Early 20th C. Nippon Coralene Vase
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GUEST:
Unfortunately, I don't know a lot of history about it. I know that it came from my paternal grandfather's side of the family. We weren't as close to that side of the family. They lived in Mississippi. And I always thought it was this old, ugly vase. (chuckles) Why would you put that out? That is so ugly. And I had, my girlfriend had tickets today to come to the show and invited me, so at the last minute, I thought, "I'm going to take that old, ugly vase."
APPRAISER:
Okay, well, let me tell you a little bit about it. Your vase is Japanese and it dates from the first quarter of the 20th century, and it is part of a group of Japanese ceramics that are referred to as hand-painted Nippon. This is a, a rare type of Nippon called coralene, and you can see the flowers are built up as little beads of glass. It's a very intricate technique that takes a lot of time. We'll look at the marks on the bottom, and there is a mark here. It actually says "U.S. Patent Office," yeah.
GUEST:
"U.S. Patent," yeah.
APPRAISER:
That's so it could be imported into this country.
GUEST:
Oh, okay.
APPRAISER:
It's a very typical mark for a coralene piece, and it...
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
But the good news about this, value is probably in the $800 to $1,000 range.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And the question is: is this still an ugly old vase?
GUEST:
No, it's not. I think it's going to have a prominent place in my home now.
APPRAISER:
It's gotten prettier in the last five minutes, huh? Okay.
GUEST:
(laughing) It has. I don't think my mother's getting it back.
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