GUEST: These are two Sam Maloof walnut woven benches... that I obtained from my aunt and uncle's estate.

My uncle was a renowned, uh, modernist architect in Riverside, California.

GUEST: And he knew Sam Maloof personally and had quite a few pieces from Sam.

APPRAISER: Sam Maloof is certainly one of the "A" guys of 20th century design.

There's no two ways about it.

He started working about 1947, 1948 in Southern California.

He's one of the few people to do wonderful craft furniture in Southern California.

It's incredibly well-built.

It's incredibly well-designed.

He tended to make the same things pretty much throughout his career, so he got really good at them.

So these are two great Sam Maloof benches.

They're from 1974.

You could buy a single, a double, a triple.

I don't know if he made longer than triple.

I've never seen one.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: But they are incredible.

You can see all the detail.

So these are signed.

Sam Maloof signed a lot of his furniture.

He didn't use a lot of hardware in his material.

Very few screws or brackets or braces.

The walnut is gorgeous.

So, it's so beautiful.

It's so well-colored.

It's also aged very well.

His most popular piece is a rocking chair.

Maloof rocking chairs.

APPRAISER: The benches are rare.

They don't show up as often.

GUEST: Mm.

APPRAISER: People really covet them.

Do you have any idea what these might be worth?

GUEST: We had a-a-a sheet that I got from my cousin.

It was an appraisal from the Sam Maloof Workshop, uh, I believe in 2013... for insurance purposes.

And I believe they were appraised at that point for replacement value of $8,000 each.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

Maloof's furniture has become very popular.

For insurance purposes, I would value these at probably 12, 13, $14,000 apiece.

APPRAISER: These are great pieces.

They're really rare.

GUEST: Geez.

APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: Yeah.

Wow.

(chuckles) APPRAISER: Yeah.

GUEST: (sniffs) Yeah, that's, that's, yeah, that's, that's way more than I'd... than we had estimated they'd, they'd go for.

Of course, they're great pieces.

I mean, they're a great memory of my aunt and uncle's house.

And, um, of course, we certainly plan to hold on to them.

And hopefully our sons will enjoy them, and pass them down, but, uh, wow.