Chiselers Market is Saturday at UT, but first — a silent auction Friday

TAMPA — Bargain alert: It's that time of year, when the Chiselers Market takes over the University of Tampa campus to sell used household goods, furniture, electronics, artwork, jewelry, plants and more.

The doors open Saturday at 9 a.m., and hundreds of shoppers are expected before final sales at 3 p.m.

Experienced buyers know that the Chiselers, the UT preservation booster club, receive valuable donations during their yearlong collection. This year's standout, a 4-foot-tall marble bust, required some historical detective work to determine its value.

"It's believed to be a work by the Mount Rushmore sculptor," said vice-president Sandy Harris. "Possibly a relative of Teddy Roosevelt."

The Henry B. Plant Museum received the statue from a UT graduate who is said to have purchased it at Bulloch Hall in Roswell, Ga. That's where Teddy's parents, Theodore Roosevelt Sr. and Mittie Bulloch were married. A copy of a 1923 report of the wedding reception written by Margaret Mitchell for the Sunday Atlanta Journal Magazine comes with the statute. Mitchell, of course, is better known as the acclaimed author of Gone With the Wind.

"We know it's not Teddy Roosevelt because he would have worn glasses," museum director Cynthia Gandee said of the statue. The museum is inside the former 1891 Tampa Bay Hotel, which is now used for university administration.

"But what's more exciting is that it could be the work of granite sculptor Gutzon Borglum," she said.

Borglum and 400 workers sculpted the 60-foot sculptures of U.S. presidents between 1927 and 1941.

"It almost doesn't matter who it is, and frankly we do not know,'' Gandee said. "It takes years of study sometimes to document something like this."

Bidding for the statue will start at $500.

Another unusual donation: a Lowrey electric organ.

"We never know what we'll get,'' said Harris. "There's a lot of clean, high quality furniture this year, not just a bunch of junk. And more art than usual."

Both the organ and the marble bust will be sold in a silent auction beginning at 7 tonight during the patrons preview party and concluding Saturday at 1:30 p.m.