Meissen Pâte-sur-Pâte Urn, ca. 1880
Watch
GUEST:
It's been in my family for as long as I can remember. It was owned by my mother's side, and when my grandmother passed away, it came over from Scotland to where I grew up, just outside of Buffalo.
APPRAISER:
Well, it's a beauty. It's a vase or an urn. It's a vessel. The most striking part of this piece is this medallion here. It's made to look like a carved cameo shell, but it's made of porcelain, on porcelain. And that technique is called pate-sur-pate-- French term: paste on paste. And that is done by applying one thin layer of slip, which is liquid porcelain, over the other, over the other. So, instead of casting this, like a piece of Jasperware, like Wedgwood, this is applied with a paintbrush. So you'll get these beautiful, translucent effects. So usually when you see a piece with pate-sur-pate, which are quite rare, they have these diaphanous gowns, these long, flowing shawls, so that you get to see the light through them. Now, this technique was perfected by a Frenchman called Marc-Louis Solon, and Solon worked for the Sëvres factory in France. So when one sees a piece like this, so beautiful, one immediately thinks, mmm, perhaps this was done by Solon, perhaps this is a piece of Sëvres, and then, when he went to England, Solon worked at Minton, so I thought, perhaps it's a piece of Minton. And it is none of these folks. I'm going to show the bottom. And we see the mark of the crossed swords of Meissen. Meissen is German. And not only is it German, it is seminal German porcelain works-- the most important. They have been around since the earliest part of the 18th century. And so this mark is widely copied, and often you see fake Meissen marks.
GUEST:
Uh-oh.
APPRAISER:
This is real Meissen.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
It would be difficult to fake the entirety of it. The quality's too great. I've never seen pate-sur-pate faked. This particular mark tells us that the piece was done between 1850 and 1924, and because of the decoration style, we all thought that the time for this was probably during the 1880s, and we don't know who this artist was. This is not Solon. He didn't work at Meissen. We're going to turn it around so folks can see the back, with these lovely serpent handles, not uncommon on an urn at Meissen. And the value on that, at auction, would probably be somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000.
GUEST:
Sweet! Great! I'm surprised.
Appraisal Details
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.
Appraiser affiliations: Finally, the affiliation of the appraiser may have changed since the appraisal was recorded. To see current contact information for an appraiser in the ROADSHOW Archive, click on the link below the appraiser's picture. Our Appraiser Index also contains a complete list of active ROADSHOW appraisers and their contact details and biographies.
