
Appraisal: French Bru Doll, ca. 1880
Clip: Season 27 Episode 17 | 2m 36sVideo has Closed Captions
Appraisal: French Bru Doll, ca. 1880
Check out Richard Wright's appraisal of a French Bru doll, ca. 1880, in Vintage Hartford 2023, Hour 2.
Funding for ANTIQUES ROADSHOW is provided by Ancestry and American Cruise Lines. Additional funding is provided by public television viewers.

Appraisal: French Bru Doll, ca. 1880
Clip: Season 27 Episode 17 | 2m 36sVideo has Closed Captions
Check out Richard Wright's appraisal of a French Bru doll, ca. 1880, in Vintage Hartford 2023, Hour 2.
How to Watch Antiques Roadshow
Antiques Roadshow is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
Buy Now

ANTIQUES ROADSHOW 2025 Tour!
Enter now for a chance to win free tickets to ANTIQUES ROADSHOW's 2025 Tour! Plus, see which cities we're headed to!Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipGUEST: My grandmother gave her to me as part of a doll collection.
She got her in 1947.
She used to take in ironing and she paid $15 a week to get this doll and she paid $75 for it when she got it.
I now she's a Bru, which is a French doll.
I know she's probably the best doll in my doll collection.
When I was a child, it was a doll I was not allowed to play with.
APPRAISER: We know it's a Bru-- it's a very, very beautiful Bru, made in France in the late 1880s.
She has a closed mouth, as you see, nice brown paperweight eyes.
Her original wig, which you were sort of worried about that a little bit?
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Don't change the wig.
Even though it's a little bit worn, leave her wig alone.
Completely original clothes, which are wonderful-- her hat, her dress, her shoes.
Shoes are not marked Bru; they're unmarked, but they're period shoes from the same time.
She has a leather body with wooden lower legs.
Bisque head.
Bisque shoulder plate, which swivels, pierced ears, solid glass eyes, and just a lovely...
The face people want to see.
Little hint of a tongue there, which the collectors love.
The quality of the bisque is very good.
And did you have any idea maybe of the value of the doll at all?
GUEST: Well, I thought maybe around $5,000.
APPRAISER: That's quite a lot of money.
Do you want to hear the good part or the bad part?
GUEST: Let's hear the bad part first.
APPRAISER: Okay.
Well, the bad part is, she's got something replaced on her.
Do you know what that is?
GUEST: No.
APPRAISER: It's her arms.
GUEST: Oh, all right.
APPRAISER: Her arms are actually German bisque arms.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Her hands must have broken years and years ago.
She probably went to a doll hospital and they put the German hands on.
They could have been broken in the 19th century, early 20th century.
That hurts her value.
But she's still worth a little more than $5,000.
So, with the replaced arms, her value on today's market at a doll show or a good auction would be around $15,000.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: If you could find the original arms-- which are very hard to find, but-ch they are out there somewhere-- expect to pay as much as $2,000 for a pair of those arms.
But it increases her value to $20,000 to $25,000.
So it's worth looking for.
GUEST: Okay.
Appraisal: 1886 Eugene Lanceray Bronze Svyatoslav
Video has Closed Captions
Appraisal: 1886 Eugene Lanceray Bronze Svyatoslav (3m 15s)
Appraisal: 1894 Charles Courtney Curran Portrait
Video has Closed Captions
Appraisal: 1894 Charles Courtney Curran Portrait (3m 23s)
Appraisal: 1941 USS Trever Deck Logs
Video has Closed Captions
Appraisal: 1941 USS Trever Deck Logs (1m 26s)
Appraisal: 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas' 1st U.S. Edition
Video has Closed Captions
Appraisal: '20,000 Leagues Under the Seas' 1st U.S. Edition (3m 50s)
Appraisal: Converted Van Cleef & Arpels Brooch, ca. 1925
Video has Closed Captions
Appraisal: Converted Van Cleef & Arpels Brooch, ca. 1925 (2m 53s)
Appraisal: European Decorative Plates
Video has Closed Captions
Appraisal: European Decorative Plates (3m 21s)
Appraisal: Evelyn Rumsey Cary "Woman Suffrage" Poster
Video has Closed Captions
Appraisal: Evelyn Rumsey Cary 'Woman Suffrage' Poster, ca. 1905 (3m 23s)
Appraisal: Frankenau Purse Revolver, ca. 1880
Video has Closed Captions
Appraisal: Frankenau Purse Revolver, ca. 1880 (2m 10s)
Appraisal: Gouda Pottery Charger, ca. 1950
Video has Closed Captions
Appraisal: Gouda Pottery Charger, ca. 1950 (1m 38s)
Appraisal: Japanese Cloisonné Vase, ca. 1920
Video has Closed Captions
Appraisal: Japanese Cloisonné Vase, ca. 1920 (2m 4s)
Appraisal: Japanese Export Textile, ca. 1875
Video has Closed Captions
Appraisal: Japanese Export Textile, ca. 1875 (1m 2s)
Appraisal: Mid-20th Century Ralph Cahoon Oil Painting
Video has Closed Captions
Appraisal: Mid-20th Century Ralph Cahoon Oil Painting (1m 54s)
Appraisal: Military Uniform Button Collection, ca. 1865
Video has Closed Captions
Appraisal: Military Uniform Button Collection, ca. 1865 (3m 21s)
Appraisal: Rhode Island Highboy Base, ca. 1750
Video has Closed Captions
Appraisal: Rhode Island Highboy Base, ca. 1750 (3m 27s)
Appraisal: Ted Williams Woods by Penna, ca. 1970
Video has Closed Captions
Appraisal: Ted Williams Woods by Penna, ca. 1970 (2m 59s)
Appraisal: Tiffany Glass Vase, ca. 1895
Video has Closed Captions
Appraisal: Tiffany Glass Vase, ca. 1895 (3m 3s)
Appraisal: Woman's Silk Shoes, ca. 1785
Video has Closed Captions
Appraisal: Woman's Silk Shoes, ca. 1785 (2m 48s)
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipFunding for ANTIQUES ROADSHOW is provided by Ancestry and American Cruise Lines. Additional funding is provided by public television viewers.