The card table Claire Wiegand-Beckmann bought for $25 proved to be a good investment. The table, an 18th-century gem, was sold at Sotheby's yesterday for $541,500.
''I'm flying,'' Ms. Wiegand-Beckmann, 71, said after Sotheby's annual Important Americana furniture and folk art sale.
The retired teacher bought the table more than 30 years ago at a garage sale and displayed it in her home in Bergen County, N.J. ''I've always been a garage-sale enthusiast, but I never expected to get this much for anything,'' she said.
Israel Sack Inc., a New York dealer of fine American antiques, bought the table, which was one of six made by the Boston furniture maker John Seymour & Son. The meticulously constructed table has its original finish and is considered to be in good condition.
Ms. Wiegand-Beckmann did not have the only impressive return on an investment. A painting that Wanda Bell, a Nashville antique collector, had originally purchased for $25 was sold for $79,500 to a Connecticut antiques dealer, Wayne Pratt. The painting was believed to be one of the best-preserved examples of the New England artist Sheldon Peck's early works. The painting, ''Portrait of a Dark-Haired, Blue-Eyed Gentleman,'' dates from about 1830. Peck is best known for his folk art portraits of Illinois residents.
Ms. Bell, 52, bought the painting at an auction near Nashville eight years ago and dubbed it ''Uncle George.'' The painting was covered by a lithograph when she bought it.
''I am very sentimental and I will miss him,'' said Bell. ''But I am delighted it is going to someone who will appreciate it.''
Both Ms. Wiegand-Beckmann and Ms. Bell had their items appraised last year during the ''Chubb's Antiques Roadshow,'' a television program that traveled to eight sites nationwide in search of such treasures.
Part of the show -- including the moments when the two women found out the going prices for their items -- will air at 8 P.M. today on WNET-TV.
Ms. Wiegand-Beckmann said she had hoped experts would appraise the table around $100,000. It was appraised at between $200,000 to $300,000.
''I knew it would be in the six figures,'' she said, ''but I didn't realize it would be this much.''