GUEST 1: This leather key basket belonged to our great-great grandmother... APPRAISER: Right.

GUEST 1: ...who lived, uh, in Warren County, North Carolina.

The plantation name was Fairmont.

APPRAISER: Fairmont.

GUEST 1: Fairmont, APPRAISER: uh-huh.

And so it's been in the family since about... what would you figure the date would be?

GUEST 1: The house was, uh, occupied by 1839.

APPRAISER: 1839.

And how-- and she lived a-about how long ago?

1850s, 1860s, something like that?

GUEST 1: Probably, somewhere around that area, yeah.

APPRAISER: Yeah.

Well, I-- you know, what's so interesting about this piece is, before you told me any of that, um, I, I knew that it had to have a really good, strong, Southern kind of tradition attached to it, because it's one of those pieces of Americana which is just generic to the South.

These things don't exist in other parts of the country.

And basically, um, they were made for young women at the point that they were betrothed for marriage as a kind of both symbolic and, and... and usable object which kind of forecast what the woman's responsibilities were going to be, and, and her domestic role in kind of keeping the... keeping the keys and, and being the gatekeeper of various buildings that existed.

So, what you've told me is really part and parcel of what the traditional history is for these things.

But these were also probably made by people who made saddles and were leather workers.

And you can see, if you examine the stitchery here, that it looks like... what a boot maker or saddle maker, the same kind of st-- stitching technique that they would have used.

They're just... they're, they're-- aesthetically, they're very pleasing.

Just to kind of, uh, place it in terms of a commercial value, of course, the family association is something which is invaluable and means a great deal to you, but there is a value to these things on the commercial market as well.

And the way that... the way that it works is if they're very ornate, with appliques and cutouts and hearts and different colors of leather, they can be worth tens of thousands of dollars.

This one, which is used but in good condition and rather simple in its decoration, would be worth less money, but it still would be worth somewhere in the vicinity of maybe $2,000 to $3,000 in an auction situation.

So, it's-- it's a lovely piece.

It's very... it's-it's very important to the history of this area.

Certainly very important to you in terms of the family association.

And it's, uh, one of the things that makes Americana so great, because you look at something like this, and you've got a piece of living history right in front of you.

GUEST 1: Well, we have always thought a lot of it, and you just reinforced that.

APPRAISER: Right.

GUEST 1: (laughs) APPRAISER: And it was well worth that.

Thanks so much.

GUEST 1: Thank you.

GUEST 2: Thank you.