KPM The Hermit Porcelain Plaque, ca. 1900
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GUEST:
My parents bought a house in Woodbury, New Jersey, in 19... probably '48 or '49, 'cause I was, like, two years old. And the house had a bunch of things left in it, and I think this was one of 'em, but... I'm not even positive about that, but I think that's the case. So my parents had it in their house for years, and when they passed away, I have it in my house.
APPRAISER:
Have you ever heard of Salomon Koninck?
GUEST:
No.
APPRAISER:
He was a Dutch artist, uh, worked in the 17th century-- the first part of the century there. And you'll see his works, which are considered Old Masters, in some of the more famous European museums. And most of these plaques, when we've seen the variety of subjects, were copies of Old Masters. So you'd literally have an artist that would sit in a museum, and... As they do today, as you see occasionally today, students would be copying the paintings that are on the wall.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And that's exactly what this is. And in this case, his title is "The Hermit."
GUEST:
Yeah, I-- okay.
APPRAISER:
And the hermit is very pensively looking at a book, and the quality of the painting, the artistry, is wonderful. The hand-painting that
they can do on porcelain is, is really just phenomenal. And it is artist-signed. "A.L. Eckardt."
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And Eckardt was the artist for this particular work of art. When you first brought it in, the back was an issue.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
And I needed to take the back off to expose this little corner here. And other than saying "made in Germany," which, we know that
these were made in Germany, and they're made just about, around 1900, most of them.
GUEST:
Okay, okay.
APPRAISER:
The mark I was looking for is this mark here. And the mark is, is "KPM." It’s the Royal Porcelain Works in Berlin, Germany.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
So that's what you want on the back of the plaque.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
If it didn't have that, the price would literally be less than half.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Uh, but in this case, we're looking at a, you know, wonderful-quality hand-painted plaque that, it can now be identified as KPM.
GUEST:
All right.
APPRAISER:
The market for KPM isn't what it used to be. What would make it bring more-- and that has always been the height of the market in
KPM-- are women. Women always bring more than men. Nude women was the height of the market for KPM.
GUEST:
Huh.
APPRAISER:
This is about as far-detached from a nude woman as you can get.
GUEST (laughing): I was gonna say.
APPRAISER:
Value-wise, in this market, we would be looking at an auction estimate of roughly $3,000 to $5,000.
GUEST:
Oh, wow, that's neat. That's great.
Appraisal Details
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