GUEST: Well, it's a family piece.

My family is from the East Coast, New England area-- I, I don't know quite back that far.

There was a captain of a clipper ship that ran out of Yarmouth, on the Cape.

The other side of my dad's family was from Pennsylvania area.

My uncles, my aunt, and my dad all kind of moved out west in the '70s.

And my grandmother and grandfather followed the kids to Colorado and Idaho.

Um, and then as my grandmother was aging and we were just moving her into a smaller home, this one ended up with me.

My uncle had, I think, gotten a little bit tired of taking care of it.

(chuckles) It's got some, it's a little bit more high-maintenance.

I think there's some, some legs and some of the skirt stuff that had been kind of knocked off a couple of times.

And I think they'd just kind of done some home remedy fixes.

It didn't really fit in with their, with their plans to kind of take care of it, and I just didn't want to see it go anywhere else.

So I stuffed it in a U-Haul and brought it back up to Idaho.

APPRAISER: And that was from Denver?

GUEST: Yeah, Colorado Springs area.

APPRAISER: Yeah, okay.

Yeah.

So, do you think this is one of the original pieces from the East Coast, or...?

GUEST: (slowly): Yeah.

My aunt thought it might have come from the side of the family in Pennsylvania.

APPRAISER: This chest is from the Federal period, and it's likely 1795 to 1805.

It's actually from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Not Pennsylvania.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: So it's probably from your New England side of the family.

GUEST: Okay, okay.

APPRAISER: And I know that without even having to pull the drawers or anything.

What's iconic about this and, and indicative of the Portsmouth area is the way the drawers are divided...

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: ...into thirds.

And the real giveaway is that panel in the middle of each drawer that drops down to the middle...

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: ...and then that pendant apron below.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: The drawers are made out of mahogany veneer, but they have what's called flame birch panels in the middle.

The secondary woods are white pine.

The case sides and the case top, again, made out of birch.

Birch grows in abundance, white pine grows in abundance in New Hampshire.

GUEST: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, uh-huh.

APPRAISER: Mahogany was imported from the Caribbean often.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And they used it in very limited amounts, and here it's just veneer and accents.

I see.

The inlay that mat, that goes a, around the edge of the top is also repeated around the bottom of the case.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: And the other piece of the detail that I like a great deal is the drop pendant that I mentioned, and how it's flanked by checkered inlay...

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: ...or staggered inlay.

I almost, if I step back and look at it, it feels to me almost like a column.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: Because this is a Neoclassical period, it's harkening back to earlier Classical architecture.

The brasses have been replaced.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: So you were mentioning some of the condition issues.

Easy to fix.

These things are built to last.

In this condition and with this nice old surface, which is not original, but it's old and dry and great color...

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: ...I think I could put an auction estimate on this piece without any difficulty of $15,000 to $20,000.

GUEST: (chuckling): Wow.

That's pretty amazing.

That's cool.

I'm just glad it's survived as many moves across the country and around the West, and I hope my daughters are going to be interested in it enough to kind of keep, keep it in good shape and hopefully pass it on down through the generations.

Back in my 20s, I may have had ANTIQUES ROADSHOW, uh, drinking games... APPRAISER: (laughs) GUEST: ...uh, with some of my friends.

I might send, uh, a few pictures of this to some old buddies, and see if they... APPRAISER: (chuckles) GUEST: ...make the over under, ...or if they owe me a beer.

So... APPRAISER: (laughs)