1892 Alexander III Russian Imperial Plate
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GUEST:
My husband bought this plate at an estate sale. It's part of a pair. The man having the estate sale said that he and his wife bought it from a Russian countess and it belonged to Alexander III, Tsar Alexander III.
APPRAISER:
About how long ago was that, and where?
GUEST:
It was about 12 years ago here in Birmingham.
APPRAISER:
And what did you say when your husband brought home these plates?
GUEST:
"Surely that's not real."
APPRAISER:
Really?
GUEST:
He paid about $400 per plate.
APPRAISER:
$400 a plate and you didn't know for sure if it was real. Does he think they're real?
GUEST:
He doesn't know for sure. But either way, he said they look nice in our dining room, so...
APPRAISER:
Okay, that's fair.
GUEST:
Worst case, they're just pretty accents for the dining room.
APPRAISER:
Sure. The first thing we want to do when we hear something like this-- did it belong to a tsar or someone famous like that-- we try to figure out if it's true or not, and I have to be honest with you, I just want to tell you up front, it's absolutely authentic.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
So it is real. If we look on the front here, we have a monogram of the letter A and a crown, and that's the cipher of the Tsarevich Alexander. And this has been decorated with a blue background and fancy scrollwork. And this is a really elaborate plate, but not over the top. And there's a mark on the back. There's an A with Roman numeral three beneath it, and that's for Tsar Alexander III. And "92," and that's for 1892. So that's when this plate was made.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
This is from a very specific service that was made for the tsars. This service is known as the Farm Palace Banquet Service. And the tsars had dozens of services of china.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
Well, when the Russian tsar was overthrown, a lot of things were sold off by the Russian government, and a lot of things were given as gifts over the years, a lot of things were probably borrowed or taken, who knows, by servants or whatever. After the revolution, visitors to Russia could buy things that belonged to the tsars.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
Now, this particular plate would have a retail value from a specialist dealer of Russian antiques of between $2,500 and $3,000.
GUEST:
Wow, per plate?
APPRAISER:
Per plate, so you've got two, and you can just double that.
GUEST:
Wow. That's great news.
Appraisal Details
"This particular plate was [part of] a reorder addition produced during the reign of Alexander III (1881-1894) for an existing service that was originally made during the reign of Nicholas I (1825-1855) for the Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich, who later became Tsar Alexander II (1855-1881)." Therefore, the plate brought to ANTIQUES ROADSHOW was made after the death of Alexander II (who was assassinated in 1881) but during the reign of his son and successor, Alexander III. "This does not change the retail value that I discussed in my appraisal," Lackey added.
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