GUEST: I inherited it from my father when he passed a couple years ago.

He got it directly from Jerome Kirk, uh, in 1960.

Jerome, in 1960, had applied to get a fellowship with Alexander Calder, and he and his wife came to the East Coast, and his wife and my mother were friends.

And so, they stayed at our house while they were, while he was applying, talking to Calder, and-and applying for a fellowship.

After the interview with Calder, Kirk gave this mobile to my father... APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: ...as thank you gift for letting him stay at our house.

According to the story my mother told me, after Calder saw these pieces, he sent him a note telling him that he was not accepting him for a fellowship because he was, "obviously, there's nothing I can teach you..." Is what, is what he told him.

APPRAISER: Right.

And this is the piece he actually brought to show to Calder to apply for this fellowship?

GUEST: Yes.

And, uh, his wife, Honor, they had just had a child who was the same age as I am, and at the time, they had to leave their son in California, and, uh, she was nursing him.

And so, when they came to Connecticut, she was worried about drying up her milk, and so, my mother lent me to her to, uh, to, to keep her milk flowing.

And so, that's-- that was my part in the story.

(soft chuckle) APPRAISER: I've been doing the ROADSHOW for 29 seasons, and this is the most unusual acquisition story I've heard.

Well, it's by Jerome Kirk.

He was born in 1923, and he died in 2019.

He was born in Detroit and moved to California.

He's largely self-taught.

He went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and studied mechanical engineering, and you can see how that comes into play with Kirk's work.

He started out doing these things that look very much like a, a, um, a Calder.

He was certainly influenced by Calder, as well as other artists of the period, especially Harry Bertoia who did things that move.

We call them kinetic sculptures, and this is a prime example of, of a kinetic sculpture.

But you can see how incredibly these are made.

Very intricately balanced, and they look really, really wonderful, and they move so well.

And it's very clearly signed here "Kirk.

1959."

GUEST: You know, I've-- I've had it in my family since 1960, and I've never noticed the signature.

APPRAISER: This is early in his work.

He went on to do more tabletop things and outdoor monuments that moved also, but they really were not based on this sort of mobile format.

His work is, is very highly collected, and they're very desirable.

This would have a retail value in the $20,000 range.

GUEST: (stammering): That's, that's really good.

APPRAISER: Uh-huh.

GUEST: I have no plans on getting rid of it, though.

APPRAISER: Right.

GUEST: Been in my family, so... APPRAISER: If it was a Calder, it'd probably be $2 or $3 million.

GUEST: (laughs): Yeah, yup, well, that's the difference.