French Ceramic Vase, ca. 1855
Watch
GUEST:
My wife and I love to go to garage sales and antique stores, and about six years ago I saw this sitting on a stand and it was, believe it or not, it was completely white.
APPRAISER:
It was completely covered with white paint?
GUEST:
It looked like white paint, and I thought, "Well, must be concrete maybe, or some kind of a plaster." And I said, "It'd look great in our yard." I kept looking at it and they wanted, like, $250 for it, and I said, "No, that's a little too much.” Came back the following week and looked at it again, it was down to $220. And about the third or fourth time I looked at it, it was about $185, so I decided, "Well, it's worth it," so I bought it. took it home and I said, "I'm going to take it in my little workshop "and see if I can remove a little paint and just see what it looks like underneath." And I proceeded to clean it, and it took three to four months of tedious work with little swabs and paint remover, and I worked it many hours every day for a while. After I finished, I found that we had one little broken piece out of a horn and one of the berries was missing, and I had a little chip out of the base. A friend of mine's a good restorer, and I took it to him, and they fixed it for me for about $250, maybe $275. And we love it. It's gorgeous, and I have a passion for it because it's that beautiful. A friend of mine who's an appraiser looked at it, and he thought it might be worth some pretty good money. He was saying, like, $2,000 to $5,000, in that range, he said. But that's all he gave me, and he said, "I'll do some more research," but I never got any more research on it.
APPRAISER:
Well, first of all, I want to comment on the restoration. If you have a piece like this with some damages or losses, if you want to get it restored, you should, but it's better to get it done right instead of wrong. Bad restoration is not a good thing; good restoration is. And quite frankly, your friend did a very good job.
GUEST:
Good, very good.
APPRAISER:
And the price that you paid sounds incredibly reasonable. You could have easily paid a lot more money for perhaps not as good a restoration. We mentioned the marks on the bottom, so let's look at those.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
There are several unusual marks there, and we did some research on this mark, and virtually every appraiser at the table, we all looked at the mark. I searched on the Internet, and I didn't find anything on it.
GUEST:
(laughs)
APPRAISER:
So we have no idea who made this.
GUEST:
(laughs)
APPRAISER:
Let's look at the vase itself. I especially like the rippled, very highly detailed ribbons at the top, and these garlands of fruit are just terrific. To me, it's reminiscent of a lot of Renaissance period pottery made by potters such as Bernard Palissy in France, as well as della Robbia in Italy. Perhaps inspired by those types of potters, but certainly not a copy of anything that they did. It is a very curious ceramic body. It's definitely not pottery, and it's close to porcelain, but exactly what we would call it, again, I don't know. I would think there would have been a pair. I would have to say that a retail value would have to fall at least between $4,000 and $6,000, and perhaps more. I just think it's a remarkable, interesting thing.
GUEST:
Well, very good.
APPRAISER:
It raises more questions than it does answers.
GUEST:
But that's okay.
APPRAISER:
But it's just a neat piece.
GUEST:
Thank you very much, really. We love it very much, and we're going to keep it, but that's great to know.
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.
