Pablo Picasso Madoura Pitcher & Plate
Watch
GUEST:
I bought them in the south of France in the 1980s. I bought this one first and then I bought this one after. I have a friend who was an art dealer. I liked this one so much that I asked him if he could get me another one, and he couldn't, but he was able to get me this plate. He was an art dealer in faience.
APPRAISER:
And what are they?
GUEST:
They're Picasso ceramics.
APPRAISER:
So you probably know that Picasso went down to the south of France in about 1946. It must have been really nice for him to kind of discover a new medium. And he visited this show where they were selling ceramics, and he saw the RamiÈs, the family who was making ceramics for Madoura, got to know them, and started making some pieces on his own and really liked it and went back for many years. He probably went back for up to 24 years, and he made thousands of pieces with them.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
He wasn't painting as much anymore, and he was just really channeling something new and working with motifs from nature and portraits and bullfights, but in ceramic. And of those 3,500 or so, they picked over 600 and they started making editions. This one was done in an edition of 500, and this one, an edition of 450. And they were designed very close to each other. This one was a little bit earlier, 1954. This one was 1955.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
And if you can't afford a Picasso painting, you can still afford these lovely ceramics. But the prices are going up, and they're going up pretty quickly. Now this one, which is called "Gray Engraved Pitcher," which may very well be a descriptive title and not an actual title that Picasso would have given it, has this decoration of faces and an owl in the middle, and it has some little chips at the bottom, so that's going to affect the price. These are faience and they are fairly low-fired, so they're prone to chipping. And I'm going to show the bottom and the mark here. Do you remember when you bought them what you paid for them?
GUEST:
I remember what I bought the pitcher for. I paid $1,000 for the pitcher. So I'm thinking since I bought this probably about less than a year later, it was around the same price.
APPRAISER:
This pitcher with these chips would probably be, at auction, somewhere between $5,000 and $7,000.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
This one seems to me in perfect condition. The signature on that, the impressed mark, is the same as this one. This has been doing very well at auction and would probably be fetching somewhere between $12,000 and $15,000.
GUEST:
Oh, that's interesting. I would have thought the pitcher would have brought more.
APPRAISER:
The pitcher, had it been in perfect condition, could bring around $8,000, by and large.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Sometimes they bring more, but you can't really count on that. So the chips bring it down a little.
GUEST:
I understand. I'm sure I probably put them there. (laughing)
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.
