Woman Finds Out Her $15 Cabinet is Actually Worth $20,000

Mid-century furniture is extremely popular with trendy interior designers and people with an eye for good-looking furniture pieces with a dash of fashionable history. The Texas woman featured in this clip from the PBS program Antiques Roadshow knew she was looking at something special when she saw this mid-century cabinet go up for sale, but she had no idea how extraordinary the piece would prove to be.

As LittleThings.com writes, this Fort Worth resident went to an auction and spotted “a 1950s Herman Miller Furniture storage unit…and she had an inkling it was an Eames Storage Unit, designed by Charles and Ray Eames.”

The Eames were a married couple who dreamt up groundbreaking creations in furniture, architecture, industrial design, and photography. Their work with molded plywood connected them with Herman Miller Inc, and according to Eames Office, they still produce their designs.

The furniture owner paid only $15 for the cabinet she brought to the roadshow, but she suspected that it was worth probably closer to $800. When the appraiser, Peter Loughrey, told her she was touching a storage unit worth around $20,000, she looked absolutely shocked. Tears formed in her eyes as she processed the new information and told Loughery that she has several more Eames pieces!