These look like brand new jeans, but Jock Taylor knows these Levi’s have been hanging out in an old trunk for nearly a century. They most likely belonged to his great-great-grandfather who was a pioneer in Arizona during the 1800s. And they might be worth a fortune.
Brit Eaton, a dealer who specializes in just this sort of thing says, “Vintage denim can be worth thousands of dollars. Finding Levi’s pre-1900 is a massive rarity. That’s the Holy Grail.”
His great-great-grandfather was named Solomon Warner and he left New York to move west all the way back in the 1830s. When Warner passed away, his family kept handing down an old wooden trunk that had his name on it.
Taylor took the jeans to an appraiser when they were in town. Daniel Buck Soules, who was in town doing an antique appraisal show, was a person who was contacted. “Why is he showing me new jeans?” Soules asked. That’s when he found out they weren’t new at all, but quite the opposite.
Soules eventually estimated the date of the jeans being made in 1893. He added, “The last pair of blue jeans that sold from the 1880s, it’s my understanding, were purchased by Levi’s for six figures.”
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