 at 8 p.m. on PBS. Viewers can also see past episodes and highlights at pbs.org.
Have a news tip? Send it to nzimmerman@baltsun.com.