Chinese Jade Vase, ca. 1700
GUEST:
About 20 years ago, I was at a... an auction. It was a storage and moving type of auction. And they had a few pieces on the table, and I happened to see this. And it went up for auction, and I purchased it for between $20 and $40. And for 20 years, it's been sitting in my display cabinet. And I never knew anything about it.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
I believe that that's jade. It has that cold touch to me. I'm not an expert, I don't know anything about jade, but I knew that it was jade.
APPRAISER:
Okay, and do you know where it's from, do you think?
GUEST:
No, I have no idea. I was thinking maybe Chinese.
APPRAISER:
You think it's Chinese, which I'm going to say is accurate, and that it's jade, nephrite, which is also accurate. But there's a lot more to the story than just that.
GUEST:
(laughs)
APPRAISER:
There were no marks. There's a degree of wear to the surface. So there are several things about it. The number... number one is this kind of deep-bodied, rounded shape, which is a very powerful shape. And the S-curved handles here at the top, and at the area around the lip, brackets that are kind of pendant leaves, and those are replicated at the base, which also flares downward. And the interior here, there's this little kind of cut area, groove, around the inside, which indicates that at one time, this had a cover. And there's other aspects to it, and that would include different-colored patches in the stone. So the stone itself is kind of this pale green color. It's not even. There's irregularities in the stone. You can see clouded area here on this side and a streak of pale brown on that side, and even extending from the top down, what we would call is a fissure, it's an inclusion, it's a natural kind of coloration. We don't know exactly when this was made. My sense is that it is, falls within that kind of transitional period from the Ming to the Qing. In other words, in the 17th century into the 18th century. It's a fairly rare object. It's unusual to find things like this. And we only wish it had the cover. That's a shame.
GUEST:
(laughs)
APPRAISER:
But we're darn lucky to have something that is as intact as this is, with this beautiful patination. And part of the surface is from years of handling. At auction, I think it's not unreasonable to estimate this to sell in the range of $10,000 to $15,000.
GUEST:
Really? (laughing) Really? That was a good $20 investment I made. Oh, my God. Well, if it had the lid, what would the value be? Would it increase the value?
APPRAISER:
I think it would be reasonable to expect it to be in the $30,000 to $50,000 range.
GUEST:
If it had the lid. I had second thoughts at the last minute. I said I didn't think it would be worth anything. I just thought, "Well, maybe I'll go ahead and bring it."
Appraisal Details
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