GUEST: I brought a rug that has been in my family for many years.

Family lore has it that it was the second-place winner in the World's Fair, 1939, 1940.

We don't have a ribbon for that second place, but we do have a blue ribbon from Macy's, where she won first prize to get into the World's Fair.

APPRAISER: And was this a relative who made this?

GUEST: Yes, it was my great-aunt Jessie Teed, who I guess was known for her work.

APPRAISER: And do you know much about the technique that Jessie Teed was using in making the rug?

GUEST: I only know from an article that she wrote about her work.

She talked about how she used quarter-inch strips of wool.

That was the best, she said, makes a lightweight rug and very sturdy.

She talked about the burlap that she would use from the flour sacks.

APPRAISER: The technique is called hooked rug.

Mm-hmm.

It's where they take the thin wool fabric strips, and with a hook, punch them through the surface and pull them back through to form the carpet's pile.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: Usually when one thinks about American hooked rugs, you think about folk art.

And this is about as far from folk art as you can get.

Jessie Teed was from Unadilla, New York, which is near Binghamton.

It's sort of rural, South Central New York.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: And it's a pretty sophisticated design for kind of rural New York at the time.

She's taking these zodiac figures.

It's very, very much an Art Deco design layout.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: And then in the center, you can see this incredible sailing ship in turbulent, topsy-turvy seas.

And I don't know if you've noticed it, but she signed it "JMT," hidden amongst the waves, which I think is just such a great little touch.

GUEST: It is, and I did not know that until your crew hung the rug up and I saw it.

APPRAISER: She also dated it, which is very difficult to see in here, because it blends in with the waves.

But it's 1932, and I was able to find reference to a 1946 diary written by Nellie Carr, where she's talking about, that Nellie Carr's talking about her grandmother going to live with Jessie and her family.

'Cause Jessie was busy making her rugs and her rug designs, and needed help with the house.

GUEST: Oh, I did not know that.

APPRAISER: Yeah, yeah.

Which really indicates to me that she was approaching this as a profession, and really couldn't be a homemaker anymore because she was busy designing and hooking these rugs.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: Have you ever had it appraised?

GUEST: I had it appraised a few years ago.

The gentleman said it was worth about $2,000 for insurance value.

APPRAISER: In a retail setting today, this rug would be $8,000.

(exclaims softly) GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: Oh, wow.

APPRAISER: For insurance, I would keep it around that same $8,000 mark.

GUEST: Okay.

I will.

APPRAISER: It's just a beautiful, striking, uh, eye-catching design that would have great appeal to a lot of different people.

GUEST: Wow.