APPRAISER: I see you've brought us some fascinating bits of Americana here: two letters from, uh, Daniel Webster and a locket.

And I'm very interested in finding out what you know of their history.

GUEST: Sure-- my great-aunt married what we understand to be the last male heir to the Van Rensselaer fortune... APPRAISER: Mm.

GUEST: ...uh, when she was quite young and he was quite old.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: Um, when he died, she, of course, inherited everything he had.

And when she died, it went to my grandmother, and then to me, when my grandmother died.

APPRAISER: Well, Van Rensselaer is another famous name in American history.

So it's a very interesting association between the Rensselaer family and Daniel Webster.

Normally, the autograph of Daniel Webster doesn't have a very high value, because he signed so many things.

He was a prolific writer.

$75, $100 in that.

But I find these especially interesting.

This letter, he speaks of the artist Harding, at his request, has painted a portrait.

Now, I don't know where this portrait is.

Maybe it's well-known, maybe not.

Maybe this is a clue that would help some scholar determine who a particular portrait was by.

So this has some very, very good historical content.

This other letter, he's writing to a young man who has suffered financial reverses, and he's commiserating with him.

And, uh, evidently, the young man lost his money in a way that, uh, still happens.

Uh, as he says here, "You know, I never did like your employment.

Dealing in stocks is mere gambling on a larger scale."

So what's true then is still true today.

The locket, which is a very interesting enamel on gold, has on one side a small shield with the initials D.W., for Daniel Webster, and on the other side, inset with pearls.

On the inside, a date, October the 24th, 1852.

That's the day they obtained the lock of Daniel Webster's hair, which is encased on the other side, underneath a crystal protective cover.

So, all of these three things-- uh, the correspondence, the historical content, the general name recognition-- is so good that instead of a few hundred dollars, I would think that this group is worth the better part of $2,000, right in that neighborhood, so... I take it, a little pleasantly surprised there.

GUEST: It is.

Thank you very much.