APPRAISER: You brought one of my personal favorite toys.

I want you to tell me what you know about it.

GUEST: Well, the only thing I do know is, it was handed down from family to family.

I don't know whether it came from my grandmother or her mother before.

And that would all be in Chicago.

APPRAISER: Do you remember playing with this as a child?

GUEST: No.

APPRAISER: Do you know where it was made or anything like that?

GUEST: I don't know anything-- that's why I was so tickled to have this opportunity to bring it here.

APPRAISER: Well, it's a real treasure and, uh, you couldn't have brought it to a more appreciative audience than to me.

I have one or two of these in my own collection of optical toy... GUEST: Just like this?

APPRAISER: Just-- almost just like this.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: And this was the first and best American kaleidoscope.

GUEST: Oh, really?

APPRAISER: Made by a company called Bush.

It was made in Providence, Rhode Island, for, in the 1870s.

GUEST: Oh, really?

APPRAISER: You can actually see, on the, uh, on the top here, although there's a little corrosion in the metal, you'll see "Bush."

You'll even see there's a little emblem of a kaleidoscope.

GUEST: Oh, truly.

APPRAISER: And then... And it has a patented reissue date of 1873, I, I think I discern.

GUEST: Well, my grandmother was born in 1875, so then that would predate my grandmother, then.

APPRAISER: Maybe it was given to her, perhaps, as a, as a child, uh... GUEST: Maybe-- maybe.

APPRAISER: Although it wasn't really a children's toy.

This was almost a, a scientific wonder of its age.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: Um, this example is really a fine example.

It's got some condition problems which affect its value.

And tell you one thing you probably don't know that's missing.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: There's a little hole right here.

GUEST: I saw that.

APPRAISER: In the stem.

GUEST: Yes, I saw that.

APPRAISER: Often the stem breaks because of that hole.

But what belongs in that hole is a wire, and this could be easily fabricated.

It goes down here and bends up, and you put a candle on that wire.

GUEST: Oh, for heaven's sake!

APPRAISER: So that... GUEST: Oh, my goodness' sake!

APPRAISER: It's, actually provides the illumination.

GUEST: Oh, that's in, that is fascinating.

APPRAISER: Now, what makes this kaleidoscope just so fantastic and head-and-shoulders over anything else are the, are the objects, as you well know, that you see when you look at it.

GUEST: Oh, I love to look at it.

APPRAISER: When you look inside and turn it, you get the typical kaleidoscope effect, but, uh, instead of bits of pieces of colored glass, what you have in here are hand-twisted glass rods, twisted like Venetian glass.

You have little ampoules of, uh, colored oil, so that the liquid actually moves in the ampoules and provides additional color.

And it really... GUEST: Oh, you... APPRAISER: It's just absolutely amazing.

GUEST: You have explained this so beautifully with the ampoules and the oil, and I, uh, I've never heard it explained like that.

APPRAISER: As far as value is concerned, as I said, this is a good example, but it has some wear.

One very good thing, often, these things are missing, which are very hard to replace, so you have all of them.

It could be tightened up, screws tightened up, so it's a little, and I would advise doing this.

In this condition, I would say this kaleidoscope is worth around $1,500.

GUEST: Oh, that is wonderful.

(laughs) That is wonderful to hear.

APPRAISER: So you really have quite a treasure.

GUEST: Ahh.