Maria & Popovi Pottery, ca. 1955
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GUEST:
These black dishes were my grandmother's. And I believe they're from Maria, the potters from New Mexico. And I believe she bought this plate for $25. I want to know if she made a mistake by framing this.
APPRAISER:
Let's start with these two pieces. They're just little salt cellars with silver spoons.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
They're not signed, they're probably not Maria. Probably not worth a lot.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Maybe a couple of hundred dollars for both of them, maybe. The plates are Maria. They were made in the late '50s, I suspect. They're signed by Maria and her son Popovi Da. And they're from San Ildefonso Pueblo, south of Santa Fe.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
On the Rio Grande river. And we know these were made in the late '50s because they don't have numbers or dates.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
They just have the two signatures. And just to make sure, we pulled the cardboard off of this one, and it's the same signature. And if you look down here on the bottom, they're all signed like this. "Maria and Popovi." She paid $25 for it?
GUEST:
That's what I was told.
APPRAISER:
About the framing, it would've been better if she didn't, but, you know, it may be that it's in better shape because she framed it up.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
So I think that's okay. It's a new group that's buying them. The prices have changed dramatically. And the best pottery that Maria ever produced was with her son, and this is it, and this is some of the earliest things she produced.
GUEST:
Oh, really.
APPRAISER:
And you know this is a feather design.
GUEST:
I read something about that.
APPRAISER:
All three of them are feather designs. If these were to come up at a prominent auction house right now, for these three pieces, $32,000 on the low end, $45,000 on the high end.
GUEST:
Oh, my. (chuckles)
APPRAISER:
And if you get two people in the room who don't have one, and want a big one, it's gonna go for more than that.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
So congratulations.
GUEST:
Wow. (laughs) Thank you.
APPRAISER:
You're welcome-- it's her classic stuff. Yeah. It's as good as it gets.
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