1737 George II Silver Tankard
GUEST:
It was in the family for quite a few years. It was given to my dad, which... He's not able to really remember a whole lot about it. He's passed it on to me and I've had it for a couple of years now. I have taken it to a retail store to find out if they had any idea of what the value of it might be or anything like that, and they had no real information, but they said that it was worth about $300. They would purchase it for $300.
APPRAISER:
They wanted to purchase it from you for $300.
GUEST:
Yep.
APPRAISER:
Well, let me tell you what you have here.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
This is what is known as a tankard.
GUEST:
A tankard.
APPRAISER:
It is solid silver. This tankard is very interesting because it's pure...by design, from the Georgian period in England. And you may have noted there's some marks on the lid here.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
And there's some marks here on the side of the tankard. Now, these marks tell me that this tankard was made during the reign of George II in London in 1737. And the gentleman's name who made it is Mr. Robert Brown. The English hallmarking system is very precise. Has a nice scroll handle and certainly worth considerably more than the $300 the dealer offered you. I think if you decided ever to sell this and you put it in a well-advertised auction, a good estimated value for this tankard is about $4,000 to $6,000.
GUEST:
Is that right?
Appraisal Details
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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."
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