Chinese Gold-splashed Bronze Vase, ca. 1850
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GUEST:
It was my grandfather's, passed onto my father, now passed on to me.
APPRAISER:
But you had a brother that did something funny with it, what was that? That was a good story.
GUEST (laughing): My younger brother. My younger brother didn't like to take any type of vitamins or medicine, antibiotics or whatever. So when my mother would give it to him, he put it in his mouth like he was taking it, and when she'd turn and go away he'd put it in the jar. He wasn't getting any better, I watched him, put them in the jar and it was about halfway full with vitamins and aspirins and things like that.
APPRAISER:
Oh, those boys. (laughing) I tell ya. The first observation is that it's made of bronze. One of the oldest cultures in the world that specialized in the casting of bronzes from a very early period of time was China. Right. So the Chinese were known for making various types of ancient vessels in bronze for various ritual purposes. One of those vessel shapes is a "hu," H-U. And the hu during the second century B.C. to the second century A.D. would have handles that were stylized masks. Often with loose ring handles.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Now, that shape persisted throughout time in China. One of the other things that we always look for in Chinese art, and in art in general, is we look underneath. So this says, "Da Ming Xuande nian zhi." And that answers your question, so thank you so much for coming.
GUEST:
Oh, don't do that to me. (laughing)
APPRAISER:
Well, Da Ming means the "Great Ming."
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Xuande is the name of a period. Which was 1426 to 1435.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
And nian zhi means "made in," made in the Great Ming and the period of the Xuande.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
So that's another clue. But often you have marks in China that are called honorific, which means they look back to earlier periods, but the object wasn't really made during that period. And there are various clues to that. And one of the clues for an object might be the extra kind of decoration on it. Now, this is very strikingly decorated with gold. But there are different types of splash gold, so the very earliest splash gold during the early years of the Qing Dynasty, which went from 1644 to 1912, had thicker, deeper, more irregular patches than was the case in the 18th and 19th century, when it is thinner. And this is the thinner type. So that's narrowing the date down to the Qing Dynasty, somewhere likely in the 19th century. And we have an honorific mark on something that is approximating the shape of an ancient Chinese bronze vessel. And it was made for somebody that was a very special person, somebody who had some wealth. What do you think this is worth?
GUEST:
$1,200?
APPRAISER:
Well, what would you say if I said $25,000 to $40,000 at auction?
GUEST:
Holy smoke. Really?
APPRAISER:
Yes.
GUEST:
Wow. That's great! That's good! (chuckles) That's very good. My little brother will like that. (laughing) He won't hide his vitamins in there. I'm speechless. (chuckles) That doesn't happen very often, but wow.
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