GUEST: Well, I think it's a Navajo blanket.

And, uh, I grew up in a small town in Southern Missouri, Eminence.

And there was a lady there who was also interested in Native American things.

And, uh, she had this, and I admired it for a while.

And at some point, for a birthday or Christmas or something, she gave it to me as a gift.

APPRAISER: This is a Navajo blanket, and it's an exceptionally great Navajo blanket, because it's a classic woman's wearing blanket.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: This would've been something for special occasions, ceremonials, for, um, gatherings.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: When they traveled, when they met and greeted people, when they had people coming, visitors.

This would have represented the prowess of a great Navajo weaver and the stature of a Navajo woman that this would have adorned.

It's also, to make it more interesting, is, it's a chief's blanket style, which is a second phase.

And so we have these little quadrants and bars and we have these kind of chevrons elements in here, as well.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: What I really like about it is the history of weaving and all of the elements that come into this blanket.

So this great color is indigo.

It's, like, what makes a Navajo blanket even more desirable.

GUEST: Hm.

APPRAISER: And then the red.

The red is actually a raveled bayeta from an old blanket.

And then it's dyed again with cochineal, which is actually from a, a beetle.

And it creates a, a red, but it has just a subtle nuance of almost purple to it.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: That really nice hue.

The gray is, like, how do we get gray wool?

Well, they're carding, uh, brown wool in with the white, and it gets this really wonderful intermediate gray.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: You get these great stripes, these larger quadrants of thicker bands.

And then you get the spacings.

You get rhythms happening throughout the weaving.

This blanket is woven in about 1860 to 1870.

And it, it looks like it's maybe been cleaned.

And we have some condition issues with what's called the selvage, the edge that goes all the way around the perimeter, but it's all here.

There's a few little areas where maybe it's seen a little more wear than normal.

But again, this was a blanket that someone used, so it's survived all of this time.

Have you ever ha, talked to anybody about having it appraised before?

GUEST: No.

APPRAISER: Okay.

It's a really good, rare example of a Navajo woman's or even a, a young girl's... GUEST: Hm.

APPRAISER: ...wearing blanket, and a blanket from this period probably is worth, a retail, and this is an as-is price, between $20,000... GUEST: (softly) Wow.

APPRAISER: ...and $25,000.

GUEST: Had no idea-- huh!

That's great.

I had no idea it was that old.

I thought maybe 1900, something like that.

APPRAISER: Sure, older than that.

GUEST: (chuckling) APPRAISER: And it goes back a ways.