RStK Amphora Porcelain Vase, ca. 1900
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GUEST:
My mother had given it to me, and it had been given to her by a family friend and had gone down a couple generations. The friend who provided this to my mother, she traveled extensively through Europe. She was just very close to my mom when she gave it to her. So I really know very little about it.
APPRAISER:
She gave your mother a really fine gift.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
This is such a good example from this maker.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
The maker is Amphora Porcelain Company. The actual artist for this, I believe, was Nikolaus Kannhauser. This was done in Bohemia around 1900 to 1905.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
Amphora had different times, they had different partners. Ernst Wallace was one of them. This is marked "RStK," standing for Reissner, Stellmacher, and Kessel.
GUEST:
Oh, okay.
APPRAISER:
It says, "Turn Teplitz, Bohemia." This example is so great. The decoration on this, it looks like... You know Gustav Klimt, the painter?
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
It looks like a Klimt painting. So I'm going to turn this around here so we can see all the different types of decoration that are going on. And so even if we don't look at her face, we can see here all the different layers of glazed decoration, from plain painted with gilding to enamel decoration, which this looks like, I guess, stylized trees, right? And then you have more gilding here. You have flowers here with fake jewels, which I believe in this company is called gres bijou-- G-R-E-S, which is stoneware, and bijou, which are jewels. So gres bijou here, and then you have the green for the vegetation, and then we see her. And she is just so fine and lovely. Now, this version in this size is so special. She is so good. She's got everything going. At auction, as an estimate, easily would be $3,000 to $4,000.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
In a shop, most likely more than that. More like $5,000, perhaps up. She could have been smaller, she could have had less going on around her, she could not have had a crown. She's got it all. She's a real winner.
GUEST:
Wow. Thank you so much.
APPRAISER:
My pleasure. When I saw it, you brought this up, my heart skipped a beat.
Appraisal Details
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