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Interview With Keno Brothers

Aired February 17, 2004 - 14:49   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Attention all you attic addicts and flea market junkies. Time to see if you can tell the difference between trash and treasure among all those dusty things. We's got the Keno brothers, Lee and Leslie, to help us along the way, of course. Hi, guys.
(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Good to see you guys again. OK, I think I've got you figured out. Lee, you're the one with the poster.

LEE KENO, ANTIQUES EXPERT: That's me. There you go.

LESLIE KENO, ANTIQUES EXPERT: And I'm Les.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's start there, Lee. Let's talk about these ski posters. I can not believe how much these are worth. Give us the background, give us the scoop.

LEE KENO: Well, we were actually -- for our show fined up in New Hampshire not too long ago. We found a whole building full of them. And this lady, Pat, had them.

And they ended up going to auction at Swan's (ph) Galleries. And they ended up bringing one just like this, the Dartmouth Winter Carnival poster, 1939, brought around a little over $2,000.

And this is going to come up actually in about six months at Swan Galleries. And probably it will bring over $2,000. But the lady had no idea. We showed up by canoe at her camp in the lake. You remember?

LESLIE KENO: That's right. Great.

LEE KENO: And she had this house full of these.

LESLIE KENO: I was staying in the canoe. I was doing a good job.

LEE KENO: He was a terrible paddler, does not know how to paddle. OK? No canoes for him.

PHILLIPS: We were looking at video actually. She's absolutely adorable. Why did she collect these and why are they worth to much, you guys?

LESLIE KENO: They were up in her play house, really.

(CROSSTALK)

LEE KENO: She had collected them in the '40s actually and she gone to some of these winter carnivals with her various boyfriends when she was teenager. It was really neat.

And so these kind of reminded her of her teenage days.

LESLIE KENO: They're very collectible today.

LEE KENO: What you can do is you can frame them inexpensively, you can protect them, get the stains out of them.

LESLIE KENO: That's right.

LEE KENO: This was one that was hanging up on that lake. It got fixed up. Look how nice it looks.

LESLIE KENO: I think it looks great.

PHILLIPS: And of course the old boyfriends are like, man, why didn't I snag one of those back in 1942.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: All right, guys. Let's move on. Let's take a look at the pair of large brass candlesticks. I understand the 17th century? What's the story behind these?

LESLIE KENO: These are actually really beautiful ones. And you know you can sometimes find these in antique shops pretty inexpensively.

LEE KENO: True.

LESLIE KENO: These are made in the 17th century, before we had electricity, of course. They had candles like this. These are very large, Baroque, French candlesticks.

LEE KENO: Yes, they're really gutsy. I actually use these at my home. Can you see authentic wax right there. Don't clean it off. You have to leave the wax. I use these during that big blackout in New York. Remember the big blackout. This is what I used.

LESLIE KENO: These are pretty valuable. These are probably worth what?

LEE KENO: Well these -- I paid about $5,000 for these. And the thing is you can find these (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in a junk shop for maybe $400 or $500 and people might not know what they are, the tag sale.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: I can see some serious history there.

All right, pace board paper-covered hat box with a scene of windmill and railroad. What's the story behind these?

(CROSSTALK)

LEE KENO: Before women had pocketbooks, they kept clothes and things and all kinds of things in these hat boxes which are made of paper.

(CROSSTALK)

There are dogs, and a railroad. Windmill.

PHILLIPS: Where you guys get this?

LEE KENO: We used to collect these when we were kids. We actually had about 60 of them at one time. Men also kept hats in them, Kyra. They actually kept their hats in there.

The ones that have just flowers on them do not bring a lot. They bring $200 to $500. But these with bold scenes, horses, here the windmill and the railroad, says right here, railroad. This is about a $6,000 pace board box. Circa 1830.

LESLIE KENO: So go to those flea markets, look for those hat boxes.

PHILLIPS: Wow! All right, antique fire buckets.

LESLIE KENO: These are really interesting. Before we had fire departments, they had different societies that would put out fires. These fire buckets -- in the 18th century, fire was an every day part of colonial life. It really was a real problem.

And what -- tell them what would happen.

LEE KENO: If there was a fire, you grabbed your bucket. Every home had a bucket. You grabbed your bucket from next to the front door, threw it out in to the street and everyone did that with their bucket.

So you can imagine how did they survive in this great a shape, right? Then you -- they'd be outside and have a bucket brigade. And you'd actually hold the bucket like this fill with it water and pass it to put out the fire...

(CROSSTALK)

LESLIE KENO: Today they're very collectible because of their folk art appeal. This one was made in Massachusetts. There is a burning building on it.

LEE KENO: That's a rare one.

LESLIE KENO: They're putting out the fire. This one actually sold for close to $45,000 at Sotherby's within the past year.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Were any of them done by famous artists? Do you know? Were you able to go...

LEE KENO: Most of the artists you can't identify. But the interesting thing is if you want it find out more about all kinds of firefighting memorabilia, at the Philadelphia Antique Show in April, April 17, there is a great show...

LESLIE KENO: At the armory.

LEE KENO: At the armory in Philadelphia, there is going to be a great show on all sorts of firefighting memorabilia. Try that on, Les.

LESLIE KENO: It's called Folk Art on Fire.

(CROSSTALK)

LESLIE KENO: In the 1790s they invented fire pumps. Here is a hat, which is a parade hat the firemen would wear with a fire pump on it. Really rare.

LEE KENO: Are these his initials on top? Or what's this?

(CROSSTALK)

LESLIE KENO: This it probably worth in the range of about $30,000. What do you think?

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: You wear $30,000 very well, guys.

LEE KENO: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: And of course, got to plug the show. PBS, you can catch the Keno brothers, Lee and Leslie. Don't want to miss it.

You guys, thanks so much. Always great having you on.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired February 17, 2004 - 14:49   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Attention all you attic addicts and flea market junkies. Time to see if you can tell the difference between trash and treasure among all those dusty things. We's got the Keno brothers, Lee and Leslie, to help us along the way, of course. Hi, guys.
(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Good to see you guys again. OK, I think I've got you figured out. Lee, you're the one with the poster.

LEE KENO, ANTIQUES EXPERT: That's me. There you go.

LESLIE KENO, ANTIQUES EXPERT: And I'm Les.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's start there, Lee. Let's talk about these ski posters. I can not believe how much these are worth. Give us the background, give us the scoop.

LEE KENO: Well, we were actually -- for our show fined up in New Hampshire not too long ago. We found a whole building full of them. And this lady, Pat, had them.

And they ended up going to auction at Swan's (ph) Galleries. And they ended up bringing one just like this, the Dartmouth Winter Carnival poster, 1939, brought around a little over $2,000.

And this is going to come up actually in about six months at Swan Galleries. And probably it will bring over $2,000. But the lady had no idea. We showed up by canoe at her camp in the lake. You remember?

LESLIE KENO: That's right. Great.

LEE KENO: And she had this house full of these.

LESLIE KENO: I was staying in the canoe. I was doing a good job.

LEE KENO: He was a terrible paddler, does not know how to paddle. OK? No canoes for him.

PHILLIPS: We were looking at video actually. She's absolutely adorable. Why did she collect these and why are they worth to much, you guys?

LESLIE KENO: They were up in her play house, really.

(CROSSTALK)

LEE KENO: She had collected them in the '40s actually and she gone to some of these winter carnivals with her various boyfriends when she was teenager. It was really neat.

And so these kind of reminded her of her teenage days.

LESLIE KENO: They're very collectible today.

LEE KENO: What you can do is you can frame them inexpensively, you can protect them, get the stains out of them.

LESLIE KENO: That's right.

LEE KENO: This was one that was hanging up on that lake. It got fixed up. Look how nice it looks.

LESLIE KENO: I think it looks great.

PHILLIPS: And of course the old boyfriends are like, man, why didn't I snag one of those back in 1942.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: All right, guys. Let's move on. Let's take a look at the pair of large brass candlesticks. I understand the 17th century? What's the story behind these?

LESLIE KENO: These are actually really beautiful ones. And you know you can sometimes find these in antique shops pretty inexpensively.

LEE KENO: True.

LESLIE KENO: These are made in the 17th century, before we had electricity, of course. They had candles like this. These are very large, Baroque, French candlesticks.

LEE KENO: Yes, they're really gutsy. I actually use these at my home. Can you see authentic wax right there. Don't clean it off. You have to leave the wax. I use these during that big blackout in New York. Remember the big blackout. This is what I used.

LESLIE KENO: These are pretty valuable. These are probably worth what?

LEE KENO: Well these -- I paid about $5,000 for these. And the thing is you can find these (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in a junk shop for maybe $400 or $500 and people might not know what they are, the tag sale.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: I can see some serious history there.

All right, pace board paper-covered hat box with a scene of windmill and railroad. What's the story behind these?

(CROSSTALK)

LEE KENO: Before women had pocketbooks, they kept clothes and things and all kinds of things in these hat boxes which are made of paper.

(CROSSTALK)

There are dogs, and a railroad. Windmill.

PHILLIPS: Where you guys get this?

LEE KENO: We used to collect these when we were kids. We actually had about 60 of them at one time. Men also kept hats in them, Kyra. They actually kept their hats in there.

The ones that have just flowers on them do not bring a lot. They bring $200 to $500. But these with bold scenes, horses, here the windmill and the railroad, says right here, railroad. This is about a $6,000 pace board box. Circa 1830.

LESLIE KENO: So go to those flea markets, look for those hat boxes.

PHILLIPS: Wow! All right, antique fire buckets.

LESLIE KENO: These are really interesting. Before we had fire departments, they had different societies that would put out fires. These fire buckets -- in the 18th century, fire was an every day part of colonial life. It really was a real problem.

And what -- tell them what would happen.

LEE KENO: If there was a fire, you grabbed your bucket. Every home had a bucket. You grabbed your bucket from next to the front door, threw it out in to the street and everyone did that with their bucket.

So you can imagine how did they survive in this great a shape, right? Then you -- they'd be outside and have a bucket brigade. And you'd actually hold the bucket like this fill with it water and pass it to put out the fire...

(CROSSTALK)

LESLIE KENO: Today they're very collectible because of their folk art appeal. This one was made in Massachusetts. There is a burning building on it.

LEE KENO: That's a rare one.

LESLIE KENO: They're putting out the fire. This one actually sold for close to $45,000 at Sotherby's within the past year.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: Were any of them done by famous artists? Do you know? Were you able to go...

LEE KENO: Most of the artists you can't identify. But the interesting thing is if you want it find out more about all kinds of firefighting memorabilia, at the Philadelphia Antique Show in April, April 17, there is a great show...

LESLIE KENO: At the armory.

LEE KENO: At the armory in Philadelphia, there is going to be a great show on all sorts of firefighting memorabilia. Try that on, Les.

LESLIE KENO: It's called Folk Art on Fire.

(CROSSTALK)

LESLIE KENO: In the 1790s they invented fire pumps. Here is a hat, which is a parade hat the firemen would wear with a fire pump on it. Really rare.

LEE KENO: Are these his initials on top? Or what's this?

(CROSSTALK)

LESLIE KENO: This it probably worth in the range of about $30,000. What do you think?

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: You wear $30,000 very well, guys.

LEE KENO: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: And of course, got to plug the show. PBS, you can catch the Keno brothers, Lee and Leslie. Don't want to miss it.

You guys, thanks so much. Always great having you on.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com