Royal Worcester George Owen Ewer, ca. 1897
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GUEST:
It's a gift from my mother-in-law, who used to stare at it when she was a child in her mother's china cabinet. And she gave it to me as a Christmas gift.
APPRAISER:
Oh, what a lovely gift. This piece was made by Royal Worcester Company in England. It has marked on the bottom with a mark for Royal Worcester. It also has the registration number, which is kind of like a copyright which was used in Britain. It also has a date mark, and based on the date mark as well as the registration number, it dates from about 1897 to right around the turn of the century.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
It also says Tiffany and Company on the bottom, which is really interesting. It was not made by Tiffany. That simply means that it was made for Tiffany and when it was new, it was sold at Tiffany and Company. This is most certainly by an artist that worked at the Royal Worcester Factory around the turn of the century. His name was George Owen. And this process of having this reticulated-type design where it's cut through was something that he did in secret, it's said. He worked alone so other people couldn't watch him so they wouldn't know how he did this very delicate, fine process. Some people say that he did all these little holes by hand, and other people say that actually he had some kind of mechanical process, but we really don't know today how he did it, and it would be almost impossible to duplicate. The shape is so elegant and so wonderful. As you imagine, this is incredibly fragile and very few of these things survived. Also it's got some wonderful hand-enameled beading on it, which is a very delicate process as well. When this was new, it would have been very expensive. It was not a cheap gift. Because it is so perfect and so elegant, obviously, it's useless. You couldn't put water in it, you couldn't put flowers in it. It's just for display. It's a work of art, one of a kind. It's worth probably a little more in England than it is here, but of all the lines that Royal Worcester made around the turn of the century, this is the most valuable and desirable for collectors. So depending on how and where it's sold, the price would vary. But I would estimate that this piece should bring between $3,000 and $5,000. And for me, that is a lot of money for a little bitty piece like that.
GUEST:
Oh, my goodness. And I've been walking around with this wrapped in a couple of kitchen towels in my bag. Oh, my goodness.
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