Loetz Art Glass Vase, ca. 1900
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APPRAISER:
You've brought a wonderful piece of glass here today, and you've brought a wonderful daughter along with you?
GUEST 1: Yes, ma'am.
APPRAISER:
One of your favorite pieces, is it?
GUEST 2: Yes, I like the way it looks. The colors are really pretty. And I can always remember it being in the house, just remember seeing it everywhere.
APPRAISER:
Can you tell us anything about the background of the piece?
GUEST 1: It came from my grandmother, who grew up in Memphis, Tennessee.
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST 1: And I admired it when I was 15 or 16 years old, and she gave it to me.
APPRAISER:
Isn't that nice?
GUEST 1: And I've had it ever since.
APPRAISER:
Good!
GUEST 1: And it's special to me because my grandmother gave it to me.
APPRAISER:
I see. This has a wonderful blue color with a silver iridescence. The piece is indented, dimpled, if you want to say that, and it has also this wonderful rippled top to it. We always look at the base to see what we can find on the base of a piece. No signature. It tells us that it was free-blown, because it has a polished pontil across the base, and the iridescence was applied to it and then combed, like with a comb, to give it this wavy decoration. It makes it even more brilliant. This kind of iridescent glass was made in a lot of different glass factories, so we have to find some other clues that will tell us which one it came from, since it's not signed. One of the best clues that we can have is that it has a red base color to it. You see that it's blue on the outside, but it's red on the inside.
GUEST 2: You've got to hold it to the light.
APPRAISER:
This tells us it was made in Austria. It is a Loetz vase, made about turn of the century. Do you have any idea what it's worth?
GUEST 1: No, ma'am. Not at all.
APPRAISER:
You said you were a little nervous about that, Meghan.
GUEST 2: About, about the outcome. We just figured it was something like $20 to $50, maybe? I mean, it's much more, isn't it?
APPRAISER:
Uh-huh, much more, right. Loetz pieces of this type are very popular right now, and I would expect at auction, it would bring about $3,000 to $5,000.
GUEST 2: Wow.
GUEST 1: Wow. Wow.
APPRAISER:
It's a good name.
GUEST 2: We just thought it was $20!
Appraisal Details
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