GUEST: This chair came from my stepfather's family.

I came into possession when my mother passed away.

She always said to me, "Don't ever let this go."

I, at one time, got offered $75 from an antique dealer for it.

I knew what my mother said.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: The little bit of research I did indicated it might be a Philadelphia shell chair.

APPRAISER: You're absolutely right.

GUEST: And from there I know there's so many reproductions of a lot of these chairs.

APPRAISER: Right.

I'll tell you, when I saw this across the room, I thought, that's what I really love, and that's Philadelphia Chippendale.

So, so you're right, it's Philadelphia, absolutely.

If a client went into a shop and wanted a chair, he-he might order a chair really plain or one with a shell.

This has these carved ears with nice little tool marks here.

They used little chisels.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: And you come down and this is a typical Philadelphia splat.

We call this a tassel back chair.

GUEST: Oh... APPRAISER: And then we come down and who did the seat, by the way?

GUEST: I think my mother did, she did a lot of needlepoint, and it's, uh, her work.

(chuckles) APPRAISER: It's nice.

It's nice to have that, right?

Okay, come down to the skirt and this is a wonderful, classic Philadelphia shell, flanked by carving on the knees...

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: ...and classic claw and ball feet.

They have webbing.

It's just typical of 1770, 1780 Philadelphia.

In addition, if we turn around the ba- turn it around to the back, this through tenon right here, this exposed tenon, is a side rail which goes through the back leg...

GUEST: Oh, so... APPRAISER: ...which is typical of Philadelphia.

Now, here, on the edges, it's really dark and then it's lighter right here.

Now, that's a combination of the fact that people, when they touch this chair...

GUEST: Oh... you put you'd touch it there.

APPRAISER: ...touch it here.

And the oil from their hands from over 200 years of touching it has made it this wonderful black color.

So if we come back around, we can see that finish on the front.

And on this great Philadelphia scallop shell, here's this... see this light, dark, light, dark, light, dark...

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: That has all the original shellac from the 18th century.

It's GUEST: So it's a good thing I didn't get it refinished or something.

(laughs) APPRAISER: Oh my, it's a great thing.

And that's what gets me so excited.

You come over to the ears, look at this contrast of dark and light.

And people ask, "Why is original finish so important?"

And one reason is if you took off that finish, that original finish, this shell would look very flat.

And the chair is made of American black walnut, which is really GUEST: Oh...

Okay.

APPRAISER: ...the wood of choice for the Queen Anne style in Philadelphia.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: Now, if this chair were refinished, let's take off the finish, let's make believe you didn't listen to your mom and you said...

GUEST: "I'll clean it."

Okay.

APPRAISER: "Oh, it's a...

I'll clean it up," it would be probably a $2,000 chair.

With the original finish, this chair is easily worth, at auction, would $8,000 to $12,000.

$8,000 to $12,000 easily.

GUEST: All right.

APPRAISER: So you can average $10,000.

GUEST: Okay!

APPRAISER: So, not bad.

Could you- GUEST: Not bad, no.

(laughing): It was... better than the $75 offer.