Austrian Enameled Vessel, ca. 1880
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GUEST:
Don't know a whole lot about it. I know my grandfather acquired it many years ago, probably back in the '20s. He passed away and my grandmother found it in a box up in the barn.
APPRAISER:
It's a pretty amazing piece. It's actually Viennese enamel. It's actually silver with enameling done onto it, and it's by far the largest piece I've ever seen. Usually you see sort of smaller novelty items. This is quite a remarkable piece, not only for its size but for the quality of decoration. We can see that the inside is decorated. Put that down, and if we tilt this forward we can see that the entire inside of the piece has this wonderful enamel decoration. This is all sort of allegorical scenes. This was the type of item that would have been made in the late 1800s, probably in the 1870s, 1880s, and certainly not made for any useful purpose other than just decorative. It was more sort of a testament to the skill of the craftsmen and the artisans. So all of these scenes would be hand-painted onto the enamel. Different types of enameling techniques in here with the floral decoration and the wings and the feet of the bird. What this is remarkable for is its size. Certainly it's a very difficult technique to do over a large area. It does have a little bit of damage over on the neck of the bird, but that, for its age, is expected. I would think at auction, you'd be looking probably in the range of $30,000 to $50,000 for something of this type. So it's really quite a... You have quite a valuable piece.
GUEST:
That's fantastic.
APPRAISER:
So I hope it's not still in a box in the attic or...
GUEST:
No, no, not anymore.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, all right.
Appraisal Details
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