George Ohr Vase, ca. 1900
GUEST:
This is a piece of my great-grandfather's pottery, George Ohr, and he was the Mad Potter of Biloxi, Mississippi.
APPRAISER:
And how did you come about having these?
GUEST:
My mother is an Ohr. She was Otto's daughter, and Otto was George's son. And so she got five pieces. I have a brother and a sister. And this is the piece that I picked.
APPRAISER:
This is really gorgeous.
GUEST:
Thank you.
APPRAISER:
And I'm a big fan of George's work.
GUEST:
Oh, well, great.
APPRAISER:
I think he is the greatest ceramic artist, living or dead, in this country.
GUEST (chuckling): Oh, right, that's what they always say.
APPRAISER:
George was working out of Biloxi, Mississippi.
GUEST:
Right, and it's not that far over.
APPRAISER:
However, as you may know, most of your great-granddad's work went up to New Jersey.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Maybe some 10,000 pieces or so.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
With Mr. Jim Carpenter, who was an antique dealer, and that happened in the early 1970s.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Little was left beyond that.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
And the pieces that are actually descended from the family are very, very rare. And these are called pre-Carpenterian pieces.
GUEST:
Right, I know.
APPRAISER:
Before Jim Carpenter. And this is a large and beautiful piece. George worked mostly hand-sized. So anything that is bigger than hand-sized is very good. It has the nice in-body twist here at the base.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
He worked often in fairly dull, black glazes, brown glazes. And this is so alive, it has a lot of mottling of the greens and raspberries. There is a chip here and another smaller one on the inside here.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
But this is such a lovely pot that it still has some great value. I want to show the mark here, which is the mark that we most often see on George's pots.
GUEST:
Yeah, the stamp.
APPRAISER:
The stamp here that says, "Biloxi, Mississippi." This lovely piece, because of everything it has, because of the provenance, would easily be, at auction, $15,000 to $20,000.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
Absolutely.
GUEST:
Oh, my goodness! Oh, well, see, I just wanted to know for my own, you know, my own peace of mind what it was, because I never had it appraised before. Never have. Whoo! Goodness! (laughs) That just takes my breath away.
Appraisal Details
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