GUEST: The story that I received was that it was a relative of mine who is a great-great-great-uncle, and he was a prisoner of war.

He was a Confederate, was captured and sent to a place called Johnson's Island, on Lake Erie.

It was for officers, and they evidently had pretty much free rein, and were allowed pastimes like carving.

He made this while he was a prisoner there, and then presented it back home when he was released.

APPRAISER: The gentleman was interned on Johnson's Island... GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: ...which is a bit unusual within the Civil War prison system in the North.

This is an island off of Sandusky, Ohio... GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: ...in Lake Erie.

They designed this in late 1861, opened it in very early 1862, and they were running it through the end of the war.

Of all those individuals to go through, about 200 passed on from exposure, disease, and the things that normally hurt people... GUEST: Sure.

APPRAISER: ...during the war.

It was considerably nicer than most other Civil War prison situations.

The value that is associated with it, both decorative, historical, monetary, does not really change because it's Union- or Confederate-made.

It's, just simply, it's a piece of Civil War prison art, and they're all of considerable interest to people who collect that material.

This one is of considerably more interest, in my opinion, because of the beauty of the work.

It's a nice openwork box.

You can see it's got the openwork details on the front and on the top, and just an absolutely gorgeous thing.

It seems to have seen happier centuries.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: It looks to me like your hinges may have been replaced, there are a couple of replacement nails, and somebody went wild with the wood glue down in there.

Much as we might have done something a little differently, that has kept it together.

And openwork like this is pretty fragile.

We've got a couple of cracks in here-- one right here, one right here from expansion.

But on the whole, there's nothing that, that threatens it structurally or aesthetically.

It's a beautiful piece.

You're looking at a piece that would have an auction estimate between $2,000 and $4,000.

GUEST: Wow.

Okay.

Well, it's not for sale.

(laughs) Nope, it's going to stay in the family.

That's a little surprising to me.

So that's fantastic.

APPRAISER: This is one of the most intricate and interesting Civil War pieces that I've ever run across.